On Credentials and Resumes

Read the rest of the series on the Book of Galatians. This article covers Galatians 1:10 - 2:10.

The doctrinal heart of this letter doesn’t begin until chapter 3. But first Paul has some personal business to address—his credentials. The Christians in Galatia know Paul. He’s the one who brought them the Good News, who taught them, mentored them. Sure, other teachers have probably done their part, but Paul is undeniably the dominating human force in their spiritual lives.

The false teachers are trying to trash all that. Spreading rumors. Spreading lies. Denying that he’s an apostle sent by God and His Son. “Sure,” they say, “Paul is a great teacher and a spiritual giant. But he doesn’t have any ‘special’ authority. In fact, he’s gotten some things wrong—important things …”

Well, in this section Paul aims to set the record straight. He didn’t get his training from Peter, James, John, or anyone else. He was personally trained by Christ. He isn’t a second-hand apostle (“I was trained by John, who was trained by Jesus”). He’s a first-hand apostle, and that means Paul has special authority, and that means the Christians in Galatia ought to listen when he says those other folks are false teachers.

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 (Galatians 1:10).

Most people prefer to avoid conflict. To go with the flow. In any controversy there are three groups: one that agrees, another that disagrees, and the majority in the middle who just don’t want to deal with the fighting. But sometimes, you just gotta stand for something. That’s where Paul is. He isn’t trying to get along. He doesn’t want conflict, but if it comes he’s ready. He serves Christ.

That’s pious. It sounds nice. We all know people who use piety and religion as a cloak. We also know honest people who don’t do that. Paul is one of those. He means this. It’d be easy for him to curb his message to accommodate the right-wing hardliners (that’s who these false teachers are—but we’ll get to that in a later section). But, he can’t do that. The Gospel is at stake.

That isn’t melodrama. It’s real. If it comes to a decision between (a) going along to get along, and (b) following Christ, then (c) Paul is gonna choose option (b). “If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:11-12).

This is as clear as it gets. Paul didn’t go to seminary, nor was he trained by any man or woman—“rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” You could say that Jesus gave Paul the same personal training and attention that the other 12 apostles received during His ministry.¹

People wonder when this happened. Some people believe Paul was sojourning in the Arabian wilderness for three years (cp. Gal 1:17-18). As we’ll see, this is unlikely.² We really don’t know the how or when regarding Christ’s instruction of Paul. We just know it happened. Perhaps it was a “living presence” sort of thing accompanied by periodic visions and instruction from on high. Unbelievers may scoff at this suggestion, but Christians should not.

Now Paul defends this statement.

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. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers (Galatians 1:13-14).

Paul was a notorious zealot. He wasn’t the only man commissioned by the Sanhedrin to hunt down Jewish Christians in communities abroad and bring them to a heresy trial in Jerusalem (Acts 8:3; 9:1-2; 22:2-5). But, he might have been the most zealous man. Like religious fanatics of all stripes, he believed so passionately that God was “on his side” that he resorted to arrest, imprisonment, and execution of those who disagreed (Acts 26:9-11). To Paul and the Sanhedrin, Jews who embraced Jesus as Messiah were traitors. Turncoats. They deserved the same kind of death that renegades got under the Old Covenant (e.g. Num 15:29-31; 25:6-13). After all, the Maccabean revolt was sparked when one righteous Jewish man decided he wasn’t gonna take it anymore and killed an apostate (1 Macc 2:19-24ff).

But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 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. 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 (Galatians 1:15-17).

Only God could change the heart and mind of so dedicated a fanatic!³ The important bit here is Paul’s insistence on his “apostle status.” Once he became a believer (Acts 9:1-17), Paul did not go to Jerusalem to consult with the Christian community.⁴ He doesn’t derive his authority from them; “my immediate response was not to consult any human being.” Instead, he spends a bit of time in Damascus (where his conversion occurred and he was welcomed in by the Christian community), then goes to Arabia to preach the Gospel, and then returns to Damascus for some time.

Comparing Paul’s summary here with Luke’s account in the book of Acts, we have something like this:

1	Paul is converted	Acts 9:1-17
2	Paul spends a short time in Damascus	Acts 9:18-21
3	Paul goes to Arabia5—likely to preach the Gospel. This creates animosity between him and the Nabataean king,6 who has his governor in Damascus orchestrate an assassination plot against Paul (2 Cor 11:32-33) once he leaves Arabia and returns to Damascus7	Gal 1:17
4	Paul returns to Damascus for an extended period and survives an assassination attempt, which prompts him to flee for Jerusalem (Gal 1:18)	Gal 1:17-18; Acts 9:22-25 (cp. 2 Cor 11:32-33)

He continues:

Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie (Galatians 1:18-20).

