Latest / Reformed Thinking / No Other Gospel: Paul’s Defense of the True Message (Galatians 1) | F. F. Bruce

Transcript

No Other Gospel: Paul’s Defense of the True Message (Galatians 1) | F. F. Bruce · Reformed Thinking

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So imagine a hostage negotiator stepping up to a barricaded
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building. They do not pick up the
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megaphone to ask how the hostage takers weekend was.
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Right, no time for that. Yeah, they do not offer
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pleasantries about the weather. They state their absolute
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authority and they issue a non negotiable demand because well
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lives are on the line and the situation is far too volatile
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for small talk. Absolutely.
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Welcome to Reformed Thinking. In this deep dive, we are
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looking at the historical and textual context of the Apostle
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Paul's letter to the Galatians. Specifically, we are digging
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into the first chapter. And it is a heavy first chapter.
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It really is. You open this text expecting a
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standard ancient greeting, and instead you get a theological
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battering ram. We are going to examine the
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sheer gravity of Paul's arguments regarding
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justification by faith alone, and we'll be pulling insights
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from FF Bruce's scholarly commentary on the original Greek
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and Hebrew texts. Yeah, and when you look at this
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text through the lens of the Westminster Confession, what
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emerges is a staggering picture of divine sovereignty.
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Spot on. We are dealing with the core
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doctrines of unconditional election and grace here.
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I mean, Paul's entire argument hinges on the fact that he was
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set apart before birth. He was rescued by God from a
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life of violent rebellion, right?
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So it is a definitive proof that salvation is an act of God
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alone. Start to finish.
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It requires absolutely 0 human cooperation or, you know,
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pre-existing merit. Yeah.
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And to give you, the listener, an idea of where we are heading
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today, we will look at Paul's aggressive opening.
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We'll look at his absolute shock at the Galatians rapid
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theological drift. Which happened so fast.
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So fast, and we'll look at his rigorous defense of his
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God-given authority, plus the historical reality of his early
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years right after that Damascus Rd. encounter.
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The urgency in his writing is just palpable.
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It really is like when you read this opening in Greek.
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The aggression jumps off the page.
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Paul isn't just defending his title, he is pulling rank on the
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entire religious establishment. Yeah, he really comes out
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swinging. So let's start right at the
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beginning versus one through 5. He clarifies immediately that he
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was not commissioned by men or through a human intermediary,
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but directly through Jesus Christ and God the Father.
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Right. And to grasp the weight of that
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opening phrase, Paul, an apostle, we really have to
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understand the letter writing conventions of Near Eastern
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antiquity. OK, lay that out for her, Yeah.
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Well, the standard formula was universally recognized.
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You see it in the Old Testament book of Ezra where it says
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artist Xerxes, King of Kings to Ezra the priest.
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Greetings. Right, very formal.
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Yeah, and you see in the secular Roman world too, like with
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Cicero writing Marcus Cicero to Quintus Brother Health, it is a
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strict 3 part structure. Author addressee, greeting.
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Paul adopts the structure, sure, but he drastically amplifies the
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first and third parts. He cannot even get through his
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own name without launching into a fierce defense of his
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credentials because he is intercepting a lie that is
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actively destroying the Galatian churches.
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Yeah, he describes himself as an apostle from the Greek word
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apostolos. Now in general, Greek and
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Apostolos is simply someone who is sent on an errand.
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Right, right, just a messenger. But the historical commentary
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connects this term directly to the Hebrew concept of the
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Shalia, and I think the mechanics of the Shalia are
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crucial to understanding why Paul is so defensive here.
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They absolutely are. So how did that legal proxy
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operate in the 1st century Jewish mindset?
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Like what did it mean practically?
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So the connection to the Hebrew Shalia provides the baseline for
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Paul's claim. In Jewish legal and religious
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tradition, specifically recorded in the Mishnah, there is a
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binding legal principle, OK. It states that a man's delegate
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is like himself. A man's delegate is like.
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Him, yes. Keep in mind this was an era
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before instant communication. No emails, no phones, right?
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So if you sent a Shalaya to conduct business or maybe
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arrange a marriage or deliver a ruling, that person was not just
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a messenger reading a script. They weren't just a delivery
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boy. Exactly.
