This week we celebrated the life of our own: Babi: Maria Polomska. Through the tributes, one theme ran throughout: The life of a woman lived for the glory of God. Her love, and hope were expressed in her confidence and readiness to go home to the Lord. Even through she couldn’t always directly express her faith in the language to those she was with, she expressed confidence in Christ even through difficulties.
The Apostle Paul was accused by the Judiziers of telling the churches of Galatia what they wanted to hear. He was accused of watering down the gospel and a message and that he was proclaiming an unauthorized, second-hand gospel. After defining the true nature of the Gospel in the beginning of Galatians Paul must now defend the fact that his message is not an unauthorized, second-hand gospel, but one directly from Christ and uninfluenced by others.
What do we tell others about ourselves and what God expects? Do we sugar coat our sins and tell people what they want to hear, with an easy-believism message? Or, are we strait with people that we are sinners, saved by Grace? We live in an era that craves authenticity. One of the reasons why people often reject the truth of Christianity, is that Christians often don’t live out what they profess. If we are honest with people about our struggles but point to the ever faithful God, then we are less likely to be a stumbling block to other people coming to faith.
In Galatians 1:13-24, the apostle Paul gives an account of himself, providing insight into how God calls an individual and how we are to respond. It clarifies how we are to view our pre-converted lives, how God changes us and the testimony in understanding and vocalizing this new reality.
From the three periods of his spiritual life- 1) Pre-Conversion (Galatians 1:13–14) , 2) Conversion (Galatians 1:15–16a), and 3) Post-Conversion (Galatians 1:15–16b-24), Paul shows how certain events before he was saved, when he was saved, and after he was saved all prove his message was received from God and how we can testify to God’s radically changing grace.
The Gospel Changes people as seen from:
1) Pre-conversion Proof (Galatians 1:13–14)
Galatians 1:13-14 [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. (ESV)
Here Paul describes his former standing and activities while be was in Judaism, offering them as a kind of negative proof that his message of grace had no foundation in the beliefs, circumstances, or events of his former life.
• This is very important for us in the proclamation of our testimony. We must make it clear in our testimony of conversion that it was not the wisdom we had, our circumstances or what we did or thought in any way that we came to faith. When we talk about the grace of God, how He showed us the futility of our life without Christ and what He has done and enabled in our lives since that point, our testimony then is less about us, and all about Him. This shows His greatness and glorifies Him.
Paul had been a Jew of the first order. This is how he described his pedigree: Philippians 3:5-6 [5]circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; [6]as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. (ESV)
Everything in the apostle’s former manner of life in Judaism had been diametrically opposed to the message of sovereign and saving grace of Jesus Christ he now proclaimed and defended.
• This is the basis for most people’s belief system. In the common ways of presenting the gospel and in most people’s understanding of faith, they think that they just came to understanding and belief. However, according to scripture, in our natural condition, we are dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). Aapart from the sovereign act of God in drawing people unto himself, and enabling repentance and faith, people will not believe (Jn. 6:44).
The first aspect of Paul’s former … life that proved he had no previous grounding for the gospel was that he persecuted the church (Ekklesia )of God violently and tried to destroy it. His preconversion knowledge of the gospel, veiled and distorted as it was, made him realize that this radical way of salvation allowed no place for works righteousness and therefore completely undercut legalistic Judaism. Conversely, legalistic Judaism allowed no place for a gospel of grace and therefore sought to destroy those who believed and taught it. The original language is vivid in describing Paul’s hostility. The phrase that he persecuted is in the imperfect tense and emphasizes a persistent and continual intent to harm. The word destroy was used of soldiers ravaging a city. It is also used here in the imperfect, thereby emphasizing the persistence of Paul’s destructive effort. He was determined to utterly extinguish the church. Apparently he used the title the church of God to stress that this was not just a group belonging to Jesus, so that whoever opposed it, opposed only Jesus. Rather, whoever opposes the church opposes God. (Utley, R. J. (1997). Paul’s First Letters: Galatians and I & II Thessalonians (Vol. Volume 11, p. 12). Marshall, TX: Bible Lessons International.)
