{"id":29017,"date":"2022-09-24T13:04:40","date_gmt":"2022-09-24T18:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-galatians-115\/"},"modified":"2022-09-24T13:04:40","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T18:04:40","slug":"exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-galatians-115","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-galatians-115\/","title":{"rendered":"Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Galatians 1:15"},"content":{"rendered":"

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called [me] by his grace, <\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n

15<\/strong>. it pleased God<\/em> ] The commentary of Theodore of Mopsuestia on this expression is apt. “St Paul well refers it to the Divine foreknowledge, so that before he himself had any being, this should appear the good pleasure of God concerning him; and that so his preaching might be regarded as far enough removed from novelty or human invention.” In personal religion no less than in doctrinal theology we must humbly recognise this good pleasure of God as the source of every blessing which the Gospel conveys to us.<\/p>\n

separated me womb<\/em> ] ‘Set me apart from my birth,’ comp. Jer 1:5<\/span>. The good pleasure was from all eternity, the setting apart was at birth, the call was on the road to Damascus, the revelation, then and subsequently.<\/p>\n

by his grace<\/em> ] Comp. Art. xvii., “They be called according to God’s purpose by His Spirit working in due season; they through grace obey the calling.”<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

15, 16<\/strong>. But a wondrous change was effected in me. ‘Old things had passed away. Behold, they had become new.’ The source of this change was the purpose of God; the means, His effectual calling: the end, that St Paul might preach Christ to the Gentiles.<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

But when it pleased God – <\/B>Paul traced all his hopes of eternal life, and all the good influences which had ever borne upon his mind, to God.<\/P>

Who separated me … – <\/B>That is, who destined me; or who purposed from my very birth that I should be a preacher and an apostle. The meaning is, that God had in his secret purposes set him apart to be an apostle. It does not mean that he had actually called him in his infancy to the work, for this was not so, but that he designed him to be an important instrument in his hands in spreading the true religion. Jeremiah Jer 1:5<\/span> was thus set apart, and John the Baptist was thus early designated for the work which they afterward performed. It follows from this:<\/P>

(1) That God often, if not always, has purposes in regard to people from their very birth. He designs them for some important field of labor, and endows them at their creation with talents adapted to that.<\/P>

(2) It does not follow that because a young man has gone far astray; and has become even a blasphemer and a persecutor, that God has not destined him to some important and holy work in his service. How many people have been called, like Paul, and Newton, and Bunyan, and Augustine, from a life of sin to the service of God.<\/P>

(3) God is often training up people in a remarkable manner for future usefulness. His eye is upon them, and He watches over them, until the time comes for their conversion. His providence was concerned in the education and training of Paul. It was by the divine intention with reference to his future work that he had so many opportunities of education, and was so well acquainted with the traditions of that religion which he was yet to demonstrate to be unfounded and false. He gave him the opportunity to cultivate his mind, and prepare to grapple with the Jew in argument, and show him how unfounded were his hopes. So it is often now. He gives to a young man an opportunity of a finished education. Perhaps he suffers him to fall into the snares of infidelity, and to become familiar with the arguments of sceptics, that he may thus be better prepared to meet their sophisms and to enter into their feelings. Gods eye is upon them in their wanderings, and they are often allowed to wander far; to range the fields of science; to become distinguished as scholars, as Paul was; until the time comes for their conversion, and then, in accordance with the purpose which set them apart from the world, God converts them, and consecrates all their talents and attainments to His service.<\/P>

(4) We should never despair of a young man who has wandered far from God. If he has risen high in attainments; if his whole aim is ambition; or if he has become an infidel, still we are not to despair of him. It is still possible that God separated that talent to his service from his very birth, and that God still means to call it all to His service. How easy it was to convert Saul of Tarsus when the proper period arrived. So it is of the now unconverted and unconsecrated, but cultivated talent among the young men of our land. Far as they may have wandered from God and virtue, yet much of that talent has been devoted to Him in baptism, and by parental purposes and prayers; and, it may be – as is morally certain from the history of the past – that much of it is consecrated also by the divine purpose and intention for the noble cause of virtue and pure religion. In that now apparently wasted talent; in that learning now apparently devoted to other aims and ends, there is much that may still adorn the cause of virtue and religion; and how fervently we should pray that it may be called by the grace of God and actually devoted to His service.<\/P>

And called me by his grace – <\/B>On the way to Damascus. It was special grace, because he was then engaged in bitterly opposing Him and His cause.<\/P> <\/p>\n

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Gal 1:15-16<\/span><\/p>\n

But when it pleased God to reveal His Son in me.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Prevenient grace<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Paul was suddenly converted, yet God had had thoughts of mercy towards him from his very birth. God did not begin to work with him when he was on the road to Damascus. That was not the first occasion on which eyes of love had darted upon this chief of sinners.<\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>The purpose of God preceding saving grace, as it may clearly be seen developing itself in <\/strong>human history. The life of men before conversion is really a working of them in the clay. You may perceive Gods purpose in St. Paul, when you think of<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> the singular gifts with which he was endowed;<\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> his education;<\/p>\n

(3)<\/strong> the spiritual struggles through which he passed;<\/p>\n

(4)<\/strong> the singular formation of his mind.<\/p>\n

Even as a sinner, Paul was great. A man full of energy and determination. His conversion only lifted him into a higher life, but left him unchanged as to temperament, nature, and force of character. He seems to have been constituted naturally a thorough-going, thorough-hearted man, in order that when grace did come to him he might be just as earnest, dauntless, fearless, in defence of the right. Such a man was wanted to lead the vanguard in the great crusade against the god of this world, and from his very birth God was fitting him for this position; before he was converted, prevenient grace was thus engaged, fashioning, moulding, and preparing the man, in order that by-and-by there might be put into his nostrils the breath of life.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>Grace preceding calling in another sense. It is impossible to say, concerning the elect, when the grace of God begins to deal with them. You can tell when the quickening grace comes, but not when the grace itself comes.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>Formative grace. This is to be born of Christian parents, in a Christian country, and nurtured in piety.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Preventive grace. Saved from sins that others fall into.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>Restraining grace. Debarred by circumstances from sins to which we are inclined.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>Preparatory work of grace. Before casting in the seed, God is pleased to give to some<\/p>\n

(a)<\/strong> an attentive ear. Willingness to listen to the Word when it is brought to him;<\/p>\n

(b)<\/strong> an ingenuousness of heart;<\/p>\n

(c)<\/strong> a tender conscience;<\/p>\n

(d)<\/strong> dissatisfaction with their present state.<\/p>\n

Apples of Sodom, at one time fair and <\/strong>sweet to their taste, God turns to ashes and bitterness in their mouth.<\/p>\n

Thus it was with Augustine, wandering wearily hither and thither with a death-thirst in his soul, that no fount of philosophy, or scholastic argument, or heretical teaching could ever assuage. He was aware of his unhappy estate, and turned his eye round the circle of the universe looking for peace, not fully conscious of what he wanted, though feeling an aching void the world could never fill. He had not found the centre, fixed and steadfast, around which all else revolved in ceaseless change. All this appetite, this hunger and thirst, is not of the devil, or of the human heart alone, but of God.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>Pauls actual calling by Divine grace. All preparatory work of which we have spoken, was not the source or origin of the vital godliness which afterwards distinguished him; that came to him on a sudden. In a moment he saw everything in a different light; and from a foe he was changed into a staunch and loyal friend of Jesus. He was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. (C. H. Spurgeon.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Providential dealings<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of the good fathers amongst us are mourning very bitterly just now over their sons. Your children do not turn out as you wish they would; they are getting sceptical, some of them, and they are also falling into sin. Well, dear friends, it is yours to mourn; it is enough to make you weep bitterly; but let me whisper a word into your ear. Do not sorrow as those who are without hope, for God may have very great designs to be answered, even by these very young men who seem to be running so altogether in the wrong direction. I do not think I could go so far as John Bunyan did, when he said he was sure God would have some eminent saints in the next generation, because the <\/strong>young men in his day were such gross sinners, that he thought they would make fine saints; and when the Lord came and saved them by His mercy, they would love much because they had had so much forgiven. I would hardly like to say so much as that, but I do believe that sometimes in the inscrutable wisdom of God, when some of those who have been sceptical come to see the truth, they are the very best men that could possibly be found to do battle against the- enemy. Some of those who have fallen into error, after having passed through it, and happily come up from its deep ditch, are just the men to stand and warn others against it. I cannot conceive that Luther would ever have been so mighty a preacher of the faith, if he had not himself struggled up and down Pilates staircase on his knees, when trying to get to heaven by his penances and his good works. O let us have hope. We do not know but that God may be intending yet to call them and bless them. Who can tell, there may be a young man here to-night who will one day be the herald of the Cross in China, in Hindostan, in Africa, and in the islands of the sea? Remember John Williams wishing to keep an appointment with another young man who committed a certain sin. He wanted to know what time it was, and so just stepped into Moorfields Chapel; some one saw him, and he did not like to go out, and the word preached by Mr. Timothy East fell on his ears, and the young sinner was made a saint; and you all know how he afterwards perished as a martyr on the shores of Erromanga. (C. H. Spurgeon.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Apostolic credentials<\/strong><\/p>\n

St. <\/em>Paul here claims to be an apostle, an inspired apostle, one qualified to speak with authority, and to teach infallible truth.<\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>A Divine communication of light and knowledge was made to him. He had been blind, now he saw.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>The subject of this Divine communication was the Lord Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>In Christ was seen the glory of the Divine nature.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>In Christ was seen the glory of the Divine attributes. As the wax bears the perfect image of the seal, so were all the perfections of the Divine character reflected in him.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>In Christ was seen the glory of the Divine purposes. Redemption is the masterpiece of Divine wisdom; in redemption Christ is the central figure.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>The sphere in which this Divine communication had place was the soul of the apostle. In me. He saw, believed, and loved. His intellect was more than satisfied; his heart was at peace. Judaism was superseded, and like a dissolving view, passed rapidly away; heathenism was seen more clearly to be a lie and an imposture. To know Christ, to win Christ, to preach Christ, to love Christ, to be with Christ, was all he desired. (Emilius Bayley, B. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Personal conviction<\/strong><\/p>\n

What we need is the revelation of Christ within us; not the communication of truths yet unrevealed, as was necessary in the case of the founders of our religion, but the communication of truths already made known; the removal of the veil from our hearts, and the giving of the knowledge of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Each of us must for himself discover the hid treasure; whether the light flashes upon us in an instant, as with the woman at the well of Jacob, or comes to us as the result of long search and patient inquiry, as in the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, we must find the Messiah, we must hear Him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world. It will not suffice, in this day at least, to take religion upon trust, to accept the popular faith, just because it is popular. Such belief will not stand in the day of trial; it certainly will exercise no constraining influence upon our hearts and lives. Whether for our peace or for our usefulness, Christ must live within us; the reasonable mind must apprehend Him, the heart must cleave to Him. Thus our lives will tell upon the world around us. There will be a living power within, full of holy joy, and peace, and comfort; whilst a living power will go forth from us, and act silently, it may be, but effectually, upon the world without. (Emilius Bayley, B. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Gods call and Pauls reply<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Christian religion is emphatically one. It may differ and does differ, in its development; but the foundation must be belief in Deity–an intelligent, devout recognition of the Almighty in His varied relationships to the world. Hence a perfect belief in a perfect Deity means this: That you believe in and regard that Deity as the Creator and Controller of the universe; as the Saviour of the world; as the appliancer of the redemptive scheme–in other words, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Unless this is recognized, there can be no true Christianity.<\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>Christian Life Is Identified With A Knowledge Of Christ.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>To know Christ is to know the great centre to which all other doctrines converge.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Knowing Christ as a Saviour, you realize the damnable nature of sin.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>Christ Is Known Only As He Is Divinely Revealed.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>Ordinary means. Bible reading. Church going. Conversation. Sunday Schools, etc.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Extraordinary. St. Pauls conversion.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>The knowledge of Christ is given in pursuance of a divine purpose.<\/p>\n


