Over the last couple of weeks, we have learned that, in the book of Galatians, the apostle Paul is defending the message of the gospel as well as his qualifications to preach the gospel he preached.
As one commentator states, Paul’s opponents “wanted to add the law of Moses to the gospel of Jesus Christ… this was so completely different from what Paul preached that they had to say something to discredit his message… thus they claimed that he was a second-rate apostle with a second-hand gospel.”2 Paul’s opponents literally needed to tear down the apostle Paul so that they could tear up the gospel he preached; his gospel of “Jesus plus nothing equals everything” stood in stark contrast to his opponents’ so-called gospel of “Jesus plus something equals everything”.
Sadly, opponents of the true gospel are still alive and well and running around the hallways of modern Christianity today. It has been said that the greatest threat to the gospel is not the outside world in all its horrific evils; the greatest threat to the gospel exists within the local church where people have been sold a false bill of goods for centuries.
Instead of relying on the message of the gospel alone, churches in the west have become adulterers who play around with prettier women who promise faster church growth, better paychecks, a more entertained audience, success in the political realm, acceptance in the culture, a spot at the table in the center of the town square. Many flocks have been fleeced with the message of self-gratification over self-sacrifice, and bigger platforms to spread gangrene like the local drug dealer pushing meth.
The state of the local church in the west is in disrepair according to every source I read and the reason for this is because the church has rejected the message of the gospel. This was Paul’s concern, it is my concern, and I hope it is our concern. The question is: How do we overcome these hurdles? How do we work our way back to being centered on the message of the gospel? How do we ensure that we do not fall into the trap that the Galatian church was falling into?
My answer to those questions, and I think its Paul’s answer too, is that we can “overcome (triumph, defeat, conquer, be victorious) by the blood of the Lamb who was slain and by the word of our testimony” (Rev. 12:11). This is exactly what Paul does in our text today; he goes back to the word of his testimony which is quite literally soaked in the blood of Christ crucified, risen, and returning. The first thing he says is that the gospel started with God first.
11For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. 12For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14And 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. 15But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
18Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19But 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!) 21Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24And they glorified God because of me.
#1: THE GOSPEL ORIGINATED WITH GOD (VV. 11 – 12)
All too often, when sharing our testimony, we start with a gospel of self. This kind of gospel (if it can be called that) typically begins with a story about how we were seeking something more, looking for a better church, hoping to rectify some kind of brokenness in our lives, searching for fulfillment, or wanting a better community experience. This is the gospel of self-gratification. Thankfully, God is gracious, and he does actually save us even though we are some of the most self-centered creatures on the face of the planet.
I think even Paul would agree that this was the way that God saved him but here in these verses, he begins with God not himself because he wants to show how the gospel originated with God and not man; the gospel is not an invention of any man, it is something that was revealed by God to man for the sake of saving sinners from eternal separation from our Heavenly Father.
This is why Paul says, in verses 11 – 12, that 11…I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. 12For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. If the message of the gospel originated with broken human beings, then it could not be trusted for any eternal benefits; it would only be a less than perfect message that produces less than perfect results.
If your gospel begins with you and your desires, your wants, your hopes, your needs, and your actions, then the best you will ever have is yourself apart from God. Simply stated, the gospel originated with God because it is the message of what God has done on behalf of sinners; it is the message of God’s saving-self-revelation to his enemies. This is why Paul’s next point centers around not his own selfish felt needs but around his own rebellious war against a holy, and righteous, and just God.
#2: SIN IS A DESTRUCTIVE WAR AGAINST GOD (VV. 13 – 14)
I think it is typically difficult for us to admit when we are wrong. We are more prone to dressing up our image in the mirror instead of speaking honestly about our failures. Even when we do speak somewhat honestly about our failures, we tend towards being the victims who only failed because of someone else’s failures or at least we did not mean to fail, it was only a mistake.
But the reality is that God does not reveal himself primarily as the rescuer of victims or the saver of unintentional mistake-makers. While it is true, we are victims of God’s greatest enemies – Satan, Sin, and Death – and that we do make unintentional mistakes, we are simultaneously perpetrators who are guilty of waging our sin-filled, destructive wars against a holy God.
This is basically what Paul reminds us of when he says in verses 13 – 14 that, 13…you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14And 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. The reality here is that Paul was a highly religious man who was hellbent on waging his personal holy war against Jesus before God revealed the gospel to him.
Paul was what I would call a man who was full of religiously acceptable sins. Before meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus, Paul would have fit right in with the modern church; he would have waged war against Jesus by preaching a gospel of works-based righteousness. He would not preach that personal holiness follows salvation; he would have preached that personal holiness leads to salvation.
In other words, before meeting Jesus, Paul would say that to be right with God, you and I should become holy so that our holy God could accept us as his children. Of course, this is what his opponents were trying to teach, and he knew their message well because he was raised on that very message until God graciously saved him, which leads us to Paul’s next point.