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I mean, absolutely not. They carried the full,
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unmitigated authority of the sender.
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To insult the Shalia was to legally insult the sender.
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To reject the Shalia was to reject the sender entirely.
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Man, that carries a lot of weight.
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So when Paul claims this title, he is telling the Galatians that
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his words carry the identical binding authority of the risen
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Christ. He is the authorized proxy of
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the King of the Universe. I look at that claim and I have
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to wonder how the Galatians would react to Paul bypassing
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the Jerusalem leaders entirely it.
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Would have been shocking. Yeah, because he specifically
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says he was commissioned neither by men nor through man.
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Think about an ambassador bypassing the local embassy,
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ignoring all the mid level bureaucrats and getting their
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orders directly from the head of state.
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That is a massive flex it really.
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Is why did he need to make that specific distinction right out
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of the gate? Well, because he is
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systematically dismantling a rumor that the Galatians have
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swallowed whole. OK, what was the rumor?
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Some rival teachers and infiltrated Galatia and they
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were claiming Paul was a second tier fraud.
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Yeah, they told the Galatians. Sure, Paul preached to you, but
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he simply got his message from the real apostles down in
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Jerusalem and he watered it down to make it easier for you
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Gentiles to accept. So they were calling him a
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compromiser. Yes, and Paul annihilates this
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claim linguistically. He examines the Greek
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preposition idia, which means through.
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He states his apostleship did not come through a human
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intermediary. Then he repeats that exact same
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preposition idea right before Jesus Christ and God the Father.
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Oh, that's fascinating. Yeah, grammatically, he places
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Jesus and God the Father on the identical divine level,
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completely isolated from any human agency.
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The Commission came from the top down, with absolutely no human
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middleman involved. He then adds a massive
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theological statement right into the greeting.
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He says grace and peace to you. He takes the standard Greek
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greeting karis, meaning grace, and the standard Jewish greeting
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Shalom meaning peace. And he fuses them into a
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Christian context. Brilliant.
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But then in verse four, he drops an early charismatic summary.
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He states that Christ gave himself for our sins to deliver
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us from the present evil age. Right now, this concept of the
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two ages is fascinating, but it requires some unpacking.
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How did a 1st century Jew understand the present evil age
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versus the age to come? Well, in the Jewish mindset of
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Paul's day, history was strictly divided into two distinct eras.
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You have the present age, which is characterized by sin,
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suffering, decay, and rebellion against God.
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OK, then you have the age to come, and that is the era of
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resurrection, divine justice, righteousness, and God's perfect
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unopposed rule. So it's a very stark contrast.
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Very stark. You can see this dualism vividly
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in sectarian Jewish writings like the Qumran literature found
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in the Dead Sea Scroll. Oh, right, the Asians.
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Yeah, the Qumran community literally withdrew into the
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desert because they viewed the current era as the epoch of
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wickedness. They saw it as a time dominated
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by the evil figure Belial. So they just tapped out of
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society entirely. Totally.
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You also see it in the apocryphal book of 4th Ezra.
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That book describes the present world as narrow, painful and
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full of dangers. The expectation was that the
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Messiah would arrive violently in the present evil age and
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usher in the age to come. But Paul modifies that
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expectation, doesn't he? Because the physical world
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hasn't ended. Rome is still in charge, disease
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still exists, and persecution is actively happening.
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Yeah, the Romans are still collecting taxes.
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Right. So how can he claim that
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believers are delivered from the present evil edge right now?
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That is the concept of realized eschatology.
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OK, define that for us. Paul is declaring something
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revolutionary. He is saying that by giving
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himself for our sins, Christ has already inaugurated the age to
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come. So they overlap.
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Yes, the two ages are currently overlapping.
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Temporally, the physical resurrection of all things is
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still in the future. But spiritually, Christians
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share the risen life of Christ in the present moment.
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They are rescued from the godless zeitgeist, the spirit of
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the age. They have been legally and
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spiritually transferred into a new dominion, so they are no
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longer citizens of a system dominated by ethically evil
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forces, even though they still physically walk within it.
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And consider the daily reality of living in that present evil
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age. It is an invisible system of
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self-reliance, status and striving.
