07. Independent of Human Teaching - 1:11-17

Independent of Human Teaching - 1:11-17

“But I let you know, brethren, as to the glad tidings which were announced by me, that they are not according to man.” (1:11) This could be translated literally, “the evangel that was evangelized by me.”There is a close connection between ‘glad tidings’and the word ‘announced.’The gospel is not from man, not through man, but now Paul adds, not even according to man, it is not according to man’s thinking, it is not according to man’s standards, it is not according to man’s desires, it is not according to man, period. This is a tremendous challenge also for us to consider. How many of us do certain things because people like it or because it is according to man’s thinking? I repeat what I said earlier, Paul was in fellowship with the brethren, and we need to be in fellowship with each other under the Lordship of Christ, but when it comes to things that people want to introduce because they want to please men then they cannot be tolerated because there is then a conflict with the Lord’s rights and I am not then a bondman of Christ if I go along with that. This shows just how relevant this book is for our day. We can easily fall if we follow man’s thinking, desiring to please man. Paul did not want to do that.

“For neither did I receive them from man, neither was I taught them, but by revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1:12) That is why I said earlier, in verse 18, when Paul visited Peter, that it was not long enough for Peter to have taught everything to Paul. Paul was taught those three years in Arabia (verse 17) by the Spirit of God, and, he says now, “by revelation of Jesus Christ.”This is the revelation of the Person; Jesus Christ was revealed to him.

“For ye have heard what was my conversation formerly in Judaism, that I excessively persecuted the assembly of God, and ravaged it and advanced in Judaism beyond many my contemporaries in my nation, being exceedingly zealous of the doctrines of my fathers.” (1:13-14) This is seen in Paul’s history in the book of Acts, from chapter 8 on. Paul voted for Stephen’s death and when the Lord spoke to him He said, “Why do you push your feet against the pricks?”which is an indication that Paul’s conscience bothered him. Paul saw something in Stephen when he was stoned to death that never left him, his conscience was touched by that but he went on in the persecution, he went on in Judaism nevertheless. He had a place as a trailblazer in rabbinic Judaism (he advanced in it) and so he excessively persecuted the church. Let me just state the passages that you could read to see this: Acts 8:1-40; Acts 9:1-43; Acts 22:1-30; Acts 24:1-27; Acts 26:1-32, 1 Corinthians 15:1-58, 1 Timothy 1:1-20 and also Php 3:1-21. There we have glimpses of what Paul had done and how the Lord came into his life. But he had a very dominant place in Judaism, he was taught at the feet of Gamaliel, a well respected teacher (Acts 5:34) and then he was probably in Tarsus for a while at the university there before coming back to Jerusalem, the Lord being already glorified in heaven, and he persecuted the Christians there. Judaism at that time was not what God had given through Moses or restored through Ezra; here Judaism was what man had made from what God had given originally. The scribes, a few generations after Ezra, introduced a lot of human reasoning to protect the law, to ensure that the Jews would not transgress it anymore as they had done before the Babylonian captivity. But later this reasoning was put on the same level as the law and gradually even placed above it (they came up with the idea that the “oral law,”meaning their interpretations and traditions, had been given by God to Moses the same time He gave him the written law, and that the ‘oral law’had been memorized from generation to generation, but now - still according to these scribes - the time had come to put it in writing). So when the Lord came on earth, His problem was not with the law God had given; He was a perfect Jew, He lived His life according to the law God had given through Moses. He said, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil”(Matthew 5:17). He was a law-keeping Jew, the only One who ever kept the law. His conflict was with the Jews’interpretations of the law and man-made traditions as recorded in the Mishna, the Talmud, and in other rabbinical writings. The conflict the Lord had was with rabbinic Judaism, not with the Law of Moses with which He was always in disagreement. Before his conversion, Paul was promoting rabbinic Judaism and was therefore, by definition, in conflict with the Lord, as he was “exceedingly zealous of the doctrines of my fathers.”

