Letters from Paul

A taste of the study room coming with Paul — pull open whatever you'd like to sit with.

The reading — Galatians 1:11-24

¹¹But I make known to you, brothers, concerning the Good News which was preached by me, that it is not according to man. ¹²For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ. ¹³For you have heard of my way of living in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the assembly of God, and ravaged it. ¹⁴I advanced in the Jews’ religion beyond many of my own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. ¹⁵But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me through his grace, ¹⁶to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I didn’t immediately confer with flesh and blood, ¹⁷nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia. Then I returned to Damascus. ¹⁸Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Peter, and stayed with him fifteen days. ¹⁹But of the other apostles I saw no one, except James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰Now about the things which I write to you, behold, before God, I’m not lying. ²¹Then I came to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²²I was still unknown by face to the assemblies of Judea which were in Christ, ²³but they only heard: “He who once persecuted us now preaches the faith that he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴And they glorified God in me.

World English Bible

The words behind the words

When I say the gospel I preach is "not according to man" and that I received it "through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (Galatians 1:11-12), the word for revelation carries the sense of a veil torn away, a thing uncovered that no eye could have found by searching. And when I write that God "was pleased to reveal his Son in me" (Galatians 1:15-16), hear that little phrase — in me, not merely to me. Christ was not shown to me as one views a painting on a wall; he was unveiled within, laid hold of my very self.

Where else you say this

I take up this same thread more than once. I told the Corinthians plainly that I delivered to them what I also received, tracing it back to the Lord himself (1 Corinthians 15:3). I spoke of that Damascus moment as light shining in darkness, God shining in our hearts to give the knowledge of his glory in the face of Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6). And I confessed to Timothy what I once was — a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent man — that the mercy shown me might display Christ's perfect patience (1 Timothy 1:13-16).

The situation

Men had come into Galatia after me, troubling those young churches, teaching that faith in Christ was not enough — that the Gentiles must also take up circumcision and the law to be truly counted in. To make this stick, they had to unseat my authority, whispering that I was a second-hand apostle, that I learned my message from men in Jerusalem and then softened it to please the crowds. So I set the record straight: I did not confer with flesh and blood, I did not run up to Jerusalem to the apostles before me (Galatians 1:16-17). The gospel I preach came from the same Lord who called them.

The hard question

A careful reader will press me here: if you received your gospel by revelation and not from men, why did you later go up to Jerusalem at all, and lay your gospel before those of repute (Galatians 2:1-2)? Does that not undo your boast of independence? No — read what I actually wrote. I did not go to be taught or corrected, as though my gospel wanted their approval to be true; I went that we might see we ran together, one Lord and one message among us all. Independence in its source is not isolation in its fellowship. The truth came to me from Christ directly; that same truth bound me to the brothers, and them to me.

This is a small window into what a study room with Paul will hold — word by word, letter by letter, and the maps and journeys behind them. Get notified when it opens →

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