Is the gospel just a human idea?

No. In Galatians 1:11-24, the Apostle Paul says the good news he preached did not come from any person and was not something he made up. It came straight from Jesus Christ. In this study, Dr. Toby Holt shows why the source of the gospel changes everything.

Paul’s critics tried to discredit his message by attacking him. They claimed he was a second-rate apostle who learned the gospel secondhand. Paul answers with his own story. After God changed his life, he did not rush off to be trained by the other apostles. He spent years away, and only later met Peter briefly. His deep grasp of the truth could only have come from God. Holt compares it to suddenly being able to lecture on a subject you never studied — the only explanation would be a miracle.

Questions this study answers:

1. Where did Paul’s message come from? Paul says plainly that he did not receive the gospel from any person and was not taught it by men. It came directly from Jesus Christ, which is why no one had the right to change it.

2. Why did people attack Paul instead of his message? When people do not like what is being said, they often attack the speaker. Paul’s opponents called him unqualified so that people would stop listening to the truth.

3. What is “another gospel,” and why is it so serious? “Another gospel” is any message that adds human rules to faith in Jesus. Paul says it is not good news at all, because anything that changes the gospel destroys it.

“But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.” — Galatians 1:11-12 (NKJV)

Speaker: Dr. Toby Holt is the President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, a Reformed seminary in Colorado Springs. He is known for clear, down-to-earth Bible teaching, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio.

Listen and go deeper: This is Part 2 of the ten-part Galatians study. Find the whole series, along with verse-by-verse studies of other books of the Bible, at newgeneva.org. To support this teaching ministry, visit newgeneva.org/give.