GETTING THE GOSPEL RIGHT: New Life In Christ! - Galatians 1:11-24

 

GETTING THE GOSPEL RIGHT: New Life In Christ!

Galatians 1:11-24

Introduction: We had a peaceful inauguration of a new administration this week, but that does not change the fact that our country is deeply divided. On top of that, we have a world with multiple hotspots that threaten peace and stability. Yes, we live in a fallen world, but we don’t despair because we know the king of the universe, and His plan will come to pass!  Imagine the world reaction if someone like Kim Jung-Un or Vladimir Putin said that they had become a believer in Jesus, and began to urge others to consider the claims of Christ. Impossible? That might have been like the shock that both Christian and Jewish leaders felt in the first century when they heard that Saul of Tarsus, a zealous Jew committed to the destruction of the “Christ-followers,” was now saying that he had met the resurrected Jesus, and was now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.

       As he continues this letter to the Galatian churches Paul turns for a moment to his own story, and he uses an apologetic argument to show the legitimacy of his message and his apostleship.  He had been advancing in Judaism, an up-and-coming leader who showed his zeal by doing everything possible to stop the followers of Jesus.  He gives his explanation of the radical change in his life: a direct, personal revelation from God, an encounter with the risen Christ, who called him and set him apart for a special purpose.

The Big Idea: A compelling evidence that God has spoken is the power of His Word to transform lives.

I. God has spoken: He spoke to Paul, and He speaks to us in His Word, the Bible (1:11-12)! The source of the Gospel preached by Paul was God himself.

¹¹ But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.  ¹² For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.   

       The phrase, “not man’s gospel” in v. 11 literally reads, “not according to man…” The idea is basically as the NIV translates, “Not something man made up…”  That is some-thing that people tend to do. They create their own idea of God and religion, and they decide this is what they believe. Isaiah of such foolishness when he wrote…

…He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it.  ¹⁵ Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it.  ¹⁶ Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, "Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!"  ¹⁷ And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god! (Isaiah 44:14-17).

       Isaiah is using a little sarcasm there to make his point. Inventing your own “god” makes no sense, neither does making up your own ideas and calling it “God’s Word.” Remember the story of Benjamin Franklin who loved to get into arguments with his learned friends. He would occasionally find himself unable to answer their points and he would then ask, “Give me a day to think the matter over, I believe I am correct.” Meanwhile, he would go to his print shop, set up some type in the style of the Bible, and then express his position and argument in biblical language! He would then return to his friends and proclaim, “Whatever you may think you cannot get away from the fact that the Holy Scripture supports my position. As it says in the Sacred Writ…” Supposedly, the ruse worked… every time! We can’t make up the answers! Something isn’t true simply because we say it is… all truth is God’s truth. God’s Word is truth, and God has revealed his rescue plan, the Gospel, to us. The Apostle Paul speaks of “revelation” in our passage in Galatians, a “revealing” or an “unveiling” of something previously hidden or unknown. He expressed a similar idea in I Corinthians 2:12-13…

 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

That is what Paul is claiming in our context in Galatians: The Gospel Paul preached did not have a human origin (11). He didn’t receive it from any other person, no one taught it to him. People tend to devise their own system of religion. They think they have God all figured out, and they have a good idea about what their God expects of them. The problem is that they appeal to their own imagination or reason, rather than submitting to the Word of God. People think they are the final authority, autonomous, and any religion that talks of sin and salvation, heaven and hell, rewards and punishment, is a false religion of hope that stifles human achievement! “Eternal hell? My God could never do such a thing!” Really? The problem is that your god is something you carved in your own image, rather than recognizing and crying out to the God who is!

       Most people seem willing to admit that “God,” or, “a god,” exists; yet most people, according to the Bible, are on the broad road that leads to destruction, they base their theology on what seems right to them: they think they are as good as anyone else, so in the end they will make it into heaven. We don’t get to decide arbitrarily on the path to God. The Bible warns, “There is a way which seems right to a man, the end thereof are the ways of death…” (Prov 14:12). Paul says in v.12 tells us what the only legitimate source of Gospel truth must be: “I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it…” His message was not a church creed or doctrinal statement that he had learned.

