This week we are looking at a section of his letter called the book of Galatians. Yesterday, we discovered that there were those in the churches who were alleging that Paul was not a true apostle and had no claim to any authority that came from Jesus and that he was not speaking as a representative of Jesus. Paul confronts those allegations by explaining that he received the message of the gospel through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, after being raised from the dead, appeared to Paul and disclosed to him God’s good news to humans which forms the message of the gospel. Jesus Himself, face to face, made fully known the message of the gospel to Paul.
And that reality gave Paul the authority, as an Apostle, along with the unique role and gifting to be the messenger that would deliver God’s new message regarding Jesus Christ and message of the gospel to the world. We saw Paul reveal for us a timeless reason that we are to vote no on religion because religion is man’s message, while the gospel is God’s message. Paul’s point is that the message of the gospel is not a human message. Instead the message of the gospel is God’s message.
Today, we will see Paul begin provide the evidence to prove that the message of the gospel was a message that he received from God without any human influence or interaction. So let’s look at the evidence together, beginning in Galatians 1:13:
For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.
Here we see Paul provide the members of the churches of Galatia his testimony of his life as a religious-centered person. You see, prior to encountering Jesus, Paul was perhaps the most legalistic religious person who ever lived. When Paul refers to his former manner of life in Judaism, he is referring to how he conducted his life as a part of the Jewish religious system.
For the Jewish religious person, their security and well being was found in the Law. The Law is the first five books that we have in our Bibles today, which the Jewish people called the Law or Torah. And Paul, like other Jewish religious people, took pride in the belief that their well being and security was founded in legalistically following and keeping the Law.
And in the same way today, religious people will often take pride in the security and well being that comes from doing something for God. For Paul and the Jewish religious people of his day, it was what they did for God that made them right with God.
Paul explains that he so embraced the Jewish religious system that he persecuted the church beyond measure and tried to destroy it. Paul not only harassed followers of Jesus, Paul hated the church; Saul despised early followers of Jesus. Paul arrested early followers of Jesus, Paul tortured early followers of Jesus; Paul participated in the murder of early followers of Jesus. In Acts 9:1-2, Luke tells us that Paul’s hatred for followers of Jesus was so consuming that he requested permission to travel all the way to Damascus Syria, which was a distance of 135 miles, so that he could arrest followers of Jesus and bring them back to Jerusalem for trial, in order to put an end to this new movement called the church.
Paul was consumed with hate and driven to fan the flames of hate in order to utterly destroy the message of the gospel. But not only was Paul passionately committed to protecting the Jewish religious system from outside threats; Paul was also passionately committed to legalistically following the teachings of the Jewish religious system. When Paul states that he was advancing in Jerusalem beyond many of my contemporaries, he is revealing the reality that he was at the top of his class in Torah school. Paul was totally committed to learning and following the Jewish religious system and its traditions as taught by the rabbi’s of the day.
Paul lived a legalistically religious centered life. His head, heart, and hands were wholly committed to a life and a lifestyle as a religious centered person. There was no one more legalistically religious than Paul. But something happened to Paul that radically changed him and the trajectory of his life forever, which Paul reveals for us in verse 15:
But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.
Here we see Paul share with the members of the churches of Galatia how his legalistically religious centered life was turned upside down as a result of his encounter with Jesus Christ after He had been raised from the dead on the road to Damascus. The story of this encounter is also recorded for us in a letter that was recorded for us in the New Testament of our Bibles today called the book of Acts. In Acts 9:1-9, Luke records for us the story of this encounter. In addition, in Acts 26, Luke records Paul’s sharing his encounter with Jesus as part of his defense before King Agrippa.
Paul explains to the members of the churches at Galatia that his encounter with Jesus was not a random occurrence. Instead, this encounter was a part of God’s Divine plan to advance His mission in the world. God, who is large and in charge of all of time and history, had set Paul apart even from his mother’s womb. In other words, before Paul had been born, God had chosen and selected him to fulfill a specific purpose. God had called, or chosen Paul, not because of what Paul had done for God as a legalistic religious centered person.
What religious centered performance for God could not do to rescue Paul from the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God, God did. As a result of God’s transformational intervention and activity in the world, God had chosen to rescue Paul from selfishness and rebellion and involve him in God’s mission in the world through Jesus life, death, and resurrection. God graciously chose to rescue Paul from his religious rebellion and to reveal His message of rescue through the message of the gospel. And God gave Paul the mission to be the messenger that would deliver God’s new message to the non-Jewish world regarding Jesus Christ and message of the gospel.
Immediately after his encounter with Jesus, who revealed and made known the message of the gospel and the mission he had been given, Paul explains that he did not consult flesh and blood. In other words, Paul did not decide to take up his encounter with Jesus and the mission he had been given with other human beings. He did not seek any feedback or opinions from other people. Paul did not travel to Jerusalem in order to consult with the leaders of the early church who had also seen Jesus after He had been raised from the dead.
Instead, Paul immediately began to engage in the kingdom mission he had been given to share the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel to the non-Jewish world. When Paul states that he went away to Arabia and returned once more to Damascus, he is explaining to the church at Galatia what Luke recorded for us in Acts 9:19-25. There Luke records for us that Paul entered into the synagogue of Damascus to share with the Jewish religious leaders and people the mission and message that drove him. Paul began to publicly and powerfully proclaim the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel. The man who was supposed to pillage and destroy followers of Jesus was now the main missionary for Jesus, proving that Jesus fulfilled the predictions of the Messiah from the Old Testament.
Paul’s point to the churches of Galatia was that the message of the gospel that he was proclaiming was from the beginning a message that he received from Jesus Himself. Paul did not consult anyone and was not trained by anyone when it came to the gospel. As a matter of fact, Paul had not even been back to Jerusalem to speak with any of Jesus closest followers.
Tomorrow, we will see Paul continue to share his story…
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