Paul's Gospel

In Galatians Paul tells his readers that his gospel was not man-made. He didn't just come up with it on his own. He says, "I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal 1:11-12). Now, he doesn't explicitly explain how he received it, but I think it's pretty clear. He got it ... from Scripture. Indeed, he got it from the Old Testament during those three years in the desert (Gal 1:17).

You don't have to be a sleuth to figure this out. Paul gives it himself. For one, he loves to quote from the Old Testament in his writings. He quoted the Torah 45 times, the Prophets 53 times, the Psalms 23 times, and other texts 10 times for a total of 131 Old Testament quotes. He wasn't messing around. One of his most famous quotes comes from Hab. 2:4 - "The righteous will live by his faith." It was the phrase that launched the Reformation. I would contend it was his theme, his primary point, his gospel. He quoted it in Rom 1:17 and in Gal 3:11, and if he wrote Hebrews as some believe, he did it again in Heb 10:38. On multiple occasions he wrote about justification by faith apart from works using Abraham as his "proof text." He quotes Gen 15:6 -- "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness" -- in Rom 4:3, 9, and 22 and again in Gal 3:6. (James quotes it in James 2:23, too.) In other words, Paul found "saved by grace through faith" in the Old Testament long before he wrote it into the New.

What can we learn from this? First, the Old Testament is useful. Modern Christians tend to neglect it. The first Christians found it absolutely necessary ... for the New Testament. Second, Paul received his gospel. Clearly he received it from Scripture. So we should continue to see Scripture as divine revelation rather than a book made by man that isn't so easy to grasp, not particularly relevant for today, and not as a book that has little authority in matters of faith and practice. And when Paul refers to "my gospel," does that indicate that it is different from prior gospels? Not at all! Paul refers to his gospel as "the gospel of Christ" (Rom 15:19; 1 Cor 9:12; 2 Cor 2:12; 2 Cor 9:13; 2 Cor 10:14; Gal 1:7; Php 1:27; 1 Thess 3:2) and "the gospel of God" (Rom 1:1; Rom 15:16; 1 Thess 2:2; 1 Thess 2:8-9). Those who preach that Paul's gospel was different than other gospels miss the point Paul's gospel is rooted in the Word and cannot be different than God's gospel or Jesus's gospel. Thus, from time immemorial, everyone who has been justified has been saved by faith in Christ. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise.