A Study of Galatians
Chapter 1
1. Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)
Typical for the day, this epistle begins with the identification of the writer, and, in keeping with many of Paul’s letters, this includes his authority as an Apostle (Romans 1:1; 1 and 2 Corinthians 1:1; Ephesians 1:1, Colossians 1:1; 1 and 2 Timothy 1:1; Titus 1:1). However, unlike most of his letters, this greeting includes the qualifications for his apostleship; inasmuch as this is a corrective letter, Paul clearly wants the Galatians to understand the authority that he carries, lest they show disdain for his instruction.
An apostle (apostolos) is simply a “messenger, one sent forth with orders.”1 What is evident in the Scriptures is that the Apostles named by Jesus Christ were held in much higher regard than someone who was simply a messenger. These men carried the responsibility of bearing a message for Jesus Christ; several were given special insight into what God has planned for mankind, and they all bore the task of bringing this message to the world. It seems clear that none of the Apostles carried a greater responsibility in this area than Paul – as we will see, the Apostles who were centered in Jerusalem seemed to have difficulty leaving that city. Peter acknowledged that Paul taught many things that were difficult to understand, yet he also warned that those who twisted Paul’s teachings did so to their own peril (2 Peter 3:16).
Many take the position that Paul is really the twelfth Apostle (Matthias was hastily chosen through Peter’s initiative to replace Judas Iscariot), and this may well be true. Nevertheless, Paul never claimed that position for himself. When writing to the Corinthians, he declared that Jesus “was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve” (1 Corinthians 15:5); later in the text he acknowledges that “... last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time” and “the least of the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:8-9). Clearly, there were more apostles than just the twelve, but it is also evident that not all of the Apostles accepted the same responsibility to spread the Message as that which the Lord placed upon Paul’s shoulders.
The Greek phrase for not of men is literally not from men.2 What Paul is seeking to establish right off is that his apostleship was not given to him by men; his calling and commissioning came from the Lord Himself (Acts 9:6). Matthias, by contrast, would have had to say that his commission as an Apostle came from the disciples of the Lord (under Peter’s initiative) and not directly from the Lord. This places Paul’s apostleship on an equal plane with the other eleven who were appointed by Jesus Christ, and adds weight to the suggestion that Paul is really one of the twelve. When Paul presents the Galatian believers with his qualification as an Apostle, it is to underscore with them the ultimate Authority of his commission (the Lord Jesus Christ).
Paul continues: neither by man, or nor through man.3 This completes the emphasis that his apostleship did not originate with man. Although Ananias was the first who gave Paul insight as to what the Lord had in store for him (Acts 9:10-17), it is clear from this that Paul did not look to Ananias as the one through whom the Lord placed this call upon his life. There is to be no misunderstanding on the part of the Galatian believers that Paul’s authority, as an Apostle, came directly from the Lord; should they fail to heed his message to them, they would be spurning the instructions of the Lord. We can understand that this is a very important foundation for Paul to establish before launching into his letter of correction.
But by Jesus Christ, and God the Father – If you have not caught the significance of Paul’s authority up to this point, then all doubt is now removed. Paul did not receive his commission from men, nor through any man, but directly from the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father. This is important, for Paul did not receive a call from the Lord Jesus Christ to leave his occupation and follow Him in His earthly ministry (unlike the other Apostles who were called by the Lord). We learn from Acts 22:3 that, although from Tarsus of Cilicia, Paul grew up in Jerusalem and received a thorough education in the Jewish law from the highly acclaimed Gamaliel. It would seem that Paul may have had opportunity to hear Jesus teach, and would most certainly have been privy to the discussions that the Pharisees had regarding His teachings. When Paul met the Lord while journeying to Damascus, his mind was opened to a whole new understanding of the Word of God. Paul had been “taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God” (Acts 22:3), yet, within a very short period of time, he was forever convinced that the One Whom he had been persecuting was, indeed, the promised Messiah (Acts 9:20). Keep in mind that he was a Pharisee, the strictest sect among the Jews at the time (Philippians 3:5), a group that was very precise in their keeping of the Law (Pharisee comes from a Hebrew root that means, “to separate”4). Nevertheless, the Lord totally changed Paul’s theology within days! If ever there was anyone qualified to speak to the problems among the Galatian believers, it was Paul. He was a “Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; ... touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:5-6). Yet the Lord did such a transformation of his heart that his hope was removed from his Jewish traditions – he was forever turned from the Jewish Laws and toward the Lord.
Later in his ministry, Paul commended the Bereans for checking his message against the Scriptures to ensure that what they were receiving was in keeping with God’s Word (Acts 17:11); he was more concerned that they have a firm and true foundation for their faith (namely, the Scriptures) than that they should simply accept what he was saying. Today we have an Evangelical herd-mentality – if everyone is doing it or believing it, then it must be right; consequently, we have “spiritual leaders” who will boldly proclaim, “I am a Baptist by conviction.”5 What could that possibly mean except that if the Baptists are wrong, then he will also be wrong! He went on to say: “I believe our faith and practice is absolutely inline with what the Word of God teaches”; in other words, I have not checked, but I have been persuaded (believe) that the Baptist position that I have is Biblically accurate.6 After meeting the Lord, we never hear of Paul saying, “I am a Pharisee by conviction!” Yet not everything that the Pharisees stood for was wrong; even Jesus encouraged His disciples to give heed to their instruction – just don’t follow their example (Matthew 23:2-3). Paul knew what it meant to have his theological understanding turned on its head by the Lord of glory; yet today there is hardly anyone who will take the time to examine their denominational doctrines in the light of Scripture. It is much more fashionable now to emphasize the mystery of the Word of God and retain our personal biases than it is to examine what we have been taught against the Scriptures and change them as necessary. Too many “Christians” have become so comfortable with the status quo that anyone who would suggest a need to change according to God’s Word is considered to be a trouble-maker; as a matter of fact, the more lax our attitude is toward the Word of God, the greater hearing that we will have. Paul identified this condition: “For the time will come [it is here now!] when they will not endure [listen to] sound doctrine [Biblically accurate teaching]; but after their own lusts [passions, desires] shall they heap [accumulate] to themselves teachers, having itching ears [they crave only what they want to hear]; And they shall turn away their ears from [refuse to listen to] the truth, and shall be turned unto fables [myths, anything but the truth]” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).7 Nevertheless, our commission and calling from the Lord have not changed: “If ye love me, keep [a command] my commandments” (John 14:15); “... hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep [are keeping] his commandments” (1 John 2:3).8
Paul’s calling as an Apostle came from the Lord Jesus Christ and from God the Father, and you can rest assured that the Spirit was very active in his life, guiding him into all truth (John 16:13). Evangelicalism has produced a generation of accommodators – they are no more interested in knowing the truth than they are in raising a question about any of their well-crafted theologies. As Paul taught the Thessalonians concerning the coming Antichrist, he observed that there would be a great deal of deception “because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10). Unfortunately, today’s Evangelicals have not found the narrow way that leads to life – Jesus warned that it would be found by only a few, and those who do not hold a sincere love for the Truth of God’s Word will never find it (Matthew 7:14); Jesus also said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6), thereby identifying Himself as being that narrow way. In 1948, when Harold Ockenga announced a New Evangelicalism that excluded any idea of separation from error and the world, he led his eager Evangelical followers onto the broad road that leads to destruction.9 The modern Evangelical has never heard the full truth of the Scriptures (only smatterings mixed with error) and so has not been taught the Truth; they are a generation who is content with a religion that requires nothing of them and, nonetheless, deceptively assures them of heaven.
From the phrase, who raised him from the dead, two things come through that are of great importance. First of all, it is God the Father Who raised Jesus from the dead, and Who commissioned Paul as an Apostle; the resurrection power of God is behind Paul’s apostolic commissioning. Secondly, and perhaps more central to Paul’s overarching message, Jesus was raised from the dead. As Paul stated in his arguments to the Corinthians, “if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). Jesus, having been raised from the dead to never die again, is called the Firstfruit (aparche, singular) of those who have died (1 Corinthians 15:20).10 The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the life of the Gospel message. As a Pharisee, Paul probably assisted the Sanhedrin in spreading the rumor that the guards had fallen asleep and that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body from the grave; but, when he met the Lord on that Damascus road, he learned very quickly that Jesus not only was alive, but also glorified. It was the resurrected Lord Who struck him down on that road and got his attention for a whole new work (from persecutor to preacher). The centrality of the risen Lord to the message of the Gospel cannot be overemphasized, for thereon our hope in Christ is founded.
1. Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)
Typical for the day, this epistle begins with the identification of the writer, and, in keeping with many of Paul’s letters, this includes his authority as an Apostle (Romans 1:1; 1 and 2 Corinthians 1:1; Ephesians 1:1, Colossians 1:1; 1 and 2 Timothy 1:1; Titus 1:1). However, unlike most of his letters, this greeting includes the qualifications for his apostleship; inasmuch as this is a corrective letter, Paul clearly wants the Galatians to understand the authority that he carries, lest they show disdain for his instruction.
An apostle (apostolos) is simply a “messenger, one sent forth with orders.”1 What is evident in the Scriptures is that the Apostles named by Jesus Christ were held in much higher regard than someone who was simply a messenger. These men carried the responsibility of bearing a message for Jesus Christ; several were given special insight into what God has planned for mankind, and they all bore the task of bringing this message to the world. It seems clear that none of the Apostles carried a greater responsibility in this area than Paul – as we will see, the Apostles who were centered in Jerusalem seemed to have difficulty leaving that city. Peter acknowledged that Paul taught many things that were difficult to understand, yet he also warned that those who twisted Paul’s teachings did so to their own peril (2 Peter 3:16).
Many take the position that Paul is really the twelfth Apostle (Matthias was hastily chosen through Peter’s initiative to replace Judas Iscariot), and this may well be true. Nevertheless, Paul never claimed that position for himself. When writing to the Corinthians, he declared that Jesus “was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve” (1 Corinthians 15:5); later in the text he acknowledges that “... last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time” and “the least of the apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:8-9). Clearly, there were more apostles than just the twelve, but it is also evident that not all of the Apostles accepted the same responsibility to spread the Message as that which the Lord placed upon Paul’s shoulders.
The Greek phrase for not of men is literally not from men.2 What Paul is seeking to establish right off is that his apostleship was not given to him by men; his calling and commissioning came from the Lord Himself (Acts 9:6). Matthias, by contrast, would have had to say that his commission as an Apostle came from the disciples of the Lord (under Peter’s initiative) and not directly from the Lord. This places Paul’s apostleship on an equal plane with the other eleven who were appointed by Jesus Christ, and adds weight to the suggestion that Paul is really one of the twelve. When Paul presents the Galatian believers with his qualification as an Apostle, it is to underscore with them the ultimate Authority of his commission (the Lord Jesus Christ).
Paul continues: neither by man, or nor through man.3 This completes the emphasis that his apostleship did not originate with man. Although Ananias was the first who gave Paul insight as to what the Lord had in store for him (Acts 9:10-17), it is clear from this that Paul did not look to Ananias as the one through whom the Lord placed this call upon his life. There is to be no misunderstanding on the part of the Galatian believers that Paul’s authority, as an Apostle, came directly from the Lord; should they fail to heed his message to them, they would be spurning the instructions of the Lord. We can understand that this is a very important foundation for Paul to establish before launching into his letter of correction.
But by Jesus Christ, and God the Father – If you have not caught the significance of Paul’s authority up to this point, then all doubt is now removed. Paul did not receive his commission from men, nor through any man, but directly from the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father. This is important, for Paul did not receive a call from the Lord Jesus Christ to leave his occupation and follow Him in His earthly ministry (unlike the other Apostles who were called by the Lord). We learn from Acts 22:3 that, although from Tarsus of Cilicia, Paul grew up in Jerusalem and received a thorough education in the Jewish law from the highly acclaimed Gamaliel. It would seem that Paul may have had opportunity to hear Jesus teach, and would most certainly have been privy to the discussions that the Pharisees had regarding His teachings. When Paul met the Lord while journeying to Damascus, his mind was opened to a whole new understanding of the Word of God. Paul had been “taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God” (Acts 22:3), yet, within a very short period of time, he was forever convinced that the One Whom he had been persecuting was, indeed, the promised Messiah (Acts 9:20). Keep in mind that he was a Pharisee, the strictest sect among the Jews at the time (Philippians 3:5), a group that was very precise in their keeping of the Law (Pharisee comes from a Hebrew root that means, “to separate”4). Nevertheless, the Lord totally changed Paul’s theology within days! If ever there was anyone qualified to speak to the problems among the Galatian believers, it was Paul. He was a “Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; ... touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless” (Philippians 3:5-6). Yet the Lord did such a transformation of his heart that his hope was removed from his Jewish traditions – he was forever turned from the Jewish Laws and toward the Lord.
Later in his ministry, Paul commended the Bereans for checking his message against the Scriptures to ensure that what they were receiving was in keeping with God’s Word (Acts 17:11); he was more concerned that they have a firm and true foundation for their faith (namely, the Scriptures) than that they should simply accept what he was saying. Today we have an Evangelical herd-mentality – if everyone is doing it or believing it, then it must be right; consequently, we have “spiritual leaders” who will boldly proclaim, “I am a Baptist by conviction.”5 What could that possibly mean except that if the Baptists are wrong, then he will also be wrong! He went on to say: “I believe our faith and practice is absolutely inline with what the Word of God teaches”; in other words, I have not checked, but I have been persuaded (believe) that the Baptist position that I have is Biblically accurate.6 After meeting the Lord, we never hear of Paul saying, “I am a Pharisee by conviction!” Yet not everything that the Pharisees stood for was wrong; even Jesus encouraged His disciples to give heed to their instruction – just don’t follow their example (Matthew 23:2-3). Paul knew what it meant to have his theological understanding turned on its head by the Lord of glory; yet today there is hardly anyone who will take the time to examine their denominational doctrines in the light of Scripture. It is much more fashionable now to emphasize the mystery of the Word of God and retain our personal biases than it is to examine what we have been taught against the Scriptures and change them as necessary. Too many “Christians” have become so comfortable with the status quo that anyone who would suggest a need to change according to God’s Word is considered to be a trouble-maker; as a matter of fact, the more lax our attitude is toward the Word of God, the greater hearing that we will have. Paul identified this condition: “For the time will come [it is here now!] when they will not endure [listen to] sound doctrine [Biblically accurate teaching]; but after their own lusts [passions, desires] shall they heap [accumulate] to themselves teachers, having itching ears [they crave only what they want to hear]; And they shall turn away their ears from [refuse to listen to] the truth, and shall be turned unto fables [myths, anything but the truth]” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).7 Nevertheless, our commission and calling from the Lord have not changed: “If ye love me, keep [a command] my commandments” (John 14:15); “... hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep [are keeping] his commandments” (1 John 2:3).8
Paul’s calling as an Apostle came from the Lord Jesus Christ and from God the Father, and you can rest assured that the Spirit was very active in his life, guiding him into all truth (John 16:13). Evangelicalism has produced a generation of accommodators – they are no more interested in knowing the truth than they are in raising a question about any of their well-crafted theologies. As Paul taught the Thessalonians concerning the coming Antichrist, he observed that there would be a great deal of deception “because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:10). Unfortunately, today’s Evangelicals have not found the narrow way that leads to life – Jesus warned that it would be found by only a few, and those who do not hold a sincere love for the Truth of God’s Word will never find it (Matthew 7:14); Jesus also said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6), thereby identifying Himself as being that narrow way. In 1948, when Harold Ockenga announced a New Evangelicalism that excluded any idea of separation from error and the world, he led his eager Evangelical followers onto the broad road that leads to destruction.9 The modern Evangelical has never heard the full truth of the Scriptures (only smatterings mixed with error) and so has not been taught the Truth; they are a generation who is content with a religion that requires nothing of them and, nonetheless, deceptively assures them of heaven.
From the phrase, who raised him from the dead, two things come through that are of great importance. First of all, it is God the Father Who raised Jesus from the dead, and Who commissioned Paul as an Apostle; the resurrection power of God is behind Paul’s apostolic commissioning. Secondly, and perhaps more central to Paul’s overarching message, Jesus was raised from the dead. As Paul stated in his arguments to the Corinthians, “if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). Jesus, having been raised from the dead to never die again, is called the Firstfruit (aparche, singular) of those who have died (1 Corinthians 15:20).10 The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the life of the Gospel message. As a Pharisee, Paul probably assisted the Sanhedrin in spreading the rumor that the guards had fallen asleep and that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body from the grave; but, when he met the Lord on that Damascus road, he learned very quickly that Jesus not only was alive, but also glorified. It was the resurrected Lord Who struck him down on that road and got his attention for a whole new work (from persecutor to preacher). The centrality of the risen Lord to the message of the Gospel cannot be overemphasized, for thereon our hope in Christ is founded.
2. And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia:
All the brethren which are with me – this is unique to this epistle; in all of his other epistles, Paul indicates that they came from him, or from him and one or more named individuals (Sosthenes, Silvanus and/or Timotheus). This time he chose to include all the brethren who were with him, and they remained unnamed. From this we can note that this letter came to the believers within the region of Galatia not only reflective of what Paul declared to be true, but it also had the full support of all those who were with him. This was a letter of correction and instruction to which all of those who were with him added their hearty, “Amen!”
Finally, we come to the recipients of the letter – the churches, or ekklesiais, of the region of Galatia. This would have included several of the assemblies established on the journey taken by Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13 and 14) and probably some of the first groups of believers to be established in the region of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). When Paul declared Jesus as Messiah on that first trip through this region, he encountered strong opposition from the religious Jews, whether because of what he taught or from envy over the broad acceptance of his teachings. On the occasion of this corrective letter, we find the influence of Jews had caused some to question the instruction that they had received of Paul. We are reminded again that the devil will take any and every opportunity to stir up trouble, dissension, or to plant the seeds of doubt and heresy; he did not provide the new believers with a moment’s reprieve but sought to derail them as quickly as possible from their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that this letter is addressed to more than one ekklesia makes it evident that the devil had his finger in several of the assemblies in the region of Galatia. The devil may not be omniscient, but “... as a roaring lion, [he] walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). What we must not overlook is that the devil is only seeking the children of God to destroy (devour); the children of disobedience (everyone who is not in Christ) are already under his spell (Ephesians 2:2).
It is also important for us to understand that the word church, as it is used today, has very little in common with the word that has been so translated in our English Bibles. The Greek word is ekklesia (singular form) and, literally, means called-out ones, and is more accurately translated as assembly.11 Today’s church is highly organized (with programs, property, budgets, salaries, and tax-exempt status) and has a very definite downward flow of authority, with the primacy residing with the designated leader or leaders. A careful consideration of the Scriptures soon lays these to rest as being unbiblical; within our modern Christian community, we have departed so far from the Lord’s instructions and have unwittingly patterned our coming together after the Roman Catholic Church. The ekklesia is a study all on its own;12 suffice it to say that the assembly of Paul’s day would have met in homes, was watched over by appointed elders who were not voted in for a three-year term, and they came together to exhort one another to grow in the Lord.
3. Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
Now Paul presents his greeting: grace be to you and peace. Grace (charis [khar′-ece]) is that which provides joy or pleasure,13 and became a common greeting in that day: grace to you, or, we wish you that which will bring you joy. Looking at the Greek root for this word, what comes to mind is the modern Charismatic movement, which clearly has lost sight of the grace of God with their excesses. Rather than bringing joy or pleasure to God, they have become a source of blasphemy and a stone of stumbling to many; Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen, to name just a few, all live lavishly upon the backs of their loyal supporters. The plain teachings of Scripture have been set aside for their own heresies; the excesses of the so-called Toronto Blessing (and its world-wide influences) are falsely attributed to the Spirit of God, and their leaders often live in unrestrained pursuit of the pleasures of this world. There is no evidence of the grace spoken of here; God is certainly not pleased with their carryings on, and, because they have departed so far from the Word of God, no one is edified or drawn into the Way through them.
Peace brings to mind the Jewish greeting, shalom. The Greek word translated as peace (ierene) means harmony, tranquility and peace, whether nationally, inter-personally, or with God; the Hebrew word shalom carries the thought of completeness, soundness and, thus, peace and tranquility.14 Even though both the Greek and Hebrew words so translated include the concept of peace, their primary meanings differ.
Paul identifies the source of the grace and peace as being from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.15 This is not a wish from Paul; rather, it is Paul’s desire for the grace and peace of God to be upon these believers. This is God the Father and Jesus Christ administering grace and peace by the Spirit of God Who is actively at work in the hearts of each believer. Notice the second from has been supplied by the translators; the Greek brings God the Father and the Lord Jesus together into a single source for this grace and peace, emphasizing the unity that exists within the Godhead and the exalted position of Jesus. The word our, I believe, is significant here, for it is clear that Paul is seeking to include the Galatian Christians in acknowledging the pre-eminence of Jesus as both Lord and Messiah – an important understanding for them to have in order to better combat the error that they were facing.
4. Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:
In the midst of his greeting to the Galatians, Paul takes a moment to remind them of what the Lord Jesus has done for them – a significant premise for seeking to correct their error. Paul sees the need to refocus the thinking of these people onto the Lord Jesus Christ, for the only way that they could have departed from the clear instructions of Paul would have been to turn their eyes away from the One Who died for them. The writer of Hebrews tells us that we need to be looking unto Jesus; looking (aphorao) means to have a single focus – in other words, we are to fix our gaze upon the Lord Jesus Christ and Him only. Clearly, the Galatians had lost that singular focus and were being drawn away from the Lord; by reminding them of what the Lord has done, Paul hopes to reset their focus and, thereby, correct the error that was creeping in among them.
All the brethren which are with me – this is unique to this epistle; in all of his other epistles, Paul indicates that they came from him, or from him and one or more named individuals (Sosthenes, Silvanus and/or Timotheus). This time he chose to include all the brethren who were with him, and they remained unnamed. From this we can note that this letter came to the believers within the region of Galatia not only reflective of what Paul declared to be true, but it also had the full support of all those who were with him. This was a letter of correction and instruction to which all of those who were with him added their hearty, “Amen!”
Finally, we come to the recipients of the letter – the churches, or ekklesiais, of the region of Galatia. This would have included several of the assemblies established on the journey taken by Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13 and 14) and probably some of the first groups of believers to be established in the region of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). When Paul declared Jesus as Messiah on that first trip through this region, he encountered strong opposition from the religious Jews, whether because of what he taught or from envy over the broad acceptance of his teachings. On the occasion of this corrective letter, we find the influence of Jews had caused some to question the instruction that they had received of Paul. We are reminded again that the devil will take any and every opportunity to stir up trouble, dissension, or to plant the seeds of doubt and heresy; he did not provide the new believers with a moment’s reprieve but sought to derail them as quickly as possible from their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that this letter is addressed to more than one ekklesia makes it evident that the devil had his finger in several of the assemblies in the region of Galatia. The devil may not be omniscient, but “... as a roaring lion, [he] walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). What we must not overlook is that the devil is only seeking the children of God to destroy (devour); the children of disobedience (everyone who is not in Christ) are already under his spell (Ephesians 2:2).
It is also important for us to understand that the word church, as it is used today, has very little in common with the word that has been so translated in our English Bibles. The Greek word is ekklesia (singular form) and, literally, means called-out ones, and is more accurately translated as assembly.11 Today’s church is highly organized (with programs, property, budgets, salaries, and tax-exempt status) and has a very definite downward flow of authority, with the primacy residing with the designated leader or leaders. A careful consideration of the Scriptures soon lays these to rest as being unbiblical; within our modern Christian community, we have departed so far from the Lord’s instructions and have unwittingly patterned our coming together after the Roman Catholic Church. The ekklesia is a study all on its own;12 suffice it to say that the assembly of Paul’s day would have met in homes, was watched over by appointed elders who were not voted in for a three-year term, and they came together to exhort one another to grow in the Lord.
3. Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
Now Paul presents his greeting: grace be to you and peace. Grace (charis [khar′-ece]) is that which provides joy or pleasure,13 and became a common greeting in that day: grace to you, or, we wish you that which will bring you joy. Looking at the Greek root for this word, what comes to mind is the modern Charismatic movement, which clearly has lost sight of the grace of God with their excesses. Rather than bringing joy or pleasure to God, they have become a source of blasphemy and a stone of stumbling to many; Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer and Joel Osteen, to name just a few, all live lavishly upon the backs of their loyal supporters. The plain teachings of Scripture have been set aside for their own heresies; the excesses of the so-called Toronto Blessing (and its world-wide influences) are falsely attributed to the Spirit of God, and their leaders often live in unrestrained pursuit of the pleasures of this world. There is no evidence of the grace spoken of here; God is certainly not pleased with their carryings on, and, because they have departed so far from the Word of God, no one is edified or drawn into the Way through them.
Peace brings to mind the Jewish greeting, shalom. The Greek word translated as peace (ierene) means harmony, tranquility and peace, whether nationally, inter-personally, or with God; the Hebrew word shalom carries the thought of completeness, soundness and, thus, peace and tranquility.14 Even though both the Greek and Hebrew words so translated include the concept of peace, their primary meanings differ.
Paul identifies the source of the grace and peace as being from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.15 This is not a wish from Paul; rather, it is Paul’s desire for the grace and peace of God to be upon these believers. This is God the Father and Jesus Christ administering grace and peace by the Spirit of God Who is actively at work in the hearts of each believer. Notice the second from has been supplied by the translators; the Greek brings God the Father and the Lord Jesus together into a single source for this grace and peace, emphasizing the unity that exists within the Godhead and the exalted position of Jesus. The word our, I believe, is significant here, for it is clear that Paul is seeking to include the Galatian Christians in acknowledging the pre-eminence of Jesus as both Lord and Messiah – an important understanding for them to have in order to better combat the error that they were facing.
4. Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:
In the midst of his greeting to the Galatians, Paul takes a moment to remind them of what the Lord Jesus has done for them – a significant premise for seeking to correct their error. Paul sees the need to refocus the thinking of these people onto the Lord Jesus Christ, for the only way that they could have departed from the clear instructions of Paul would have been to turn their eyes away from the One Who died for them. The writer of Hebrews tells us that we need to be looking unto Jesus; looking (aphorao) means to have a single focus – in other words, we are to fix our gaze upon the Lord Jesus Christ and Him only. Clearly, the Galatians had lost that singular focus and were being drawn away from the Lord; by reminding them of what the Lord has done, Paul hopes to reset their focus and, thereby, correct the error that was creeping in among them.
Who gave himself for our sins – here is the central essence of the reason for the Lord coming to this earth, and our motivation for giving the Lord the uppermost position in our lives (and in obedience to the First Commandment – Exodus 20:3). From before the foundation of the world, the Triune God had determined that this would be how the redemption of mankind would be accomplished (1 Peter 1:18-21). Our salvation is eternally centered in Jesus: He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6); there is “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). Despite the best efforts of man to promote other ways to God, the words of the Lord remain firm – there is only One Way! Billy Graham might have embraced the Pope of Catholicism, Robert Schuller might well have accepted the Islam, and Rick Warren may walk alongside of the Buddhists, but that in no way impacts what the unchangeable God has openly declared as being the only way of salvation. The roots of ecumenism have virtually hijacked the Evangelical movement, but none of that broadens the Way to God; there is only One Way, and that will never change: Jesus Christ yesterday and today the same and unto the ages (Hebrews 13:8).16 As Paul begins this epistle of correction, he reminds these believers that Jesus gave Himself (He was not a victim of man’s actions) as the ultimate fulfilling sacrifice for our sins. He is the Shepherd Who laid down His life for the sheep (John 10:15-17); Jesus did not die from the torture of crucifixion: “… when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up [active voice; Jesus relinquished His spirit to the Father (cp. Luke 23:46)] the ghost” (Matthew 27:50).17
John Calvin
Paul goes on to declare the purpose for the Lord’s sacrifice: that he might deliver us from this present evil world – so that we might be rescued (deliver) from the world, which is clamoring for our attention. In the Greek, this is a purpose statement with a subjunctive verb, which means that the verb is to be likened to the indicative mood (a statement of fact) rather than presently a possibility – the reason that Jesus gave Himself for the sins of humanity was so that He is able to rescue us (those who have placed our faith in Him) from the evil world.18 Although His purpose is clear, our deliverance can still be hampered by our deceitful hearts, which is why we have the many, many admonitions in Scripture to be vigilant (1 Peter 5:8), to test the spirits (1 John 4:1), or to guard against an evil heart of unbelief (Hebrews 3:12). Man was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27), and even sinful man still bears that image (Genesis 9:6; James 3:9). God created Adam and Eve with a will and the ability to think and reason, and they exercised their will when they sinned. In all of the descendants of Adam and Eve, that will is very present and active, albeit with a sinful bent – our will is no longer exercised from a state of being sinless. Calvinism has removed the will of man; within their thinking, man can no longer choose because he is too deeply depraved – if God has chosen him to life, then there is nothing that he can do to lose it; on the other hand, if he has been elected to damnation, then he can do nothing to avoid it. It is a fatalistic theology that turns men into robots being moved about through life by a totally sovereign and deterministic God; this not only significantly encroaches upon man bearing the image of God, but it also renders all of the admonitions of Scripture as just so many empty words. Calvinism holds no motivation for spiritual growth, and history affirms that frequently its adherents become worldly compromisers.
Equally destructive is the theology of many Evangelicals that promotes the doctrine of eternal security – pray a prayer for salvation and you are set for eternal life, even if you live for the devil. However, this cannot be, for God would not provide warnings to remain faithful to Him if it was not necessary to do so. God’s desire for us is clear: Christ has paid the price for our redemption so that we might be rescued from a world that is doomed to destruction. Yet Jesus’ prayer was: “I pray not that thou shouldest take [in the Greek this is a purpose clause with a subjunctive verb, which (as before) makes this a statement of fact, not a mere possibility] them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep [again, a purpose clause] them from the evil [or Satan]” (John 17:15).19 Jesus has just noted that His disciples had received God’s Word and that they were not of this world, yet Jesus is asking His Father NOT to take them out of the world (which would be in keeping with what He had just said) but rather that He would protect them from evil. God is our only hope for being kept from the evil and the evil one of this age; hence Jesus’ command to abide in Him (John 15:4); for it is only as we are in Him that we are secure. “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep [should be keeping; present tense (it must be continuous) and subjunctive mood (possible only if we choose to do so)] his commandments” (1 John 2:3); therein is the essence of our protection.20 The Psalmist declared: “I have chosen [perfect tense; a completed action] the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me” (Psalm 119:30); despite the teachings of Calvinism, there is a choice to be made and, clearly, we are capable of doing so.21 Abiding in Christ is a choice that Jesus commands us to make; obeying the simple commands of Scripture is also a choice, as is neglecting the Word of God. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation ...” (Hebrews 2:3); the clear understanding is that we won’t escape if we are careless with God’s proffered salvation.22 “Take heed, brethren [earlier they are called holy brethren], lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief [apistia; no faith or faithlessness], in departing [becoming apostate] from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12).23
Paul identifies our deliverance from the world as being according to the will of God and our Father. “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification ...” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). There are many Scriptures that speak of the will of God, but, within the context of this passage, Paul’s explanation to the Thessalonians seems particularly fitting. The Greek word for sanctification is hagiasmos (hag-ee-as-mos'), which means holy living or consecration.24 The evident root of hagiasmos is hagios (in Greek) from which we get our word holy;25 again we are reminded that God has called us to a life of holiness (1 Peter 1:15-16), which requires that we live outside of the influence of the world and continually abide in the Vine (John 15:4).
The phrase God and our Father is interesting and, in our minds, might appear to be redundant. However, you will notice that this is the third reference to God being our Father in this one introductory sentence; Paul has begun this epistle by placing a strong emphasis on God’s role as our spiritual Father. This is not an empty repetition, but an emphasized truth that the Spirit of God desired these believers to understand thoroughly. To the Christians in the Galatian region, it would have been a reminder of Who their God is – something that harkened back to the message that Paul and Barnabas declared to them on their first journey through this area. The Galatians had lost touch with that first message of truth, and were beginning to waver in their walk with the Lord. This letter was written expressly to bring them back on course; they were being tempted to rejuvenate some of their Jewish ways. Paul reminds them that their redemption came in accordance with the will of God and our Father.
Within the Jewish tradition, God was not generally thought of within the context of being a Father to Israel but, rather, a God Who required holiness of His people and Someone to be feared. God told David that He would be a Father to his son, Solomon (2 Samuel 7:14), Isaiah spoke of the coming Messiah being the Everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6), but it was Jeremiah who recorded God’s desire to be a Father to the people of Israel (Jeremiah 3:19; 31:9). Nevertheless, to the Jews in general, the concept of God as Father was not familiar; they would have more readily brought to mind God’s judgment on the idolaters at Shittim (Numbers 25:1-3, 9), or God’s immediate judgment on Uzza (1 Chronicles 13:9-10). However, when Jesus, the Son of God, came, preaching the kingdom of God, He spoke much of God as Father; the “Sermon on the Mount” holds many references to God as Father (and we being His children) and would have presented the Jews of the day with a whole new understanding of God. To the Roman believers, Paul declared, “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). This is the same message that Paul has for the Galatian believers, and one that we will look at more closely later on in our study.
5. To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
There is much about God that we will never be able to comprehend while still in this body of flesh, and one of those things is His glory. The Greek word used here is doxa, and it speaks of the splendor and majesty of God.26 We see this in our word doxology, which we use to refer to the old hymn of praise to God. Jesus spoke of this glory: “... O Father, glorify [doxazo] thou me with thine own self with the glory [doxa] which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5); “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory [doxa], which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).27 Before the Lord came to take on human flesh in the incarnation, He was arrayed in the glory of God; as He purposed to become the redeeming Sacrifice for mankind, He was prepared to set His glory aside so that He might walk among us. The writer of Hebrews explained it this way: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood [those whom Jesus came to save], he also himself likewise took part of the same [He took on a physical body]; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil …” (Hebrews 2:14) – having done so, He is now glorified and seated in the presence of the Majesty in Heaven (Hebrews 1:3). God told Moses, “... there shall no man see me, and live” (Exodus 33:20); the glory and majesty of God is far beyond what sinful mankind can take in. While extolling the majesty of Christ to Timothy, Paul declared that He was “dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see ...” (1 Timothy 6:16). This is another result of the fall for, after sinning, Adam and Eve hid from the presence of the Lord when He came to them in the Garden (Genesis 3:8).
Paul here attributes glory to the Lord Jesus “for ever and ever,” for eternity. Jesus laid aside, for a season, the glory that He had with the Father, in order to accomplish the redemption of mankind as determined before the first element of creation was laid in place (1 Peter 1:18-20). To Him be glory!
The word amen is of Hebrew origin and means “so be it”28 – may it be firmly established.
6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Paul is very focused in writing this epistle, and, after already establishing several fundamental truths in his greeting, he now gets right to the point. When we consider that one of the primary purposes for gathering together (as the ekklesia) is for exhortation (Hebrews 10:23-25), we recognize that Paul, even within his writing, did not waste time getting to his purpose; when the Galatians came together to hear this epistle, it would not have taken long for them to know the reason for it. Among Evangelicals there is an emphasis placed upon the assembling of ourselves together but little thought is given to exhortation, which is to be the reason for gathering in the first place; it seems that the modern pastor is far more concerned with retaining the approval of the congregation than in fulfilling his responsibility to exhort the people to grow in the Lord. If exhortation became the standard for coming together, most Evangelicals would undoubtedly either seek to remove the preacher or they would go elsewhere so that they could have their itching ears scratched (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Paul begins with I marvel, I wonder, or I am amazed.29 As he heard of the welfare of these assemblies in Galatia, he was astonished, but his amazement was not at their growth and development in the Lord; rather, it was at how quickly they were departing from the truths that he and Barnabas had imparted to them. What word would Paul use if he could see the condition of the assemblies today?
His wonder is: “that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ.” Let us consider this carefully, for this is, in a nutshell, the fundamental error that has given rise to this epistle. The verb, are removed (metatithemi), is in the present tense, which simply means that the action was still happening at the time of Paul’s writing30 – in other words, the Galatian believers were still in the process of taking themselves away from God – it was not yet a completed action. Removed is in the middle voice, which means that not only are they (ye) doing the removing but they are also the one’s being removed; the action that they are taking is upon themselves. As W.E. Vine noted: “they were responsible for their own declension, rather than the Judaizers who had influenced them”;31 however, that does not remove the Judaizers’ responsibility in this error. Jesus said: “Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” (Matthew 18:7). The Galatians were responsible for choosing to give heed to those who were promoting error, evidently without testing the message according to God’s Word. Therefore, Paul’s intent in writing this epistle was to bring them back to a proper spiritual position and understanding. Yes, they were the ones doing the removing – they were not being coerced, or in any way forced away from the Lord Who had called them – it was through the exercise of their own wills that they were choosing to leave the message of life; they were making the choice. The Greek word for remove literally means to transpose; it speaks to changing loyalties: the Galatians were turning away from the message of life that Paul had taught them and becoming apostate.”32 We understand that the Galatian Christians were being convinced that they needed to add Jewish traditions to their faith in order to be truly saved; we often consider this to be syncretism – a melding together of aspects of Judaism and Christianity (in this case). However, if you consider this word that the Spirit of God uses here, it is clear that this was not syncretism but of actually replacing the reality of Christ with something else (which is apostasy).
Equally destructive is the theology of many Evangelicals that promotes the doctrine of eternal security – pray a prayer for salvation and you are set for eternal life, even if you live for the devil. However, this cannot be, for God would not provide warnings to remain faithful to Him if it was not necessary to do so. God’s desire for us is clear: Christ has paid the price for our redemption so that we might be rescued from a world that is doomed to destruction. Yet Jesus’ prayer was: “I pray not that thou shouldest take [in the Greek this is a purpose clause with a subjunctive verb, which (as before) makes this a statement of fact, not a mere possibility] them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep [again, a purpose clause] them from the evil [or Satan]” (John 17:15).19 Jesus has just noted that His disciples had received God’s Word and that they were not of this world, yet Jesus is asking His Father NOT to take them out of the world (which would be in keeping with what He had just said) but rather that He would protect them from evil. God is our only hope for being kept from the evil and the evil one of this age; hence Jesus’ command to abide in Him (John 15:4); for it is only as we are in Him that we are secure. “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep [should be keeping; present tense (it must be continuous) and subjunctive mood (possible only if we choose to do so)] his commandments” (1 John 2:3); therein is the essence of our protection.20 The Psalmist declared: “I have chosen [perfect tense; a completed action] the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me” (Psalm 119:30); despite the teachings of Calvinism, there is a choice to be made and, clearly, we are capable of doing so.21 Abiding in Christ is a choice that Jesus commands us to make; obeying the simple commands of Scripture is also a choice, as is neglecting the Word of God. “How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation ...” (Hebrews 2:3); the clear understanding is that we won’t escape if we are careless with God’s proffered salvation.22 “Take heed, brethren [earlier they are called holy brethren], lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief [apistia; no faith or faithlessness], in departing [becoming apostate] from the living God” (Hebrews 3:12).23
Paul identifies our deliverance from the world as being according to the will of God and our Father. “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification ...” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). There are many Scriptures that speak of the will of God, but, within the context of this passage, Paul’s explanation to the Thessalonians seems particularly fitting. The Greek word for sanctification is hagiasmos (hag-ee-as-mos'), which means holy living or consecration.24 The evident root of hagiasmos is hagios (in Greek) from which we get our word holy;25 again we are reminded that God has called us to a life of holiness (1 Peter 1:15-16), which requires that we live outside of the influence of the world and continually abide in the Vine (John 15:4).
The phrase God and our Father is interesting and, in our minds, might appear to be redundant. However, you will notice that this is the third reference to God being our Father in this one introductory sentence; Paul has begun this epistle by placing a strong emphasis on God’s role as our spiritual Father. This is not an empty repetition, but an emphasized truth that the Spirit of God desired these believers to understand thoroughly. To the Christians in the Galatian region, it would have been a reminder of Who their God is – something that harkened back to the message that Paul and Barnabas declared to them on their first journey through this area. The Galatians had lost touch with that first message of truth, and were beginning to waver in their walk with the Lord. This letter was written expressly to bring them back on course; they were being tempted to rejuvenate some of their Jewish ways. Paul reminds them that their redemption came in accordance with the will of God and our Father.
Within the Jewish tradition, God was not generally thought of within the context of being a Father to Israel but, rather, a God Who required holiness of His people and Someone to be feared. God told David that He would be a Father to his son, Solomon (2 Samuel 7:14), Isaiah spoke of the coming Messiah being the Everlasting Father (Isaiah 9:6), but it was Jeremiah who recorded God’s desire to be a Father to the people of Israel (Jeremiah 3:19; 31:9). Nevertheless, to the Jews in general, the concept of God as Father was not familiar; they would have more readily brought to mind God’s judgment on the idolaters at Shittim (Numbers 25:1-3, 9), or God’s immediate judgment on Uzza (1 Chronicles 13:9-10). However, when Jesus, the Son of God, came, preaching the kingdom of God, He spoke much of God as Father; the “Sermon on the Mount” holds many references to God as Father (and we being His children) and would have presented the Jews of the day with a whole new understanding of God. To the Roman believers, Paul declared, “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). This is the same message that Paul has for the Galatian believers, and one that we will look at more closely later on in our study.
5. To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
There is much about God that we will never be able to comprehend while still in this body of flesh, and one of those things is His glory. The Greek word used here is doxa, and it speaks of the splendor and majesty of God.26 We see this in our word doxology, which we use to refer to the old hymn of praise to God. Jesus spoke of this glory: “... O Father, glorify [doxazo] thou me with thine own self with the glory [doxa] which I had with thee before the world was” (John 17:5); “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory [doxa], which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24).27 Before the Lord came to take on human flesh in the incarnation, He was arrayed in the glory of God; as He purposed to become the redeeming Sacrifice for mankind, He was prepared to set His glory aside so that He might walk among us. The writer of Hebrews explained it this way: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood [those whom Jesus came to save], he also himself likewise took part of the same [He took on a physical body]; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil …” (Hebrews 2:14) – having done so, He is now glorified and seated in the presence of the Majesty in Heaven (Hebrews 1:3). God told Moses, “... there shall no man see me, and live” (Exodus 33:20); the glory and majesty of God is far beyond what sinful mankind can take in. While extolling the majesty of Christ to Timothy, Paul declared that He was “dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see ...” (1 Timothy 6:16). This is another result of the fall for, after sinning, Adam and Eve hid from the presence of the Lord when He came to them in the Garden (Genesis 3:8).
Paul here attributes glory to the Lord Jesus “for ever and ever,” for eternity. Jesus laid aside, for a season, the glory that He had with the Father, in order to accomplish the redemption of mankind as determined before the first element of creation was laid in place (1 Peter 1:18-20). To Him be glory!
The word amen is of Hebrew origin and means “so be it”28 – may it be firmly established.
6. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:
Paul is very focused in writing this epistle, and, after already establishing several fundamental truths in his greeting, he now gets right to the point. When we consider that one of the primary purposes for gathering together (as the ekklesia) is for exhortation (Hebrews 10:23-25), we recognize that Paul, even within his writing, did not waste time getting to his purpose; when the Galatians came together to hear this epistle, it would not have taken long for them to know the reason for it. Among Evangelicals there is an emphasis placed upon the assembling of ourselves together but little thought is given to exhortation, which is to be the reason for gathering in the first place; it seems that the modern pastor is far more concerned with retaining the approval of the congregation than in fulfilling his responsibility to exhort the people to grow in the Lord. If exhortation became the standard for coming together, most Evangelicals would undoubtedly either seek to remove the preacher or they would go elsewhere so that they could have their itching ears scratched (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Paul begins with I marvel, I wonder, or I am amazed.29 As he heard of the welfare of these assemblies in Galatia, he was astonished, but his amazement was not at their growth and development in the Lord; rather, it was at how quickly they were departing from the truths that he and Barnabas had imparted to them. What word would Paul use if he could see the condition of the assemblies today?
His wonder is: “that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ.” Let us consider this carefully, for this is, in a nutshell, the fundamental error that has given rise to this epistle. The verb, are removed (metatithemi), is in the present tense, which simply means that the action was still happening at the time of Paul’s writing30 – in other words, the Galatian believers were still in the process of taking themselves away from God – it was not yet a completed action. Removed is in the middle voice, which means that not only are they (ye) doing the removing but they are also the one’s being removed; the action that they are taking is upon themselves. As W.E. Vine noted: “they were responsible for their own declension, rather than the Judaizers who had influenced them”;31 however, that does not remove the Judaizers’ responsibility in this error. Jesus said: “Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!” (Matthew 18:7). The Galatians were responsible for choosing to give heed to those who were promoting error, evidently without testing the message according to God’s Word. Therefore, Paul’s intent in writing this epistle was to bring them back to a proper spiritual position and understanding. Yes, they were the ones doing the removing – they were not being coerced, or in any way forced away from the Lord Who had called them – it was through the exercise of their own wills that they were choosing to leave the message of life; they were making the choice. The Greek word for remove literally means to transpose; it speaks to changing loyalties: the Galatians were turning away from the message of life that Paul had taught them and becoming apostate.”32 We understand that the Galatian Christians were being convinced that they needed to add Jewish traditions to their faith in order to be truly saved; we often consider this to be syncretism – a melding together of aspects of Judaism and Christianity (in this case). However, if you consider this word that the Spirit of God uses here, it is clear that this was not syncretism but of actually replacing the reality of Christ with something else (which is apostasy).
In our day of Ecumenism, we do not hear much about syncretism, which, when applied to Christianity, speaks of drawing practices that are decidedly unchristian in their origin and makeup, into Christian living. For example, a number of years ago our local Evangelical Free Church (EFC) invited a group of Pentecostal Indians to be the focus of their missions conference. The group brought with them a tee-pee, eagle feathers, sweet grass, drums, and whatever other paraphernalia that they had taken from their pagan culture and incorporated into their “Christian” faith. I raised a warning to the leadership at the time that these people had retained religious symbols from their paganism and sought to spiritualize them in order to make them acceptable within Christianity; at the time, I considered this to be syncretism: a joining of pagan traditions with faith in Christ. As we look carefully at Paul’s evaluation of what the Galatians were beginning to do (and, in this example, of what the Pentecostal Indians had done), we can see that syncretism is really not the correct term to use in describing this transgression. It may be an acceptable term based on its definition, but its application would only be appropriate if we were speaking of bringing together Indian spiritism and Buddhism, for example – where each is equally in error. The difficulty with attempting to syncretize anything false with the truth of the Gospel is that, at the very moment that you mix the false in with the true, you have destroyed the truth! Christianity is very exclusive; the Word of God cannot accommodate any error. Therefore, what I, at the time, viewed as syncretism (incorporating pagan religious symbols into Christianity) was in reality a transposition, or replacement, of Christianity with paganism. Therefore, when the EFC people participated with the Indians in their dance circle, they were not expressing their Christian faith in a new way but were practicing paganism shrouded under a canopy of Christianity. Likewise, when they held the eagle feather while praying (based on the pagan belief that it would assist their prayers in rising to the Great Spirit), they were no longer praying to the God of creation Who has redeemed us but were raising their voices to a pagan god. This is no longer Christianity; it is simply paganism hiding behind a thin veneer of Christianity – a wolf trying to pass itself off as a sheep.
The Galatian believers were guilty of removing themselves from God, “from him who called you into the grace of Christ.” Paul clarified for the Corinthians that “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9). It is God Who has called us to Christ, and the Galatians were in the process of choosing to turn away from Him and His calling. Here is the calling of God: “For God so loved the world [kosmos – humanity], that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever [singular – everyone who] believeth [is believing (present tense)] in him [the Son] should not perish [this is part of a larger Greek purpose clause that is explaining why God gave His Son; therefore, perish, although in the subjunctive mood, must be understood as a statement of fact: everyone who is believing will not be ruined], but have everlasting life [like perish, have is in a purpose clause so the subjunctive mood is a fact: everyone who is believing is having everlasting life]” (John 3:16).33 His calling includes all of mankind (because His love [agape] embraced all of the world; not because we were lovely but He chose to love those whom He had created in His own image even while we were lost in sin – Romans 5:8), yet it is addressed specifically to individuals (the singular whosoever) and it remains open to the whosoever to respond to His calling. God’s calling is simple: hold a continuous belief in Christ – a persuasion that His work was to pay the price for my sins so that I can be freed from the death penalty that hangs over everyone in this world. However, such a persuasion requires a change of life: from slavery to sin to becoming enslaved to the righteousness of God (Romans 6:18); from an old man of selfish endeavors to a new man created by God in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24). The choice that whosoever faces is more than just whether or not to believe, it includes making the choice to live in obedience to the commandments of the Lord – it is only then that the not perish and have everlasting life will hold true.
To Timothy, Paul wrote that it is God “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling …” (2 Timothy 1:9a); called (kaleo), as it is used here, speaks of being invited or summoned, with the clarification that God’s calling is holy.34 As we’ve just noted, God’s call is to a life that will be lived out in holiness and righteousness; to the Israelites God said, “I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45). God’s calling is holy and to holiness, which is only reasonable because He is a holy God.
Let’s view this holy calling within a broader context: “According as he [God] hath chosen us in him [the Lord Jesus Christ] before the foundation of the world, … we, being holy and blameless before Him, in love … [He] did predetermine [proorizo] us … to adoption through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will …” (Ephesians 1:4-5, the italics are a more literal translation).35 Paul explains that we have been chosen in Jesus and, therefore, unless we are in Christ we have no basis for claiming to be among God’s chosen ones. Jesus commanded us to abide, or remain, in Him (John 15:4) – this is something that we are to do, but, quite obviously, we must first come to be in Him in order to remain there. We have just seen that God’s calling is to all of humanity (John 3:16), but that the offer of everlasting life is only available to the individual who is continuously believing in Jesus and living in obedience to Him. Therein is living faith (an active belief coupled with active obedience – James 2:17) that sees us united with Christ – grafted into Him by faith (as Paul explained it in Romans 11:19-20). Once we are grafted, Jesus says: “Stay there!” – abide in Me (John 15:4)! God will not save us unless we choose to believe, and then we must remain (abide) in Him. It is as we are abiding in Christ that we are holy and blameless before God, and are predetermined to be adopted by God through what Christ has accomplished for us; however, this will only come to fruition if we remain in Christ because it is only as we are in Him that this is possible. What is particularly noteworthy is that the adoption that God has predetermined is only available to those who are in Christ – those who have been grafted into Christ and who are living in obedience to Him (those who are holy and blameless before Him).
Paul also wrote of these things to the Romans: “For whom he did foreknow [proginosko – to know beforehand], he also did predestinate [proorizo – to determine beforehand] to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be [He being (nothing to warrant might in the Greek)] the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover [now] whom he did predestinate [proorizo; we must understand this to be those whom God did foreknow who are destined to be conformed to Jesus Christ], them he also called [kaleo]: and whom he called [kaleo], them he also justified [dikaioo – to make righteous]: and whom he justified [dikaioo], them he also glorified [doxazo]” (Romans 8:29-30).36 Having just considered the passage in Ephesians, we now have a basis for understanding who God has predestinated to be like unto His Son, Jesus – it is those who are in Him and who will be adopted because of what Christ has accomplished! John declared: “… we know that, when he [Jesus] shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2b); the culmination of being made like unto Christ (that final step in our adoption) will come when we are caught up to meet Him in the clouds and are clothed in immortality (1 Corinthians 15:52-53). The foreknowledge of God of which Paul writes pertains exclusively to those who are in Christ; clearly, this is not all that God knows beforehand, but the context requires this narrow application to His foreknowledge. The quoted passage (Romans 8:29-30), flows out of all things working together for good to those who are loving God and who are being called according to (His) purpose, which very clearly identifies those who are faithfully abiding in Christ (if they are love God then they are also living in faithful obedience to His commands – John 14:15). Therefore, the whom of verse 29 can refer to none other than those who are loving God and being called according to His righteousness and holiness.
