Lesson Passage: Galatians 1:11-24
In the first lesson as we covered 1:1 to 1:10 we studied the introduction.
This week begins a stretch of autobiographical material from Paul that runs from 1:11 to 2:21. This was necessary because Paul’s authority was being questioned. Paul’s authority and the Gospel (among the gentiles) were intimately linked. If the legalists had won then the Gospel would have lost. Of course God wasn’t going to let that happen and He used Paul, in part, to defend the Gospel. Paul is divinely taught, inspired, and commissioned.
Read 1:11-17
NIV
11 I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
13 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. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set me apart from birth a and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.
ESV
11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
1:11 not according to man.
Paul defends himself against his opponents’ charge that he is in rebellion against the Jerusalem apostles who gave him his authority in the first place. Paul contends that his authority comes from God alone, the Jerusalem apostles recognized and confirming God’s work in Paul’s life. It is also a serious thing for Paul to say formally, “I would have you know”. Serious for Paul, serious for his opponents, and serious for the Galatians who are beginning to drift.
1:11&12
- Not man’s gospel – not human in origin, we would not have thought of this, literally “not according to man”, a creation of the mind of God, no logical person would require a human rubber stamp.
- Not received from any man – Paul didn’t acquire this by laying on of the hands of other Apostles or as some sort of rabbinic oral tradition, this is as close to ground zero as the Galatians could get.
- Not taught it by any other Apostle in any other way – in a sense he was as surprised as anyone by the revelation. It wasn’t as much a learning experience as as a revelation experience (an epiphany).
- He received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
I think the revelation comment refers to the entire experience beginning on the Damascus road and including all that God had spoken to Paul.
1:13 persecuted the church of God.
Paul’s persecution of the church before his call was well known to the early Christians (Acts 7:58; 8:3; 9:1, 2). Paul himself was ashamed of this part of his past (1 Cor. 15:9), although he looked on it as evidence that God’s grace can overcome even the most rebellious sinners
1 Corinthians 15:8-10 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.
1:14 exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers
Paul was fond of pointing out to opponents like those in Galatia that being a Jew, even a zealous Jew, is not sufficient for salvation. Paul considered his own experience proof that zeal for the law would not save. As zealous as Paul was it wasn’t pleasing to God and in fact he found himself in opposition to God and God’s purposes.
1:15 from my mother’s womb.
Paul consciously echoes the call of Jeremiah (Jer. 1:5) and, perhaps, the Servant spoken of by Isaiah (Is. 49:1, 5), who both like Paul were called to be God’s messengers to Gentiles. Paul was conscious that his apostleship (v. 1 note) was in continuity with the Old Testament prophetic tradition.
Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew a you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Isaiah 49:1-5 Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name. He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver. He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.” But I said, “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing. Yet what is due me is in the LORD’s hand, and my reward is with my God.” And now the LORD says— he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength—
called me through His grace
Paul’s call to be an apostle, like the faith of every believer, was the product of God’s prior grace. Before our birth, and therefore before we could do anything good or bad, God chose to create faith in us (Rom. 9:10–13; Eph. 1:4–6). No one can earn God’s call; it is a free gift.
I love the way Paul describes what happened on the road to Damascus as “God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles”
Paul had no problem realizing that God’s work of Grace was operating and not some part of Paul. Your salvation was functionally like Paul’s. Most of us had a much less dramatic conversion. I was saved as a child and thankful I was but I didn’t get blinded or have a vision. But God’s work was still the initiator. I’m saved, I’m being saved, I’m going to be saved someday. I’m saved = monergistic; I’m being saved = synergistic (still Grace); I’m going to be saved someday = monergistic.
1:16 confer with flesh and blood.
Paul did, of course, meet with Ananias three days after his conversion (Acts 9:10–19; 22:12–16). The word translated “confer,” however, suggests laying something before someone or submitting it for comment and approval. Paul certainly did not consult Ananias in this sense. Ananias’s role was to confirm Paul’s calling to preach to the Gentiles and to baptize him.
1:17 Jerusalem … Arabia … Damascus.
Paul’s conversion and call took place near Damascus (Acts 9:3; 22:6; 26:12). He spent several days in the city after his conversion (Acts 9:19). This ancient city is on a fertile plain between two rivers, and the traveler from there must literally “go up” to Jerusalem in the Palestinian highlands. Jerusalem was the cultural and religious center of Palestine, and home to James, Peter, and John, who are prominent in Acts and Galatians as leaders of the early Christian community in Jerusalem (2:9). Paul stresses that his call to preach to the Gentiles came from God and not from the leaders of the Jerusalem church.
Paul spent time away seeking God. God changed everything for Paul. The desert is a great place to go to think. I’m looking forward to doing that again in a couple of months.
Read 1:18-24
NIV
18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. 21 Later I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they praised God because of me.
ESV
18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother. 20 (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!) 21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.
1:18 to Jerusalem.
Paul’s first trip to Jerusalem after his conversion (Acts 9:26–30).
see. This translates a Greek word that means visiting someone for the purpose of getting information. Paul may have interviewed Peter about Jesus’ life and teaching.
Peter. Peter’s Aramaic name was “Cephas” (see text note). Both “Cephas” and “Peter” mean “rock.”
1:19 James, the Lord’s brother.
See Matt. 13:55 and Mark 6:3. This James is not the disciple James who is frequently coupled with Peter and John in the Gospels. Herod murdered that James in the church’s earliest days (Acts 12:2). James, the Lord’s brother, at first did not believe in Jesus (John 7:5) but later was converted, perhaps as a result of seeing the risen Lord (1 Cor. 15:7).
James was instrumental in the early church after his conversion and was an apostle. He was a key part of the church conference when those insisting on circumcision were heard and rejected.
Paul’s conversion was a point of encouragement to the Church. They saw it, as we should see each salvation, as evidence of God’s presence in the world today.
Paul’s credentials were God ordained. The Church was thankful for God’s work in Paul’s life. His ministry has been confirmed by God and the other leadership of the church. The Galatians were falling for a false teaching and Paul was not going to stand by and watch.
Coram Deo
Thankfulness:
- For those like Paul in the early church that God used to keep the Gospel pure
- For God’s work in my life that resulted in my salvation
- For the confidence for my future that God’s past work gives me
- Grace from beginning to end
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