Galatians 1:22-24 - A Glory Story

"But I was being unknown to the face to the assemblies of Judea to the [ones] in Christ... But only hearing they were that 'the [one] persecuting us formerly now is good-newsing the faith which formerly he was destroying'... and they were glorifying the God in me."

-The Lord gave Paul not only a call but a story as well - a glory story!  This highly placed Jewish religious leader who was at one time vigorously trying to destroy Jesus and His Church was now actually promoting and building up the same.  Saul the Destroyer - that’s what they used to call him.  Well, perhaps not.  But his was a fascinating story, to be sure, no doubt incredibly encouraging to the hearts of those early Christ-followers who still lived under the ever-present shadow of persecution and death.  In the midst of a rising tide of persecution, one of their would-be tormentors has been turned!  The crucifixion itself was still a fairly recent event, fresh in their minds.  So was the stoning death of Stephen which launched the first great persecution against the Church (Acts 8.1).  They wouldn’t have recognized him had Saul shown up in their village, these Judean believers.  But his story, this word of Saul’s conversion and of his powerful preaching ministry, gave their hearts courage and hope.  Believers were celebrating God’s goodness in and through his life.  It showed off in stark relief the magnificent glory and unfathomable wisdom of God.  His ways are not our ways, so much higher.  He so knows what He is doing, not wasting a single blessed thing, working all together for good and to reinforce the truth that He is indeed breathtakingly good and deserving of all glory and honor and praise.  Such is the effect that Paul’s story had on these early believers.

-Is it not true that the Lord likewise gives a glory story to each and every person who comes to trust in Him?  Perhaps not quite similar to Paul’s in particulars of background and circumstances of conversion and subsequent call, but a God-given story nevertheless, one uniquely designed to show off how breathtakingly good He truly is.  I once was lost, but now am found, amazing grace how sweet the sound - that theme - same-story-different-chapter - is repeated countless times over in the lives of those whom the Lord reaches down and rescues.  And with that motif He crafts a true work of art, a one-of-kind tapestry, weaving together all the details of who we are and what we’ve experienced, wasting not one moment or facet, not one wound or misstep but working all together for good and crafting a story for the ages - one which will indeed echo into eternity and show off God’s goodness like no other.  Not one bump or bruise, not one hurt or misstep, not one tragedy or triumph will be wasted.  Are others celebrating God’s great goodness because of His work in and through my life, because of my glory story?  Perhaps it would make a difference if I actually got that together and started sharing it...?

Galatians 1:18-21 - Jerusalem in brief

"Then after three years I went unto Jerusalem to get to know Cephas and I stayed toward him fifteen days... But other of the apostles I did not see if not Jacob the brother of the Lord... But what I am writing to you, behold, before God I am not lying... Then I went unto the regions of Syria and Cilicia."

-Paul did finally go up to Jerusalem, three years after either his conversion or after he returned to Damascus from Arabia.  What this does mean is that Paul was no longer an infant in the faith.  His message, which he had been preaching for quite some time, was already well-formed.  The account in Acts does make it sound like Paul fled straight from Damascus to Jerusalem, but it is possiible that he went somewhere else in-between.  Nowhere here however does Paul give us any hint of the extreme life-threatening persecution he faced in either city.  He also fails to mention here the ostracism he endured from the disciples upon arriving in Jerusalem, and the role that Barnabas played in resolving that.  In fact there are some discrepancies between this account and the narrative in Acts 9 to make one think that we’re reading about two different situations, two different visits to Jerusalem.  And yet there are enough consistencies to suggest otherwise, specifically that he did go to Jerusalem at some point after leaving Damascus, and while in Jerusalem he met with some apostles, and afterwards he departed for the regions of Syria (Acts says Caesarea - which was in that region) and Cilicia (Acts says Tarsus, which was in that region - cf Acts 9.30).  And, as we read further on in this chapter, Paul made no significant visit to Jerusalem again until much later, as part of a delegation with Barnabas and Titus (this would be the so-called Jerusalem Council about which we read in Acts 15.1-2ff)(Acts 11.29-30 and Acts 12.25 also mentions a brief visit where Barnabas and Paul took a famine relief contribution from Antioch to Jerusalem for the believers in Judea, but Paul does not find it necessary to mention that in his account here).

