In Galatians 1:16 Christ is presented as the One revealed in the apostle. When Saul of Tarsus, on his way to Damascus to bind those who call upon the Lord’s name, was opposing Christ and persecuting the churches, Christ appeared to him. When Christ met him there, he saw Christ, was captured by the appearing of Christ, and became Paul the apostle. Years after his conversion, the apostle declared in Galatians 1:15-16 that it pleased God to reveal His Son in him. Here Paul did not say that Christ revealed Himself to him but that the Father in His pleasure revealed Christ into Paul. This revelation was not merely an outward vision but an inward seeing. Paul had an inner vision of Christ; inwardly he began to see Christ. This inner vision made him and qualified him to be an apostle in order that he might present the very Christ who had been revealed in him, rather than merely teaching doctrines and theology according to a certain religion.
In 1:11-12 Paul says, “I make known to you, brothers, concerning the gospel announced by me, that it is not according to man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation by Jesus Christ.” These verses reveal that Paul’s gospel was not taught by man, that man was not the source of his gospel, and that he received a marvelous revelation of the gospel directly from the Lord Himself.
The apostle received the gospel through the revelation of Christ. Here the revelation of Christ does not refer merely to a revelation received through Jesus Christ or to the revelation concerning Christ. Rather, it refers to the person of Christ, who was revealed in the apostle. Paul received the gospel through such a personal revelation. Revelation is the opening of the veil in order to show something hidden from view. One day God opened the veil to Paul, and he immediately saw the revealed Christ.
The gospel that the apostle received through the revelation of Christ is the center of God’s revelation in the New Testament (Rom. 1:1, 9). Paul’s gospel is a revelation of the Triune God processed to become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; Gal. 3:2, 5, 14). His gospel is centered on the Triune God being our life in order to be one with us and to make us one with Him so that we may be the Body of Christ to express Christ in a corporate way (Rom. 8:11; 12:4-5; Eph. 1:22-23). The focal point of Paul’s gospel is God Himself in His Trinity becoming the processed all-inclusive Spirit to be life and everything to us for our enjoyment so that He and we may be one to express Him for eternity (Gal. 4:4, 6; 3:13-14, 26-28; 6:15).
Christ, a living person, is the focus of Paul’s gospel. Hence, the book of Galatians is emphatically Christ-centered. Christ was crucified to redeem us out of the curse of the law and rescue us out of the present evil religious course of the world (3:1, 13; 1:4, 15-16). Christ was resurrected from the dead that He might live in us (v. 1; 2:20). We were baptized into Christ, being identified with Him, and we have put on Christ, clothing ourselves with Him; thus, we are in Christ and have become of Him (3:27-29; 5:24). Christ has been revealed in us, He is now living in us, and He will be formed in us (1:16; 2:20; 4:19). To Christ the law has conducted us, and in Christ we are all sons of God (3:24, 26). In Christ we inherit God’s promised blessing and enjoy the all-inclusive Spirit (v. 14). In Christ we all are one (v. 28). We should not be deprived of all profit from Christ and thus be separated, severed, from Him (5:4). We need Christ to supply us with grace in our spirit that we may live Him (6:18). God’s desire is that His chosen people receive His Son into them; this is the gospel (1:15-16; 2:20; 4:19).
In Galatians 1:15 and 16a Paul says, “It pleased God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me.” The Son of God, as the embodiment and expression of God the Father (John 1:18; 14:9-11; Heb. 1:3), is life to us (John 10:10; 1 John 5:12; Col. 3:4). God’s heart’s desire is to reveal His Son in us that we may know Him, receive Him as our life (John 17:3; 3:16), and become the sons of God (1:12; Gal. 4:5-6). As the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16), He is far superior to Judaism and its traditions (Gal. 1:13-14). The Judaizers had bewitched the Galatians into considering that the ordinances of the law were above the Son of the living God. Hence, in the opening of this Epistle the apostle testified that he had been deeply involved and had become far advanced in the realm of Judaism, but that God had rescued him out of that course of the world, which was evil in God’s eyes, by revealing His Son in him. In his experience he realized that there was no comparison between the Son of the living God and Judaism with its dead traditions handed down from his forefathers.