Ao – God Set Me Apart from Birth and Called Me Through His Grace 1: 11-17

God Set Me Apart from Birth
and Called Me Through His Grace
1: 11-17

God set me apart from birth and called me through His grace DIG: Why does it matter to us that the gospel is not of human origin? In light of 1:6-7, why does Paul stress where his message came from in verses 11 and 12? Skim Acts 9:1-31: What do Paul’s comments here add to his conversion story? Why is it so important that he is not just passing on second-hand information to them? How does this validate his claim to be an apostle in 1:1? Paul says he received his gospel not from the apostles who had known Yeshua during His earthly ministry, but directly by revelation from Messiah Himself. What reasons does he give the Galatians to believe in something extraordinary?

REFLECT: Do you ever find yourself thinking you deserve God’s grace? What prompts you to think this way? If you had to argue for the reality of the gospel by giving one example of how you have changed by faith, what would you share? What is your story? How is your personal experience of Messiah an important part of your witness to others? Paul’s experience of conversion was by grace alone through faith in the Messiah. In your own process of coming to faith in Messiah, where was (and is) grace a work? How does the gospel of grace free you from pride and guilt?

Paul summarizes his autobiography, describes his persecution of the Church, his revelation from heaven, and his divine commission to preach the gospel to the Gentiles.

34 AD

The nature of Paul’s gospel was not the kind of gospel men tend to preach. No other religion, including Judaism, has a concept of salvation of faith plus nothing. Every other religion has a concept of good works attached to it. You must do something to be accepted by God! Even believers have had a difficult time accepting salvation by faith alone, wanting to do something to gain salvation. It is hard for mankind to fathom the fact that salvation is totally free by the grace of God and all the work that is necessary has already been accomplished by YHVH by sending His Son to die for our sins on the cross.

Now I want you to know (Greek: gnorizo, meaning to know with certainty), brothers and sisters, that the Good News proclaimed by me is not man’s gospel (1:11). Mankind does not come up with a gospel that is based purely on the basis of faith. Mankind has a tendency to add things to it. In fact, this statement was particularly directed at the Judaizers, who received their religious instruction primarily from the Oral Law (see the commentary on The Life of Christ, to see link click Ei – The Oral Law) by means of rote memorization. Paul goes on: I did not receive it from any human, or the first Adam in all his transgression and mortality, nor was I taught it, but it came through special revelation of the Second Adam, Yeshua the Messiah (Galatians 1:12; First Corinthians 15:22). The word revelation is from the Greek word apokalupto, meaning an uncovering to an individual. Yeshua Messiah is best understood as the object of that very revelation. This revelation was the act of the Ruach ha-Kodesh uncovering truth incapable of being discovered by the natural mind of mankind.

Just as Yeshua was discipled by His Father, “ADONAI Elohim has given me the tongue of the learned, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning. He opens My understanding to His will” (Isaiah 50:4), Yeshua discipled Paul. Morning by morning the Lord woke Paul up and opened his understanding to the simple gospel of salvation equals faith plus nothing.

Paul began with his past conduct as an unbelieving Jewish rabbi. In this historical flashback, he contends that nothing in his past life predisposed him to the gospel. For you have heard of my earlier behavior in traditional Judaism – how I persecuted God’s Messianic Community (Greek: ekklesia, meaning the universal (total) body of believers whom God calls out from the world into His eternal Kingdom) beyond measure and tried to destroy it (see the commentary on Acts Cy – Paul’s Witness before Agrippa). The words persecuted and destroy are in the imperfect tense which speaks of continuous action, right up to the time of Paul’s conversion. The Gamaliel of Acts 5 would not have approved of the stoning of Stephen. He would never have dreamed of riding off to Damascus to haul believers into prison and to death. Compared to Paul’s teacher, who adopted a “live-and-let-live” policy toward Messianic believers (Acts 5:34-40), Paul’s position of wanting to exterminate the early Messianic Community was very extreme.²⁶

It is one thing to claim direct revelation from ADONAI, but quite another to prove it. Throughout the history of the Church many people have falsely claimed such revelation, as many do today. But Paul was not content to merely make the claim. Nor did he expect his readers to believe him simply on the basis of his claims. Therefore, he proceeds to substantiate his claim by presenting irrefutable evidence of that divine revelation and of his apostolic credentials.²⁷

Steeped in Jewish tradition, young Sha’ul of Tarsus championed his faith. His reputation as a zealous persecutor of the kedoshim became known to everyone (Acts 9:13-14). One occasionally finds the same kind of zeal among non-Messianic Jews today. The words persecuted and destroy are in the perfect tense which speaks on continuous action. The reason why Paul mentions his attempt to destroy the Church is that he might show that such bitter hostility proved that he was not among those whose association with believers had led him to receive the gospel (1:13).