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Oh absolutely. To be delivered from it means
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you are no longer a slave to those earthly metrics.
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You operate under a totally different constitution, Right?
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And this aggressive defense of his divine authority naturally
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explains why Paul is so hostile in the following verses.
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The Galatians are abandoning grace for a system of works.
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They are returning to the present evil age.
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They are running right back into the burning building.
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Yeah, which brings us to verses 6 through 10, where we notice a
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glaring omission in the letters Structure A.
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Huge omission in virtually all of Paul's other letters.
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Romans. First Corinthians, Philippians.
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He follows his opening salutation with a polite
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Thanksgiving. Right, he usually says something
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nice. Yeah, he says something to the
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effect of I thank my God for you.
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But Galatians is the solitary exception.
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There is no Thanksgiving. There is no praise for their
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faith. 0 pleasantries. None.
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Paul bypasses all the pleasantries and launches
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straight into the Greek word Thomaso, meaning.
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I am astonished. I want to frame this using the
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Greek letter writing conventions of the time, looking at the
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papyri that historians have uncovered.
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Yeah, the secular examples are really helpful here.
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They really are. Skipping the Thanksgiving is
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like sending a formal business correspondence that starts
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without dear so and so or hope you are well and instead begins
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with. I am absolutely appalled.
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Yeah, it's a huge breach of etiquette.
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It shows you the sheer urgency of the situation.
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Paul says he is astonished that they are turning so quickly to a
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different gospel, and the linguistic choices he makes here
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are incredibly precise. They are, Paul says.
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They are turning to a different gospel using the Greek word
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heteros. OK, what does heteros mean?
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It means something of a completely different kind or
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nature. But then he immediately corrects
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himself and adds, which is not really another gospel using the
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word a loss, meaning another of the same kind.
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So he's making a sharp distinction, yes.
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The historical commentary points out that a message demanding
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legal obedience is so fundamentally alien to the
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message of free grace that it cannot even be classified in the
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same category. It's not just a variation.
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Right. It is no gospel at all.
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A message of bondage cannot be labeled good news.
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The rival teachers in Galatia were insisting on circumcision
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for the male converts. Which was a massive deal.
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It was they were teaching that faith in Christ was not
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sufficient to achieve justification before God.
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You needed faith plus the observance of the Mosaic Law.
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And Paul's reaction to this faith plus equation is
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explosive. He places a divine curse on
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anyone preaching A contrary message, even if it is an Angel
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from heaven. He.
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Doesn't hold back at all. No, he doesn't.
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The Greek word he uses is anathema.
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Now, we use the word anathema today to mean something we
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strongly dislike, but Paul is pulling from a very specific Old
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Testament concept here. To grasp the severity of
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anathema, we really have to look at its Old Testament equivalent,
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the Hebrew word harem. OK, let's dig into harem.
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In the context of ancient Israelite holy war, anything
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placed under the harem was irrevocably devoted to complete
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destruction, right? Think of the historical account
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of HN at the Battle of Jericho. HN took the spoils that were
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placed under the ban, the harem, and the result was absolute
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judgement and death. It was brutal.
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It was about purging the corruption from the land to
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maintain holiness. So when Paul invokes the word
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anathema, he is calling down the highest possible divine
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judgement. He's not just saying I disagree
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with these guys. No, He is saying, may the divine
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curse rest on them for eternity. He is demanding that this false
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teaching be entirely purged from the Church.
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Well, here is where I have to offer some pushback on behalf of
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a modern reader. Sure, go ahead.
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Isn't Paul overreacting just a bit?
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I mean, let's look at the psychology of these rival
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teachers for a second. They probably thought they were
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genuinely helping the Galatians achieve a higher tier of
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holiness by following the law. They probably did think that.
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Right, they weren't telling them to reject Jesus outright, they
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were just saying Jesus is great but let's also keep these
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ancient God-given laws. Why is this particular
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theological error worthy of a literal curse of eternal
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destruction? That quotient cuts to the very
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core of Reformed theology. How so?
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Adding human works to Christ's grace does not supplement grace,
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it completely nullifies it. It cancels it out.
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Exactly. If you have to earn your
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salvation through law keeping, then Christ died for nothing.
