The Divine Character of the True Gospel – Part 2

Galatians 1:11-24

February 8, 2004

 

            In his book The Roots of Endurance, John Piper wrote the following: “John Newton was born July 24, 1725, in London to a godly mother and an irreligious, seafaring father. His mother died when he was six. Left mainly to himself, Newton became a debauched sailor – a miserable outcast on the coast of West Africa for two years; a slave-trading sea-captain until an epileptic seizure ended his career.” If that was all you ever knew about John Newton, you may find it utterly inconceivable that the man described above wrote these words, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.”

            John Newton was a hardened, sinful sailor for many years of his life. Not only was he a worldly sailor, but he also engaged in the African slave trade, a horrific business that sold helpless people as slaves to the highest bidder. This man, who was worldly in nearly every possible way, was rescued by Jesus Christ from this present evil age. He was pulled out of the wreckage of his sin and adopted as a redeemed child of God. He engaged in the slave trade, putting free men into bondage, and later became a pastor, freeing men who were in bondage to the devil and sin and death.

            How does this incredible change happen? How does a person go from being completely apathetic about God and utterly self-centered, to being a hymn-writer and tender pastor? The answer is only found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the late 1740s John Newton put his faith in the promise of God to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him, and from that moment on he was a changed man.

            Stories such as those of John Newton are incredible proof of the divine character of the true gospel message. Stories of sinners forsaking their favorite sins to follow a crucified and risen Savior demonstrate the irrefutable divine character of the true gospel.

            Christian apologetics is known as the art of defending the Christian faith. It often takes place in an intellectual format, trading philosophical ideas about the origin, purpose, or direction of the universe. Apologetics is, quite frankly, often a sterile subject when discussed. Yes, men and women get heated in discussions when those discussions seem to threaten to demolish their world view, but generally speaking, apologetics can be a somewhat sophisticated and intellectual art. People discuss it many times on ‘gentleman’s’ terms, and sometimes it may even seem that not much is at stake when it is done in academic circles. Now, I believe we should be able to defend our faith and give a reason for the hope that is in us. Please don’t think I am devaluing apologetics. That is not my intention. In fact, this series is an apology of sorts for the gospel. The gospel message that Paul preached was under siege by false teachers, and so Paul goes into defending his faith, which was the very gospel he preached.

For the Apostle Paul apologetics was anything but sterile and lifeless discussion of world views. For the Apostle Paul, discussing the truth of the gospel he preached was a most important matter. He did not do it in a passionless way, and as you read Galatians you come to realize that something infinitely important is at stake. Paul’s argument and his reasoning through this epistle are instructive for us in their content as well as in their passion. No one could read these arguments and think that Paul was engaging in an academic discussion of ideas. Rather, the Apostle is personally and intimately connected to his faith, and he defends it with the utmost precision and energy.

The Apostle Paul, as you may remember, is now engaged in defending the gospel he preached. His whole task in this epistle is to prove to these foolish Galatians that his gospel is the only true gospel. He has different tactics for proving this, and his first tactic is found in chapter 1 as he discusses the divine character of the true gospel. In verses 11 through 24 Paul gives us 7 proofs of the divine character of the true gospel message. I find these truths to be staggering because they are personal, live proofs. They are not intellectual arguments in the proper sense of the term. Rather, they are experiential arguments for the validity of the gospel. They are profound, and they deserve our full attention for the next few weeks.

Last week we focused on verses 11 and 12. In these two verses Paul sets forward his proposition to us. In fact, these two verses could sum up the entire purpose of the letter. Look at them. Paul writes, 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. In writing this letter Paul sets out to prove that his gospel was received by a revelation from God, and that revelation was the message of Jesus Christ. Last week I pointed out that the phrase revelation of Jesus Christ meant that the revelation was about Jesus Christ. The revelation was given by God, as you can see plainly in verses 15 and 16, but the message from God was about Jesus Christ. In fact, Jesus was revealed in Paul according to verse 16, which we will look at later. Paul’s emphasis here is on the divine character of the gospel. The message Paul received, this revelation, was not from men, it was not taught by men, nor was it handed down by tradition from his teachers. Rather, it was a direct communication and revelation from God Himself concerning his Son Jesus Christ.

