Paul's Calling Cards

Paul's Calling Cards

Copyright 2024 Joseph Shulam

The book of Galatians is one of the more complex and confusing books in the New Testament. With the Protestant Reformation - Martin Luther and Calvin used the book of Galatians (especially Luther) for their political aspirations. Luther wrote a considerably thick commentary on Galatians, which is not a book of love. It is a commentary that hates everybody. The Muslim, the Jew, the Catholic, the Orthodox - everyone, not Luther's friend, fell into the Galatians commentary.

Luther used passages from the Galatians in his commentary to discredit everyone else who disagreed with him. So what we have inherited in the Protestant world is a very, very twisted interpretation of Galatians that makes Paul into a paranoid schizophrenic.

Galatians chapter 3 says:

"Christ has delivered us from the curse of the Law."

Luther interpreted this verse as most pastors today interpret it, and the scripture is taught in the seminaries - that Christ ended the Law - ended the Torah. There was no more Torah - the churches don't need it. The Law and Torah are something from the past, and they died with Christ on the cross and were never resurrected. Christ was resurrected, but the Law remained dead. In essence, that is the standard interpretation taught in the seminaries, and that is how the attitude toward the Torah has developed in the Christian world.

But the same Apostle Paul, in the book of Romans, which is his major theological work, in Chapter 7:11-12, said the Law is good. The Law is Holy; the Law is righteous and just.

I am a Jew; I am an Israelite. You could sell me a lot of goods, but one thing you cannot sell me is that something good, spiritual, and righteous is a curse. You can't convince me that something that is a curse can be good, spiritual, and righteous from G-d. So, Somebody is wrong.

Somewhere, there is a short in the circuit. If the Apostle Paul is right and the Law is good, just, holy, and spiritual, then whoever interpreted Galatians to say that the Law is a curse made a mistake.

The Church has also made the Messiah, Jesus, a liar. In Matthew 7:17-20, He said,

"I did not come to destroy the Law or prophets. I came to fulfill it, and anyone who teaches anyone of the least of my disciples to break one of the least of the commandments will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven".

The Christian theologian says no, Jesus came to destroy the Law, and He did destroy the Law. We don't need it anymore. We don't need anything. Salvation is all a gift by grace. It is all from G-d. You don't have to do anything but say, "Yes, I received it," and right there on the spot, you get saved and don't have to do anything more in your life. You no longer have to flush the toilet because it is all by grace.

We have made Jesus into a liar. We have made Paul into a person with schizophrenia. One day, he says the Law is good, and the next day, he says the Law is a curse. That is how it has been and continues to be presented by significant people in Christian circles.

Let's go back to Square One. If you are going to read a book - any book - it is always worthwhile to read who the writer is on the back of the cover. It makes a big difference who the writer is. If it is Charlie Brown, you perceive the book differently than F. Scott Fitzgerald. You don't read the book the same way. It depends on who wrote the book.

We need to get to know the Apostle Paul better. We have the good fortune to have his calling card. His calling card appears several times in the New Testament—in the books of Acts, Philippians, and Romans—telling us who he is. What most people know about the Apostle Paul is that his name was Shaul, like King Shaul in Hebrew and Paulos in Latin. And that he was from Tarsus—Paul of Tarsus.

There is much more to the Apostle Paul than this. We also know that he participated in Stephen's execution. Scripture says, "They left their coats with him." He felt guilty about this as later in the book of Romans, he says, "I am the greatest of all sinners, the debtor to all men" just for holding coats.

Imagine holding the hats and coats—he felt so guilty—but that is not the extent of his involvement. Look at some of the calling cards that the Apostle Paul left us so that we can get to know him better. I will take the one from Acts 22 first.

