Dwell in the Word: Galatians 1:11-24

Contemplate these questions as you dwell in Galatians 1:11-24:

1. How does Paul's personal testimony in Galatians emphasize the divine nature of the Gospel message rather than a teaching received from others?

2. Paul's transformation from persecutor to preacher highlights God's sovereignty in salvation. How does this narrative emphasize the role of divine intervention in changing human hearts?

3. In this passage, Paul's revelation of the Gospel illustrates a profound truth about God's grace. How does this understanding of God's initiation in revealing Himself challenge the common narrative of human efforts in seeking faith?

Transcript:

So, in this passage today, we see the story of Paul, and we get a good understanding of how his conversion went down. Well, not really an understanding of how his conversion went down so much and what happened afterwards. Now, we know some of this from our time in the Book of Acts, but we see here that Paul is telling this story for a very particular reason. He wants them to know the gospel that he's preaching is not from people. He doesn't want them to think that he came up with this or that somebody else told him. He wants them to know this gospel that he is proclaiming is from God himself. Now, remember last time, when we started in Galatians, that Paul was concerned about the true teaching of the gospel. There were people, there were these Judaizers in Galatia who were teaching to mix works with faith instead of salvation being through faith alone in Christ alone. So, Paul is concerned about this point where he says, Hey, if even I come to you, tell you something different, may I be accursed. Anybody who preaches a different Gospel, be accursed. And so, Paul is now letting you know that this just isn't his idea. 

And he says this in verse 12, when he says, For I did not receive man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. Now it's-I'm going to prove this, and first he goes back to his past, his life in Judaism, the way he persecuted the Church. Remember, when we were in the Book of Acts together, he was breathing murder against the early church. We're reminded of his conversion, but he would have been zealous about the things of Judaism. Now here he is proclaiming his gospel, but nobody taught the gospel to him. He wasn't around anybody who taught him this. It was revealed to him by Jesus. He tells his story that, Hey, this was God's plan for me before I was born, that he would call me by his grace, that he was pleased to reveal his Son to me. Now we see something important here in how salvation works, right? This wasn't Paul seeking out God. In fact, he was breathing murder on the early church. He was seeking to destroy the church. He instead, instead of desiring to find out the gospel, he was persecuting it but God took hold of him. 

God came to him. It wasn't by the work of Paul that he was saved, it was by the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of Paul because of what Christ had done for Paul. This was ordained by God for his glory. This was because God pleased to reveal Jesus to Paul. And then we see that he decides to start proclaiming this Gospel, and he doesn't consult with anybody. He just goes and does what God has called him to do. And we see that he didn't go to Jerusalem to get his training on, right? He didn't talk to any of the Apostles. Instead, he went away. He went to Damascus. And there was until three years later that he met up with Peter. And then it was just 15 days. There wasn't some conspiring that was going on. Instead, God revealed the Gospel to him just as he revealed His Son to him. He gave him faith. He gave him this knowledge of this Gospel. In fact, we see something awesome here. You just got to love this passage. It's great. Verse 23 and 24, people didn't even know who Paul was. They just heard that he was proclaiming the Gospel. 

What does Paul say? He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. Imagine that. I mean, have you ever heard a story of somebody who's come to faith, who has previously resisted the faith? What joy there is in truth. And that is what we see. They glorify God because they didn't doubt it. They were just glad Paul was proclaiming the gospel. They were glad that Paul had been given the gift of faith. They were glad that he was out proclaiming the gospel. They glorified God because of what had happened in the life of Paul. And so, what can we take away from this passage? There's a good reminder for us here of two things. First, that God is the one who does the work in salvation. He is the one who reveals Himself to us. And so, this causes us to be who we are because it isn't because of our doing that we have faith. God has revealed Himself to us, just as he revealed Himself to Paul. Now it looks different. We're not knocked down and made blind. 

But we have this gift of faith that has been given to us. And we were just as stubborn hearted as Paul, but God broke that down through the work of the Holy Spirit through the power of the word in our lives. That's important to remember. And so, because that is true, we want to be the type of people who are proclaiming the gospel of Jesus, as Paul was. We want to be glorifying God because of his work, because anytime anyone comes to faith, is because God who has done the work. And as we hear stories, as we meet other people who are believers in the Lord Jesus, may we glorify God because of the work he has done in their lives.