GALATIANS 1:11-12
I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

The Judaizers' strategy for subverting the gospel seems to include an attack on Paul's authority and credibility. One possible accusation is that Paul in fact preaches circumcision among the Jews, but exempts the Gentiles from this requirement in order to appease them and gather disciples (see 1:10 and 5:11). Along with this, the Judaizers probably claim to represent Jerusalem, and that Paul himself received his understanding of the gospel from there, so that his theology and ministry are derivative of and subordinate to the mother church. Therefore, Paul begins his reply by asserting the divine origin and the independence of his message. That is, he denies human invention in the content of his preaching, and denies human instruction as the method of his learning.

He writes, "I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ," or literally, "through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (ESV, NASB). This can refer to Christ as the content of what is revealed or to Christ as the revealer of the content of the gospel. The grammar permits both meanings, and both are true in Paul's life.

The first possibility is often favored because several verses later, he says, "God…was pleased to reveal his Son in me." This would make the statement an expansion and explanation of what is meant by "through a revelation of Jesus Christ." So God is the revealer, and Christ is the content of God's revelation to Paul. Indeed, the Father is the one who makes known the person of Christ and the veracity of the gospel to those whom he has chosen to save (Matthew 16:17; John 6:44). However, it is not clear that verses 15-16 are related in such a manner to verse 12, or that they can restrict verse 12 to this meaning, so that "through a revelation of Jesus Christ" is equated with "to reveal his Son in me." The verses would remain true and meaningful, and consistent with one another, even if these phrases are not equated in this way.

If the second meaning is intended, so that Christ is the revealer, then Paul may have in mind the incident in Acts 9, when Christ appeared to him, converted him, and commissioned him to preach the gospel. We must realize that biblical narratives are summaries, so that Acts 9 records only those portions of the encounter that are relevant to the context – the full conversation between Christ and Paul could have been much more extensive. We know this because when Paul later relates the same experience in Acts 26, Christ's commission to him is much more descriptive and theologically rich. It even includes the idea that God's people are "sanctified by faith" in Christ (v. 15-18), a point that has much to do with Galatians. Doubtless these additional details are included because they are relevant to the context of Acts 26 and to what Paul is communicating to King Agrippa.

In addition, even if Paul is referring to only one instance of revelation, it will help us to better appreciate the development of his theology and ministry by noting that he continues to receive many visions and revelations throughout his life. In fact, Paul's role is partly defined in such a manner. Ananias said to him, "The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth" (Acts 22:14). This part of what Ananias said to Paul is not included in Acts 9, and we do not find out about it until Acts 22, again illustrating that biblical narratives and dialogues are almost always abbreviated, relating only those portions that are relevant to the immediate context and purpose.

Paul has been chosen to see Christ and to hear from him. Visions and revelations are thus not incidental to his calling, but are explicitly and prominently specified in his "job description," so to speak. Indeed, we see that the vision in Acts 9 is just the first of numerous subsequent ones. Acts 18:9 says, "One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision," and gave him encouragement and instruction. Keep in mind that this could be an abbreviated description of a much longer conversation. In Acts 22:17-22, Paul relates a conversation that he had with Christ while he was praying at the temple. The passage takes less than a minute to read, but it could refer to a very lengthy session. Acts 23:11 says, "The following night the Lord stood near Paul" and gave him encouragement and direction. Again, this is only one verse in the Bible, but the nature of biblical narratives requires us to think that it could have lasted much longer than the time that it takes to read about it.

Paul's experiences were not limited to visions and revelations from Christ. In Acts 16:9-10, he receives a vision in which a man begged him to visit Macedonia. In Acts 27:23-24, he says that an angel appeared to him and gave him assurance about his journey. Then, in 2 Corinthians 12:1-6, he relates an experience in which he was "caught up to the third heaven…to paradise," where "he heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell."

