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.
nor went I up to Jerusalem to those [who were] apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and again returned to Damascus.
Paul answers those who questioned his standing with a travel record. He names the place he skipped — Jerusalem, home of the first apostles — and the place he went instead: Arabia.
The obvious move for a new convert with a new message was to seek out the recognised leaders. Paul did not go. Such a trip would have damaged the very thing that made his apostleship distinct.
Had Paul gone up to present his credentials to the others, he would have lowered and obscured his apostleship. He would have done all he could to destroy its special blessedness and peculiar glory. But he was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. And God held the reins, to keep the truth pure and unspoiled... Some time later he does see Jerusalem, but he sees no more than Peter and James — not the apostles as a body, officially.
The question behind his choice is whether any human office had to approve him first.
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... So he carefully proves that he had nothing to do with apostolic authority, teaching, or succession. The Spirit knew well everything that would come in later through the false claims of men.
The wording concedes something to his critics. What Paul will not concede is where his message came from.
Some men were made apostles at an earlier date than Paul could claim for himself (Gal. 1:17). He fully accepts them; yet from them he received neither his apostolic commission nor the gospel he preached. He was an apostle of Jesus Christ, one sent by Him, and by God the Father, who raised Him from the dead.
Instead of a conference, Paul chose a desert. Solitude did for him what a meeting could not.
He went into Arabia, into the desert. He needed privacy, to be alone with God, so he could take in the wonderful truth he had received. This is worth noting for all of us, and above all for young converts who may feel the pull to seek publicity when they need to be out of sight. From the wilderness Paul goes not to Jerusalem, but returns again to Damascus — the place of his wonderful conversion.
That region already had a history of men who went there to be alone with God.
Arabia is a very large country. Mount Sinai, where God gave Moses the law, is in Arabia. Elijah had gone away into Arabia to escape from Jezebel, and to be alone with God. And I am sure Saul of Tarsus also went to Arabia to be alone with God... Every true servant of God must have time to be alone with God.
The book of Acts never mentions this trip, and commentators differ on where it fits. One places it right after the conversion, before any preaching at all:
A time of quiet, away from everyone, came at just the right moment. A short stay in Arabia provided it... Looking at the account he gives us of this part of his life, we would place it just after his conversion. It came before any public ministry, or even any contact with the disciples in Damascus.
Another places it later, inside the "many days" of Acts 9:23:
People may wonder where that visit to Arabia fits in, the one he writes about in Galatians 1:17. We think it probably happened during the "many days" that verse 23 of our chapter mentions, since he tells us that he "returned again to Damascus."
The years before Paul ever saw Jerusalem were not wasted. God arranged them, and they kept his gospel independent of the twelve apostles in Jerusalem.
The Spirit of God appears to include in the first verses the three years the apostle spent in Arabia. That fact carries great weight, coming right after his conversion. The Epistle to the Galatians uses it with great force (Gal. 1:17), to prove how little man, even the twelve, had to do with it... God meant it to stand apart from Jerusalem and the twelve. His call, his apostleship, and the gospel he preached came straight from the prime source of grace, truth, and authority: the risen Head and God Himself.
- Not Jerusalem. Going up for approval would have dimmed the glory of an apostleship given straight from heaven. God held the reins, so the truth stayed pure.
- Not succession. Paul never asked the earlier apostles to ordain him or teach him. The Spirit put that on record, against every later claim built on apostolic succession.
- Not rivalry. He grants that others were apostles before him, and accepts them fully. He just received neither his commission nor his gospel from them.
- But Arabia. The desert gave him privacy to take in what he had received. Moses and Elijah had been alone with God in that same wilderness. New believers often need quiet more than publicity.
- And proof. Three years away, then back to Damascus instead of Jerusalem. That is the evidence: his call, his office and his message came from the risen Christ.
Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to make acquaintance with Peter, and I remained with him fifteen days;
Paul is defending himself. Some had told the churches of Galatia that his message and his authority were second-hand, borrowed from the leaders at Jerusalem. His answer is plain autobiography, and it includes this short, late visit to Peter.
The visit only matters because of what others were saying about Paul. His critics had their own account of where his authority came from.
These teachers who pressed the Jewish law came from Jerusalem. Of course, they presented themselves as carrying all the authority of that great centre of the apostles behind them. They painted Paul as an upstart apostle. He was not part of the original band of apostles, they said, and so he lacked full and proper authority. That is why the apostle begins his letter with some personal history.
The delay is the first argument. Before Jerusalem came Arabia and Damascus, and that ordering was not accidental.
God planned it this way on purpose. Saul went to Arabia, then returned to Damascus, and only after three years did he go up to Jerusalem. He did not go to receive office from the hands of the apostles, but to get to know Peter. He stayed only fifteen days, and saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother. In this God put to death the Jewish system at its best, and all order handed down by succession.
So do the three years start at his conversion, or at his return from Arabia? One writer leaves it open:
We cannot be sure whether this period starts at his conversion or at his return from Arabia. But Scripture is often unclear on such small points, and that will never trouble a sound-minded believer.
The verse says he went to visit Peter, that is, to get to know him. That purpose carries the weight of the whole argument.
The Apostle had spent three years in Arabia and Damascus. Then he paid a visit of fifteen days to Peter at Jerusalem. The only other Apostle he saw was James, the brother of our Lord. So this visit was not an official one to receive instructions or ordination. It was a personal one, to get to know Peter.
The number is small, and Paul offers it as evidence instead of hiding it.
He went only to get to know Peter, and stayed with him — how long? Fifteen days. That is far too short a time, if it were a question of proper training in the testimony of the twelve apostles. But in fact he did not see the twelve. He saw Peter... So he accepts the challenge that unbelief had thrown down. He is glad to admit what they counted a defect.
Why Peter? One writer answers by looking at the work each man was given.
God had formed him, and God saw that the right time had come for him to go to Jerusalem to visit Cephas (the Aramaic name for Peter). Why did Paul feel the need to visit Peter? Peter had opened the door for the Gentiles (Acts 10), and the Lord had used him. But now the Lord was preparing Paul as the vessel He would use widely among the Gentiles, so they needed this contact. Paul went to see Cephas to tell him what had happened to him... Paul did not need a crash course from Peter, not at all. He went to have fellowship with him, and so that Peter could judge whether Paul's mission was right or not. In those fifteen days Peter would have had time enough to correct him, if that had been needed. But it was not long enough to train him for the mission. God had trained him during those three years in Arabia.
Scripture does not record what the two men said to each other.
We would like to know what these men of God discussed at that time, but the Spirit of God has not chosen to lift the veil. We may be sure that many precious details of our Lord's life on earth came into their everyday talk, for Peter had seen them himself. And Saul would surely tell his new friend and brother something of what he had learned in God's school, both in Damascus and in Arabia.
Paul's point is about where his commission came from. It is not about keeping his distance from other believers.
Paul's teaching was independent of human teaching (1:11-17). It was independent of the churches of Judea (1:18-24). And I would add: it was independent of the other apostles too. He was in fellowship with them, but they had not sent him.
- Charge. Teachers from Jerusalem called Paul a late, unauthorised apostle. He answers with dates and facts.
- Delay. Three years passed before he went up. He had already preached his message before Jerusalem ever saw him.
- Purpose. He went to get to know Peter, not to take orders or ordination from him.
- Duration. Fifteen days is far too short to train a man. God had already trained him in Arabia, and Paul points to the short stay as his proof.
- Fellowship. His calling did not come from the apostles, yet he shared fellowship with them: separate source, one Lord.