Please turn to Acts 8
Saul the Pharisee had had such passion for traditional Judaism that he could tolerate no contradiction or compromise of it by fellow Jews. Immediately after the martyrdom of Stephen:
Acts 8:3 [3]But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison. (ESV)
Now over to Acts 9
Perhaps a year later:
Acts 9:1-2 [9:1]But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest [2]and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (ESV) (22:4–5; 26:10–11).
• This is why strife, anger, bitterness, resentment and disunity so displeases God. Christ said so clearly that as you treat one another you treat Him (Mt. 7:12; .
The second aspect of Paul’s former life that he discusses in verse 14, that proved he had no previous grounding in the gospel was his unequaled zeal for traditional Judaism. He was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. Advancing is from prokopto, which literally means to chop ahead, as in blazing a trail through a forest. Saul kept on blazing his trail in Judaism, which meant cutting down anything in his path such as Jewish Christians, who in his mind were arch traitors to their ancestral traditions of his fathers. He was so extremely zealous that he said: Acts 26:11 [11]And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities. (ESV) In his extreme zeal, he exceeded many of his contemporaries. Few Jews matched his passion for his religion and his intolerance for the truth about Jesus Christ.
Traditions of his fathers are Pharisaic traditions (paradoseoi) and more particularly those enshrined in the oral law transmitted and expounded in Pharisaic schools, which comprised the 613 prescriptions (248 positive commands and 365 prohibitions) of rabbinic exegesis (Fung, R. Y. K. (1988). The Epistle to the Galatians (p. 57). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.).
• The problem with having the scripture being only your starting point in the faith, is that the longer you go in the faith, the more human tradition becomes the rule of your life. It degrades to the absurd point where you are required to do everything while also abstaining from everything. When the scriptures are the beginning and end of faith, you discover the liberating truth of the Gospel that frees us from the bondage of sin yet helpfully guiding us in our walk of faith.
Illustration: Tradition vs. the Scriptures
In Japan, conformity to the group is essential. In North America individual effort and leadership are essential. Individuals in both systems would swear to the propriety of their ways and the inadequacy of any other. Yet both are cultural, adapted by the citizens to what works for them. Each has assets and liabilities. Neither is perfect.
The Pharisees fought Jesus tenaciously over the sacredness of customs that had only tradition behind them. They swore allegiance to those traditions, persecuting anyone who deviated from them. However, Christ refused to be intimidated. Knowing the difference between truth and culture, he always embraced the former and, at will, disregarded the latter. His disciples followed his example then, and should follow him now. We should accept customs where possible, but not place our faith in them. (Hurley, V. (2000). Speaker’s sourcebook of new illustrations (electronic ed., p. 235). Dallas: Word Publishers.)
The Gospel Changes people as seen from:
1) PRECONVERSION PROOF (Galatians 1:13–14) and now:
2) CONVERSION PROOF (Galatians 1:15–16a)
Galatians 1:15–16a But when He who had set me apart, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through 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 (ESV)
Paul did not initiate the choice to be saved, much less the choice to be an apostle. He was “called as an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God” (1 Cor. 1:1). The phrase when He who had set me apart refers to the elective purpose of God before Paul was even able to consider a choice.
• People often spend so much time trying to figure out what to do with our lives. The one concept that will put every action into perspective is holiness. It is the concept of being set apart from sin and unto righteousness. When we understand that we are to be holy in thought, word and deed, to be holy as Christ is holy (1Pt. 1:16) then whatever job, school, or any other activity we do, we will honor God. People often spend too much time worrying about the what, of what they will do, forsaking the more important question of how, God expects them to do it. “Whatever you eat, drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31)
The Lord set apart Paul to salvation and apostleship not because Paul developed great leadership ability and writing skill or was a determined and hard worker. He had been set apart and consecrated by God even from his mother’s womb, long before he could have demonstrated the least potential for anything.
This purpose became historical fact on the Damascus Road and in the subsequent days, when, Paul says, God called me through His grace. By means of unmerited love and kindness God actually and efficaciously brought the already elect Saul to Himself in salvation.
