These four books that are arranged together in our New Testament-Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians-are the heart of God’s revelation. They tell us that Christ and the church are the focal point of the divine revelation. The Apostle Paul, through whom this mystery has been revealed, tells us that until the New Testament economy this mystery was hidden in God (Eph. 1:9).
What is it that hinders our seeing this mystery, even though it has been fully revealed?
The first hindrance is religion, which is what Paul deals with in Galatians. When the Lord Jesus came, there was among the Jewish people a religion, not pagan, but one formed and established according to God’s word. The basic element of the Jewish religion was the law, which was given by God. In addition, there were the traditions made by man. This religion, with its God-given law and its man-made traditions, was the strongest opponent to the Lord Jesus and His ministry.
Later, when the apostles went forth to preach the gospel, most of their opposition came from these same Jewish religionists, not from the heathen. It was in order to preserve the traditions inherited from their fathers and the law given by God that these Judaizers tried their hardest to resist the evangelists and the gospel they preached.
One of their number, an aggressive, offensive young man named Saul of Tarsus, was heading one day for Damascus, intending to bring back the disciples of Jesus who were there, to Jerusalem to be punished. Such was his intention, and he was proceeding on his way to carry it out. Yes, he did have the freedom to make up his mind to do this; but to bring it about was not up to him. His mission was interrupted by a heavenly Visitor! Falling to the earth, Saul addressed this One from the heavens as Lord: “Who art thou, Lord?” (Acts 9:5). The answer was, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” Saul thought he was persecuting the disciples of Jesus; now he found out that he had been persecuting Jesus Himself.
On that day something happened to Saul not only outwardly, but also inwardly. Outwardly he was knocked down and blinded by the brightness of the light. But from Galatians 1 we can see that something happened inwardly as well. He tells us, “I persecuted the church of God excessively and ravaged it; and I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries in my race, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers” (Gal. 1:13-14). He was doing well in his religious zeal, when God came in. “It pleased God,” he tells us, “to reveal His Son in me” (vv. 15-16). Inwardly a vision was imparted to him.
What was the vision? It was Christ versus religion. Religion is the highest invention of human culture. Yet Christ stands in opposition to it. Christ is against the law and against tradition. He has nothing to do with religion. Through all these centuries since then, this battle between Christ and religion has been going on. Religion hates Christ. If you hold on to your religion, you miss Christ. If you cherish Christ, religion hates you.
Saul of Tarsus was snatched out of religion by Christ. While he was surpassing his contemporaries in religious zeal, Christ not only laid hold of him but also imparted His life to him.
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