Paul is reminding the Galatians of his bio. The message he preached to them during his visit wasn’t some manmade concoction, but personally given him by Christ Himself (Gal 1:11-12). As he had done when he was with them, he confesses his background as the lead persecutor and terminator of Jesus’ followers (Gal 1:13-14).
The apostle then describes the process of his conversion. But he doesn’t start with the divine mugging on the highway outside of Damascus. He goes back, WAY back. Back before he was born. “But when He who had set me apart before I was born…” (v15).
God’s selection of Paul began before his birth. He uses the Greek verb αφοριζω/aphorizo, which literally means to mark off a boundary. It also means to choose or set apart for a special purpose. God handpicked Paul before he was a gleam in his mother’s eye.
This is the theological idea of election. Election is God’s sovereign choice of those for salvation regardless of any merit, qualifications, resume or accomplishments on their part. When the Lord drafts someone before birth, there’s not much the draftee brings to the table. Election is all based on God’s goodness and grace. Paul is telling the Galatians that Almighty God put him on His team despite his self-righteousness and sin.
Paul relates how the Lord “called me by His grace” (v15). If we missed it when he wrote of being “set apart,” he wants to make it clear that this was about God placing His apostle-to-be under the waterfall of His undeserved kindness. God called Paul.
This brings us to another big theological idea: effectual call. When God calls, people answer “yes.” When God calls, people respond positively. When God calls, people never RSVP “no.” Later, Paul will write to the Romans about this breathtaking process. “For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom He predestined He also called, and those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified” (Rom 8:29-30).
Just as he describes to the Galatians, Paul’s point here is that God is behind it all. He’s the One doing the work. He’s the One knowing, selecting, calling, justifying and glorifying. That’s grace.
The apostle eventually comes to that fateful day outside of Damascus when God “was pleased to reveal His Son to me” (v16). Notice that long before that the Lord Paul apart and called him. To get the full picture of what God is doing, we need to do a little grammar work. Verses 16-18 are actually one long sentence.
Let’s diagram the sentence and put the subject with the verb. “But when He...was pleased to reveal His Son to me…” Paul says that the timing of the events on the road were not only God’s idea but it made Him happy. Don’t miss “when He.” Not only does everything happen for a reason, but everything happens at a particular time for a reason. Throughout the Bible we see God moving according to His calendar. He works when He pleases. A quick search of the phrase the “appointed time” shows that it appears 26 times in Scripture.
Timing is everything. And God’s timing is perfect. He’s never early. He’s never late. He is the Who behind not only the What, the How, the Why, the Where but the When. For some reason that Paul doesn’t explain, it put a smile on God’s face to reveal His Son to Saul the Terminator as he was rolling into Damascus on his black ops mission against Jesus’ followers.
While God didn’t explain the timing, He did explain the reason for the midday mugging. “That I might preach Him among the Gentiles” (v16). This was Jesus’ specific assignment for the man from Tarsus. Actually the the Greek in verse 16 is interesting.
The ESV uses “preach.” It’s actually the verb form of Gospel (Gr. ευαγγελιζω/euangelizo). Once again, Paul gets back to the basics of the Good News. He uses either the noun or verb form of Gospel over and over in this emergency epistle to Galatia. He says that Christ has called him to spread the Good News “among the Gentiles.” Actually, the original Greek uses the word εθνος/ethnos.
Paul says that Jesus sent him to people of every ethnic group in the world, not just Jews. God was swinging the door wide in offering salvation to the entire world through Jesus. And Paul was His handpicked ambassador to spread the news. So you could actually translate this phrase in verse 16 as “that I might Gospel Him among the ethnic groups.” The English is awkward but effective.
Paul tells us that once Jesus got ahold of him outside of Damascus, he didn’t go running to anyone to confirm what Christ told him personally. “I did not immediately consult with anyone” (v16). Since he got his assignment straight from Jesus, the apostle sees no reason to get someone else to sign off on it.
He goes on to say that he made the intentional decision to not “go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me” (v17). He pulls no punches. He clearly sees himself as an apostle. He understands that he is one of those personally picked by Jesus to represent Him with full authority.
Instead of going to Jerusalem, Paul “went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus” (v17). He’s talking about Nabatean Arabia, a desert wilderness that stretched from just outside of Damascus to the Sinai Peninsula. We don’t know what happened during his Arabian retreat.
I think Jesus used this time to personally disciple Paul in this radical Gospel to non-Jews. Could this be where he had his amazing vision of heaven (2Cor 12:2-4)? Something happened in the desert. We just don’t know what. It will be cool to find out.
©2012
Jay Jennings
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