-It sounds here like Paul in going to Jerusalem was deliberately going in order to get to know Peter (Cephas), but that his contact with Peter (and just one other apostle - James, the brother of Jesus) was rather brief - just a couple of weeks, altho he actually did stay with Peter.  In Acts, however, we have Paul the former persecutor being initially shunned by the believers in Jerusalem until Barnabas intervened and literally brought him to the apostles, where it sounds like Barnabas was the one who conveyed the details of Paul’s miraculous conversion and subsequent ministry in Damascus, after which Paul embarked on a time of preaching in Jerusalem.  Reading Acts 9.26-30 might give one the impression that Paul was in Jerusalem for quite some time on that initial post-conversion visit, but Paul states that it was definitely brief - merely 15 days.  In the end, the discrepancies between the account in Acts and what Paul is saying here are not irreconcilable, and in no way detract from his main point here, which is that his time in Jerusalem and contact with the apostles was in fact so brief as to contribute nothing of substance to the content of his message, one which he had already been preaching for several years.  His message from the very beginning, received directly from the Lord and untainted by any human agent, was salvation for Jews and Gentiles alike by grace alone through faith alone and not by any works.  That’s the Good News, and it is really good to this day...!

Galatians 1:17 - Arabian vacation?

"...nor did I go up to Jerusalem toward the apostles before me, but rather I went unto Arabia, and again I returned unto Damascus.’

-Some very interesting, specific life data Paul gives us here in these next few verses.  Keep in mind the context, about how the message he teaches (which in fact he taught these Galatians), did not originate from man, but rather came from the Lord Himself.  So he first tells us that after his eye-opening encounter with Christ at Damascus, he did not consult with any flesh and blood person (previous verse).  He had no contact whatsoever with any of the apostles in Jerusalem, nor anyone else there, for that matter.  As we will see, the church in Jerusalem was somewhat corrupted with so-called Judaizers, those who would have been inclined to insist that these young Gentile believers in Galatia needed to become circumcised and follow the Mosaic law in order to be acceptable to God.  This in fact came to a head in Acts 15.

-But in other words, those who were leading the church at the time of Paul’s conversion contributed not one thing to his understanding of the Gospel.  And while one might assume that this would NOT be something in Paul’s favor, it simply serves to reinforce his point that the content of his message did not come from man at all, not even from the ones you might have expected would have taught him at least something about Christ.  But no, he did not go "up" to Jerusalem at all initially (even tho in the northern hemisphere we would say that it was "down south" to go to Jerusalem from Damascus, folks always talked about ‘going up’ to Jerusalem - the holy city was situated about 2500 feet above sea level on Mount Zion – higher ground than all that surrounded it).  No, he went away to Arabia, for a time.  This trip is not mentioned in the Acts narrative for some reason - only that he was in Damascus for many days following his conversion.  Paul doesn’t tell us anywhere why exactly he went to Arabia, nor do we know for sure how long he was there, or even a precise location.  The boundaries of that region were a bit fuzzy, but generally it was the region east of the Jordan River and on into the Arabian peninsula (what is now Saudi Arabia).  Some say Paul went there to preach, since we do read in Acts that he began to do just that immediately after his conversion (Acts 9.20).  Others believe Paul may have gone there simply for spiritual formation.  We do know that after his conversion he had at least one additional supernatural experience of revelation (2Corinthians 12.4-7).  Paul surely did have a clear distinct sense of having been taught spiritual truth straight from the Lord Himself (cf 1Corinthians 2.12-13).  Regardless of what actually happened in Arabia, we know that he was there for a time after his conversion, then returned to Damascus, where he stayed for many days, until that time when Jews in Damascus determined to kill him (Acts 9.23).  Let’s keep reading...

Galatians 1:16 - The Pleasures of God and Paul's "In-order-that"

"...[when He was well-pleased] to reveal His Son in me, in order that I may be good-newsing Him in the nations, immediately not did I consult flesh and blood..."

-God was well-pleased...  The pleasures of God - you realize that in His right hand there are pleasures forever, right (Psalm 16.11)?  Surely of all the qualities which the Lord possesses to the n-th degree, joy is right there among them.  He is the happiest being in the universe.  Do we much consider these, the things which bring pleasure to the heart of our heavenly Father?  Faith totally pleases Him (Hebrews 11.6), a life of faith, a heart of faith, a step of faith.  It brought Him great pleasure to create the universe, and to create man in His image, to place him in a garden paradise, to give him a job, and to commune with him every day.  In fact, whatever the Lord wants He does, and this brings Him pleasure (Psalm 135.6)(Scripture tells us He was even pleased to kill His Son - Isaiah 53.10 - whoa, heavy - which tells us just how overwhelmingly important is His plan to bring many sons and daughters to glory.  It completely supercedes and negates all other considerations by comparison).  It is our lack of faith, faithlessness, our own lack of desire and devotion and lack of correspondence to what He wants that brings Him grief and provokes Him to anger.

