THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST

GALATIANS 1:11-17

FEBRUARY 15, 1998

 

This year's Winter Olympic Games has produced its normal share of interesting stories:  a Kenyan cross-country skier, the perennial Jamaican bobsled team, remarkable come-backs from career shattering injuries, a Bosnian luger with scars from bullet holes in his country's civil conflict, gold-medal sized crashes in downhill skiing.  Beneath all of these and many other stories lurks the question of why someone decides to pursue Olympic fame.  Each athlete has to have some kind of determination and drive to achieve the high level of sporting accomplishment.  The Olympic Games did not mysteriously lay a hand upon these athletes at birth and drag them kicking and screaming into the Nagano games.  Instead, at some point in their lives, these athletes thought-through on the glory of the Olympics and committed themselves to all of the grueling work required to put them into the spotlight.

 

This scenario in no way resembles the testimony of the Apostle Paul.  As we read his testimony we do not find a man considering the claims of Christianity, then in a decisive moment, he switches the gears of life and pursues the Christian faith.  After he came to faith in Christ, he certainly exercised the kind of discipline and determination required of Olympians.  But not before he came to faith in Christ.  Instead, Paul's testimony is one of God's grace from start to finish, so that all of the glory in salvation belongs to the Lord God.

 

Paul was not engaged in trifling issues as he continued his defense of his apostleship, which was only for the purpose of defending the gospel of grace in Christ.  He becomes an autobiographical writer in this text through most of the second chapter of Galatians.  Paul tended to shy away from such personal comments on his life.  But this situation called for explanations, for the truth of the gospel was eroding before the eyes of the Galatian church.

 

Out of the framework of his own testimony, Paul explains the wonders of the revelation of Jesus Christ in the gospel.  He shows that salvation must come by means of God's grace, rather than human ingenuity.  He shows us that the living God intrudes in the midst of our darkness to bring us into His saving light.

 

Do you know the reality of the saving work of which Paul speaks?  Let's probe this testimony of the revelation of Jesus Christ, that we might understand more of the wonders of God's grace shown to us in Christ.

 

I.  A Sure Gospel

 

The question of which gospel is the true gospel trapped the Galatians.  They had first heard the gospel and received it from the ministry of Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey.  There certainly seemed to be the evidence of true faith in Christ.  But not too long down the road, Paul received reports that a group of false apostles, which we call "Judaizers," had been trying to add to the solitary work of Christ and faith in Him alone for salvation.  They told this group of Gentile believers that Jesus had begun the work but they had to finish it through their adherence to the law, particularly to circumcision.  Now confusion reigned.  Paul was not going to turn these young converts over to the Judaizers and their heresy.  So in the face of attacks upon his apostolic authority and ultimately, attacks upon the veracity of the gospel which Paul preached, he opens his heart to explain why the gospel he preaches is indeed the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

1.  Not second-hand

 

They first needed to understand that Paul was not dealing in second-hand knowledge when proclaiming the gospel.  "For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.  For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it."  Paul is certainly not denigrating people being taught the gospel.  For that was exactly what he had done with the Galatians.  But the issue he had to clarify was that the authority of his message came directly from the Lord and not from man.

 

The idea of received means the 'communication of some authorized teaching from another'.  It implied a message that was handed down by someone else.  Paul uses taught in much the same way to describe a message that had come from someone else's primary knowledge and was passed along to him.  The Judaizers had evidently claimed that Paul lacked authenticity with his gospel.  He was not part of the original twelve disciples, so he had to have gotten his information second-hand.  Consequently, the Judaizers taught, Paul had missed some important elements; namely, adherence to the ceremonial law as necessary for salvation.

 

We must remember that the church was in her infancy during this stage.  Any kind of huckster could come along and claim to have knowledge of the gospel.  There were no books or leaflets to pass around or historical records to check or conferences to attend in order to determine whether someone was authentic.  So the Judaizers insisted that their claims were just as valid as Paul's when it came to the gospel.  Only someone with apostolic authority could correct the error being thrust upon the Galatians.  So we have Paul insisting that his gospel was not second-hand.

 

2.  Received by revelation

 

Instead, it was received by divine revelation of Jesus Christ.  "For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ."  By the use of the term revelation, Paul was insisting that his gospel came from the primary source, the Lord Jesus Christ.  The nature of revelation is that it is a process or an event unveiling that which had before been hidden.  It is an opening up of that which was previously secret.

