START WITH SCRIPTURE:
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OBSERVE:
This is one of the passages in Paul’s epistles — like 2 Corinthians 11-12, and Philippians 3 — in which he is extremely autobiographical. In all three of these passages, Paul is illustrating the drastic transformation that has happened in his life, and his journey from a legalistic Pharisee who was zealous for the law to a Christian renewed by the grace of Jesus Christ.
In Galatians, his purpose is both defensive and polemical. The Galatians have been visited by teachers who are proclaiming a different gospel (Galatians 1:6). Their false teachings, says Paul, are a perversion of the gospel, and they should be accursed.
Here is the issue — Judaizers who have come to Galatia are saying that they believe in Jesus as the Messiah, but they insist that Gentiles must also subscribe to the Mosaic law, including the ritual law of circumcision. [I have gone into more detail with commentary in last week’s post on Galatians 1:1-12.]
According to Paul’s interpretation of the gospel, the ceremonial and ritual law has been abolished, and salvation is a gift of God received by faith. Salvation is by grace, not by works of the law.
So, Paul finds it necessary to prove his credentials to the Galatians. Part of his motivation for doing so is to illustrate that he had once been one of those who was a strict adherent of the law.
Here is his case:
- He reminds them that in his earlier life he was not only a Jew, he was dedicated to the destruction of the Christian church because he believed the church was a heretical sect. Moreover, he was among the religious elite in his adherence to the tenets of Judaism and the traditions of my ancestors. Therefore, he is suggesting, these Judaizers who have come among the Galatians do not bring a superior interpretation of the gospel. They merely bring a variation of the same message that Paul used to believe — that the law was the means of salvation.
- He also insists that his understanding of the gospel has come by direct revelation from Christ himself (verses 11-12). He supports this argument by pointing out that even after God revealed his Son to him he did not seek instruction from any human being or go to Jerusalem in order to be taught by the apostles. His description of his travels to Arabia, the three year sojourn in Damascus, his trip to Jerusalem and subsequent travels in Syria and Cilicia establish the fact that he was not beholden to the apostles for his understanding of the gospel. Even when he was in Jerusalem visiting Cephas, and meeting James who was then regarded as the head of the church, he points out he was only there fifteen days. In other words, he insists that he has received unique authority and revelation from Jesus himself!
- Paul’s transformation from persecutor of the church to apostle of the church is so dramatic that it soon became proverbial among the churches of Judea that:
The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy.
APPLY:
If we put aside the polemical aspect of this passage, what we see is the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to transform a life.
Paul is reminding us that he was once hostile to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to all who believed it, and to the church which had coalesced around that gospel. And because of God’s call and singular revelation to him, his hostility was transformed into love and faith.
If that can happen in the life of a man like Paul who was once zealous for the law and then became devoted to the gospel of grace, what can God’s grace do in our lives?
RESPOND:
I knew a very wise man once who said that our theology tends to be autobiography. I think what he meant by that is this: our faith and our understanding of the gospel is shaped by our own experience of God.
This doesn’t mean that our experience trumps the Scriptures or the traditions of the church. What it does mean is that there is an intersection between the truths of the Christian faith and our own faith.
I can personally attest to the life-changing power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore I can identify with the testimony of Paul. No, I wasn’t a Jew, or a Pharisee, or a persecutor of the church. Nevertheless, the general application of the gospel to my personal story is transformative. And I would be willing to bet that the gospel is transforming for anyone who seriously allows God to enter into their lives.
Our Lord, I thank you that I’m not what I once was because of your grace, that your grace has restored me to relationship with you, and that you are in the process of transforming me. Please finish what you have started in me. Amen.
PHOTOS: "Conversion on the Way to Damascus" by Caravaggio is in the Public Domain.
SOAR Lectionary Bible Study 