Acts 22 - let me put you back into the scene of what is happening there:

Paul came to Jerusalem in Chapter 21. He arrived in Jerusalem to visit the elders of Jerusalem along with James( probably James, the brother of Jesus, who was one of the church elders in Jerusalem- not James the Apostle. Why not? Because James the Apostle, the son of Zebediah, died in chapter 12. Herod executed him. ) You know that during Jesus' lifetime, his brother was not a believer. None of Jesus' brothers or sisters followed Him, most likely until they saw Him resurrected after they saw Him crucified; his brother James probably became very, very convinced that He was the Messiah, the son of G-d, and became a leader in the Church.

So they meet Paul and seven of his gentile disciples who arrived in Jerusalem. They meet them at the entrance to the city, and each one brags about his ministry. (That is what pastors do.) So Paul tells how much G-d has used him among the Gentiles and all the beautiful things G-d has done among the Gentiles.

James, in Acts 21:20, says look, Brother Saul, you know how many tens of thousands of Jews are believers in Jesus here in this city, and all of them are zealous for the Torah, zealous for the L-rd, but there is a problem. People are Speaking against you, and they Say you are teaching Jews against the Torah and circumcision, and we want you to convince everyone that that is not true - that these rumors are false rumors - that you are not teaching people against the Torah.

So why don't you take these four young men who also took a vow and go to the Temple, pay for their purification, and let everyone see publicly that not only are you in the Temple worshipping G-d and sacrificing in the Temple but that you are also paying for four other people, which shows you didn't teach others against the Torah?

Paul says I'll be glad to do it. Paul goes to the Temple (Chapter 21), and some Jews from Asia Minor recognize him. Please think about this for a minute. Without television or the internet, a person arrives in Jerusalem, and there are Jews in the Temple who are visiting Jerusalem, tourists, and they recognize Paul. That is perplexing. The world is big. In those days, traveling from Asia Minor to Jerusalem was a question of several weeks. It was different today that in 14 or 15 hours, you can fly from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv. It was a big ordeal. But still, Paul was so famous, so well-known that people that came from Ephesus, from Galatia, from Laodosia, from Derby, from Iconium, from Pergamon - from all these cities in Asia Minor - from Athens, from Corinth - when they came as a tourist to Jerusalem they recognize Paul in the Temple. It starts a riot, and Paul is rescued by Roman soldiers sitting in towers around the temple mount. (Around the temple mount, there was a fortress called Antonius, which was the seat of the Roman government.)

Everywhere Paul went - there was a riot. He was just, plainly Spoken, a troublemaker. There are people like that. There are people who, wherever they go, always have trouble, but they are good people. Without people like that - the rest of the world would fall asleep, and without people like that, the rest would get lost. It always takes one fool willing to sacrifice his reputation for the truth and his reputation for God to stir up the pot. Paul was one of these kind of people. Wherever he went, there was always trouble. Paul came from a family like that. He wasn't the only one. As we will explain shortly, his family was also very radical.

So now he is standing there in front of the crowd that is trying to kill him - they want to lynch him - and he is addressing the crowd. Acts 22:1,

"Brethren and fathers, hear my defense before you now."

Already, Paul has something to say.

So here is Paul addressing a hostile crowd. I want you to understand this - he was addressing Jews in the Temple who are not believers (disciples of Jesus), but they are fellow Jews, and he (Paul) says, "Brothers and fathers." Using the term Brothers is okay, but using fathers means he has great respect and honor for them even though they wanted to kill him.

"Hear my defense." When they heard that he spoke to them in the Hebrew language, they kept silent. That is very interesting. Why? Paul was not born in Israel. He was born in a Roman city called Tarsus. (He probably spoke with a New York accent!)

They were shocked that this "immigrant to Israel" could speak to them in Hebrew - and they fell silent. They wanted to hear what he had to say.

I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel."

I can tell you that I, Joseph Shulam, have spoken in many churches since I was 16 years old. My parents kicked me out of my home because I became a believer in Jesus. I ended up in South Georgia and North Florida in the United States and spoke in many churches in South Georgia and Florida. What I was taught to say was that I was a Jew, and now that I believe in Jesus - I became a cocker spaniel - but Paul doesn't say, "I was a Jew, and now I became a Baptist or Presbyterian or Pentecostal or something else." He says I am a Jew - in the present tense, which means - and we will see it further down - that he never stopped being Jewish. He continued being Jewish even though he was an Apostle of Jesus Christ.