IV. <\/strong>Knowledge of Christ is preparatory for the highest usefulness. (A. F. Barfield.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Doctrine of predestination <\/strong><\/p>\n

I look upon this earth in which I live. I find it grasped and girded by Gods all-embracing laws, as of gravitation, of the ebb and flow of the tides, of light, of the procession of the seasons–all utterly and absolutely beyond my control. They reach above, beneath, around, within me; I cannot touch them. There they are; unalterable, unswerving, necessitated–in its profoundest sense, predestinated. And what is the issue of obedience to these laws? Happiness, in the measure of such obedience. Is that no revelation of the character of the God of the universe. No revelation! I could shut my Bible, and from creation–from the meanest flower that blows, up to the stars that hang like lamps before the great white throne–find infinite proofs that my God is also my Father. Exactly so, I cannot tell how free will, choice, contingency, accord with predestination, election, foreordination, substitution. I do not feel that I am called upon to do so. But as we have seen, our own consciousness attests the former, while the Word of God recognizes and addresses them–recognizes and addresses man as free to think, feel, will, choose, reject. Equally does the Word of God affirm the latter. I therefore accept them also, and can defer knowing how the All-wise harmonizes them, until He pleases to reveal them to me. Nay, more, I have deepest belief that even as the physical world is grasped and girded by its great laws, so must the other and grander world of mind have underneath it, like the granite base of the everlasting hills, above it, like the dome of the sky, kindred laws. These laws I recognize and accept in predestination, election, foreordination, substitution. (A. B. Grosart, LL. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The threefold revelation of Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n


I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>To him. When he was called on the way to Damascus, and so to every one who becomes His servant Christ appears to arrest and claim him.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>In him. The Lord is revealed in His servants heart as his life and strength.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>Through him. The new life of Christs servant is a perpetual<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> reflection;<\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> proclamation of His Redeemer. (W. B. Pope, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Distinguishing grace<\/strong><\/p>\n


I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>Is the foundation of all doctrinal and ethical truth.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>Tends to personal edification, deep emotion, and dutiful submission to the Divine will.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>Determines the tone and strength of our life.<\/p>\n


IV. <\/strong>Is a means to consciousness of direct personal relationship to God. (T. Goadby.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The personal history and public purpose of the conversion<\/strong><\/p>\n


I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>Its personal history.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>The inner revelation of Christ to the soul, which is something more than His revelation to<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> the senses,<\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> the understanding,<\/p>\n

(3)<\/strong> the conscience.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>The inner revelation of Christ to the soul through God.<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> By predetermination.<\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> By sovereignty.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>Its public purpose.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>Not his own good.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>But to preach.<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> Paul felt the duty of preaching to be paramount.<\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> He employed the best means for its effective discharge. (D. Thomas.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ministers are separated to their own work<\/strong><\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>A soldier who went to the war took with him some of the small instruments of his craft–he was a watchmaker and repairer–thinking to make some extra shillings now and then while in camp. He did so. He found plenty of watches to mend, and almost forgot that he was a soldier. One day, when ordered off on some duty, he exclaimed, Why, how can I go? Ive got ten watches to mend! Some ministers are so absorbed in self-seeking that they are ready to say to the Masters call, I pray Thee have me excused! They are nominally ministers of Christ, but really only watch-menders. Mr. Moody says:–I remember when I was in Chicago before the fire, I was on some ten or twelve committees. My hands were full. If a man came to me to talk about his soul I would say, I havent time; got a committee to attend to. But now I have turned my back on everything–turned my attention to saving souls, and God has blessed me and made me an instrument to save more souls during the last four or five years than during all my previous life. And so if a minister will devote himself to this undivided work, God will bless him. Take that motto of Pauls: One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n

Divine calling<\/strong><\/p>\n

A river flowing with rapid and majestic current to the sea would defy the efforts of the whole world to turn it back again to its source; yet, by the returning tide it is not only arrested in its course but driven up again with great rapidity towards its fountain head. It is thus that a sinner is stopped in his career of sin, and turned towards high and heavenly things. (C. Simeon.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The inward revelation of Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, there is nothing mysterious about this. Have we not all felt this inward revelation of Christ?–a discovery larger, sweeter and more and more luminous, of this nature and work, which enters and is woven like a thread of gold into the fabric of thought and character. The disciples doubtless had a conception at first of the Saviour as a general benefactor to the race and His teachings as generally helpful to men, but after their characters began to mature they came to understand the personal, individual and vital relationship between Him and them. A keen sense of personal sinfulness must precede any vivid conception of the grace of Christ as shown to burdened and aspiring souls. Again, in the silent government of the souls activities we recognize Christ revealed in us. We recognize inward impulsions that are not born of us, but of a resident and daily more regnant power that is working through our own volitions. In labour and worship, in acts of beneficence and in all the service of life, we feel the silent government of the indwelling Master. With these inward revelations and spiritual intuitions we are guided in duty. Truth is verified in our vision, because it is illuminated by Him who is the light of the world. Christ finds a home in our affectional nature. At first we feel that we ought to love Christ more than all else–parents, friends, or treasure; but it is hard to do this, and our obedience is apt to be mechanical until the inward grace and subtle sense of the indwelling Helper comes to be recognized. It is as indefinable a sense as the odour of the lily and rose that perfumes our dwelling, yet we know it to be a reality. We see bane changed to blessing and a spirit of nobleness begotten in us, so that we come naturally, that is, reasonably and by the tutelage of His grace, to love Him better than all things else. This love toward Christ as He is within us testifies of the Divine indwelling, and it is a love which He will crown and glorify. In the joyful assurance of the future we find evidence of this revelation of Christ in us. He satisfies and gratifies us every hour by these revelations to us. Men of the world wonder at us. They call our confidence credulity and superstition. Nay, it is the dictate of our assurance of Christ in us. The text illumines other utterances of Paul. The life he lived was the life of Christ in him: I, yet not I. Thus was fulfilled the promise, We will make our abode with him. We see from this subject how progressive Christian experience is. One may say, Would that I could at once step into the fulness of the knowledge of God! Do you expect to step at once into the fulness of earthly knowledge? Shall not this more august revelation be continuous and progressive? Begin now in obedience to Christ, go on step by step till Christs life is enthroned within you, and then it will be manifested by you. We have here a suggestion as to how the world influences us and crowds out Christ. Work for Christ wears a new significance when the fact and propulsive power of this indwelling are thus revealed. (R. S. Storrs.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Pauls account of his conversion<\/strong><\/p>\n


I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>Conversion described. Paul writes of the change through which he had passed in brief but forcible terms. It pleased God to reveal His Son in me.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>The change in Paul was a spiritual one.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Gods great work is done in the soul, because the fountain of evil is there.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>Conversion is a clear, definite recognition of Christ as the Saviour. He was revealed in Paul, so that he had no doubt of His Divinity or of His Messiahship. He believed Him to be the Christ, the Son of God.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>Conversion explained.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>Conversion is an act of Gods grace. It pleased God to reveal His Son in Paul.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Conversion is preceded by means which are altogether of Gods arrangement. Paul here refers to plans, remote and immediate, and both are of God. He separated him from his mothers womb.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>Conversion manifested.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>By his renouncing that which he had formerly sought after.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>His voluntary exile and solitude was a further manifestation of his conversion.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>His conversion was manifest by his return to Damascus, and engaging in active service.<\/p>\n

Lessons:<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>The methods by which men are brought to Christ vary, but conversion is in every instance the same, the revealing of the Son of God to the heart.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>All who have been renewed by the power of God, manifest in themselves the reality of the change. Conversion is regeneration realized in the heart and life. (R. Nicholls.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The inward realization by St. Paul himself of the gospel<\/strong><\/p>\n

It pleased God to reveal His Son in me. He needed not to go to the traditions of the life of our Saviour. Christ was known to him in a more immediate way. He found in his own heart the living oracle, and needed not to travel further. One of his remarkable words is this:–Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven, etc. But, more closely, what was this process? It was the translation of the historical Christ into the present Christ; of the Christ according to the flesh into the Christ of spiritual consciousness. What is translation? It is was the extracting a thought from its <\/strong>visible, or representative envelope, and then<\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> it is the recasting of this thought into another form of our own intelligent selection. By this process, faithfully carried out, you make the thought your own. You bring it out of its mere external relation to the mind as an object, and you make it a part of your mind, as subject. It is no longer now something that you contemplate merely with the minds eye, and which passes from memory when your attention is withdrawn, but it is now bound up with your mind, and must remain a part of your conscious being. We are always performing this process upon some matter or other. In this way the student gathers the thought of a foreign author, throws it out again into the best form in which he can recognize it in his own language, and now it is his possession. The artist gazes for hours at a picture of which we see little more than the surface, and throws out the sense of it on the canvas of his brain, or in visible studies of his own. The friend watches the face of his friend, quickly seizes the thought that is playing in living expression on his brow and eye and mouth, and projects the meaning again into some image or some verbal expression. In whatever interests us we separate the form from the contents; we grasp these contents, we pass them through our mind in deep reflection, until of themselves they flow into a new shape, which is a form of our consciousness, and may be a permanent stamp of it. So St. Paul gazed at the cross and the resurrection of Christ, extracted a marvellous fund of Divine meaning from them, which in turn he threw out into forms of thought which are so mighty in their power over us because they were first so mightily realized in himself. Thus the significance of the cross, translated into his own consciousness, became a personal experience: death unto sin, because Christ died; or, a revelation of Divine love: the Son of God who loved me. The resurrection in like manner, raised up together with Christ, alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There was something deeper even than this process of translation; there was an identification of himself with Christ (no other word will hardly express this deeper process). He felt that he was included in Christ. In the Sonship of Christ he saw his own sonship to God realized. As in Christ the Holy Spirit dwelt in a human body, so St. Paul realized the indwelling of God in himself. He saw a contrast of weakness with power in the crucifixion–he realized that contrast in himself. It seems no strain of language to say that in the consciousness of Paul, Christ was inseparable from himself. He could not abstract the ego, as metaphysicians would say, from a non-ego. He could not think of himself without thinking of Christ. I am crucified with Christ, etc. He applies the same mode of thought to his converts and disciples. (E. Johnson, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Christ manifested to the soul<\/strong><\/p>\n

