What is the final and ultimate credentials one can have in the Kingdom of Heaven? The witness of the Holy Spirit. When a servant of God speaks on God's behalf, the Holy Spirit backs it up. Those listening with the Holy Spirit will be unable to deny the message's source. When this occurs with any degree of reliability, those in the Kingdom conclude the speaker is a messenger of God. When those words are coupled with actions which clearly bear the mark of God's presence and power, we see them as clearly called by God to serve Him. When this servant of God travels about as His messenger to those who have never heard of Christ, and when those hearing the message for the first time respond by the power of the Holy Spirit, we who know Him rightly call the messenger and apostle.
Paul's missionary travels forged into new territory for the gospel message. The effects of such work were undeniable to those who knew the Holy Spirit. It didn't matter whether Paul received a commission from the original Twelve Apostles; his testimony the work stood as sufficient testimony.
If we understand correctly, the Twelve spent three years with Jesus before His Passion. Apparently Paul had his three years with Christ, as well (Galatians 1:15-18; 2 Corinthians 12:2-4). However, his experience came after Pentecost, and he had the advantage of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Further, he had the advantage of PhD in Judaism. While I find no direct comment regarding the matter as we have with Jesus, Paul knew instinctively the Judaism of his day was far, far off the path. But the substance of his comments indicate it didn't matter much to him that Judaism was no longer Hebraic in outlook, it was dead anyway.
His letter to the Galatians is probably his oldest writing, and it is loaded with sharp criticism for having adopted Judaism-flavored Christianity. Having turned from zealous persecution of Christians, he was equally zealous in fighting the dead Covenant of Moses. He knew all too well exactly what sort of slimy, corrupt thinking was behind these Judaizers. It would hardly have mattered these teachers insulted Paul personally; he took the insult to Christ far more personally. The Lord who went to such great lengths to reach Paul, and to turn him around to the truth, was to be defended at all costs.
This was easily the one thing which Paul fought hardest early in his ministry. I take the view he wrote his letter shortly before he attended the Jerusalem Conference about AD 48. He came to that meeting with a powerful vehemence regarding the attack on justification by faith. Because this battle continued for some years, showing up in other letters he wrote, it would be easy to mistake his teaching for the cerebral distinction between faith and works so popular today. That such a distinction arose in the debate testifies to the falseness of the Hellenist mindset of the day. From or distance today we so easily miss the places where Paul demands conduct befitting a true faith in Christ. What he was combating was not the importance of works, but works of the Law of Moses.
While the writer of Hebrews argues the Old Covenant is inferior to the New, Paul in Galatians pointedly says the Old is dead. Being of the old Nation of Israel has absolutely no meaning any longer in God's plans, and as man born a Jew, having lived as the ultimate zealot of Judaism, he was in a unique position to say that.
Chapter 1 -- Paul establishes the purpose this letter and his credentials for writing it.
Chapter 2 -- Going further, Paul describes how his message came directly from Christ. For what it mattered, that message had already met the approval of the Pillars in Jerusalem.
Chapter 3 -- The Law of Moses held a very limited utility in Redemptive History.
Chapter 4 -- Paul contrasts the power of the Word with the sales pitch of the Judaizers, and compares their message to slavery. He points out once and for all the truth Jews are not sons of Abraham through Isaac because that's a spiritual identity, but they are spiritual sons of Ishmael.
Chapter 5 -- Embracing the Law means embracing the flesh. Overcoming the flesh means overcoming the Law in Christ.
Chapter 6 -- Paul describes the path to recovering peace in the churches where conflict had been stirred up by the Judaizers. He also puts one last nail of gospel truth in the coffin of dead Judaism: The only Israel God recognized was marked by walking in grace, not Jewish DNA or ritual observances.
Ed Hurst
14 January 2008
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