The famous priest and theologian, Jerome, described Paul’s writings as “spiritual thunder” that would “shake the temples of the idols.” This was no more true than with his writing to the Galatians. The thunderous apostle wrote with a passion that can be appropriately described as spiritually “charged,” as William Hendriksen suggested.
His passion and urgency were not without reason. Some in Galatia were disrupting all that the apostle established with the gospel. Based on the letter, we can tell that they took aim at Paul himself, suggesting that the gospel he proclaimed was inferior because his credentials were questionable. They argued that he was self-appointed, having no authority to teach and rule the churches. They likely pointed to Paul’s life before his conversion to stir doubt. So, he begins his letter by stating his authority.
“Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.”
Galatians 1:1
Before belonging to the “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16), Paul belonged to the Israel of man. It is in his past life that we should meet him to understand the spiritually charged, thunderous letter he wrote.
Paul, the Hebrew
In his letter to the Philippians, Paul described himself as a “Hebrew of Hebrews,” meaning that he was a devout Jew in every way (Phil. 3:5). Born of Jewish parents, he was named Saul, after the first king of Israel. (He used the name Paul to connect with the Greco-Roman audience.) They shared a heritage within the tribe of Benjamin. Paul was raised in Tarsus, a metropolis that was home to the top three universities in the Roman Empire. There, he was educated at the local synagogue.
When he was a teenager, his family sent him to Jerusalem to be trained under the tutelage of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3), who was the grandson of the most famous rabbi in Jewish history. Gamaliel was esteemed in his own right, being surnamed “the Glory of the Law.” Under his guidance, Paul learned to interpret Scripture and the rabbinic law. He soon became a leading Pharisee in Jerusalem (Acts 26:5), which earned him the title, “Hebrew of Hebrews.”
Shortly after his education in Jerusalem, Paul returned home to lead a synagogue. It was during this time that Jesus’ ministry happened. Although Paul never witnessed it, he undoubtedly heard of it. It was big news. As a “Hebrew of Hebrews,” he was angered and returned to Jerusalem to lead the persecution of “the Way (Acts 9:2), the name given to the early followers of Christ. He expressed his outrage this way:
“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.”
Acts 26:9-11
Paul was a Christian exterminator in every sense of the word (Gal. 1:13). His campaign to rid the Christians from the face of the earth was so aggressive that followers of Christ were “all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria” (Acts 8:1). When Jerusalem seemed to be rid of them, he set himself toward the synagogues in Damascus to continue the persecution (Acts 9:1-2). It was here that Paul encountered the resurrected Jesus, and his life was changed forever.
Paul, the Christian
In Galatians 1:15-16, Paul describes his conversion, “God was pleased to reveal his son to me.” This was an understatement. On a noonday while traveling to Damascus, Paul was suddenly struck down by a light beaming from heaven that blinded him (Acts 9:3). It was Jesus. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4). With terror coursing through his veins, Paul asked, “Who are you, Lord?” (Acts 9:5). “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:5).
Paul might not have gotten up had Jesus not told him what to do. He was instructed to continue to Damascus, where he ironically found refuge in the home of one he was seeking to persecute. After three days of fasting, the Lord sent Ananias to Paul. He was healed of his blindness, baptized, and began proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah in the synagogues (Acts 9:10-19). Paul, a great Jewish missionary, was now a great Christian apostle. He went from persecutor to preacher.
Paul’s fury was the fury of a shepherd protecting sheep.
His conversion and calling can be pieced together from various New Testament writings, but nothing is more thorough than his autobiography in his letter to the Galatians. In the first chapter of Galatians, he says that he remained outside of Jerusalem for three years without consulting the apostles. During these years, he studied the Scripture with a new heart and proclaimed Christ. His zeal for persecution was now the fuel for his preaching. He was a preacher of freedom—freedom from the law, sin, and death.
According to Acts, the Lord told Ananias that Paul “is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). Paul’s encounter with the resurrected Jesus on the Damascus road qualifies him for apostleship (1 Cor. 9:1). His message was not second-hand from Jerusalem but given directly by Christ (Gal. 1:15-17).
“For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Galatians 1:11-12
Paul was truly an apostle of Christ. Likewise, his gospel was the gospel of Christ. Now that we understand the conversion and calling of Paul, we appreciate his passion and urgency for defending his apostleship. For when his credentials crumble, the gospel crumbles. When the gospel crumbles, the people who believe it fall into the fire of falsehood. Paul’s fury was the fury of a shepherd protecting sheep.
“Stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
Galatians 5:1
