Galatians 1:11-17 (NIV)
I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
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. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, 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.
Paul begins by contrasting the two gospels he is addressing in his letter. The gospel of the Judaizers, a gospel of human effort to gain salvation through obedience to not only the law and the prophets, but to the rabbinical commentaries and their expansion on those requirements, is a gospel of human invention. It relies on man’s interpretation of God’s laws for its basis, and it is taught and superintended by mere men.
The true gospel, on the other hand, was not invented by human beings. In fact, humans could never have conceived of its simplicity and power. Instead, it was deigned and implemented by God Himself. In its truest form, it is taught by the Holy Spirit directly to the hearts of people. And it is superintended by the Holy Spirit guiding, directing, and empowering the people of God so that they can obey it.
Paul clearly points out that he received the gospel directly from Jesus Himself in his Damascus Road encounter and in its aftermath. That encounter was absolutely seismic in its effect, transforming Paul from a man bent on completely destroying every follower of Jesus, completely eradicating the gospel from the earth, into one of Jesus’ most ardent followers.
But even after his conversion, baptism, and being filled with the Holy Spirit through the touch of faithful Ananias (Acts 9:1-19), Paul didn’t seek out information on the gospel from the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem. Instead, he went into Arabia, east and south of Damascus, where he was instructed by the Holy Spirit in the true gospel, its basis, its ramifications, and how it was foretold throughout the Scriptures of the Old Testament.
When Paul returned to Damascus and began preaching the gospel, he was not preaching as a Pharisee, or even as a Jew. He shared the true gospel as one who had been transformed, recreated in Jesus. And the gospel he preached was not something created or shaped by the ideas of men, no matter how intelligent or “inspired”. He shared the divine gospel straight from the heart of God. And this divine gospel, so vastly different, so vastly superior to anything ever crafted by human beings, was the gospel that he had shared with and that had been received by the Galatians during his time with them.
Father, it’s important for all of us to remember that the gospel that saves us, the gospel passed down to us in the New Testament and preserved for two thousand years is not a human invention. It was designed by You at the foundation of the world and passed down to us in the words of the Scriptures, and by faithful teachers who do not reinterpret or impose a “new understanding” on those Scriptures. As people of Your kingdom, we need to stand firm on the gospel as it is, and neither load it down with additional requirements, like the Judaizers did, nor free it from its clear standards of life and action as many teachers, ancient and modern have tried to do. Help us to open our hearts to the Holy Spirit, so that we can be taught by You, just as Paul was. Amen.