Sharing Your Testimony: God Did It!
Galatians 1:11-24

Galatians, Set Free, Part 2

Rick Ganulin is a Cincinnati lawyer arguing in a federal appeals court that the celebration of Christ’s birth cuts him out and excludes him to observer status of this holiday. Therefore, he wants to have Christmas removed as a national legal holiday. Here is what he says as he argues his case, “As a matter of law, it cuts me out, it excludes me, I’m an outsider, I’m an observer.” What I would kindly tell Mr. Ganulin, and others who feel like an observer to the celebration of Christ’s birth, let me solve your problem! Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ! You don’t have to be an outsider to the coming of Christ. You can come to the Lord Jesus Christ, for the Bible says, that God loved the world and that WHOSOEVER believeth in him should no perish but have everlasting life. You see, that word whosoever means that no one need be an outsider to God’s grace and salvation that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe, so believe! Jesus Christ is the “propitiation for our sins: and not for our’s only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”

What a shame to be an observer to the birth of Christ! You can come to Christ be able to share your testimony of God’s grace. Have you ever shared your testimony with others and it seemed they were thinking, “Yea, right.” In this passage of Scripture, Paul is sharing his personal testimony with the Galatian Christians. They were doubting his MINISTRY as an Apostle and his MESSAGE of the Gospel of the grace of God.

In this first part of Galatians 1 he makes clear that His MANDATE (or commission) was of divine origin. In the second part of Galatians 1 he makes clear his MESSAGE was of divine origin. Paul clearly states that the gospel which the Galatians heard him preach was revealed or UNCOVERED to him directly by the Lord Jesus Christ. In Judaism, teachers handed down traditions orally from one generation to the next. Paul says that his teaching was not passed down by TRADITION, and it was not a product of his IMAGINATION. His gospel came to him as the result of REVELATION! If I can put Paul’s testimony into three words I would say, GOD DID IT! He did not receive the message he preached from other men. He was not taught the Gospel by the Apostles Peter, James, or John. He received the Gospel directly by revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot explain Paul’s salvation on NATURAL grounds. Christianity is not a NATURAL religion, it is SUPERNATURAL. Paul’s CONVERSION, CALL, and CORRESPONDENCE were miraculous and the result of GOD at work.

A personal testimony is a powerful tool to convince people of the truth of the Gospel. Just as the Galatians were skeptical about Paul’s ministry and message, skepticism abounds today toward the Gospel and even “born again Christians.” We are living in a culture full of cynicism toward religion in general and Christianity in particular. Yes, there is much suspicion mistrust regarding faith in Jesus Christ. These faith healing charlatans do not make our job any easier. Hollywood often makes a mockery of evangelical Christianity. Many even say, “I will NEVER get involved in organized religion.” You can tell people to come here, because we are disorganized! But there are cynical people, and a good way to talk to a cynical person who is full of doubts about what is happening to you is to share your testimony.

By the way, if you are not a Christian and you are interested in becoming a Christian, ask another Christian to share their testimony with you!
When you give your testimony people want to know, “Where did you get this from? Did you make it up? By what authority do you say that you are a Christian?”

1. Before His Conversion: Human FANATICISM, v.13,14

Paul recalls His past FANATICAL Behavior and His Belief as a Jew. Twice he uses the expression, “the Jews’ religion” (v.13,14). Paul was a radical man, extreme in his views against Christianity. Who is this man who now claims to be an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ equal to Peter or John who had walked with Jesus during his earthly life? You see, Paul had not walked with Jesus and the other apostles during the earthly life of Christ. How can he claim to be an apostle equal to Peter? Who is this man who we today put so much confidence in to have written 13 inspired epistles, about half of the New Testament?

Saul of Tarsus was a Jew, raised a Roman citizen in a Greek city in what today is Turkey. He had the religion of the Jews, the citizenship of Rome, and the culture of Greece. His education at the feet of Gamaliel was unquestioned. He was a scholar.

A. His Fanatical PERSECUTION of Believers, v.13:

Paul carried out an organized and continuous effort to ruin and destroy the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Like an enemy soldier, Paul sought in the highest human degree to UPROOT and utterly OVERTHROW Christianity. This shows us the venomous anger that a person can have toward the faith of the Lord Jesus. Paul was a fanatic obsessed with tearing down the House of God. Not only did Paul receive authority from chief priests to imprison Christians, but he voted himself to have them put to death. Acts 26:10 indicates that Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin because he cast his vote against Stephen. What bitter hostility people have against the way, truth, and life of Jesus!
How could this man have changed on a human level? He could not! Only God could do the change that was wrought in his heart.

