Heresy Alert : Adding to the Gospel Pt. 1

Heresy 1: Adding to the Gospel

In this attack on believers in Christ the devil tries to convince them that they need something besides Christ in order to the “true Christians”. It is a lie. There is no “more” than Christ. As Paul said to the Christians in Colossae who were under this attack: (Colossians 2)

⁶ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. ⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces^[a] of this world rather than on Christ.  ⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your sinful nature^[b] was put off when you were circumcised by^[c] Christ, ¹²having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.  ¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature,^[d] God made you^[e] alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.^[f 

If you have turned away from your old life to Christ determined to live a new life of obedience to him, and if your hope and trust are all in him, then you are a real Christian. You have in Christ all the blessings of the heavenly realms. You have through Jesus new birth as a child of God. You have in Christ an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade which is kept in heaven for you. Through Jesus Christ you have his Holy Spirit living in you. You may be a baby now, but you are growing into maturity in Christ. There is nothing else besides Christ to desire. There is nothing you can add to your maturing faith in him your daily life with him and your growing obedience to him.

In Paul’s day “philosophy” also covered topics we would call “theology” now. So to re-phrase what he wrote: “let no one take you captive through hollow and deceptive theology which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.”

When people tell you are not a proper Christian, or perhaps even “not saved” until you have this or that in addition to Christ they are trying to take you captive as Paul warned! How is this so insidious? It is because the “this or “that” they want to add to Christ is in Paul’s words “human” and “of this world”. They are going to appeal strongly to our old human nature – a nature that as baby Christians is still used to dominating our lives.

 So the prospect of a “Christianity” which instead of fighting our old nature actually panders to it is going to have a really powerful attraction in our hearts. The “of this world” both has the spiritual power of the devil behind it to try to keep us from fullness in Christ, and also fits into the false vision of “life the universe and everything” that the devil has deceived the world into believing, so once again such a religion has a really powerful appeal. Instead of being on what Jesus called the “narrow road” one in tricked into believing they can stay on the easy “broad road” and still please Christ. It is a lie.

Picture these heresies as spiritual carbon monoxide. In physical life you might say how can a few percent of carbon monoxide added to the air kill when there is still plenty of oxygen to breathe. Yes there is still plenty of oxygen in the air. The trouble is not lack of oxygen. The trouble is that the hemoglobin in our blood (which is the stuff that takes up oxygen) finds carbon monoxide more attractive than oxygen. Something like 250 times more attractive. So a little carbon monoxide added to the air is so well absorbed by the hemoglobin that it soon has no room for oxygen, and we die. These heresies may only seem to add a little harmless bit to the gospel, but they are so attractive to our old human nature, and fit so well the ways of the “world” that soon they displace Christ in our lives, we go into a spiritual coma, and if we are not rescued, we die.

Yes, heresies that add to the Gospel of Christ really are that dangerous!

I quoted Paul’s advice to the people in Colossae (and neighbouring Laodicea and Hierapolis). He also had problems with the people he had converted to Christianity not so far away in the region of Galatia. Again the problem seems to have been “adding” to the gospel he had preached. Perhaps this addition was even more noxious than the one in Colossae, at any rate Paul is more distressed by it. Read the whole letter yourself, I will just quote some instance where he stresses the danger they are in if they accept these “additions”.

Chapter1

⁶ I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let that person be under God’s curse! ⁹ As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let that person be under God’s curse!

Chapter 3

 ¹ You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. ² I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? ³ Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by human effort? ⁴Have you experienced^[a] so much in vain—if it really was in vain? ⁵ Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by your observing the law, or by your believing what you heard? 

Chapter 4

⁸ Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. ⁹ But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces^[d]? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? ¹⁰ You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! ¹¹ I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

Chapter5

² Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. ⁴ You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. …  ⁷ You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? 

Chapter 6

¹¹ See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!  ¹² Those who want to impress others by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. ¹³ Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. ¹⁴ May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which^[b] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. ¹⁵ Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. 

I don’t think we can be far wrong if we assume the false teachers following Paul into Galatia said something like “Ah, we are so pleased that you believe in Jesus. What a pity Paul didn’t preach to you the full gospel. He should have told you that now you need to be circumcised and obey the Jewish religious traditions (the Law).” That sounds pretty harmless doesn’t it? And yet by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul comes out all guns firing against this teaching. So it cannot have been the least bit a “harmless” addition to the gospel.

Over the next few weeks I will warn about some versions of this heresy that you may encounter