Paul equates turning away from the message about Christ to turning away from the person of God, that is, "the one who called you by the grace of Christ."⁶ Because the Christian message is God's revelation about himself and his way of salvation, to reject, abandon, or fail to accept the Christian message, therefore, is to reject, abandon, or fail to accept God himself. This means that it is impossible for a person to reject Christianity and at the same time find God or salvation. It is impossible for a person to find his way to God or salvation through any other "gospel," religion, or philosophy. It is also impossible for anyone to obtain salvation through Jesus Christ by believing some other message or following some other system of thought. If the content of a religion or philosophy is empty of or different from the message that Paul preached, then this message cannot lead anyone to God, to Christ, or to salvation.

Any person who preaches a message other than the one Paul first delivered to the Galatians, and other than the one they accepted, is "eternally condemned." The word is anathema, or "accursed," but the NIV offers the correct translation in terms of its meaning. Although Paul directs the twice-spoken anathema toward someone who preaches anything different (v. 8-9), the threat of eternal damnation applies equally to anyone who accepts such a message. This is because there is really no other gospel, and what the Galatians are now turning to "is really no gospel at all."

Since the purpose of a gospel is salvation (else Paul preaches in vain), since the gospel of justification by faith in Christ is necessary for salvation (else Christ died in vain), and since anyone who preaches something different is not preaching the true gospel, it follows that anyone who believes something different fails to believe in any gospel and therefore receives eternal damnation just as readily as someone who preaches something different.

Thus there are at least three points here that combine to narrow the way of salvation to one. First, turning to another "gospel" is the same as turning away from God. Second, there is in fact no other gospel. Third, anyone who preaches a different message is condemned. And since this person preaches a message that is "really no gospel at all," those who believe him in fact believe in "no gospel," and they are also condemned. The passage leaves no room for distortions, alternatives, or lenient interpretations.

Paul is emphatic as to the precise and exclusive nature of the gospel, and he is eager to declare the consequence for deviating from it. It is in the same spirit that we paraphrase the point that he tries to get across: "If you preach or believe anything other than the biblical gospel, and if you preach or believe anything other than the Christian faith as defined and expounded by the New Testament apostles, God will send you to suffer forever in hell."

This does not mean that even minor errors and small disagreements lead to damnation, but it means that many errors are not minor and many disagreements are not small. Even if we restrict Paul's anathema to the letter's context of justification by faith in Christ, and thus also all the other doctrines that are required to maintain its coherence, this passage is sufficient to condemn all non-Christian religions and philosophies – all non-Christian ways of thinking – as paths to everlasting destruction in hell. These must include Catholicism, Mormonism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, atheism, agnosticism, and so on, since they both directly contradict the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ alone and other doctrines that are required to maintain its coherence.

We must not leave out heretical doctrines that claim to come under the Christian faith or to offer a superior but different interpretation of the gospel. For example, the so-called New Perspective on Paul not only perverts the gospel of Christ, but it does so in a way that is especially relevant to our passage, striking at the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ. Thus we must declare with Paul that it is "really no gospel at all," and insist on the consequence that necessarily follows from this fact – because it is "no gospel," it can bring no salvation.

Just as Paul takes great pains to make his point on this clear, so we say it again: If a person is anything other than a Christian, if he affirms anything other than the biblical doctrines and the gospel of Jesus Christ, as defined and expounded by the New Testament, then God will certainly cast this person into hell, where he will suffer extreme torment forever.

Just as true Christianity has never gained wide acceptance – it separates the saved and the unsaved – the doctrine of justification by faith in Christ, since it is Christianity, has never gained wide acceptance. And just as Paul had to combat oppositions against this doctrine in churches that called themselves Christian, this is a present danger and reality in many of our congregations today, where they preach and accept a message that is "really no gospel at all." But if there is no gospel there, then there is no salvation there, and we have no right to call them churches of God when they are the synagogues of Satan.

 

NOTES

⁶ "The one who called" refers to God, and not to the apostle himself. For example, see 1 Thessalonians 5:24, 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, and 2 Timothy 1:8-9.

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