The co-essential, co-eternal Son of God, was revealed in the Apostle Paul. Were we possessed of all the knowledge Adam had in innocence, or which Solomon acquired by labour and industry, or which the prophets and apostles obtained by Divine inspiration–yet, without this internal revelation of Christ, we should be as remote from happiness as the devils in hell. Now observe–<\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>How the revelation of Christ IN a man differs from the mere external revelation of Christ TO a man.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>They differ in their original source and spring. Both proceed from God; but the one is the fruit of His general favour, the other of His special grace.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>In the means by which they are wrought. The one, by outward means; the other by the internal agency of the Divine spirit. Moral suasion and human instruction may reveal Christ to a man; but it is the peculiar office of the Spirit to reveal Christ in us, to take of His things and show them to us so convincingly that we shall have no doubt of their truth and reality.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>The subject of this knowledge is different, as well as the manner of conveyance. The external revelation of Christ affects only the head; that which is internal, the heart. The one reaches only to the understanding; the other influences the practical judgment, directs the will, and gives law to the affections. The necessity and excellency of Christ, in all His characters and offices, is now so clearly discerned, that the soul goes out after Him, and rests in Him, as its supreme good and everlasting portion.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>In their nature and essential properties. The one dark and confused; the other clear and distinct. The one is seeing things in our own light; the other, in Gods light. The one is distant, and therefore undelightful; the other, appropriative and satisfying,–not equally so in every saint, but in a greater or less degree in all.<\/p>\n

5. <\/strong>In their continuance. The revelation of Christ to a man may be lost, eclipsed, or destroyed; but the revelation of the text is permanent and abiding. God is the Author of it, and His gifts are without repentance; the Spirit is the efficient cause, and He never wholly withdraws His influence.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>The necessity and excellence of an internal revelation of Christ.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>It is the beginning of all Christian experience, the first blessed fruit of the Spirits influence on a sinners heart. Without it, no grace here, and no hope of salvation hereafter. The meritorious sufferings of Christ will not save us without the spiritual knowledge of Him.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>The foundation of all spiritual comfort. When Christ enters, light, peace, glory enter, applying what He has done, bringing home to us what He has purchased.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>The grand spring of holiness and obedience. The more we know of Christ, the more we shall love Him; and the more we love Him, the more conscientious, universal, and unwearied will be our obedience; subjection a delight and pleasure, instead of a task or burden. Knowledge which reaches the heart, will regulate the life and conversation.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>This revelation is especially necessary to form the ministerial character. A faithful minister must be a good man, as well as bring good tidings.<\/p>\n

5. <\/strong>This revelation is connected with eternal life, and a certain pledge of, as well as necessary preparation for, a future state of happiness and glory. If ignorant of Christ, we cannot believe on Him, or be saved by Him. Closing inferences:<\/p>\n

(a)<\/strong> No wonder so many men of great ability arc enemies to the gospel and its doctrine of salvation. God has never yet revealed His Son in them.<\/p>\n

(b)<\/strong> How should we pity those destitute of this revelation! Other wants may be afflicting: this is damning.<\/p>\n

(c)<\/strong> What reason for thankfulness have those who are blessed with the spiritual saving knowledge of Christ. (B. Beddome, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Conversion a revelation in the soul<\/strong><\/p>\n

Conversion is a revelation, i.e.<\/em>, not a discovery of something new, but the unveiling of what has been hidden. No explanation for such a change as followed this revelation, save in the region of the supernatural.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>This revelation was to St. Paul a vindication of Christs character. St. Paul had thought Jesus an impostor; God removes the veil from his heart, and he sees Him to be the Christ, the only begotten Son of the Divine Father.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>It was a revelation to him of his own position He not only saw who Christ was, but what he himself had been.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>A revelation of the Divine long-suffering. When the light of that day of mercy dawned, what was the message? It might have been a message of doom; and Paul felt that. It might have been a voice of wrath, proclaiming wrath for his countless sins. But no; the voice comes with the old message of entreaty, Why persecutest thou Me? The voice comes with the Divine pathos and the Divine hope: Saul, Saul, arise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared to thee not to hurl the bolts of judgment, not to rehearse the catalogue of thy transgressions, not to ring the knell of thy doom, but to announce the true advent of thy noblest life, to make thee a minister of My gospel, to send thee to men. What wonder, then, that Paul counts himself an example of Gods long-suffering? What wonder that he speaks in such terms of redeeming love, of the riches–the unfathomed and unfathomable riches–of grace?<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>A revelation of a glorious destiny. No higher honour than to preach Christ, to be the minister of reconciliation to thousands.<\/p>\n

5. <\/strong>This revelation was all-inclusive, In this Divine light, all things looked Divine. Henceforth, Jesus Christ was stamped on everything. The world was His; life was His; labour was His; love was His.<\/p>\n

6. <\/strong>This revelation was ever increasing. The horizon widened. Every hour the light grew clearer, and spread to wider stretches. Even after thirty years acquaintance with Christ, Paul only feels there is so much to be known, that what he does know is as nothing to what he has yet to learn (Php 3:8-14<\/span>). Is our conversion like his? <\/em>(T. W. Handford.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The inner revelation of Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n

The object of this Divine revelation was His Son; not the truth about Him, or His work, or His death, or His glory, but Himself–Himself including all. His person is the sum of the gospel. This revelation may have been in some sense subsequent to the direct call, or it may refer also to the appearance of the Redeemer near Damascus qualifying him for the apostleship (1Co 9:1<\/span>). It gave him full and glowing views of the Redeemers person, including His various relations to God and to man,–such views as fixed the apostles faith upon Him, centred his love in Him, and enabled him to hold Him out in his preaching as the one living and glorified Saviour. It was by no process of reasoning that he came to such conclusions, by no elaborate and sustained series of demonstrations that he wrought out his Christology. Gad revealed His Son in him, Divine light was flashed in upon him, so that he saw what he had not seen before, fully, suddenly, and by a higher than intuitive suggestion. He had not been taught, and he did not need to be <\/strong>taught by any of the apostles. (John Eadie, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Revelation unlike reasoning<\/strong><\/p>\n

Revelation is opposed to knowledge gained by prolonged and patient thought. It is unlike the common process by which an intellectual conclusion is reached, the inference of one syllogism forming but the premiss of another, till by a series of connected links, primary or abstract truth is reached. For it is sudden and perfect illumination, lifting the receptive power into intensest susceptibility, and so lighting up the whole theme disclosed, that it is immediately and fully apprehended in its evidence and reality. We know not, indeed, what the process is, what the waking up of the higher intuition is, or what the ecstasy which throws into momentary abeyance all the lower faculties. It may resemble that new sphere of vision in which genius enjoys gleams of unutterable beauty, or that demonstration of the Spirit which gives the truth new aspects of richness and grandeur to the sanctified soul in some mood of rapt meditation. But still it is different and higher far both in matter and purpose. It was Gods revelation of His Son,–not <\/strong>glimpses of the truth about Him, but Himself; not merely summoning His attention to His paramount claims, so as to elicit an acknowledgment of them,–not simply presenting Him to his intellectual perception to be studied and comprehended,–nor even shrining an image of Him in his heart to be loved and cherished,–but His Son unveiled in living reality; and in him–in his inner self, not in any distinct and separate realm of his being–with the conscious possession of all this infallible and communicable knowledge which was given, perhaps, first in clear and vivid outline, and then filled in surely and gradually. (John Eadie, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Conversion of St. Paul<\/strong><\/p>\n

The vision which St. Paul saw on the way to Damascus, followed him through his whole life. There was one image which hovered over him, one thought which urged him onward, one spirit which he breathed, one life which he lived–the image, the thought, the spirit, the life of Christ. In the ruder times of Christianity we have heard of saints whose eyes were ever fixed on the material image of the crucified Redeemer, who bore in their body the marks of the Lord Jesus. What is true of them in a grosser and more literal sense, is true of St. Paul figuratively and spiritually: he felt himself and all other Christians to be crucified with Christ. In all His affliction they are afflicted, even as they are the partakers of His glory, dying with Him in sin and to sin, buried in baptism, filling up in their body the measure of His suffering, partaking of His hidden life in the grave, that with Him also they may rise again. If the apostle rejoices, he is as one risen with Christ; if he suffers, he is crucified with Him; if at one and the same instant he suffers, and triumphs, and is a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men, he is but as Christ was, Who was lifted up from the earth that he might draw all men after Him. He is as one stricken to the earth, at the same time that he partakes of the vision of the Divine glory. It is this thought and image of Christ, not freedom or faith, or any form of the subjective principle, which is the primary idea of the gospel in the mind of the apostle, Neither is it the belief in Christ as an object without him, to whom he is to transfer all his sins, but the ever-present consciousness of Christ within him, Who is one and inseparable from him, that is the support and anchor of his soul. As it is to the apostle more than any other human teacher we trace back the great doctrine of righteousness by faith, so to this event in his life we must refer that impression of Divine truth, which opened the kingdom of heaven to all mankind by the sight of Christ Himself. St. Paul was the human medium through which it was conveyed; an apostle not of man, neither by man, but of Jesus Christ, in whom it pleased God to reveal His Son. As it was necessary for the other apostles that Christ should go away, or otherwise the Comforter would net come unto them, so also it was in a certain sense a preeminence that he possessed over them, that as one born out of due time he had not known Christ according to the flesh, but only in a heavenly and spiritual manner. (B. Jowett, M. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Life in the revelation of Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n

A <\/em>man often passes through many stages before he becomes truly converted to God. When he is first awakened to serious impressions, and sees the folly of intently pursuing worldly things, to the neglect of the more durable riches, he resembles a boy emerging from childhood, who throws aside his trifles and playthings for amusements of a higher and more intellectual kind. He now sets himself with all diligence to working out his own salvation in his own strength; multiplies his religious duties, and reforms his bad habits; yet all this while he is like one who has been employed in new painting and varnishing a wooden statue–it has no life within. But when the Holy Spirit influences his heart, and reveals Christ in him, he is in the state of one who has awakened from a dream, in which he has been acting a fictitious part, to live and move and use all his faculties in reality, and enter on the great business of life. (H. G. Salter.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Readiness for service<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brutus visiting Ligarius found him ill, and said, What! sick, Ligarius? No, Brutus, said he; if thou hast any noble enterprise in hand I am well. So should the believer say of Christ; what might excuse us from other labour shall never prevent our engaging in His service. (C. H. Spurgeon.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Personal responsibility as entrusted with a revelation<\/strong><\/p>\n