 

In Paul's case, he understood some things about Jesus Christ and Christianity, since he was involved in persecuting the church so vehemently.  But he did not understand the Person and work of Christ, nor the meaning of the gospel, nor the grace of God revealed in the gospel.  All of this was foreign to him.  Even more so, it was abominable to him!  He had no desire to understand the gospel.  But by God's gracious act in his life, Paul received the gospel through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

 

I believe we must see this revelation in a two-fold fashion.  First, it is a revelation that came from Christ.  We know this from the record given in Acts nine which describes Paul's conversion.  Without any premonition or warning, a blinding light struck Saul of Tarsus and a voice spoke to him from out of heaven.  "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting," our Lord told Paul.  In that moment and the hours and days to follow, Jesus Christ revealed Himself and His saving work to Paul.  Ananias did not give Paul this saving revelation, but it came from Christ Himself.  Just as the apostles who followed Jesus for three years received revelation directly from Christ, so did the apostle Paul.

 

The importance of this is found in the matter of authority.  Would you believe someone who had received a message directly from a person less than one who had received it second-handed?  There is no question that the dynamic of the message is affected by the degree of revelation.  This is why we must rely upon the Word of God, God's revelation to us, for understanding salvation, Christian growth, the ministry of the church, or anything which God demands of us.  The period of revelation at the beginning of the church through the apostles was essential to the life and ministry of every Christian.  Revelation of this nature, i.e. as Scripture, does not continue to occur, for God has given us the Bible which is the revelation of God to men.

 

However, since the Bible is a book of God's revelation to men, it can be understood only on God's terms.  Men can devote their lives to the study of the Bible, so that they can explain multitudes of its truths, yet never know the Lord savingly.  The Bible is not an impersonal book that is to be looked upon like any other great book.  It is the revelation of God and as such, it can only be understood for its great redemptive declaration when God is pleased to reveal its truth to our sin-darkened minds.  Spiritual truth can only be understood through spiritual means (I Cor. 2:6-16).  This means that revelation has another side to it:  secondly, it is a revelation of which the content is the Lord Jesus Christ.  When Paul received the gospel, "through a revelation of Jesus Christ," he was implying that the Lord was the very object of his revelation.  He did not understand who Jesus Christ was, even though he surely had heard the crying testimonies of those whom he persecuted.  Jesus Christ, in His glorious Person and saving work, was a mystery to Paul.  Then the Lord opened his eyes and clearly revealed Himself to Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus road.  But we must understand that Jesus Christ was not just a historical figure to Paul.  He saw Him as a living Person in all of His glory as the God-Man, the Mediator between God and men, and the King at whose feet we bow in humble obedience.  It was a personal revelation of Christ.  From that point on, Paul was a different man.  It is from that same point, when Jesus Christ reveals Himself to us as Prophet, Priest, and King in the revelation of the gospel, that we are different people as well.

 

II. Strange Ethics

 

Perhaps we can see this better as we pursue more of what Paul explained in autobiographical fashion.  He explained why his understanding of the gospel was so unusual and authoritative.  He did this by explaining his rather strange ethics.  "For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure, and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions."  The term which he uses for my former manner of life, actually implies his ethical conduct.  It was the way he thought and lived.  Let's see how he describes himself.

 

1.  A check on interest level

 

Was Paul interested in becoming a Christian?  How many ways can we say "no"?  That was just his point in verses 13-14.  He wanted the Galatians to understand that there was not one bone in his body that had an interest in Jesus Christ.  He was perfectly satisfied with his own religious practice and saw no need for the message of the gospel.  He was comfortable being zealous for all of the ancestral traditions found within Judaism.  As Timothy George expressed it, "There was nothing in his religious background and preconversion life that could have in any way prepared him for a positive response to the gospel" (NAC, 113).

 

I've heard well-meaning individuals talk of how Paul was under conviction by the time he was on the Damascus road.  He had seen the godly Stephen and others he had persecuted, so that his conscience was smitten.  He was mulling over the claims of Christianity and came to the place of finally deciding this was for him.  But the text shows otherwise!  Paul was doing everything that he could to stamp out Christianity and destroy the church.  And he was doing it for the Lord; or at least he thought he was.  His motives for destruction were pure in his mind.  Becoming a follower of Jesus Christ was the last thing Paul would have considered on his own!

 

Do you realize that none of us are any better off than Paul in that arena?  We do not have inclinations toward godliness apart from Christ, instead we have inclinations to run from God.  We will battle everything we can to keep from believing (cf. Rom. 3, Eph. 2 for good explanations).  This is why we need revelation that is pin-pointed to open our blinded eyes and arouse us from the stupor of our rebellion against the truth of God.

 

2.  An evaluation of practice

 

Just how did Paul live out his life?  What were his "ethics"?