-Nevertheless, God was well-pleased to reveal Christ IN Paul, one who was on a self-appointed mission to destroy Christ.  Revealed not just to him, but IN him, which gave him both a story and a message as well as a life and a countenance to back it up.  But don’t miss this - IN ORDER THAT.  There is always an in-order-that, a reason, a purpose behind the call which follows the call.  God called Paul in order that.  He similarly calls you and I - in order that.  It falls upon each of us thus called to present ourselves and our wants fully to the Lord and to let our minds so flow together with His that we can and do fall perfectly into step with all that He wants (Romans 12.1-2; Ephesians 5.10, 5.17; Colossians 1.9-10).  Paul’s call, his in-order-that, was to carry the good news of Christ to the nations - which would bring even more pleasure to the Lord.  Any idea yet what your in-order-that might be?  It all begins with surrender, a humble choice of who’s gonna be in charge, of whose wants will win in my life.  The old question is posed, of which one of the two dogs who are fighting each other will win?  The one you feed.  Whose wants and pleasures am I feeding in my life?  The wants of God?  Or my wants?

Galatians 1:15 - Ten thousand gifts

"But when [God] was well-pleased - the [One] having set apart me out of my mother’s womb and having called me through His grace...’

-God has a plan (cf Jeremiah 29.11, Acts 2.23), one really big glorious eternal plan (Ephesians 3.11), and contained within are innumerable intricate subplots, all being woven together into a massive marvelous tapestry (Isaiah 14.24, 45.7; Ephesians 1.11).  He formed a plan for me in fact, one which He has been implementing from the day I emerged from my mother’s womb (Proverbs 16.9), and even before that when He formed me in the womb (Psalms 139.13-16), and even before that (2Kings 19.25, Psalms 33.11, Isaiah 25.1).  And now, most of us, we see but dimly, our minds not fully illuminated to the intricacies of God’s unfolding plan.  On this side of eternity, in our natural fallen state, we perceive (or presume?) that our choices are ours to make, our lives ours to live as we please in a relatively autonomous independent orbit, again most of us mistakenly assuming the arc of our lives to have little or no wider consequence save on the lives of my immediate family and those closest to me (unless by chance or by virtue of self-effort I appear to have grabbed a broader scope of influence).

-Paul had been given enough insight to know what most of us will not until we are on the other side of eternity, after we pass through to the other side of life, the truth that who and what I am and whatever I have, is a gift.  A free gift, straight from the heart and hand of almighty God.  My life, and the days measured out for me are precisely that, a gift of ten thousand gifts, the ability to enjoy them and all the manifold glories therein, also a gift.  The very ability to come home in our hearts to Him Who formed us, likewise a gift, for no one can come to God unless He calls them (cf John 6.44, 6.65).  On this side of the door, it certainly appears to be otherwise, that we grope for and seek after God on our terms (Acts 17.27), that we in and of ourselves pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and we make the choice to believe and confess and love and obey (Acts 16.31, Romans 10.10, Matthew 24.13, Acts 2.21).  We call on Him, yet in reality He is calling to us, and that not merely for salvation, fire insurance.  No indeed, He has a plan, good works in which we should walk (Ephesians 2.10), prepared for us before we believed or were even born, a path laid out for each one of us, a plan for blessing and breathtaking goodness and unspeakable joy.  This then is the ultimate grace.  We don’t deserve this divine favor, not one of His gifts.  There is not one of our filthy rags which would ever commend us to the God of heaven.  He calls out to us, and gives us the gift of faith, which to be sure we must receive (John 1.12), but His favor is never deserved in the least.  All the more so in Paul’s case, where he was additionally called by grace to bear the glorious Message of God’s grace through Christ to the nations.  Grace upon grace, how can it be...

Galatians 1:14 - All-out All-in

"... and I was progressing in the Judaism beyond many contemporaries in my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.’

-Paul was an elite-level Jew, a bonafide MVP candidate.  In the metrics of the Jewish religious system of his day, however you measured progress and success, Paul not only measured up, he was head and shoulders above the rest.  In his own words, he was among the best of the best, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees (Philippians 3.4-6).  Zeal was never Paul’s problem.  He was blessed with that in spades - no doubt the Lord knew what He was doing when He formed Paul in his mother’s womb, ey?  Half-way was not his way.  He was all-out all-in.