God as verse 16 indicates, was pleased to reveal His Son to Saul in a direct and absolutely unique way, “in order that (Paul) I might preach him among the Gentiles”. The doctrine of election comes down to this: we do not just happen to exist; we are created for a purpose. The little phrase “in order/so that” carries great weight. Paul was saved “in order/so that” he could serve God.( Barton, B. B. (1994). Galatians (p. 30). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House.)
Please turn to 1 Corinthians 2
The call to be saved was accompanied by the call to serve, to preach Him among the Gentiles. Although the experience of Paul was utterly unique, God does not call any person to salvation whom He does not also call to service. The subject of his testimony and preaching was Him, Jesus Christ. To the Corinthians Paul wrote concerning “the testimony of God,” that it called for him
1 Corinthians 2:1-5 [2:1]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. (ESV)
• The Judaizers needed to see that the Gentiles did not need to hear the law of Moses or the traditions of the Jewish elders-only the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• Think also then for our testimonies. As we are also commanded to proclaim the testimony of God we need to admit our own weakness and reverence for God in our words, lest people think it was because we reached a particular stature of wisdom or good works that we came to faith.
It must also be accompanied with as Paul said, the demonstration of the Sprit and of Power. We should describe that the Holy Spirit showed us our sin and need for repentance and how He has been gracious in working through us.
• A testimony is not a story of a wild and sinful lifestyle. We should recognize yes what we have been delivered from, but also how the Lord has and presently is working in us. If we can’t recognize this, then perhaps we are allowing sin or fear from as Paul says, the demonstration of the Spirit and of power.
• Don’t think because you haven’t been delivered from a biker gang or organized crime, that you don’t have a testimony of “the Spirit and of power”. We all need to hear, and I pray that many of you would be willing to publically share, what God is doing in and through you for His glory. 1 Cor. 1: 27-29 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.(ESV)
Illustration: Shortly before his death, John Newton composed his own epitaph; it reads like something the Apostle Paul might have written. He wanted it inscribed on plain marble with no other monument or inscription, lest anything distract from the grace of God that made him what he was. It reads: John Newton, Clerk, Once an Infidel and Libertine, A Servant of Slaves in Africa, was, By the rich Mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Preserved, Restored, Pardoned, and Appointed to Preach the Faith He had long laboured to destroy. John Newton’s life was a powerful argument for the truth and power of the gospel!
The single best argument for or against Christianity has always been the same: Christians. A superficial, hypocritical life is a strong case against the claim that the gospel saves. But a transformed life, lived to the glory of God, is powerful proof of the truth of the gospel. We are our best argument. May we, therefore, so experience the grace of God in the gospel that others might see our transformed lives and glorify God because of us! (Wilson, T. (2013). Galatians: Gospel-Rooted Living. (R. K. Hughes, Ed.) (p. 49). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.)
We have seen 1) PRECONVERSION PROOF (Galatians 1:13–14) 2) CONVERSION PROOF (Galatians 1:15–16a) and finally:
3) POSTCONVERSION PROOF (Galatians 1:16b-24)
Galatians 1:16b-24 [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. [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. (ESV)
Beginning with the Damascus Road encounter, Christ took Paul under His own immediate tutoring. It was essential for the Lord to establish Paul’s independence as an apostle. He was not taught by the other apostles but was fully equal to them. After spending several days “with the disciples who were at Damascus” and preaching briefly in the synagogues there (Acts 9:19–20), Paul did not immediately consult with anyone. He sought from Ananias or other Christians at Damascus no advice or understanding, no clarification of the revelation he had received. It is not that he would not have been helped by going to learn from other believers, but his being given the unique place of reaching Gentiles seemed to demand that he not be seen as being merely convinced by some Jewish converts to this doctrine. Gentiles might have been more reluctant to accept his message if they perceived of it as of Jewish origination.
In verse 17, it says that Paul went away to Nabatean Arabia, a region that stretched east from Damascus down to the Sinai peninsula. Although he does not identify the exact location, it seems likely that he stayed near Damascus, The place and purpose of his sojourn in Arabia are unknown, but that was surely the place of his preparation for ministry.