       “…BUT…” (strong adversative) “I received it by a revelation of Jesus Christ…” [This seems to be an objective genitive] the revelation was Jesus himself (see v.16). In other words, Jesus was revealed to Paul, the “good news” was the person and work of Christ. His Gospel, the heart of the doctrine he preached, was not the party-line of a particular sect of Judaism, it was not the “seminary position” he had learned at the “school of Gamaliel,” it came from no mere human. It came directly through the words of Christ.  We have his Word, the Word of Life, it is his God-breathed revelation, given to teach, correct, instruct, guide, and grow us. On Paul’s second missionary Journey, in Acts 16, he was heading south on the Macedonian peninsula and started preaching in a town called Berea. They received his teaching, and then searched the Scriptures to so if it was so.

       Of course, we need pastors and teachers, God has appointed some to lead us and guide us, but we need to be like the Bereans, “searching the Scriptures daily to see whether the things they were taught were so…” It is not clever presentations or good storytelling that save, but only the Word of God.  I love the account of a Polish actress, Madame Modjeska, who was a guest at a party.  Some of the guests pressed her for a recitation from one of her plays, finally she agreed, saying she would do a part in her native tongue… Her dramatic soliloquy moved some of the guests to tears with its power and emotion. When she ended, they applauded! Someone asked what part she had recited, the actress said, “I just counted to one hundred in Polish!” For some people its not what you say but how you say it! This is at times the case with charismatic speakers, we get caught up in the eloquence, but there is no substance. Contrast Paul…

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom.  ² For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.  ³ And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling,  ⁴ and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,  ⁵ that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God… (I Cor 2:1-5).

Yes, the words of people can be moving, but it is the Word of God that changes hearts: Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. The God who is has spoken. We can take Him at His Word. It grips the soul and changes the heart, and ultimately the lives of those who believe. One of the compelling evidences that God is real and that God has spoken is the power of His Word to transform lives. To God be the Glory!

II. God’s Word is powerful; it can reach into any heart (1:13-17). Did Paul look like an impossible case? From a human perspective, he was!  The truth is, so were you and I. We see in his conversion the truth that humans are lost apart from Christ, without hope. But praise the Lord, nothing is impossible for God!

For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.  ¹⁴ And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.      

       First, notice Paul’s former life (13-14). Paul’s “former life” was well known: He was not an obscure fisherman from Galilee.  He was an up-and-coming rabbi, a native of Tarsus, he studied in Jerusalem under one of the most prominent teachers of his day, Gamaliel.  His former life was well known, especially among prominent circles of Judaism. Paul was zealous for the traditions of the fathers. He was not in any way discontented with the traditions he had been taught. He was certainly not a rebel looking for a change! Rather, he was a zealous advocate of Judaism (c.f. Phil 3:5,6).

       Note also that Paul in his former life was not simply indifferent toward Christianity, he was zealously opposed to it.  The verb tenses indicate characteristic, ongoing action, “…persecuting…” “…continually bringing destruction…” Paul was not neutral concerning Jesus, willing to consider and discuss the possibility that he might be the promised messiah. No, his mind was made up, and from Paul’s perspective, this heresy had to be purged!   But God spoke, and in the midst of Paul’s rejection of the Truth, God effectively pointed to Paul and said, “This one is mine, I have a mission for Him to carry out.” And Paul’s life was changed, completely. Consider what that means. What did it take for this zealous persecutor of the church to become a proclaimer of the Gospel? Divine intervention! Have you heard a story like that? It is a powerful testimony to the truth of the Gospel. In my own experience, I remember when my cousin, who was married at 16, was dealing drugs while in the Air Force, then we heard he was going to Bible College preparing to be a pastor! That got my attention. Later as I served on jury duty and heard the story of a woman whose life had been changed through faith in Christ, God got my attention, the life changing power of the word was evidence that demanded a verdict. Read carefully verses 15-16, who is the initiator in salvation?

