The False Gospel Appeals to Carnal Minds!

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It's really a problem that can make any Christian sick whenever there are the Easy "Christians" who seek to tailor the Gospel to carnal minds. There's no way that the Gospel was meant to be tasteful to carnal minds. Why is the Gospel so distasteful to the carnal mind? Remember there are three areas of temptation that the Gospel attacks without any hesitation.
1 John 2:16 - "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

There's no reason that the Gospel caters to all three areas of temptation. When you talk about salvation from sin and not to sin that attacks the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes. When you talk about salvation not by one's own personal merits but by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ then that attacks the pride of life. The Gospel wasn't meant to cater to sin lovers and arrogant people but to humble, repentant people who see their need for deliverance from sin and not deliverance to sin. Jesus is a Savior from Hell and a Savior from sin. Matthew 1:21 says that Jesus came to save His people from their sins.

The idea of salvation from sin is repugnant to anybody who loves to sin certain sins. Why do so many people refuse to become Christians? It's ironic how so many believe in a system you need to work your way to Heaven, accuse Christians of teaching a license to sin are also accusing Christians of being "legalistic killjoys". It's noticeable that a lot of unsaved people have pleasure in certain selected sins they think is "okay" as long as they do more good than bad. But the Gospel says that even the slightest sin sends you to an eternity in Hell (Romans 3:19, James 2:10-11). That truth alone shatters one's self-righteousness and desire to have a license to certain sins.

One of the worst methods today to make the Gospel "more appealing" has been to teach the heresy of carnal "Christianity". It's a severe misinterpretation of 1 Corinthians 3:1. Christians can be guilty of carnality but they can't be carnal indefinitely. Christians aren't perfect but they definitely don't love sin. The whole teaching that a person can get saved and still remain the same is not biblical. It can't be found anywhere in the Scriptures! If that were true then 1 Corinthians 6:11 and Ephesians 2:10 would be a lie. The Scriptures affirm that once you're already saved you are redeemed from sin not redeemed to sin. Those who are truly saved seek to live differently and only false converts teach that you have a license to sin.

The reason why works salvation works so well is because it appeals to the pride of life. People are arrogant by nature. They tend to think highly of themselves. They only care about what others think of them rather than what God thinks of them. People are too proud to admit their sin or that it's God's work that changes the sinner. Salvation by grace through faith eliminates all boasting. Nobody can boast that they no longer sin because they did it. Nobody can boast they're going to Heaven by their efforts. All those who made it out from their life of sin to serving the Savior can only credit God's grace. That's definitely offensive to the pride of life. That's why many of them throw their Nom Sequitur attacks to conclude that teaching salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ supposedly teaches a "license to sin". Ironically, many who believe in works salvation are living their lives like they have a license to sin.

The truth is preach the hard Gospel, don't expect people to love you. As long as you hurt their sinful fleshly natures by the Gospel, they'll never love you. You can't be faithful and popular with the sinful world. A Christian may enjoy popularity with fellow believers but never popularity with the sinful world. There's a huge battle and it's all about the truth and not numbers. It's either the narrow way to life or the broad way to destruction. There's no room for in-between when it comes to the battle for the truth of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.


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