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The cross becomes insufficient. Man, that's a heavy thought.
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It is. Martin Luther captured Paul's
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logic perfectly when he wrote that anything that does not
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teach Christ is not Apostolic, even if Peter and Paul be the
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teachers. Wow, even the apostles
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themselves. Yes.
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On the other hand, Luther said that which does teach Christ is
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Apostolic. Even if Judas and his pilot or
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Herod should propound it, the message is supreme.
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The message over the messenger. Always.
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The gospel of justification by faith alone is the absolute
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touchstone. Any teaching that logically
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implies the Law is still in force also implies that the
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messianic age has not dawned. Oh, because the law belongs to
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the present evil age. Right.
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And if the Messianic age hasn't dawned, that would mean Jesus
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was not the true Messiah. To teach that is to teach a
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fatal, soul destroying lie, which is why Paul does not hold
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back. That makes the stakes crystal
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clear. It is an all or nothing
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proposition. Paul then defends himself
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against the charge of being a men pleaser.
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He says in verse 10, AM I now seeking the approval of man or
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of God? Yeah, he takes that accusation
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head on. He does.
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The historical context suggests that Paul's opponents were
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accusing him of trimming his message to suit his audience.
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They were whispering to the Galatians, hey, Paul preaches
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the strict law in Jerusalem, but when he gets around you Pagan
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gentiles, he drops the hard requirements like circumcision
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just to be popular and win converts.
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He is a politician. It was a.
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Vicious accusation of inconsistency?
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Yeah. Paul's settled policy, as he
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writes elsewhere, was to become all things to all men for the
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sake of the gospel. He exercised his Christian
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liberty depending on the context.
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Right. Like adapting to the culture?
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Yes. But to legalistic observers,
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this look like vacillation or opportunism.
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It looks shady to them. Very much so, but Paul answers
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this charge brilliantly. He states that if he were still
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trying to please men, he would not be a bond slave of Christ.
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A slave has only one master to please.
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That's a great point. Furthermore, persuading God to
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accept a watered down gospel is impossible.
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In ancient Greek culture, there was a prevalent idea that you
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could persuade or manipulate the Paga deities through flattery or
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sacrifices or human rhetoric. Like bargaining with the gods,
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right? But Paul rejects that entirely.
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God is not persuaded by human rhetoric.
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Paul pleases God by remaining entirely faithful to the
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unvarnished gospel of sovereign grace, regardless of who it
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offends. And since Paul's opponents
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accused him of modifying the gospel to place his audience,
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Paul pivots to his own life story.
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He uses it to prove his message came directly from God.
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That takes us into verses 11 through 14.
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The autobiographical section. Paul insists his gospel is not
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according to man. He did not receive it from
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humans, nor was he taught it in a classroom setting.
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To prove this, he lays out his own resume.
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He details his former life in Judaism, which he calls
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eudaismos in the Greek. And he uses some incredibly
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violent language to describe his past.
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He really? Does Paul uses this
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autobiographical sketch to demonstrate that he had
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absolutely no natural inclination toward the Christian
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gospel? He says he persecuted the Church
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of God beyond all measure and laid it waste.
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Laid it waste. That sounds like a battlefield
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term. It is the Greek verb he uses for
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laid it. Waste is portheon.
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This was a specific military term used for the sacking and
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pillaging of cities. Oh wow, so this wasn't just a
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debate for him, No. This was not a mild academic
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disagreement in the synagogue. He was actively attempting to
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exterminate the early Christian movement.
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Yeah, we know from the book of Acts that he was present and
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approving at the stoning of Steven, right?
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And that he was dragging men and women out of their homes and
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throwing them into prison. Just brutal stuff.
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He notes that he was advancing in Judaism beyond many of his
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peers, operating as his zealot zealots in Greek for his
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ancestral traditions. Now those ancestral traditions
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would have been the Oral Law, right?
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The halachic traditions handed down in the Pharisaic schools,
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like the school of Gamaliel where Paul was trained.
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Yes, a very strict oral tradition.
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He was the ultimate insider. He was a rising star in the
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religious establishment. To understand the magnitude of
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his conversion, we cannot just look at this like a career
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change. It's.