"I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city,"

Meaning he was raised in Jerusalem. Being brought up somewhere means that you came as a child—probably with your parents and family—and were raised in that city.

"I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel."

Some assume Gamaliel was maybe a kindergarten or high school teacher for Paul. During those years, Gamaliel was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in Israel, which means that Gamaliel did not educate the Apostle Paul during high school or in undergraduate school at the university. It means that Paul was a lawyer, a rabbi, and a person with legal training because Gamaliel didn't teach knitting. He taught Law.

Here is another caveat that I want you to remember. The Holy Spirit is very, very stingy with words. The Bible is smaller than Tolstoy's War and Peace. Tolstoy's War and Peace is about 20 or 25 percent bigger than the Bible in the number of words and pages that it has. So the Bible deals with a very long history and with many, many writers over many, many centuries, all the way from Moses to the Apostle John. We are talking about the more than 1500 years it took for the Bible to be written. It saves on words.

So when the Bible says Gamaliel, it tells us because it wants us to know who Gamaliel is. We are very fortunate to live in the 21st century because we can Google "Gamaliel" and come up with hundreds - maybe thousands of articles written about "Gamaliel." In the Jewish world, Gamaliel is significant because he was the grandson of Hillel, one of the great rabbis from the BC period (before Jesus). Gamliel rose to Stardom in the AD 20s, becoming Chief Justice, and was Chief Justice of the Sanhedrin of the Supreme Court of Israel for more than 20 years. That was no small honor to be the head of the Supreme Court. Unlike today in the United States, politics and religion were mixed at that time. (They are mixed today, but we are living in denial.)

Paul says, "Gamaliel educated me strictly according to the law of our fathers (Torah) and was zealous for G-d, just as you all are today."

So, what was Paul educated in? He was educated in the Torah, and he was educated in the strictest form of education in the Torah. He is willing to compete with the massive crowd in the Temple to see who is more zealous for G-d's word - for G-d's righteousness. He says I am willing to compete with all of you, being as zealous toward G-d as you are today. He was trying to explain how zealous he was.

"I persecuted this Way to the death, binding and putting both men and women into prisons, as also the high priest and all the Council of the elders (literally the Sanhedrin) can testify. I received letters to the brethren and went to Damascus to bring, in chains, those who were there to Jerusalem to be punished."

This confession alone is already an eye-opener for me.

What does "received letters from the high court" (the Sanhedrin) mean? The Sanhedrin doesn't give letters to just anybody. Please give me a letter. I want to persecute many of these guys out there against me. Please give me a letter; I want to arrest those I don't like in another country with a diplomatic license. People who get letters like that are people who have authority already. They already have some position, recognition, honor, and respect to where the government will send them with soldiers.

Paul didn't go to Damascus by himself. We read in earlier chapters than Acts 26 that Paul went to Damascus with soldiers on horseback going to another country, which meant he was a person of authority – not only well educated, not only a lawyer, but he was probably the District Attorney of Jerusalem of the high courts because only people with that kind of clout, with that kind of position, can go and arrest other people in another country with diplomatic permission and soldiers accompanying them.

A calling card of the Apostle Paul is a man with authority. Now, of course, he would also have enemies when you get to a position like the Apostle Paul was - he was a prosecutor - an executor of the court's judgment. If you are climbing the ladder of success and receiving recognition, Somebody wants to pull you down. The higher you go, the more likely you are to have powerful enemies.

We have a problem, however, as we don't know who those enemies were in the Church, among the believers. We know that Paul had enemies, as recorded in the book of Galatians. It was very clear from the very beginning of the book of Galatians that he had enemies. We are fortunate that Paul recognized those enemies. He answered them several times.

