A message can use Christian words while changing the gospel those words are supposed to convey. A teacher may speak warmly about Jesus, quote Scripture, and urge people to live well, yet direct their confidence away from the Savior. The gospel the apostles preached gives us the standard for recognizing those changes and understanding why they are serious.
The Gospel Scripture Gives Us
Gospel means good news. Its subject is what God has done through Jesus Christ to save sinners, and Paul identifies its historical center:
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
The Christ who died is the eternal Son of God, fully God and fully man. He lived without sin and voluntarily gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Wicked men mocked, beat, and crucified Him. His sacrifice was complete through His shed blood and death, before His burial and bodily resurrection on the third day. The Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. The resurrection confirms the victory of the Savior whose blood secured redemption.
God calls sinners to repent and believe in Jesus Christ. Repentance turns from unbelief and sin toward the Savior; faith receives Him and depends on what He has done. Neither response purchases salvation. The person who is genuinely born again becomes a new creation, indwelt and sealed by the Holy Spirit. Paul explains how God’s gift relates to our conduct:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Paul first describes salvation by grace through faith, then the good works for which God creates us anew in Christ. They are not the price a sinner pays to receive that life. I would reverse his explanation if I made obedience the means of earning salvation or keeping myself saved. A changed life follows the new birth, while acceptance before God rests on Christ. His saving work does not need my contribution to make it sufficient. The study on soteriology, the study of salvation, follows these truths more fully.
That gives us several connected questions to ask of a message. Who does it say Jesus is? What does it say His death accomplished? How does a sinner receive salvation, and which authority finally determines those answers? Familiar words can conceal different answers, so we need to hear the explanation rather than assume that mentioning Jesus and grace guarantees a biblical gospel.
Paul’s Warning About Another Jesus and Another Gospel
In Galatians, teachers were troubling the churches by making observance of the law, including circumcision, necessary for their acceptance before God. They were adding a requirement to faith in Christ. Paul did not treat that change as an optional way of expressing the same truth:
I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
His warning reaches even an apostle or an angel who contradicts the message already delivered. A teacher’s title, apparent spirituality, or claim of a supernatural encounter cannot authorize a different gospel. Paul includes himself in that warning. The messenger is answerable to the truth, and the Church has no authority to revise the message to suit its preferences.
The problem may also concern the identity of the Christ being proclaimed. Paul warned the Corinthians:
For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you may well put up with it!
Jesus is the eternal Son and the Word made flesh. He is not a created being, a temporary role assumed by the Father, merely a prophet, or an unusually good moral teacher. John 1:1–3 identifies the Word as God and says that creation came into being through Him. The One who truly became human did not cease to be God.
A message also changes the apostolic Christ if it denies His sinless life, His genuine humanity, His bodily resurrection, or His unique authority to save. Scripture names Him as the only Mediator between God and humanity, the One through whom sinners are brought to God. Peter declares:
Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
I cannot treat these truths as optional refinements once we agree to use the name Jesus. The gospel depends on the identity and work of the Person who saves us. A teacher who replaces the eternal Son with a created substitute has changed the Savior being proclaimed. The study on the blood of Christ for salvation explains why His actual sacrifice remains central to the good news.
Grace Cannot Be Completed by Human Works
Another false message may affirm much of the truth about Christ while making my acceptance before God depend on religious performance. The demand may involve rituals, institutional membership, moral achievement, or continued effort to remain justified. Justification means being declared righteous before God. If I depend on my work to make me acceptable to God, I am trying to earn what He gives freely.
And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.
Paul’s distinction between grace and works leaves no room for making human merit the basis of salvation. Obedience takes effort, but that effort cannot complete the purchase Christ has made. The message “Christ did His part, and now your works must finish the purchase” directs the sinner back to himself for what only Christ provides.
Paul therefore calls the Galatians to stand in the freedom Christ has given them:
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
That freedom does not make a believer’s conduct irrelevant. Someone truly born again belongs to Christ and is sealed by the Holy Spirit, eternally secure in Him. He does not earn that security by maintaining a good enough record. But security is no permission for lawlessness, and a Christian label does not establish that a person has received new life.
Jude addresses people who corrupt grace in the opposite direction, presenting it as permission for immorality:
For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I need to heed both warnings. Adding works as the basis of acceptance denies grace; using grace to excuse rebellion denies the change God brings through the new birth. We should explain repentance and faith to someone defending his sin, rather than tell him to earn salvation. Regeneration means being born again, receiving new life from God. A believer’s conduct should give evidence of that change, though he is not made sinless.
Scripture Must Remain the Final Authority
We recognize these changes by testing them against God’s Word. Faithful pastors, teachers, confessions, and historical witnesses can help us understand Scripture, but their usefulness does not give them authority to overrule it. Paul explains why Scripture can govern our doctrine and conduct:
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
That the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Scripture is given by God and equips His people for faithful service. Its sufficiency does not mean that every passage is easy to understand or that teachers are unnecessary. It means we do not need a later authority to repair the gospel God has given. A claim to new revelation, an additional sacred book, or an organization’s exclusive interpretation must itself be tested by Scripture. The study on which Bible translation to trust addresses a related question about receiving and reading God’s Word.
