“Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live.” Galatians 1:4
“Will the real Melvin Purvis please stand up?” That was one of the final lines from an episode of the game show, “To Tell the Truth,” that featured ex-FBI Agent, Melvin Purvis, who was made famous for catching the infamous John Dillinger. “To Tell the Truth” was a popular show that garnered one of the largest viewing audiences on television and aired from 1956 through 1978. From a series of questions, four panelists had to figure out which of the three were imposters and which was the real person. At the end, the host would ask the question, “Will the real (fill in the blank) please stand up?”
In Paul’s letter to the Galatian church, he told them he was shocked that they had “turned away so soon from God, who called them to himself through the loving mercy of Christ, to follow a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all.”
They had fallen for an imposter of the Gospel and abandoned the real Good News. So, what exactly was this imposter? It was the teaching and belief that Salvation was only possible when it included some works on our part, along with our faith in Jesus. The Galatians began to believe in a “mixture” of law and grace and, sadly, there are many believers to this day who believe, and even teach, this same mixture.
We must never fall for anything other than the absolute truth about the Good News, and that is that Jesus, plus nothing, and minus nothing, is the only way to the Father. It is all, and only, by His sacrifice on the cross that paid the debt for all our (past, present and future) sins. Our status as a Child of God is based solely on what He has done for us and nothing we have or can do.
Today, we can rest in knowing that our Salvation rests in Jesus’ finished work alone, and we can forever, in our hearts and minds, let “the real Gospel stand up!”