Source of the Gospel
11 For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. 12 For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation of Jesus Christ. (Galatians 1:11-12)
The false teacher group, the Judaizers, were trying to discredit Paul, attacking his authority as an apostle and attacking the gospel message. As a reminder, the Judaizers were claiming that in order for Gentiles to truly be saved, the Gentiles needed to convert to Judaism and uphold all the practices of the Mosaic Law in addition to accepting Jesus Christ as Lord in Savior in order to gain salvation. The Judaizers claimed that Paul was perverting their version of the gospel by omitting the need for upholding the law of Moses. However, in so doing, they were corrupting the true gospel by adding legalism to it. To combat this notion, Paul first states that the origin of the true gospel message “is not of human origin.” As Max Anders summarizes, “No human mind apart from God’s revelation would dream up a plan of salvation wholly dependent on God’s grace and the death of his Son.” Many false religions in our modern era require that the participants do certain rituals and acts for the non-guaranteed hope that one may attain salvation through works. This is why God’s plan of salvation is beautiful: it is through His grace and work, and the individual only needs to accept the gift, as it says in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.”
Then, in verse 12, Paul shows where he received the true gospel message, “For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation of Jesus Christ.” The Judaizers came up with their idea of the false gospel and had to teach it from human teacher to human teacher. Yet, in Paul’s case, the true gospel, which is God-made, was revealed to Him directly from the resurrected Savior Jesus Christ. Who can top that authority?
Blessings,
Isaac De Guzman
