After his initial introduction to the Galatians, Paul outlines his early years as a Christian, to show that the gospel he preaches was not only half the story, as the infiltrators claimed. Paul’s gospel is God’s gospel. He shows this in two ways.
Firstly, for the first 14 years of his Christian ministry, Paul only spent 15 days with the Jerusalem apostles. Ministers train for 3-4 years before being sent out into full-time gospel ministry. 15 days is not enough time to learn all there is to know about Jesus. So where did Paul get his extensive knowledge?
Second, after he did go to Jerusalem (Gal 2:1) to present the apostles there with the gospel he had been preaching for the past 14 years, they gave Paul ‘the right hand of fellowship’ (Gal 2:9). They recognised that Jesus had truly given the one true gospel to Paul, just as he had given that same gospel to Peter and the others in Jerusalem.
What this means is, when we read Paul’s words in the NT, we are reading the very words of God. They are indistinguishable. Even Peter recognised Paul’s letters as ‘Scripture’ (2 Pet 2:16), which is God-breathed (2 Tim 3:16).
This has two implications. The first is we should stand in wonder of the gospel. What other world religion has a message of salvation from God? Other religious leaders may claim to know the way to God, but Paul proves he does by the fact that his gospel is identical to the one the 12 disciples preached. How wonderful to follow a message passed down by God himself.
Second, this means we cannot pick and choose which parts of Paul’s writings we want to follow and which parts we’d rather ignore. If it is all God-breathed, then we dismiss it at our own peril. How amazing that God has spoken to us in such ways.