Having said that, Paul has the burden of proving it. Revelations are not something that can be scientifically proven or disproven. Since the Galatians were not there to see this revelation, how do they know that Paul really had such a revelation from God? Based on what does Paul make such a bold claim? Paul must prove that this revelation he claims to have had was in fact from God and it was a real revelation and not a figment of his own imagination. He must prove that much learning had not driven him mad, but that God Himself had revealed something in him. So in verses 13 through 24 we have 7 proofs of the divine character of the gospel.

 

Proof #1 – Paul’s former manner of life inconsistent with conversion (vv. 13-14)

 

            Let’s look at the first proof that Paul gives of the divine character of his gospel. In verses 13 and 14 Paul shows that his former manner of life was inconsistent with conversion. His first proof that his gospel message is from God is his former manner of life. Before the Damascus road experience, Paul was in no frame of mind to become a Christian. Look at verses 13 and 14. Paul writes, 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; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. Paul’s whole point in these two verses is that he was not the kind of person that would have been converted by a human message. If the Jerusalem church were to take a survey to see who in Jerusalem they thought were the most likely candidates to be converted, I’m sure that Saul of Tarsus would not have been on the list. No one would have picked Saul of Tarsus as a likely candidate for service to Jesus Christ. There was no legitimate human reason why Saul would ever have converted to Christianity, and thus Paul brings up his former manner of life to show that his whole life was inconsistent with the gospel before his conversion.

            Notice that verse 13 begins with the word for. That word is like a road sign that is saying to the reader, “This is the reason for what has gone before! Notice, I am connected to the previous thought, and I am the ground and the reason for it!” So we see that in verse 13 Paul begins his argument to prove the validity of his revelation, which would decisively prove the divine character of the gospel he preached. So as we go through this section, even into chapter two, although in chapter two he argues for his apostleship from a slightly different angle, Paul is giving the proofs of his gospel, and of his apostleship.

            His first argument is his former manner of life being inconsistent with conversion. He says, For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism. From whom had the Galatians heard these reports? The Greek tense seems to indicate that probably Paul told them about his former manner of life when he was with them. The idea is of a completed hearing, rather than an ongoing hearing. There is some debate about this, as some believe that the false apostles and false teachers were using Paul’s past to slander him and make him appear untrustworthy; however, there is no indication of this from this word or from the letter. It seems more likely that the false teachers were slandering him for the cross and for the grace he preached rather than for his former manner of life. It appears that Paul used his radically transformed life in his preaching, and that when he had visited Galatia he had told them of his former manner of life and the amazing transformation God had brought about through Christ and the gospel.

            Why was his former manner of life inconsistent with conversion? There were many who had formerly been in Judaism that were converted to Christianity by the preaching of the cross. In fact, the church began as an assembly of Jewish people who had embraced Jesus as the Messiah, so there was nothing inherent in being a Jew that would have made conversion remarkable. No, it was something further. There are two reasons why the Apostle’s conversion demanded a work of God and not just a human gospel.

            The first reason his former manner of life was inconsistent with conversion is because of his persecution of the church. His persecution of the church. Notice in verse 13, he writes, 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. When Paul was active in Judaism he sought to persecute the church of God. I want you to notice four aspects to this persecution that the Apostle brings out in this verse. Remember, Paul is proving the divine character of the gospel by showing his former manner of life. The first aspect of his former manner of life was his persecution of the church. Now, he tells us four things about this persecution.

            First, notice its frequency. The Apostle says, how I used to persecute the church of God. The tense in Greek is the imperfect tense, which has the idea of continuous action in the past. The meaning the Apostle intends is that he was engaged in a non-stop persecution of the church of God. His hostility toward the church of God was tireless. Many times people will get angry at someone else and have some hostility toward that person, but usually, no matter how furious that hostility initially is, the frequency of acting on it diminishes over time. People generally tire of acting in a hostile manner against another. Perhaps they will leave the person alone, but rarely is someone harassing someone else daily. The apostle Paul’s hatred for the church was of such a degree that he persecuted it relentlessly. It was his life’s work to persecute the church of God. He did it continuously.

