Gálatas 1

Gálatas 1

Ryle - There are no incurable cases under the gospel. Any sinner may be healed if he will only come to Christ. For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it - Paul first reminds them of who he was before he met Jesus and believed His Gospel. THOUGHT - If you are saved, you are a living, walking miracle, a manifestation of God's amazing grace. While most of use won't have quite as dramatic a testimony as Saul/Paul, nevertheless we do have a story to tell others. We are living illustrations of the power of the Gospel to transform a person. This begs the question -- have you ever told anyone your story of God's amazing Gospel grace? If not, you are missing the opportunity of a lifetime. Of course, they need to see it lived out, so that your changed life substantiates your new life in Christ. But the Gospel should not just be seen, but should be vocalized. Pray for opportunities to share your testimony. Will you be fearful? Most likely you will because every time I share my testimony I shudder to think of how it will be received. No one likes being rejected. But if they reject God's miracle in your life, ultimately they are not rejecting you but rejecting God. And so we need to pray for opportunities to share and for Holy Spirit enabled boldness to share. In the early church Luke records that "when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:31+, cf Peter's fearfulness transformed to boldness when he was filled - Acts 2+, Acts 4:13+ where confidence = boldness; Acts 9:27+, Acts 13:46+, Acts 14:3+, Acts 18:26+, Acts 19:8+, and even the very last verse in Acts 28:31+ where "openness" = boldness - which I personally think was an answer to prayers by the saints - see Paul's request below to the Ephesians in his letter from prison) Now don't expect buildings to shake, but do expect that when the Spirit fills you, He will give you supernatural boldness. And remember that praying for boldness and asking other to pray for boldness for you is Biblical for that is exactly what Paul did asking the saints at Ephesus to "pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." (Eph 6:19-20+). So we are in good company when we ask for boldness to speak the Gospel and give our testimony. But be careful when giving your testimony not to place too much emphasis on your life before Christ, being especially careful to avoid any potentially defiling details. The emphasis (and glory) should be focused on Christ and what He has done in our lives. Related Resource: My Personal Testimony of God's Grace When Paul gave his testimony, he included a short synopsis of his life before he was supernaturally transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so Dr Luke records Paul's pre-conversion testimony before the Jews when he first taken into Roman custody in Jerusalem... "I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, just as you all are today. 4 “And I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, 5 as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders can testify. From them I also received letters to the brethren, and started off for Damascus in order to bring even those who were there to Jerusalem as prisoners to be punished. (Acts 22:3-5+) “So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 “And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. 11 “And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities. cp similar testimony before King Agrippa in Acts 26:9-11) You have heard - This verb is in the aorist tense which in this context points to a past historical event. While we cannot be dogmatic, most likely he is referring to when he first preached the Gospel to the Galatians. It follows that the Galatians knew he had formerly been a vicious persecutor of the church. The supernatural transformation that took place in Paul's life after meeting Jesus should have been clear proof of the statement that the life changing Gospel was not of human but of divine origin. Only God could change the heart of one who had been such a terror to the church. J Vernon McGee on my former manner of life in Judaism - Paul now calls the religion in which he was brought up the “Jews’ religion.” Paul was saved, not in Judaism, not by Judaism, but from Judaism. (Galatians 1 Thru the Bible)