B. His Fanatical TRAILBLAZING in Judaism, v.14:

Saul of Tarsus was a trendsetter and pioneer in the Jewish religion of his day. Before being a great leader in Christianity, he was a leader in the Jewish traditions of his day. He was a brilliant student of the well known rabbi, Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). Paul was a scholar, brilliant in many languages such as Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. As a religious Jew in the first century, Paul was more interested in the traditions of his fathers than in the Law of Moses. These traditions in the first century were oral teachings that would eventually be written down and become known as the Talmud.

What is the point of Paul delving into his background? He is making the point that his salvation was all of grace. He did not receive the gift of God because of his upbringing, his education, or his religious traditions. As a matter of fact, the Gospel completely went against all he had been taught while growing up. How could Paul have humanly left behind the religion that he had received by the traditions of his fathers? He could not. Only God could do the change the fanatical direction of this man Saul.

What were you fanatic about before your conversion? Was it some religion, or some sin like drinking, drugs, or music? How can you describe your life before conversion to demonstrate that only God could change the direction of your heart?

2. His Conversion: Divine Revelation, v.15,16

Look at how Paul describes his conversion to God. He does not say, “I accepted Jesus as my Savior.”

A. The GOOD Pleasure of God: “but when it pleased God…”

Here we see that salvation if out of the goodness of God. Salvation begins with God! The foundation of our salvation is not found in the will of man.
John 1:12,13, But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.
But when it pleased God!…Is this not the foundation of Divine Grace; the ground of humility; a reason for courage, and a cause for hope, that if God could save Saul of Tarsus, he could save anyone!

John Jasper was born a slave in Virginia in 1812. Here is his testimony of salvation: I was seeking God six long weeks; just because I was such a fool I couldn’t see the way. One July morning (in the tobacco warehouse) something happened. I was a tobacco-stemmer; that is, I took the tobacco leaf, and tored the stem out, and they weren’t no one in that factory could beat me at that work. But that morning the stems wouldn’t come out to save me, and I tored up tobacco by the pound and flung it under the table. Fact is, brethren, the darkness of death was in my soul that morning. My sins was piled on me like mountains; my feet was sinking down to regions of despair, and I felt that of all sinners I was the worst. I thought that I was going to die right then, and when I supposed it was my last breath, I flung up a cry, “Oh, Jesus, have mercy on me.” Before I knowed it, the light broke; I was light as a feather; my feet was on the mountain; salvation rolled like a flood through my soul, and I felt as if I could knowk off the factory with my shouts.” His shouts caught the attention of the factory oversee, who reported the matter to his master, the owner of the warehouse. Samuel Hardgrove, a Christian himself, called Jasper into his office and listened to him explain what had happened and Hardgrove said, “John, I wish you mighty well. Your Savior is mine, and we are brothers in the Lord.” He gave Jasper permission to go about the warehouse testifying of his salvation and then gave him the rest of the day off to go tell anyone he wished about his experience.

B. The ETERNAL purpose of God: “separated me from my mother’s womb…”

Paul says that God had set Paul apart for a special purpose from before his birth. This is the omniscience and foreknowledge of God. Where else do we see God’s eternal purpose demonstrated even from the womb? God chose Jacob over Esau from birth. God called Jeremiah before he was even formed in the belly.

Jeremiah 1:5, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Of course, God ordained that His Son would be the Son of God from the Mary’s womb. Paul shares the eternal purpose of God in saving him. Now when we talk about salvation, we must begin with God. Salvation begins with God. Salvation is his plan and salvation is what He has purposed for His own glory. He planned and purposed salvation and He provided Salvation! Salvation does not begin with man or with what we did. In other words, Paul does not say, “I accepted Jesus as my Savior.” No! Salvation did not begin with Paul. Paul says that even from my mother’s womb, I was set apart by God for salvation and service. By the way, we see here the preciousness of life that is in the womb. There is a reason why Christians are so adamant against abortion, and it is because what the Bible says about life in the womb. This is not something we have dreamed up. Let me also say, that I believe it is more than proper for Christians to vote for a political candidate who will seek to protect life in the womb. There is no doubt in my mind that this one issue: abortion, has divided our nation in a moral and also a very emotional way.

