Review

This passage is a famous testimony of Paul in which he talks about some of his life’s experiences, particularly the years immediately after his conversion on the Damascus road.  There are a number of places in Acts where Paul talks about his conversion (9:1f., 22:1-5, 26:12-17) and he also describes his experiences as a missionary in some of his other letters, notably 2 Corinthians (2 Cor 2:12f., 10:1f.,11:16-33 etc).

For each personal testimony, there is a specific reason, and the reason for his writing about his personal experience here is that Paul wants to explain how he received the Gospel he preached.  His point is that it was given to him direct by Jesus Christ, and not simply passed on to him by the other Apostles (the twelve disciples).  But why would Paul wish to say this?  We must look deeper into the passage to answer why.

From Jew to Christian

Paul begins by describing himself as a ‘died in the wool’ Jew, someone with such an extreme aversion to Christianity that he became the church’s chief opponent in the years after Jesus death (1:13,14).  As the strictest of Pharisees (Phil 3:5, Acts 26:5), the teaching of the Church which said that Jesus was the Messiah was completely anathema to him.  Paul claimed he ‘progressed in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries’ (1:14), and this phrase reveals much about Paul’s character.  The word ‘progressed’ is a military term meaning ‘cut through to the front’, and it describes how someone of strength and vigour pushes forward despite opposition. By nature, Paul was no ‘push over’!

So Paul had a great deal of inner strength, but he first used this against Christianity (1:14) hounding those who he perceived as a threat to the Jewish faith in the One true God.  Zeal is a good thing, but over-zealousness is dangerous; yet God eventually changed Paul from religious bigot and dangerous extremist to a man of great spiritual strength and zeal.

Paul’s background and call

Now we might think that someone so zealous and well trained in the things of God would naturally want to use all this in God’s service, and perhaps understand the Gospel through this and his knowledge of scripture and Jewish faith.  It is a reasonable idea, but Paul will not go there.  He describes not so much a process of gaining influence and information about the Gospel, but a personal journey of faith.  This begins with the hand of God being on him since conception (1:15) and after his conversion, not a quest for ‘worldly advice’ (1:16), but a searching for solitude and time with God (1:17).  We might not expect this of one chosen by God to be a preacher!

It is worth dwelling on what Paul says about his conception, because it is a powerful affirmation of the way God works in people.  His description of being set aside in his mother’s womb comes from Psalm 139:13, where we read ‘You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.’  This verse is a high point of the Old Testament, describing God’s creative work in making a man or a woman, and for Paul, this is the start of God’s call on his life.  It is also the beginning of God’s authority placed on him to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles (1:15 see also Acts 9:15, 22:15, 26:16-18).

How Paul ‘gets’ the Gospel

We are beginning understand now what Paul is saying.  He has not thought out the Gospel for himself or developed it from his former beliefs or even heard it from others (the apostles).  The God who has miraculously turned him around has revealed it to him direct; it is the Gospel because it is the truth, not because of how it has been handled or conveyed.

This is why he skips over so much of his own interesting story; he wants to tell his readers about the truth and unchangeable nature of the Gospel, not focus on himself.  So he says; ‘I did not immediately look for worldly, human advice’ (1:16), which makes it plain that he does not regard his time in Jerusalem as a matter of learning the Gospel message from the apostles.  It was good for Paul to meet these great men of God, but the Gospel was and is bigger than even them.

So instead of staying in Jerusalem, the centre of the Church and the logical place to further an understanding of the Gospel, Paul seeks private prayer and personal devotion, for three years (1:18)!  His time is spent in the Arabian desert east of Judea, and also in Damascus (1:17,21).  Some think Paul travelled to Mount Sinai to get the Gospel just as Moses went there to get the 10 Commandments, and you will hear some preachers suggest this even today.  But this is pure speculation and distracts from Paul’s message; he has learned the Gospel direct from Jesus and not from others.

Knowing the apostles but distanced from them

The rest of this reading tells us of Paul’s limited contact with Peter and James in Jerusalem 1:18,19), and his journey to Syria and Cilicia, a very long way to the north of Jerusalem.  Paul emphasises the distance between himself and the apostles; he has fellowship with them but no substantial and sustained teaching.  No wonder then that Paul describes himself at the end of the passage as one virtually unknown (1:22).  The picture is now of Paul making his own way towards the Gospel, and the one who had once been a bitter opponent of Jesus was now a preacher, with a message (1:23)!

So what can we say of this passage?  Why should Paul want the Galatians to know that the Gospel he has preached to them is of divine origin not a product of human thought and development?  It is because Paul is determined to make them understand that the Gospel is not something people can think up, develop or amend; as if with good scholarship we gain further insights, or with better contact with the origins of the stories we might get it right.  Paul’s claim is that the Gospel is always of divine origin and one message, revealed by God.

In this way, Paul is attacking what had happened amongst the Galatian churches.  After his ministry and evangelism, other preachers turned up and persuaded the congregations they had to add parts of Judaism to the Gospel.  Pauli building up to a major attack on this and his first point is that the Gospel is divine and cannot be changed.  Even though the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15) has said that the Gospel does not need to add Judaism when preached to the Gentile, Paul does not use this instruction as the authority for his defending the Gospel.  He refers back to God, its creator!  It is a powerful argument.

Even now, I hear people talk casually about the way Paul went to Jerusalem in order to learn about the Gospel from Peter and the Apostles.  But we should learn that Paul did not see it like this and it is not true of either Acts 9 or of Galatians 1.  Paul’s claim to be an Apostle rests on this one point; Jesus has revealed the truth of the Gospel to him and it has certainly not come to him from the apostles!

13 You have doubtless heard about what I used to do in my former life as a Jew, how I persecuted the church of God with extreme vigour with the intention of destroying it. 14 I progressed in Judaism beyond many of my Jewish contemporaries and was far more zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when it pleased God, who set me apart from within my mother’s womb and called me through His grace 16 to reveal His Son to me so that I might preach Him amongst the Gentiles, I did not immediately look for worldly, human advice, 17 nor did I travel to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me, but I went away to Arabia and later returned again to Damascus.

18 Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and stayed with him for fifteen days, 19 but I did not see any of the other Apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. 20 (I assure you before God that what I am writing to you is no lie!) 21 Then I travelled to the regions of Syria and Cilicia, 22 and I was still personally unknown to the churches in Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the report: ‘The man who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he once attempted to destroy!’ 24 So they praised God because of me!