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Way more than that. It would be like a high-ranking
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inquisitor actively burning dissidents at the state to
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protect a holy empire, suddenly dropping his torch, walking into
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the flames, and declaring the dissidents were right all along.
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It defies all psychological and self preserving logic.
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That analogy captures the shock value perfectly, and from a
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Reformed theological standpoint, this highlights the doctrine of
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total depravity. Walk us through that connection.
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Well, Paul was not a seeker. He was not sitting in his study
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reading the Old Testament scrolls and slowly realizing
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Jesus was the Messiah. His mind was completely darkened
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to the truth. His will was entirely enslaved
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to his self righteousness. He was literally hunting them.
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Yes, he was actively murdering the followers of the very God he
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claimed to worship. His conversion is definitive
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proof that salvation is an act of sovereign intervening grace.
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It is not human effort or intellectual deduction.
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He didn't reason his way to. It he couldn't if he could not
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have reasoned his way to the Gospel, because his reason was
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corrupted by his violent religious zeal.
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Which brings up a critical question regarding human
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psychology. If he was so intensely immersed
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in the Oral Law and the halachic traditions, and he believed with
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every fiber of his being that he was serving God by killing
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Christians, how could a single moment erase decades of rigorous
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academic and religious conditioning?
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The answer is found in verse 12. Paul says he received the gospel
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through revelation of Jesus Christ.
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A revelation. The Greek word is apocalypsis,
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from which we get the English word apocalypse.
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It means an unveiling or a drawing back of the curtain.
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So it wasn't a slow realization. No, the Damascus Rd. event
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wasn't just a change of mind or a persuasive theological
18:57
argument. It was a violent, objective
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confrontation with the risen Lord.
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The outward vision of Christ and the inward illumination of the
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Holy Spirit happened simultaneously.
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The religious framework Paul had built his entire life upon was
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instantly shattered by the glory of Christ.
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Because religious zeal, when untethered from truth, can lead
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to the worst atrocities. Absolutely.
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Paul zeal blinded him until God sovereignly intervened and
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removed the scales from his eyes.
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And this total inability to save himself makes the sovereign
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intervention of God in the next verses all the more striking.
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Let's look at verses 15 through 17.
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Some of my favorite verses. They are amazing.
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Paul states that God set him apart from my mother's womb and
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called him by his grace. God chose to reveal his Son and
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Paul specifically so Paul would preach to the Gentiles.
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We need to pause and look closely at the language Paul
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uses here. Set apart from the womb.
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The historical commentary ties this phrase directly to the
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prophetic calls in the Old Testament.
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Oh, like the prophets? Yes, specifically in Jeremiah
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chapter 1 God says before I formed you in the womb.
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I knew you and before you were born I consecrated you.
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I appointed you a prophet to the nation's that.
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Is almost identical language. It is, and similarly in Isaiah
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49, the servant of Lord says the Lord called me from the womb to
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be a light to the nation's. Paul is intentionally adopting
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this prophetic mantle. He knows exactly what he's
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saying. He does, but even more so.
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This is the Reformed doctrine of unconditional election, painted
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the most vivid colors imaginable.
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God's plan for Paul was active long before Paul committed a
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single sin or a single righteous act.
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God decreed Paul's salvation and his Apostolic mission before
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Paul even existed. It entirely obliterates the
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concept of human merit. It completely eliminates any
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idea that Paul earned his position, but his immediate
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reaction after this calling is what I find fascinating.
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He specifically points out what he did not do.
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Right, he lists his, not actions.
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Yeah, he says. He did not consult flesh and
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blood, and he did not go up to Jerusalem to see the existing
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apostles. I want to highlight that phrase
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flesh and blood. It's a great phrase.
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The Greek is sarkshayima, but it reflects the Hebrew idiom bassar
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waddam. Rabbinical literature uses this
21:12
phrase repeatedly to describe frail, mortal humanity in
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contrast to the eternal, omnipotent God.
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So he's drawing a sharp contrast.