To reveal His Son in me, might seem to imply some internal revelation; doubtless there was, but St. Paul more immediately referred to the fact that God intended to reveal His Son to mankind by and through him; he was to be the instrument of the revelation; God had revealed Christ to him, that he might reveal Him to others. For God can never make a revelation of His Son through a man, until He has first made the revelation within him; the lamp cannot illuminate until the light has been lighted within it; the light shines without because it shines within; and if St. Paul could speak confidently of God having been pleased to call him by His grace, and to reveal Christ through him to the heathen, it was because he could speak confidently of that revelation of Christ to his own soul, which had so thoroughly converted his mind and changed the purpose of his life. Let us leave St. Paul, however, for a few moments, and let me remind you how that God has from the beginning revealed Himself to man, and that the spiritual condition of man before God has depended upon the way in which he has received the revelation. To be able to receive a revelation from God, this is one mark of humanity; and to be able to reject the revelation, this is another. Next observe that the whole course of sacred history, since the days of Adam, has been a history of revelations. God has revealed, unveiled, discovered Himself to this man and to that, in order that he to whom God has been revealed may reveal Him to ethers; the process of which St. Paul speaks when he says, to reveal His Son in me, is the very process which has been going on from the beginning. Look at Noah. Look at Abraham. The Lord had said unto Abraham. That is the very beginning of his history. Once more, look at Moses. You see precisely the same characteristics of conduct. He, too, received a revelation from God; and the pressure of the responsibility which that revelation brought with it is made all the more conspicuous by the fact that Moses shrank from it, and tried to evade it. We wish to regard ourselves as laid under a pressure of responsibility by the fact of our having received a revelation from God. (The Dean of Ely.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The duty imposed by revelation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let us then take the Holy Scriptures in our hands, or press them to our hearts, and say, Here is the record of the way in which God has at sundry times and in divers manners spoken to our fathers by the prophets, and has in these latter days spoken to us by His Son; and having done this, then let us go on to ask ourselves what ought to be the practical consequences of having such a possession? It is a common saying in these days that property has its duties as well as its privileges, and so the possession of the Word of God, compared with which all other possessions must be poor and trifling, must bring with it very great duties: what are they? These, at least; to honour it, to love it, to strive if necessary, or even to die, for it; but besides these, there is the more common and perhaps the more important duty, of exhibiting in our own lives the ideal which Holy Scripture sets before us, the <\/strong>duty of living like Christ, and becoming (as it were) a living practical commentary upon the contents of Gods book. This is just the difference between this book and others; other books you may read and forget, this you must not forget; others you may have on your shelves and not read unless you like, this you must read if you can; upon others you may pronounce any opinion you please, but this must govern your opinions, and you must take it as the light of your feet and the lamp to your paths. Yes, this is the way in which you must treat the Scriptures, not only for your own sakes, but for the sake of others. I said just now that you must strive, if necessary, for the Holy Scriptures, but undoubtedly the most effective way of defending them from assaults, and making men honour them, is to act them out in your conduct, and let Christ be revealed to men in your lives. St. Paul speaks in the text of Christ being revealed in him. I have spoken of the force of that phrase; and now, finally, I would ask you to compare it with a similar phrase with which the apostle closes the chapter from which I have taken my text; he says, they glorified God in me; they saw his life, they saw the change made by Gods revelation, and they glorified God in him when they saw Christ revealed in him; and so, Christian brethren, if we have received a revelation from God, and if a deep responsibility is laid upon us by the reception of that revelation, then the best mode of discharging our responsibility is to lead a holy and godly life. That will show forth Christ. (The Dean of Ely.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

St. Pauls call to the apostolic office<\/strong><\/p>\n


I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>The source whence his religious impressions were derived. What does Paul mean to teach us when he says that he was called? He means that it was not he who first came to the Master, but that having been called to Him, he obeyed; that he did not spontaneously seek and find, but that he was found when he was wandering; that it was not he who first looked up to the light, but the light which sent its rays upon his vision, and having closed his outward, opened his inward eyes.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>His destination to the apostolic office.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>That this commission was co-incident with his conversion, and he became a successful advocate of the truth he once opposed. The suddenness of his preparation for the office strikes us as much as the suddenness of his call to it; and his history teaches us that Christ is at no loss for instruments in the advancement of His cause. If the interests of religion require some distinguished champion, He reverses the ordinary laws of procedure, and goes down to the camp of the enemy, and fixing His eye upon the hope and pride of all their hosts, converts him from a foe into a friend, and presents him to the world as a trophy of His power, and a successful herald of His praise. Christ rules in the midst of His enemies, and from the very stones that threaten to impede his triumphal march, can raise up children to Abraham. Luther was educated as a monk in the University of Wirtemburg, and was so eager an upholder of the existing system, that he publicly defended, in a thesis, the martyrdom of John Huss. He was, even after his conversion, long reluctant to throw off the authority of the Pope; yet this man was the instrument of the emancipation of Europe, and, once engaged, as Atterbury has observed, against the united forces of the papal world, stood the shock with bravery and success. I was, says Latimer, as obstinate a papist as any in England, and when made Bachelor of Divinity, my whole oration went against Philip Melancthon and his opinions. Soame Jenyns was for many years a deist, yet, after emerging from a labyrinth of scepticism, he wrote an ingenious work on the internal evidences of the Christian religion, the success of which gave him much joy on his death-bed. The late Mr. Biddulph, in his work on the Liturgy, states of Gilbert West, and his friend Lord Lyttleton, that they were both men of acknowledged talents, and had imbibed the principles of infidelity from a superficial view of the Scriptures. Fully persuaded that the system was an imposture, they were determined to expose the cheat. Mr. West chose the Resurrection of Christ, and Lord Lyttleton the Conversion of St. Paul, for the subject of hostile criticism, Both sat down to their respective tasks, full of prejudice and contempt for Christianity, but the result of their separate attempts was truly extraordinary. They were both converted by their efforts to overthrow the truth, and came together, not as they anticipated, to exult over an imposture turned to ridicule, but to lament their own folly, and felicitate each other upon their joint conviction that the Bible was the Word of God. And their inquiries have furnished two most valuable treatises in favour of revelation: one entitled, Observations on the Resurrection of Christ, and the other, Observations on the Conversion of St. Paul. This also cometh forth from the Lord of Hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>That the decision and energy he displayed in the service of Christ are worthy of universal imitation. Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. In the concerns of salvation flesh and blood are very bad counsellors. Flesh and blood would have kept the three Hebrew youths from the fiery furnace; Abraham from offering the child of promise, etc. (The Evangelist.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

.<\/em><\/p>\n

The inward revelation of Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n


I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>The sum of experience in conversion.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>The chief essential qualification of the preacher.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>The great religious want of the world. (T. Goadby.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The inner revelation of Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n

Education <\/em>refines and elevates but does not save and sanctify the soul; law civilizes but cannot change the heart and the will; science and philosophy give power and endless resources to enlarge the faculties of the mind, but they leave the problems of sin and pardon unsolved. The revelation of Christ fills the soul with light, and life, and joy; is the only solution of the problems of our moral being; the only deliverer from the law of sin and death; the only pledge of everlasting life, and indeed the beginning of a Divine education which ennobles and saves, and the dawn of a heavenly day which brings wisdom, and righteousness, and peace. (T. Goadby.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Regeneration <\/strong><\/p>\n

is the calm exercise of omnipotent power like that which commanded the light to shine out of darkness: it commands the light of the glory of God to shine on the soul from the face of God internally revealed. (W. B. Pope, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Conversion <\/strong><\/p>\n

is the personal interview of each conscience with God the Judge of all. (W. J. Irons, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The conversion of St. Paul a witness to the truth of Christianity<\/strong><\/p>\n

He was not separated from the events, as we are, by centuries of time. He was not liable to be blinded by the dazzling glamour of a victorious Christendom. He had mingled daily with men who had watched from Bethlehem to Golgotha the life of the Crucified. He had talked with the priests who had consigned Him to the cross; he had put to death the followers who had wept beside His tomb. He had to face the horror of a Messiah who had hung upon a tree. He had heard again and again the:proofs which had satisfied an Annas and a Gamaliel that Jesus was a deceiver. The events on which the apostle relied as proof of His Divinity had taken place in the full blaze of contemporary knowledge. He had not to deal with the uncertainties of criticism or assaults on authenticity. He could question not ancient documents hut living men. He had thousands of means close at hand whereby to test truths which up to this time he had so passionately and contemptuously disbelieved. In accepting this half-crushed and wholly execrated faith he had everything in the world to lose–he had nothing conceivable to gain; and yet, in spite of all–over-whelmed by a conviction which he felt to be irresistible–Saul the Pharisee became a witness of the resurrection, a preacher of the Cross. (F. W. Farrar.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Preach Him among the heathen.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pauls mission<\/strong><\/p>\n


I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>His great motive. To preach Christ.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>His prompt surrender.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>Personal.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Decisive.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>Final. (A. F. Barfield.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The very theory of Christianity, not merely its finest enthusiasm, is that when once Christ is in the heart the whole life must be entirely His. (W. B. Pope, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Paul was not like the missionary of later times, whose great work is <\/strong>accomplished if he can add to the number of his converts; he was this, but he was much more than this; it was not the actual conversions themselves, but the principle which every conversion involved, that constitutes the enduring interest of that life-long struggle. It was not merely that he reclaimed from Paganism the Grecian cities of Asia Minor, but that at every step which he took westward he tore up the prejudice of ages. It was not merely that he cast out the false spirit from the damsel at Philippi, hut that here religion ceased to be Asiatic and became European. It was not merely that at Athens he converted Dionysius and Damaris, but that there was seen a Jew standing in the court of the Areopagus, and appealing to an Athenian audience as children of the same Father, and worshippers, though unconsciously, of the same God. It was not that at Rome he made some impression on the slaves of the Imperial palace, but that a descendant of Abraham recognized in that corrupt metropolis a field for his exertions as sacred as the courts of the Temple at Jerusalem. (Dean Stanley.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The work of a missionary<\/strong><\/p>\n


I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>By <\/em>whom sent.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>Whither sent.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>To Whom sent.<\/p>\n


IV. <\/strong>For what sent.<\/p>\n

A missionarys work is not that of–<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>Science.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Politics.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>Civilization.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>But that of preaching to the heathen.<\/p>\n


V. <\/strong>With what encouragement. Gods command: that is enough. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The missionary an enthusiast<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whom shall the Lord send? The passive neutral? The respectable indolent selfist? The tame, dull, average religionist? The mere doctrinist, whose faiths, instead of being alive and part of himself, are like dry botanical preparations, classified and kept in a book? The man who studies how little he can give, or be, or do, or suffer for Christ, and yet be safe? The sluggard who, when a shadow shakes or a leaf rustles, says, a lion is in the way? The coward who makes his profession under shelter, and creeps along with slow cautious steps? No I all these must be cleared out of the way. Lord Lansdowne asked Dr. Price the Unitarian what was to be done to reform the profligate people of Calne? Send them an enthusiast, was the reply. And only an enthusiast is likely to be a divinely successful missionary to the heathen, whether at home or abroad. (C. Stanford, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Religious impulses<\/strong><\/p>\n


I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>Gods way of working in the hearts of His people is to start and quicken religious impulses.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>By preaching.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Bible study.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>Prayer.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>Religious biography. But<\/p>\n

5. <\/strong>there are impulses for which we cannot account at all.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>God carries on His work in us by settling impulses into life principles. This is sanctification. The leaping mountain spring that bounds from rock to rock, and rushes over hindrances, gathers strength and becomes presently the noiseless quiet river that flows smoothly along, breathing out refreshment as it flows, and singing to its own quieter music the same song to God.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>Sin checks these impulses by suggesting delay in acting them out.<\/p>\n


IV. <\/strong>The Divine origin of these impulses may be tested by their tendency to–<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>Devotion.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Work.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>Holiness.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>Beneficence.<\/p>\n


