Why You Must Avoid This Popular Perversion of the Gospel
It was clear when the apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians that he was extraordinarily concerned about the deviation from the truth they were engaging in. He barely stopped for a typical greeting before heatedly launching into these words:
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel which is really no gospel at all” (Gal. 1:6-7, NIV). Later in his letter he would say, “Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?” (Gal. 3:3).
This community was turning from being led by the Spirit and experiencing the fullness of the gospel as they had received it from Paul and others back to man-made laws and rules, dry religion.
The fullness of the gospel contains two things: being redeemed by the work of Jesus on the cross, believing and receiving Him in faith; and living by the Spirit, being filled and guided by the Holy Spirit so we are sanctified and transformed.
And part of that process of living in the Spirit is to exercise spiritual gifts and to honor those gifts in others in the Christian community. One of those tremendous gifts is the gift of healing and miracles.
In our life with Christ, we should be able to receive divine healing and provide it to others as God works through us. Healing is not a thing of the past and not simply the province of a few. It is meant for God’s people as a normal part of their lives.
For more about the fullness of the gospel and all the spiritual blessings with which we have been blessed, listen here.
