For the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, the three assigned readings are 1 Kings 17:17-24; Galatians 1:11-24 and Luke 7:11-17. The text for preaching is Galatians 1:12, “For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

Few would disagree with Paul’s point that his knowledge of Christianity did not come from or through human beings but through a special revelation given to him during his three years in Arabia. The point of the sermon is not simply to help the hearer understand the text (Scripture interprets Scripture) but also to apply the text (distinctions between Law and Gospel). The L&G handle would be the key difference between Judaism and true Christianity. Paul considered himself a top notch follower of Judaiam but a persecutor of the Church of God. What is the difference between the two?

It is a difference that Christians still make today as they turn the religion of grace into a religion of obedience. Judaism appeared on the scene around the time of the Babylonian captivity when the temple was replaced with synagogues; priests with rabbis and sacrifices with reading of the Law. As with Judaism today at your neighborhood synagogue, there is a great emphasis on one’s works becoming worthy of salvation. The Pharisee’s prayer of Luke 18 thanked God for not being like the sinner. How sad.

The old Adam within each Christian attempts to make us eat of the forbidden fruit of works righteousness and to regard Jesus as only Example rather than Savior. Some do so by imagining that their frequent attendance in worship, taking the Lord’s Supper and hefty offerings are what pleases God to save us. Of course, all such works are said to be motivated by the Holy Spirit thinking thereby that the charge of doing works out of self-interest would be bypassed. But no such luck.

For Paul, proper preaching of the Law consists of three parts:  God’s demand; it must be perfect and no one can fulfill it. However the Gospel may be in its specificity, it always comes down to this point–What man could not do by the law because we are weak in the flesh, God did and then transferred all the benefits of the cross and empty tomb to the undeserving who receive them by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

The Law is so subtle in its temptation that even the notion that I am well considered in God’s eyes because I know I am a sinner and give all the credit to Jesus becomes a form of legalism. That is why the life of the Christian is not one of increasing goodness but a sense of the need for an increase in repentance. The danger is that we become boastful of our humility and our better understanding of doctrine than other Christians have.

The text is a wonderful opportunity to remind each of us that our conversion was exactly like that of St. Paul’s. A conversion against our sinful will as God transplanted a new heart and a right will on our road to Damascus. A conversion not by man but through the power of the Holy Spirit Himself as He sanctifies us through the Word and keeps us in the one true faith forever and ever.