Sha’ul’s Letter to the Galatians ~ Part 3

We pause the ongoing story of Sha’ul to examine his Letter to the Galatians.

Note: To examine the graphics in this series, click on them for a pop-up version.

Sha’ul Defends His Appointment as an Emissary

In our last post, we left off on the topic of No Other Gospel with the following verse: ⁹ As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him! We now move on to verse 10.

¹⁰ Now, does that sound as if I were trying to win human approval? No! I want God’s approval! Or that I’m trying to cater to people? If I were still doing that, I would not be a servant of the Messiah.

Sha’ul was evidently being accused by certain other Messianic Jews of trying to win human approval, in this case, Gentile approval, by setting forth an “easy” Gospel that did not demand that Gentiles become Jews and thus be required to observe the Torah as non-Messianic Judaism understands it and as considerable numbers of Messianic Jews were practicing it (see posts Part 12-15 in this series). Sha’ul’s response is to establish from the start the dichotomy between winning human approval and winning God’s approval: one cannot aim at both, and Sha’ul’s interest is only in the latter (compare Romans 2:29). Or, to emphasize a different side of it, if Sha’ul catered to people, he would not in fact, indeed could not possibly, be a servant of the Messiah, since no less than God the Father, the Messiah demands exclusive loyalty.

 

 

 

¹¹ Furthermore, let me make clear to you, brothers, that the Good News as I proclaim it is not a human product; ¹² because neither did I receive it from someone else nor was I taught it—it came through a direct revelation from Yeshua the Messiah.

The Good News, as I proclaim it, was revealed directly (compare 2:2) by the Risen Yeshua. The fact that it is not a human product and that neither did he receive it from someone else nor was he taught it means that he had no reason to try to win the approval of or cater to his teachers (v. 10); for those who had been his teachers, Rabban Gamli’el (Acts 22:3) and other non-Messianic Jews, had taught him something very different (vv. 13–14 below).

¹³ For you have heard about my former way of life in [traditional] Judaism – how I did my best to persecute God’s Messianic Community and destroy it;¹⁴ and how, since I was more of a zealot for the traditions handed down by my forefathers than most Jews my age, I advanced in [traditional] Judaism more rapidly than they did.

Sha’ul communicated three things to his readers: (1) he had advanced much farther in Judaism than those who had distorted the Gospel, (2) he was far more zealous for the Jewish traditions than these false teachers, and (3) ironically, Sha’ul’s zeal and advancement in Judaism led him to persecute the church before his conversion.

¹⁵ But when God, who picked me out before I was born and called me by his grace, chose ¹⁶ to reveal his Son to me so that I might announce him to the Gentiles, I did not consult anyone; ¹⁷ and I did not go up to Yerushalayim to see those who were emissaries before me. Instead, I immediately went off to Arabia and afterward returned to Dammesek.

On Sha’ul’s calling to preach Yeshua among the Gentiles, see Acts 9:15; 26:17–18; Romans 1:5; 16:26. After his conversion (Acts 9:3–9), Sha’ul did not feel any compulsion to travel immediately from Dammesek to Yerushalayim to consult with the authorities on the Gospel. He went to Arabia (see Acts 9:23–25; 2 Corinthians 11:32–33), then back to Dammesek.

¹⁸ Not until three years later did I go up to Yerushalayim to make Kefa’s acquaintance, and I stayed with him for two weeks, ¹⁹ but I did not see any of the other emissaries except Ya’akov the Lord’s brother. ²⁰ (Concerning these matters I am writing you about, I declare before God that I am not lying!) <sup21 Next, I went to Syria and Cilicia; ²² but in Y’hudah, the Messianic congregations didn’t even know what I looked like— ²³ they were only hearing the report, “The one who used to persecute us now preaches the Good News of the faith he was formerly out to destroy”; ²⁴ and they praised God for me. ¹

As further evidence that Sha’ul’s version of the Good News was not taught to him by others (vv. 11–12), he writes that in Y’hudah, where the greatest concentration of believers was, the Messianic congregations didn’t even know what he looked like, much less had they instructed him in their version of the Gospel.

In our next post, we will continue to explore Sha’ul’s Letter to the Galatians, starting in chapter 2:1.

Click here for the PDF version.

¹ Galatians 1:09-24