Galatians 1:1-24
Paul, A Jesus Apostle
1 Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers and sisters with me,
To the churches in Galatia:
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!
10 Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
11 I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
13 For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus.
18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie.
21 Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they praised God because of me.
Galatians 2-1-21
Paul Accepted by the Apostles
1 Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2 I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. 3 Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.4 This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. 5 We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
6 As for those who were held in high esteem—whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism—they added nothing to my message. 7 On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised.8 For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles.9 James, Cephas and John, those esteemed as pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.
Paul Opposes Cephas
11 When Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. 12 For before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. 13 The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
14 When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?
15 “We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles 16 know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
17 “But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn't that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.
19 “For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”
Before Paul met Jesus on a road to Damascus he was very negative towards anyone being called a Messiah...Paul (then called Saul) was undeniably aware of Jesus and His teachings before this dramatic encounter, but his opinion was one of complete disbelief...As a highly educated and zealous Pharisee from Tarsus, he was an elite scholar within Judaism, dedicated to upholding the Law and the traditions of his fathers (Galatians 1:14)...Saul almost certainly knew about Jesus because of His large followings and His teachings, but not who Jesus truly was. Jesus' crucifixion in Jerusalem, followed by the disciples’ bold proclamation of His resurrection, was a major controversy that would have quickly reached Jewish leaders like Saul...He would have been aware of the key claims: that Jesus was the Messiah, that He performed miracles, that He taught revolutionary ideas, and, most offensively to Saul, that He had been executed as a criminal under Roman law—a clear sign, according to the Deuteronomic Law, that He was cursed by God (Deuteronomy 21:23)...But Saul's negative opinion of Jesus would change, but only when he met Him...Saul viewed Jesus not as a Messiah, but as a dangerous blasphemer and a threat to the purity and integrity of Judaism...He showed little or no love for Jesus' followers...He considered Jesus' followers—the early Church—to be members of a heretical sect, which he called "the Way" (Acts 9:2)...Saul believed he was doing God a sacred service by rooting out and destroying this movement...His goal was not merely to harass believers but to utterly crush the memory and legacy of Jesus...His zeal was so fierce that he sought out and obtained official warrants to arrest believers, even pursuing them beyond Jerusalem into foreign cities like Damascus (Acts 9:1–2)...This extreme hostility shows he regarded Jesus as nothing less than a spiritual enemy of the Jewish covenant...
There is no biblical evidence to suggest that Saul of Tarsus ever met Jesus of Nazareth during Jesus’ earthly ministry or that he ever sat and listened to His teachings, such as the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6, 7)...Jesus' primary ministry was in Galilee and Judea, while Saul was educated in Jerusalem but primarily based in Tarsus until he became actively involved in the persecution...If they had met, Saul would have likely been part of the groups of Pharisees and scholars who sought to trap or criticize Jesus...His letters, which constantly emphasize that he received his gospel by revelation after Christ's resurrection, strongly imply that his encounter on the road to Damascus was his very first direct meeting with the Living Christ...This lack of previous relationship makes his immediate and total conversion even more miraculous—it was a total transformation initiated solely by Divine power...
The question of how Paul, the former persecutor, came to possess such a detailed understanding of Christ's teachings, including the Second Coming and the final judgment, is fundamental to his ministry. Paul’s own writings insist on a higher, more direct source, which, combined with his unparalleled mastery of the Old Testament, forged the powerful theological structure we find in his epistles...The Apostle Paul was uniquely qualified to speak about these topics because, according to his own testimony, he received his message not from men, but from a direct revelation from Jesus Christ...He himself admitted: "For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it" (Galatians 1:13)...This background confirms that Saul's knowledge of Jesus was overwhelmingly negative and hostile, meaning he could not have learned the gospel through conventional discipleship...In defending his independent authority to the Galatians, he explicitly stated that the message he preached was not humanly derived: "For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel...For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (Galatians 1:11–12)...