“But when God, who set me apart even from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his Son in me, that I may announce Him as glad tidings among the nations …” (1:15-16a)

I would like to give from these verses seven points in connection with God and then from verse 17 to the end of the chapter seven points in connection with Paul. Firstly, there is God’s good pleasure. It was His good pleasure to call Paul and this is the same for us. It was God’s good pleasure, according to His grace, that called us. In this we see also God’s sovereign grace; the pleasure of God is really God’s sovereignty.

Secondly, we see God’s providence. God had set Paul apart even from his mother’s womb, he was separated for God and ultimately that implied that he would be separated from Christ-rejecting Judaism one day - that happened when he was called by the Lord in the glory - and further, he was separated for service later on in Acts 13:1-52. This setting apart continues today according to God’s providence. God is in control in our lives and He provides. The third element is God’s call. This would be a subject in itself. It is a wonderful subject. Think of the call of Abraham or of Paul on the road to Damascus in Acts 9:1-43. The calling of any man is a wonderful intervention on the part of God. There was a relationship between Paul, the one who was called, and God, the One who had called him. The Lord Jesus was the wonderful bond. That is the case with us also (Romans 8:1-39).

Then there is God’s grace. This is the fourth point. This is developed later in the Epistle. God’s call is not on the basis of law; it is by His sovereign grace. This is a central theme of Galatians. Seven times over we have mention of grace in this epistle. There cannot be any mixture of law and grace. Paul, who was liberated from that religious system, is the one who defends now this system of God’s grace. In the course of the book we will see seven tremendous contrasts. Here we have the first of them, the contrast between grace and law. The fifth point is God’s revelation. This has already been seen in chapter 1:12, this divine revelation concerning the Person of Jesus Christ was a work of God that took place inPaul. This is why I have stressed the relationship that is created between the Caller and the called one. It was not only that God presented Christ to Paul, but He was revealed in him. When the Lord appeared to him on the road to Damascus, He produced something in Saul; there was a work of God in his soul. Again, we can draw a parallel with us, God in His sovereign grace has worked in us so that Christ dwells in us; He has revealed Him in us also. Paul really is a pattern saint for the believers in this respect (1 Timothy 1:16). The sixth point is God’s Son. There is great emphasis on the Person of the Son throughout Paul’s ministry. His preaching from the very start of His service for God was the preaching of Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God (Acts 9:20). This is characteristic of Paul’s ministry. In Romans 16:25 he speaks of, “the preaching of Jesus Christ,”not the preaching of the gospel, although this is also true, but Paul presented a Person as glad tidings, as good news. The seventh point is that Paul became God’s channel, “that I may announce Him as glad tidings among the nations.”This is the emphasis. This was Paul’s ministry, to be a vessel among the nations. He was taken out of Judaism and then the Lord sent him to the Gentiles. We are also God’s instruments right now in this wicked world. Of course no one now can claim to be an instrument in the sense that Paul was as a called apostle but there is a parallel, we too are to present the Person of Jesus Christ as good news among the nations.

“…immediately I took not counsel with flesh and blood …” (1:16b)

Now in these verses to the end of the chapter we have seven points in connection with Paul. The first point is that Paul, after this divine call and commission, did not counsel with flesh and blood. This is something that also happened to Peter. When Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,”the Lord said to him that the Father had revealed this to him - not flesh and blood (Matthew 16:17). This is something similar. This call and commission is an order of things that is out of reach of the flesh, it can have nothing to do with it. This does not mean that Paul would not have fellowship with the other apostles; we see later that he did, but that he did not reason with flesh and blood. That order of things has nothing to do with this new order connected with Christ in the glory.

“... nor went I up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and again returned to Damascus.” (1:17)

Paul did not immediately go up to Jerusalem, the religious centre, the centre of Judaism; nor to the assembly which was there, although he went there later. The point is that he did not get his orders from there: Jerusalem was not the headquarters of the assembly; rather it was the Lord in the glory, for He was in charge. So Paul went into Arabia as led of God. Why? It was God’s school (this is the third point). God took him aside to teach and train Paul. This is an important rule in God’s ways. He trains His servants, especially in the beginning, but the training continues (2 Corinthians 12:9). This is not very pleasant for the flesh but vitally important.