BUILDING A GOOD RESUME'
GALATIANS 1:10-24
INTRODUCTION
How important is a good resume'? Some would say a good resume' is very important in landing a good job. Classes are given and programs written on how to compose a good resume'. Now what does a resume' do? A resume' tells who you are. It tells about your family. It may contain your philosophy on some matter. It gives pertinent background information so that the prospective employer can get to know you better. It will show you work experience. It may tell what hobbies and interests you have. It usually includes references that are work related as well as character references. This way a prospective employer can check you out to see what kind of person you really are. A resume' is very important. The way we build this resume' is through a lifetime of experience. One continues to add to this resume' as they work different places and involve themselves in different activities. We are never finished with our resume' until we die or quit working.
The Christian is also in the process of building a resume' in the spiritual sense. Paul was in the process of building his resume' for God. He tells us in these verses how to build a good resume'. Paul had to appeal to his resume' because the Judaizers were attacking his credentials as an apostle. They accused him of nullifying the Mosaic ceremonies, standards and practices. He was watering down the gospel message to make it more attractive to the Gentiles. He was telling the Gentiles they did not need to obey the Mosaic traditions and ceremonies anymore. What Paul was teaching was accurate, but not in the eyes of those who tried to bind Christians under the yoke of the ceremonial law again. Many of the Galatians were listening to the Judaizers. Some began to doubt the legitimacy of Paul's apostolicity. Some of the Jewish believers still harbored prejudice against the Gentiles which made it easier for them to listen to the Judaizers. Perhaps they were looking for any reason not to accept the Gentiles. They were God's elect. In these verses, Paul presents clear evidence that refutes the accusations made against him.
In light of this, how is it that we build a good resume'?
I. DO NOT BE A PEOPLE PLEASER
Paul made it evident to the Galatians that he was not in this business to please humanity but rather God. There was a time when he tried to please people, but he did not now. The time when he did try to please people was when he persecuted the Christians to please his fellow Jews. This was before he met the risen Lord on the Damascus Road. This was a past part of his life. Jesus created in him a new heart with new desires.
Paul's current goal was to please God. He had tried to do this since his conversion experience on the Damascus Road. Since that episode in his life, he taught and lived a different way. Evidently, he is now accused of being a people pleaser. This was a preposterous accusation. He surrendered his life entirely to Jesus. At the end of this epistle, he will remind his readers: “For I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus.” Some of these marks he received in Galatia. It was in the city of Lystra that he was stoned and left for dead. Paul was a martyr for God.
Now people pleasers are not martyrs by nature. People pleasers try their best to escape ridicule and trouble, but Paul did not run from conflict. He did not run from ridicule by his own people. Paul's first purpose was to please God not people. A part of pleasing Christ was rebuking those who taught that salvation comes by works. Such a teaching detracted from the gospel message of grace through Jesus Christ. If Paul has to offend some to stand for the truth of God's word, he would. And he did. He deeply offended those Judaizers who tried to bind the people under the yoke of the law again.
By nature, we want to please others. There are not many people, I suppose, who enjoy conflict with other people. Now to be sure, there are some agitators, but I think they would be in the minority. Most people want others to like them. Most people I believe are striving for unity. They want to be accepted and liked by others. But there comes a point where we must draw the line. If pleasing others means we must contradict or compromise the doctrines of God's word, we must stand for the truth of God's Word. We can be people pleasers to a certain extent- and have to to function in this world, but there is a line we cannot cross lest we offend God, and it is much worse to offend him than other individuals. We must remember that even Jesus himself could not please everyone. In fact, they crucified him because of what he taught.
I think of the church of God at this point. Many types of people from different walks of life, from different backgrounds and with different personalities make up God's churches. It is a challenge indeed to try to work together for the best interest of the church without our own personalities, attitudes and prejudices getting in the way. It is our responsibility to work together to a point. The point we cannot cross to please others is compromising the word of God. We can and must on many occasions agree to disagree without being disagreeable unless it involves compromising the doctrines of God's Word. At that point, we must take a stand.
II. SPEAK GOD'S MESSAGE NOT YOUR OWN
God gave Paul the message he preached. It did not come from humans. Paul is saying; “Let me make it perfectly clear. The gospel I preach is not human either in nature or in authority. I did not invent it or alter it, nor did any other person.” His message was divine in origin. Had Paul preached a message with an origin in humanity it would have been a message of works. That was the message the Judaizers were preaching. A person had to work for their salvation. They had to obey traditions and ceremonies now outdated by the work of Christ. Paul preached a message of grace and peace through faith in Jesus Christ.