V. <\/strong>Such impulses may be safely followed.<\/p>\n


VI. <\/strong>Divine impulses are checked by the cool calculations of selfishness. Application:<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>Some of you are not naturally impulsive. There is a side of your nature which needs cultivation.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Some of you are naturally very impulsive. Dont lay violent hands upon them, but strengthen your other faculties. (R. Tuck, B. A.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I conferred not with flesh and blood<\/strong>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Apostolic independence<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is difficult for us, at this distance of time, to feel, as St. Paul did, the importance of his apostolic independence. That the point was, in his opinion, a vital one, is evident from the fact that he devotes nearly a third part of this Epistle to the proof of it. It was important in two ways.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>If it could be shown that for some considerable period after his conversion the apostle held little or no intercourse with the twelve, that he sought not their teaching, but maintained an independent course, and acted solely upon his own responsibility, it would go far to prove that he occupied no subordinate position, but possessed an authority which was equal in all respects to theirs.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Whilst if it could be further shown that, although deriving no instruction from the twelve, he yet taught a system of Divine truth which was recognized by them as identical with their own, it would be a strong argument in favour of his position that he had received his gospel, not of man, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. For these reasons St. Paul asserts strongly, and argues out at length, the fact of his independence. (Emilius Bayley, B. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Divine teaching for all<\/strong><\/p>\n

No man must rest satisfied with merely human teaching. In its proper place such teaching is most valuable. But it is not all that is required. There is a sense in which each Christian ought to be able to say, I conferred not with flesh and blood–I felt the necessity of higher teaching than that of man; I knew that there were endowments which flesh and blood could not bestow upon me; I sought them directly from God. There is doubtless a spirit of independence which is a spirit of pride; but there is an independence of man which is the independence of humility–an independence which is so conscious of the inadequacy of everything human to satisfy the longings of the soul, that it can only carry its great need to a source which is Divine. (Emilius Bayley, B. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The duty of obedience<\/strong><\/p>\n

Implicit obedience is our first duty to God, and one for which nothing else will compensate. If a lad at school is bidden to cipher, and chooses to write a copy instead, the goodness of the writing will not save him from censure. We must obey, whether we see the reason or not; for God knows best. A guide through an unknown country must be followed without demur. A captain, in coming up the Humber or Southampton Water, yields complete authority to the pilot. A soldier in battle must fight when and where he is ordered; when the conflict is over, he may reflect upon and perceive the wisdom of his commander in movements that at the time of their execution were perplexing. The farmer must obey Gods natural laws of the seasons, if he would win a harvest; and we must all obey Gods spiritual laws if we would reap happiness here and hereafter. (Anon.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Nature of obedience<\/strong><\/p>\n

Obedience is–<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>Active; not only avoiding what is prohibited, but performing what is commanded (Col 3:8<\/span>; Col 3:10<\/span>).<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>Personal; for though Christ has obeyed the law for us as a covenant of works, yet He has not abrogated it as a rule of life (Rom 7:22<\/span>; Rom 3:31<\/span>).<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>Sincere (Psa 51:6<\/span>; 1Ti 1:5<\/span>).<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>Affectionate; springing from love, not from terror (1Jn 5:19<\/span>; 1Jn 2:5<\/span>; 2Co 5:14<\/span>).<\/p>\n

5. <\/strong>Diligent; as St. Pauls at this time.<\/p>\n

6. <\/strong>Conspicuous (Php 2:15<\/span>; Mat 5:16<\/span>).<\/p>\n

7. <\/strong>Universal; not one duty, but all must be performed.<\/p>\n

8. <\/strong>Perpetual; at all times, places, occasions. (C. Buck.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Obligation to obedience<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are bound in all to obey God:<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>From the relation in which we stand to Him as His creatures.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>From the law He has revealed to us in His Word.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>From the blessings of His providence which we are constantly receiving.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>From His love and goodness in the grand work of redemption. (C. Buck.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Advantages of obedience<\/strong><\/p>\n

1<\/strong>. <\/em><\/strong>It adorns the gospel (Tit 2:10<\/span>).<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>It evidences grace (2Co 5:17<\/span>).<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>It rejoices the hearts of the ministers and people of God (3Jn 1:2<\/span>; 2Th 1:19-20).<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>It silences gainsayers (2Pe 1:11-12<\/span>).<\/p>\n

5. <\/strong>It encourages the saints, while it reproves the lukewarm (Mat 5:16<\/span>).<\/p>\n

6. <\/strong>It affords peace to the subjects of it (Psa 25:12-13<\/span>; Act 24:16<\/span>).<\/p>\n

7. <\/strong>It powerfully recommends religion, as that which is both delightful and practicable (Col 1:10<\/span>).<\/p>\n

8. <\/strong>It is the forerunner and evidence of eternal glory (Rom 6:22<\/span>; Rev 22:14<\/span>). (C. Buck.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Actual obedience is the practice and exercise of the several graces and duties of Christianity. (C. Buck.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Obedience is the performance of the commands of a superior. (C. Buck.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Perfect <\/strong><\/p>\n

obedience is the exact conformity of our hearts and lives to the law of God, without the least imperfection. (C. Buck.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Virtual <\/strong><\/p>\n

obedience consists in a belief of the gospel, of the holiness and equity of its precepts, of the truth of its promises, and a true repentance of all our sins. (C. Buck.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Thorough obedience<\/strong><\/p>\n

A <\/em>soul sincerely obedient will not pick and choose what commands to obey and what to reject, as hypocrites do. An obedient soul is like a crystal glass with a light in the midst, which shines forth through every part thereof. A man sincerely obedient lays such a charge upon his whole man; as Mary the mother of Christ did upon all the servants at the feast, Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it. Eyes, ears, hands, heart, lips, legs, body, and soul, do you all seriously and affectionately observe whatever Jesus Christ says unto you, and do it. <\/em>(T. Brooks.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Prompt obedience<\/strong><\/p>\n

A story is told of a great captain who, after a battle, was talking over the events of the day with his officers. He asked them who had done the best that day. Some spoke of one man who had fought very bravely, and some or another. No, he said, you are all mistaken. The best man in the field to-day was a soldier who was just lifting up his arm to strike an enemy, but, when he heard the trumpet sound a retreat, checked himself, and dropped his arm without striking the blow. That perfect and ready obedience to the will of his general is the noblest thing that has been done to-day.<\/p>\n

Pauls promptitude<\/strong><\/p>\n


I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>There was no pause, for he says immediately.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>There was no giving opportunity for any counter influence. He conferred not, etc. He neither took counsel with himself nor with others.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>It is as though he felt the danger of a moments delay: fearful lest his convictions should be weakened if they did not at once produce great energy of conduct. (H. Melvill, B. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Promptness discriminated<\/strong><\/p>\n

In <\/em>matters of prudence second thoughts are best; in matters of conscience first thoughts are the best. (H. Melvill, B. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Promptness: its importance<\/strong><\/p>\n

Act immediately on your impressions of what is right. Stay not to debate when conscience has decided. Turn feelings into principles by forthwith employing them in practice. Do as Paul did. He was like the mariner who, if he can get a glimpse of the sun, seizes an observation and shifts the rudder. Get you but a glance of Gods will, and instantaneously shape your course by it. (H. Melvill, B. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Promptness: the danger of a want of it in religion<\/strong><\/p>\n

You felt a conviction as to duty, but you determined to take time for consideration, and the conviction cooled. It was a golden moment, but in your prudence–the prudence when a leak is found out in the ship of waiting till to-morrow before trying to stop it–you determined to do nothing hastily, but to wait and see whether the conviction was aught else but a transient feeling. Of course it proved a transient feeling. The first touches of Gods Spirit are meant to be transient unless attended to. The Spirit is likened to the wind, and the soul is breathed upon rather than struck. It is your business to prevent the impression being transient. If you would keep the dew on the grass you must keep the sun from it. If you would keep the impression of the heart you must keep the world from the heart. But because you have paused to confer with flesh and blood, you have given the world time to rally its forces, and therefore by the next day the impression is gone, and you have perhaps secretly felt pleased that second thoughts were so different from the first. Second thoughts tie men to the world where first thoughts would have devoted them to God. (H. Melvill, B. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Promptness: its blessedness<\/strong><\/p>\n

Happy he who has learned this one thing–to do the plain duty of the moment quickly and cheerfully, whatever it may be, and whatever may be the consequences,<\/p>\n

Non-conference with flesh and blood<\/strong><\/p>\n

The subject–<\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>Awakens reflection as to the sphere and limits of religious organization.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>Enforces the necessity of individual culture and the importance of individual action.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>Suggests hopeful anticipations as to the progress of the Kingdom of God. (T. Goadby.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Individuality<\/strong><\/p>\n

There <\/em>is not a spider hanging on the Kings wall but hath its errand; there is not a nettle that groweth in the corner of the churchyard but hath its purpose; there is not a single insect fluttering in the breeze but accomplisheth some Divine decree; and I will never have it that God created any man, especially any Christian man, to be a blank, a nothing. He made you for an cud; find out what that end is; find.out your niche and fill it. If it be ever so little, do something in this great battle for God and truth. (C. H. Spurgeon.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Conferring with flesh and blood<\/strong><\/p>\n

Invading <\/em>armies always endeavour to leave their ships riding in a safe and sheltered anchorage. In the event of their enterprise proving unsuccessful, they thus secure the means of retreat; and to provide for such an emergency is regarded as a good stroke of generalship. Wellington fought Waterloo with the Forest of Soigny at his back; and the fleet which carried our soldiers to fight the Russians before Sebastopol waited the issue in the Bay of Balaclava. The brave old Romans, whom Caesar led, invaded our country after a different fashion. The first thing they did on disembarking, was to burn their ships; doing so in sight of thousands who were bravely mustering on the heights of England, to defend their homes, their wives and little ones, their freedom and native land. Not leaving the enemy to cut off their retreat, they cut it off themselves. Their own hands put the torch to the fleet which had brought them to Britain, and, in the event of failure would have carried them back to Italy. With the glare of that brave conflagration on their eagles, banners, and serried ranks, we cannot wonder that, with such sons to fight her battles, Rome rose from a petty town to be mistress of the world. Both her destiny and their determination were to be plainly seen in the blaze of their burning ships. Bringing to the enterprise such an indomitable spirit and such decision of character, unless the stars of heaven fought against them as against Sisera, how could they fail to conquer? <\/em>(Dr. Guthrie.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ministers must preach Christ <\/strong><\/p>\n

In a village church in one of the Tyrolese valleys, we saw upon the pulpit an outstretched arm, carved in wood, the hand of which held forth a cross. We noted the emblem as full of instruction as to what all true ministry should be, and must be–a holding forth of the cross of Christ to the multitude as the only trust of sinners. Jesus Christ must be set forth evidently crucified among them. Lord, make this the aim and habit of all our ministers. (C. H. Spurgeon.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

I have had to interline your sermon all through and through with the name of Christ, was the criticism which an aged parishioner once passed upon the discourse of a young pastor. Said the lamented MCheyne, Some speculate on doctrines about the gospel, rather than preach the gospel itself. I see a man cannot be a faithful minister, until he preaches Christ for Christs sake. (Christian Treasury.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Preachers must not confer with flesh and blood<\/strong><\/p>\n

