Galatians 1:11-12

I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up.

(v11, NIV)

The gospel Paul preaches is not made up by man. There are all sorts of things that men make up. Of course there are all sorts of stories and creative things our imagination can think of. There are also all sorts of lies and fibs people think up to try to get them out of a pickle. More importantly, there are other types of religions or "gospels" that men make up. A few verses ago Paul is warning those at the church in Galatia about people who preach a different gospel. The distinction is that any of those other gospels are made up by men. Even when they take the true gospel of Christ and change it slightly, that is a working of man and not God.

I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

(v12, NIV)

What's interesting is that Paul did not receive the gospel from a person. Paul was preached to directly by Jesus himself. On the road to Damascus, as he was on his way to persecute Christians, Jesus appeared to him. Now Paul is working up to tell about his life before and after he was converted. Though Paul is converted directly through Jesus, this isn't how everyone is converted. By this I mean that us as Christians have a part to play in spreading the gospel to others, even though it wasn't someone like Peter or John who preached to Paul. I say this because sometimes the awesome work of God causes me to be lazy in thinking that I don't really have a part to play. I may take Paul's example and assume that everyone is converted without someone like me preaching to them. I may think that Jesus is going to speak directly to each of them without my help or any other Christian for that matter. However, this is an incorrect thinking. It is true that it can happen as it did with Paul. However, we still have a duty to spread the gospel.

At the same time, I must backtrack and acknowledge that God is the one who does the heavy lifting.

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

(1 Corinthians 3:6-7, NIV)

God is the one who causes the growth. We still have to plant and we still have to water. However, without God, there would be no growth no matter how much we watered or planted.