This is very likely the account Luke relates in Acts 9:26-28, wherein Paul receives a cold and fearful reception from the church in Jerusalem. It has been about three years since his conversion, and Paul has been preaching and teaching in Damascus and in broader Arabia, but the Christian community in Jerusalem knows none of this. They last saw him as the bloodthirsty Jewish fanatic and so they’re not keen on having this “changed” guy over for supper. Barnabas saved the day and vouched for him (Acts 9:27), gaining him limited entrée to speak to Peter and James.

John Stott explains, “To sum up, Paul’s first visit to Jerusalem was only after three years, it lasted only two weeks, and he saw only two apostles. It was, therefore, ludicrous to suggest that he obtained his gospel from the Jerusalem apostles.”⁸

Then I went to Syria and Cilicia (Galatians 1:21).

This is when Paul flees Jerusalem ahead of yet another assassination plot and heads for Tarsus (Acts 9:29-30), a city in the province of Cilicia and adjacent to Syria.

I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faiths he once tried to destroy.” And they praised God because of me (Galatians 1:22-24).

The Jerusalem church didn’t know him. All they (eventually!) knew was that his conversion was genuine, and so they rejoiced. He only consulted with Peter and James, and that very briefly. His ministry in Jerusalem was apparently more or less a solo affair, and it was likely Peter and James (or others acting on their orders) who spirited Paul away when he’d worn out his welcome.

Aside from this brief sojourn, Paul had no contact with the Jerusalem church for quite some time.

Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 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. Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek (Galatians 2:1-3).

This “fourteen years” is likely reckoned from the time of Paul’s conversion, though it could be from the time he fled Jerusalem for Tarsus. In the interim, Paul had become a pastor of the church in Antioch along with Barnabas (Acts 11:25-26) and together they had journeyed to Macedonia and back to preach the Gospel (Acts 13:1 – 14:28).

This second visit to Jerusalem “after fourteen years” is probably the visit they undertook to settle the problem of the false teachers described in Acts 15.⁹ They met with the leaders of the Jerusalem church, explained their understanding of the Gospel, and found they were in agreement. This was not a teaching session, Paul explains, but more a “we’re all on the same page, right?” kind of meeting. In Paul’s eyes it was a tactical move to outflank the Judaizers by cementing partnership with (and certainly not endorsement from) Peter, James, and John.¹⁰

This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy one the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you (Galatians 2:4-5).

Paul now labels his opponents for the first time—they’re false brothers who have “infiltrated” the church to “spy” on them all and “make us slaves.” This is dark language, but Paul is not known for his subtlety. Some people like to handle sensitive matters with velvet gloves. Paul prefers a sledgehammer—the “truth of the gospel” is at stake. The nature of this “gospel issue” isn’t yet before us, but it’s coming.

Of course, much more happened at this meeting (see Acts 15:4-30), but Paul is emphasizing his credentials and his independence here. The point is that he was appointed and trained by Jesus, and so he is an apostle, he has authority, and therefore the false teachers skulking around Galatia are not to be trusted.

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 (Galatians 2:6).

Peter, James, and John didn’t correct him, rebuke him, or pat him on the head. They acknowledged him as a fellow believer and an evangelist.

On the contrary, they recognized that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, l just as Peter had been to the circumcised. 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. 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. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along (Galatians 2:7-10).

And so, Paul’s long defense of his independence, of his apostleship, of his “I didn’t learn this from someone else—I learned it all from Jesus!” claim is now complete. Paul is defensive about this. Although in other contexts he can be diplomatic (Acts 23:5) and cunning (Acts 23:6-10), in this matter Paul flatly refuses to defer to Peter, James, and John (“whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not show favoritism,” Gal 2:6). This doesn’t indicate hostility per se, but more an understandable touchiness about his status.

Luke has no skin in this game and so matter-of-factly reports that Paul and Barnabas carried the decision (the Greek is “dogma,” Acts 16:4) of the Jerusalem church at this meeting to Christian communities abroad—a move that suggests (but does not prove) a more subordinate status than what Paul is willing to acknowledge here. Paul was never a part of the Jerusalem establishment and was always very conscious of this fact. He acted outside its orbit, not quite as an independent agent but certainly more freelance than his friends in Jerusalem would have liked (cf. Acts 21:17-26).

In fact, Paul argues in the next section, his independence is proven by the fact that he once publicly rebuked the Apostle Peter himself for caving in to peer pressure and hedging on the Gospel. This example is Paul’s segue into the very heart of the letter and the specific issue Paul has with the Christians and false teachers in Galatia.