            Second, notice the persecution’s intensity. Not only was it Paul’s regular life habit to persecute the church, but he persecuted the church beyond measure. We might consider a man utterly wicked and vile who should persecute another on a regular basis, but we would consider a man unusually cruel and possessed should he continuously persecute another beyond measure and in the highest degree. A constant harassment is itself a wicked and intolerable thing, but when that harassment is beyond measure and perpetual, it is utterly loathsome and vile. Such a man was Saul of Tarsus. This beloved Apostle, before his conversion, was the type of man who perpetually and beyond measure persecuted God’s beloved church.

            Third, notice against whom Paul’s hostility was directed when he was in Judaism. He says that he used to persecute the church of God beyond measure. Why does Paul use the phrase the church of God rather than ‘the church of Christ’ or, simply, ‘the church’? I believe Paul says it this way to heighten the degree of wickedness of his actions. The Apostle is here telling us that he perpetually persecuted the church of God beyond measure. He was in constant antagonism to the church of God, which puts him in constant antagonism to God Himself. By viciously and tirelessly persecuting the church, Paul viciously and tirelessly persecuted God, as it were, even the body of Christ.

            Could there yet be any degree of wickedness and evil greater than this? What would we think of someone who constantly was engaged in finding the most cruel ways to persecute other men? Certainly we would think such a person was evil to the greatest extreme. But what if such a person was not only engaged in trying to find cruel and oppressive ways to harass other men, but also cruel and oppressive ways even to persecute God? There is no greater evil in the world than that of devising ways to go against God. It is utterly wicked to devise evil against the Lord of glory, and yet this is what the apostle was formerly engaged in! This most eminent apostle, the apostle to the Gentiles, lived a life before his conversion of the utmost hatred not to Christians only, but even toward God Himself!

            Lastly, notice the objective of this persecution. The Apostle tells us that he used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. Paul’s objective in this persecution was not only to harm the church of God, but to destroy it utterly and banish it from the face of the earth. The word used for destroy is a word that was often used in war terminology to discuss what soldiers would do to a city they had overtaken it. They would sack it, ravage it, and utterly destroy it and its inhabitants. It was a merciless act of cruelty, and this was the aim of Paul before his conversion. His entire life centered around destroying the church of God and removing it from this earth.

            I hear at this point in the text Paul pleading with the Galatians, “Do you think this kind of a man would become an apostle of Jesus Christ? Do you think this kind of a man would believe the gospel of God’s mercy and grace toward sinners?” Paul was an utterly wicked and hateful man before he met Christ on the Damascus road. Let’s not paint a picture of Saul of Tarsus that makes him look clean and nice before his conversion.

            Here’s what the Scripture says about Saul before his conversion. When Stephen was martyred in Acts 7, we find this statement about Saul of Tarsus in Acts 8:1: Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. This man, Stephen, who was filled with the Holy Spirit, was put to death for his faith in Jesus, and Saul was in hearty agreement with it. He fully supported it. Acts 8:3 tells us that Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison. Imagine your dad, your mom, your brother, your sister, begin dragged off by Saul to be thrown in prison. This is not a fairy tale. This is history, and Saul of Tarsus was a persecutor, an aggressive, relentless, murderous persecutor of the church of God. When Ananias was told to go to Saul after Saul’s meeting with Jesus on the Damascus road, Ananias responded like this: Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem (Acts 9:13). The report about Saul’s wickedness had spread throughout the land. He inflicted great harm on the saints of the Lord, so much harm that Ananias was a little hesitant to go see him even though so commanded by the Lord! Paul’s own testimony in Acts 26:9-11 is even more revealing. He said, So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities. Saul was a persecutor of the church, a murderer of Christians, and he wanted to banish the church off the earth. He was so enraged at believers that he even chased them down in foreign cities! This is some zeal!

            Historically there have been very few, if any, people who have so relentlessly and tirelessly and cruelly persecuted the church of God. Many people have persecuted the church because it was convenient or because of personal offenses, but generally they have not had such a hate and venom for the church of God as Saul of Tarsus. Perhaps that is why Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 1:15, It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. The Apostle Paul, divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit, calls himself the foremost of all sinners. He outlines for us four aspects of his great sin of persecuting the church: its frequency, its intensity, his hostility toward God, and his objective of wiping out the church.

