Galatians 1:11-12  :

But I make known to you, brothers, concerning the Good News which was preached by me, that it is not according to man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul was a very special person in that he was chosen by God to receive a direct message from Jesus Christ. These are some of the verses that reveal this fact. Here we see that Paul is stressing the fact that no man gave him the message that he was teaching. He has more to say about this in the verses to come.

God chose certain prophets from among the rest with a specific duty to speak and sometimes write God’s message. Paul was obviously one of those special prophets. Peter recognized Jesus’ revelation through Paul:

2 Peter 3:15-16  :

Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you; as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Notice that Peter regards the letters of Paul as “Scripture” here? Here we read that Peter recognized the “wisdom given to him.” He recognized that it was, indeed, written down too. What is the significance of “Scripture?” Well, that is defined for us too:

2 Timothy 3:16-17  :

Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Paul’s revelation from Jesus Christ, is important for us to recognize. This is a direct source of information from Jesus and we would do well to treat it as such and not try to change it in any way. Like Peter said above, “ignorant and unsettled twist” the “hard to understand” message that Paul speaks. I want to make sure that we go through this carefully so that we can understand it to the best of our abilities.

Galatians 1:10  :

For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? For if I were still pleasing men, I wouldn’t be a servant of Christ.

Notice that Paul had a choice. He could either please men or please Christ. I have found that I have that same choice.

This is a good example. There are many people who would rather that I not speak so dogmatically. If I were to give into this, I would actually be going along with their dogma. Their dogma is the dogma of no dogma, which is a self-refuting argument. People who fight against dogma are completely ignoring their own. Now, this may make people even more upset, but my goal is to please God and bring more people to Him, not to bring people to myself. If people believe and agree with God then they will be pleased with what I say, but my responsibility is to God.

I am hoping to help those of you who believe, and I do want you to be filled with encouragement and joy. Giving in to people would not help you learn the truth. God really exists and is watching what I am saying right now and helping me to say it. More than that, it is a privilege to be able serve God and be allowed to say these things to you on His behalf.

I am especially glad to talk about Galatians because God used it change my life. When I found out what was being said in this letter, I could hardly believe it. I want you to have the opportunity that I had. I know that these words are powerful and can change the world because of what they did in me and the world really needs changing right now.

The world operates in a system that intentionally opposes the word of God. To please the world and it’s system is to oppose God.

The words we are reading here are the words of God and it’s ok for God to be dogmatic because the truth always is dogmatic otherwise it wouldn’t be truth. It’s in our best interest to please Him while we can because the day will come when God will review the work that we did for him in this world. On that day, it won’t matter what we did that pleased people or ourselves. God is our Maker and He has the right to expect us to live the way He wants us to.

Galatians 1:8-9  :

But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you any “good news” other than that which we preached to you, let him be cursed. As we have said before, so I now say again: if any man preaches to you any “good news” other than that which you received, let him be cursed.

It is a grave error to preach a perverse gospel. In these verses, Paul calls a curse of eternal punishment on anyone who would attempt to preach a different gospel than the one He preached!

Not only did Paul curse once, but he cursed twice. If you are looking for black and white in our world, here it is. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not anything that can be modified, altered, or replaced. You either believe it as it is, or you leave it and face the consequences. There is no room for argument here in regard to Christianity.

Now, just in case you don’t notice how important this is, Paul calls the curse upon himself, the Apostles and the angels if any of them should attempt to preach something else! Hearing an angel, as some claim, is not good enough reason to give the gospel an update! Even if someone claims to get a message from Paul, and it disagrees with what is written here, you are obligated to reject it. Need I say that this includes any teacher alive today and ever since then as well?

No, the good news of Jesus Christ cannot “evolve.” It’s perfect and complete. Now God could have written anything and we would have had to accept it. Thanks to Him, He wrote down “good news.”