REVELATION OF JESUS

Something significant happens within our hearts when we can say with the apostle Paul, “the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin; for I did not receive it from a human source, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11-12). The ways he mentions are the common and accustomed ways of learning something: receiving it from someone, taught to us by someone. But he adds that the gospel he received was not of human origin, therefore a human could not deliver it and he followed this by saying he got it “by revelation.” A revelation is an unveiling, a disclosure or a revealing, and in this case is a divine disclosure. He received it directly from the Lord.

Prior to this revelation, Paul was a strict, vicious, religious Pharisee in Judaism, and as he says, “advanced beyond many others” (1:14), trying to persecute and destroy the followers of Jesus. Upon his conversion to Christ and his release from religion, he became a new man with a new heart. He came to this decision—to please God or to please men. He asks rhetorically, “Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).

Something significant happens when we have a revelation of Jesus Christ. We serve God and not people, we serve God and not religion—we go from man-pleaser to Father-pleaser…that’s what happens.

“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.” Jesus