A BIT DEFENSIVE/GALATIANS 1:11-24

I think we all know what it is like to be defensive. We are defensive at different times and for different reasons. The point is that we all know what it is like to be defensive. As we come to our text this morning, we find the apostle Paul defending his message–what he has been preaching. Let’s listen in and see what we can glean from his defense that will help us in our appreciation of, and our defense of the gospel/the good news of salvation.

A) Paul states clearly that his message–the gospel of Christ–was given to him by direct revelation of Jesus Christ, over against the message coming from human origin. When was this message given to him by Christ? Paul’s Damascus Road experience recorded in Acts 9 (vv.1-19). How was it revealed to Paul? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 12:1. Why does Paul feel compelled to defend the origins of the message he is preaching? His opponents, inside the church, were trying to discredit Paul and his message. To help silence the voices of his critics, Paul now gives his personal testimony of grace.

A) John Stott says of this, "Having made this startling claim to a direct revelation from God without human means, Paul goes on to prove it from history, that is, from the facts of his own autobiography." We are going to hear Paul speak of his pre-conversion experience of Christ, and of his post-conversion experience of Christ. All of this as a defense of the message he is preaching, and, ultimately, as the reason they must heed what he is preaching. Again, what is at stake is God’s glory, and the salvation of souls. In verses 13 & 14, Paul talks of his former life/pre-conversion life by saying he was the following: a persecutor of Jesus Christ’s Church intent on destroying it (v.13), and a zealot of Judaism and his "ancestral traditions" (v.14). In other words, Paul hated the things of Jesus the Messiah, choosing instead a religion of works–keeping the law as a means of gaining God’s favor.

B) But then, God, out of the blue, called Paul (v.15). Paul could say, "There I was minding my own business, doing my religious duty, when God called me to Himself by saving grace. Wow! I never saw that coming, nor was I seeking it." Paul stated clearly for us what his desires were in vv.13-14, but God had different desires for Paul. Paul may have been a religious zealot, but He had no saving relationship with this God he professed to know. Here’s Paul’s point: Only God could change such a man as Paul. And, the truth is that only God can change any of us. We surely cannot change ourselves in such a way that God would be please with us, no matter how sincere our religious devotion. Paul tells us what he came to understand after his conversion experience on the road to Damascus. Here’s what he learned:

1) God set him apart from his mother’s womb (v.15a). In other words, God predestined that Paul would be saved from the moment, humanly speaking, he was conceived (cf. Jeremiah 1:5).

2) God called him by grace (v.15b). In other words, the sole reason God saved Paul was based on God’s choice, and nothing in Paul.

3) Related to this, God revealed Christ "in" Paul (vv.15c-16a). In other words, the Jesus Christ that Paul once hated (though the Scriptures Paul loved pointed to) is now known, personally, within by the grace of God that called him. God removed the scales of unbelief from the eyes of Paul’s heart. This transformed Paul, and it transforms us today cf. 2 Corinthians 3:14; 4:6. 4) God revealed His purpose in saving Paul, and that being to preach Christ (the Messiah he once persecuted) to the Gentiles (v.16b). If we have been saved in the same way as Paul, which I might add is the only way, then we have an obligation similar to Paul cf. 1 Peter 2:9.