A distinguished general said to Luther, as he was about to enter the presence of the judges at Worms, Poor monk, thou art now going to make a nobler stand than I or any other captains have ever made in the bloodiest of our battles. But if thy cause is just and thou art sure of it, go forward in Gods name and fear nothing. God will not forsake thee. As the Earl of Morton stood looking down into the grave of John Knox he said, There lies one who never feared the face of man.<\/p>\n

Immediate obedience<\/strong><\/p>\n

As when a general commands his army to march, if, then, the soldiers should stand upon terms, and refuse to go except they have better clothes, their pay in hand, or the like, and then they will march,–this would not show them an obedient, disciplined army; but if, at the reading of their orders, they presently break up their quarters, and set forth, though it be midnight when the command come, and they without money, or clothes on their backs, leaving the whole care of themselves for these things to their general, and they only attend how they may best fulfil his commands,–these may be said to march in obedience. (H. G. Salter.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A conference to be avoided<\/strong><\/p>\n

Being taught of God, he did not consult those who were already believers, lest he should seem to have received his religion at second-hand. He did not consult his relatives, who would have advised caution. He did not consult his own interests, which all lay in the opposite direction. These he counted loss for Christ. He did not consult his own safety, but risked life itself for Jesus. In this independent course he was justified, and should be imitated.<\/p>\n


I. <\/strong>Faith needs no warrant but the will of god.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>Good men in all ages have acted upon this conviction. Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Samson, David, Elijah, Daniel, the three who were cast into the furnace, etc.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>To ask more is virtually to renounce the Lord as our Commander and Guide, and to lift man into his place.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>To hesitate from self-interest is openly to defy the Lord.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>To submit the claims of duty to the judgment of the flesh is diametrically opposed to the character and claims of the Lord Jesus, who gave Himself to us, and expects us to give ourselves to Him without question or reserve.<\/p>\n

5. <\/strong>To delay duty until we have held such consultation almost always ends in not doing the right thing at all. Too often it is sought after that an excuse may be found for avoiding an unpleasant duty.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>The principle has a wide range of application.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>To known duties. In service we are not to consult personal liking, ease, honour, prospect of advancement, or remuneration.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>To needful sacrifices. We had better not confer with flesh and blood; for good men may be self-indulgent, and so consult their own flesh.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>To special service. We are not to be held back from this by–Considerations of personal weakness; considerations of want of visible means; considerations of how others will interpret our actions.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>To an open avowal of Christ. We must not be deterred from it by–The wishes of others, who think themselves involved in our act; the dread of contempt from those who deride godliness; the fear of not holding on, and of thus disgracing religion; reluctance to give up the world, and a secret clinging to its ways. This is a very perilous vice. Remember Lots wife.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>The principle commends itself our best judgment. It is justified by–<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>The judgment which we exercise upon others. We blame them if they have no mind of their own. We applaud them if they are bravely faithful.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>The judgment of an enlightened conscience.<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong>The judgment of a dying bed.<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong>The judgment of an eternal world. (C. H. Spurgeon.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A hard lesson<\/strong><\/p>\n

But <\/em>this is a hard lesson to learn. I read some time ago of a German captain who found this out. He was drilling a company of volunteers. The parade ground was a field by the seaside. The men were going through their exercises very nicely, but the captain thought he would give them a lesson about obeying orders. They were marching up and down in the line of the water at some distance from it. He concluded to give them an order to march directly towards the water and see how far they would go. The men are marching along. Halt, company, says the captain. In a moment they halt. Right face is the next word, and instantly they wheel round. Forwart martch, is then the order. At once they begin to march directly towards the water: on they go, nearer and nearer to it. Soon they reach the edge of the water. Then there is a sudden halt. Vat for you stop? I no say, Halt, cried the captain. Why, captain, here is the water, said one of the men. Vell, vet of it, cried he, greatly excited, Vater is nothing; fire is nothing; everything is nothing. Ven I say, Forwart martch, then you must forwart martch. The captain was right; the first duty of a soldier is to learn to obey. (Dr. Richard Newton.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

What God calls a man to do He will carry him through<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would undertake to govern half-a-dozen worlds if God called me to do it; but if He did not call me to do it, I would not undertake to govern half-a-dozen sheep. (Dr. Payson.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Verse 15. Who separated me from my mother’s womb<\/B><\/I>] Him whom I acknowledge as the GOD of nature<\/I> and the GOD of grace<\/I>; who preserved<\/I> me by his providence<\/I> when I was a helpless infant<\/I>, and saved<\/I> me by his grace<\/I> when I was an adult persecutor<\/I>. For some useful remarks on these passages see the introduction<\/I>, sec. ii.<\/P><\/p>\n

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Here are two acts predicated of God, with relation to Paul: the first is a separating of him from the womb; the same was said of two of the great prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Isa 49:1<\/span>; Jer 1:5<\/span>. The apostle here is not speaking of Gods decree, predestinating him to eternal life, but of his determining him to the work of an apostle. God predetermineth men to the stations they shall take up in the world; especially such who are to take up stations wherein they are to be eminently useful and serviceable to him. The second act predicated of God is his calling of Paul: this is an act in time, and lieth much in the preparing of persons for the work allotted to them, and in inclining the heart to it. Thus God called Paul, fitting him for the work of the ministry, and inclining him to it; to which he added his immediate command from heaven, that he should go and preach the gospel. Both these acts of God are ascribed to his good pleasure and grace, nothing but his mere free love and favour moving him, either to separate, or to call Paul to this high and great employment. <\/P> <\/p>\n

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

15. separated<\/B>“set meapart”: in the purposes of His electing love (compare Act 9:15<\/span>;Act 22:14<\/span>), in order to show inme His<\/I> “pleasure,<\/I>” which is the farthestpoint that any can reach in inquiring the causes of his salvation.The actual “separating” or “setting apart” to thework marked out for him, is mentioned in Act 13:2<\/span>;Rom 1:1<\/span>. There is an allusion,perhaps, in the way of contrast, to the derivation of Pharisee fromHebrew,<\/I> “pharash,<\/I>” “separated.” Iwas once a so-called Pharisee or Separatist,<\/I> but God hadseparated<\/I> me to something far better. <\/P>

from . . . womb<\/B>Thusmerit in me was out of the question, in assigning causes for His callfrom Ac 9:11<\/span>. Grace is the solecause (Psa 22:9<\/span>; Psa 71:6<\/span>;Isa 49:1<\/span>; Isa 49:5<\/span>;Jer 1:5<\/span>; Luk 1:15<\/span>).<\/P>

called me<\/B>on the way toDamascus (Ac 9:3-8<\/span>).<\/P><\/p>\n

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

But when it pleased God<\/strong>,…. Here begins his account of his conversion, and call to the ministry; all which he ascribes entirely to the sovereign good pleasure, and free grace of God:<\/p>\n

who separated me from my mother’s womb<\/strong>. By his “mother” is meant, not in an improper and figurative sense, the Jewish church, or the old synagogue, the mother of all its members; the Jerusalem which then was, and was in bondage with her children; from which bondage, blindness, ignorance, superstition and bigotry, he was delivered, when called by grace: nor the church at Antioch, which is never called a mother church; and though he was by that church, with Barnabas, separated for the work of the ministry, yet not from it: but by his “mother”, without a figure is meant, his real natural mother, whose name is said to be Theocrita; and this separation from her womb is to be understood either of that distinction made of him in Providence, as soon as born; which not only took him, and safely brought him out of his mother’s womb, but ever since took special care of him, and saved and preserved him to be called; for all the chosen vessels of salvation are distinguished from others, in a providential way; they are more under the special care of Providence than others are, even whilst in a state of unregeneracy; God’s eye of Providence is upon them, his heart is towards them, he waits upon them to be gracious to them, and many are the remarkable appearances of Providence for them; see Ps 22:9<\/span>. Or rather this designs divine predestination, which is a separation, a setting apart of persons, for such and such purposes, as here of the apostle; and the eternity of it, it being very early done, from his mother’s womb; whilst he was in it, before he was born, and had done either good or evil; from the beginning of time, from the foundation of the world, and before it, even from eternity: all which phrases express the same thing, and intend either his predestination to grace and glory, to holiness and happiness, to sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth, and to the obtaining the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ; or his predestination to apostleship, to the work of the ministry, to the Gospel of Christ, to which he was separated in eternity, and in time; reference seems to be had to Jer 1:5<\/span> or indeed both, and his separation or predestination to both was owing to the sovereign will and good pleasure of God, as was also his after call:<\/p>\n

and called me by his grace<\/strong>; which follows upon separation, as it does on predestination, in Ro 8:30<\/span> and is to be interpreted either of his call at conversion, by powerful and efficacious grace; when he was called out of Jewish darkness, blindness, and ignorance, into Gospel light and knowledge; out of the bondage of sin, Satan, the law, and traditions of the fathers, into the liberty of Christ; from conversation with the men of the world, among whom before he had it, into the fellowship of Father, Son, and Spirit, angels and saints; out of himself, and off of a dependence on his own righteousness, to trust in Christ: in a word, he was called into the grace of Christ here, into a participation of all the blessings of grace, and to eternal glory by him hereafter; which call was not of men, but of God, as the efficient cause of it; and by his grace, as the moving and procuring cause of it, and without the use of means, the word, which is the ordinary way in which God calls his people; so that it is plain his first light into the Gospel, was not of man, nor so much as by the means of man: or this call may respect his call to the ministry, which was at the same time he was effectually called by grace; and which also was not of man, nor of himself; he did not thrust himself into this work, but God called him; and that of his mere grace and good will, without any respect to any merits, deserts, or qualifications in him.<\/p>\n

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

It was the good pleasure of God <\/B> ( <\/SPAN><\/span>). Paul had no doubt about God’s purpose in him (1Th 2:8<\/span>).<\/P>

Who separated me <\/B> ( <\/SPAN><\/span>). <\/SPAN><\/span> is old word (from <\/SPAN><\/span> and <\/SPAN><\/span>) to mark off from a boundary or line. The Pharisees were the separatists who held themselves off from others. Paul conceives himself as a spiritual Pharisee “separated unto the gospel of God” (Ro 1:1<\/span>, the same word <\/SPAN><\/span>). Before his birth God had his plans for him and called him. <\/P> <\/p>\n

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

It pleased [] <\/SPAN><\/span>. See on eujdokia good pleasure, 1Th 1:11<\/span>. <\/P>

Separated [] <\/SPAN><\/span>. Set apart : designated. See on Rom 1:1<\/span>, and declared, Rom 1:4<\/span>. The A. V. wrongly lends itself to the sin ense of the physical separation of the child from the mother. <\/P>

From my mother’s womb [ ] <\/SPAN><\/span>. Before I was born. Others, from the time of my birth. A few passages in LXX go to sustain the former view : Jud 16<\/span>:17; Isa 64:2<\/span>, 24<\/span>; Isa 66:1<\/span>, 5<\/span>. That view is also favored by those instances in which a child ‘s destiny is clearly fixed by God before birth, as Samson, Jud 16<\/span>:17; comp. Jud 13<\/span>:5, 7<\/span>; John the Baptist, Luk 1:15<\/span>. See also Mt 19:12<\/span>. The usage of ejk as marking a temporal starting point is familiar. See Joh 6:66<\/span>; Joh 9:1<\/span>; Act 9:33<\/span>; Act 24:10<\/span>. Called [] <\/SPAN><\/span>. See on Rom 4:17<\/span>. Referring to Paul ‘s call into the kingdom and service of Christ. It need not be limited to his experience at Damascus, but may include the entire chain of divine influences which led to his conversion and apostleship. He calls himself klhtov ajpostolov an apostle by call, Rom 1:1<\/span>; 1Co 1:1<\/span>.<\/P> <\/p>\n

