After giving a brief sketch of his life, post conversion (after he was saved) … Paul uncharacteristically penned these words: “Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.” Galatians 1:20
He is adding further gravitas, strength, earnestness … to what he has already declared to the Galatian believers (especially concerning his autobiography). “I lie not.” No, more reverently: “Before God, I lie not.”
Paul DID receive his theology, his conviction that salvation is a gift, not an earned reward, straight from Jesus, “by revelation!” In the Arabian desert, we believe, during several years of “training” there.
And Paul DID NOT base his soteriology (doctrine of salvation) on anything originally gleaned from the Apostles at Jerusalem! Including their leader, Simon Peter!
Our very identity as Christians hinges on that doctrine of “salvation by grace!”
So, for that reason, believing that the issue at hand was so vitally important … Paul calls God as his Witness! “Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.”
(By the way, here is evidence that Paul is not, at this point anyway, using a secretary to write his Letter. “The things which I write ….” Even Galatians 6:11 further strengthens this position. “Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.” Large letters? A little more on that phrase when we get to Galatians 6 in our studies, the Lord willing.)
To our little hero, Paul the budding Apostle, GOD IS THE SOURCE OF THE GOSPEL HE PREACHES. IT IS IN NO WAY “TAINTED” BY MAN’S “INPUT!” Even the Apostles! (I am not saying Paul did not discuss the Gospel when he visited Peter and James. In fact, he well may have received their “confirmation” of the Gospel, solely via God’s Grace. But he did not first learn of the Gospel from those men!)
It is as if Paul wants to be “defined” by the Gospel he preaches, which he has been “given!”
Actually, he loved the Gospel so dearly that he occasionally called it “my Gospel!” That precious, that personal!
Romans 2:16 … “In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to MY GOSPEL.”
Romans 16:25 … “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to MY GOSPEL, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began ….”
And once more in 2 Timothy 2:8-9, maybe the clearest example of all … “Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to MY GOSPEL: wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.”
Wow!
Not the “mixed-up” so-called Gospel of works! Nor of works plus grace! But the gospel of the grace of God, meaning … salvation as a gift!
So thankfully, we have Galatians 1:20 in the Bible … “Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.”
I can only find 2 other places where Paul made this strong an affirmation. In Romans 9:1 where Paul is emphasizing Israel, his nation by birth! “I say the truth in Christ, I LIE NOT, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost ….”
Then again in 2 Corinthians 11:31, after that long list of hardships Paul suffered for Jesus’ Sake, or the Gospel’s Sake, once more in an autobiographical paragraph! “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I LIE NOT.”
Wow!
Seems that when Paul is speaking (or writing) Bible Doctrine … he needs no authentication! God has inspired him, and no true believer would ever doubt it!
But when Paul is speaking (or writing) of his personal life or intimate desires … he needs and (at least 3 times) uses some Line of authentication!
What an honest man!
So … what have we done today, in the Lesson?
I trust … “compared Scripture with Scripture!”
And thereby learned another fact or two about the amazing man we call Paul.
A man of “truth!”
Until tomorrow, the Lord willing.
— Dr. Mike Bagwell