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Galatians
Chapter 2 – Paul’s Second Defense: Against the Accusation That He Was Influenced By Men
Galatians 1:10-24
Imagine for a moment you are a member of some exclusive club that you worked hard to get into and sacrificed a lot of time and effort to gain membership. However, one day, the club decided entrance is now free and anyone and everyone is welcome. You, as it turns out, liked the club better when it was exclusive…it made you feel special…unique.
This is how the Judaizers felt about their churches…Paul was bringing in new members into their club without any screening process or initiation fees. In their view, the rabble of society was getting into their little fortress, and they did not like it. The Judaizers reacted strongly to this and questioned not only Paul’s methods but also his motives for doing such a thing. They alleged Paul was bringing in the Gentiles to come off as some kind of hero to the downtrodden. The Judaizers accused Paul of trying to please men by compromising the gospel, but Paul asserts he is no people-pleaser, and more importantly, the grace message is not all that people-pleasing if we understand it.
Galatians 1:10
10 Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Paul’s opponents accused him of promoting the free grace of the gospel to not only attract Gentiles but also to curry their favor. The charges infer that Paul once sought to please God, but now he only wishes to please men. Paul hints there was a time when he did try to please men (because he says “If I were still trying to please men”). Ironically, the only time in his life when Paul was a “people pleaser” was when he was a Pharisee and a promoter of the Law. If any religious system ever promoted people-pleasing it was first-century Judaism which was primarily focused on man’s self-righteousness as judged by other men (e.g., Matthew 6:5 and Matthew 23:5-7).
Galatians 1:11
11 I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up.
Paul now addresses the question of whether he is some kind of self-appointed apostle wannabe. The free grace of the gospel is not anything any man would have ever made up. Human-caused religions emphasize human merit and the necessity of human works to deserve rewards and merit salvation.
Galatians 1:12
12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
Paul declares that he did not receive the gospel from any human source. He was not someone else’s protégé. He did not sit at the feet of someone as an apostle-in-training like he had sat at the feet of Gamaliel as a Pharisee. Instead, he received this gospel by direct revelation from Jesus Christ. You see the Judaizers were trying to say Paul received his gospel at the very least second-hand and not directly.
Galatians 1:13 - 14
13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
By appealing to his personal history Paul is hoping to prove beyond any doubt that he did not learn his gospel from men. His entire training had been anti-grace. As a legalistic Pharisee, his only interest in the church was that of a maniacal persecutor of it. We noted in the section on verses 1-9 that legalism is attractive to some people because it is measurable and because it is measurable it is easier to make comparisons. Note here how that was true in Paul’s case because of the superlatives: “how intensely I persecuted” and “advancing in Judaism beyond many” and “extremely zealous for the traditions.” Paul’s “advancing” in Judaism is described by a word meaning “one who is blazing a trail.” He was, as the theologian John Stott put it, “in no mood to change his mind, or even to have it changed for him by men.”
Galatians 1:15 - 16
15 But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man,
As a zealous legalistic Pharisee Paul had well-defined plans and purposes for the direction of his life, but he discovered the Father had a plan and a purpose as well. God interrupted all those ambitions in the life of Saul of Tarsus. Paul lists three things that were a part of the plan and purpose of God.
First, God set him apart from birth. “Saul” was living out his life under the delusion that he was in control of his life, but as “Paul” he would discover God had providentially set him apart from birth and that all his life to this point was merely a preparation for his ministry as an apostle of the gospel of God's grace.
Second, God called Paul by His grace. Paul in no way deserved or merited this great honor bestowed upon him by the grace of God.
Third, God was pleased to reveal His Son in Paul. Once he was blind but now, he sees and ironically God had to blind him for him to see it. Paul emphasized that both his conversion and his commission to preach Christ to the Gentiles owed nothing to man but to God alone.
Galatians 1:17 - 18a
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. 18a Then after three years, …
Having established that he was free from human influences before his conversion he now affirms that he was free from human influences afterward as well. Though Paul met other Christians after his conversion he did not consult them on doctrine and theology. The point of Paul's declaration is clear. He formed his theology not by consulting with others, but independently as God guided him into the truth.
Galatians 1:18b - 20
18b I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 I saw none of the other apostles-only James, the Lord's brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie.
Paul then reinforced his previous argument by asserting that he waited three years after his conversion to go to Jerusalem, time that was spent in Arabia and
Damascus which means he did not enter some kind of theological instruction from the other disciples. Some theologians believe that the risen Lord Jesus instructed Paul personally for these three years just as He had with the other disciples, but this, although attractive, is speculative at best. We can say that Paul received his direct revelation either through the ministry of the Holy Spirit or by the personal teaching of the risen Lord.
When he did finally go to Jerusalem, it was merely a social visit lasting about two weeks after which time he left because of a plot against his life (Acts 9:26-30). In order to stress the truth of what he had just said - no doubt in the face of the Judaizers' charge that he had misrepresented his relationship to the apostles - Paul put himself under an oath, calling God to be his witness that he was telling the truth. Under Roman law, an oath was used outside of court to indicate one was willing to resolve the matter in the courts if necessary.
Galatians 1:21
21 Later I went to Syria and Cilicia.
After his abbreviated visit to Jerusalem, Paul worked for an extended time in the north, specifically in Syria and Cilicia, which is why he was personally unknown to the churches of Judea. Due to the distance between him and the other apostles in Jerusalem, he could not have been under their authority or subject to their oversight.
Galatians 1:22 - 24
22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the report: "The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy." 24 And they praised God because of me.
The churches in Judea heard about Paul, but they did not hear from him. The churches in Judea by this time had heard that the one who had once persecuted the church was now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.
The fact the Judean believers praised God because of Paul demonstrates he was not promoting a false gospel as alleged by the Judaizers. While in Chapter 1 of this epistle, Paul focused on the source of his message and his independence from the other apostles we shall discover in Chapter 2 he will focus more on the content of his message and his unity with the apostles on that message.
Please go to Observations & Applications for Galatians 1:10-24 for further insight and applications regarding this passage.
In Galatians 1:10-24, Paul is accused of promoting grace because he is a people pleaser. Furthermore, the Judaizers said he was given this inadequate gospel by someone else. Paul counters he received the gospel he preaches directly from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why do people resist the notion of grace?
- Some feel grace is too easy and therefore mocks a holy God.
This mindset distrusts anything that is too tolerant and not sufficiently difficult and demanding. The underlying assumption is the more demanding the duty, the more painful the process, the higher the price of piety, the more likely it is to be of God. Grace is rejected as too lax on the duty of obedience, too easy and non-sacrificial…all gain and no pain. Grace is thought to encourage laziness and complacency with freedom in Christ appearing to be the freedom to sin without conscience and consequence. For those who reject grace the way to live our lives is to try harder…give extra…and sacrifice more. For anything to be accomplished there must be some sense of guilt, duty, and obligation. Guilt, duty, and obligation are powerful motivators but what motivation is there in grace?
Many Christians live their lives as though they held to the Book of Mormon Scripture…
2 Nephi 25:23
"For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do."
Legalistic Christians agree in practice with the Latter-Day Saints. Our duty is to do all we can, and trust that grace will make up the deficit afterward. The question is how can one ever know if they have done all they can do? Christians who live out their faith with this philosophy always seem to lack assurance about their salvation as well as their sanctification.
- Some people do not like the idea of being a “charity case.”
Humanity is religious by nature, and we develop religions that reward us for being religious. Let me give you a couple of examples:
In Hinduism there are three paths to religious realization: the path of works, or karma (by performing sacrificial and ritual acts), the path of knowledge, (by meditation) and the path of devotion to a particular god or gods. One’s rebirth is determined by the accumulated merit and demerit that result from all the actions, or karma, that the soul has committed in its past life or lives. All Hindus believe that karma accrues in this way; they also believe, however, that it can be counteracted by various atonements and rituals.
In Buddhism you have the Four Noble Truths: (1) Life is suffering. (2) All suffering is caused by ignorance of the nature of reality and the craving, attachment, and grasping that result from such ignorance. (3) Suffering can be ended by overcoming ignorance and attachment. (4) The path to the suppression of suffering is the Eightfold Path, which consists of right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right-mindedness, and right contemplation.
All human-caused religions focus on self-enhancement by meriting reward or advancement. Grace in human-caused systems is not only a foreign concept, but also most often a hostile concept. Paul argues since the gospel is not performance based it could not have come from the minds of men.
The grace gospel is not a feel good about yourself message. It says you are helpless and hopeless apart from the unmerited intervention of God. Your karma is caca. The only righteousness men are ever able to achieve is dung heap righteousness. As most people never get to the end of themselves to find their beginning with God, they find it impossible to believe or accept this teaching.
Transitioning from Saul the Pharisee to Paul the Apostle of Grace
To get His point across that grace is essential to salvation and sanctification what does God do? He coopts the biggest overachieving arrogant self-righteous blowhard He can find and crushes him. This man, Saul, becomes Paul, the Apostle of Grace.
No one understood self-righteous merit more than Saul and no one understood unmerited favor more than Paul. Only God could save a man like Saul and only God would save a man like Saul. Jesus Christ was revealed to Saul for Jesus Christ to be revealed by Paul and then most importantly to be revealed in Paul.
In the plan of God, the impossibly legalistic and proud Saul was crushed to make way for a new creation named Paul who would be given the impossible task of reaching the Gentiles by preaching this gospel of free grace.
As is so often the case, God chose the unexpected to do the inexplicable. Often our journey of faith begins with a jolt. Paul’s hopes, dreams, and ambitions were destroyed in a flash of light on the road to Damascus. We should draw comfort in knowing God has a plan and a time for his plan to unfold. How much of our lives could be summarized by the simple statement, but God had other plans? However, notice that God transitions the legalistic Saul into the gracious Paul slowly.
Now in our day, Paul would have appeared at every crusade and revival within a thousand miles, before he had a chance to figure out what hit him. But that is not what God did with Paul, instead he isolated him. Paul needed time to think and work through the implications of this recent revelation and transformation. My own opinion is that this was necessary, in part, so that Paul would not make the mistake of the Judaizers in attempting to introduce legalism into Christianity. Paul had to unlearn law as a way of life before he could learn grace as a way of life. He had to put off the old to put on the new. He needed to be grounded and well-established in this new faith to properly defend it and demonstrate it.
I often think of this whenever some high-profile celebrity becomes a Christian and while that convert is still wet behind the ears, we put them up on a public platform. When we do this, we do a great disservice to that person and to the cause of Christ. That person needs time, like Paul needed time, to grow and mature in both grace and knowledge. Our plan for high profile converts is active promotion, but God’s plan is isolation and instruction.
The Lessons of Helplessness
It often takes a desert experience to strip us of the one thing that plagues us all our lives...stubborn self-reliance. The desert times of life are often where we hear God speak to us in ways the sounds of the hustle and bustle of our daily lives drown out. The desert has a way of making you aware of your helplessness. The desert causes one to realize that you are at the mercy of God, vulnerable to the elements. Only God's grace can sustain you when you are in the desert. And in these desert times of life God gets something He may only rarely get when you are experiencing the hustle and bustle of your busy life. He gets your full attention.
Those whom God chooses for leadership at some point must learn the lessons of helplessness. Good leaders emerge from humble servants. My most teachable moments typically come after I have been humbled in some way. God is not interested in self-made men and self-made women. The desert is the place where the self is unmade and then remade in the image of Christ. Why does God find this to be necessary? It is necessary because we are all impossible people…impossibly stubborn…impossibly set in our own ways…and God must reveal our helplessness to convince us of the necessity of His grace. His grace is not something I only need after all I can do; I need His grace before I venture to do anything.