We are to vote no on religion because religion is man’s message, while the gospel is God’s message...

During this election season at the church where I serve we are looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the New Testament in our Bibles called the Book of Galatians. We launched into this letter by discovering that whether you are a republican, democrat or independent; whether you are a member of the tea party of the occupy wall street movement; whether you would consider yourself active or inactive in politics, you cast your ballot every day in an election that has far more at stake that who will be the leader of the free world for the next four years. Every day, we cast a ballot in this election is for one of two candidates. Either you cast a ballot to vote to live your life as a religious-centered person; or you cast a ballot to live your life as a gospel-centered person. And in this letter, we will discover that this election has been going on for thousands of years.

This week, we will see Paul defend himself against the accusations of those who had embraced a religious centered lifestyle. And it is in his defense that we will see Paul reveal for us another timeless reason why we are to vote no on religion. So let’s look together at Paul’s defense, beginning in Galatians 1:11:

For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul begins that section of his letter to the churches of Galatia by confronting those in the churches who were alleging that Paul was not a true apostle. As we discovered last week, when the Bible uses the word Apostle, this word literally means sent one and refers to one who had seen Jesus after He had been raised from the dead. However, the members of the churches of Galatia were denying that Paul had been given 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. They alleged that Paul had no authority as a messenger that was sent by Jesus with a message from Jesus as His representative. Instead, they alleged that Paul was simply someone that was communicating a message that he had heard and learned from others. They were denying that Paul had 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 the message of the gospel that he was proclaiming was not a message that had any origin in man. Paul did not receive the message of the gospel from any man. Now the word receive conveys the sense of gaining control and receiving jurisdiction over something. In other words, Paul did not receive a commission to share the message of the gospel from any human being. He did not receive permission from any human author when it came to communicating the message of the gospel.

In addition, Paul explains that he was not taught the message of the gospel. Paul did not attend a class held by the Apostles to learn the message and teachings of Jesus. Paul was not enrolled in any distance learning program. Paul did not read a textbook or attend a seminar when it came to learning how to communicate the message of the gospel. Paul did not get a text message from someone with the gospel; Paul did not receive a Facebook post with the gospel; Paul did not receive a tweet with the gospel.

Instead, Paul explains 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.

And it is here that we see Paul reveal for us a timeless reason why we are to vote no on religion. And that timeless reason is that we are to vote no on religion because religion is man’s message, while the gospel is God’s message. As we talked about last week, the simplest definition of religion is that religion is man’s attempt to do things for God in order to be right with God. Religion finds its origin in humanity and is a message from humanity to humanity on how humanity can enter into a right relationship with God.

Paul’s point to those who were alleging that he was simply someone that was communicating a message that he had heard and learned from others was to point to his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road as the proof of his authority as a messenger that was sent by Jesus with a message from Jesus as His representative. 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.

And in the remainder of this section of this letter, we will see Paul 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.

Tomorrow, we will begin to look at the evidence together…