Paul’s Authority
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When the truth of the gospel is at stake, then the Christian has another obligation. Paul, elsewhere, he's lenient, he's flexible, he's pliable. But now, the issue of the truth of the gospel is at stake, and so Paul resists it.
Not only was the gospel under attack by the false teachers in Galatia, but Paul's authority was also under attack. Who was Paul to boldly declare what the true gospel was? And in our portion of Galatians today, Paul outlines his authority and why he was so bold in his defense of the gospel. I'm Nathan W. Bingham, and this is the Friday edition of Renewing Your Mind. Thanks for being with us. There are many issues and causes that can attract our attention today, but central for the Christian should be the faithful proclamation of the gospel. Galatians so clearly reminds us of this, so I recommend that you request R.C. Sproul's series on Galatians and his hardcover expositional commentary that walks through this letter line by line when you give a gift of any amount at renewingyourmind.org before this offer ends at midnight tonight. Here's Dr. Sproul on the credentials and passion of the Apostle Paul.
I think we should begin this morning then, still in the first chapter, and I'm going to start with verse 11. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man, for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." Let me just stop with that particular point there and just look at those two verses. Paul is saying, I am going on record here. I want to make it abundantly clear. I want this to be certified and be known and published. This is not an aside comment, a casual remark, but with all the earnestness and seriousness that I can muster, I want to guarantee to you is what the force of this verse is by Paul, that the gospel...
That I preach to you, that gospel which was preached by me is not something that comes from men. Its origin and its authority rests ultimately not with men, but as Paul goes on to say, but it rests upon the authority of Christ himself. Verse 12 is significant. He says, For I neither received it of men, neither was I taught it. Now, the words here in this particular verse that Paul uses are a bit more specific in their meaning than perhaps the English words convey that are used here in the King James Version of the Bible. When Paul says, I didn't receive it, he has something special obviously in mind. The word that he's using there is a technical term. It's the term that a Jewish scholar might use in terms of the receiving of the tradition. The receiving of the oral tradition, which is passed on by word of mouth over and over and over again. Paul is saying, I didn't just get this gospel from listening to other people pass it along from generation to generation or from community to community. That's not where I got it.
At this point, he's not even suggesting that he got it from the apostles. Secondhand. When he says he doesn't receive it, in a sense, what Paul is doing here is eliminating the middleman. He didn't receive it, and he wasn't taught it. This gospel I received from Christ by revelation. So, in a sense, what Paul is saying, if you reject this gospel, You're not just resisting the consensus of academic opinion. You're not just resisting the highest truths that I was able to learn through the scrutiny of my very sharp mind. If you resist this gospel that I've taught you, you are resisting not my authority, but the authority of Christ, because my gospel is gained from revelation, from Him, from Christ.
Now Paul goes on to give us a lengthy rehearsal of his personal background And let me just preface this by saying that what Paul is having in mind here is that he's trying to give us enough information of his background to validate his claim of apostleship. That's what he has in mind. This isn't just a biographical personal testimony. but rather a defense of the authenticity of his apostleship. And so he selects that material from his background that is relevant to that particular point. He said, you have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion. How that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it. In other words, my reputation as an intensely devout person in Judaism is known to you.
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