#3: GOD SAVES BY GRACIOUS ELECTION (VV. 15 – 16)
The doctrine of election by God’s grace is something that has nearly been lost in the western church because of its fascination with individual autonomy or the humanistic ability to choose. We have been duped by this doctrine of “free will” into believing that we are the ones who choose to believe in God which then causes him to save us; his decision to save us – according to this doctrine that was falsely adopted by the early Catholic church – is based on our decision to choose God as though he is our puppet who saves us at the snap of our fingers.
Can you hear the doctrine of salvation by our own works neatly threaded into this false gospel? It sounds so good, and it can even be supported by many out of context proof texts. This kind of doctrine is so unbiblical that even Martin Luther argued vehemently against it in his own day as he confronted Erasmus in his book Bondage of the Will, which I would whole heartedly commend to all of you, where he destroys the then novel idea of “free will”.3
When you look at our passage today, the Apostle Paul also blows the doors off this kind of false gospel (the “free will” gospel) when he says in verses 15 – 16 that, 15…he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles. Paul is literally saying that God chose him before Paul chose Jesus. The phrase “set apart” that Paul uses here is a Biblical phrase that means chosen or elected (much like electing or choosing your political candidate at the voting box or even better, choosing which child you will adopt from an orphanage).
In this case, Paul says that God chose him before he was born which simply means that he was chosen before the foundations of the earth were laid as he says elsewhere in Ephesians chapter two. So first, God chose Paul and then he called Paul to himself for salvation by his own [God’s] extension of grace not because of Paul’s decision to follow him. All of this was done so that Jesus would be revealed to Paul so that Paul would later testify to the person and work of Christ crucified, risen, and returning.
So, the order of Paul’s argument regarding his own salvation is this: I was chosen by God first, I was called by God according to his extension of grace, Jesus was revealed to me as God saved me, and then I was commissioned to be the messenger of the gospel to the lost. At the center of Paul’s message is the core message of God’s salvation of sinners by his gracious, and sovereign, choice. God graciously and sovereignly chooses whom he will save and then he commissions them as his adopted ambassadors so that there can be no question regarding the relationship between our works and his sovereign work of saving sinners.
You and I bring absolutely nothing to our moment of salvation except for our sinful rebellion against God. I cannot cling to my profession of faith as though my profession is the work that I did to be saved. I can only hold onto that profession of faith as something that was enabled by the sovereign God who chose to save me and then revealed his Son to me. You and I did not come to the realization of our need for Christ without God first choosing to save us and then giving us the brand-new heart, through the inner working of his own Spirit, that is required for placing our newfound gift of faith in the person and work of Christ crucified, risen, and returning.
This is the doctrine of salvation – not by our own works – but by the gracious election of the God who chose us before the foundations of the earth were laid. This is the historic gospel that the true church has affirmed throughout the centuries, and I believe, was affirmed for Paul by the main leaders of the early church (long before Catholicism became a thing), which leads us to the next point in our text.
#4: THE TRUE CHURCH CONFIRMS THE GOSPEL (VV. 16 – 20)
As I have already indicated, looking back through church history can be very illuminating as it pertains to the message of the gospel. It is the gospel that has always been under attack because the point of the gospel is Christ not humans and God’s main enemies – Satan, Sin, and Death – have always opposed Christ going all the way back to the Garden of Eden where they tried to make humanity the main point. This is why it does not surprise me to see that the gospel was not only under attack during the time of the Reformation, but it was also under attack during the early inception of the church since those attacks go all the way back to the Garden.
One of the major things that happened at some point in the history of the church – that we can see on full display during the Reformation – is a kind of reverse authority in the church where the church began to believe that it had the authority to dictate what the gospel is instead of the gospel dictating what the church teaches and does.
Again, this is the main fallacy that sent Martin Luther into opposition with the teachings of the Catholic church (and especially Erasmus among others); in his view, the gospel – of salvation by grace, through faith, in Christ, according to Scripture, for the glory of God alone (the five Solas!) – was being replaced by a false gospel of salvation or justification by works. The best church history volume I can recommend to you is called “The Story of Christianity” by Justo González; it is a very concise and faithful history of the church and its doctrines, and it does a great job of not glossing over the black eyes or dark seasons of the church while holding onto the main tenets of the gospel.4
Once again, the church does not dictate what the gospel is. The church teaches what the gospel dictates; namely that salvation comes only by grace, through faith, in Christ, according to Scripture, for the glory of God alone. I believe that it is this message that was confirmed for Paul by the leaders of the early church. This is why he says in verses 16 – 20that, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. 18Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days. 19But 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!)
Now we have to remember that Paul is arguing that the gospel he preaches was revealed to him by God and that it was not constructed or even taught to him by any human authority. So why would he meet with Peter and James? I personally think that after being away for three years studying the Bible under his newfound faith, that he wanted to be assured that he was on the right track with the gospel.
