Galatians 1:11-17 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.
Paul’s ministry of the Good News began on the road to Damascus. He was traveling that road to Damascus to arrest Jewish believers. He intended to have them either in prison or killed. His heart was bloodthirsty to carry out what he thought was a praiseworthy mission, getting rid of the Christian apostasy, corrupting Judaism. He was so intent on eliminating this sect, that he even arrested women who had little or no spiritual authority in the Jewish home or society. After he was blinded by Jesus’ appearance, a Christian man, Ananias, explained the purpose for Jesus’ intervention into his life. He also explained to Paul that as a believer he would be hated and persecuted by the Jews everywhere. Before this interruption in his life, Paul was on the fast track to becoming a respected rabbi in the Jewish community. His zealousness for Judaism caused the high priest to give Paul the assignment of getting rid of Christianity in the Jewish communities. As a young man, Paul was in the inner circle of the religious elite in Israel. He had received the best instruction in Judaism by the most honored rabbi in Israel: Gamaliel. He brings up Gamaliel’s name when defending himself against the Jews in Jerusalem who want to kill him. “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was thoroughly trained in the law of our ancestors. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as the high priest and all the Council can themselves testify.” (Acts 22:3-5) Paul’s zeal for God and Judaism was well known by the people in Israel before his conversion to Christianity. After his conversion, the believers were reluctant to trust his transformation as valid. But eventually, the Christians in every province trusted his divine mission of teaching the Good News to all people. To know Christ, Paul isolated himself in Arabia for a while to understand the redemptive plan of God. What he learned there through the Holy Spirit was the plan of God from the beginning of time to rescue men from the hold of sin. This plan stretched the minds of the believing Jews, and many of them tried to distort Paul’s teachings. Paul’s letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:16) Now in this letter, Paul is affirming to the Galatians that his teaching should be accepted fully, for he did not receive it from men as he had learned Judaism, but from Jesus Christ directly. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. He is saying, after Jesus intervened in my life, I did not consult with any human beings. I did not learn the gospel from the lips of the leaders of Christianity. Instead, I went into Arabia to learn of Christ. We see when Jesus was about to leave his disciples here on earth because he was going to the cross, He tells them, the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (John 14:26-27) After Paul was blinded and after his previous experience in Judaism, Paul needed to know what it meant to serve Jesus. Surely, at times he was greatly troubled and even afraid, not knowing what his future would be as a follower of Jesus. But as with the disciples on Christ’s departure, Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to teach you all things. Paul learned all things in Arabia.
Paul is deeply concerned with the Galatians imploding the gospel of Christ by adding works to the salvation message. The Jewish Christians had corrupted the purity of faith in Jesus Christ alone by adding circumcision into the way to God. Paul knew if the law creeped into the salvation message, their faith would be in vain. For the work on the cross was Jesus’ work, not man’s work. The curtain to God’s domain in the Holy of Holies was Jesus’ work not man’s efforts. The curtain that separated God’s dwelling place from man’s efforts of pleasing God had been torn in two at the cross. No other work or effort by man could provide the efficacy necessary to please God. The cross was a completed work: IT IS FINISHED is the truth of the gospel. As with Jesus, Paul is telling the Galatians that this message of grace alone is not his message but it is Christ’s message in him, to them. Jesus said to his disciples, The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. (John 14:10-11) Paul’s message is Christ in us, we in Christ. I have become his servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:25-27) The mystery that was hidden for ages was that all people everywhere can be one with God through the redemptive power of the cross. Jews, Gentiles alike, can find peace with God and find a home with God for eternity. This message of being one with God through faith in Jesus’ work on the cross was being corrupted by the addition of the law into the redemptive work of Christ. Paul was having none of that kind of denigrating yeast into the purity of the cross. He was writing this letter to remind them of the efficacy of Christ’s work alone. He wants them to know this is a divine message that they cannot ignore without causing harm to the gospel message.
As a scholar of the Old Testament, Paul knew the works of the law would never free men and women from condemnation. He knew rebellion to God was embedded in the hearts of people. If the Galatians picked up the law as a means to salvation, they would forever be outside of the perfect will of God. They would never be without one fault before a righteous God. And no man can enter into the domain of God with even one fault upon their souls. A righteous God demands complete holiness in his kingdom. Sin will not exist in eternity, and God is eternal. What is the solution for men to be right with God? To know Jesus Christ in all of his righteousness and to accept his works for our works, allowing his substitutionary work be the work that sets us free from sin and death. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he advocates Jesus’ work on the cross to be the only work needed to know God. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4) The rebellious nature of man to God’s will was condemned in the flesh by Jesus who was born in the flesh going to the cross. He, perfect in flesh, died for that rebellious spirit of fleshly men and women; He bled out to pay the price for that nature of sin. God’s mysterious plan was to accept that price of death on the cross as a substitutionary price for the waywardness of men. By dying in the flesh, Jesus set us free from having to pay for our sins by dying. He died once and for all time, so we might not die who believe in his works. We have been set free from our status of not wanting God’s will in our lives, for Jesus paid that price for us. Now our allegiance is to Jesus. We love him and follow his command of loving others as ourselves. We are no longer caught in the cycle of sin and death. We have been set free from Egypt because of the Lamb of God. The people who crossed the Red Sea were no better than the people who housed themselves in Egypt, but they were free only because the blood of the lambs around their doorways released them from captivity. We who are set free are as they: free because of the Lamb’s blood. We are only good because the Lamb has been sacrificed for us. We are only right with God because of the Lamb. Paul wants the Galatians to understand that fact. Any other teaching will only bind them to Egypt. There will be no freedom through the Red Sea. There will be no Promised Land for them to inherit, only sin and death in the land of Egypt will be theirs if they bring law into God’s redemption plan. Paul is deeply concerned about this corruption of the THE WAY. Christ is THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE. Jesus loved the Father and He proved his love for the Father by going to the cross. I love the Father and do exactly what my Father has commanded me. (John 14:31) If we love Jesus, we will believe and do what He has said to us. He said, IT IS FINISHED! Let us live, knowing it is finished. Our lives will be led by faith in his work and in HIS ALONE. As with Paul, we received this revelation from Jesus Christ.
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