Paul then goes on to identify God’s predetermination to be bringing these whom He knew beforehand (those who are in Christ) into the image of His Son, the Lord Jesus. This ties directly into what we learned from Ephesians: if we are in Christ then God has predetermined us to be adopted by Him and, here, it includes being made like unto the glorified Christ (which we earlier noted as being the culmination of out adoption by the Lord). Indeed, this will make Christ the firstborn among many brethren; He is the Head of the body (Colossians 1:18), the ekklesia made up of everyone who has lived or will live faithfully for the Lord. In this life we have the responsibility to wear the new man in holiness and righteousness (Ephesians 4:24), and grow in our understanding of the Lord Jesus (2 Peter 3:18) – all of which can only take place as we remain in Christ (John 15:4). “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1); in order to abide in that place of no condemnation before God (in Christ), we must be living (walk) in accordance with (after) the leading of the Spirit of God! Christ will be the Shepherd of a flock of those who have been changed to be like their Shepherd and, through His work, are called, justified, and glorified. As we have carefully understood the context of what we have looked at, we recognize that for those who are in Christ, God’s foreknowledge includes an eternity with Him in glory: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away … Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God … He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son” (Revelation 21:1-7). However, this wondrous eternity is only available to those who, through a continuous faithfulness to the Lord, have their names recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelation 21:27b).
Before we leave this subject, we now have a basis for understanding the words of Jesus: “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). In our study of this subject, we have seen that God’s call extends to all of humanity (He loved the world), but into that sacred place in Him, He warned that there would be only a few who would find it because its Access is narrow (Matthew 7:14; cp. John 14:6). The chosen are those who are in Christ by faith, and who remain in that place of life through obedience to His commands. All of mankind has an amazing calling from God, but unless we are prepared to take up our cross (the only way to become an overcomer for Him; Luke 14:26-27), we will not attain to the glory that He has prepared for those who are His – those who are abiding in Christ!
We have been called by God “into the grace of Christ.” What is the grace of God or the grace of Christ? When God created man, he was made for fellowship with Him (Genesis 3:8), which is why man was created in the image of God. Even though man sinned, God already had a plan in place to restore the fellowship that had been broken (1 Peter 1:19-20). Being eternally holy, God could not overlook the sin within man, yet because of His great love for fallen mankind and His desire to be merciful, God had already made provision for his redemption through the perfect sacrifice of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ – that is God’s ultimate expression of His grace! God, through His perfect love and mercy, made a way for the salvation of mankind to the satisfaction of His equally perfect justice and holiness, so that man could, once again, enjoy fellowship with Him – that is the majesty of God’s grace! The reality of what the Galatians were doing is this: they were turning their backs on the provision that God had made for them in Christ Jesus and were separating themselves from God and that Ultimate Expression of His grace.
The word removed speaks of transposition, of replacing one thing with another, and from expresses separation; Paul clarifies that these Galatians were in the process of separating themselves unto another gospel. Another, as found here, is the from Greek word heteros, which “expresses a qualitative difference” and indicates something that is different”;37 this is not the Gospel that Paul brought to them. This is further evidence that they were not simply adding Jewish traditions to their faith in the Lord, but that they were literally changing gospels. Jesus said, “I am the way ...” (John 14:6, the definite article the is there in the Greek); there is only one narrow Way and that is Jesus Christ (Matthew 7:14). The Galatians were not guilty of syncretism, but of substitution; they were in the beginning to replace the Gospel of life with a gospel that held no life.
7. Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
Speaking of the gospel toward which the Galatians were moving, Paul says that it “is not another.” In our English, this sounds rather strange and appears to be a contradiction of what we just read: first, it is declared to be another gospel, now he says that it’s not another, so which is it? The word another in this case, is the Greek allos that identifies something that is the same; in other words, this gospel that the Galatians were being tempted to accept was absolutely not the same as the Gospel that Paul taught.”38 This leaves no doubt that the Galatians were in the process of substituting a totally different message for their faith in Christ. They were substituting a gospel that was essentially different for the true Gospel given to them by Paul and Barnabas; the two were not the same! Once again, we can understand that this was not syncretism; this was a complete departure from the true Gospel that had been imparted to them.
The Greek word translated as trouble means to agitate or to stir up.39 It seems that there were only a few who were stirring up the whole group, and Paul’s evaluation is that these had in mind to pervert, or to change, the Gospel into something that was its opposite.40 When Paul and Barnabas first brought the Good News to this area, we are told that “the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles ... against the brethren” (Acts 14:2). It seems evident that the agitators were still present, and that the disturbance continued to bear a Jewish flavor. Consider this last phrase carefully: they have in mind to change the Gospel of Christ. This could never happen; it is impossible! The Gospel of Christ is a message of God’s truth that is unalterable. These people were seeking to tinker with the truth of God, but, as we have already seen, as soon as you change the truth in the slightest, you destroy it – it is no longer the truth! It is impossible to add godless traditions to the truth of God; the moment that you do, the truth of God disappears – all that you have are godless traditions with a now deceptive appearance of being truth.
It might be argued that the Galatians were not adding godless traditions to their faith when they reverted to the Jewish ordinances. At their very best, the ordinances of Moses were a mere shadow of things to come (Hebrews 10:1); they underscored the holiness of God and man’s inability to attend to his sin by himself. Yet even within this complex system of ordinances, regulations, sacrifices and the priesthood, salvation came to the individual only through faith in God; everything pointed forward to the day when the Redeemer would come to forever deal with sin and Satan as promised by God to the devil in the presence of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:15).
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul made the status of these Mosaic ordinances clear: “For he [Jesus] is our peace, who hath made both [the Jew and the Gentile] one [in Him], and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished [to render useless by replacement; the replacement is the New Covenant in His blood (Luke 22:20)] in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances [the Mosaic Law]; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby …” (Ephesians 2:14-16).41 Jesus has come! The payment for the sins of mankind has been made; the shadows of the Mosaic Law vanished in the presence of the glorious light of the Gospel of Christ’s redemption! The ordinances of the Mosaic Law were abolished (to render idle or of no further use);42 they were done away with through Jesus – not cancelled, but fulfilled: “Think not that I am come to destroy [kataluo; literally, dissolve] the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy [kataluo], but to fulfil [pleroo, to complete]” (Matthew 5:17).43 Is it not clear from the Scriptures that the Mosaic ordinances were fulfilled through Christ, and that they are no longer in force? Undoubtedly, this was the Message that infuriated the unbelieving Jews in the region of Galatia on Paul’s first journey! It was these Jews who stirred up the trouble for Paul and Barnabas (Acts 14:2, 19), unlike the Jews of Berea who tested Paul’s words against the Scriptures (Acts 17:10-11). Therefore, when the Jews of Galatia considered going back to the Jewish ordinances, they were in effect seeking to again embrace ordinances that Christ had completed when He died on the cross; they were being convinced to reinstate the “shadow” when they already know the Light of God. They were seeking to replace the clarity of the Light with the dimness of the shadow, and the exalted Redeemer with empty ordinances.
The Galatian believers were guilty of removing themselves from God, “from him who called you into the grace of Christ.” Paul clarified for the Corinthians that “God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:9). It is God Who has called us to Christ, and the Galatians were in the process of choosing to turn away from Him and His calling. Here is the calling of God: “For God so loved the world [kosmos – humanity], that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever [singular – everyone who] believeth [is believing (present tense)] in him [the Son] should not perish [this is part of a larger Greek purpose clause that is explaining why God gave His Son; therefore, perish, although in the subjunctive mood, must be understood as a statement of fact: everyone who is believing will not be ruined], but have everlasting life [like perish, have is in a purpose clause so the subjunctive mood is a fact: everyone who is believing is having everlasting life]” (John 3:16).33 His calling includes all of mankind (because His love [agape] embraced all of the world; not because we were lovely but He chose to love those whom He had created in His own image even while we were lost in sin – Romans 5:8), yet it is addressed specifically to individuals (the singular whosoever) and it remains open to the whosoever to respond to His calling. God’s calling is simple: hold a continuous belief in Christ – a persuasion that His work was to pay the price for my sins so that I can be freed from the death penalty that hangs over everyone in this world. However, such a persuasion requires a change of life: from slavery to sin to becoming enslaved to the righteousness of God (Romans 6:18); from an old man of selfish endeavors to a new man created by God in righteousness and true holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24). The choice that whosoever faces is more than just whether or not to believe, it includes making the choice to live in obedience to the commandments of the Lord – it is only then that the not perish and have everlasting life will hold true.
To Timothy, Paul wrote that it is God “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling …” (2 Timothy 1:9a); called (kaleo), as it is used here, speaks of being invited or summoned, with the clarification that God’s calling is holy.34 As we’ve just noted, God’s call is to a life that will be lived out in holiness and righteousness; to the Israelites God said, “I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45). God’s calling is holy and to holiness, which is only reasonable because He is a holy God.
Let’s view this holy calling within a broader context: “According as he [God] hath chosen us in him [the Lord Jesus Christ] before the foundation of the world, … we, being holy and blameless before Him, in love … [He] did predetermine [proorizo] us … to adoption through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will …” (Ephesians 1:4-5, the italics are a more literal translation).35 Paul explains that we have been chosen in Jesus and, therefore, unless we are in Christ we have no basis for claiming to be among God’s chosen ones. Jesus commanded us to abide, or remain, in Him (John 15:4) – this is something that we are to do, but, quite obviously, we must first come to be in Him in order to remain there. We have just seen that God’s calling is to all of humanity (John 3:16), but that the offer of everlasting life is only available to the individual who is continuously believing in Jesus and living in obedience to Him. Therein is living faith (an active belief coupled with active obedience – James 2:17) that sees us united with Christ – grafted into Him by faith (as Paul explained it in Romans 11:19-20). Once we are grafted, Jesus says: “Stay there!” – abide in Me (John 15:4)! God will not save us unless we choose to believe, and then we must remain (abide) in Him. It is as we are abiding in Christ that we are holy and blameless before God, and are predetermined to be adopted by God through what Christ has accomplished for us; however, this will only come to fruition if we remain in Christ because it is only as we are in Him that this is possible. What is particularly noteworthy is that the adoption that God has predetermined is only available to those who are in Christ – those who have been grafted into Christ and who are living in obedience to Him (those who are holy and blameless before Him).
Paul also wrote of these things to the Romans: “For whom he did foreknow [proginosko – to know beforehand], he also did predestinate [proorizo – to determine beforehand] to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be [He being (nothing to warrant might in the Greek)] the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover [now] whom he did predestinate [proorizo; we must understand this to be those whom God did foreknow who are destined to be conformed to Jesus Christ], them he also called [kaleo]: and whom he called [kaleo], them he also justified [dikaioo – to make righteous]: and whom he justified [dikaioo], them he also glorified [doxazo]” (Romans 8:29-30).36 Having just considered the passage in Ephesians, we now have a basis for understanding who God has predestinated to be like unto His Son, Jesus – it is those who are in Him and who will be adopted because of what Christ has accomplished! John declared: “… we know that, when he [Jesus] shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2b); the culmination of being made like unto Christ (that final step in our adoption) will come when we are caught up to meet Him in the clouds and are clothed in immortality (1 Corinthians 15:52-53). The foreknowledge of God of which Paul writes pertains exclusively to those who are in Christ; clearly, this is not all that God knows beforehand, but the context requires this narrow application to His foreknowledge. The quoted passage (Romans 8:29-30), flows out of all things working together for good to those who are loving God and who are being called according to (His) purpose, which very clearly identifies those who are faithfully abiding in Christ (if they are love God then they are also living in faithful obedience to His commands – John 14:15). Therefore, the whom of verse 29 can refer to none other than those who are loving God and being called according to His righteousness and holiness.
Paul then goes on to identify God’s predetermination to be bringing these whom He knew beforehand (those who are in Christ) into the image of His Son, the Lord Jesus. This ties directly into what we learned from Ephesians: if we are in Christ then God has predetermined us to be adopted by Him and, here, it includes being made like unto the glorified Christ (which we earlier noted as being the culmination of out adoption by the Lord). Indeed, this will make Christ the firstborn among many brethren; He is the Head of the body (Colossians 1:18), the ekklesia made up of everyone who has lived or will live faithfully for the Lord. In this life we have the responsibility to wear the new man in holiness and righteousness (Ephesians 4:24), and grow in our understanding of the Lord Jesus (2 Peter 3:18) – all of which can only take place as we remain in Christ (John 15:4). “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:1); in order to abide in that place of no condemnation before God (in Christ), we must be living (walk) in accordance with (after) the leading of the Spirit of God! Christ will be the Shepherd of a flock of those who have been changed to be like their Shepherd and, through His work, are called, justified, and glorified. As we have carefully understood the context of what we have looked at, we recognize that for those who are in Christ, God’s foreknowledge includes an eternity with Him in glory: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away … Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God … He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son” (Revelation 21:1-7). However, this wondrous eternity is only available to those who, through a continuous faithfulness to the Lord, have their names recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Revelation 21:27b).
Before we leave this subject, we now have a basis for understanding the words of Jesus: “For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). In our study of this subject, we have seen that God’s call extends to all of humanity (He loved the world), but into that sacred place in Him, He warned that there would be only a few who would find it because its Access is narrow (Matthew 7:14; cp. John 14:6). The chosen are those who are in Christ by faith, and who remain in that place of life through obedience to His commands. All of mankind has an amazing calling from God, but unless we are prepared to take up our cross (the only way to become an overcomer for Him; Luke 14:26-27), we will not attain to the glory that He has prepared for those who are His – those who are abiding in Christ!
We have been called by God “into the grace of Christ.” What is the grace of God or the grace of Christ? When God created man, he was made for fellowship with Him (Genesis 3:8), which is why man was created in the image of God. Even though man sinned, God already had a plan in place to restore the fellowship that had been broken (1 Peter 1:19-20). Being eternally holy, God could not overlook the sin within man, yet because of His great love for fallen mankind and His desire to be merciful, God had already made provision for his redemption through the perfect sacrifice of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ – that is God’s ultimate expression of His grace! God, through His perfect love and mercy, made a way for the salvation of mankind to the satisfaction of His equally perfect justice and holiness, so that man could, once again, enjoy fellowship with Him – that is the majesty of God’s grace! The reality of what the Galatians were doing is this: they were turning their backs on the provision that God had made for them in Christ Jesus and were separating themselves from God and that Ultimate Expression of His grace.
The word removed speaks of transposition, of replacing one thing with another, and from expresses separation; Paul clarifies that these Galatians were in the process of separating themselves unto another gospel. Another, as found here, is the from Greek word heteros, which “expresses a qualitative difference” and indicates something that is different”;37 this is not the Gospel that Paul brought to them. This is further evidence that they were not simply adding Jewish traditions to their faith in the Lord, but that they were literally changing gospels. Jesus said, “I am the way ...” (John 14:6, the definite article the is there in the Greek); there is only one narrow Way and that is Jesus Christ (Matthew 7:14). The Galatians were not guilty of syncretism, but of substitution; they were in the beginning to replace the Gospel of life with a gospel that held no life.
7. Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.
Speaking of the gospel toward which the Galatians were moving, Paul says that it “is not another.” In our English, this sounds rather strange and appears to be a contradiction of what we just read: first, it is declared to be another gospel, now he says that it’s not another, so which is it? The word another in this case, is the Greek allos that identifies something that is the same; in other words, this gospel that the Galatians were being tempted to accept was absolutely not the same as the Gospel that Paul taught.”38 This leaves no doubt that the Galatians were in the process of substituting a totally different message for their faith in Christ. They were substituting a gospel that was essentially different for the true Gospel given to them by Paul and Barnabas; the two were not the same! Once again, we can understand that this was not syncretism; this was a complete departure from the true Gospel that had been imparted to them.
The Greek word translated as trouble means to agitate or to stir up.39 It seems that there were only a few who were stirring up the whole group, and Paul’s evaluation is that these had in mind to pervert, or to change, the Gospel into something that was its opposite.40 When Paul and Barnabas first brought the Good News to this area, we are told that “the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles ... against the brethren” (Acts 14:2). It seems evident that the agitators were still present, and that the disturbance continued to bear a Jewish flavor. Consider this last phrase carefully: they have in mind to change the Gospel of Christ. This could never happen; it is impossible! The Gospel of Christ is a message of God’s truth that is unalterable. These people were seeking to tinker with the truth of God, but, as we have already seen, as soon as you change the truth in the slightest, you destroy it – it is no longer the truth! It is impossible to add godless traditions to the truth of God; the moment that you do, the truth of God disappears – all that you have are godless traditions with a now deceptive appearance of being truth.
It might be argued that the Galatians were not adding godless traditions to their faith when they reverted to the Jewish ordinances. At their very best, the ordinances of Moses were a mere shadow of things to come (Hebrews 10:1); they underscored the holiness of God and man’s inability to attend to his sin by himself. Yet even within this complex system of ordinances, regulations, sacrifices and the priesthood, salvation came to the individual only through faith in God; everything pointed forward to the day when the Redeemer would come to forever deal with sin and Satan as promised by God to the devil in the presence of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:15).
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul made the status of these Mosaic ordinances clear: “For he [Jesus] is our peace, who hath made both [the Jew and the Gentile] one [in Him], and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished [to render useless by replacement; the replacement is the New Covenant in His blood (Luke 22:20)] in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances [the Mosaic Law]; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby …” (Ephesians 2:14-16).41 Jesus has come! The payment for the sins of mankind has been made; the shadows of the Mosaic Law vanished in the presence of the glorious light of the Gospel of Christ’s redemption! The ordinances of the Mosaic Law were abolished (to render idle or of no further use);42 they were done away with through Jesus – not cancelled, but fulfilled: “Think not that I am come to destroy [kataluo; literally, dissolve] the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy [kataluo], but to fulfil [pleroo, to complete]” (Matthew 5:17).43 Is it not clear from the Scriptures that the Mosaic ordinances were fulfilled through Christ, and that they are no longer in force? Undoubtedly, this was the Message that infuriated the unbelieving Jews in the region of Galatia on Paul’s first journey! It was these Jews who stirred up the trouble for Paul and Barnabas (Acts 14:2, 19), unlike the Jews of Berea who tested Paul’s words against the Scriptures (Acts 17:10-11). Therefore, when the Jews of Galatia considered going back to the Jewish ordinances, they were in effect seeking to again embrace ordinances that Christ had completed when He died on the cross; they were being convinced to reinstate the “shadow” when they already know the Light of God. They were seeking to replace the clarity of the Light with the dimness of the shadow, and the exalted Redeemer with empty ordinances.
Here is the subtlety of modern Evangelicalism: they suppose that they can hold onto the fundamental truths of God’s Word even while they add the thinking and lifestyle of the world to it. What this passage in Galatians declares so very clearly is that the moment that we add anything to God’s Word, our grip on the fundamentals of the faith has failed; we’ve seen that syncretism of God’s truth with anything else is not possible but, like the Galatians, we can transpose, or substitute, something else for God’s truth. The Lord has warned us about such things: “Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you” (Deuteronomy 4:2). “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it” (Deuteronomy 12:32). “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar” (Proverbs 30:5-6). “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Revelation 22:18-19). Even though the latter promises relate specifically to the Revelation, the principle is the same: anything added to or removed from God’s Word is condemned (the other passages quoted provide a broad base of support for this). This other gospel that the Galatians were accepting, was made by adding to what the Gospel message proclaimed – namely, that it was necessary to keep some Jewish traditions in order to be truly saved. A moment’s consideration will reveal the importance of this: if you add to God’s Word you are, in fact, putting words into God’s mouth and soon it will be difficult to identify God’s message; if you remove from His Word, then you no longer have all of His instructions on how to live. We are to “… hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering” (Hebrews 10:23), yet if we have handled God’s Word carelessly (by adding or removing), that is not having a firm hold on our hope in Christ.
The moment that Harold Ockenga said, “We repudiate separatism,” he, and everyone who bought into his New Evangelicalism, aligned himself with a message that was not of God. You simply cannot mix error with truth and still call it truth; God’s truth is eternally pure and demands that it remain mutually exclusive of anything that would taint it. The New Evangelicalism announced by Ockenga was not an updated Gospel, it was no longer the Gospel at all; any shift made to the true message of Scripture and the Truth has been destroyed. It is small wonder that today we see the Evangelicals moving back alongside of, and into, the Roman Catholic Church. They are holding a gospel that has become increasingly compromised with the passing years so that now it is only a small step to embrace the Catholics as brothers – and the Evangelicals and Catholics truly are brothers in compromise, but not brothers in Christ. If we could fully comprehend the exclusive purity of God’s Word, we would be far more vigilant to “hold fast the form of sound words” that we have in our Scriptures (2 Timothy 1:13). “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But ... [blessed is he whose] delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2). The blessing does not come simply from not doing something – the balancing requirement is to delight and meditate in the law of the Lord. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). If we truly understood the life-giving truth of the Scriptures, then we would spend more time delighting, meditating, and studying God’s Word than on things of so little consequence in light of eternity.
“Truth and Error went swimming. Error got out first and stole Truth’s clothes. Truth got out, but was too proud to wear Error’s clothes. That is why whenever you see error, it will always be clothed with some Truth ... but Truth is always the naked Truth.”44 Truth, by its very exclusive nature, will not – cannot – must not be compromised!
8. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Paul is not finished underscoring the absolute necessity of not compromising the Gospel message in any way. Until I had looked carefully at these introductory verses in this epistle, I’m not sure that I fully appreciated how vitally important it is to hold the truth of God’s Word without the slightest tinge of departure. Of course I hold to the inerrancy of the original texts of Scripture, but to know that even a small departure from the text of God’s Word is really a complete departure from the truth makes me realize, in a new way, just how important it is for us to hold unswervingly to the right text of Scripture. There will always be those areas where a difference of opinion will surface (for there are many things within the Bible that we will never fully understand), but when we hear the clear and plain text of Scripture, we must be prepared to throw off anything to which we might hold that doesn’t completely agree with God’s Word. This stands in stark contrast to the Evangelical community where the Word of God has been spiritualized, rationalized, and politicized to the point that there is no longer a “thus saith the Lord” to be heard. The “gospel” of New Evangelicalism (which is no longer new) is reaping a harvest of complacent souls who are being assured of the glories of heaven while being fed the dainties of hell. “Woe unto [you] that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20); this is the day when this finds fulfillment within the Evangelical community in general. Thirty years ago, these words of Isaiah seemed an impossibility; today one is judged to be “narrow” if one doesn’t hold the ecumenical perspective of what is acceptable. This judgment is not from the world, but from Evangelicals who, like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, are guilty of “laying aside the commandment of God, [in order to] hold the tradition of men” (Mark 7:8).
The moment that Harold Ockenga said, “We repudiate separatism,” he, and everyone who bought into his New Evangelicalism, aligned himself with a message that was not of God. You simply cannot mix error with truth and still call it truth; God’s truth is eternally pure and demands that it remain mutually exclusive of anything that would taint it. The New Evangelicalism announced by Ockenga was not an updated Gospel, it was no longer the Gospel at all; any shift made to the true message of Scripture and the Truth has been destroyed. It is small wonder that today we see the Evangelicals moving back alongside of, and into, the Roman Catholic Church. They are holding a gospel that has become increasingly compromised with the passing years so that now it is only a small step to embrace the Catholics as brothers – and the Evangelicals and Catholics truly are brothers in compromise, but not brothers in Christ. If we could fully comprehend the exclusive purity of God’s Word, we would be far more vigilant to “hold fast the form of sound words” that we have in our Scriptures (2 Timothy 1:13). “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But ... [blessed is he whose] delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:1-2). The blessing does not come simply from not doing something – the balancing requirement is to delight and meditate in the law of the Lord. “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). If we truly understood the life-giving truth of the Scriptures, then we would spend more time delighting, meditating, and studying God’s Word than on things of so little consequence in light of eternity.
“Truth and Error went swimming. Error got out first and stole Truth’s clothes. Truth got out, but was too proud to wear Error’s clothes. That is why whenever you see error, it will always be clothed with some Truth ... but Truth is always the naked Truth.”44 Truth, by its very exclusive nature, will not – cannot – must not be compromised!
8. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Paul is not finished underscoring the absolute necessity of not compromising the Gospel message in any way. Until I had looked carefully at these introductory verses in this epistle, I’m not sure that I fully appreciated how vitally important it is to hold the truth of God’s Word without the slightest tinge of departure. Of course I hold to the inerrancy of the original texts of Scripture, but to know that even a small departure from the text of God’s Word is really a complete departure from the truth makes me realize, in a new way, just how important it is for us to hold unswervingly to the right text of Scripture. There will always be those areas where a difference of opinion will surface (for there are many things within the Bible that we will never fully understand), but when we hear the clear and plain text of Scripture, we must be prepared to throw off anything to which we might hold that doesn’t completely agree with God’s Word. This stands in stark contrast to the Evangelical community where the Word of God has been spiritualized, rationalized, and politicized to the point that there is no longer a “thus saith the Lord” to be heard. The “gospel” of New Evangelicalism (which is no longer new) is reaping a harvest of complacent souls who are being assured of the glories of heaven while being fed the dainties of hell. “Woe unto [you] that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter” (Isaiah 5:20); this is the day when this finds fulfillment within the Evangelical community in general. Thirty years ago, these words of Isaiah seemed an impossibility; today one is judged to be “narrow” if one doesn’t hold the ecumenical perspective of what is acceptable. This judgment is not from the world, but from Evangelicals who, like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, are guilty of “laying aside the commandment of God, [in order to] hold the tradition of men” (Mark 7:8).
