A Message Directly From Jesus.

¹⁰ Now am I trying to win the favor of men, or of God? Do I seek to please men? If I were still seeking popularity with men, I should not be a bond servant of Christ (the Messiah).

¹¹ For I want you to know, brethren, that the Gospel which was proclaimed and made known by me is not man’s gospel [a human invention, according to or patterned after any human standard].

¹² For indeed I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but [it came to me] through a [direct] revelation [given] by Jesus Christ (the Messiah).
Galatians 1:10-12 AMPC

Paul is writing this letter to the believers in Galatia to defend the gospel of grace against a mixed-message of law and grace. Religious people must have been accusing him, saying that he was preaching grace because it’s what people want to hear… but Paul defended himself and his message saying that the good news which he shared was what he received directly from Jesus! 

Paul hadn’t received the message of the gospel from other apostles; it wasn’t something he had read in a book or anything – the gospel that Paul preached, he received directly from Jesus Christ. I know that Paul didn’t walk with Jesus during his earthly ministry, but Paul encountered the resurrected Christ (Acts 9:3-19) while he was going about persecuting the church. After Paul (at the time he was known as Saul) encountered Jesus and became a believer, he spent three years in the Arabian desert (Acts 1:17) where he received revelation from the Spirit concerning Jesus and His gospel.

In the opening chapter of Galatians Paul is showing how he is called by God (Galatians 1:1) and that His message is authored by God (Galatians 1:12), and therefore it is in the readers best interest to take heed to what he is writing and follow it. And in a nutshell, Paul is saying that we cannot add to the finished work of Jesus. No ritual, religious practice or good deeds can save us or make us right with God;  only faith in Jesus counts.