So here is what we can gather about this aspect of Paul's spiritual life. First, he was explicitly called to see and hear the resurrected Christ. Second, the Bible records numerous instances of him seeing and hearing Christ. Third, it is certain that at least some of these records are greatly abbreviated accounts of the actual events. Fourth, besides visions of Christ, Paul experienced other kinds of visions and revelations numerous times, including a visit to heaven. Fifth, he states that he tends to refrain from relating these experiences "so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say" (2 Corinthians 12:6). Sixth, in light of what we have established so far, it is reasonable to assume that the Bible records only a small fraction of the total number of Paul's visions. Finally, and this also reinforces the previous point, while discussing the matter of visions, he describes his own life as one characterized by "surpassingly great revelations," the frequency and magnitude of which were such that he was given a "thorn in the flesh" to keep him from becoming conceited (2 Corinthians 12:7).

Putting all of this together, it would be almost an understatement to say that Paul was granted one of the most spectacular prophetic ministries in biblical history. In fact, it is possible that he was unsurpassed by anyone in the quantity, length, and depth of his visions and revelations, and in his direct encounters with the Lord. It is possible, and very probable, that the time that Christ spent with Paul in visions could add up to many hours. Given what we have established above, this conclusion is far from a mere speculation.

Christ was very fond of teaching people prior to his crucifixion. And after his resurrection, he did not appear to his disciples only several seconds or several minutes at a time, but he spent hours and hours with them, teaching them, even eating with them. On the road to Emmaus, he walked along with two disciples and "explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself" (Luke 24:27). The way this event is described seems to indicate that it lasted for a number of hours. Again, given what we have established about Paul's experiences, it is not far-fetched to think that Christ taught this apostle in a similar manner. As we noted, even in his initial appearance to Paul, he told him that God's people are "sanctified by faith" (Acts 26:18).

Some might find it strange that Christ would dedicate an extraordinary amount of time to speak to someone in visions after his ascension, but nothing in Scripture rules this out. Nevertheless, perhaps this is why Paul writes, "…and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born" (1 Corinthians 15:8). Besides, later he appeared to the apostle John and dictated seven letters to him. Surely that must have taken more than several minutes. In any case, the amount of time spent is not the crucial factor, but it is the amount of information conveyed. Some other mode of communication could have been used so that a large amount of information was passed from one to the other in an instant.

And this is what we wish to emphasize with Paul's visions and revelations – regardless of their duration, they were so extensive in content that he must be considered nothing less than a direct and personal disciple of the Lord. Moreover, as an apostle, what he did not receive by visions from the Lord, he understood by inspiration from the Spirit. Thus his gospel is not "something that man made up." And in light of this, whatever he heard from man previous to his conversion, his theological development certainly did not depend on any man.

This, by the way, counters the notion that Paul was the real founder of Christianity, and that he preached a different religion than what Christ preached. No, Paul was directly taught and trained by Christ. He preached the same message that Christ preached, and the message that Christ told him to preach. In connection with the previous passage (1:6-10), this reinforces the fact that to turn away from the gospel that Paul preached is to turn away from the God who established and revealed it. To reject the message is to reject the person.

Here, then, is a controlling principle for sound theology. Any interpretation of Scripture that supposes a merely human origin for Paul's message is a denial of reality. Any interpretation of Scripture that generates disagreement between Christ and Paul must be in error. And any interpretation of Scripture that assumes a lower authority for the words of Paul as compared to the words of Christ must also be false. This, of course, does not suggest that Paul in himself was equal with Christ, but that Paul was so submitted, taught, and trained by Christ and inspired by the Spirit that his words came from Christ, and are equivalent to the words of Christ.

There are some professing believers who claim to affirm the divine inspiration of Scripture, but then fail to acknowledge this point, although it necessarily follows from the doctrine. Occasionally, a Christian might hesitate to accept or even challenge portions of the New Testament because, after all, they are the words of Paul and not of Christ. This is often used to resist Paul's teachings regarding sin, judgement, the role of women in marriage and ministry, among others. But this is a slap in God's face. Paul was Christ's authorized and inspired messenger. To reject him is to reject the one who sent him.

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