After his stay in Arabia, the apostle returned again to Damascus and continued preaching there for a period of time. He almost immediately encountered persecution from the Jewish leaders, a group that doubtlessly included some of the men with whom he himself had once planned to conspire against the Christians (Acts 9:2).
The fact that Paul mentions in 2 Cor. 11:32 that “in Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king [of Nabatean Arabia] was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize [Paul]”. This also suggests that the apostle also preached in Arabia and had aroused the displeasure of its king. In any case, the Gentile civil authorities of Damascus supported the efforts of the Jewish leaders to arrest and execute Paul (cf. Acts 9:23–24). Paul’s opponents in Galatia had sought to undermine his authority and his message by claiming that he dealt in a secondhand gospel, one originally derived from the apostles at Jerusalem but then changed and compromised by Paul without their knowledge or approval.
Now, beginning in v. 18, Paul developed a second line of defense, a tightly woven alibi designed to show that his contacts with the Jerusalem church were such that he could not possibly have had the kind of subordinate leadership to its leaders that his opponents alleged (George, T. (2001, c1994). Vol. 30: Galatians (electronic ed.). Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (126). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
• Think of the implications here as he went to preach in Damascus. He is returning to the very region he went to persecute. This is the most humbling and courageous.
• Don’t be afraid to minister among those who you previously spent time with before conversion. One of the dangers of modern Christianity is the assumption that after conversion we are only to associate with Christians. We need to be in the world, but not of it. (Jn. 17). Being with non-Christian friends gives us the opportunity to show what supernatural love, joy and peace is. They should see the difference between our unconverted and post converted lives. Perhaps our reluctance to spend time with those who knew us before conversion is that there is not the change that there should be.
In verse 18, the two periods of preaching in Damascus and the in-between sojourn in Arabia alone with Lord Jesus-learning, meditating, and studying the Old Testament totaled three years. After that, Paul went up to Jerusalem (not to be confused with a later famine relief trip there from Antioch, mentioned in Acts 11:30, or the trip to the council of Acts 15) to visit/become acquainted with Cephas, that is, the apostle Peter. Paul makes a point of noting that he went solely for the purpose to visit/becoming acquainted with Cephas, who was the personal companion of the Lord Jesus and the most powerful spokesman in the early years of the Jerusalem church, from Pentecost on (Acts 2:14–40; 3:11–26; 4:8–20; 5:3–32; 8:20–25). He only remained/stayed with him fifteen days, obviously far too short a time to have been fully transformed from all his Jewish theology and tradition and fully instructed in the gospel. If Paul’s conversion occurred in A.D. 32, as there is reason to believe, the visit to Jerusalem referred to here would have been near A.D. 35. This is the visit mentioned by Luke in Acts 9:26–29. (Boice, J. M. (1976). Galatians. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Romans through Galatians (Vol. 10, p. 435). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)
• What we can see here is the fact that God instructs those mature in the faith to disciple those new in the faith. It is the responsibility of each of us flowing from the Great Commission of Mt. 28. If you are not presently disciplining a newer believer, don’t stop looking until you find one or ask God to use you to make one.
In verse 19, it states that Paul did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. Paul’s visit to Jerusalem was not to learn more about the gospel message but to meet and to visit/get acquainted with (the verb means “to visit with the purpose of getting to know someone”) these two men who had been so close to Jesus and perhaps to learn from them some of their intimate experiences with the incarnate Lord, whom he had come to love and serve, and with whom he had spent those three years getting acquainted. Without the help of Barnabas, Paul would not have been able visit even Peter and James. He met none of the other apostles at all, who may have been too afraid or may have been away from Jerusalem at the time. (12:17). To sum up, Paul’s first visit to Jerusalem was only after three years, it lasted only two weeks, and he saw only two apostles. It was, therefore, ludicrous to suggest that he obtained his gospel from the Jerusalem apostles.( Stott, J. R. W. (1986). The message of Galatians: Only one way (p. 35). Leicester, England; Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)
In verse 20, to give his readers the greatest possible confidence in what he was writing, Paul made a common Jewish vow: (In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)/I assure you before God that I am not lying. He was filled with a genuine and overpowering consciousness of living “in the very presence of God,” the God whom he loved and, what is even more meaningful, who loved him. A good rule for each person to follow is, therefore, this one: “When you think, when you speak, when you read, when you write, When you sing, when you walk, when you seek for delight,—To be kept from all wrong both at home and abroad, Live always as under the eye of your God.” (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953–2001). Exposition of Galatians (Vol. 8, p. 63). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.)