       God does it (15a, cf. 16a). “But, when it pleased God…” This verse brings a strong contrast. Paul had been going in one direction, but God intervened and changed the course of Paul’s life. But, when it pleased God… Notice that God is the subject of the phrase, He is the initiator. It wasn’t Paul’s will to change, it was God’s will to deliver Him from the way of death. We cannot save ourselves. Christianity is not about turning over a new leaf, or about choosing to live  a morally, “Christian” life. It is a love story and a rescue story, and God is our Rescuer, the One who loved us. He alone gets the glory!

       God does it by grace (15b).  “…and he called me through His grace…” Paul was keenly aware that he deserved nothing from God, nothing except judgement. And yet God intervened, and called him through his grace… The word is frequently used by Paul, the root idea is God’s unmerited favor.  We come helpless, unable to choose good and unwilling to choose God. The human heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. There is nothing in us that we should deserve it. Yet God reached down, and broke through our stony heart, and gave us a heart of flesh, a new life, “Tis mine but to believe…” Someone described it as “The hand of a beggar reaching out to receive the gift of a King.”

       God does it through Christ (16a).  “…to reveal his Son in me…” (cf. Jn 14:6; Heb 1:1). Paul encountered the resurrected Jesus on the Damascus road (Acts 9:3-5)! Jesus bought our salvation in His blood, and we receive it by grace, through faith in Him.

       God does it for the sake of others (16b).  God saved Paul for a purpose: “…that I might preach him among the gentiles…”  We are saved to serve. God had a plan for Saul of Tarsus, and He has a plan for you.  For Paul, the conversion and the commission go together. God saved Paul, he reached down and took hold of his life, for a purpose.

       Can I ask, has God saved you?  Has he taken hold of your life and given you a new heart, the reality of a “new life in Christ”?  Then he saved you to serve.  He has gifted and called you to have a part in His mission, starting right where you are: your family, neighborhood, workplace. I know these are strange times. But your changed life is a testimony to your neighbors that God is real, and that He intervenes in human lives. That is a compelling evidence that God has spoken!

III. Believers are transformed by God for His Glory: The life-change power of the Word of God testifies to its source and so brings glory to God (1:18-24). 

 ¹⁸ Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.  ¹⁹ But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord's brother.  ²⁰ (Now concerning the things which I write to you, indeed, before God, I do not lie.)  ²¹ Afterward I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.  ²² And I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea which were in Christ.  ²³ But they were hearing only, "He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried to destroy."  ²⁴ And they glorified God in me.

       First Paul takes pains to establish that he did not spend a lot of time with the disciples in Jerusalem. For many years he was virtually unknown, by face, after His conversion, to the church in Judea. He wants the Galatians to know, as he said in 1:1, that His authority as an apostle came directly from Christ, as did his message.

       We see in vv. 22-23 The Confirmation – the story of his transformed life circulated in the churches.  The changed life of Paul was a powerful testimony to what he had experienced.  He had been a zealous persecutor of the church, now he had become a zealous proclaimer of the Gospel! How do you explain that? Consider the evidence!

       V. 24 shows the Consequence – The ESV gets the sense here: “And they glorified God because of me.” Only God could make such a change! All glory to God!

What is God saying to me in this passage? A compelling evidence that God has spoken is the power of His Word to change lives.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage? If you are an inquirer, investigating the claims of Christ, I would invite you to consider the evidence of the life of Paul, and the lives of the other apostles as well.  Radical transformation! If one of the Islamic leaders in the Mid-East, like the Iranian Ayatollah announced he had converted to Christianity what would we think? That would shock us! Among the Jews of the first century that is the kind of impact the conversion of Saul must have had.  A zealous rising star was suddenly preaching the faith he had once tried to destroy!  And Paul was no flash-in-the-pan. For over 30 years he preached Jesus as Messiah – despite persecution, imprisonment, and, according to tradition, eventual martyrdom at the hands of Nero.  How do you explain such a change, a man willing to die for the faith he once hated and persecuted? That is compelling evidence. Paul’s testimony gives the answer – he encountered the resurrected, living Christ, and trusted him. The Bible is not just about moral living or doing good. It is about Jesus, God the Son, who took upon himself a human nature, so that by His sacrifice we could be reconciled to God. Trust Him, follow Him, and He will give you life with meaning, the life for which you were created! AMEN.