            Now, why is this important? Why is the Apostle so concerned that we have in our minds a clear picture of his past life in Judaism persecuting the church? It is because he wants to make it abundantly clear that the gospel is the divine message from God Himself. It was humanly impossible that a person such as Saul of Tarsus should become an apostle of Jesus Christ. He was a violent aggressor and a murderer, hateful against God and the Lord Jesus Christ. He was wicked to the highest degree in his aggression and hostility toward the church of God. And this same man was met by the Lord Jesus Christ on the Damascus road and utterly changed directions. On his way to persecuting the church, he ended up preaching Jesus in Damascus in Acts 9 rather than persecuting Jesus.

            Now, I said there were two aspects to his former manner of life that made his conversion utterly inconceivable. The first alone seems to make his conversion an impossibility, but when you add to it the fact that Paul was progressing in Judaism to the degree he was, it seals the case beyond any dispute. Look at verse 14. Paul writes, and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. The second aspect to Paul’s pre-Christian life is his progress in Judaism. His persecution of the church is the first, and his progress in Judaism is the second.

            Saul of Tarsus was one of the most promising Pharisees in Jerusalem in his younger days. There were few Jewish men who had achieved what he had achieved. He tells us in Philippians 3:6 that as to the righteousness which is found in the Law, he was blameless. All external appearances pointed to Saul being the next great Jewish leader. He was at the top of his class, as it were. He was more zealous for the traditions than his contemporaries, his peers in Judaism.

            Now, I don’t know if you know anyone who is zealous for something, but when someone is zealous for something it is nearly impossible to change their minds, let alone to change their minds to now be zealous for what they were directly opposed to before. In the world of sports there are many rivalries. One of the most famous rivalries in baseball is the rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. My friend, Josh Rieger, went to a Red Sox game when they were playing the Mariners, and during the game the fans all started chanting against the Yankees! The Yankees weren’t even there, and these fans are so zealous against the Yankees and for the Red Sox, that they showed their hatred for the Yankees even when the Yankees weren’t there. Now, imagine trying to persuade such a Red Sox fan to become a Yankees fan! It is an utter impossibility! You are more likely to end up with a broken nose than a new Yankee fan at the end of that conversation! This is just zeal for a sports team. What’s more, this is not necessarily the most zealous fan that we’re talking about! This is just any fan.

Judaism and Christianity were diametrically opposed to one another in the first century. If you were zealous for Judaism, you would not be zealous for Christ, nor would you tolerate anyone who was. Saul of Tarsus was the most zealous Jew of his age group. He was advancing in it, and probably would have ended up being one of the authorities and leaders in Judaism as he grew older. This is the man who is writing the letter to the Galatians, trying to persuade them to forsake circumcision and the Law and to live under the grace of God by faith. Is your mind blown yet? Can you conceive of what happened in Saul’s life? Something happened in this man’s life that never happens. Ever. How can the impossible happen? It can only happen if God does it. With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible!

The former manner of life lived by the apostle Paul, persecuting the church and progressing in Judaism, is concrete evidence of the divine character of the gospel message. My goal in this series of sermons is to increase your confidence that the gospel is God’s message to sinners. It is to strengthen your heart to believe that the gospel is the power of God to salvation so that you will proclaim it with absolute confidence and joy and hope and love and boldness and gentleness!

Consider this morning the divine character of this gospel message. It changes a persecutor of Christ into a preacher of Christ! It takes a man who is zealous for Judaism and turns him into a martyr for Christ, who will later call the church the Israel of God and who will say in Romans 9:6 that it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants. This type of transformation is impossible, unless the power of God is behind it. Only a divine gospel, a gospel empowered by the Spirit of God, can so change a man like Saul of Tarsus into Paul, a bondslave of Jesus Christ.

There are many practical implications of this beautiful and marvelous and mind-blowing and breathtaking work of God in Paul’s life. If the fact that Paul became an apostle of Jesus Christ doesn’t take your breath away, you’ve been sleeping the last 30 minutes or so. Listen, we don’t focus on Paul’s former manner of life to degrade him or to despise him. We focus on it to exalt the grace of Christ and the glory of God. The end of this section says this, They were glorifying God because of me. We speak of Paul’s former manner of life to glorify God in the gospel. So what are the practical implications of this? I’m sure you have thought of several and the Spirit has moved in your heart this morning, but let me give you two as we close.

