Galatians 1:13-16
13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
This tremendous statement about Paul's conversion will repay careful study. In its
simple dignity and profound theology it could scarcely be matched. The contrast is
made between what he once was, and what by grace of God he became. In the first
place he acknowledges the sovereignty of God in his salvation. 'It pleased God', he says,
'to reveal His Son in me'. We must recognise that salvation is never a 'foregone conclusion' for any man. 'I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy', says the Lord, and
Paul humbly acknowledges the sovereignty of the hand that touched him. Secondly, he
realises, looking back on his experience, that the Lord had separated him unto Himself
(for so it ought to be understood) from his mother's womb. Not merely God's sovereignty, but His sovereign electing grace is in his thoughts. It is all the more wonderful and
awesome to think that all during his earlier days of bitter persecution of the Church (13,
14) he was nevertheless a chosen and separated vessel unto God. How patient and forbearing is our God! Next, we must note that Paul speaks of God revealing His Son in
him - not merely to him, but in him. True revelation never stops outside a man, it enters
into him. And with none was this more true than with Paul, for he became a repository
of grace and salvation for the Gentile world. In 2 Corinthians 4 he speaks of having the
treasure of the gospel revelation in an earthen vessel, and this is surely what he means in
16 by the phrase, 'that I might preach Him among the heathen'. Such was the Apostle's
experience of conversion, and it is still the truest and deepest way of describing and understanding our own.