To solidify this claim, immediately after his conversion, Paul did not go to Jerusalem to be taught by the original apostles...Instead, he withdrew into the desert region of Arabia for three years (Galatians 1:17)...Paul would quietly seek the LORD during these three years in Arabia, to learn all he could about the Messiah...It is very possible that he was sorting out the implications of his conversion to believing in Jesus and all this would entail in his faith...This experience was a very profound one in learning about the Loving God and His Living Son...The book of Galatians, which is the only source mentioning this three-year period, strongly suggests that Paul was alone and secluded, focusing on direct communion and instruction from the risen Christ...This three-year "seminary" is widely understood as his period of intense, private instruction directly from the resurrected Christ...This powerful, solitary experience allowed Paul to synthesize his vast knowledge of the Jewish scriptures with the specific truths revealed by Jesus about His mission, including the grand conclusion of God's Plan: the Parousia (Second Coming) and the judgment of the world...This deliberate separation was crucial for establishing his independence and the Divine Source of his gospel, transforming him from Saul the persecutor into Paul the Apostle...Key passages from his later letters confirm this direct, revelatory source: In 1 Corinthians 15:51, when discussing the resurrection, Paul prefaces his statement with, "Behold! I tell you a mystery."...The word "mystery" (μυστήριον, mystērion) often refers to a Divine Truth previously hidden but now revealed by God specifically to him for the benefit of the church...He would leave Arabia a fundamentally different man, filled with fresh, revelatory knowledge of the Living Christ...
After receiving his independent revelation and now fourteen years later, Paul felt compelled to visit Jerusalem with Barnabas to present his message to the original Apostles—James, Peter (Cephas), and John—not because he needed their permission, but to ensure that the Gospel he was preaching to the Gentile world was the same one the ones who had been with and taught by Jesus preached...He met privately with these "pillars" of the church and shared his Gospel, which centered on salvation being granted through faith in Jesus, not through following Jewish laws like circumcision...Crucially, the Apostles fully endorsed Paul's mission, publicly acknowledging that God had appointed Paul to lead the mission to the Gentiles, just as Peter was leading the mission to the Jews...They extended to him the "right hand of fellowship," confirming that they were all preaching the same, unified message...However, the integrity of this unified Gospel was tested when Peter later visited Antioch and, out of fear of conservative Jewish believers, refused to eat and fellowship with the Gentiles...Paul, seeing this hypocrisy that threatened to undermine the very freedom of the Gospel, publicly confronted Peter, declaring the Absolute Truth that all people—Jew and Gentile—are justified solely by faith in Christ, not by adherence to the Law, because Christ’s sacrifice means righteousness cannot be earned by human effort...
Crucially, Paul did not receive this message in a cultural vacuum; he received it through the lens of a highly educated, zealous, and elite Pharisee...This context is essential because the idea of the Second Coming and the final judgment was not entirely new, but was the culmination of Jewish eschatology...Paul simply recast the established expectation around the Person of Jesus...The entire Old Testament expectation of a final reckoning centered on the concept of the "Day of the LORD" (found repeatedly in the Prophets, such as Isaiah, Amos, and Joel)...This "Day" was universally understood to be a Day of Judgment by God, who would intervene decisively in human history to judge the wicked, vindicate and save His righteous remnant, and transition from the present, broken age to the glorious, Messianic Age...
Paul was steeped in these scriptures...When the resurrected Christ appeared to him, Paul’s deep knowledge of the Old Testament suddenly clicked into place...When Paul met Jesus on the Road to Damascus, he realized the One who had died and was raised from the dead was the promised Messiah (the judge and vindicator)—Jesus of Nazareth...The "Day of the LORD" was now the "Day of Christ," or the Second Advent (Parousia) for Paul (as he understood the Old Testament)...The proof that Jesus was this appointed Judge was His own Resurrection (Acts 17:31), which fulfilled the prophecies and demonstrated God's power over death...Paul would realize the sting of death was now gone for him and other believers...Paul was able to take the Old Testament’s broad prophetic strokes and fill them with the specific details of Christ’s ministry and future return, creating the robust Christian eschatology we see in his letters...Although Jesus' teachings on the Second Coming (the Olivet Discourse) were initially given only to the Twelve, it is highly probable that when Paul met with them, the details of eschatology were shared and compared...Paul’s unique contribution was often the emphasis on the role of the Holy Spirit and the resurrection of the church, but the foundational Truth that Jesus would return to judge the world was a consistent element of the apostolic preaching from the very beginning...
In conclusion, Paul's authority to speak so confidently about the Second Coming and the final judgment in Athens and beyond was a three-part theological inheritance: First, the unique, foundational direct revelation from the resurrected Christ Himself; second, the deep Old Testament matrix of the "Day of the LORD" which gave shape and prophetic resonance to His teachings; and third, the confirmation from the Jerusalem Apostles who affirmed the consistency of the message everyone was teaching about Jesus...This multifaceted learning process ensured that his message was both divinely inspired and historically grounded, giving his teaching the incredible power and detail we still study today...