Benny Hinn
Paul goes on to emphasize that it is necessary for the Galatians to adhere to the message that he and Barnabas originally presented to them. The word though covers two words in the Greek, which would translate as even if. We includes Paul, with his undisputable credentials as an Apostle of Jesus Christ, and all those who are with Paul at this writing. He goes on to include an angel or messenger from heaven; in other words, even if they received what they considered to be a special revelation from heaven itself, if it did not agree with the Gospel as it was first given to them, then they were to reject it. It is at this point that the charismatic movement and many other cults, which seem to herald a form of Christianity, have failed. When I searched online using the phrase “continuing revelations” I received over 21,000 hits, but as I began to look through them, it became immediately apparent that most of them related to Mormonism and their defense of ongoing revelation, which forms the bedrock foundation for their heresies. However, the Charismatics and Roman Catholics also harbor a claim to ongoing revelations that take them into things that are expressly forbidden within Scripture. The whole laughing-revival movement evidenced in Toronto and Florida has come into being through men receiving “revelations” that they attribute to the Lord. Benny Hinn’s statement concerning the Scriptures reveals just how open they are: “The Bible is the inspired Word of God, a revelation from God to mankind, the infallible rule of faith and conduct, and is superior to conscience and reason, but not contrary to reason” (emphasis added).45 This is an anemic statement, which not only leaves adequate room for Hinn’s visions and “anointings,” but also makes the Word of God subject to man’s ability to comprehend it. The Catholics, along the same vein, declare: “The Bible, as the inspired recorded [sic] of revelation, contains the word of God ... all revealed truths are not contained in the Bible ...” (emphasis added).46 They, too, have fudged on the reality of God’s revelation to man, and have opened the door to their traditions and the ex cathedra declarations of their popes. All of these have claimed revelations from a messenger from heaven, yet they have failed to heed the warning given here by God: they have failed to measure what they claim against the clear teachings of Almighty God that are in the Bible.
The words preach any other gospel and preached are translated from the same word in Greek and speak of announcing good news.47 The word than is very important here (preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you), not that you can necessarily tell that from our English translation, but the word in Greek (para) is the word beside (in English this would include any other and than).48 The emphasis here is that they have been drawn to a “gospel” that is NOT the Gospel originally given by Paul; it is a “gospel” that is beside the true Gospel; in other words, it is a false gospel (keep in mind, there is only one Way – John 14:6). This is not the word of today. Today any differences are downplayed and the commonalities are emphasized so that unity can become the banner of the day; Paul’s position is that if it is not the true Gospel as originally given, then it is not the Gospel at all. Very simply, there are no variations to the Gospel – there is only one; those who are promoting anything that is different are proclaiming something that is not the Gospel. So when Billy Graham said: “I used to think that pagans in far-off countries were lost -- were going to hell -- if they did not have the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached to them. I no longer believe that,”49 he is declaring a gospel that is BESIDE the Good News of the Scriptures; therefore his message is NOT the Gospel. It is not the Gospel with some differences – it is simply not the Gospel. This is a very narrow definition, but it is the only way to read these very clear teachings by Paul, and this is foundational to the Word of God.
The words preach any other gospel and preached are translated from the same word in Greek and speak of announcing good news.47 The word than is very important here (preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you), not that you can necessarily tell that from our English translation, but the word in Greek (para) is the word beside (in English this would include any other and than).48 The emphasis here is that they have been drawn to a “gospel” that is NOT the Gospel originally given by Paul; it is a “gospel” that is beside the true Gospel; in other words, it is a false gospel (keep in mind, there is only one Way – John 14:6). This is not the word of today. Today any differences are downplayed and the commonalities are emphasized so that unity can become the banner of the day; Paul’s position is that if it is not the true Gospel as originally given, then it is not the Gospel at all. Very simply, there are no variations to the Gospel – there is only one; those who are promoting anything that is different are proclaiming something that is not the Gospel. So when Billy Graham said: “I used to think that pagans in far-off countries were lost -- were going to hell -- if they did not have the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached to them. I no longer believe that,”49 he is declaring a gospel that is BESIDE the Good News of the Scriptures; therefore his message is NOT the Gospel. It is not the Gospel with some differences – it is simply not the Gospel. This is a very narrow definition, but it is the only way to read these very clear teachings by Paul, and this is foundational to the Word of God.
Paul’s pronouncement on those who preach a gospel other than the only Gospel is that they are accursed. The word is anathema, which carries the thought of being doomed to destruction,”50 or to be given over to divine wrath.51 Notice, it is not the message that is anathema, it is the one who declares it! Within our modern context, this is not a politically acceptable statement to make about anyone – it would be considered judgmental and harsh, even if it is true. Here’s how the translators of the Contemporary English Version52 present this strong passage: “I pray that God will punish anyone who preaches anything different from our message to you! It doesn't matter if that person is one of us or an angel from heaven.” Notice that the destructive nature of anathema (being placed under a divine curse) has been reduced to mere punishment, and the fire of the Spirit of God against those who would change the Gospel message has been removed altogether.
9. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Paul and Barnabas “... returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith ...” (Acts 14:21-22). When Paul and Barnabas met again with these new believers, after establishing an ekklesia in each town, it was for the express purpose of strengthening (confirming) the new life that was in them. The people were also exhorted, which literally means to call to one’s side, and denotes “to admonish, exhort, to urge one to pursue some course of conduct.”53 What is clearly evident is that Paul and Barnabas took the time to instruct these new believers in the way of truth, and to challenge them to walk carefully in the way of life and remain in (continue in) the faith. They were warned, at this time, not to depart from the instruction that they had received.
Paul reminds the Galatians here that they had already been warned to remain in the faith, and he is saying it again. If anyone declares any other gospel than what was given to them, he is anathema. Other is the Greek word para, which means alongside of54 (the same word as used in the previous verse); this other gospel is alongside of or beside the true Gospel – it is not the true Gospel. The thrust of this is that if anyone brings them a gospel other than what they have received, he is to be condemned.
9. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.
Paul and Barnabas “... returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith ...” (Acts 14:21-22). When Paul and Barnabas met again with these new believers, after establishing an ekklesia in each town, it was for the express purpose of strengthening (confirming) the new life that was in them. The people were also exhorted, which literally means to call to one’s side, and denotes “to admonish, exhort, to urge one to pursue some course of conduct.”53 What is clearly evident is that Paul and Barnabas took the time to instruct these new believers in the way of truth, and to challenge them to walk carefully in the way of life and remain in (continue in) the faith. They were warned, at this time, not to depart from the instruction that they had received.
Paul reminds the Galatians here that they had already been warned to remain in the faith, and he is saying it again. If anyone declares any other gospel than what was given to them, he is anathema. Other is the Greek word para, which means alongside of54 (the same word as used in the previous verse); this other gospel is alongside of or beside the true Gospel – it is not the true Gospel. The thrust of this is that if anyone brings them a gospel other than what they have received, he is to be condemned.
Bill Hybels
We have here a re-emphasis of the previous verse. Paul has immediately come to the core of the problem and has declared that they are not to accept any other message than what they first received. There is no provision here for a tolerance of messages that are close (para) to the true Message. Paul’s concern was not for unity, but for purity of doctrine and faith so that they remain in the Gospel of Christ. Chuck Colson has openly declared: “True unity is not sought by pretending that there are no differences, as modern ecumenists have done, but by recognizing and respecting those differences, while focusing on the great orthodox truths all Christians share.”55 These words stand in stark contrast to the words of the Spirit of God through Paul. Today’s average Evangelical is nourished on a steady diet of ecumenism and striving for unity, so that there is little or no discerning of the error in the modern message. Compromise of the truth of God is commended as being gracious in spirit; accommodation of divergent views is heralded as being tolerant and kind. Yet the call of God to purity and holiness has not changed, and it will not change despite the best efforts of man to rationalize these eternal truths away. The message that Paul is declaring to the Galatians with great emphasis is that if anyone brings a teaching that is different from the truths contained in our Scriptures, they are to be accursed; today that would include men like Chuck Colson, Billy Graham, Robert Schuller, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, and the list goes on. However, closer to home, that must also include the messengers in virtually all Evangelical churches – and, I fear, many so-called Fundamental Baptist churches as well. The clear meaning of the Bible has become skewed over time; the influence of the tentacles of the Roman Catholic Church has been stronger than anyone might care to acknowledge. We would do well to carefully ponder, and diligently heed, the warning given to the elder of the ekklesia of Pergamos to hold fast (Revelation 2:12-17). May the Lord open our eyes to His Truth, and grant us that determination to return to His Word with our whole hearts and lives. Will it be easy? “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12).
10. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
Paul now poses a question to these believers using the arguments that he has presented so far as a background: is he seeking to convince (persuade) men, or God?56 Paul’s words to the Thessalonians would be equally applicable here: “For our exhortation was not of deceit [error], nor of uncleanness, nor in guile [deceit]: But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts” (1 Thessalonians 2:3-4).57 What is evident is that Paul has been entrusted with the true Gospel of God, and so his mission in life is to persuade men of the veracity of God’s message; he does not bring doctrines of his own making that he hopes to have God accept. Again the Galatians are reminded that Paul has been appointed by God to be entrusted with His Gospel to the Gentiles, and, subsequently, commissioned by God to present it to men with the hope of their eternal salvation.
Paul asks the rhetorical question, “Do I seek to please men?” He clarified for the Thessalonians that his goal was to please God (1 Thessalonians 2:4). Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy were each entrusted with the Gospel of God, and the thrust of their efforts was to please God, not men. Peter, when before the Sanhedrin, understood this principle clearly, and boldly declared: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). God’s message to mankind has rarely been popular, and neither is it always welcome. “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life” (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). Paul is saying that wherever we go (as faithful Christians) we exude the fragrance of the knowledge of God. To those who are being redeemed, it is a reminder of the life that we have in the Lord; to the unsaved, it is a conviction of the destruction that awaits them. The Gospel is God’s message to this world; it is not of man’s design so that it might be molded and massaged in order to calm the fears of those who must someday stand before God. Paul was very clear about the mission that God had given to him: “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect” (1 Corinthians 1:17; cp. Romans 16:18). His focus was the proclamation of the Good News, and not with high-sounding words lest the redemption accomplished on the cross by Christ should be rendered of no effect, or be made empty. Today, preachers frequently proclaim carefully crafted monologues filled with majestic rhetoric, but devoid of the cross.
What is interesting to notice is how soon the cross became a verbal symbol for all that Christ had done to purchase salvation for us. Paul told the Corinthians: “... we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:23; also Acts 17:32). The Jews of this day were very familiar with crucifixion; under the Roman regime, thousands upon thousands had been crucified for rebellion, or perceived rebellion, against Roman rule. To the Jew, the cross was an object of horror that was being inflicted upon them, as well as a reminder of the manner of death that had been meted out to Jesus, Who was now being proclaimed Messiah and Savior. Yet Paul, brought up as a strict Pharisee, now declares: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ...” (Galatians 6:14). Paul’s desire to glory in the cross of Christ has nothing to do with the instrument of Christ’s death, but everything to do with the redemptive plan of God that was fulfilled through the death, burial and resurrection of Christ; the “cross” was the symbol that came to encompass all that Christ had completed. The redemptive act of Christ, which took place upon a Roman cross, was the apex of all of time; everyone who came before looked forward to that grand redemption, and everyone who follows after must look back to what the God of the universe accomplished on that day. Paul’s desire was that the message of the cross of Christ might stand, untainted and uncompromised by anything; the cross symbolized all that God had ordained for the redemption of fallen mankind from before the world was set in place.
10. For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.
Paul now poses a question to these believers using the arguments that he has presented so far as a background: is he seeking to convince (persuade) men, or God?56 Paul’s words to the Thessalonians would be equally applicable here: “For our exhortation was not of deceit [error], nor of uncleanness, nor in guile [deceit]: But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts” (1 Thessalonians 2:3-4).57 What is evident is that Paul has been entrusted with the true Gospel of God, and so his mission in life is to persuade men of the veracity of God’s message; he does not bring doctrines of his own making that he hopes to have God accept. Again the Galatians are reminded that Paul has been appointed by God to be entrusted with His Gospel to the Gentiles, and, subsequently, commissioned by God to present it to men with the hope of their eternal salvation.
Paul asks the rhetorical question, “Do I seek to please men?” He clarified for the Thessalonians that his goal was to please God (1 Thessalonians 2:4). Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy were each entrusted with the Gospel of God, and the thrust of their efforts was to please God, not men. Peter, when before the Sanhedrin, understood this principle clearly, and boldly declared: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). God’s message to mankind has rarely been popular, and neither is it always welcome. “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life” (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). Paul is saying that wherever we go (as faithful Christians) we exude the fragrance of the knowledge of God. To those who are being redeemed, it is a reminder of the life that we have in the Lord; to the unsaved, it is a conviction of the destruction that awaits them. The Gospel is God’s message to this world; it is not of man’s design so that it might be molded and massaged in order to calm the fears of those who must someday stand before God. Paul was very clear about the mission that God had given to him: “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect” (1 Corinthians 1:17; cp. Romans 16:18). His focus was the proclamation of the Good News, and not with high-sounding words lest the redemption accomplished on the cross by Christ should be rendered of no effect, or be made empty. Today, preachers frequently proclaim carefully crafted monologues filled with majestic rhetoric, but devoid of the cross.
What is interesting to notice is how soon the cross became a verbal symbol for all that Christ had done to purchase salvation for us. Paul told the Corinthians: “... we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness” (1 Corinthians 1:23; also Acts 17:32). The Jews of this day were very familiar with crucifixion; under the Roman regime, thousands upon thousands had been crucified for rebellion, or perceived rebellion, against Roman rule. To the Jew, the cross was an object of horror that was being inflicted upon them, as well as a reminder of the manner of death that had been meted out to Jesus, Who was now being proclaimed Messiah and Savior. Yet Paul, brought up as a strict Pharisee, now declares: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ...” (Galatians 6:14). Paul’s desire to glory in the cross of Christ has nothing to do with the instrument of Christ’s death, but everything to do with the redemptive plan of God that was fulfilled through the death, burial and resurrection of Christ; the “cross” was the symbol that came to encompass all that Christ had completed. The redemptive act of Christ, which took place upon a Roman cross, was the apex of all of time; everyone who came before looked forward to that grand redemption, and everyone who follows after must look back to what the God of the universe accomplished on that day. Paul’s desire was that the message of the cross of Christ might stand, untainted and uncompromised by anything; the cross symbolized all that God had ordained for the redemption of fallen mankind from before the world was set in place.
Robert Schuller
Paul openly declares that his desire is not to cater to the whims and appetites of men, but to proclaim the truth of the redemption accomplished by God through Christ. He was very focused on this mission in life. Just how focused is made clear here: “for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ”; if he would have set out to deliver a message that would have been welcomed by men, then he would have failed his Lord. Men like Chuck Colson, Robert Schuller, Rick Warren and your average local pastor have not pondered this reality. The popular discourse today is a word of encouragement, a pep talk on brotherly love, or a motivational challenge to greater unity – none of which reflects God’s untainted truth.
We live in a day when it is not uncommon for individuals to hold conflicting ideas or positions at the same time, and this is never given a second thought. For example, a 2005 survey found that 70% of Evangelicals believed that moral truth is absolute, while in the same survey only 60% of this same group indicated that they rely “on the principles contained in the Bible as their main source of moral counsel.”58 This means that at least 10% of the Evangelicals believed in moral absolutes, but they didn’t look to the Word of God to determine what those absolutes were. At face value, this would demonstrate a contradiction of what it means to be an Evangelical (holding to an emphasis on the teachings and authority of the Scriptures).59 Another survey conducted three years earlier, found that a full 94% of Evangelicals were “absolutely committed to Christianity”; while at the same time, 52% were “totally committed to getting ahead.”60 That means that at least a full 46% of Evangelicals are both absolutely committed to Christianity and totally committed to getting ahead. Clearly, there are many areas where such surveys are flawed but, nevertheless, it demonstrates that people will embrace conflicting concepts, and those who claim to be committed Christians are not immune. Jesus said, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). The words of Jesus make it very clear that you cannot be absolutely committed to Christianity (i.e., to Christ) and at the same time be totally committed to getting ahead (laying up treasure on this earth): “ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). There are only two ways to hold contradicting positions like this: redefine the terms to alleviate the contradiction (which is very common today), or simply disassociate the two altogether (a view that one’s faith has little or no influence on how we live). It is into this quagmire of mental gymnastics that the Gospel of Christ enters today, yet the Gospel of God cannot be influenced or shaped by such a context of double-mindedness.
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables (2 Timothy 4:1-4).
No more apt description can be found of Evangelicals today, for they have surrendered to shaping the Gospel (which is an absolute impossibility, as we have seen) in order to make it more acceptable to their pleasure-seeking tastes.
11. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
The word but is generally used when drawing a contrast, yet there is no contrast here. The Greek word de (sometimes translated as but) is a more general term than alla (which always speaks of a contrast), and could be translated as either and or moreover.61 The word certify means to make known, and everywhere that the Greek word is used, this is the only time that it is translated as certify.62 As Paul moves on in his letter, he is saying, “Moreover I am making known (certify) to you ....”63 This indicates that what follows will continue with his present subject and provide further clarification. He has made the course of his challenge very clear, and he is not about to change his tone.
However, he inserts here the word brethren. After confronting them with their failure to hold to the true Gospel, and being amazed that their failure has come so quickly, he reassures them somewhat by calling them brethren. As we have noted earlier, the word removed (verse 6) is in the present tense, indicating that they had not completely fallen for a different gospel but were in the process of doing so. Although Paul does not lighten his sense of urgency in getting these people to understand the error that they were favoring, he does appeal to them as brothers and sisters in Christ. Even when Paul charged the Thessalonians to withdraw from a brother who did not walk according to the teachings given to them, he says to “count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother” (2 Thessalonians 3:15). What we see here is this very concept in action; Paul is appalled at how quickly the Galatians had begun to depart from the Truth, yet he is admonishing, or warning, them as brethren in the Lord.
We live in a day when it is not uncommon for individuals to hold conflicting ideas or positions at the same time, and this is never given a second thought. For example, a 2005 survey found that 70% of Evangelicals believed that moral truth is absolute, while in the same survey only 60% of this same group indicated that they rely “on the principles contained in the Bible as their main source of moral counsel.”58 This means that at least 10% of the Evangelicals believed in moral absolutes, but they didn’t look to the Word of God to determine what those absolutes were. At face value, this would demonstrate a contradiction of what it means to be an Evangelical (holding to an emphasis on the teachings and authority of the Scriptures).59 Another survey conducted three years earlier, found that a full 94% of Evangelicals were “absolutely committed to Christianity”; while at the same time, 52% were “totally committed to getting ahead.”60 That means that at least a full 46% of Evangelicals are both absolutely committed to Christianity and totally committed to getting ahead. Clearly, there are many areas where such surveys are flawed but, nevertheless, it demonstrates that people will embrace conflicting concepts, and those who claim to be committed Christians are not immune. Jesus said, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21). The words of Jesus make it very clear that you cannot be absolutely committed to Christianity (i.e., to Christ) and at the same time be totally committed to getting ahead (laying up treasure on this earth): “ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). There are only two ways to hold contradicting positions like this: redefine the terms to alleviate the contradiction (which is very common today), or simply disassociate the two altogether (a view that one’s faith has little or no influence on how we live). It is into this quagmire of mental gymnastics that the Gospel of Christ enters today, yet the Gospel of God cannot be influenced or shaped by such a context of double-mindedness.
I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables (2 Timothy 4:1-4).
No more apt description can be found of Evangelicals today, for they have surrendered to shaping the Gospel (which is an absolute impossibility, as we have seen) in order to make it more acceptable to their pleasure-seeking tastes.
11. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
The word but is generally used when drawing a contrast, yet there is no contrast here. The Greek word de (sometimes translated as but) is a more general term than alla (which always speaks of a contrast), and could be translated as either and or moreover.61 The word certify means to make known, and everywhere that the Greek word is used, this is the only time that it is translated as certify.62 As Paul moves on in his letter, he is saying, “Moreover I am making known (certify) to you ....”63 This indicates that what follows will continue with his present subject and provide further clarification. He has made the course of his challenge very clear, and he is not about to change his tone.
However, he inserts here the word brethren. After confronting them with their failure to hold to the true Gospel, and being amazed that their failure has come so quickly, he reassures them somewhat by calling them brethren. As we have noted earlier, the word removed (verse 6) is in the present tense, indicating that they had not completely fallen for a different gospel but were in the process of doing so. Although Paul does not lighten his sense of urgency in getting these people to understand the error that they were favoring, he does appeal to them as brothers and sisters in Christ. Even when Paul charged the Thessalonians to withdraw from a brother who did not walk according to the teachings given to them, he says to “count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother” (2 Thessalonians 3:15). What we see here is this very concept in action; Paul is appalled at how quickly the Galatians had begun to depart from the Truth, yet he is admonishing, or warning, them as brethren in the Lord.
Paul is making certain that the Galatians understand that the Gospel, the Good News of Christ’s redemption, which he was proclaiming to them, was not after or according to man.64 The message of life, which Paul and Barnabas brought to these people, was not one that originated with man – it was not based upon Paul’s, or anyone else’s, musings. Once again, this underscores the tremendous error into which these believers were falling; they were not tampering with the teachings of man but were seeking to “pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians1:7). As we have already seen, this is impossible, for the moment that you change anything within the Gospel of Christ, you no longer have the Gospel, but a hybrid (a false gospel) of your own creation. When New Evangelicalism turned its back on Biblical separation, promoted dialogue with the Liberals, became socially involved in order to redeem the culture, and reevaluated their attitude toward the historicity of Genesis, without realizing it, at that very moment they forsook the Gospel of Christ and embraced a different gospel (vs. 6-7). “Now I beseech [exhort] you, brethren, mark [to fix one’s eye upon, watch out for] them which cause divisions and offences [the trigger of a trap, i.e., that which causes one to stumble] contrary to [para – alongside of] the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid [turn away from] them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly [they are self-serving]; and by good words [flattering speech] and fair speeches [polished discourse] deceive the hearts of the simple [those who fear no evil from others, the unsuspecting]” (Romans 16:17-18).65
The safeguard against the failure of the Galatian believers is found right here. First of all, identify those who are promoting error. How many times have we heard from the pulpits of today, “Someone you all know,” or “a popular teacher today” teaches thus and so, and he is wrong. That is totally unscriptural! Consider the Lord’s words to Ezekiel:
Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me (Ezekiel 33:2-7).
Unless we mark the perpetrator of error, how will anyone be warned against him? They won’t be! If we recognize the wolf that is parading around like a sheep, is it not our responsibility to identify that wolf so that the sheep can avoid him? That means pointing him or her out; they must be named! We are all watchmen; we have all been called to test the spirits whether they are of God (1 John 4:1) – but when we find them to be of the devil (not of God), do we keep that information to ourselves? If the watchman sees the enemy but does not sound the warning, then those who fall to the enemy will be required of his hand. What a tremendous responsibility we all have to sound the alarm against the enemy of our souls! Yet Evangelicals are strangely silent today.
The safeguard against the failure of the Galatian believers is found right here. First of all, identify those who are promoting error. How many times have we heard from the pulpits of today, “Someone you all know,” or “a popular teacher today” teaches thus and so, and he is wrong. That is totally unscriptural! Consider the Lord’s words to Ezekiel:
Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me (Ezekiel 33:2-7).
Unless we mark the perpetrator of error, how will anyone be warned against him? They won’t be! If we recognize the wolf that is parading around like a sheep, is it not our responsibility to identify that wolf so that the sheep can avoid him? That means pointing him or her out; they must be named! We are all watchmen; we have all been called to test the spirits whether they are of God (1 John 4:1) – but when we find them to be of the devil (not of God), do we keep that information to ourselves? If the watchman sees the enemy but does not sound the warning, then those who fall to the enemy will be required of his hand. What a tremendous responsibility we all have to sound the alarm against the enemy of our souls! Yet Evangelicals are strangely silent today.
The photo shows Dean Shingoose (on the left) performing the native smudge ceremony in the Foothills Hospital chapel. He says, “It's very important to many aboriginal patients to be able to connect to their traditional spiritual roots at difficult times such as hospital stays.” http://www2.canada.com/calgary herald/news/story.html?id=b79129e1-5ada-4ec9-8a71-46e605ee57af
Lastly, avoid the one who has been identified. This is only a two-step safeguard – it is not complicated. Not only do we find that Christians today (both Evangelical and Fundamental) are unwilling to take the step of identifying these frauds, but we then find that, even when the warning has been called, they refuse to heed it. I recall when I faced the pastor and board of our local Evangelical Free Church about them bringing in the Pentecostal Indians and their native trappings, they were unwilling to act on what the Scriptures plainly declared to be error. Excuses ranged from, “Dean Shingoose66 (the Pentecostal leader) has been a Christian for twenty years,” to “I will trust the judgment of the head of the missions committee.” All that you can do then is avoid them (in this case, those of the Evangelical Free Church), for they have no ear for the warnings of Scripture, only an insatiable appetite for compromise and unity. Shortly thereafter, the pastor of this church declared from the pulpit that God’s number one priority for the church is unity; in other words, don’t try to hold us accountable to Scripture because we have another agenda.
12. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Paul now goes on to clarify what he meant by stating that the Gospel that he taught, was not after man or according to man (verse 11).67 It was neither a product of Paul’s contemplations nor did it come from someone else – Paul did not consult with a guru of his day to come up with the Message that he declared to the Galatians.
12. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Paul now goes on to clarify what he meant by stating that the Gospel that he taught, was not after man or according to man (verse 11).67 It was neither a product of Paul’s contemplations nor did it come from someone else – Paul did not consult with a guru of his day to come up with the Message that he declared to the Galatians.
Today we hear of the Emergent Church and the influence that it is having worldwide; yet, will we recognize its face when it comes knocking at our door? The foundational premise of the Emergent Church is that of contextualized theology. By this, they mean that the message of the Bible must be made to fit within the context of the society and culture into which it is being presented; the reality is that they seek to manipulate and mold the Gospel into something other than what it should be. Our North American culture has been thoroughly influenced by what is known as the New Age movement – a nebulous movement without leader or creed, but one that has infiltrated every area of life. Couched within a nest of relativism and extensive tolerance, New Age thinking spread rapidly throughout our society infiltrating the educational system so that children are exposed to this mindset from their earliest years, and so will see no wrong in it. This, in turn, has provided an avenue for the introduction of Eastern mysticism through such things as transcendental meditation, yoga, and martial arts (and you will now find these very things within the Evangelical movement as well). There are Evangelicals today promoting “Christian Yoga” (an oxymoron, if there ever was one) and heavy involvement in martial arts; the excuse is that it is a form of exercise, yet the Eastern purveyors of these activities will readily admit that you cannot separate them from their religious context. Into this flagrant error comes the philosophy of contextualized theology.
Brian McLaren
The Emergent Church encompasses all of these things: relativism (although to a declining degree; Brian McLaren, the prominent thinker of this movement has said that it is necessary to go beyond relativism to interspirituality68), tolerance (you must be accepting of everyone else’s beliefs as being true) and Eastern mysticism (with the introduction of mantras, out-of-body experiences, and channeling). “Interspirituality is the outcome of contemplative prayer and is the uniting of all religions and the denial that Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation.”69 All of these are accepted with open arms, as the experience becomes the determining factor as to what is acceptable; the sound doctrine that Titus was encouraged to speak, has been left behind (Titus 2:1). The spirituality that the New Age promotes is a metaphysical dimension that stands above all religions and draws them all together (hence, interspirituality); it is a dimension that they access through meditation and deep inner contemplation, thereby making contact with spirit guides who will reveal hidden mysteries to them.
Dallas Willard
One of the subtle reasons that the contemplative prayer advocates use for justifying their activities is that they are returning to the teachings of the original church fathers. However, they are not speaking of the Apostles of Jesus or of their writings contained in our Scriptures. Rather, they are looking at the teachings of the mystical fathers, the desert fathers – those recluses of the early centuries who devised all manner of wild heresies.70 Dallas Willard has been a strong promoter of this new philosophy (for it is not Christianity); he came from a Baptist background, considered himself to be somewhat Calvinistic, and spoke the language of today’s Evangelical. Willard made a very telling claim that exposes his heresy for all who have eyes to see: “... we can become like Christ by doing one thing – by following him in the overall style of life he chose for himself.”71 Notice that the emphasis here is on doing the things that Jesus did, experiencing the life that Jesus led – not aspiring to be like Jesus in character through the operation of the Spirit of God within. By contrast, we read in the Scriptures, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof” (Romans 6:11-12). Within Willard’s world, there is no recognition of Jesus as the eternal Word of God and the Savior of mankind (which is not surprising since Biblical doctrine is dismissed as restrictive and old fashioned). The focus of the Emergent Church, spiritual formation, contemplative prayer or centering prayer (there are many names for this chameleon-like movement) is on experience – not the experience of new birth in Christ through the cleansing work of the Spirit of God, but on those experiences that we can have that do not restrict the expression of our human will. They hold to an ultimate form of pragmatism: if it works for you (which means, if it makes you happy or gives you pleasure), then do it – right and wrong have been dismissed in favor of a personally subjective standard. There is no room for anything as exclusive as God’s Truth.
Rick Warren
Willard sees the grace of Christ entering our lives through “... the power of ritual and liturgy or the preaching of the Word, through the communion of the saints or through a heightened consciousness of the depths and mystery of life.”72 Spiritual formation calls for liturgy, and is fascinated with mysticism. What is mysticism? Is it simply something that is hidden or difficult to understand? Not really; it is defined as, “the pursuit of achieving communion or identity with, or conscious awareness of, ultimate reality, the divine, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight; and the belief that such experience is an important source of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.”73 That is the mysticism with which the Emergent Church is enamored, and they have found a rich source of this in the reclusive fathers – the monks of ancient church history who also happen to be among the founding fathers of the Roman Catholic Church. What is amazing is that even though Satan has virtually destroyed any semblance of God’s Truth within this movement, they will still use a form of the Scriptures to put forward a pretense of having Biblical support for their aberrant beliefs and behavior. They will speak of God and of Christ but only have “a form of godliness,” and, without the power of the Spirit of God, they flounder in confusion and darkness (2 Timothy 3:5).
Let me outline just a few signs of the Emergent Church so that we can more easily identify their activities:74
1. Scripture is no longer the ultimate authority as the basis for the Christian faith. This is very significant, for there are many churches today that still acknowledge (at least in their constitutions) that the Scriptures are the final authority for life, even if their practice tells another story. We must be discerning, we must do more than listen to their words, and we must watch their walk. Even Benny Hinn declares the Bible to be “the infallible rule of faith and conduct,”75 and Rick Warren states the Bible to be the “supreme source of truth for Christian beliefs and living,”76 yet both of these men continually depart from many of the clear instructions of the Word of God. When the leaders of New Evangelicalism revealed their colors back in 1948, one of their declarations was that they would re-examine some of the doctrines pertaining to the historical accuracy of the book of Genesis.77 By doing this, they threw the door wide open for discussion on whether, for example, the six days of creation was a Biblical doctrine, thereby placing a question mark over much of what had been readily accepted as truth within fundamental thinking. We may condemn the leaders of the Emergent Church but we must recognize that the basis for their heresy has found traction through the acceptance of this New Evangelical teaching – they are simply the product of the error that was embraced by the leaders of this movement over 60 years ago.
Let me outline just a few signs of the Emergent Church so that we can more easily identify their activities:74
1. Scripture is no longer the ultimate authority as the basis for the Christian faith. This is very significant, for there are many churches today that still acknowledge (at least in their constitutions) that the Scriptures are the final authority for life, even if their practice tells another story. We must be discerning, we must do more than listen to their words, and we must watch their walk. Even Benny Hinn declares the Bible to be “the infallible rule of faith and conduct,”75 and Rick Warren states the Bible to be the “supreme source of truth for Christian beliefs and living,”76 yet both of these men continually depart from many of the clear instructions of the Word of God. When the leaders of New Evangelicalism revealed their colors back in 1948, one of their declarations was that they would re-examine some of the doctrines pertaining to the historical accuracy of the book of Genesis.77 By doing this, they threw the door wide open for discussion on whether, for example, the six days of creation was a Biblical doctrine, thereby placing a question mark over much of what had been readily accepted as truth within fundamental thinking. We may condemn the leaders of the Emergent Church but we must recognize that the basis for their heresy has found traction through the acceptance of this New Evangelical teaching – they are simply the product of the error that was embraced by the leaders of this movement over 60 years ago.
2. The centrality of the gospel of Jesus Christ is being replaced by humanistic methods promoting church growth and a social gospel. Once again, New Evangelicalism declared the necessity of placing a greater emphasis upon the social needs of the people being reached with the Gospel, to the extent that Evangelical (what was New Evangelical is no longer new) missions like World Vision and Samaritan’s Purse focus almost all of their resources and efforts on meeting the physical needs of the people while ignoring their spiritual needs. Inasmuch as they have forsaken the true Gospel, it is not surprising that the social and physical needs have overrun these organizations. It is not wrong to meet the needs of others but, as followers of Christ, that is not to be our first priority. Jesus, during His earthly ministry, healed many of their diseases, but we do not read of Him granting material possessions to those who were poor. As a matter of fact, it is clear from the Scriptures that the poor have a favored place within God’s economy (Proverbs 14:31; 17:5; Matthew 5:3). When John the Baptist inquired of Jesus if He was the One, one of the evidences that Jesus presented as proof of His authenticity was that the “poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matthew 11:5) – not that the poor were now rich in the world’s goods. We’ve all seen the havoc that has been created by the church growth movement: business marketing techniques implemented to attract the modern worldly patron, served with a watered down gruel that is passed off as the Gospel. Yes, Rick Warren is very open and accepting of the Emergent Church philosophies, as he is of most religious thinking.
Labyrinth
3. While the authority of the Word of God is undermined, images and sensual experiences are promoted as the key to experiencing and knowing God. How did the authority of the Word of God become undermined? New Evangelicalism declared a repudiation of Biblical separation, and a commitment to dialogue with the religious Liberals and heretics (“the theological dialogue of the day”)78 – the result: the Word of God was left behind in favor of more compatible and comfortable philosophies. With the authority of the Word of God removed, experience became the measure of how we can know God. Satan has ensured that many have had positive experiences through meditation and looking inward so that it becomes a heralded method of getting to know God – or what they assume to be God. These experiences include icons, candles, incense, liturgy, labyrinths, prayer stations, contemplative prayer, experiencing the sacraments, particularly the sacrament of the Eucharist. All of these are sanctioned for people to experiment with in order to determine what works best for them. Notice how they, for the most part, reach out to Catholic traditions. Labyrinths, for example, find their source in ancient mythology and are common within the ancient Greek culture and, from thence, were absorbed into Roman Catholicism. These are unlike our modern maze or puzzle in that there is nothing to figure out – you simply walk a complex pattern that leads inward, then back outward, as a means to enhance inner meditation or contemplative prayer. Today, those seeking a mystical experience use the labyrinth to help them “achieve a contemplative state.79 In ancient times it was thought to be a spiritual journey of seeking God (the center of the labyrinth) and, subsequent to that, it became a substitute for a spiritual pilgrimage. What is readily evident is that this has no place within the life of a follower of Christ, yet the Emerging Church and contemplative prayer adherents embrace this heresy. This past Easter (and I use the word with full recognition of its pagan roots) a Mennonite friend of ours told us of a wonderful spiritual experience that she had by going through the Stations of the Cross (prayer stations) – a Roman Catholic ritual that is being embraced by those who should know better. The shrinking gap between paganism and Evangelicalism is bridged by many and sundry means – Satan delights in offering a smorgasbord of alternatives. However, when the authority of the Scriptures is questioned (or removed entirely), then there is nothing left to measure our experience against other than our own personal sense of satisfaction. Satan, the father of lies, will ensure that he bears the image of an angel of light for those who dabble in these things.
4. There will be a growing trend towards an ecumenical unity for the cause of world peace claiming the validity of other religions and that there are many ways to God. What immediately comes to mind is Rick Warren’s P.E.A.C.E.80 plan that embraces all faiths without question, and opens the door to acknowledging the validity of all religions. Billy Graham, by extending eternal life to those outside of the faith and by embracing Roman Catholicism, has helped to broaden the pathway to God in the minds of many Evangelicals. Robert Schuller’s acceptance of the god of Islam as being the same as the God of Christianity has done much to spread the heresy that we all ascribe to one god. Yet all three of these men continue to be held in high regard among Evangelicals. Clearly, this kind of thinking is a product of the dialogue that the New Evangelicals began having with the Liberals and those of other faiths many years ago. Ecumenical unity is almost taken for granted today, and anyone who has a problem with such is looked at as being narrow minded and out-of-touch.
4. There will be a growing trend towards an ecumenical unity for the cause of world peace claiming the validity of other religions and that there are many ways to God. What immediately comes to mind is Rick Warren’s P.E.A.C.E.80 plan that embraces all faiths without question, and opens the door to acknowledging the validity of all religions. Billy Graham, by extending eternal life to those outside of the faith and by embracing Roman Catholicism, has helped to broaden the pathway to God in the minds of many Evangelicals. Robert Schuller’s acceptance of the god of Islam as being the same as the God of Christianity has done much to spread the heresy that we all ascribe to one god. Yet all three of these men continue to be held in high regard among Evangelicals. Clearly, this kind of thinking is a product of the dialogue that the New Evangelicals began having with the Liberals and those of other faiths many years ago. Ecumenical unity is almost taken for granted today, and anyone who has a problem with such is looked at as being narrow minded and out-of-touch.
Bruxy Cavey
Can you see the subtlety of the Emergent Church philosophy? What began as a small questioning of the authority of the Word of God with New Evangelicalism, has grown into an acceptance of the methodologies of the heretical early church fathers to where, today, everyone can receive special enlightenment from their own spirit guides whom they contact through deep inner meditation. Even though the method of meditation specifically demands that you empty your mind completely so that you can then hear from the voice of the devil (which they mistakenly identify as Jesus), Evangelicals will accept this because it makes them feel good. The foundation of all of this inner-focused meditation, or prayer, is that deep within all of us is a spark of the divine (which sounds like Mormonism 101, but is really Satanism 101 – Genesis 3:5). This thinking (in a better disguise than I’ve presented) is being taught in “Christian” schools like Wheaton College, Dallas Seminary, Briercrest Seminary, Trinity Western University and Prairie Bible College. Dallas Willard’s writings have been used as course texts at Prairie, and the school recently brought Bruxy Cavey in, who is involved with the Emergent Church, “to challenge our students to a deeper commitment to Christ;”81 the influence of this errant teaching is very close to home. The flavor will depend on the situation; the emphasis is on molding the message to fit the context in which you find yourself. Nothing is static, absolutes are out, and what is called for is a mystical drawing together of all faiths at a level that stands above all religions. In essence, this is a spiritual tower of Babel where, through deep inner contemplative prayer, they ascend above all to be united within the realm of the spirits that oversee all.
By contrast, Paul declares that he did not receive the Gospel of God from man, nor was he taught it by man but, rather, he received it by revelation from Jesus Christ Himself. Consider, for a moment, how the devil is using the Emergent Church. When the devil approached Eve in the Garden, he said, “... ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5), and this lie has not changed through all of the years since. Today, through centered meditation and emptying their minds, people are receiving messages from the spirit world and accepting these as coming from God. The devil has blinded their eyes so that they accept what they hear in this altered state of consciousness as being God’s word to them, when in reality it is the devil lulling them into an ever increasing state of vulnerability. They feel like gods, having received special messages from the spirit world; they are convinced that they are gods, for they have tapped into that inner being: the god within all of us. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). They have found the prince of this world, the devil, and rejoice in their folly (John 16:11). Having abandoned the authority of the Word of God, they have no sense of their need to measure what they are receiving against the Scriptures, so whatever they hear, if it makes them feel good, then it becomes truth to them and they will live by it. What a tremendous deception, and it all began in Genesis 3 when the authority of God’s Word to us was questioned. The Psalmist declared, “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way” (Psalm 119:104), and contained within that simple, yet profound statement is both the antidote to today’s apostasy and the reason that the apostasy is so great. Through the Word of God, we gain spiritual understanding that will keep us from being deceived by the devil’s alluring false doctrine; today’s Evangelical, by not understanding the Word of God (which is a direct result of false teachers and personal neglect), is fair game for every false doctrine that is proclaimed.
One of the distinctions of the teachings of Scripture is that they are eternally the same. They are the same in every culture and every situation. Paul’s Message came by revelation, not through inner contemplation but from Jesus Christ Whom he had persecuted. The source is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God made flesh (John 1:14), Who is yesterday and today the same and unto the ages (literal translation of Hebrews 13:8).82 This stands in stark contrast to man’s “Christianity” that is always in flux, ever being molded to fit the latest cultural quirk, and always subject to being trimmed or shaped to make it integrate with the latest fads and fashions. If there is one thing that should be obvious so far, it is that the Gospel of God does not change; man’s religion, on the other hand, will change with every wind that blows (Ephesians 4:14).
Paul will now go on to explain to the Galatians the course of action that followed his dramatic conversion.
13. For ye 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:
This begins one of only a few passages that tell us a bit about Paul’s life and experience. This was never Paul’s focus, yet there were times, like this, when he would elaborate on how the Lord granted him the Message that he bore. Clearly, it was not done to aggrandize himself, but rather to provide a context and a reason for the recipients of his writings to accept the Truth of God as declared through him.
Paul begins with a reference to his life before he met the Lord that day on his way to Damascus. The word conversation refers to his manner of life.83 Notice how this is phrased; he refers to his past life as being “in the Jews’ religion.” We have seen that this letter is directed to a people who were in the process of substituting a false gospel for the truth that had been given to them by Paul and Barnabas; they were being deceived into bringing elements of the Judaism that many of them had left into the Gospel. As we have also noted, it was “the unbelieving Jews [who] stirred up the Gentiles” in Galatia (Acts 14:2). Paul wanted it to be clear that he was no longer identifying with Judaism, that was in his past, that was where he came from but that was not where he now stood. By doing so, he draws a contrast between the Galatians’ position and his own; he was formerly a part of Judaism, but no longer. The Galatian believers had been born anew into the faith of Jesus, but they were now beginning to accept some of what Paul had left behind. Even as he begins the testimony of his experience within Judaism, he draws their attention to the fact that Judaism was in his past – he had left it behind.
By contrast, Paul declares that he did not receive the Gospel of God from man, nor was he taught it by man but, rather, he received it by revelation from Jesus Christ Himself. Consider, for a moment, how the devil is using the Emergent Church. When the devil approached Eve in the Garden, he said, “... ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5), and this lie has not changed through all of the years since. Today, through centered meditation and emptying their minds, people are receiving messages from the spirit world and accepting these as coming from God. The devil has blinded their eyes so that they accept what they hear in this altered state of consciousness as being God’s word to them, when in reality it is the devil lulling them into an ever increasing state of vulnerability. They feel like gods, having received special messages from the spirit world; they are convinced that they are gods, for they have tapped into that inner being: the god within all of us. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). They have found the prince of this world, the devil, and rejoice in their folly (John 16:11). Having abandoned the authority of the Word of God, they have no sense of their need to measure what they are receiving against the Scriptures, so whatever they hear, if it makes them feel good, then it becomes truth to them and they will live by it. What a tremendous deception, and it all began in Genesis 3 when the authority of God’s Word to us was questioned. The Psalmist declared, “Through thy precepts I get understanding: therefore I hate every false way” (Psalm 119:104), and contained within that simple, yet profound statement is both the antidote to today’s apostasy and the reason that the apostasy is so great. Through the Word of God, we gain spiritual understanding that will keep us from being deceived by the devil’s alluring false doctrine; today’s Evangelical, by not understanding the Word of God (which is a direct result of false teachers and personal neglect), is fair game for every false doctrine that is proclaimed.
One of the distinctions of the teachings of Scripture is that they are eternally the same. They are the same in every culture and every situation. Paul’s Message came by revelation, not through inner contemplation but from Jesus Christ Whom he had persecuted. The source is the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God made flesh (John 1:14), Who is yesterday and today the same and unto the ages (literal translation of Hebrews 13:8).82 This stands in stark contrast to man’s “Christianity” that is always in flux, ever being molded to fit the latest cultural quirk, and always subject to being trimmed or shaped to make it integrate with the latest fads and fashions. If there is one thing that should be obvious so far, it is that the Gospel of God does not change; man’s religion, on the other hand, will change with every wind that blows (Ephesians 4:14).
Paul will now go on to explain to the Galatians the course of action that followed his dramatic conversion.
13. For ye 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:
This begins one of only a few passages that tell us a bit about Paul’s life and experience. This was never Paul’s focus, yet there were times, like this, when he would elaborate on how the Lord granted him the Message that he bore. Clearly, it was not done to aggrandize himself, but rather to provide a context and a reason for the recipients of his writings to accept the Truth of God as declared through him.
Paul begins with a reference to his life before he met the Lord that day on his way to Damascus. The word conversation refers to his manner of life.83 Notice how this is phrased; he refers to his past life as being “in the Jews’ religion.” We have seen that this letter is directed to a people who were in the process of substituting a false gospel for the truth that had been given to them by Paul and Barnabas; they were being deceived into bringing elements of the Judaism that many of them had left into the Gospel. As we have also noted, it was “the unbelieving Jews [who] stirred up the Gentiles” in Galatia (Acts 14:2). Paul wanted it to be clear that he was no longer identifying with Judaism, that was in his past, that was where he came from but that was not where he now stood. By doing so, he draws a contrast between the Galatians’ position and his own; he was formerly a part of Judaism, but no longer. The Galatian believers had been born anew into the faith of Jesus, but they were now beginning to accept some of what Paul had left behind. Even as he begins the testimony of his experience within Judaism, he draws their attention to the fact that Judaism was in his past – he had left it behind.
Perhaps it is in order, at this juncture, to clarify what Paul did and did not set aside. He calls what he used to be involved in “the Jews’ religion” (Ioudaismos, Judaism).”84 We have already noted that Paul was a Pharisee before his conversion, and very zealous to be the best Pharisee possible; this was also the group that received the greatest criticism from the Lord during His earthly ministry. Jesus condemned these Jewish leaders for not recognizing Him as Messiah, even while they claimed to strongly embrace Moses’ teachings. Jesus declared to them that they did not hold to Moses: “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me” (John 5:45-47). What Paul left behind in his new life in Christ were the Pharisaical traditions and additions to the Mosaic teachings; these were merely men’s laws and held no authority at all (it was for these that Jesus condemned the Pharisees). However, he also left behind the ordinances and ceremonial laws of the Mosaic covenant, for they had found their fulfillment (their completion, their end) in the Lord’s death, burial, and resurrection (Ephesians 2:14-16); they foreshadowed Jesus’ sacrifice for sin that was determined from before the foundation of the world (Hebrews 10:1; 1 Peter 1:19-20). What Paul did not leave behind was the Decalogue, written by the finger of God on tables of stone (Exodus 31:18; 34:1, 28). It is noteworthy that the Ten Commandments were established by a two-fold demonstration of their permanency: they were written on stone, and they were written by God. This stands in contrast to the Mosaic Laws, which were declared through Moses – no less binding upon Israel, but these would see their end, or fulfillment, in the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 5:17). The purpose of the ten-item declaration of the Law of God is to show us that we are sinners: “... I had not known sin, but by the law” (Romans 7:7); this Law, written by the finger of God upon stone tables, is alive and well today. Jesus declared, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40; cf. Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18). The first four Commandments of the Decalogue deal with our relationship with God, and the remaining six Commandments relate to our relationship with our fellow man. There are those today who proclaim that we are no longer under the law but under grace (quoting from Romans 6, but without regard to the context), which could be (and often is) interpreted to mean many things. It is most often abused to provide license to use our liberty in Christ as an occasion to fulfill the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:13).
However, I would suggest that a careful reading of Scripture makes it clear that this is not a proper understanding of law and grace. Jesus said: “Think not that I am come to destroy [dissolve] the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil [to make full]” (Matthew 5:17).85 Jesus fulfilled the Ten Commandments by keeping them perfectly (Hebrews 4:15); even though He lived by the Mosaic Laws before His death, He also made an end of them by being the One to Whom all of these statutes, ordinances, the priesthood and sacrifices looked forward (Colossians 2:17). The Law of God was death to us who could not keep it (Romans 7:6-11), and that was all of us, yet the Law is declared to be righteous and holy (Romans 7:12). What we must never forget is that salvation never came through the Law (Romans 3:20); salvation has always come through faith in the promises of God (Hebrews 11:7, 13), and such faith is always exemplified by obedience to God.
So, what of Paul’s words, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14)? First of all, consideration needs to be given to the context of this verse, which identifies the believer as being dead to sin – the pronouncement of the Law (Romans 6:6-18; 7:5,9). Further, I would suggest that the redeemed of Israel (those who exercised faith in the promised Redeemer), even though they lived under the ordinances and sacrifices of the Mosaic Law, were also no longer “under the law, but under grace.” Although they were still required to keep the sacrifices and ordinances in obedience to God, they were redeemed through faith in His promises, and, as such, they were no longer under the condemnation of the Law. Did that grant them license to sin? By no means! “Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him” (Deuteronomy 13:4). However, Hebrews 11 makes it very clear that these men and women were saved through faith, in the same manner as we are today. The marvelous thing that we see in Scripture is that God’s means of salvation has never changed – truly we have an unchanging Redeemer (Job 19:25-26).
One difference for us today is that the sacrifices and ordinances of the Mosaic Law have been fulfilled (completed, ended) through the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The call of God is still the same (Malachi 3:6): “For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45); “... according as He who did call you is holy, ye also, become holy in all behaviour ...” (1 Peter 1:15). We are living in a day of fulfillment – Christ died once for all (we do not practice a continual sacrifice of Christ [Hebrews 10:10], unlike the Catholics in their Eucharist). Rather, we are baptized once into Christ, based upon a proper understanding of what baptism means (Acts 8:34-38; therefore, we do not need to be re-baptized every time that we fail [1 John 1:9]). “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4; see Jeremiah 31:33 and its correlation with Luke 22:20). The Spirit of God is guiding our walk (present tense) in newness of life (Romans 8:4). Believer’s baptism illustrates the reality of the spiritual change that takes place through new birth: we are identified with Christ in His death (we die to our sinful natures; down into the water), in His burial (our sinful natures are deemed buried and left behind; under the water), and in His resurrection (we are raised up in new life to walk after the Spirit of God, and no longer after the flesh – Romans 8:4; brought up out of the water). Paul states unmistakably that “the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:12), and, as we walk by the Spirit, the righteousness of that holy Law will be fulfilled in us. Even though we are no longer under the Law, for we have died to it, yet, through the work of the Spirit of God, the righteousness of the Law will find expression through us. The Ten Commandments did not come with an expiry date (as we have seen, they came written by the finger of God upon tables of stone); what God required of man from the day of his creation, He had now inscribed in stone – man was now without excuse. What God continues to require of us is that the righteousness of that very same Law be lived out in us through the power and working of the Spirit of God. What Paul left behind were the Pharisaical rules and regulations and the Mosaic ordinances and sacrifices; what he did not leave behind were the Ten Commandments of God, for, through the Spirit of God, the righteousness of these Commandments would find expression through his life.
