Is the Gospel worth Cussing About?

So I've been preaching for a few weeks now in an Easter series called "Signed in Blood - The Radical Gospel of Jesus." I have been receiving more feedback on this series than any I have previously preached - including on topics as controversial as sex and the return of Jesus. Why so much feedback? I believe it to be a reflection of the fact that so many in the Body of Christ are starving for grace.

Whenever I write or blog or preach or converse one-on-one with people about the Gospel of grace - usually I get feedback from multiple angles. One of those angles is the notion that by confronting modern-day legalists, I am somehow not being "gracious" myself.

Let me be the first to say that heated, passionate debate can and should remain as respectful as possible. It is never my intention to personally attack an individual. However, when attacking ideas one believes to be false, this is often interpreted by those who hold the ideas as a personal attack on them. I understand this fully, because I am no different. I can easily get defensive and feel persecuted when someone challenges an idea that I believe in. It's part of human nature, and that is why I agree that we must seek to be respectful even in debate.

That being said, is it not the mandate of every generation of believers to defend and clarify the Gospel of grace with the utmost passion? The Apostle Paul, when exposing his former legalistic way of life, said that he now considered all of that past false confidence to be "rubbish". The old King James Version more accurately translates this word as "dung". If we were going to be really honest and unafraid to offend the over-sensitive, the modern equivalent would literally be "S#@%". That's how expressive Paul was in exposing legalism (i.e. front-loading or back-loading the free offer of grace with human works). And that description is included in the INSPIRED Scripture.

Paul also said that he wished perverters of the Gospel would be "accursed" and he called the Judaizers "mutilators of the flesh" because of their insistence that believers had to be circumcised. Does this sound like a guy who was willing to tolerate false teaching about the Gospel? As I've written elsewhere - defending grace rises to a different level in the sphere of theological debate. We can debate such issues as spiritual gifts, the return of Jesus, the age of the earth and a host of other matters of secondary importance all day long. But the Gospel of grace is different. It is in a league of its own. If we get this wrong - nothing else matters.

Please don't misunderstand me. I am not implying that I hold the same level of spiritual clout which belonged to the Apostle Paul. Nor am I suggesting that we should not strive to be gracious in tone - a goal which I routinely fall short of. What I AM saying is that grace is worth defending. It's worth fighting for. It's worth dying for. It is the only thing that distinguishes the core of Christianity from mere man-made religion. That's my opinion...what do you think?