Who better to confirm his gospel back then and to also confirm his gospel now for those who are being led astray by the false doctrine of justification by works? Peter and James did what the modern church should do, they held true to the gospel and confirmed it for the apostle Paul which then led to the churches glorifying God because of Paul’s transformation in the gospel!
#5: TRANSFORMATION IS WHAT GLORIFIES GOD (VV. 21 – 24)
Think about this, Paul the once-upon-a-time persecutor and terrorizer of the early church, has a coming to Jesus moment – at least that is what all the Facebook reels would have said – and then he disappears for a few years to double check his experience against the Word of God, and then he shows back up and gets his doctrine confirmed by the top leaders of the church and then he jumps into his traveling preaching ministry. If I am in the shoes of early church members, I am going to test what I hear about Paul and what I hear from Paul by what I see in Paul – I namely want to see if his life matches what I have heard and am now hearing so that I can accept Paul and glorify God because of his transforming work in and through this man.
This is why Paul says in the closing verses of our text (vv. 21 – 24) that, 21Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22And I was still unknown in person to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23They only were hearing it said, “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24And they glorified God because of me.As Paul began to travel, he was largely unknown in person and there were only rumors about him. But as the churches began to hear and later see that “He who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy” they literally began to glorify God because of the transformation they were witnessing. Transformation brings God glory!
APPLICATION…
By way of application, I would have to ask, how could anyone call the apostle Paul a second-rate apostle with a secondhand gospel that was incomplete when his testimony focused on God as the self-revealing, self-sacrificing, Sovereign Savior of sin-filled enemies who are transformed by the rightly confirmed gospel of Christ crucified, risen, and returning?
How could anyone dispute Paul’s authority much less the authenticity of his gospel? The answer is: No one! No one could dispute Paul’s gospel because he was victorious over their opposition by the word of his testimony which was soaked in the blood of the Lamb! I think we can apply the message of this passage to our lives today in a few simple ways:
#1: Organize your testimony with God at the center.
Your testimony – the story of how God saved you – must begin and continue with a right understanding of who God is and what he has done to save you.
#2: Get a right understanding of your sinful rebellion against God.
You cannot testify to what God has done on your behalf if you do not properly understand just how helpless and hopeless, you really are because of the depth and depravity of your sinful war against God. You need a deep understanding of the depravity of your sin that separates you from God to fully appreciate and testify to the work that Jesus did on your behalf at the cross of Calvary.
#3: Center your testimony around God’s sovereign and gracious choice in salvation.
You have to remember that you bring nothing to your salvation except the filth of your sin and rebellion against God otherwise his grace in saving you is not grace at all as it becomes a perverted form of salvation by your own religious performance.
#4: Ensure that your testimony contains the church affirmed historic gospel.
If your testimony does not contain the message of salvation by grace, through faith, in Christ, according to Scripture, for the glory of God alone, then it is incomplete. You need to get the five Solas of the Reformation into the language of your testimony.
#5: Communicate the transforming work of the gospel.
The cross, the empty tomb, and the promised return of Christ must be the transformative element in your testimony. Without transformation, there is only dead religion. You and I should always be pointing to the transformative effects of the gospel in our lives so that God is the one who receives the glory.
CONCLUSION…
In conclusion, it is the word of our testimony saturated in the blood of Jesus that will help us to overcome the erosion we see in the modern church. Our testimony cannot be that we sought a seat at the table in our culture, or we came to Jesus because of all that we want him to do for us, or that we came to him because we wanted a different set of friends, or that we came to Jesus by our own choice.
Our testimony must be that God came and found us in the midst of our sinful rebellion against him and that he lavished his love upon us in the person and work of Christ crucified, risen, and returning and that regardless of the current circumstances of our lives, we know that he has saved us and that we look forward to eternity with him because of Christ’s finished work at the cross of Calvary.
What God has done in Christ Jesus is more than enough for us and it is all we can talk about. This is how we overcome Satan, Sin, and Death, through the word of our testimony saturated in the shed blood and broken body of Jesus who left the tomb empty in victory over our enemies and who is returning soon to take us to be with him forever. This is how we overcome through the word of our testimony saturated in the blood of our crucified, risen, and returning Savior. – Amen!
1 Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this paper are to the English Standard Version Bible, The New Classic Reference Edition (ESV) (Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, 2001).
2 Philip, Graham, Ryken, Galatians, Reformed Expository Commentary, (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: P&R Publishing, 2005), 27.
3 Martin, Luther, Bondage of the Will, Translated by J. I. Packer and O. R. Johnston (Ada, Michigan: Baker Books, 2012).
4 Justo, L., González, The Story of Christianity, Volumes I & II (New York: Harper Collins, 2010).