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Exactly. Paul is stressing that he
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bypassed human validation, but I look at this geographic detour
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to Arabia and it feels like, well, strategic self sabotage
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answer. Well, if I've just been drafted
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as the cosmic envoy for a new movement, I'm heading to the
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cultural hubs. I'm going to Antioch or Rome or
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straight to the Jerusalem headquarters to get my
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credentials stamped. Heading off to the Nabateen
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Kingdom seems counterproductive. What is the mechanism behind
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that choice? Why?
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Arabia. It seems counterintuitive to our
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modern sensibilities, sure, but it perfectly fulfilled his new
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calling. OK, unpack that.
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In the ancient world, Arabia did not mean the deep sands of the
22:01
Arabian Peninsula as we think of it today.
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It referred to the Nabatean Kingdom.
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Which was where geographically. It was ruled at that time by
22:08
King Aridis the Firth. Its capital was Petra, the
22:11
famous city carved into the rock, but its territory
22:13
stretched all the way up to the outskirts of Damascus.
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Oh, so it was actually quite close to where he already was.
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Yes, Paul went there to immediately fulfill his
22:21
Commission to preach the Gentiles.
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There were vast populations of Gentiles, both settled merchants
22:27
and nomadic Bedouins, in the Nabatean realm.
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So he wasn't just hiding out. No, he did not go to the desert
22:34
for a silent, contemplative, monastic retreat to read his
22:37
Bible. He went to work.
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He immediately began acting as an apostle to the Gentiles
22:42
without asking Peter or James for permission.
22:45
And he apparently made a massive amount of noise while he was
22:48
working in that region. He absolutely did.
22:50
We know he wasn't just sitting quietly meditating because of a
22:54
historical detail he drops later in his second letter to the
22:57
Corinthians. Oh, the basket story.
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Yes, Paul mentions that the ethnic the local governor under
23:02
King Aritas tried to arrest him in Damascus.
23:05
This forced Paul to escape by being lowered out of a window in
23:08
a basket. You do not get a royal arrest
23:10
warrant from a foreign King's governor by sitting quietly in
23:13
the desert. No, you do not.
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Paul was actively preaching the gospel, disrupting the religious
23:18
and social status quo, and making powerful enemies.
23:21
And what was the political climate like right then?
23:24
To give you the political context, King Arias the Fifth
23:26
was already embroiled in massive political tension with Herod
23:30
Antipas, the ruler of Galilee. OK, Herod Antipas had divorced
23:34
Arias daughter to Mary Herodias. Oh wow, so it was personal.
23:38
Very personal. The entire region was a powder
23:41
keg of political and military tension, and Paul walked right
23:45
into the middle of it, preaching a new king who was superior to
23:48
Caesar and Aredas. Talk about stirring the pot.
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Think about the intentional isolation Paul chose.
23:55
By avoiding the Jerusalem apostles, he intentionally cut
23:57
himself off from the approved human channels.
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He did it on purpose. He was proving that his
24:03
authority was purely divine. He operated independently for
24:07
three whole years before he finally decided to visit the
24:10
headquarters of the early church.
24:12
Three years is a long time to fly solo.
24:14
It is. That brings us to verses 18
24:16
through 24. After three years of ministry in
24:19
the wilderness and in Damascus, Paul finally goes up to
24:22
Jerusalem for 15 days. He says his specific purpose was
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to get to know Cephas, which is the Aramaic name for Peter.
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The linguistic choice here is vital.
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The Greek verb used for this visit is historicy.
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Historicy. That sounds like history.
24:37
Is the root of our English word history.
24:39
This word means to visit for the purpose of making an inquiry or
24:43
getting to know someone. So he was interviewing.
24:45
Him. Basically yes.
24:47
During these two weeks Paul was undoubtedly receiving the
24:51
historical facts about Jesus earthly ministry.
24:55
He was getting the details of Jesus's teachings, the events of
24:58
the Passion week, the crucifixion and the specific
25:01
accounts of the post resurrection appearances.
25:03
He was fact finding with the primary eyewitness.
25:06
But wait, if Paul claims he learned his gospel from no man,
25:10
does getting historical facts from Peter contradicts his
25:13
earlier claim? It's a fair question.
25:15
Yeah, because he swore he didn't receive his gospel from human
25:18
beings. If he is spending 15 days taking
25:21
notes from Peter, his opponents might argue that Peter was his
25:24
teacher all along. It looks like a contradiction on
25:27
the surface, but it is not. The resolution lies in
25:30
distinguishing between the theology of the Gospel and the
25:32
historical data of Jesus's life. OK, separate those for us.