Number one. Don’t give up on the most hardened, wicked, vile, God-hating sinner you know. When we look at the apostle Paul one doctrine becomes crystal clear. That is the doctrine of unconditional election, meaning that God chooses to save people not based on what they have done, but based on His own mercy and grace and pleasure. And what the doctrine of unconditional election, as we see it in the apostle Paul, should mean for us is that no one is beyond the reach of God. Is someone a persecutor of the church? No matter! Are they haters of Christ and the Word? It’s irrelevant. Have they committed great crimes against humanity? It does not make them unsaveable.

Let me put it very concretely for you. Last night I went to the web site for Dr. George Tiller. In case you’re unfamiliar with Dr. Tiller, he is the doctor in Wichita who performs late-term abortions. As I looked at the pictures on his website of him counseling pregnant women, my heart began to break as I saw him leading women to slaughter innocent, unborn children. Dr. Tiller is a wicked murderer who stands under the wrath of God every day. But Dr. Tiller is not beyond the reach of God’s salvation found in Christ. Unconditional election, as we see it in the life of the Apostle Paul, says that God does not choose sinners based on whether they were good or bad before their conversion. God chooses sinners based on His purpose and for His glory. That means that you should boldly pray for the worst of sinners, the most hardened murderers, the most wicked dictators, the most hateful doctors, because God does not save based on conditions. If he did, no one would be saved.

If God were to mercifully save Dr. Tiller, which we should pray that he would save men like this and other men and women who seem like the least likely candidates for salvation, Dr. Tiller could say that the Gospel was divine, and he could say, “For you have heard of my former manner of life, how I was advancing in the abortion field beyond many of my contemporaries and how I mercilessly murdered thousands of people, even counseling their own mothers to kill them!” O, Community Bible Church, don’t hesitate to tell the most unlikely person to be saved the gospel! Don’t base your hope for someone’s salvation on their pagan manner of life, but on the mercy of God. If God saved the Apostle Paul, which clearly was unconditional and not based on Paul’s former manner of life, may we pray earnestly and preach earnestly for and to the most hardened sinners and the most antagonistic people to the gospel. May the salvation of Paul be a boon to your hope that God can save the worst of sinners, and may we never give up on someone because they seem so utterly wicked and hateful.

Application number two. When you tell someone the gospel, use your own experience and tell them why the gospel is the power of God for salvation because of how you were changed. You say, “Well, I wasn’t a violent aggressor. I wasn’t a murderer. I wasn’t a persecutor of the church. I don’t have a sordid past.” O, yes you do. You hated God. You were at enmity with God. You stiff-armed Jesus Christ. You sought your own pleasures. You thought Christ was boring and His cross was foolishness. You cared not for God’s most holy Word. You didn’t give a rip about God and your god was yourself, money, or some other idol. You lived a life trying to always make it on your own, until something happened and God transformed you with the gospel. Has anything happened in your life that you can tell someone else to show them the divine character of the gospel? Haven’t you been transformed from an enemy of God to a friend of God and a child of God? Tell someone that! Show them the proof of the gospel not in philosophical, intellectual arguments only. At the beginning I said that apologetics is sometimes intellectual and philosophical debate. That is not all bad. But please, make your apologetics, make your defense of the gospel personal. Show people, tell them what Christ has done in you. Show them how the gospel is the power of God for salvation. You shouldn’t just say it and leave it at that. Show them your former manner of life and tell them how God’s power has worked in you. Prove to them the divine character of the gospel with your former manner of life and the power, the transforming power it was in your life.

Well, there are six more proofs to go. The first proof of the divine character of the gospel is Paul’s manner of life before his conversion. It was not consistent with what humanly we would think it would be if he was to be saved. Paul was as far away from Christ as a person could get on this earth, spiritually speaking. And yet he became a slave of Jesus Christ. The gospel is truly of God, and we see that first of all because the apostle Paul could only have been transformed by the power of God. His change was so utterly drastic, that it could only have been by the power of God. I pray that we have confidence that this gospel is the true gospel, and that we proclaim it as such, with love and boldness, for the glory of Christ. Let’s pray.

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