-The way to progress in Judaism of course was to give yourself over to observing the teachings which had been given over to the Jews by their fathers, specifically the Law and the Prophets (which would have also included the writings as well as an oral torah).  Observe these long enough and they become tradition, a practice or a belief or a custom which gets lived out on a regular basis and then handed down to succeeding generations such that it becomes part of the fabric of a family or of a culture.  It becomes codified, an end unto itself - this is just what we do, we always do this, we always have.  It is left then to the free thinkers, the more ‘rebellious’ types, to pose the question ‘why’ and to break with the tradition.  Paul was not one of these - until... Normally traditions tend to be rather innocent, morally neutral, as in this is how we traditionally celebrate Christmas.  But occasionally they clash with stronger currents, the proverbial immovable object meeting the irresistable force.  Currents of popular opinion, societal ‘progress’, values shifts.  In Paul’s case (and the case of pharisaic Judaism), the Jewish religious traditions, i.e. the way the Jews always did Judaism, turned out to be wrong in the eyes of God.  Theirs was a system of works, of manifold rules and regulations on how the nation and her people were to try and work their way towards (and maintain) right standing with almighty God, and it was fundamentally flawed.  Nevertheless, until he was forcibly and rather dramatically shown otherwise, Paul was all-out and all-in, hot and boiling for that tradition in which he grew up.  His way was no way half-way, even when it was the wrong way.  No doubt, a well-intentioned and splendid example, this.  He may have been going in the wrongly opposite direction, but his was never a half-baked effort.  In the words of Jesus, ‘I wish that you were cold or hot, so because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I will spit you out of my mouth.’ (Revelation 3.15)

Galatians 1:13 - Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane

"For you heard my former way of life in the Judaism, that according to excess I was persecuting the assembly of God and I was destroying it...’

-Prior to receiving the revelation of Jesus, Paul was on a mission to destroy Jesus.  Or at least the Church, the ones who were following Jesus and who were spreading supposed lies with regard to Him, filling Jerusalem with His teaching.  Paul was not merely intent on stopping the spread of the Church, he was hell-bent on eradicating it entirely.  This Jesus-thing was a virus, a plague - it needed to be stopped, wiped out, and by-God (or by himself if necessary) he was going to do it.

-To this end, he does not hesitate to admit here and elsewhere that he was a persecutor of God’s people (Act 22.4-5, 26.9-11; 1Cor 15.9), and that excessively so.  Paul definitely did nothing halfway.  He was perhaps a bit late to the game - in fact he missed kickoff (as far as we can tell he was not present when they crucified Jesus), but by the time the church actually got cranked up and began to fill Jerusalem with signs and wonders and teaching about Jesus, Paul - then Saul - was all in for the final solution.  When the Jewish leaders finally began persecuting and even killing Christians (i.e. Stephen was the first), Paul was right there with them (Act 7.58-59, 8.1, 8.3, 9.1-2)(he was likely one of the men who first confronted Stephen and then had him arrested - Act 6.8-13 - as Paul was himself from Cilicia, Act 22.3).  And to that end - the end of the church - he dedicated himself with great abandon.  To persecute literally means to pursue, doggedly so, and this Paul did, pursuing those who followed Jesus to put them in prison, pursuing them all the way to foreign cities.  Damascus was more than twice the distance of Nazareth from Jerusalem, so, more than a few days journey, yet Paul did not hesitate to pursue as far as there.

-Everybody pursues something.  Even those who purport to be pursuing nothing at all are pursuing just that.  And to that end, some pursue mediocrity.  Others pursue success, however they have defined it (or how others have defined it for them) - wealth and riches, fame, career advancement, knowledge and academic achievement, beauty, romance, pleasure, fitness, leisure and recreation, the fountain of youth - you name it, the list is endless... Even those who pursue nothing, are they not in fact pursuing comfort and ease, or freedom?  Some pursuits are mere dalliances, diversions at best, others are more consuming, more obsessive.  But in the end, everybody pursues something, and we do so because we are ultimately looking for the satisfaction which we believe will accompany the catch.  The question is, when I catch it, will it really satisfy?  Will it really fill that knawing, nagging hole in my heart?  It's like the sheriff on Dukes of Hazzard, always in "hot pursuit" of those Duke boys.  Had he ever managed to catch them, would it have brought him true satisfaction for more than a Hollywood minute?  Does not experience inform us that life and these pursuits are much like cotton candy?  Had Paul been able to succeed in completely wiping out the early church, would he have actually found a lasting contentment and inner peace?  Would he have been able to rest?  How about the rest of us - have we yet found what we’re looking for?