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

1) “But when it pleased God,”<\/strong> (hote de eudokesen) “But when (God) was pleased;” Paul attributed the whole of his conversion and missionary ministry to the initiative and sustaining call and direction of God as Old Testament prophets did, Isa 49:1<\/span>; Isa 49:5<\/span>; Jer 1:5<\/span>; 2Ti 1:9<\/span>.<\/p>\n

2) “Who separated me from my mother’s womb,”<\/strong> (ho aporisas me ek koilias metros mou) “The one who separated me out of (from) my mother’s womb,” from infancy. God’s special call of Paul, as of ancient prophets, was not On afterthought of God, Paul affirmed, Act 9:15<\/span>; Act 13:2<\/span>; Act 22:14<\/span>; Rom 1:1<\/span>; Mat 1:20-21<\/span>; Luk 1:15<\/span>; Luk 1:31<\/span>; Joh 10:36<\/span>.<\/p>\n

3) “And called me by his grace,”<\/strong> (kai kalesas dia tes charitos autou) “and (who) called me through his grace; Paul was at once an Hebrew, a Greek, and a Roman citizen who was educated in the Hebrew Scriptures and in Greek learning, at the feet of Gamaliel, from which background, of a zealot Pharisee, God’s grace called and redeemed him, Act 22:3<\/span>; Act 9:5-6<\/span>; Rom 8:30<\/span>; 2Co 4:6<\/span>; Gal 4:6<\/span>; 2Co 12:9<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

15. But after that it pleased God. This is the second part of the narrative, and relates to his miraculous conversion. He tells us, first, that he had been called by the grace of God to preach Christ among the Gentiles; and, next, that as soon as he had been called, without consulting the apostles, he unhesitatingly proceeded to the performance of the work, which, he felt assured, had been enjoined upon him by the appointment of God. In the construction of the words, Erasmus differs from the Vulgate. He connects them in the following manner: “When it pleased God that I should preach Christ among the Gentiles, who called me for this purpose that he might reveal him by me. ” But I prefer the old translation; for Christ had been revealed to Paul before he received a command to preach. Admitting that Erasmus were right in translating ἐν ἐμοὶ, by me, still the clause, that I might preach, is added for the purpose of describing the kind of revelation. <\/p>\n

Paul’s reasoning does not, at first sight, appear so strong; for although, when he had been converted to Christianity, he instantly, and without consulting the apostles, entered into the office of preaching the gospel, it does not thence follow that he had been appointed to that office by the revelation of Christ. But the arguments which he employs are various, and, when they are all collected, will be found sufficiently strong to establish his conclusion. He argues, first, that he had been called by the grace of God; next, that his apostleship had been acknowledged by the other apostles; and the other arguments follow. Let the reader, therefore, remember to read the whole narrative together, and to draw the inference, not from single parts, but from the whole. <\/p>\n

Who had separated me. This separation was the purpose of God, by which Paul was appointed to the apostolic office, before he knew that he was born. The calling followed afterwards at the proper time, when the Lord made known his will concerning him, and commanded him to proceed to the work. God had, no doubt, decreed, before the foundation of the world, what he would do with regard to every one of us, and had assigned to every one, by his secret counsel, his respective place. But the sacred writers frequently introduce those three steps: the eternal predestination of God, the destination from the womb, and the calling, which is the effect and accomplishment of both. <\/p>\n

The word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah, though expressed a little differently from this passage, has entirely the same meaning. <\/p>\n

“<\/p>\n

Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee; and before thou camest forth from the womb I sanctified thee; a prophet to the nations have I made thee.” (Jer 1:5<\/span>.) <\/p>\n

Before they even existed, Jeremiah had been set apart to the office of a prophet, and Paul to that of an apostle; but he is said to separate us from the womb, because the design of our being sent into the world is, that he may accomplish, in us, what he has decreed. The calling is delayed till its proper time, when God has prepared us for the office which he commands us to undertake. <\/p>\n

Paul’s words may therefore be read thus: “When it pleased God to reveal his Son, by me, who called me, as he had formerly separated me.” He intended to assert, that his calling depends on the secret election of God; and that he was ordained an apostle, not because by his own industry he had fitted himself for undertaking so high an office, or because God had accounted him worthy of having it bestowed upon him, but because, before he was born, he had been set apart by the secret purpose of God. <\/p>\n

Thus, in his usual manner, he traces his calling to the good pleasure of God. This deserves our careful attention; for it shows us that we owe it to the goodness of God, not only that we have been elected and adopted to everlasting life, but that he deigns to make use of our services, who would otherwise have been altogether useless, and that he assigns to us a lawful calling, in which we may be employed. What had Paul, before he was born, to entitle him to so high an honor? In like manner we ought to believe, that it is entirely the gift of God, and not obtained by our own industry, that we have been called to govern the Church. <\/p>\n

The subtle distinctions into which some commentators have entered in explaining the word separated, are altogether foreign to the subject. God is said to separate us, not because he bestows any peculiar disposition of mind which distinguishes us from others, but because he appoints us by his own purpose (28). Although the apostle had most explicitly attributed his calling to the free grace of God, when he pronounced that voluntary separation from the womb to be the origin of it, yet he repeats the direct statement, both that, by his commendation of Divine grace, he may take away all grounds of boasting, and that he may testify his own gratitude to God. On this subject he is wont freely to expatiate, even when he has no controversy with the false apostles. <\/p>\n

(28) “ Quand par son conseil il nous destine a quelque chose.” “When he appoints us to any thing by his purpose.” <\/p>\n

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES<\/em><\/p>\n

Gal. 1:16<\/span>. To reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him.<\/strong>The revealing of His Son by me to the Gentiles was impossible, unless He had first revealed His Son in me; at first on my conversion, but especially at the subsequent revelation from Jesus Christ (Gal. 1:12<\/span>), whereby I learnt the gospels independence of the Mosaic law.<\/p>\n

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.<\/em>Gal. 1:15-19<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The Imperative Claims of a Divine Commission<\/em><\/p>\n

I. Are independent of personal merit.<\/strong>But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mothers womb, and called me by His grace (Gal. 1:15<\/span>). From the beginning the apostle was divinely destined to fulfil his high vocation. His Hebrew birth and Hellenistic culture combined to prepare him for his future work. When he developed into a hot persecutor of the Christian faith he seemed far away from his life-mission. But a change took place, and it soon became apparent that, not on the ground of any merit of his own, but because it pleased God, the training from his birth was the best possible preparation for his lofty calling. We cannot see far into the future, or forecast the issue of our own plans or of those we form for others.<\/p>\n

There is a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough hew them as we may.<\/p>\n

The divine element in our lives becomes more evident as we faithfully do the duty imposed on us. Joseph recognised this when he declared to his brethren, It was not you that sent me hither, but God (Gen. 45:8<\/span>).<\/p>\n

II. Are based on an unmistakably divine revelation.<\/strong>To reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen (Gal. 1:16<\/span>). The dazzling appearance of Christ before his eyes, and the summons of His voice addressed to Sauls bodily ears, formed the special mode in which it pleased God to call him to the apostleship. But there was also the inward revelation of Christ to his heart by the Holy Ghost. It was this which wrought in him the great spiritual change, and inspired him to be a witness for Christ to the Gentiles. His Judaic prejudices were swept away, and he became the champion of a universal gospel. The same revelation that made Paul a Christian made him the apostle of mankind. The true preacher carries within his own spiritually renovated nature evidence and authority of his divine commission.<\/p>\n

This is what makes him the crowd-drawing preacher,
Theres a background of God to each hard-working feature;
Every word that he speaks has been fierily furnaced
In a blast of a life which has struggled in earnest.<\/p>\n

III. Are superior to the functions of human counsel.<\/strong>I conferred not with flesh and blood: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me (Gal. 1:16-17<\/span>). The counsel of the wise and good is valuable, and ordinarily should be diligently sought and thoughtfully pondered. But when God calls, the commission is beyond either the advice or the opposition of men. Paul had reached a stage into which no human authority could lift him, and from which it could not dislodge him. He might legitimately confer with others as to methods of work, but his call to work was imposed upon him by a power to which all human counsellors and ecclesiastical magnates must submit. Channing once said: The teacher to whom are committed the infinite realities of the spiritual world, the sanctions of eternity, the powers of the life to come, has instruments to work with which turn to feebleness all other means of influence.<\/p>\n

IV. Stimulate to active service.<\/strong>But I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus (Gal. 1:17<\/span>). Immediately after his conversion the history tells us, Straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues (Act. 9:20<\/span>). In Arabia, a country of the Gentiles, he doubtless preached the gospel, as he did before and after at Damascus, and thus demonstrated the independence of his apostolic commission. A call to preach demands immediate response, and impels to earnest and faithful endeavour. It is said that Whitefields zealous spirit exhausted all its energies in preaching, and his full dedication to God was honoured by unbounded success. The effect produced by his sermons was indescribable, arising in a great degree from the most perfect forgetfulness of self during the solemn moment of declaring the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. His evident sincerity impressed every hearer, and is said to have forcibly struck Lord Chesterfield when he heard him at Lady Huntingdons. The preacher, as the ambassador for Christ, is eager to declare His message, and anxious it should be understood and obeyed.<\/p>\n

V. Are recognised by the highest ecclesiastical authority.<\/strong>Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and James the Lords brother (Gal. 1:18-19<\/span>). The claims of Paul to the apostleship, evidenced by such supernatural signs and such solid Christian work and patient suffering, were at length acknowledged by the chief leaders of the mother Church in Jerusalem. Good work advertises itself, and sooner or later compels recognition. What an eventful meeting of the first gospel pioneers, and how momentous the influence of such an interview and consultation! Though the call of God is unacknowledged, ridiculed, and opposed, its duties must be faithfully discharged. The day of ample reward will come.<\/p>\n

Lessons.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. God only can make the true preacher<\/em>. <\/p>\n

2. A call to preach involves suffering and toil<\/em>. <\/p>\n

3. The fruit of diligent and faithful work will certainly appear<\/em>.<\/p>\n

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES<\/em><\/p>\n

Gal. 1:15-17<\/span>. The Conversion and Vocation of St. Paul<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I. The causes of St. Pauls conversion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. The good pleasure of God.
2. His separation from the womb, which is an act of Gods counsel whereby He sets men apart to be members of Christ and to be His servants in this or that office.
3. His vocation by gracethe accomplishment of both the former in the time which God had appointed.<\/p>\n

II. The manner of his vocation.<\/strong>To reveal His Son in me. <\/p>\n

1. By preparation. God humbled and subdued the pride and stubbornness of his heart and made him tractable and teachable.
2. By instruction.
(1) Propounding unto him the commandment of the gospel, to repent and believe in Christ.
(2) Offering to him the promise of remission of sins and life everlasting when he believed.
3. By a real and lively teaching when God made Paul in his heart answer the calling. Ministers of Christ must learn Christ as Paul learned Him.<\/p>\n

