As deceived as Eve

“I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.”
2 Corinthians 11:3-4

“She was deceived by the serpent's cunning.”  If Eve had a tombstone, this could well be its epitaph.  For this is how she has been remembered; it is her tragic legacy.

I don’t think Satan uses serpents much anymore, other than to scare the bejeebers out of us, perhaps.  Oh, he’s still hell-bent on leading us astray, but he's deceived plenty of people by now and he is more than pleased to use them to dupe more dupes!  Including you and me if we’re not careful.

So let’s sign the guest register at the First Church of Corinth, settle into a comfortable pew and consider Paul’s warning against three false promises: a different Jesus, a different spirit, and a different gospel.

We don’t often hear reports of a “different Jesus,” per se.  Our “different Jesus” is the one we create in our image by bending, stretching and twisting the Biblical Son of God like a toy-box Gumby until he looks the way we think he should look.  But God intends that we be conformed into the image of his Son (Romans 8:29), not the other way around.  And his complete Word is the complete authority on his Son.

Jesus is God, come in the flesh; any assertion to the contrary arises from a “different spirit.”  In one of the Bible's great “trinity” passages, Jesus instructed his disciples: “... I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth. (John 14:16-17)”  And it is so crucial we follow this Holy Spirit of truth, that John warned against “different spirits,” even giving us this litmus test by which to discern among them: “This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. (1 John 4:2)”

As Paul told the Galatians, “a different gospel ... is really no gospel at all. (Galatians 1:6)”  Only Jesus fulfilled the gospel announced in advance to Abraham (Galatians 3:6-9) and to the prophets (Romans 1:1-4).  Only God himself in human flesh could fulfill the rigid demands of the Law.  Only Jesus’ blood could remove our sin; only God's life could atone for our life.  This being true, there is, as Paul said, no other gospel; indeed, perfection needs no other “good news.”

Winding its way throughout eternity is the Word of God.  God displayed its authority upon speaking it.  Satan acknowledged its authority by twisting it.  Eve recognized its authority in misquoting it.  Moses and the prophets submitted to its authority when writing it.  Jesus attested to its authority by declaring it, living it and fulfilling it – everything “that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. (Luke 24:44)”  And when we trust in its authority, it proves to be our rock, our safe place amid the tempest of deception.

As our wacky world turns wackier, let us not be as deceived as Eve.  Rather, let us hold onto these unchanging truths: there is no other Jesus; there is no other Holy Spirit of truth; there is no other gospel.

Our God is true to his Word.  We have it on good authority.  We can trust it with our lives.

[Today’s reading is 2 Corinthians 11:1-15.  For NIV, click here.  For The Message, click here.]