C. The Gracious Call of God: “called me by his grace…”

We see here that the call of God’s grace comes because of His eternal purpose to save us. That blinding flash of light that knocked Paul off his feet on that Damascus Road was a blinding flash of God’s grace! Paul knew he was saved only by grace, and his salvation was “a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting” (1 Tim.1:16). It was a pattern not that everyone who believes on Christ will see a vision of Jesus but everyone who believes on Jesus does so by GRACE!

D. The Divine Revelation of God: “To reveal his Son in me…

God revealed the Person of His divine Son to this man of Tarsus. Salvation takes place when God uncovers the truth of His Son to our soul. Paul was not saved by human TRADITION or by personal IMAGINATION but by DIVINE REVELATION, both external and internal. God revealed Himself to Paul outwardly on the Damascus Road. God revealed Himself to Paul inwardly as well. God revealed His Son to Paul’s soul. There was inner illumination to Paul’s soul, God shining into his heart “to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” When God draws you with cords of love to repent of sin and believe in Him, then come to Jesus! When this happens you know it! I was talking to someone on our radio program last Sunday night (12-10-00) and she said that a Muslim could be saved and not be aware of it. That would be like being married and not know it. Now, I know some of us may be married and forgotten our responsibilities, but to be married and not know it would be nearly impossible, even in spite of the oblivion of the male gender.

I will never forget the day the Lord saved me. I had been so miserable in my sin, looking for some sort of satisfaction. The day the Lord saved me I was not even going to go to church, but the guy who invited me woke me up and got me out of bed! Yes, it was God who saved me. When I became a new creature in Christ in April, 1978, my whole vision, viewpoint, and worldview was new!

E. The Ordained Service of God: “that I might preach him among the heathen…”

Yes, God saved Paul because he had a special service for Paul. The word “heathen” is “ethnos.” It means the nations. Paul was ordained to preach the Savior among all the nations of men. That blinding flash of light sparked an unquenchable flame in Paul’s heart, for Paul went on to live a life on fire for God, preaching Jesus among the heathen and turning the world upside down! Yes, the fruit of salvation is obedient service unto God.

Ephesians 2:8-10 tells us also that salvation is not merely “accepting Jesus as our Savior.” Paul writes, “For by grace are ye saved through faith…For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

What am I saying? When we share our testimony that we have been saved or born again, begin with God. Do not begin with WHAT YOU DID. Salvation is not about what you do. Do not put your will first. This does not mean that we do not exercise our will to repent and believe on our Lord Jesus. We do and we must believe. You are not passive in salvation. You must act, but it does not begin with you. Give the glory to God. God saves us so that we might serve Him. We have been saved to serve.

How may we know that we are His elect? When we live in obedience to His Word.

3. After His Conversion: Personal OBSCURITY, v.17-24

Paul in sharing his testimony told what he was like before his conversion, what happened at his conversion now tells what happened after his conversion. Through it all, Paul clearly states that he “did not confer with flesh and blood.” He remained in relative obscurity from the apostles. He was with them for just 15 days in the first 10 years of his salvation! The Gospel that he received and was taught was not taught to him by the apostles but by the Lord Jesus Christ.

A. Three Years: Paul spent three years in Damascus and Arabia.

This is the similar amount of time that Jesus Himself trained His Apostles. Paul spent the first years of his salvation in relative isolation, being personally taught by the Holy Spirit and the Risen Christ. This was “Wilderness University” with the Holy Spirit as the Professor. This was the same school that Moses attended, and Elijah, and David, too. Isolated from human contact, Paul studied the Tenach or Hebrew Scripture.

B. Fifteen Days:

Paul went to Jerusalem for a mere fifteen days and was not taught by the apostles, rather “he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him” (Acts 9:29). God himself, Paul testified in Acts 22:17-21, told Paul to depart from Jerusalem. Paul did not go to Jerusalem to be approved or ordained

C. Eight Years: In Tarsus and Caesarea.

Paul went into the silence of waiting as he continued his preparation for his missionary journeys. Paul continued maturing and deepening his character. These were years of obscurity

Paul’s point in this section is to conclusively prove that his MESSAGE was from God. This is proved by his life before conversion, his conversion, and what happened after his conversion. The result of Paul’s salvation was they glorified God! May that be the result of all our salvation. That is why Jesus was born, lived, and died on the cross, that God may be glorified.