The reason man's message is often one of works is because of pride. We must prove we are superior to the next person by way of comparison. If I do more, that makes me a better person. In our sinful state, the message of God, which says that we experience God's love freely through faith in his Son, offends us. Our pride makes us want to do something, but it is nothing we can do to receive this salvation other than freely believe. We cannot earn it through faithful attendance to God's church, through church membership, through a vital prayer life, through good deeds shown to others or in any other way. God gives it freely to those who place their faith in him.
This instruction to speak God's message was especially directed at the Judaizers who thought they were speaking God's message but really were not. Their message came mostly from rabbinical traditions. Their theology, standards and ceremonies had roots in the Old Testament, but they had so diluted and distorted them by their traditions and interpretations that the Judaism of the New Testament was largely received from man and not God. Scripture for them was a religious relic not something that deserved serious study or obedience. For the most part, what they tried to live by was man-made traditions. Many of these traditions contradicted Scripture. This is proven by the reinterpretation Jesus had to do during his earthly ministry. You will remember that many of his strongest rebukes were for the religious leaders not the common sinners.
Paul himself was caught up in this at one time. He was trained at the rabbinical schools. He was a Pharisee trained according to the strictest sect of the Jewish religion. Since meeting the risen Savior, he had discarded all of this for true religion that pleased God. Paul had reason to boast of his Jewish accomplishments, but he did not anymore because God showed him the error of his ways. He now counted all this as rubbish.
Paul's new found freedom came by way of revelation from Jesus Christ. A revelation is an unveiling of something that was previously secret. Now Paul knew of Jesus. It was precisely this reason that he went about persecuting those who followed him. He knew Jesus dispensed with the rabbinical traditions and ceremonies. All of this changed, however, when he met the risen Lord. When he met him, God removed that veil of spiritual ignorance.
If we are to build a good resume', we must speak God's message not our own. God's message is that we must believe in his Son who has paid for our sins on Calvary's cross. From that point, we must live for him by obeying his commands. Now to be sure, there are many differences about some things among God's people. If we all believed the exact same thing, there would only be one denomination. In spite of the minor differences among us, all Protestant denominations believe that faith in Jesus Christ is the way to salvation. This is God's message that we must speak.
Tradition can be good but it can also be deadly. It was deadly in the sense that the Judaizers were teaching it. To depend on works at the expense of the grace of God destroyed the message of the New Testament. In speaking the message of God, we must make sure it is his message and not our own or one passed on by tradition. We must make sure we have not interpreted the Word of God to suit our own attitudes or prejudices. It must be God's message not ours. And we must admit that sometimes our beliefs are colored by traditions that have been passed on to us by parents, other relatives, or misinformed teachers.
III. PROVE YOUR CONVERSION
Paul did not prove his conversion by anything in his previous lifestyle. Paul was a diligent persecutor of God's church and Christians. His life before conversion centered in the law and tradition. Being indoctrinated by such a background caused him and many other Jews to lose sight of God's grace. He and they trusted their own works. He tried to destroy God's church. He determined to extinguish the church of God. He advanced in the teaching of Judaism far beyond many of his contemporaries. He was blazing the trail in Judaism. In the process, he was cutting down any-especially the Jewish Christians, who got in his way of interpreting God's word.
Not until Christ in his resurrected form confronted Paul on the Damascus Road did he change. Nothing human could explain the total turn around he made. Only the grace of God could account for that, not works. God enabled him to regain control of his life. From that point on, he set out to prove his conversion. A call to service accompanied his transformation.
After spending some time with the apostles at Damascus, he went to Arabia where he prepared for the ministry. From here, he returned to Damascus. After this entire period of about three years, Paul went to Jerusalem. Here he met some of the apostles. From Jerusalem, he went to Syria and Cilicia.
Because of his background, we can well understand why it was difficult for the early believers to accept the conversion of Paul. They thought he was faking in order to arrest them. Paul had to prove his conversion to them. Paul did not preach a gospel of works, but he largely proved his conversion through good works and a continuance in the work of God.
We too build our resume' by proving our conversion to others. We speak all the good words we want, but it is our actions that prove to others who we are. Some today have trouble trusting Christians. Perhaps they have known professing Christians whom they feel let them down through some immoral or unethical actions. This happens. This is why we must try to diligently prove our new birth to others. We must be consistent and holy in our behavior that others might see the love of Christ through us.
CONCLUSION
I wonder tonight what kind of resume' you have built and are building. A good resume' for the Christian tells about their past, present and future. Make sure you never compromise God's teachings to please people. Always speak God's message not your own. Finally, prove your conversion to others.
