“I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is throwing you into confusion, whoever that may be, will have to pay the penalty. 11 Brothers and sisters, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. 12 As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” (Galatians 5 v 10-12)
How does he know? How is he so sure that these people will in the end not turn their back on the gospel and follow the false teachers who are insisting on circumcision and adherence to the Torah? He is confident they won’t. This isn’t the first time.
Romans 8:38. How has he become convinced that nothing will separate us from God’s love?
Romans 14:14. How has he become convinced that people need time and freedom to journey at their own pace with God?
Romans 15:14. He is convinced they are full of goodness, again how?
Phil 2:24. He is confident he will visit but where does that confidence come from?
The answer to all of this is his relationship with Jesus. It is his prayer life with Jesus. We have read earlier in Galatians 1:11-12, “I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.” In that place Paul received a conviction, a confidence and a persuasion from the Spirit that the Galatians will not buckle and give way to the false teachers but that they will hold to the grace of the gospel.
That’s one of the ways Paul is convinced. The other is clearly his commitment to studying the Old Testament. We have already seen how this letter is heavily influenced by Isaiah 44-66 and the major story of the Bible that of Abraham and Sarah, in fact there are 14 clear references lifted from the Old Testament Scriptures.
But perhaps one more thing to ponder. This confidence doesn’t mean he sits back and does nothing. In fact this confidence ‘in the Lord’ means that God will do this through Paul’s writing to them. God is going to use Paul so that the Galatians, ‘will take no other view’. That’s how Paul knows stuff!
He knows what the Lord is going to do because he has been talking to Him about it and he has been reading his Bible! He also knows what he can do in this situation, he can write and he knows that is the way God is going to do this work amongst His people.
How did Paul know stuff? Through prayer, the Scriptures and his availability to be used by the Lord. Nothing has changed. It is still a wonderful method to life.
Missions Paul 