The scripture I like best is from the Philippian Letter, chapter 3. Paul is dealing with some of the problems he and the Church faced. In verse 2, he is an Apostle, full of the holy ghost, a holy man of G-d, and he addresses the people in Philippi and says,

"Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the mutilators of the flesh."

Luther, Calvin, and modern commentaries suggest that Paul talks about Jews here. Jews are the mutilators of the flesh, and he is calling the Jews dogs and evil workers, and they are the ones who do circumcision and mutilate the flesh - not with a sharp knife but with a dull knife. Otherwise, one does not mutilate. A sharp knife cuts and it is over. You must have a dull knife - maybe a serrated one to mutilate something.

Many people read this and assume Paul is talking about his opponents, and his opponents are the Jews. Who else wants to do circumcision? I am going to tell you a secret. There is no Jew in the world that wants to be circumcised. Jews are circumcised when they are eight days old. It is not by their choice. Their parents, their grandparents - they are the ones who choose to circumcise them.

So, Paul is addressing his opponents, and we need to learn more about them. It is like hearing a one-sided conversation on the phone - if you know the person - you can tell what he is talking about and who he is talking to - even by hearing only one side of the conversation.

So, who is Paul talking about? Chapter 3, verse 3 -

"For we are the circumcision who worship G-d in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh."

Notice the tense - he is still talking in the present tense - we are not we were - we are the circumcision. In other words, we are the Jews.

Now, what do we do? We are the circumcision who worship G-d in the Spirit, rejoice in Jesus Christ, and have no confidence in the flesh. Now, if his opponents were saying the opposite of his answer, if he was answering his opponents, what were the opponents saying?

No, you Jews, the circumcision, are not the ones worshipping G-d in the Spirit. You Jews, the circumcision, are not walking in confidence in Jesus Christ. You Jews are not confident in the Spirit but in the flesh. Because if that is the answer Paul is giving his opponents, the mirror image of that has to be the question. Right?

Paul distinguishes whom he speaks of in all his letters by the pronouns he uses, which are essential.

When Paul says "we," = the Jewish believers, the Jewish disciples of Jesus.

When Paul says "you" = the non-Jewish disciples of Jesus.

It is valid in all his letters, and paying attention to the pronouns is very important. If you pay attention to the pronouns, you will know who Paul is talking about, and second, you are not going to be a Calvinist. Those who are Calvinists, especially in Ephesians 1, "We were predestined." If you pay attention to the pronouns, who is the "we," you will see that he is not talking about the non-Jews in the Church. You will be resolved from having a reformed theology.

In Galatians, Paul also says "we," referring to the Jewish believers. We are the circumcision who worship G-d in the Spirit, rejoicing in Yeshua Ha Mashiach in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh.

What does it mean to "have confidence in the flesh"? It says, "Though I wanted to, if I wanted to compete with you, then I could have confidence in the flesh." I have something to show for being a Jew.

Paul begins to tell you what he has to show for being a Jew. He says,

"I was circumcised on the eighth day."

This statement means that his opponents were not circumcised on the eighth day. If I tell another Jew I was circumcised on the eighth day, what is he going to say? What is the big deal? I was also circumcised on the eighth day. It doesn't say anything. I was circumcised on the eighth day also.

Then he says, "circumcised on the eighth day of the stock of Israel."

Fine. I am a Jew. You are a Jew. You could be a Levite. I could be from the tribe of Benjamin or the tribe of Judah.

We are all the stock of Israel. Our race is Israel. Our people are Israel. However, if you are Greek or Sicilian or Syrian and you convert to Judaism, then you are not circumcised on the eighth day, and you could be Jewish, but you are not going to be an Israelite.

Paul is talking to people who converted to Judaism who were circumcised but not on the eighth day, and they are not Israelites. And he says I am from the tribe of Benjamin. If you are Irish and you convert to Judaism, what tribe are you in? You are not from the tribe of Benjamin Judah or Levi? When he states, "I am an Israelite; I am from the tribe of Benjamin," automatically, his opponents are not. Because otherwise, the argument has no force. It has no discussion.