Bible Studies
LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE As A Member OR Visitor
Message Writer
Hire Writer
Report Article
RIGHT ABOUT TURN!
"Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
"I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers." Galatians 1:10-14.
How much zeal and energy Paul poured into this letter! He knew he was in a life-and- death struggle for the souls of the believers in Galatia. He would use every possible means to persuade them that they had been fooled.
Perhaps he had been accused of being a people-pleaser. But it was quite the opposite. Preaching the cross of Christ was offensive to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. Who would want to follow a fellow who had been crucified by the Romans? He must have been a lawbreaker. How could He be a god worthy of worship? It was unthinkable that God's Messiah could have been put to death like a common criminal. After all, He was supposed to be their king and deliverer.
Paul had been hounded from city to city by the Jews for daring to invite Gentiles to believe in their God. Gentiles were dogs and scum and Jews did not associate with them. That Gentiles were included in God's covenant with Abraham was unthinkable. Paul not only taught that but he also went as far as teaching that Gentiles who believed in Jesus were spiritual children of Abraham while Jews who did not receive Jesus as their Messiah were excluded from the covenant. How was that for being a people-pleaser!
Paul's history also made it impossible to think that he had invented the gospel he preached. He had been a vicious persecutor of those who followed Jesus. He was determined to stamp out this new religion, even if it meant exterminating every follower, one by one. He went to every city and town where they were, arresting and dragging them off to Jerusalem to be tried by the Sanhedrin.
He had not reckoned on Jesus or His purpose for him. Jesus was not fazed by Paul's zeal for the tradition of his fathers; not for the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, mind you! Had he been zealous for their faith, he might have acted differently. In typical Pharisee style, his hatred for followers of Jesus did not take into account that he was not acting like the patriarchs who loved and trusted God rather than murdering those who did believe as they did! Just like his fellow Pharisees who were children of the devil, according to Jesus, Paul had been a murderer and the followers of Jesus were his target.
How did Saul, hater and murderer of Christians become Paul, loyal follower of Jesus and preacher of the good news about the cross and resurrection of the very one he had persecuted? Only God could do that! And only Jesus could explain it to Paul by revelation so clearly that he could write the kind of things he wrote without qualms. He did not sit at the feet of Peter or get the message from John. He got it from Jesus Himself in the years he spent in solitude in Arabia.
No one as zealous or fanatical as Paul can make a right-about turn by himself. It has to be a work of God and a revelation of grace. From one who pumped the law the way Paul did to one who preached the sufficiency of Christ's work which actually cancelled and did away with the law, took a powerful and life-changing encounter with the one he had rejected and refused to believe.
Paul had a very strong case for the source of his gospel. Unlike the Judaizers who were building on tradition, and defending their position with the might of the Jewish hierarchy behind them, Paul based his case on the authority given to him by God and the revelation of the truth from Jesus Himself. How could they argue against the transformation of the messenger of this good news?
Acknowledgement
Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE AS A MEMBER OR VISITOR
This article has been read 487 times < Previous | Next >
Free Reprints
Main Site Articles
Most Read Articles
Highly Acclaimed Challenge Articles.
New Release Christian Books for Free for a Simple Review.
NEW - Surprise Me With an Article - Click here for a random URL
God is Not Against You - He Came on an All Out Rescue Mission to Save You
...in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them... 2 Cor 5:19
Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. Acts 13:38
LEARN & TRUST JESUS HERE
FaithWriters offers Christian reading material for Christian readers. We offer Christian articles, Christian fiction, Christian non-fiction, Christian Bible studies, Christian poems, Christian articles for sale, free use Christian articles, Christian living articles, New Covenant Christian Bible Studies, Christian magazine articles and new Christian articles. We write for Jesus about God, the Bible, salvation, prayer and the word of God.