Jesus confronted religious leaders who used a tradition about dedicating resources to God to avoid helping their parents. Their religious practice had become an excuse for disregarding God’s command. He told them they were:
Making the word of God of no effect through your tradition which you have handed down. And many such things you do.
The problem was not simply that a custom was old. It was that the custom displaced obedience to God. I should apply that test to my own church traditions as readily as to someone else’s. Pastors and prophets must answer to Scripture, as must councils, catechisms, and publications. Neither their status nor a claim to private revelation gives them the right to change the Christ Scripture proclaims or the way a sinner receives salvation.
People taught that their performance must finish what Christ began may never know whether they have done enough. They may look to another ceremony, a better record, or an institution’s approval. The problem is not that Christian obedience requires effort; it is that they have been taught to depend on that effort for redemption. Jesus calls burdened people to Himself:
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Jesus gives rest while calling people to learn from Him and take His yoke. Discipleship requires obedience and growth, but it does not make the disciple responsible for saving himself. A burdened person needs to understand why he can depend on Christ’s grace as he learns to follow Him. One more religious demand cannot complete the sacrifice Christ has already offered.
Testing Systems and Speaking to People With Care
These tests apply to actual teachings, including those of Roman Catholicism, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Naming a group does not establish what an individual member believes or understands. We need to describe the doctrine accurately, explain our objection from Scripture, and listen to the person in front of us.
Roman Catholic teaching affirms that initial forgiveness and justification cannot be earned; it also teaches that justification is granted through Baptism (Catechism 2020, 2027). It understands the Mass as sacramentally making Christ’s one sacrifice present, not as another physical death (Catechism 1366–1367). It teaches that those who lose baptismal grace through grave sin can recover the grace of justification through Penance (Catechism 1446).
Catholics understand these sacraments as means by which God applies Christ’s saving work. I reject making church-administered rituals the means of receiving or recovering justification. Scripture teaches acceptance before God by grace through faith in Christ’s sufficient sacrifice, with good works following the new birth. I also reject making continued religious performance the price of retaining that acceptance.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints officially includes the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price alongside the Bible in its canon of scripture. It receives those writings as divine revelation. We therefore need to test their teaching by the apostolic Christ and gospel, rather than treat them simply as commentary or study guides. I do not accept a later book as having authority to correct or redefine what the biblical gospel says.
Jehovah’s Witnesses say they follow the Bible, and their own publications acknowledge that their Governing Body can err. They nevertheless assign it a directing role in teaching and interpreting Scripture. Their teaching that Jesus was a created being directly conflicts with the eternal, divine Son proclaimed in John 1. A teacher serves us by explaining Scripture faithfully. His position cannot make a contradictory account of Christ true. I must apply that test even to a church whose other positions I share.
These examples are reasons to examine the teaching, not substitutes for doing so. I need to ask what a message says Christ’s blood and death accomplished, whether it proclaims His bodily resurrection, and where it directs a sinner’s confidence. The question of authority cannot be settled merely by a claim that a prophet, council, organization, or publication speaks for God. John instructs believers to test such claims:
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God.
When I speak with someone caught in a false gospel, my purpose should be to help him come to Christ. Humiliating him will not explain the truth. He may have inherited religious language from childhood without understanding the doctrine attached to it, or he may be deeply burdened by attempts to prove himself worthy. Listening carefully helps me address what he actually trusts rather than argue against an answer he has not given.
A useful question is, “What are you trusting to make you right with God?” Then I need to let him explain. If he says Christ, I can ask what he believes Christ accomplished and how he receives that salvation. If his confidence finally rests on personal worthiness, a ritual, institutional loyalty, or a created substitute for the eternal Son, we should explain from Scripture why that cannot save him. Our patience must serve the truth, not quietly surrender it.
We can be firm without treating a confused person as an enemy to defeat. Explain who Jesus is, how His shed blood and death secured redemption, why His bodily resurrection is part of the gospel, and how sinners receive Him in repentance and faith. Show why good works follow the life He gives and why no human authority may overrule His Word. That gives the person something more useful than a label: the good news of the Savior he needs.
My Final Thoughts
A false gospel changes the Christ Scripture proclaims, His finished saving work, salvation by grace through faith, or the authority by which those truths are known. I need to guard the apostolic gospel without confusing a demand for religious achievement with holiness, or permission to sin with grace. Christ has shed His blood, died for sinners, and risen bodily. Those who receive Him are made new, and their obedience follows that gift rather than buying it. We should explain this gospel plainly and patiently so that people’s confidence rests in the Savior Himself.