In verse 21, after Paul left Jerusalem he went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia, the latter of which included his home town of Tarsus (see Acts 9:11, 30). This move was precipitated by another group of hostile Jews who were “attempting to put him to death” (Acts 9:29). He was escorted out of Jerusalem to the port city of Caesarea, where he likely took a ship to his home town of Tarsus. He preached there until Barnabas called for him to come to Antioch in Syria.
• One of the hardest places to proclaim our testimony is where we are most known. I could imagine that in Tarsus, Paul’s hometown he was ridiculed by his pre-converted life.
• How do we respond when what we were is thrown in our face? Like Paul, the message of the Gospel comes before our actions, but our changed life should now be evident. An evident changed life is an effective testimony to the reality of the Gospel message.
In verse 22, at this time Paul was still unknown in person/by sight to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. Churches is a plural designation indicating local assemblies that are part of the one church. Paul’s two visits to Jerusalem did not include visiting the churches of Judea, which region was usually thought of separately from its major city. Jerusalem (see Acts 1:8).
• It is very important to inform our concept of the church in the plural form. We should consider that we are a part of a wider body of all local assemblies that stand firm on gospel truth. Other churches are not our competition, we fight evil and sin not other ministry.
In verse 23, all that those churches knew about this independent apostle was what they only were hearing it said, "He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy."
• For obvious reasons, it had been extremely difficult for believers to accept the genuineness of Paul’s conversion (see Acts 9:13–14, 21, 26). But when the Lord gave such great blessing to Paul’s ministry, resulting in his own persecution (vv. 23–24, 29), his fellow Christians could no longer doubt he was a specially chosen and gifted man of God, and they were glorifying God because of him.
• When we praise God for his guidance, the assurance of faith, the encouragement from the Spirit and other believers, and the multitude of other blessings, it glorifies God.
Illustration: In our own day the dramatic turnaround in the life of such a person as Charles Colson. From the position of orchestrating President Nixon’s Watergate caper, to then starting a ministry to prisoners, Colson’s transformation can only be explained by a divine intervention from above. While many were at first wary of Colson’s “born-again” experience, no objective observer, not even his detractors, can gainsay the sincerity of his commitment to Christ after so many years of consistent Christian living and his positive witness for the gospel in word and deed.
Please turn to Jude 1
So it was with Paul. What Paul, the former persecutor, now proclaimed was “the faith,” not merely his faith, not yet the church’s faith, but “the” faith.(George, T. (2001, c1994). Vol. 30: Galatians (electronic ed.). Logos Library System; The New American Commentary (132). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
• This is a key distinction in proclaiming the gospel in our testimony. We must make it very clear that this is not just our personal subjective experience, or how we understand ourselves because we have joined a particular church, but the objective reality of faith based on facts.
Jude identified himself, his audience and this task for us as well:
Jude 1:1-4 1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: 2 May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. 3 Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. 4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. (ESV)
In the conclusion to Paul’s testimony here he make note that he and Barnabas only made two visits to Jerusalem, as it says in verse 24, it glorified God. The fact that the people were praising God for the very same gospel they knew shows it was identical to that taught by the Jerusalem apostles and was truly from the Lord.
• When you hear of reports of gospel preaching elsewhere, and people coming to genuine faith in Jesus Christ, do not be jealous.
• Glorify God that he works in different areas and pray that we may see His hand working here. What is the way that God has commanded for this to occur? Have a clear testimony of Gospel grace and proclaim to everyone who will hear about the Gospel.
(Format note: Outline and some base commentary from MacArthur, J. (1996, c1987). Galatians. Includes indexes. (25). Chicago: Moody Press.)
