Looking Back

Read Galatians 1:11-24

Can you look back at a point in your life and see a marked change from who you once were? Or, does your life still reflect much of the same things you did several years ago? Maybe you still use foul language or you’re still doing those things you knew you needed to stop doing years ago! Imagine for a moment what would have happened had the apostle Paul not been radically changed the day he met Jesus on the road to Damascus, Imagine he just became a believer but never really went anywhere once he believed. He likely would have returned home and went to bed, woke up the next day made a few tents and repeated the same thing over and over, day after day, month after month and year after year, maybe popping into the house church on Sunday mornings to shake a few hands and hear the elder say a few words of exhortation. Then, it’s off to the sizzler for lunch and beer and football after dinner. Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it? The Apostle Paul do that! Are you kidding! Why, he’s the guy that started many churches, ordaining elders and yielding himself to God for the writing of all those wonderful spirit filled books of the bible as he went along…. Why, He’s the guy who sustained tremendous persecution just for speaking the name of Jesus Christ.

So my next question is this: if it isn’t ok for the apostle Paul to go home and become a Christian vegetable then why is it ok for us? Paul knew where he came from, he was zealous in the persecution of the church and in his own words he admits he tried to destroy it. After his encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ however, his life was no longer the same, even being able to look back and see the hand of the Lord separating him before he was even born. Friends, our lives should reflect some sort of a radical change for the Lord over time, no! It usually doesn’t happen over night and not everyone will become a Paul or for that matter no one will become a clone of another. God has His own set plan and purposes for each of our lives but he’s not going to force it upon us. God didn’t force Jesus to go to the cross but rather Jesus obeyed the will of the Father and likewise it is a choice for each of us to pick up our cross and follow after Him.

In verse 11 Paul tells the Galatians that the gospel which he preaches is not some made up fairy tail or good story to live by, the gospel isn’t even some attempt by man to reach up to heaven and connect with God, rather, the gospel is the account of our great God bowing down to connect with man and save us from our own depravity and the message  which Paul preached was not his own but rather given to him by divine revelation. I love the way this chapter ends with the Christians in Judea praising God as the author and source of what they heard in Paul. At first glance you might think they were praising God because this terrible persecutor of the Christians is now off the streets. But, I believe it is something greater than that, I think they praised God because they knew what a terrible reputation Saul of Tarsus had and for this man to become a Christian could only come from an act of God. So again I end asking the same question I started with, can you look back at a point in your life and see a marked change from who you once were? Can others?

Grace and peace in Christ Jesus,
Mark