The gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

Galatians 1 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead), ² and all the brethren who are with me,

To the churches of Galatia:

³ Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴ who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵ to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.

⁶ I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; ⁷ which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! ⁹ As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

¹⁰ For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.

¹¹ For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. ¹² For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

¹³ For you have heard of my former manner 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. ¹⁵ But when God, 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.

¹⁸ Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. ¹⁹ But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰ (Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.) ²¹ Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²² I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; ²³ but only, they kept hearing, “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴ And they were glorifying God because of me.

In John 14:23-26 Jesus says:  “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me. “These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”   The Holy Spirit is our teacher. In today’s text Paul says:   I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;  which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.     Paul was not a disciple of Christ when Jesus was here. So He did not learn by hearing Jesus teaching. Paul received the revelation of Christ in an encounter with Him. Paul continues saying:    When God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, 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. Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord’s brother.    Perhaps Paul didn’t turn to other men to learn of Christ because of how mislead he had been following former teachers and persecuting the church. He relied on the Holy Spirit to teach him.  

We too can be mislead by human teaching. There are many today who distort the gospel of Christ. We need the Holy Spirit to teach us and to bring to remembrance all the Jesus said. Paul may not have turned to other men for the revelation of Christ, but he knew God’s word intimately. Jesus says:  “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)    “He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me” (John 14:9-11) Numbers 23:19 says:  God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?     In the same way Hebrews 13:8 says of Jesus:   Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.    Both God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son are unchanging. Yet there are many today who promote a gospel contrary to the unchanging nature of God. They promote a gospel different than the one Jesus Himself declared. Some will say that they have new revelation. Others simply say that Jesus coming as a man fully revealed the nature and characteristics of God to us. They build a doctrine based on living as Jesus lived, demonstrating love and grace to everyone. They say that Jesus life, His love and grace fully reveals God, that the God revealed in the Old Testament, the God of judgment is no longer relevant.   They say that the love and grace has eliminated sin and judgment.

It’s not that they are completely wrong, but rather that they are only partly right.  Indeed God is loving and gracious. But He does never change. What the psalmist says in Psalm 89:14 is true:  Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You.    The fullness of God’s character cannot be described by any part of who He is. We cannot base our doctrine, the gospel of Christ only on how Jesus lived, forgetting how He died. Romans 5:8 says:  God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.   The demonstration of the love of God is not just revealed in the life of Christ, but rather also in His death. The cross did not eliminate God’s judgment against sin, the cross is God’s judgment against sin. In John 12:27 Jesus says:  "Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour '? But for this purpose I came to this hour.”   Jesus came to die for our sin, ultimately that was His purpose. Along the way He did give us an example of how we should live. His living though, does not nullify His death. We also should not remember only some of what Jesus said. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would bring to our remembrance all that He said.   In Matthew 5:17-20 Jesus says:  “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”  Jesus fulfilled, not eliminated, the judgment of God against sin

We need the Holy Spirit to teach us. But the Holy Spirit will not teach us that God has changed. We may get a new revelation of who He is, a new understanding of the character of God, but God has not changed. From Genesis to Revelation, God’s word reveals who He is and what His desire for us is. With the psalmist I say:  Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You. 

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit, the three in one revelation and person of God. Thank You for Your love and grace which was demonstrated to us in the life of Christ, that He might be an example of how we should live. May I never forget though the ultimate purpose, the reason Jesus came; that through His death, the demonstration of Your love, we would no longer suffer judgment because He was judged in our place. Holy Spirit guide me to live as Jesus lived. Teach me all things and bring to my remembrance His death on the cross and all that He said.    Amen.