The climax of the first portion of Paul's narrative does establish that he did not
receive his gospel from a human source, but it does not imply that Paul worked apart from the Jerusalem authorities because he was a rebel or did not agree with them.
To what extent has how we have
received the gospel in the way it has been perpetuated led to us living life to the fullest or becomming trapped by our own choices and actions?
If Africa could have
received the gospel without being circumcised into European Christianity, the call for indigenizing that gospel would not have arisen.
Gaventa concluded that Paul's reference to the revelation of Jesus Christ» in 1.1 5 - 17 is central to the text and places its focus on the manner in which
Paul received his gospel.8 She thus argues that Galatians I and 2 can not be confined to the category of apology.
I have read some commentators suggest that Jesus's exchange with this woman is an occasion where he is being «dark» or «unloving,» but we really do choose how we receive a thing, and I have
never received this gospel story in that negative way.
Stetzer's essay summarized this perfectly when he said «Why block people from
receiving the gospel by insisting that they accept our cultural eccentricities?»
-- God's omniscience allows Him to know who is going to
receive the gospel and who will reject it and thereby sovereign election is preordained.
It can only prepare people to
receive the gospel.
You see, sometimes, blatant sin gets in the way of an unbeliever hearing and
receiving the Gospel, and they need to repent and turn from that sin before they can hear and believe the Gospel.