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The theological meeting of the gospel, the revelation that
25:39
justification is by faith alone apart from the works of the law,
25:43
and that the Gentiles are included in God's grace without
25:45
needing to become Jewish, was revealed directly to Paul by
25:49
Christ on the Damascus Rd. He did not need Peter to explain
25:53
sovereign grace to him. However.
25:55
The historical data, what Jesus actually said during the Sermon
25:59
on the Mount, the chronological details of the Last Supper, the
26:02
sequence of the resurrection appearances, these were
26:05
historical events that Peter witnessed first hand.
26:08
So it was about corroboration, yes.
26:10
Paul received the theology directly from Heaven, but he
26:13
corroborated the historical timeline with the man who lived
26:16
it. That distinction clears it up
26:19
now. While he was there, he notes
26:21
that he saw no other apostles except James, the Lord's
26:24
brother. James is such a fascinating
26:27
figure in early church history, and his exact biological
26:31
relationship to Jesus has been a point of massive debate for
26:34
centuries. It certainly has, and looking at
26:36
how church history has handled James is highly significant.
26:40
There are three main historical views regarding who James Ashley
26:43
was in relation to Jesus. Let's walk through those.
26:45
First, you have the Epiphanian view, named after Epiphanius.
26:48
That view argues that James was a stepbrother from a previous
26:51
marriage of Joseph. OK, so Joseph was a widower.
26:54
Right, then you have the heronymion view formulated by
26:57
Jerome. This view argues that brother
27:00
actually means cousin. And why did Jerome argue that?
27:04
He was trying to protect the doctrine of the perpetual
27:06
virginity of Mary. He didn't want Mary to have had
27:09
other children. Got it.
27:10
And the third view. Finally, you have the Helvidian
27:13
view. This view takes the text at face
27:16
value and states that James was a uterine brother, a son born to
27:20
Mary and Joseph after the birth of Jesus.
27:22
And where does reformed theology land on this?
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From a Protestant Reformed perspective, the Helvidian view
27:27
is the most natural reading of the Greek text.
27:29
Yeah, that makes sense, but. Regardless of the exact
27:32
biological relationship, what is undisputed is the staggering
27:36
shift in James's. Life, the shift from skeptic to
27:38
leader. Exactly.
27:40
During Jesus earthly ministry, James and his brothers outright
27:44
rejected Jesus. The Gospel of John explicitly
27:47
states that his brothers did not believe in him.
27:50
They thought he was out of his mind.
27:51
Which is wild to think about. It is yet here, just a few years
27:54
later, James is a central pillar of the Jerusalem Church,
27:58
carrying Apostolic authority alongside Peter.
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So how does someone go from thinking their own brother is a
28:03
lunatic to worshipping him as the Incarnate son of God?
28:07
Paul actually answers that specific question in First
28:10
Corinthians 15 when he lists the chronological resurrection
28:13
appearances. He specifically notes then he
28:17
appeared to James. Oh wow.
28:19
Yeah, the risen Christ sought out his sceptical brother is
28:22
another monumental display of sovereign grace.
28:25
The appearance of the resurrected Lord shattered
28:27
James's unbelief, just as it shattered Paul's fair sagal
28:31
pride on the Damascus Rd. That is incredible.
28:34
Paul meets with these two men, Peter and James, who are the
28:37
primary witnesses to the resurrection.
28:39
He is aligning his independent Gentile mission with the
28:42
historical bedrock of the Jerusalem church.
28:44
And to make sure the Galatians believe this timeline, Paul
28:47
takes a solemn Roman judicial oath in verse 20.
28:50
He writes before God. I am telling no lie.
28:53
It's a very intense thing to write.
28:54
It is swearing an oath, a letter was rare and serious in the
28:57
ancient world. It shows that the Galatians were
28:59
being fed a specific toxic lie. The lie that he was a rogue
29:03
student. Yeah, that Paul was just a rogue
29:05
pupil of the Jerusalem apostles who went off script and made-up
29:10
his own law free religion to make his life easier among the
29:13
Gentiles, right. So Paul calls God as his witness
29:16
to state that this timeline, this three-year gap where he
29:20
operated independently, is the absolute truth.
