Part 2

A review of why the Galatians should trust in Paul’s message:

You can trust me because I was called by God to bring you this message. This is something that many of us in the West are quite fearful of: the claim that is made by some that God has called them to whatever their spiel happens to be.

I remember back when I had fewer rings, Orel Roberts telling the world that God had called him to raise $3,000,000 to accomplish some task: I think it was to build a building on HIS university’s campus. Or more recently when Creflo Dollar was called to ask his followers for money to buy a bigger airplane. So, I know how off-putting call claims can be. But here we must couch Paul’s claim with his second reason for his trustworthiness: He did nothing to ingratiate himself to the Galatians when he visited them before; he said nothing to them in the attempt to get them to like him. So, heaven knows what he told them!

The third reason that they should trust his message here in verses 13 and 14 as we continue in the series.

Read verses 13,14
"13 For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; 14 and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions."

Such was Paul’s commitment in his former life to ending the Church of Christ before it had even begun.

Read verses 15-17
"15 But when He who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace was pleased 16 to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus."

It is here in verse 15 that Paul makes his only reference to the Old Testament, or at least uses to support why the Galatians should trust his proclamation of the gospel. Jeremiah 1:5 reads,

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
And before you were born I consecrated you;
I have appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

God revealed to him the message because God called him to the purpose of delivering it to the Galatians—in this case—just like Jeremiah and just like Isaiah—in whose mouth God placed His divine words.
What a message for us today: that God will provide exactly what we need when we decide to answer the call. And it doesn’t matter what our lives were before that decision—or if like Paul in his case that decision is made for us. (More on that when we get to Acts.)

In the remaining verses of chapter one, Paul continues to share the history of his calling with the Galatians as evidence that that calling is first and foremost real and that it comes from God.

After three years in Arabia he returns to Damascus, the place that he was going when Jesus conscripted him into the Cause, then to Jerusalem to meet with Peter and James, and then back to Syria and Cilicia.
In the final three verses of the chapter, Paul gives them the last bit of proof they need trust him and his message:

"22 I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which are in Christ; 23 but they only kept hearing, “The man who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they were glorifying God because of me." If you don’t believe me, Paul says, go ask them.

My takeaway from Galatians 1 is this: When we called, God will supply what we need to answer it. And then the best proof that it is God’s will to free us from the power and sin and death is found in our sharing our own stories.