I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. (Galatians 1:6,7 ESV)
True Gospel
I sometimes prepare a casserole that I call, “goulash.” Basically, it is ground beef, tomato sauce, noodles, and peas. I have eaten it for years.
But once when I served it, I received a friendly scowl from one participant in the meal. He had traveled in Eastern Europe, where goulash was invented, and had come to the dinner expecting a particular concoction of spices and ingredients prepared in a particular way. And my goulash was not even close to what he perceived as the real thing.
I am not sure that when it comes to goulash there is a true goulash.
But I am sure that when it comes to gospel there is a true gospel.
These days (and in fact, often, throughout history) we hear a lot of things called ‘gospel’ that are not gospel.
The gospel and its life changing and world altering power has an obvious and desirable effect on everything the gospel touches. But yet the gospel requires things that the unredeemed are unwilling or unable to give. So the gospel is imitated, altered, recast, and diminished to make the fake gospel more palatable, less costly, and more attractive on the surface.
And those changes make these gospels not the gospel.
Unlike goulash, it is possible to define Biblically what makes a gospel THE gospel. Because the gospel is worth defining, worth defending, worth delineating, and worth delighting in.
That is what I will be doing for the next while.
Don’t worry. This is not about denominations, style, or preferences.
The gospel matters. Let us state clearly and encouragingly what it is.