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GALATIANS - I Have Been Crucified With Christ
Studies in the Letter of Paul to the Galatians
PART 2: THE HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF THE APOSTOLIC POWERS OF PAUL (Galatians 1:11 – 2:21)
1. Paul’s direct call to apostleship by Christ (Galatians 1:11-17)
GALATIANS 1:13-14
13 For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. 14 And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
Saul, the lawyer did not deserve to obtain the revelation of God, for he, in spite of his enthusiasm for the law, was blind to the truth of God’s will and design. In his proud zeal, Paul supposed that he served God through persecuting the followers of Jesus of Nazareth, for they were inclined to take hold of the despised, crucified Jesus rather than to edify themselves with the traditions of the fathers.
Without spiritual knowledge, Paul did the elect of God much harm. He did not believe their testimonies, laughed at their prayers in meetings and trials, and considered them as going astray, and disbelievers who deserved to be stoned. He led them to death, and became an enemy of God, in spite of his profession of godliness.
Paul was a perfect model to the then students of the law, for he kept the passages of the law of the fathers by heart in his prayer and put them into effect, strictly and sincerely, in his life, and paid the tithe without cheating. He neither ate prohibited food, nor polluted himself willfully; but saw in the law the only way to God, and wanted to be the first in the race of righteousness. In this faith in the school of legalistic humanism, he did not see himself as it was, but became haughty, exerted pressure on the others severely, lost love, and caused floods of tears in his violent struggle against the church of God.
GALATIANS 1:15-17
15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
God had a plan from eternity. He chose Paul before he was born, and caused him to grow up in a legalistic family in Greek surroundings that he might learn the innermost opposition of God in godliness, together with the Greek culture. As he separated Paul, God also called him before the gates of Damascus. Therefore, the appearance of Christ was not counted a reward for his false zeal for the law, but a bitter condemnation against the boastful Saul, and a kind gift to him who was broken, at the same time. The call of God is favored and not merited.
The end of God’s call to Paul was to reveal the truth of Christ and his great glory. Paul recognized the essence of the man Jesus, and confessed, in this epistle, that he was the Son of God who came from the Father of the Holy One, and continued in him, showing the whole image of his Father. The call of God in Christ, and the dwelling of the Holy Spirit in him who repented, changed this once persecutor, and made him a faithful bondservant of Christ that he became in his own person a mirror of his Lord, an instrument of his power, and a guide to him in speech, in deed, and in conduct.
Paul was filled with the kindness of his Lord, that he could but fill the world with the religion of grace, for he understood that his call meant sending him out to the pagan nations.
Paul did not hesitate, nor did he discuss with himself the difficulties or dangers he might meet with in his fresh service, nor did he ask for a promotion or a salary in return for the divine commission, nor did he enter into a school of theology to be established in knowledge, but he began, without a commission from the original apostles in Jerusalem, to testify the divinity of God in Damascus, and he proved from the Old Testament, that the rejected Nazarene was the expected Christ. The transfiguration of the Lord to Paul was designed to furnish proof to him that Jesus is the living glorious one, whose grace is the foundation of the new covenant.
Paul did content himself with preaching inside the walls of Damascus, but he proceeded to its surroundings, and was the first preacher of the Arabs, who offered to them Jesus the Life.
Do you want to learn the good news he brought to the nomads and peasants? Read his Epistle to the Galatians, and study his different sermons in the book of Acts of the Apostles that you may participate in the flood of the powers of Christ as burst out by the apostle of all nations.
PRAYER: O Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you because you appeared to your enemy, called him, changed him, sent him, and strengthened him to fill the world with your graces. Help us to understand your words, which you put in the mouth of your apostle, to be changed, and be strengthened to glorify your holy name.
QUESTION:
- What were the six acts (in verses 15 and 16), which changed Paul’s life? What does that mean?