But when God, who set me apart [even] from my mother's womb, and called [me] by his grace,
Paul is defending where his gospel came from. He traces it past his training and his teachers, back to God's own pleasure before he was born — and then to the grace that stopped him while he was still fighting Christ.
Older translations open the verse, "But when it pleased God." Paul's new life and his message both trace back to one source:
Notice first how directly and solemnly he refers everything to the supreme will and power of God. "It pleased God." Here we listen to the voice of the new creature acknowledging its Maker and giving Him glory. As a Christian apostle and minister of God, both he himself and his teaching are distinctly "of God."
Some translations read "separated me from my mother's womb." A servant's life before faith is not wasted ground:
Jeremiah 1:5 and Galatians 1:15-16 show that God marks out and calls His servants even before they are born. In view of this He shapes the vessel for His purposes and arranges all the circumstances of his later life. God designs everything he passes through to prepare and train him for his divine calling in life. This is so even while he may still be unconverted, and may not yet know his heavenly calling.
The verse names two acts, not one. The second is the greater:
He shows that it was God who called him away from the law. The Galatians were beginning to take up that law again. When Paul was in the very middle of it, he was an enemy of Christ. It pleased God to separate him from his mother's womb. But to call him, he insists, was much more; this call was of grace.
What Paul was set apart from mattered to readers who were slipping back into law-keeping:
Three steps in Paul's history are plainly marked for us. First, God set him apart even before his birth. Then He called him by the grace of the gospel. Third, God revealed His Son in him, so that He might be the theme of his testimony among the nations. Paul was born of the purest Hebrew stock. Even so, he needed to be set apart as much as if he had been a pagan. God set him apart from his Judaism — a point of much importance to the Galatians.
The call came to a man who was hunting Christians at the time:
A short time before, he had been a persecutor. He had advanced in Judaism beyond many others of his own age and nation. Now sovereign grace lays hold of him, while he is at his most active against the name of the Lord. He becomes an apostle sent directly by the Lord to the Gentiles, sent by a glorified Jesus.
That timing exposes what all his religious effort had really been:
The words are an open confession. For years he had given himself to hard work, to eager learning, and to loyalty to the Jews' religion. All of it was only an empty (though ignorant) effort to block the purpose of God. His will was set against God's, while he no doubt persuaded himself that the stronger his will, the more he pleased God.
God's choice of vessel fits the message the vessel would carry:
God's sovereignty in the choice of the vessel is strikingly seen. Who was more suitable to write the letter to the Galatians? Who was better fitted to press justification by faith alone, apart from works? Who better fitted to pour contempt on the first man and all his efforts to be righteous? Who was better fitted to show the believer's complete deliverance from law? Could a converted tax collector do it as well?
The verse is not a special case reserved for apostles:
God has spoken in this world, and He is still speaking. He has spoken of the Son, and He still speaks only of Him. This had a captivating effect on the apostle. We may not be up to it, but in our measure we too should know what we are separated to. The word saint which we bear says that we are separated. The same grace that separated the apostle has separated us.
- Pleasure. It starts with God's own pleasure. Paul traces everything back to God's supreme will, not to his training or his choice.
- Providence. God set him apart before birth. He then shaped Paul's whole unconverted life to fit the work ahead.
- Call. Being set apart before birth was much. The call by grace was much more, and it came while he was still fighting the name of the Lord.
- Purpose. He was set apart from his own religion, needing that as much as any pagan did. He was set apart for the message of justification by faith alone.
- You. The word saint means separated. The same grace that separated Paul separates every believer.
was pleased to reveal his Son in me, that I may announce him as glad tidings among the nations, immediately I took not counsel with flesh and blood,
Paul is defending where his gospel came from. God stepped into the life of a man who was destroying the church, and sent him out with a message. Two questions run through the verse. What did God reveal? And why did Paul then consult no one?
Saul could give only one reason for that meeting on the Damascus road.
It was all grace. Paul had done nothing to earn such a meeting as that on the Damascus road. Paul had only tried to persecute and kill Christ's people. Paul had been persecuting the Christ. And this is the man the Christ chooses, to set him apart to the good news. What grace! Why did He choose Saul of Tarsus? The only reason Saul can give is God's grace, and that "God was pleased to reveal His Son in me." … Is it any wonder that Paul could not, and would not, give up grace? The law could only have condemned Saul to death, but grace makes him a chosen instrument.
Older translations read "in me" rather than "to me" — the wording used above. One writer builds his point on it, and sets it beside what Peter received.
Notice how unusual the expression is — "to reveal His Son in me". He is the only apostle who uses the phrase, and it is typical of him. To Peter the Father revealed His Son (Matt. 16); but Paul's word goes further. It involves union with Christ, and Paul was the one honoured to teach this truth. He learned the first part of it at his conversion. This huge fact came home to him: in persecuting the saints he was persecuting Christ, for the saints were in Him and He in them.
What God revealed inside Paul did not stay hidden. Others saw the Son of God by looking at him.
God was pleased to take away the veil that now hides His Son from view. So the glory of the Son of God changed the whole of Saul's life. And in him God unveiled His Son to those around him. Many a man and woman came to know the Son of God through the sight that Saul of Tarsus had of Him on the Damascus road. God used Paul to tell out the gospel. But Paul's own person also gave the strongest witness to its power.
What Saul received was not reserved for apostles. Only the commission attached to it was his alone.
This is true conversion, true faith. Sovereign grace reveals the Son of God in us, a glorified Man, and — if we have already understood the truth — a Saviour who has borne all our sins. But it is the revelation of Christ in us. In Saul's case, this revelation was also in order that he might preach Him among the Gentiles.
God revealed His Son in Paul so that Paul would preach Him among the Gentiles — the nations outside Israel. That shaped the whole character of his message.
So the gospel God commissioned Paul to preach was not just the announcement of certain truths. It was about the person God had revealed in him. He preached the Jesus who had appeared to him in heavenly glory as the Son of God. The gospel came to the Gentiles in the power of that revelation, so that they would be brought into the light of the glory of God. In that light flesh shows up as wholly bad and condemned. Yet in that same light there is life, righteousness, and glory for man. Paul had not dimmed this revelation by consulting flesh and blood. Flesh and blood could have no part in revealing it, or in helping it.
Paul did not go to Jerusalem for approval, and he presses that as proof. Where the ESV says "consult with anyone," older translations read "confer with flesh and blood."
Did he need to go up to Jerusalem to receive apostolic ordination, or even apostolic instruction? Not for a moment did he dream of such a thing. He says, "I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me." So he proves with care that he had nothing to do with apostolic authority, teaching, or succession. The Spirit knew well all that would come in later through the false claims of men.
Another writer makes this a rule for every believer.
The moment we confer with flesh and blood, our testimony and service are spoiled, because flesh and blood can never obey. We must obey God's command at once, through grace. Then we are blessed, and God is glorified. God's own word as the basis of what we do will always give our actions strength and steadiness. If we act only on impulse, the action will fade as soon as the impulse fades.
- Pleasure — The cause is God's good pleasure alone. The persecutor had nothing to offer; grace made him a chosen instrument.
- Person — The gift was not information but a Person. Paul then preached the Christ in glory whom God had unveiled in him.
- Inside — "In me" goes further than "to me." It carries union with Christ. Saul learned that the moment he heard that persecuting the saints was persecuting Christ.
- Ordinary — Every believer receives this same revealing of the Son of God within. That is true conversion. Only the errand to the nations was Paul's alone.
- Immediate — The revelation came straight from God. No human approval could add to it. Consulting flesh and blood would only have spoiled the service.