 

a.  passion in life  

 

Just in case there is any question about it, Paul gave a list of his practice in life prior to the saving revelation of Christ in his life.  First up, he used to persecute the church of God beyond measure.  The idea of 'beyond measure' is that he went to the limits.  He was a 100% sort of guy.  He did nothing half-way.  In this case, he hunted and pursued (thus the meaning of the Greek for persecute) those who were part of the body of Christ.  Then for good measure, he said he tried to destroy it [the church].  The term comes from the realm of soldiers ravaging a city and bringing it to ruin.  That was Paul's passion in life.  He would do anything to ravage the little congregations of believers scattered throughout Palestine.  This certainly does not sound like a man contemplating conversion!

 

b.  ambition in life

 

At the heart of Paul's passion to persecute and destroy the church was his ambition in life to be the best follower of Judaism possible.  "I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions."  His advance in Judaism is described by a word meaning 'one who is blazing a trail'. That was his pursuit in life, blazing a trail where those his age (contemporaries) had not the courage to go.  He was an 'enthusiast' for Judaism.  He lived for his religion.

 

John Stott summarizes his condition quite clearly.  "Now a man in that mental and emotional state is in no mood to change his mind, or even to have it changed for him by men. No conditioned reflex or other psychological device could convert a man in that state.  Only God could reach him--and God did!"  [The Message of Galatians, 32].

 

There are still those who have a mind like Saul of Tarsus.  They may not outwardly persecute the church to the degree that Saul did, but they are passionately pursing their own ambitions in life.  The gospel of Jesus Christ and His saving grace is the farthest thing from their minds.  Martin Luther identified with Paul as he gave some of his own testimony.

...before I was lightened with the knowledge of the gospel, I was as zealous for the papistical law and traditions of the fathers as ever any were, maintaining and defending them as holy and necessary to salvation.  Moreover I endeavoured to keep them myself, as much as was possible for me to do, punishing my poor body with fasting, watching, praying, and other exercises, more than all they which at this day do so bitterly hate and persecute me, because now I take from them the glory of justifying by works and merits.  For I was so diligent and superstitious in the observation hereof, that I laid more upon my body, than without danger of health, I was able to bear....but whatsoever I did, I did it with a single heart, of a good zeal, and for the glory of God.  But those things which were then gain unto me, I now, with Paul count to be but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord [Commentary on Galatians, 35].

III. God's Intrusion

 

With a man who has no interest in Christ or the gospel, other than trying to get rid of it, I would recommend to you that only an intrusion from above could transform such a person.  Lest any of us think that we are better off and that we are better people than Paul, consider that Paul did everything he pursued strictly for the glory of God.  His motive was for God.  He was fanatical in his strict observance to the laws of God.  Yet, he was still lost in his sin, without any hope of being reconciled to God.  Only God's intrusion into the darkness of his life would bring him hope.  That same intrusion is our only hope as well.

 

1.  Without permission

 

Paul loved to paint the picture so that we can see our great hopelessness, then add that little conjunction, "But."  In this case, he explains, "But when He who had set me apart, even from my mother's womb, and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood."  What Paul needed was divine intrusion in his life.  He was going at breakneck pace on a collision course with eternal judgment.  He could not see anything differently.  He was the one who was right and the Christians were the ones who were wrong.  Paul was convinced of that.  And no one could convince him otherwise, not even seeing the gracious dying of that godly man, Stephen.

 

The Greek text actually begins with the phrase, "But when He was pleased who had set me apart out of my mother's womb...."  Paul's emphasis was upon the "pleasure of God."  That is, he understood that his hope of eternal life came because God was pleased to intrude upon his life in a display of sovereign mercy and grace.  His stress in salvation was not upon what Paul himself had decided, but upon the gracious intrusion of a benevolent God, who takes pity upon unworthy sinners.  As one scholar expressed it, "Of all the terms for election...eudokein [pleased] brings out most strongly the emotional side of the love of Him who elects" [L. Morris quoting G. Schrenk, Galatians: Paul's Charter of Christian Freedom, 54].  Here was a man who had no desire for the gospel; no love for Jesus Christ.  His mind was consumed with his passion to destroy Christianity.  Yet the mercy of God came to him, intruding upon his life without Paul's permission, and bringing him into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

We can argue that God is not fair to intrude upon our lives.  But I guarantee that you will never find Paul saying that!  He understood that if God had not intruded without Paul's permission, he would never had known the saving power of Jesus Christ.  And neither would you.  In your lost state, you have no more desire for the Lord than a dead Lazarus had for being raised from the dead.  Lazarus had no thoughts or cries for being raised from the dead, but Jesus Christ intruded upon his tomb and called him forth to life.  Even without you realizing it, when you come to saving faith, you too have been called to life from the dead.