Paul’s use of the phrase God’s Messianic Community is significant. In his very first book that he wrote (see Ae – Dates of Books in the B’rit Chadashah), it shows that Paul had not only formed the concept as churches as local congregations, but had already gathered those local congregations in his mind into one entity, the universal Church. It also shows that he saw at that time, that the nation of Isra’el had been temporarily set aside and the universal Church made up of both Jews and Gentiles (Ephesians 2:14), had been brought in. In other words, the Dispensation of Torah had ended and the Dispensation of Grace had begun to establish a channel through which ADONAI was to work for the time being.²⁸

Not only was Sha’ul against grace before being saved, he was for the Oral Law. I was even advancing (Greek: prokopto, meaning a trail blazer) within Judaism beyond many my own age among my people, being a more extreme observer of my fathers’ traditions (1:14). Sha’ul had far surpassed his contemporaries in his zeal and activity in Judaism. Everyone knew that this brilliant student of Rabbi Gamaliel (Acts 22:3) was well on his way to becoming an influential leader in Judaism. He pioneered in his studies, cutting new paths ahead of his fellow-students. In those days, various rabbis gathered together in certain rabbinical courts. The purpose of those gatherings was to add many new traditions to build a fence around the Torah to keep it from being broken (see the commentary on The Life of Christ Ei – The Oral Law). He was well on his way to being the most respected young rabbi of his day.²⁹ Therefore, nothing in his past life predisposed him to the gospel. Only a supernatural revelation could have changed him so thoroughly. Therefore, proof is established that neither Paul’s office as an apostle, nor his gospel of grace came by way of anyone other than directly from ADONAI Himself.

So how did Paul receive the gospel of grace? Paul presents himself as having been predestined for servanthood, on the model of the long line of biblical prophets. Reflecting on his previous behavior as one who persecuted the Messianic Community, Paul indicates God, who set me apart from birth, and called me through His grace (1:15a). He described his calling in this way to likely associate himself with those who had been specifically called out by the Lord before him – specifically the Servant Messiah and the prophet Jeremiah:

Listen to Me, islands! Pay attention, peoples far away. ADONAI called Me from the womb, from My mother’s belly He named Me (Isaiah 49:1).

Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I set you apart – I appointed you a prophet to the nations (Jeremiah 1:5).

As Paul will later describe his calling to the church in Rome: Paul, a bond-slave of Messiah Yeshua, called to be an apostle and set apart for the Good News of God (Romans 1:1). This means, before he was ever born, God had His eye on Paul and set him apart for his apostolic ministry. In that way, Paul’s mission was similar to that of the prophets.

Here again, Paul declares that ADONAI was pleased (Greek: eudokesen) to reveal His Son to me (Acts 9:5) so I would proclaim Him among the Gentiles many years later (Galatians 1:15b-16a; Acts 9:15, 22:21, 26:18-23; Romans 1:5, 11:13, 15:16). In the context of Yeshua’s immersion, Paul adopts the same verb eudokesen, pleased, that God the Father applied to God the Son: You are My Son, whom I love, with You I am well pleased (Mark 1:11; Isaiah 42:1).³⁰

Beginning with the Damascus Road encounter, Paul sat at the feet of Messiah as a talmid (the student of a Jewish scholar). It was essential for ADONAI to establish Paul’s independence as an apostle. He was not taught by the other apostles, but was fully equal to them. Therefore, to defend his apostleship, Paul declared: I did not immediately go up to Jerusalem or talk with those who were apostles before me, either. When Paul first arrived in Jerusalem, the Messianic community and the apostles refused to welcome their persecutor; they did not trust him. They assumed he wanted to get inside information. Finally, Barnabas brought him before the apostles and vouched for his sincerity (Acts 9:26-27). Immediately after Paul’s experience on the Damascus road (see Am – Damascus during the Time of Paul), he went away to Arabia where for three years he was taught the gospel of grace by Messiah (see An – Arabia during the Time of Paul). Only after his apprenticeship under the Master did he return again to Damascus (1:16b-17). Consequently, Paul asserts that his commission and gospel message came to him directly from ADONAI, independent of any human teaching.