On the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost this June 10, 2007, the three readings are 1 Kings 17:17-24 (Elijah and widow’s son); Galatians 1:11-24 (Paul’s conversion) and Luke 7:11-17 (Jesus and widow’s son). Chosen to preach about is Galatians 1:12, “For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Since most of what you and I hear about Jesus comes from man, of what is Paul speaking when he says he neither received it nor was taught it from man? Does Paul have a source that is not available to the rest of us? The answer to the question is not as difficult as it appears. For what Paul is speaking of is not the content of the message but the means by which he received the message.

In Paul’s case there was a time when he received personal revelation from Jesus Christ Himself, perhaps much like that received by the apostle John on the island of Patmos in writing Revelation. But there is more to Paul’s statement than just the source of his information. It also includes the content.

The real difference Paul is pointing to is that between what man teaches about God and what God teaches about God. Man’s teachings of God are limited by his experience; that is, what he finds in nature. That’s why it is called natural revelation. In contrast to man’s “findings” about God, there is revelation from the true God that is impossible to “discover” in nature.

Thus, there are only two sources for every religion in the world; that is, from natural experience and from divine revelation. This results in there being only two religions in the world; namely, Christianity and everything else. For everything else has a common sense view of spiritual reality that is deduced from the world of nature; the world of our experience.

From nature we deduce that when things are going wrong, God is angry with us and when things are peachy, God is pleased with us. That concept is referred to as living under the Law. It is the unbeliever’s explanation that works make a difference as to how God regards you. If you do what He wants, He rewards you; if you sin, He punishes you.

Paul’s teaching could not possibly have been deduced from an examination of one’s experience as was the false religion of Judaism. Instead, Paul’s teaching was radical to the core as was that of Jesus. One radical notion was that works simply are not part of the equation God uses in deciding who to save and who to keep saved.

How can that be explained? Think about it. Are works part of the equation in making an adopted child part of the family? Of course not. Even when the child is disobedient throughout his whole life, he still receives the inheritance. Behavior has no bearing on whether or not the child/parent relationship is sustained.

What makes the difference from God’s point of view is not sin or sinlessness but unbelief or faith. To go to hell you must be a sinner. To go to heaven you must be a sinner. That’s right. The difference is that those who go to hell are unbelieving sinners while those who go to heaven are believing sinners.

Christ is the end of the law in the sense that no longer can the law be used as a means of salvation as every other religion in the world assumes. Instead, the law is no longer used by the Church inappropriately but appropriately. Common sense under the Law theologians always use the Law inappropriately as a means of salvation. Cross sense under the Gospel theologians use the Law appropriately first to diagnose our need for a Savior and then to clarify the Will of God.

Christians are indeed the only ones who are free to do good works. How so? Because everyone else has to do good works, or else. What Paul received from the LORD is that which we also received from the LORD as the Word of God is preached in its purity and the sacraments administered rightly. For there and only there is the Church.