Just in case the Galatians had forgotten the life that Paul was leading before his conversion, he provides them with a brief reminder. The words beyond measure are from two words in Greek that come together to make a strongly emphasized expression, exceeding (kata), beyond measure (huperbolē)).86 Paul declares his persecution of God’s ekklesia as being exceedingly beyond measure; it was way beyond what was reasonable given the situation. There is no indication that any of the other Jews took such drastic measures against the assemblies of Christians as Paul did, and he readily admits here that his response to them was way beyond what was called for. “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord ...” (Acts 9:1). The Greek word for breathing out literally means to inhale (yes, inhale; not exhale), or to be animated by.87 Saul’s attack on the disciples of the Lord was his life; it was what kept him going. He was completely focused on eliminating this group by any and every means possible; he was possessed by the obsession of removing this group. Clearly, Paul was a man of great passion and, whatever he did, he did it with all of his being; after his conversion, he was equally passionate about the truth of the Gospel message.
Paul states here that he persecuted and wasted the ekklesia of God. Jesus said, “I will build my church [ekklesia]” (Matthew 16:18), yet here is Paul persecuting what Jesus is building, and seeking to destroy (waste) it. What Paul soon learned as he journeyed to Damascus was that, even though he was persecuting the disciples of the Lord, he was really fighting against the Lord Himself. Jesus told Paul plainly, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest ...” (Acts 9:5). If we consider the metaphor of the body, which Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 and Ephesians 4:15-16, Christ is the Head, and we who believe in Him make up the body. Physically, any injury to the body is obviously felt by the head, for the brain must take action with the appropriate healing responses; so, too, within the Body of Christ, any persecution directed at the Body will be felt by the Head. What comfort it is to know that the Lord is fully aware of all that is laid against us. “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12); “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5). “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Romans 8:34). What comfort we can take in knowing that Christ knows the burdens that we bear and, wonder of wonders, He is interceding for us with the Father (Romans 8:34).
So, what of Paul’s words, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14)? First of all, consideration needs to be given to the context of this verse, which identifies the believer as being dead to sin – the pronouncement of the Law (Romans 6:6-18; 7:5,9). Further, I would suggest that the redeemed of Israel (those who exercised faith in the promised Redeemer), even though they lived under the ordinances and sacrifices of the Mosaic Law, were also no longer “under the law, but under grace.” Although they were still required to keep the sacrifices and ordinances in obedience to God, they were redeemed through faith in His promises, and, as such, they were no longer under the condemnation of the Law. Did that grant them license to sin? By no means! “Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him” (Deuteronomy 13:4). However, Hebrews 11 makes it very clear that these men and women were saved through faith, in the same manner as we are today. The marvelous thing that we see in Scripture is that God’s means of salvation has never changed – truly we have an unchanging Redeemer (Job 19:25-26).
One difference for us today is that the sacrifices and ordinances of the Mosaic Law have been fulfilled (completed, ended) through the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The call of God is still the same (Malachi 3:6): “For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:45); “... according as He who did call you is holy, ye also, become holy in all behaviour ...” (1 Peter 1:15). We are living in a day of fulfillment – Christ died once for all (we do not practice a continual sacrifice of Christ [Hebrews 10:10], unlike the Catholics in their Eucharist). Rather, we are baptized once into Christ, based upon a proper understanding of what baptism means (Acts 8:34-38; therefore, we do not need to be re-baptized every time that we fail [1 John 1:9]). “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4; see Jeremiah 31:33 and its correlation with Luke 22:20). The Spirit of God is guiding our walk (present tense) in newness of life (Romans 8:4). Believer’s baptism illustrates the reality of the spiritual change that takes place through new birth: we are identified with Christ in His death (we die to our sinful natures; down into the water), in His burial (our sinful natures are deemed buried and left behind; under the water), and in His resurrection (we are raised up in new life to walk after the Spirit of God, and no longer after the flesh – Romans 8:4; brought up out of the water). Paul states unmistakably that “the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:12), and, as we walk by the Spirit, the righteousness of that holy Law will be fulfilled in us. Even though we are no longer under the Law, for we have died to it, yet, through the work of the Spirit of God, the righteousness of the Law will find expression through us. The Ten Commandments did not come with an expiry date (as we have seen, they came written by the finger of God upon tables of stone); what God required of man from the day of his creation, He had now inscribed in stone – man was now without excuse. What God continues to require of us is that the righteousness of that very same Law be lived out in us through the power and working of the Spirit of God. What Paul left behind were the Pharisaical rules and regulations and the Mosaic ordinances and sacrifices; what he did not leave behind were the Ten Commandments of God, for, through the Spirit of God, the righteousness of these Commandments would find expression through his life.
Just in case the Galatians had forgotten the life that Paul was leading before his conversion, he provides them with a brief reminder. The words beyond measure are from two words in Greek that come together to make a strongly emphasized expression, exceeding (kata), beyond measure (huperbolē)).86 Paul declares his persecution of God’s ekklesia as being exceedingly beyond measure; it was way beyond what was reasonable given the situation. There is no indication that any of the other Jews took such drastic measures against the assemblies of Christians as Paul did, and he readily admits here that his response to them was way beyond what was called for. “And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord ...” (Acts 9:1). The Greek word for breathing out literally means to inhale (yes, inhale; not exhale), or to be animated by.87 Saul’s attack on the disciples of the Lord was his life; it was what kept him going. He was completely focused on eliminating this group by any and every means possible; he was possessed by the obsession of removing this group. Clearly, Paul was a man of great passion and, whatever he did, he did it with all of his being; after his conversion, he was equally passionate about the truth of the Gospel message.
Paul states here that he persecuted and wasted the ekklesia of God. Jesus said, “I will build my church [ekklesia]” (Matthew 16:18), yet here is Paul persecuting what Jesus is building, and seeking to destroy (waste) it. What Paul soon learned as he journeyed to Damascus was that, even though he was persecuting the disciples of the Lord, he was really fighting against the Lord Himself. Jesus told Paul plainly, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest ...” (Acts 9:5). If we consider the metaphor of the body, which Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 and Ephesians 4:15-16, Christ is the Head, and we who believe in Him make up the body. Physically, any injury to the body is obviously felt by the head, for the brain must take action with the appropriate healing responses; so, too, within the Body of Christ, any persecution directed at the Body will be felt by the Head. What comfort it is to know that the Lord is fully aware of all that is laid against us. “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12); “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5). “It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us” (Romans 8:34). What comfort we can take in knowing that Christ knows the burdens that we bear and, wonder of wonders, He is interceding for us with the Father (Romans 8:34).
14. And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.
We have here a description of Paul, the Pharisee. The Greek word for profited literally means to beat forward, and found its origin with a blacksmith beating a piece of metal to lengthen it.88 What is evident from this one little word is the energy that Paul expended as a Pharisee; he did nothing half way. If the Pharisees sought to persecute the new believers in Christ, then Paul would excel at this task.
His zealous commitment saw him rise above those of his own age and station. Today, many would call him a driven man, one obsessed or possessed. Yet it is clear that his commitment was not to his own personal prosperity or prestige, but rather to what he deemed to be the truth of Judaism. He held a tremendous zeal for what he had learned from childhood as being truth – those traditions handed down through the Pharisaical teaching. He was a rising star in the world of the Pharisees; Gamaliel probably saw in Paul his own successor.
We have here, again, words coming together to emphasize the passion of Paul at this point in his life. He was more exceedingly zealous; the word zealous already speaks of an uncompromising and burning commitment to a cause, but to that is added a Greek word that means more exceedingly.89 If some of Paul’s peers in the Pharisaical traditions were zealous, he was that much more so. There can be no doubt that Paul was a fired-up Pharisee!
15. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
When it seemed good to God, everything changed. Paul could well have wondered why God didn’t open the eyes of his understanding while Jesus was still carrying out His ministry on earth. Yet he acknowledges that God’s timing in his life was not to be questioned; the transformation took place at a time that was good for God. The word separated means “to mark off from others by boundaries,” and then to “set apart for some purpose.”90 There is a sense here that Paul could look back over his life and see how God had intervened and orchestrated the events, even from his birth, that had brought him to this time and place. Even during his years of studying Judaism, he could see God using this to prepare him for the work that was now given to him.
Paul never lost his sense of awe that God would specifically call him to launch His Gospel message to the whole world, and especially to the Gentile world. Consider the magnitude of God’s grace that was demonstrated in Paul:
And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. ... And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. ... And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. ... And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God (Acts 9:1-6, 9, 18-20).
Within four days, Paul went from persecuting all those who followed the way of the Lord Jesus, to preaching that Jesus was the Son of God. Paul knew the Scriptures, he had been thoroughly taught, and when his eyes were opened to God’s truth (something that was hidden under the Pharisaical traditions), he immediately recognized Jesus as fulfilling the OT prophecies. Unfortunately, today’s Bible Colleges are filled with methodologies and philosophies that bury, distort and confuse God’s message in His Word to the extent that those coming out of these halls of learning remain largely ignorant of the Scriptures. When the Spirit of God opens our spiritual eyes of understanding, we must often go back to the basics and learn what it really means to be a child of God. Much of what we have taken for granted within Evangelical teaching needs to be re-examined in the light of God’s Word – we must be Bereans and not fear to hold the doctrines, that we have held dear for years, up to the revealing purity of the light of God’s Truth.
Much of what is heard within Evangelicalism today is molded, theologically and philosophically, so as to make a unified system for handling the Word of God; however, the result is that too often the truths of God’s Word are bent or buried in the process. Slowly, over the years, the focus has shifted from the Scriptures to the systematic theologies that have been worked, re-worked and polished until they perfectly reflect man’s image. God’s word to Joshua was: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Joshua 1:8). The Psalmist declared: “Blessed is the man [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2), and: “O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97). The Law referred to here is that which was written upon tables of stone by the finger of God (Exodus 34:28) – the instructions of God that have been established forever. Our focus must be the Word of God; the Pharisees were condemned for losing this focus. Jesus showed them their failure to adhere to the Word of God: “Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition” (Mark 7:9). The Pharisees and scribes of Jesus’ day had allowed their focus to shift from the text of God’s Word to the decrees of their own making (which may have been loosely based on the Word of God), and to their carefully crafted systematic theology of Who God was and how He worked.
We have here a description of Paul, the Pharisee. The Greek word for profited literally means to beat forward, and found its origin with a blacksmith beating a piece of metal to lengthen it.88 What is evident from this one little word is the energy that Paul expended as a Pharisee; he did nothing half way. If the Pharisees sought to persecute the new believers in Christ, then Paul would excel at this task.
His zealous commitment saw him rise above those of his own age and station. Today, many would call him a driven man, one obsessed or possessed. Yet it is clear that his commitment was not to his own personal prosperity or prestige, but rather to what he deemed to be the truth of Judaism. He held a tremendous zeal for what he had learned from childhood as being truth – those traditions handed down through the Pharisaical teaching. He was a rising star in the world of the Pharisees; Gamaliel probably saw in Paul his own successor.
We have here, again, words coming together to emphasize the passion of Paul at this point in his life. He was more exceedingly zealous; the word zealous already speaks of an uncompromising and burning commitment to a cause, but to that is added a Greek word that means more exceedingly.89 If some of Paul’s peers in the Pharisaical traditions were zealous, he was that much more so. There can be no doubt that Paul was a fired-up Pharisee!
15. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
When it seemed good to God, everything changed. Paul could well have wondered why God didn’t open the eyes of his understanding while Jesus was still carrying out His ministry on earth. Yet he acknowledges that God’s timing in his life was not to be questioned; the transformation took place at a time that was good for God. The word separated means “to mark off from others by boundaries,” and then to “set apart for some purpose.”90 There is a sense here that Paul could look back over his life and see how God had intervened and orchestrated the events, even from his birth, that had brought him to this time and place. Even during his years of studying Judaism, he could see God using this to prepare him for the work that was now given to him.
Paul never lost his sense of awe that God would specifically call him to launch His Gospel message to the whole world, and especially to the Gentile world. Consider the magnitude of God’s grace that was demonstrated in Paul:
And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. ... And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. ... And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. ... And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God (Acts 9:1-6, 9, 18-20).
Within four days, Paul went from persecuting all those who followed the way of the Lord Jesus, to preaching that Jesus was the Son of God. Paul knew the Scriptures, he had been thoroughly taught, and when his eyes were opened to God’s truth (something that was hidden under the Pharisaical traditions), he immediately recognized Jesus as fulfilling the OT prophecies. Unfortunately, today’s Bible Colleges are filled with methodologies and philosophies that bury, distort and confuse God’s message in His Word to the extent that those coming out of these halls of learning remain largely ignorant of the Scriptures. When the Spirit of God opens our spiritual eyes of understanding, we must often go back to the basics and learn what it really means to be a child of God. Much of what we have taken for granted within Evangelical teaching needs to be re-examined in the light of God’s Word – we must be Bereans and not fear to hold the doctrines, that we have held dear for years, up to the revealing purity of the light of God’s Truth.
Much of what is heard within Evangelicalism today is molded, theologically and philosophically, so as to make a unified system for handling the Word of God; however, the result is that too often the truths of God’s Word are bent or buried in the process. Slowly, over the years, the focus has shifted from the Scriptures to the systematic theologies that have been worked, re-worked and polished until they perfectly reflect man’s image. God’s word to Joshua was: “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” (Joshua 1:8). The Psalmist declared: “Blessed is the man [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2), and: “O how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day” (Psalm 119:97). The Law referred to here is that which was written upon tables of stone by the finger of God (Exodus 34:28) – the instructions of God that have been established forever. Our focus must be the Word of God; the Pharisees were condemned for losing this focus. Jesus showed them their failure to adhere to the Word of God: “Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition” (Mark 7:9). The Pharisees and scribes of Jesus’ day had allowed their focus to shift from the text of God’s Word to the decrees of their own making (which may have been loosely based on the Word of God), and to their carefully crafted systematic theology of Who God was and how He worked.
One of the cries of the Reformers was, Sola Scriptura – Scripture alone! Within Protestantism, this phrase has been defined as “the Bible as God's written word is self-authenticating, clear (perspicuous) to the rational reader, its own interpreter (‘Scripture interprets Scripture’), and sufficient of itself to be the final authority of Christian doctrine.”91 Although the origin of this term and its definition are in great debate, for the Reformers, establishing the authority of the Scriptures (the last item in the definition), stood in sharp contrast to the position of the Roman Catholic Church, which held tradition as being equally authoritative. Evangelicals herald the same mantra today, yet they are caught in a web of their own deceit for the question for most of them is: which Scriptures? However, even beyond that, both the Evangelicals and the Reformed today must wade through their numerous theological systems that were supposedly developed to tell us what the Word of God says. In many ways, we have digressed to the structure of the Roman Catholics: only the well-educated can read the Scriptures and interpret their meaning; or, perhaps our digression goes back even further to the Pharisaical traditions of Jesus’ day. Evangelicals may well declare sola Scriptura but they have, to a large degree, exchanged their theological systems of belief for the authority of the Scriptures; it is no longer truly sola Scriptura, but rather the authority of the Scriptures will be accepted according to my well-honed theology or my tradition of interpretation. In essence they say, “Don’t speak to me of what Scripture declares that is contrary to my theology, it is too confusing”; they are forced to try to hang what they hear from the Word of God onto the framework of the particular Evangelical tradition that they have adopted. In many ways, this is little different from the Galatian believers who were in the process of substituting the traditions of men for the true Gospel that Paul and Barnabas had declared unto them; today’s Evangelical has replaced the truth of God’s Word with a form of theology (and often the Fundamentalist is no different). A comment received recently from a Calvinist exposed this so profoundly. He said, “I will have to ... seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit and use Scripture alone [the concept of sola Scriptura]! Additional to this I can use my precious puritan books ....”92 That is the Evangelical and the Reformed position on sola Scriptura today. I will use Scripture alone, and my favorite books that tell me what the “Scripture alone” is saying – that, my friends, is NOT sola Scriptura; that is granting tradition equal weight with God’s Word (since the traditional prevails, it actually is given more weight). This Calvinist went on to justify his position in that he still claimed to hold to the authority of Scripture, but used the Puritan writings as a source of teaching to shed light on the Word of God. However, as good as these words sound, it is evident from his life that the Puritan writings provide the whole basis for his understanding of Scripture – he spends most of his time studying the Puritan writings, not the Word of God. The result is that tradition swiftly overtakes and suppresses the Word of God (Satan will see to that), as we have seen evidenced by the traditions of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day, the traditions of the Roman Catholics today, and even in the lives of today’s Evangelicals of whatever stripe. “Every word of God is pure: ... Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar” (Proverbs 30:5-6). We must guard against being drawn in by well-crafted systematic theologies, and we must guard against blindly accepting the writings of men without holding them up to the light of God’s Word (1 John 4:1; cp. Acts 17:11). It is not wrong to consult the writings and teachings of others, but we must be vigilant to not accept what we hear and read without reservation (Romans 16:17-18). The same holds true for the words before you; do not take my word for it, but take the Word of God and search whether these things are so.
16. To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
Here we see the grace of God at work within Paul; it was the grace of God that brought him from his occupation as a persecutor to his present compulsion to preach the truth that he once sought to eradicate. It was through His grace that God revealed, or made known, His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to Paul, and it was done at a time that pleased God. The wonder of God’s grace never left Paul’s mind.
God’s revelation of Jesus to Paul was not without purpose, for God opened Paul’s eyes and understanding so that he could declare the good news of the Gospel to the heathen, the Gentiles –those who were not within the family of the Jews. In some respects, Paul had an easier task than Peter and James and the other Apostles who remained in Jerusalem. Acts 15 indicates that there was a tendency among the believers in Jerusalem to maintain some of the ordinances of the Mosaic Law – specifically circumcision and the tradition to separate from the Gentiles. This caused problems with them accepting the work that God was doing among the Gentiles (Acts 15:1-12), and a momentary double-mindedness on the part of Peter and Barnabas (Galatians 2:11-13). Paul, on the other hand, even though he would begin with the synagogues of the various cities that he visited, was always working with Gentiles and clearly held a more firm understanding of the melding of the two [the Jew and the Gentile] into one, along with the removal of the Mosaic ordinances (Ephesians 2:14-17).
Out of the contention among those in Jerusalem, came a compromise – at least it was considered to be such by the Jewish believers. For the Gentile Christians, their concession was “that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood” (Acts 15:20). The first two of these are contained within the Ten Commandments, and, therefore, are without question. As for things strangled and blood, Paul dealt with the matter of food with the Corinthians: “Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse. But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak” (1 Corinthians 8:7-9). He does not specifically mention things strangled or blood, but he deals with the broader matter of foods and our need to be aware of whether what we eat might be an occasion for stumbling to someone of a weaker conscience. The principle is that if our actions cause a brother to stumble, then we are wrong, even if there is nothing inherently contrary to the Scriptures in what we have done. “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (Philippians 2:3-4). There is no license within the liberty of Christ, only the necessity of being aware of how others are impacted by what we do – namely, the application of the last six of the Ten Commandments summed up in: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 19:19; Leviticus 19:18). It is not a matter of rights (“I have a right to do this because it is not condemned by Scripture”), rather, it is a matter of living in a manner that brings glory to God (Matthew 5:16). The mantra of today is “I have rights,” which generally can be interpreted to mean: “I can do what I want and you can’t stop me”; yet you will never find that concept or attitude in Scripture (1 Corinthians 10:31-33). Paul exercised the rights that he had as a Roman citizen (Acts 22:24-29), but such rights were common to all citizens and were not individually focused. This is clearly not the same thing, and most of us would acknowledge that we understand the difference.
We have here the mission of Paul in a nutshell – he was called to declare the good news of Christ among the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). The mission given to the Apostles by the Lord was, “ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). We see them centered in Jerusalem, and never really getting beyond Samaria (Philip opened up the venture into Samaria after the persecution that was generated by Saul – Acts 8:3-5). Even after Saul’s conversion, when he finally came to the Apostles at Jerusalem, it is clear that this was the center from which the Apostles worked (Acts 9:28). After he left, the established assemblies of believers still included only Judea, Galilee and Samaria (Acts 9:31), and Peter’s work was focused on these groups of believing Jews. It was not until God called Peter to Cornelius (Acts 10) that he began to understand that God’s message included the Gentiles as well. It seems evident that the “uttermost part of the earth” had fallen from the Apostles’ thinking; yet God’s call on Paul’s life was specifically to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). Consider Paul’s life and the city of Jerusalem – this is the place where he had his greatest problems. It was here that he zealously persecuted the believers (Acts 8:1-3), this was where his preaching lead to a threat on his life (Acts 9:29-30), and where he was taken into Roman protection from a Jewish mob (Acts 22:21-24), which eventually resulted in him being taken to Rome. Paul understood far better the universality of God’s call to righteousness through the sacrifice that Christ made for the sins of mankind than did the Jewish Apostles who had walked with the Lord. Perhaps being born outside of Judea provided him with an easier acceptance of the Gentiles, first as a people, and then as fellow believers.
We have here the mission of Paul in a nutshell – he was called to declare the good news of Christ among the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). The mission given to the Apostles by the Lord was, “ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). We see them centered in Jerusalem and never really getting beyond Samaria (Philip opened up the venture into Samaria after the persecution generated by Saul – Acts 8:3-5). Even after Saul’s conversion when he finally came to the Apostles at Jerusalem, it is clear that this was the center from which the Apostles worked (Acts 9:28). After he left, the established assemblies of believers still included only Judea, Galilee and Samaria (Acts 9:31), and Peter’s work was focused on these groups of believing Jews. It was not until God called Peter to go to Centurion Cornelius (Acts 10) that he began to understand that God’s message included the Gentiles as well. It seems evident that the “uttermost part of the earth” had fallen from the Apostles’ thinking; yet God’s call on Paul’s life was specifically to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). Consider Paul’s life and the city of Jerusalem – this is the place where he had his greatest problems. It was here that he zealously persecuted the believers (Acts 8:1-3), this was where his preaching lead to a threat on his life (Acts 9:29-30), and where he was taken into Roman protection from the Jewish mob (Acts 22:21-24), which eventually resulted in him being taken to Rome. Paul understood far better the universality of God’s call to righteousness through the sacrifice that Christ made for the sins of mankind than did the Jewish Apostles who had walked with the Lord. Perhaps being born outside of Judea provided him with an easier acceptance of the Gentiles, first as a people, and then as fellow believers.
We read here that Paul, after his conversion, “conferred not with flesh and blood.” Acts 9 declares, “But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ. And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him ...” (Acts 9:22-23). Perhaps it was between these two verses that Paul “conferred not with flesh and blood.” If Paul had conferred with flesh and blood, it would very likely have been with the core group of Jerusalem – that group of Apostles who were still stuck in Judea and who still did not realize that God had broken down the wall of separation between the Jew and the Gentile through Christ’s sacrifice (Ephesians 2:14-15). God had greater plans for Paul, and He accomplished this by “revealing His Son” to him in a way that caused the Jerusalem group some contention.
17. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.
Here is a glimpse of what took place between Acts 9:22 and 23. First of all, Paul establishes that he did not go up to Jerusalem to those who were already Apostles. This is important in that Paul is dealing with a people who were in the process of replacing the Gospel message given to them with that which included a return to Jewish rituals and ordinances. God revealed His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to Paul; however, it was not through the Jewish Apostles who were still mentally confined to Jerusalem. The Gospel that God wanted Paul to take to the ends of the earth held a message of reconciliation that had been accomplished by Christ – something that Peter and the other disciples did not yet fully comprehend. Even though the disciples in Jerusalem were “older” in the Lord, God gave Paul specific instructions that went beyond the Jews and included the Gentiles. Peter, later in his life, readily acknowledged that Paul spoke a Message that was sometimes difficult to understand (2 Peter 3:14-17), albeit one that must be neither ignored nor twisted.
16. To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
Here we see the grace of God at work within Paul; it was the grace of God that brought him from his occupation as a persecutor to his present compulsion to preach the truth that he once sought to eradicate. It was through His grace that God revealed, or made known, His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to Paul, and it was done at a time that pleased God. The wonder of God’s grace never left Paul’s mind.
God’s revelation of Jesus to Paul was not without purpose, for God opened Paul’s eyes and understanding so that he could declare the good news of the Gospel to the heathen, the Gentiles –those who were not within the family of the Jews. In some respects, Paul had an easier task than Peter and James and the other Apostles who remained in Jerusalem. Acts 15 indicates that there was a tendency among the believers in Jerusalem to maintain some of the ordinances of the Mosaic Law – specifically circumcision and the tradition to separate from the Gentiles. This caused problems with them accepting the work that God was doing among the Gentiles (Acts 15:1-12), and a momentary double-mindedness on the part of Peter and Barnabas (Galatians 2:11-13). Paul, on the other hand, even though he would begin with the synagogues of the various cities that he visited, was always working with Gentiles and clearly held a more firm understanding of the melding of the two [the Jew and the Gentile] into one, along with the removal of the Mosaic ordinances (Ephesians 2:14-17).