29:23
Following this brief 15 day visit, Paul leaves Jerusalem and
29:27
goes to the territories of Syria and Cilicia.
29:30
Moving back north. Yes, the administrative history
29:33
here is helpful. Syria and Eastern Cilicia have
29:36
been united as a single Roman imperial province since the days
29:39
of Pompeii, the 1st century BC. Paul is sent back to his home
29:43
region of Tarsus out of the immediate spotlight of Judea,
29:47
and Paul highlights a specific detail about this time.
29:49
He says the Judean churches did not know him by face.
29:52
They had never seen him in person.
29:53
He wasn't doing a publicity tour.
29:55
No, he was not parading around Jerusalem trying to build a
29:58
following. Well, they didn't know his face,
29:59
but they certainly knew his reputation.
30:01
They heard the rumors spreading from town to town.
30:04
The man who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith he
30:07
once tried to destroy. That news would have spread like
30:10
wildfire. And what was their reaction?
30:12
Did they glorify Paul? Did they set up statues of him
30:15
or ask for his autograph? No, Paul says.
30:18
They glorified God because of me.
30:20
That's the best possible outcome.
30:22
It really is. Consider the psychological
30:24
reaction of the Judean Christians.
30:27
The person who haunted their families, who dragged their
30:29
friends into prisons to be executed, was now their greatest
30:33
champion. It's just unbelievable.
30:35
They recognized that a change this radical could not be the
30:38
result of human persuasion. They didn't praise the man, they
30:41
praised the God who conquered the man.
30:44
This highlights the absolute sovereignty of God over human
30:47
hearts. God didn't just stop the
30:49
persecutor, He sovereignly converted him into the chief
30:53
evangelist. It is the ultimate vindication
30:56
of the theology of grace that Paul has been defending from
30:59
verse one. By demonstrating his total
31:01
independence from the Jerusalem leadership, Paul proves that his
31:04
gospel came directly from God. And by showing the fruit of his
31:08
conversion that it caused the persecuted Jewish believers to
31:12
praise God rather than Revere a man, he validates the divine
31:16
authenticity of his message. The proof is in the results.
31:19
It is. This entire autobiographical
31:21
section is masterfully designed to strip away any human
31:25
boasting. It leads the unshakable
31:27
foundation for the dense theological arguments regarding
31:30
justification by faith alone that will follow in the rest of
31:33
the letter. Which leaves us with a final
31:35
provocative thought to chew on today.
31:38
At the very beginning of this text, Paul talks about Christ
31:40
giving himself to deliver us from the present evil age.
31:43
Right. Going back to verse four, yeah.
31:46
We often think of evil as just bad behaviors, obvious sins or
31:49
malicious actions. But if this age is a
31:51
comprehensive and visible system of self-reliance, status, and
31:56
attempting to earn your own righteousness through your
31:58
works. Which is what the false teachers
31:59
were pushing. Exactly.
32:01
Then how much of your daily routine is unknowingly governed
32:04
by the rules of this present evil age?
32:07
How much of your mental energy is spent trying to build a
32:10
resume of righteousness to present to God or to others,
32:13
hoping you have done enough to earn approval?
32:15
That is the core issue of Galatians right there.
32:17
Yeah, the rival teachers thought they were being holy by adding
32:21
the law to grace, but Paul recognized they were dragging
32:24
believers right back into the slavery of the present evil age.
32:28
They were trading freedom for chains.
32:30
Yes, they were abandoning the freedom of the age to come for
32:33
the exhaustion of human effort. So what would it look like
32:36
tomorrow morning if you operated entirely as a citizen of the age
32:40
to come, relying totally on the unmerited sovereign grace of
32:44
God? It changes everything.
32:46
It really does. Think back to that hostage
32:48
negotiator standing outside the barricade.
32:50
Christ did not come to negotiate a truce with the present evil
32:53
age. He came to shatter the barricade
32:55
and demand your total release. Keep your mind fixed on the
32:59
vastness of God's sovereign grace.
33:01
We will see you on the next deep dive.