 

2.  Through grace

 

The only explanation for such an act is the grace of God!  Paul would be the first to admit that there was nothing worthy within him to merit salvation.  He deserved the judgment of God.  So do we.  He had no power to save himself.  Neither do we.  He did not even understand the way of salvation until Jesus Christ revealed Himself to Paul.  The same is true in our lives as well.

 

Paul's description is that when he had no knowledge of his life or what eternity was all about, even from my mother's womb, the Lord set him apart then effectually called him to salvation.  Even though Paul was bent on destroying the church, his life was no accident.  The sovereign hand of God overshadowed all of his life.  At just the right moment, God called him through His grace.  The act of God calling refers to a very specific action on God's part.  Morris quotes Gresham Machen who wrote, "It refers to the majestic divine act by which at a definite moment of time the divine purpose becomes effective in those who are saved.  Such a "call" is more than a mere invitation; it is, rather, a call which brings its answer with it" [Leon Morris, 55].

 

The saving answer came to Paul in that moment of divine call.  In that moment Paul repented of his sins and believed savingly in the Lord Jesus Christ, casting all of his confidence before God upon the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  Paul described what happened as God being "pleased to reveal His Son in me."  This is why he could ask the church at Corinth, "Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!  Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you--unless indeed you fail the test?" (II Cor. 13:5).

 

Has Jesus Christ been revealed in you?  He is revealed to you in the gospel as it is proclaimed and God opens your understanding of it.  Then he is revealed in you as your life, your righteousness, your joy, your hope, the passion of your life, as you repent of your sin and trust in Jesus Christ alone to save you.  My friend, it is only by grace, that is, by God's doing, that any of us are in Christ (I Cor. 1:30).  It is not that we are so wonderful that we come to make a wise decision about following Christ.  Certainly we make a decision; but only after God reveals the Lord Jesus to us in the gospel and calls us savingly to Himself.

 

Some would ask if this call goes to everyone.  The Bible is clear that all men are called upon to repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.  That is the duty of everyone by virtue of creation.  But the choice of terms used does not imply a general call which is common to all.  Instead, it refers to the gracious act of God by which He overcomes all of our reluctance, all of our objections, all of our resistance, and effectively brings us to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.    That is grace!  Without the gracious, effectual work of God shown to us out of His good pleasure, we will resist and spurn the gospel till the day we die.  Just as Lazarus had to be called forth from the dead by Jesus Christ, we too must be called forth from our spiritual deadness.  And as Lazarus definitely came forth, so too do we whom Christ has effectually called to Himself.

 

We do not understand all of this by any means!  But we can glory in our God and the abundance of His grace shown to us in Jesus Christ!

 

3.  With purpose

 

It is interesting that Paul does not give a distinction between his call to salvation and the divine purpose for his life.  He does have the order clear:  his salvation first, then his purpose of preaching the gospel.  But he does not try to separate them into neat compartments.  "But when He...was pleased to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles," shows us that both Paul's salvation and his life-purpose was bound up in the pleasure of God.  In Paul's case it was the very thing which he had been defending with the Galatians.  It was God Himself who had set Paul apart from the womb to be a gospel preacher to the Gentiles (Gk. ethne or nations, peoples).  This was his authority.  God set him apart and God revealed to him the message of the gospel.  It was not a different gospel from that preached by the other apostles in Jerusalem.  It was the same gospel (2:6-9).  As one saved by grace, Paul's passion was to proclaim Jesus Christ among the nations.  That passion was instilled by the call of God.

 

While we may have different callings in terms of life vocations, we must never fail to understand that with God's saving work in our lives, He also gives us a life-purpose.  Our vocations may vary but our purpose of being vessels to proclaim Him who brought us out of darkness into His light remains the same.  We are not to proclaim with our lives or lips any gospel other than the gospel of Jesus Christ through the grace of God.

 

Conclusion

 

We are reminded once again that our salvation is all of grace.  As we live consciously in the grace of God, it will cause us to walk in humility before others.  Yes, we repent and believe that the work of Jesus Christ on the cross might be applied in all of its justifying power to us.  But this response comes only after God's gracious intrusion in our lives.  How can we even think of adding to what God has done so effectively in Christ?

 

Perhaps you are still struggling over the weight of your sins.  Jesus Christ invites you to Himself.  he is ready to save all who will come to Him, repenting of their sins and trusting in Him alone for salvation.

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