Out of the contention among those in Jerusalem, came a compromise – at least it was considered to be such by the Jewish believers. For the Gentile Christians, their concession was “that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood” (Acts 15:20). The first two of these are contained within the Ten Commandments, and, therefore, are without question. As for things strangled and blood, Paul dealt with the matter of food with the Corinthians: “Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled. But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse. But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak” (1 Corinthians 8:7-9). He does not specifically mention things strangled or blood, but he deals with the broader matter of foods and our need to be aware of whether what we eat might be an occasion for stumbling to someone of a weaker conscience. The principle is that if our actions cause a brother to stumble, then we are wrong, even if there is nothing inherently contrary to the Scriptures in what we have done. “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others” (Philippians 2:3-4). There is no license within the liberty of Christ, only the necessity of being aware of how others are impacted by what we do – namely, the application of the last six of the Ten Commandments summed up in: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 19:19; Leviticus 19:18). It is not a matter of rights (“I have a right to do this because it is not condemned by Scripture”), rather, it is a matter of living in a manner that brings glory to God (Matthew 5:16). The mantra of today is “I have rights,” which generally can be interpreted to mean: “I can do what I want and you can’t stop me”; yet you will never find that concept or attitude in Scripture (1 Corinthians 10:31-33). Paul exercised the rights that he had as a Roman citizen (Acts 22:24-29), but such rights were common to all citizens and were not individually focused. This is clearly not the same thing, and most of us would acknowledge that we understand the difference.
We have here the mission of Paul in a nutshell – he was called to declare the good news of Christ among the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). The mission given to the Apostles by the Lord was, “ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). We see them centered in Jerusalem, and never really getting beyond Samaria (Philip opened up the venture into Samaria after the persecution that was generated by Saul – Acts 8:3-5). Even after Saul’s conversion, when he finally came to the Apostles at Jerusalem, it is clear that this was the center from which the Apostles worked (Acts 9:28). After he left, the established assemblies of believers still included only Judea, Galilee and Samaria (Acts 9:31), and Peter’s work was focused on these groups of believing Jews. It was not until God called Peter to Cornelius (Acts 10) that he began to understand that God’s message included the Gentiles as well. It seems evident that the “uttermost part of the earth” had fallen from the Apostles’ thinking; yet God’s call on Paul’s life was specifically to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). Consider Paul’s life and the city of Jerusalem – this is the place where he had his greatest problems. It was here that he zealously persecuted the believers (Acts 8:1-3), this was where his preaching lead to a threat on his life (Acts 9:29-30), and where he was taken into Roman protection from a Jewish mob (Acts 22:21-24), which eventually resulted in him being taken to Rome. Paul understood far better the universality of God’s call to righteousness through the sacrifice that Christ made for the sins of mankind than did the Jewish Apostles who had walked with the Lord. Perhaps being born outside of Judea provided him with an easier acceptance of the Gentiles, first as a people, and then as fellow believers.
We have here the mission of Paul in a nutshell – he was called to declare the good news of Christ among the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). The mission given to the Apostles by the Lord was, “ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8). We see them centered in Jerusalem and never really getting beyond Samaria (Philip opened up the venture into Samaria after the persecution generated by Saul – Acts 8:3-5). Even after Saul’s conversion when he finally came to the Apostles at Jerusalem, it is clear that this was the center from which the Apostles worked (Acts 9:28). After he left, the established assemblies of believers still included only Judea, Galilee and Samaria (Acts 9:31), and Peter’s work was focused on these groups of believing Jews. It was not until God called Peter to go to Centurion Cornelius (Acts 10) that he began to understand that God’s message included the Gentiles as well. It seems evident that the “uttermost part of the earth” had fallen from the Apostles’ thinking; yet God’s call on Paul’s life was specifically to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). Consider Paul’s life and the city of Jerusalem – this is the place where he had his greatest problems. It was here that he zealously persecuted the believers (Acts 8:1-3), this was where his preaching lead to a threat on his life (Acts 9:29-30), and where he was taken into Roman protection from the Jewish mob (Acts 22:21-24), which eventually resulted in him being taken to Rome. Paul understood far better the universality of God’s call to righteousness through the sacrifice that Christ made for the sins of mankind than did the Jewish Apostles who had walked with the Lord. Perhaps being born outside of Judea provided him with an easier acceptance of the Gentiles, first as a people, and then as fellow believers.
We read here that Paul, after his conversion, “conferred not with flesh and blood.” Acts 9 declares, “But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ. And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him ...” (Acts 9:22-23). Perhaps it was between these two verses that Paul “conferred not with flesh and blood.” If Paul had conferred with flesh and blood, it would very likely have been with the core group of Jerusalem – that group of Apostles who were still stuck in Judea and who still did not realize that God had broken down the wall of separation between the Jew and the Gentile through Christ’s sacrifice (Ephesians 2:14-15). God had greater plans for Paul, and He accomplished this by “revealing His Son” to him in a way that caused the Jerusalem group some contention.
17. Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.
Here is a glimpse of what took place between Acts 9:22 and 23. First of all, Paul establishes that he did not go up to Jerusalem to those who were already Apostles. This is important in that Paul is dealing with a people who were in the process of replacing the Gospel message given to them with that which included a return to Jewish rituals and ordinances. God revealed His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to Paul; however, it was not through the Jewish Apostles who were still mentally confined to Jerusalem. The Gospel that God wanted Paul to take to the ends of the earth held a message of reconciliation that had been accomplished by Christ – something that Peter and the other disciples did not yet fully comprehend. Even though the disciples in Jerusalem were “older” in the Lord, God gave Paul specific instructions that went beyond the Jews and included the Gentiles. Peter, later in his life, readily acknowledged that Paul spoke a Message that was sometimes difficult to understand (2 Peter 3:14-17), albeit one that must be neither ignored nor twisted.
Arabian Desert
Paul received the special revelation from the Lord in the country of Arabia. If you consider that Damascus is on the western edge of the Arabian wilderness, Paul did not have to travel far to arrive in this area. It is interesting to think about the role that such wastelands have played in the lives of many of God’s chosen servants. Moses spent forty years in the wilderness tending sheep, then another forty leading the children of Israel in their desert wanderings and watching the Lord remove all those over twenty years of age (except two). David spent several years in the wilderness with his men, avoiding the threatenings of King Saul. John the Baptist was a man of the wilderness, where he carried on much of his ministry (Mark 1:4). Jesus, after His baptism by John, was led into the wilderness to face the temptations of the devil for forty days (Luke 4:1-2). Now we see that Paul left Damascus and went into Arabia to receive the revelation of God concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We read in 2 Corinthians 12:2-7 of an experience that Paul had; this could have been part of his time in the wilderness where God revealed His truth to him. It is only speculation as to when Paul would have had the experience that he relates to the Corinthian believers, but what is evident from Paul’s life is that he had a far deeper understanding of the full message that God had for all of mankind than did the other disciples of the Lord. After receiving the Lord’s instructions in the wilderness of Arabia, Paul returned to Damascus; we have no indication as to how long he had been away.
18. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.
Luke writes of this time:
And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him: But their laying await was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed [attempted] to join [cleave] himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid [to put to flight by terrifying] of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus (Acts 9:23-26).93
What we don’t see in Acts, but which is evident in our passage, is that Paul spent three years in Damascus preaching the Word of God – declaring the revelation of Jesus Christ as received from God. In the city where Paul went to rain havoc upon the heads of the believers, for three years he preached the very message that he had been determined to stamp out.
What we don’t see in Galatians, but what is clearly evident in Acts is that it was a threat to his life that forced Paul to leave Damascus. The persecutor had become the persecuted. His one-time allies, the Jewish leadership, were now his enemies and sought to kill him.
In our passage, we are told that Paul “went up to Jerusalem to see Peter.” See is the Greek word historeo (his-tor-eh'-o), and this is its only occurrence in the NT. This word means “to inquire into” or “to gain knowledge of by visiting.”94 There was purpose to Paul’s desire to see Peter, the one who had walked with the Lord throughout His ministry. Paul makes no mention here of the difficulties that he experienced by trying to gain the confidence of the brethren in Jerusalem, but from Acts we learn that he was not immediately embraced as a fellow believer. Their last impression of Paul was as the persecutor who caused the dispersion of the believers from Jerusalem (Acts 8:3-4), and the one who was party with those who stoned Stephen to death (Acts 7:59-8:1). However, there was one among them, Barnabas, who bridged the gap and opened the way for Paul.
We are told that Paul stayed with Peter for 15 days, and during this time he “spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians” (Acts 9:29). The Grecians spoken of here were Jews who had not been born within the land of Israel, who spoke the Greek language, and had adopted many of the Greek ways of living; they were also referred to as Hellenists. Although Paul had been born outside of Judea (Acts 22:3) and very evidently spoke the Greek language, he had been raised and educated in Jerusalem and was thoroughly taught in the ways of the Pharisees (the strictest sect of the Jews). It says that Paul disputed against these Hellenists; i.e., he had some serious discussions with them. In our day, dispute carries the thought of heated disagreement, and, evidently, that is where Paul’s discussion with these men went; however, within the Greek, the word so translated identifies more of a mutual discussion. It is interesting, and perhaps somewhat telling, that the Apostles in Jerusalem seemingly permitted Paul to work with the Jews who were often despised for having taken on so many of the customs of the Greek culture. Perhaps Peter felt that Paul could do no harm among those people; even though they were of full Jewish ancestry (unlike the Samaritans), they were not openly accepted within the Judean Jewish community because of their perceived compromises. Even though he may have been more prepared to work with them than any of the rest of the Apostles, it is very evident that Paul’s Message of truth caused no small aggravation among the Hellenists – to such a degree that they were prepared to kill him in order to silence him. He caused a tumult (confounded) among the Jews of Damascus, and evidently caused no small stir in Jerusalem as well (Acts 9:22, 29).
After 15 days in Jerusalem, the Hellenistic Jews were prepared to do away with Paul! What the Jews of Damascus put up with for three years (Galatians 1:18), these Jews of Jerusalem were only prepared to endure for 15 days. Paul had probably honed his debating skills to the place where the Jews realized that they must either change their ways or remove Paul from the scene.
19. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.
During Paul’s brief stay in Jerusalem, the only Apostles whom he saw were Peter and James; the latter, it seems, was the head of the assembly in Jerusalem (in Acts 15, James takes the lead in arriving at a compromise concerning the Gentile believers). It appears that Peter may have set about to limit Paul’s influence within Jerusalem; it is clear that although Paul was in Jerusalem, he was not accepted as one of the Apostles by any means. His exposure to the Apostles was limited, and he was given the castoffs of Jewish culture with whom to speak. We are told, “But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus” (Acts 9:27). The Apostles to whom Barnabas took Paul were Peter and James. Then we read: “And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem” (Acts 9:28); Paul was with Peter and James, going in and going out of Jerusalem. Could it be that he was being chaperoned?
I wonder if James was thinking back to this meeting with Paul when he wrote: “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22). The Hellenistic Jews heard Paul’s Gospel message as given by God, yet their response was to try to silence him rather than do what was clearly God’s Word. God’s desire for us has always been obedience (that we might be doers – those who take what is heard and act on it); He required it of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and He still requires it of us today. One more time we must realize that God does not change and has not changed.
20. Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.
Here is a pause in the flow of Paul’s narration to underscore the truth of what he is saying. Remember, the Galatian believers were substituting a message that included Jewish traditions for the freedom that they had in the Gospel brought to them by Paul. They may well have contended that they were not setting the fundamentals of the Gospel aside – they were simply enhancing it by requiring some of the Jewish traditions with which many of them would have been reared. This is not a very different argument from that presented by the New Evangelicals when they first made their stand against the Fundamentalist position on the Word of God. What Paul made clear in the opening remarks of this letter was that they were not enhancing the Gospel, but were replacing it with something that was not the Gospel (similarly, the New Evangelicals substituted a far more socially “sensitive” message for the true Gospel). As discussed earlier, it is not possible to practice syncretism with the truth of God’s Word – you cannot add anything to the exclusive truth of the Scriptures and still contend that you hold the Truth. Nor, on the other hand, can you remove anything from the truth of Scripture and still claim to hold God’s Truth – you may have a portion of it, but you no longer hold the Truth as God intended it. A mixture of anything with the “pure” Word of God is unacceptable (“Every word of God is pure: ... Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar” Proverbs 30:5-6). It matters little whether the added element is social activism, Native American spiritism, or simply giving prominence to the theological musings of those who purport to be wise in their own understanding – the result is the same: the Word of God has been compromised, and therein is the devastation.
Paul takes this break to underscore to these believers that what he is declaring to them is the truth, and he calls on God as his Witness. What he endeavors to emphasize one more time, is that the Gospel, as he and Barnabas presented it, was not a Message received through any man (the Apostles in Jerusalem at that time were not yet preaching the full Message), but he received the revelation directly from God of all that was accomplished through Jesus’ time on earth. The Apostles who had walked with the Lord throughout His ministry knew the Son of God, but they were having great difficulty getting beyond the mold that had been caste by Judaism. They saw Jesus as the fulfillment of the Jewish prophecies of the Scriptures but they did not yet comprehend the universal aspect of the Gospel message (the commission to go to “Samaria [those who were half Jews], and unto the uttermost part of the earth [the Gentiles]” was not fully understood). Their Jewish traditions had lost sight of the fact that God’s message has always been universal in nature; the Jews were to become a people who bore God’s invitation to the rest of the world (Exodus 19:6). This never happened during the OT days, although there were specific times when it should have been evident; when Jesus reminded the Jews of these times, it only served to anger the religious rulers (Luke 4:24-30). Paul came with God’s Message for the Gentiles (and the Jews) and shattered the mold of Judaism, preaching a Gospel that declared the Jews and Gentiles were now one in Christ (Ephesians 2:11-22).
21. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;
In Acts 9 we read, “And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him. Which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus” (Acts 9:29-30). Paul was taken by those in Jerusalem to the coastal town of Caesarea, and put on a ship that would take him back to where he had come from – Tarsus, a town on the coast of Cilicia.
We read in 2 Corinthians 12:2-7 of an experience that Paul had; this could have been part of his time in the wilderness where God revealed His truth to him. It is only speculation as to when Paul would have had the experience that he relates to the Corinthian believers, but what is evident from Paul’s life is that he had a far deeper understanding of the full message that God had for all of mankind than did the other disciples of the Lord. After receiving the Lord’s instructions in the wilderness of Arabia, Paul returned to Damascus; we have no indication as to how long he had been away.
18. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.
Luke writes of this time:
And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him: But their laying await was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket. And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed [attempted] to join [cleave] himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid [to put to flight by terrifying] of him, and believed not that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus (Acts 9:23-26).93
What we don’t see in Acts, but which is evident in our passage, is that Paul spent three years in Damascus preaching the Word of God – declaring the revelation of Jesus Christ as received from God. In the city where Paul went to rain havoc upon the heads of the believers, for three years he preached the very message that he had been determined to stamp out.
What we don’t see in Galatians, but what is clearly evident in Acts is that it was a threat to his life that forced Paul to leave Damascus. The persecutor had become the persecuted. His one-time allies, the Jewish leadership, were now his enemies and sought to kill him.
In our passage, we are told that Paul “went up to Jerusalem to see Peter.” See is the Greek word historeo (his-tor-eh'-o), and this is its only occurrence in the NT. This word means “to inquire into” or “to gain knowledge of by visiting.”94 There was purpose to Paul’s desire to see Peter, the one who had walked with the Lord throughout His ministry. Paul makes no mention here of the difficulties that he experienced by trying to gain the confidence of the brethren in Jerusalem, but from Acts we learn that he was not immediately embraced as a fellow believer. Their last impression of Paul was as the persecutor who caused the dispersion of the believers from Jerusalem (Acts 8:3-4), and the one who was party with those who stoned Stephen to death (Acts 7:59-8:1). However, there was one among them, Barnabas, who bridged the gap and opened the way for Paul.
We are told that Paul stayed with Peter for 15 days, and during this time he “spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians” (Acts 9:29). The Grecians spoken of here were Jews who had not been born within the land of Israel, who spoke the Greek language, and had adopted many of the Greek ways of living; they were also referred to as Hellenists. Although Paul had been born outside of Judea (Acts 22:3) and very evidently spoke the Greek language, he had been raised and educated in Jerusalem and was thoroughly taught in the ways of the Pharisees (the strictest sect of the Jews). It says that Paul disputed against these Hellenists; i.e., he had some serious discussions with them. In our day, dispute carries the thought of heated disagreement, and, evidently, that is where Paul’s discussion with these men went; however, within the Greek, the word so translated identifies more of a mutual discussion. It is interesting, and perhaps somewhat telling, that the Apostles in Jerusalem seemingly permitted Paul to work with the Jews who were often despised for having taken on so many of the customs of the Greek culture. Perhaps Peter felt that Paul could do no harm among those people; even though they were of full Jewish ancestry (unlike the Samaritans), they were not openly accepted within the Judean Jewish community because of their perceived compromises. Even though he may have been more prepared to work with them than any of the rest of the Apostles, it is very evident that Paul’s Message of truth caused no small aggravation among the Hellenists – to such a degree that they were prepared to kill him in order to silence him. He caused a tumult (confounded) among the Jews of Damascus, and evidently caused no small stir in Jerusalem as well (Acts 9:22, 29).
After 15 days in Jerusalem, the Hellenistic Jews were prepared to do away with Paul! What the Jews of Damascus put up with for three years (Galatians 1:18), these Jews of Jerusalem were only prepared to endure for 15 days. Paul had probably honed his debating skills to the place where the Jews realized that they must either change their ways or remove Paul from the scene.
19. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.
During Paul’s brief stay in Jerusalem, the only Apostles whom he saw were Peter and James; the latter, it seems, was the head of the assembly in Jerusalem (in Acts 15, James takes the lead in arriving at a compromise concerning the Gentile believers). It appears that Peter may have set about to limit Paul’s influence within Jerusalem; it is clear that although Paul was in Jerusalem, he was not accepted as one of the Apostles by any means. His exposure to the Apostles was limited, and he was given the castoffs of Jewish culture with whom to speak. We are told, “But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus” (Acts 9:27). The Apostles to whom Barnabas took Paul were Peter and James. Then we read: “And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem” (Acts 9:28); Paul was with Peter and James, going in and going out of Jerusalem. Could it be that he was being chaperoned?
I wonder if James was thinking back to this meeting with Paul when he wrote: “be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22). The Hellenistic Jews heard Paul’s Gospel message as given by God, yet their response was to try to silence him rather than do what was clearly God’s Word. God’s desire for us has always been obedience (that we might be doers – those who take what is heard and act on it); He required it of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and He still requires it of us today. One more time we must realize that God does not change and has not changed.
20. Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.
Here is a pause in the flow of Paul’s narration to underscore the truth of what he is saying. Remember, the Galatian believers were substituting a message that included Jewish traditions for the freedom that they had in the Gospel brought to them by Paul. They may well have contended that they were not setting the fundamentals of the Gospel aside – they were simply enhancing it by requiring some of the Jewish traditions with which many of them would have been reared. This is not a very different argument from that presented by the New Evangelicals when they first made their stand against the Fundamentalist position on the Word of God. What Paul made clear in the opening remarks of this letter was that they were not enhancing the Gospel, but were replacing it with something that was not the Gospel (similarly, the New Evangelicals substituted a far more socially “sensitive” message for the true Gospel). As discussed earlier, it is not possible to practice syncretism with the truth of God’s Word – you cannot add anything to the exclusive truth of the Scriptures and still contend that you hold the Truth. Nor, on the other hand, can you remove anything from the truth of Scripture and still claim to hold God’s Truth – you may have a portion of it, but you no longer hold the Truth as God intended it. A mixture of anything with the “pure” Word of God is unacceptable (“Every word of God is pure: ... Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar” Proverbs 30:5-6). It matters little whether the added element is social activism, Native American spiritism, or simply giving prominence to the theological musings of those who purport to be wise in their own understanding – the result is the same: the Word of God has been compromised, and therein is the devastation.
Paul takes this break to underscore to these believers that what he is declaring to them is the truth, and he calls on God as his Witness. What he endeavors to emphasize one more time, is that the Gospel, as he and Barnabas presented it, was not a Message received through any man (the Apostles in Jerusalem at that time were not yet preaching the full Message), but he received the revelation directly from God of all that was accomplished through Jesus’ time on earth. The Apostles who had walked with the Lord throughout His ministry knew the Son of God, but they were having great difficulty getting beyond the mold that had been caste by Judaism. They saw Jesus as the fulfillment of the Jewish prophecies of the Scriptures but they did not yet comprehend the universal aspect of the Gospel message (the commission to go to “Samaria [those who were half Jews], and unto the uttermost part of the earth [the Gentiles]” was not fully understood). Their Jewish traditions had lost sight of the fact that God’s message has always been universal in nature; the Jews were to become a people who bore God’s invitation to the rest of the world (Exodus 19:6). This never happened during the OT days, although there were specific times when it should have been evident; when Jesus reminded the Jews of these times, it only served to anger the religious rulers (Luke 4:24-30). Paul came with God’s Message for the Gentiles (and the Jews) and shattered the mold of Judaism, preaching a Gospel that declared the Jews and Gentiles were now one in Christ (Ephesians 2:11-22).
21. Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;
In Acts 9 we read, “And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him. Which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus” (Acts 9:29-30). Paul was taken by those in Jerusalem to the coastal town of Caesarea, and put on a ship that would take him back to where he had come from – Tarsus, a town on the coast of Cilicia.
We read in Acts 11 that, because of the persecution that Paul stirred up at the time of the martyrdom of Stephen, the followers of Christ moved north into the area of Antioch of Syria (as well as to Phenice and Cyprus) and they declared the Word of God, but unto the Jews only. (Acts 11:19-21). Antioch was an important, wealthy city and home to a large Jewish population. The Jewish Christians from Jerusalem may have been scattered but they had not lost their narrow focus – within their minds, the Message that they preached was only for the Jews. However, the Lord brought Christians from Cyprus and Cyrene (a town on the northern tip of Africa) to Antioch, and they preached the Lord Jesus to those despised Hellenistic Jews. It is fascinating to see how the Lord blessed His Word as it spread to those who were not highly acclaimed by the Jews. Philip brought the Message to the Samaritans (those despised half-Jews) and “the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake ...” (Acts 8:6), and the Lord also used him to open the eyes of an Ethiopian eunuch who would have taken the message back to his own country (Acts 8:37). Cornelius was advised by an angel to call for Peter, who came to him after his own heavenly persuasion; for Peter, this was not a voluntary mission and, while he was still talking to those whom Cornelius had gathered together, “the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard [to hear with understanding] the word” (Acts 10:44).95 The Lord was chipping away at their ingrained Jewish tradition of separating from those who were not like them. When these Christians came from Cyprus and Cyrene to Antioch, they preached among the Hellenistic Jews, and the Lord (once more) blessed His Word among these people. News of this reached the Jerusalem group and they sent Barnabas to investigate what was happening up there in Antioch; we are told that they sent him to “go as far as Antioch” (Acts 11:22). You’ll recall that it was Barnabas who opened the way for Paul when he first arrived in Jerusalem (Acts 9:27). When Barnabas saw what the Lord was doing in Antioch, he departed for Tarsus to get Paul (Acts 11:25) – in contradiction to the instructions that he’d received from the Christian leaders in Jerusalem. He evidently saw the work and understood what was taking place in Antioch and was reminded of the Message that Paul had endeavored to plant in Jerusalem, and so we have Paul arriving in Syria, being brought from Cilicia by Barnabas.
In this letter to the Galatians, Paul was not focused on telling the story of his journey (we pick up most of the details of this from Acts), but rather on those things that would draw the Galatian believers away from the error that they were courting. What he has endeavored to underscore, to this point, is that the message of the Gospel, which God gave to him, did not come from those who were centered in Jerusalem; he did not get it from the Jews whose focus was on the Jewish race. The readers of this epistle will begin to understand that if Paul had received instruction from the Jerusalem believers, then he would very likely not have entered the region of Galatia to preach the Gospel (at least not as soon as he did). Although he doesn’t speak here specifically of the difficulties that he ran into with the leaders of the Jerusalem assembly, it is clear that the full Message that God had given to him was without influence from those who seemed to have great difficulty getting past their Judaism. Perhaps even this hesitancy on the part of the Jerusalem disciples had become an influence among the Galatian believers, which could account for Paul’s emphatic clarification that the Gospel, as he delivered it, was from God and not from Jerusalem.
22. And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ:
Here we have confirmation that Paul’s ministry in Jerusalem, during his short time there, was very limited. We’ve already seen that he only met with Peter and James, and it is evident from this that he was not taken to the assemblies of believers that were located around the city of Jerusalem; Paul was unknown to these people. After Paul was escorted out of Jerusalem, we read: “Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied. And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters ...” (Acts 9:31-32). After Paul left Jerusalem, Peter then visited the various assemblies throughout the area (obviously something that hadn’t happened while Paul was present). The two things that are very evident are: 1) Paul had no exposure to the Christians around Jerusalem and, 2) Peter’s ministry to this time had been limited to those assemblies within the Judean area; he graciously included the Samaritan believers where Philip had worked and where he and John had confirmed the legitimacy of this work (Acts 8:14, 25). Even the persecution generated by Paul did not send these men out of this center of Judaism.
In many respects, I don’t think that we fully appreciate the contrast that existed between the Message that Paul was given by God for all of mankind, and the message to which the Apostles, who had walked with the Lord during His ministry on earth, were still clinging. On the day of Pentecost, there were Jews from every country living in Jerusalem, and the first converts would have included just such a mixture of languages and backgrounds – yet they were all Jews now living in Jerusalem. However, it wasn’t long before there was a contention between the Hellenistic Jews and the Hebrews (Acts 6:1), and the Apostles turned this contentious matter over to seven men. Among these seven we find Stephen (the first martyr) and Philip, the first to take the message of the Gospel to those outside of the Jewish confines. This was a stretching time for the Jewish Christian leaders, for now the Message of God’s truth had been taken to, and received by, the Samaritans – those despised half-Jews. There seems to have been an acceptance of these believers, for Peter did include the Samaritan region in his travels (Acts 9:31-32). He may well have recalled the ministry that Jesus had among the Samaritans at Sychar (John 4) and accepted this extended work as a result. However, when the Lord took Peter to Cornelius, this caused great concern among the Jewish believers in Jerusalem (Acts 11:1-3), and only after Peter carefully rehearsed what the Lord had done, were they somewhat mollified (Acts 11:18). It was difficult for these people who had been steeped in the understanding that they were to have nothing to do with the Gentiles, to realize that God had always made provision for them (Numbers 9:14; Ephesians 2:13-18). Furthermore, now that the barrier between the Jew and the Gentile had been done away with in Christ, He desired that they be completely accepted. Jesus’ commission that they go to the “uttermost part of the earth”, in their minds probably meant that they should include the Jews of all nations within their target audience; since this happened at Pentecost, the commission was accomplished. Yet God’s plan was far larger than that, and it was this bigger picture that they struggled to accept.
Today we have the exact opposite problem. A general acceptance of everyone and everything, within the broad definition of Christianity, has resulted in the term (Christian) losing much of its meaning. The narrowness of God’s approach to the sinfulness of mankind is spurned in favor of a wide-ranging acceptance of everything that seems spiritual. Whereas the believers from Jerusalem sought to restrict the Gospel message to be for the Jews alone, today’s Evangelicals have compromised the Gospel to such an extent that they are able to include virtually anyone and everyone who claims the name Christian. Neither position is correct; both the Jews and the Evangelicals held/hold their positions strongly, and were/are resistant to anything that might call for them to change. The Jewish believers of Paul’s day resisted the pressure to freely extend the Gospel message to the Gentiles; Evangelicals today protest loudly when they are faced with a narrow, Biblical definition of what it means to be a follower of Christ. Notice the difference: the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were believing in Christ but simply needed to understand more fully that the Gospel message was for everyone; Evangelicals today are, for the most part, deluded professors of Christianity but not possessors of new life in Christ. In the former, the Spirit of God was present to work and enlighten; in the latter, the Spirit of God must seek to convict them of sin and their need of repentance, even while they are convinced that they are righteous and have no need of repentance. Evangelicalism, and this includes Protestant and Baptist denominations, has become the “Christian religion” according to Satan, presenting a shallow pseudo-faith in designer theologies that applies a numbing salve to the minds of those who are being deceived. The result is a self-righteous generation of professing Christians who see no need for repentance, and who accept the sacrifice of Christ as religious rhetoric – a part of their lives but something that will never require anything of them. Unfortunately, this delusion is so seductive that it has drawn those away who once held to a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ – those individuals who are turning their backs on the Lord of glory to become part of the falling away (apostasia) spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2:3.96
There are those within the pre-tribulation-rapture camp who like to wiggle their way around this word (apostasia) and say that it should really be translated as departing, which they then apply as departing for heaven, not departing from the faith.”97 The word apostasia means “a defection, revolt, apostasy,”98 or “a falling away.”99 Looking at the etymology of the word apostate, we see that it is “from Gk. apostasia ‘defection, desertion, rebellion,’ from apostenai ‘to defect,’ lit. ‘to stand off,’ from apo- ‘away from’ ... + stenai ‘to stand.’”100 None of this sounds even remotely like a departing in the sense that the pre-trib enthusiasts would like it to have. On the contrary, it sounds more like a word that would be fitting for those who forsake, who turn away from, and who act in rebellion against God. Hence, the warning “let no man deceive you by any means ...” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). The Greek word for deceive (exapatao) is an intensive word that means “to beguile thoroughly, to deceive wholly,” and is much stronger than apatao, which means to deceive.101 Also, the word (deceive) as it is used here, is in the subjunctive mood, which means that it is a possibility, but not necessarily a reality – hence, the warning to make sure that this deception does not catch you! This flows directly into the coming of the apostasia or rebellion; come also bears the subjunctive mood – the falling away comes through the choices made by individuals, and it is that choice that is represented by this mood.102 The truth of the matter is that apostasy will happen, and the warning is given so that it need not happen to you! Paul, in writing to the Thessalonian believers, is warning them so that they will not be wholly deceived and, thereby, be numbered among the apostate. Hebrews 3:12 warns us: “Take heed, brethren [speaking to brethren in Christ], lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” This is one of many corroborations of the warning that we see in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Unfortunately, we see few around us today who are heeding this warning and who are guarding against being caught in the web of deceit that is being spun within Evangelicalism. For the most part, the older pillars of Evangelicalism have fallen for those lies and become apostate; the younger generation of Evangelicals no longer hear the truth, so they are not apostate (as in having fallen away) – they are simply reprobates, or heathens.
23. But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.
Even though Paul had not visited the various assemblies of believers around Judea, it was evidently common knowledge that the persecutor was now the preacher. The one who had caused the believers in Jerusalem to be scattered in every direction, thereby spreading the Word of God, was now one of them.
It is a comfort to know that Satan does not always make the best decisions; however, we must also note that he loves to use those who are religious. Evidently, he thought that he could use Paul to suppress the new believers and to cause them to turn away from the faith that they had embraced. By stirring up severe persecution, perhaps he thought that they would abandon their faith, and it is possible that he may have had a limited success. However, the persecution proved to be a means of launching the believers out of their huddle in Jerusalem into many outlying areas: Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). That in no way lessens the distress that Paul (used by Satan) caused these early believers, but it does provide a perspective on those difficult times in our lives of which we need to be aware. “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11). Chastening speaks of that which builds character – hardships or trials that come our way, or are permitted into our lives, so that we may grow in God’s grace. Despite the noble purpose for the chastening, it does not bring happiness into our lives. However, if we use these trials to be strengthened in our inner man, if we are vigorously exercised by them, then they will result in righteous fruit. When struggles come our way, and they will, we must permit the Spirit of God to use them to build into us the character of Christ so that we may be “transformed by the renewing of [our] mind” (Romans 12:2). Ephesians 4 challenges us to “put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). The putting on of the new man is accomplished by growing through trials and tribulations; as we are properly exercised by the chastening, the righteousness of the “new man” will take root in us to the glory of God. It is not within us to respond to trials in a manner that will produce godly righteousness – that is the effective work of the Spirit within us: “... that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). I’m sure that Satan finds it most confusing as to why a believer would respond to chastening in a way that causes the righteousness of God within to flourish.
As noted, we must also realize that Satan is not above using religion to cause all kinds of havoc in the lives of true believers. Those who opposed Jesus’ ministry, more than any other group, were the Pharisees, the strictest sect of the Jews who would tithe so meticulously that even their herbs were not overlooked (Matthew 23:23). Despite considering themselves to be the spiritually elite among the Jews, they permitted themselves to be used by Satan as a continual threat to Jesus’ ministry – a threat that ultimately led to His crucifixion by which God fulfilled the Mosaic Law and paid for the salvation of all men. In like manner, we need not think that we are oppressed by anything new when we are ridiculed and gnashed at by those from within the Evangelical community. Their broad form of Christianity is a special hybrid that has been custom designed by Satan to bring delusion and confusion – sufficient truth to relax the casually observant hearer and enough error to draw the naive away from the truth. We must not be surprised that the greatest opposition does not come from the world, but from those who profess to be fellow-Christians.
24. And they glorified God in me.
Not surprisingly, Paul’s conversion brought much rejoicing among the Jewish Christians, and they gave glory to God for removing this irritating source of persecution.
In this letter to the Galatians, Paul was not focused on telling the story of his journey (we pick up most of the details of this from Acts), but rather on those things that would draw the Galatian believers away from the error that they were courting. What he has endeavored to underscore, to this point, is that the message of the Gospel, which God gave to him, did not come from those who were centered in Jerusalem; he did not get it from the Jews whose focus was on the Jewish race. The readers of this epistle will begin to understand that if Paul had received instruction from the Jerusalem believers, then he would very likely not have entered the region of Galatia to preach the Gospel (at least not as soon as he did). Although he doesn’t speak here specifically of the difficulties that he ran into with the leaders of the Jerusalem assembly, it is clear that the full Message that God had given to him was without influence from those who seemed to have great difficulty getting past their Judaism. Perhaps even this hesitancy on the part of the Jerusalem disciples had become an influence among the Galatian believers, which could account for Paul’s emphatic clarification that the Gospel, as he delivered it, was from God and not from Jerusalem.
22. And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ:
Here we have confirmation that Paul’s ministry in Jerusalem, during his short time there, was very limited. We’ve already seen that he only met with Peter and James, and it is evident from this that he was not taken to the assemblies of believers that were located around the city of Jerusalem; Paul was unknown to these people. After Paul was escorted out of Jerusalem, we read: “Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied. And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters ...” (Acts 9:31-32). After Paul left Jerusalem, Peter then visited the various assemblies throughout the area (obviously something that hadn’t happened while Paul was present). The two things that are very evident are: 1) Paul had no exposure to the Christians around Jerusalem and, 2) Peter’s ministry to this time had been limited to those assemblies within the Judean area; he graciously included the Samaritan believers where Philip had worked and where he and John had confirmed the legitimacy of this work (Acts 8:14, 25). Even the persecution generated by Paul did not send these men out of this center of Judaism.
In many respects, I don’t think that we fully appreciate the contrast that existed between the Message that Paul was given by God for all of mankind, and the message to which the Apostles, who had walked with the Lord during His ministry on earth, were still clinging. On the day of Pentecost, there were Jews from every country living in Jerusalem, and the first converts would have included just such a mixture of languages and backgrounds – yet they were all Jews now living in Jerusalem. However, it wasn’t long before there was a contention between the Hellenistic Jews and the Hebrews (Acts 6:1), and the Apostles turned this contentious matter over to seven men. Among these seven we find Stephen (the first martyr) and Philip, the first to take the message of the Gospel to those outside of the Jewish confines. This was a stretching time for the Jewish Christian leaders, for now the Message of God’s truth had been taken to, and received by, the Samaritans – those despised half-Jews. There seems to have been an acceptance of these believers, for Peter did include the Samaritan region in his travels (Acts 9:31-32). He may well have recalled the ministry that Jesus had among the Samaritans at Sychar (John 4) and accepted this extended work as a result. However, when the Lord took Peter to Cornelius, this caused great concern among the Jewish believers in Jerusalem (Acts 11:1-3), and only after Peter carefully rehearsed what the Lord had done, were they somewhat mollified (Acts 11:18). It was difficult for these people who had been steeped in the understanding that they were to have nothing to do with the Gentiles, to realize that God had always made provision for them (Numbers 9:14; Ephesians 2:13-18). Furthermore, now that the barrier between the Jew and the Gentile had been done away with in Christ, He desired that they be completely accepted. Jesus’ commission that they go to the “uttermost part of the earth”, in their minds probably meant that they should include the Jews of all nations within their target audience; since this happened at Pentecost, the commission was accomplished. Yet God’s plan was far larger than that, and it was this bigger picture that they struggled to accept.
Today we have the exact opposite problem. A general acceptance of everyone and everything, within the broad definition of Christianity, has resulted in the term (Christian) losing much of its meaning. The narrowness of God’s approach to the sinfulness of mankind is spurned in favor of a wide-ranging acceptance of everything that seems spiritual. Whereas the believers from Jerusalem sought to restrict the Gospel message to be for the Jews alone, today’s Evangelicals have compromised the Gospel to such an extent that they are able to include virtually anyone and everyone who claims the name Christian. Neither position is correct; both the Jews and the Evangelicals held/hold their positions strongly, and were/are resistant to anything that might call for them to change. The Jewish believers of Paul’s day resisted the pressure to freely extend the Gospel message to the Gentiles; Evangelicals today protest loudly when they are faced with a narrow, Biblical definition of what it means to be a follower of Christ. Notice the difference: the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem were believing in Christ but simply needed to understand more fully that the Gospel message was for everyone; Evangelicals today are, for the most part, deluded professors of Christianity but not possessors of new life in Christ. In the former, the Spirit of God was present to work and enlighten; in the latter, the Spirit of God must seek to convict them of sin and their need of repentance, even while they are convinced that they are righteous and have no need of repentance. Evangelicalism, and this includes Protestant and Baptist denominations, has become the “Christian religion” according to Satan, presenting a shallow pseudo-faith in designer theologies that applies a numbing salve to the minds of those who are being deceived. The result is a self-righteous generation of professing Christians who see no need for repentance, and who accept the sacrifice of Christ as religious rhetoric – a part of their lives but something that will never require anything of them. Unfortunately, this delusion is so seductive that it has drawn those away who once held to a living faith in the Lord Jesus Christ – those individuals who are turning their backs on the Lord of glory to become part of the falling away (apostasia) spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2:3.96
There are those within the pre-tribulation-rapture camp who like to wiggle their way around this word (apostasia) and say that it should really be translated as departing, which they then apply as departing for heaven, not departing from the faith.”97 The word apostasia means “a defection, revolt, apostasy,”98 or “a falling away.”99 Looking at the etymology of the word apostate, we see that it is “from Gk. apostasia ‘defection, desertion, rebellion,’ from apostenai ‘to defect,’ lit. ‘to stand off,’ from apo- ‘away from’ ... + stenai ‘to stand.’”100 None of this sounds even remotely like a departing in the sense that the pre-trib enthusiasts would like it to have. On the contrary, it sounds more like a word that would be fitting for those who forsake, who turn away from, and who act in rebellion against God. Hence, the warning “let no man deceive you by any means ...” (2 Thessalonians 2:3). The Greek word for deceive (exapatao) is an intensive word that means “to beguile thoroughly, to deceive wholly,” and is much stronger than apatao, which means to deceive.101 Also, the word (deceive) as it is used here, is in the subjunctive mood, which means that it is a possibility, but not necessarily a reality – hence, the warning to make sure that this deception does not catch you! This flows directly into the coming of the apostasia or rebellion; come also bears the subjunctive mood – the falling away comes through the choices made by individuals, and it is that choice that is represented by this mood.102 The truth of the matter is that apostasy will happen, and the warning is given so that it need not happen to you! Paul, in writing to the Thessalonian believers, is warning them so that they will not be wholly deceived and, thereby, be numbered among the apostate. Hebrews 3:12 warns us: “Take heed, brethren [speaking to brethren in Christ], lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.” This is one of many corroborations of the warning that we see in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. Unfortunately, we see few around us today who are heeding this warning and who are guarding against being caught in the web of deceit that is being spun within Evangelicalism. For the most part, the older pillars of Evangelicalism have fallen for those lies and become apostate; the younger generation of Evangelicals no longer hear the truth, so they are not apostate (as in having fallen away) – they are simply reprobates, or heathens.
23. But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.
Even though Paul had not visited the various assemblies of believers around Judea, it was evidently common knowledge that the persecutor was now the preacher. The one who had caused the believers in Jerusalem to be scattered in every direction, thereby spreading the Word of God, was now one of them.
It is a comfort to know that Satan does not always make the best decisions; however, we must also note that he loves to use those who are religious. Evidently, he thought that he could use Paul to suppress the new believers and to cause them to turn away from the faith that they had embraced. By stirring up severe persecution, perhaps he thought that they would abandon their faith, and it is possible that he may have had a limited success. However, the persecution proved to be a means of launching the believers out of their huddle in Jerusalem into many outlying areas: Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). That in no way lessens the distress that Paul (used by Satan) caused these early believers, but it does provide a perspective on those difficult times in our lives of which we need to be aware. “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby” (Hebrews 12:11). Chastening speaks of that which builds character – hardships or trials that come our way, or are permitted into our lives, so that we may grow in God’s grace. Despite the noble purpose for the chastening, it does not bring happiness into our lives. However, if we use these trials to be strengthened in our inner man, if we are vigorously exercised by them, then they will result in righteous fruit. When struggles come our way, and they will, we must permit the Spirit of God to use them to build into us the character of Christ so that we may be “transformed by the renewing of [our] mind” (Romans 12:2). Ephesians 4 challenges us to “put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-24). The putting on of the new man is accomplished by growing through trials and tribulations; as we are properly exercised by the chastening, the righteousness of the “new man” will take root in us to the glory of God. It is not within us to respond to trials in a manner that will produce godly righteousness – that is the effective work of the Spirit within us: “... that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:4). I’m sure that Satan finds it most confusing as to why a believer would respond to chastening in a way that causes the righteousness of God within to flourish.
As noted, we must also realize that Satan is not above using religion to cause all kinds of havoc in the lives of true believers. Those who opposed Jesus’ ministry, more than any other group, were the Pharisees, the strictest sect of the Jews who would tithe so meticulously that even their herbs were not overlooked (Matthew 23:23). Despite considering themselves to be the spiritually elite among the Jews, they permitted themselves to be used by Satan as a continual threat to Jesus’ ministry – a threat that ultimately led to His crucifixion by which God fulfilled the Mosaic Law and paid for the salvation of all men. In like manner, we need not think that we are oppressed by anything new when we are ridiculed and gnashed at by those from within the Evangelical community. Their broad form of Christianity is a special hybrid that has been custom designed by Satan to bring delusion and confusion – sufficient truth to relax the casually observant hearer and enough error to draw the naive away from the truth. We must not be surprised that the greatest opposition does not come from the world, but from those who profess to be fellow-Christians.
24. And they glorified God in me.
Not surprisingly, Paul’s conversion brought much rejoicing among the Jewish Christians, and they gave glory to God for removing this irritating source of persecution.
END NOTES:
1 Strong’s Online, The Online Bible, http://www.onlinebible.net/index.html.
2 Stephanus 1550 NT, Bibleworks 8.
3 Strong’s Online.
4 Easton’s Revised Bible Dictionary, Online Bible, “Pharisees.”
5 From personal correspondence with an elderly Baptist minister, June 12, 2008.
6 Ibid.
7 Friberg Lexicon.
8 Strong’s Online.
9 Harold Ockenga, Forword to The Battle for the Bible by Harold Lindsell.
10 Strong’s Online; Stephanus 1550 NT.
11 Strong’s Online.
12 https://www.thenarrowtruth.com/the-ekklesia-of-christ.html
13 Strong’s Online.
14 Ibid.
15 Stephanus 1550 NT.
16 Ibid.
17 Strong’s Online.
18 Ibid.
19 Strong’s Online; Friberg Lexicon.
20 Strong’s Online.
21 Ibid.
22 Gingrich Lexicon.
23 Strong’s Online; Friberg Lexicon.
24 Ibid.
25 Strong’s Online.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid.
30 Strong’s Online; Vine's “remove.”
31 Vine’s “remove.”
32 Friberg Lexicon.
33 Ibid.
34 Strong’s Online.
35 Strong’s Online; Stephanus 1550 NT.
36 Ibid.
37 Vine’s “another.”
38 Friberg Lexicon; Strong’s Online.
39 Strong’s Online.
40 Vine’s “pervert”; Friberg Lexicon.
41 Friberg Lexicon.
42 Ibid.
43 Strong’s Online.
44 Ralph Colas, “Perspectives,” The Review (May 1999), p. 9.
45 http://www.bennyhinn.org/aboutus/articledesc.cfm?id=1392
46 The Catholic Encyclopedia, “The Bible,” http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02543a.htm
47 Strong’s Dictionary, ESword.
48 Friberg Lexicon.
49 https://ovocebaptistainoltenia.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/billy-graham-general-teachingsactivities/
50 Strong’s Online.
51 Friberg Lexicon.
52 This translation of the whole Bible was first published by the American Bible Society in 1995, and is based upon the language of today’s magazines, newspapers and television. Clearly, they have taken to heart the obsession of the day to be politically correct.
53 Vine’s “exhort.”
54 Friberg Lexicon.
55 Chuck Colson, The Body, p. 104.
56 Friberg Lexicon.
57 Strong’s Online.
58 http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=194
59 https://www.dictionary.com/browse/evangelical?s=t
60 http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=119
61 Strong’s Online.
62 Ibid.
63 Stephanus 1550 NT.
64 Strong’s Online.
65 Strong’s Online; Friberg Lexicon.
66 The photo included shows Dean Shingoose (on the left) performing the native smudge ceremony in the Foothills Hospital chapel. He says: “It's very important to many aboriginal patients to be able to connect to their traditional spiritual roots at difficult times such as hospital stays.” http://www2.canada.com/calgary herald/news/story.html?id=b79129e1-5ada-4ec9-8a71-46e605ee57af
67 Friberg Lexicon.
68 http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/emergingchurch.htm
69 Ibid.
70 https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=22009
71 Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1988), p. ix.
72 Willard, p. x.
73 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysticism
74 All the signs given here are extracted from a larger listing (italics indicates a quotation). http://www.inplainsite.org/html/signs_of_emerging.html
75 http://www.bennyhinn.org/aboutus/articledesc.cfm?id=1392
76 http://saddleback.com/flash/believe2.html
77 Harold Ockenga, Foreword, The Battle for the Bible, Harold Lindsell.
78 Ibid.
79 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth
80 When Warren first began his P.E.A.C.E. initiative, the “P” stood for Plant churches, now it stands for Promote reconciliation.
81 From a letter from Jon Ohlhauser, president of PBI, dated September 18, 2008.
82 Stephanus 1550 NT.
83 Strong’s Online.
84 Ibid.
85 Ibid.
86 Strong’s Dictionary.
87 Ibid.
88 Strong’s Online.
89 Ibid.
90 Ibid.
91 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_scriptura
92 Personal correspondence received October 21, 2008.
93 Strong’s Online.
94 Ibid.
95 Friberg Lexicon.
96 Strong’s Online
97 https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1081&context=pretrib_arch
98 Vine’s “fall.”
99 Strong’s Online.
100 http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=a&p=17 “apostate.”
101 Vine’s “deceive.”
102 Strong’s Online; Friberg Lexicon.
1 Strong’s Online, The Online Bible, http://www.onlinebible.net/index.html.
2 Stephanus 1550 NT, Bibleworks 8.
3 Strong’s Online.
4 Easton’s Revised Bible Dictionary, Online Bible, “Pharisees.”
5 From personal correspondence with an elderly Baptist minister, June 12, 2008.
6 Ibid.
7 Friberg Lexicon.
8 Strong’s Online.
9 Harold Ockenga, Forword to The Battle for the Bible by Harold Lindsell.
10 Strong’s Online; Stephanus 1550 NT.
11 Strong’s Online.
12 https://www.thenarrowtruth.com/the-ekklesia-of-christ.html
13 Strong’s Online.
14 Ibid.
15 Stephanus 1550 NT.
16 Ibid.
17 Strong’s Online.
18 Ibid.
19 Strong’s Online; Friberg Lexicon.
20 Strong’s Online.
21 Ibid.
22 Gingrich Lexicon.
23 Strong’s Online; Friberg Lexicon.
24 Ibid.
25 Strong’s Online.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid.
30 Strong’s Online; Vine's “remove.”
31 Vine’s “remove.”
32 Friberg Lexicon.
33 Ibid.
34 Strong’s Online.
35 Strong’s Online; Stephanus 1550 NT.
36 Ibid.
37 Vine’s “another.”
38 Friberg Lexicon; Strong’s Online.
39 Strong’s Online.
40 Vine’s “pervert”; Friberg Lexicon.
41 Friberg Lexicon.
42 Ibid.
43 Strong’s Online.
44 Ralph Colas, “Perspectives,” The Review (May 1999), p. 9.
45 http://www.bennyhinn.org/aboutus/articledesc.cfm?id=1392
46 The Catholic Encyclopedia, “The Bible,” http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02543a.htm
47 Strong’s Dictionary, ESword.
48 Friberg Lexicon.
49 https://ovocebaptistainoltenia.wordpress.com/2010/05/03/billy-graham-general-teachingsactivities/
50 Strong’s Online.
51 Friberg Lexicon.
52 This translation of the whole Bible was first published by the American Bible Society in 1995, and is based upon the language of today’s magazines, newspapers and television. Clearly, they have taken to heart the obsession of the day to be politically correct.
53 Vine’s “exhort.”
54 Friberg Lexicon.
55 Chuck Colson, The Body, p. 104.
56 Friberg Lexicon.
57 Strong’s Online.
58 http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=194
59 https://www.dictionary.com/browse/evangelical?s=t
60 http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=119
61 Strong’s Online.
62 Ibid.
63 Stephanus 1550 NT.
64 Strong’s Online.
65 Strong’s Online; Friberg Lexicon.
66 The photo included shows Dean Shingoose (on the left) performing the native smudge ceremony in the Foothills Hospital chapel. He says: “It's very important to many aboriginal patients to be able to connect to their traditional spiritual roots at difficult times such as hospital stays.” http://www2.canada.com/calgary herald/news/story.html?id=b79129e1-5ada-4ec9-8a71-46e605ee57af
67 Friberg Lexicon.
68 http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/emergingchurch.htm
69 Ibid.
70 https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=22009
71 Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines, (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1988), p. ix.
72 Willard, p. x.
73 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysticism
74 All the signs given here are extracted from a larger listing (italics indicates a quotation). http://www.inplainsite.org/html/signs_of_emerging.html
75 http://www.bennyhinn.org/aboutus/articledesc.cfm?id=1392
76 http://saddleback.com/flash/believe2.html
77 Harold Ockenga, Foreword, The Battle for the Bible, Harold Lindsell.
78 Ibid.
79 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth
80 When Warren first began his P.E.A.C.E. initiative, the “P” stood for Plant churches, now it stands for Promote reconciliation.
81 From a letter from Jon Ohlhauser, president of PBI, dated September 18, 2008.
82 Stephanus 1550 NT.
83 Strong’s Online.
84 Ibid.
85 Ibid.
86 Strong’s Dictionary.
87 Ibid.
88 Strong’s Online.
89 Ibid.
90 Ibid.
91 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_scriptura
92 Personal correspondence received October 21, 2008.
93 Strong’s Online.
94 Ibid.
95 Friberg Lexicon.
96 Strong’s Online
97 https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1081&context=pretrib_arch
98 Vine’s “fall.”
99 Strong’s Online.
100 http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?l=a&p=17 “apostate.”
101 Vine’s “deceive.”
102 Strong’s Online; Friberg Lexicon.