III. The end of Pauls conversion.<\/strong>To preach Christ among the Gentiles. <\/p>\n

1. Christ is the substance or subject-matter of the whole Bible.
2. To preach Christ is:
(1) To teach the doctrine of the incarnation of Christ, and His offices as King, Prophet, and Priest.
(2) That faith is an instrument to apprehend and apply Christ.
(3) To certify and reveal to every hearer that it is the will of God to save him by Christ if he will receive Him.
(4) That he is to apply Christ with His benefits to himself in particular.
3. To preach to the Gentiles:
(1) Because the prophecies of the calling of the Gentiles must be fulfilled.
(2) Because the division between the Jews and Gentiles is abolished.<\/p>\n

IV. Pauls obedience to the calling of God<\/strong> (Gal. 1:16-17<\/span>).<\/p>\n

1. Gods word, preached or written, does not depend on the authority of any manno, not on the authority of the apostles themselves.
2. There is no consultation or deliberation to be used at any time touching the holding or not holding of our religion.
3. Our obedience to God must be without consultation. We must first try what is the will of God, and then absolutely put it into execution, leaving the issue to God.
4. Paul goes into Arabia and Damascus, and becomes a teacher to his professed enemies.Perkins<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Gal. 1:15-16<\/span>. Conversion as illustrated by that of St. Paul<\/em>.In the case of St. Paul there are many circumstances not paralleled in the general experience of Christians; but in its essential features, in the views with which it was accompanied and the effects it produced, it was exactly the same as every one must experience before he can enter into the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n

I. Its causes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Paul was chosen by God before his birth to be a vessel of honour. It pleased God, who separated me from my mothers womb. Are not all genuine Christians addressed as elect of God or chosen of God, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ? Why should not the real Christian give scope to those emotions of gratitude which such reflections will inspire?
2. The more immediate cause was the call of divine grace. And called me by His grace. There is a general call in the gospel addressed to all men indiscriminately. There is, in every instance of real conversion, another and inward call, by which the Spirit applies the general truth of the gospel to the heart. By this interior call Christ apprehends, lays hold on the soul, stops it in its impenitent progress, and causes it to hear His voice.<\/p>\n

II. The means by which conversion is effected.<\/strong>To reveal His Son in me. The principal method which the Spirit adopts in subduing the heart of a sinner is a spiritual discovery of Christ. There is an outward revelation of Christin the Scriptures; and an internal, of which the understanding and the heart are the seat. <\/p>\n

1. The Spirit reveals the greatness and dignity of Christ.
2. The transcendent beauty and glory of Christ.
3. The suitableness, fulness, and sufficiency of Christ to supply all our wants and relieve all our miseries.<\/p>\n

III. The effect of conversion on St. Paul.<\/strong>Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. He set himself without hesitation or demur to discharge the duties of his heavenly vocation. <\/p>\n

1. His compliance with the will of Christ was immediate.
2. Universal and impartial.
3. Constant and persevering.Robert Hall<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Gal. 1:16<\/span>. The Qualification of the True Minister<\/em><\/p>\n

I. Begins in an unmistakable revelation of Christ to his own soul.<\/strong>To reveal His Son in me.<\/p>\n

II. Urges him to declare the gospel to the most needy.<\/strong>That I might preach Him among the heathen.<\/p>\n

III. Raises him above the necessity of mere human authority.<\/strong>Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.<\/p>\n

Gal. 1:17<\/span>. The Divine Call to the Apostleship<\/em>.<\/p>\n

1. That extraordinary way whereby the Lord made known His mind to the penmen of Scripture was so infallible in itself and so evident to those to whom it came to be no delusion that they were above all doubt, and needed not to advise with the best of men in order to their confirmation about the reality of it. <\/p>\n

2. The Lord maketh sometimes the first piece of public service as hazardous, uncouth, and unsuccessful as any wherein He employs them afterwards, that His ministers may be taught to depend more on Gods blessing than on human probabilities, and that they may give proof of their obedience. Thus it was with Moses (Exo. 2:10<\/span>), and Jeremiah (Gal. 1:19<\/span>). <\/p>\n

3. The apostles were not fixed to any certain charge, as ordinary ministers are. Their charge was the whole world. They went from place to place as the necessities of people required, or as God by His providence and Spirit directed.Fergusson<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Gal. 1:18<\/span>. Retirement a Preparation for Work<\/em>.I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. <\/p>\n

1. Affording opportunity for thought and self-testing.
2. Gives leisure for study and forming plans for future service.
3. Is often the prelude of a busy and prosperous career.<\/p>\n

Gal. 1:18-19<\/span>. The Divine Call acknowledged<\/em>.<\/p>\n

1. That nothing of Peters supposed supremacy over Paul and the rest of the apostles can be gathered from this place appears from this, that Paul went first to his work before he came to Peter, and that his business with Peter was not to receive ordination from him or to evidence his subjection to him, but from respect and reverence to give him a friendly visit.
2. It ought to be the endeavour of Christs ministers to entertain love and familiarity one with another, as also to make their doing so evident to others, it being most unseemly for those who preach the gospel of peace to others to live in discord among themselves.
3. As ministers may and ought to meet sometimes together, to evidence and entertain mutual love and concord, and because of that mutual inspection which they ought to have one of another, so their meetings ought neither to be so frequent nor of so long continuance as that their flocks suffer prejudice.Fergusson<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

TEXT 1:1517<\/strong><\/p>\n

(15) But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mothers womb, and called me through his grace, (16) to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles; straightway I conferred not with flesh and blood: (17) neither went I up to Jerusalem to them that were apostles before me: but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned unto Damascus.<\/strong><\/p>\n

PARAPHRASE 1:1517<\/strong><\/p>\n

15 But when God, who destined me from my birth to be an apostle, and ordered my education with a view to that office, and who called me to it by his unmerited goodness, was pleased
16 To shew his Son to me, that I might preach Him to the heathen as risen from the dead, immediately after that I did not consult any man in Damascus, as having doubts concerning what I had seen, or as needing information concerning the gospel which I was called to preach.
17 Neither did I go up to Jerusalem to be instructed by they who were apostles before me; but I went away into Arabia, where there was no apostle; and having there received further revelations from Christ, and studied the scriptures by the light of these revelations, I again returned to Damascus, without having seen any of the apostles.<\/p>\n

COMMENT Gal. 1:15<\/span><\/p>\n

when it was the good pleasure of God<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

God works on time. Cf. Gal. 4:4<\/span><\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

He finds pleasure in His work and will.<\/p>\n

a.<\/p>\n

It was Gods good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that believe. 1Co. 1:21<\/span><\/p>\n

b.<\/p>\n

It is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom. <\/span>Luk. 12:32<\/span><\/p>\n

who separated me<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

Separate is a Hebrew expression meaning to sanctify, ordain, or prepare.<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

Nothing Paul had done merited this call.<\/p>\n

a.<\/p>\n

He was called from birth before he could do good.<\/p>\n

b.<\/p>\n

He was called in sin while persecuting the church.<\/p>\n

3.<\/p>\n

God had separated Paulhis call was not of man.<\/p>\n

a.<\/p>\n

Separated unto the gospel, Rom. 1:1<\/span><\/p>\n

b.<\/p>\n

Separated me Barnabas and Saul. Act. 13:2<\/span><\/p>\n

c.<\/p>\n

Called to be an apostle. 1Co. 1:1<\/span><\/p>\n

even from my mothers womb<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

Paul could not know this except by inspiration.<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

Such separation was not unknown.<\/p>\n

a.<\/p>\n

Mosesdivine providence seen.<\/p>\n

b.<\/p>\n

SamuelGod answered Hannahs request. 1Sa. 1:1-20<\/span><\/p>\n

c.<\/p>\n

John the Baptistprophecy spoke of his coming.<\/p>\n

Luk. 1:5-25<\/span><\/p>\n

d.<\/p>\n

IsaiahListen O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far: Jehovah hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name. Isa. 49:1<\/span><\/p>\n

e.<\/p>\n

JeremiahBefore I formed thee in the belly I knew thee, and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee; I have appointed thee a prophet unto the nations. Jer. 1:5<\/span><\/p>\n

and called me<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

How many times was he called before he answered?<\/p>\n

a.<\/p>\n

Many people waste many years rejecting the call.<\/p>\n

b.<\/p>\n

Paul acted as though he were trying to make up for lost time.<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

Paul says, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. Act. 26:19<\/span><\/p>\n

through his grace<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

Pauls wickedness was enough to bring wrath, but Gods grace prevailed.<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

Grace called Paul to be an apostle, and grace gives us all an opportunity for salvation.<\/p>\n

COMMENT 1:16<\/strong><\/p>\n

to reveal his Son in me<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

The law pointed out sinthe gospel announces Christ is come.<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

Christ was revealed in Paul.<\/p>\n

a.<\/p>\n

Paul was a good revelation of Jesus, for he was so consecrated.<\/p>\n

b.<\/p>\n

Paul revealed Christ in a wide area, from Antioch to Rome, and (one theory says) even to Spain and Britain.<\/p>\n

that I might preach him among the Gentiles<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

Paul states that his mission was to the Gentiles.<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel. Act. 9:15<\/span><\/p>\n

3.<\/p>\n

Paul announced to them a Savior, not a lawgiver.<\/p>\n

a.<\/p>\n

Paul is saying, Do not listen to teachers of the law.<\/p>\n

b.<\/p>\n

Listen not to the law, but to the gospel.<\/p>\n

c.<\/p>\n

Listen not to Moses, but to the Son of God.<\/p>\n

straightway I conferred not with the flesh and blood<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

If God called and God revealed, then Paul didnt need any conference with men.<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

The disciples received their gospel from Christ, and so did Paul.<\/p>\n

COMMENT 1:17<\/strong><\/p>\n

neither went I up to them that were apostles<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

Evidently the apostles were staying close to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

Paul did not go up there to receive a message.<\/p>\n

I went away into Arabia<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

The account in Act. 9:1-43<\/span> does not give any, hint of Arabia.<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

He probably did not go to preach there.<\/p>\n

a.<\/p>\n

I . . . declared both to them of Damascus first, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea . . . Act. 26:19-20<\/span><\/p>\n

3.<\/p>\n

He does not say that he went there to receive a gospel, but he does say that he did not get it at Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

again I returned unto Damascus<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

Here his first recorded ministry took place.<\/p>\n

a.<\/p>\n

And he was certain days with the disciples that were at Damascus. Act. 9:19<\/span><\/p>\n

b.<\/p>\n

And straightway in the synagogues he proclaimed Jesus, that he is the Son of God. Act. 9:20<\/span><\/p>\n

c.<\/p>\n

And when many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel together to kill him: . . . but his disciples took him by night, and let him down through the wall, lowering him in a basket. Act. 9:23<\/span><\/p>\n

d. Perhaps after this he went to Arabia and then returned to Damascus (which is not mentioned in Act. 9:1-43<\/span>), then he proceeded to Jerusalem. And when he was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: and they were all afraid. Act. 9:26<\/span><\/p>\n

STUDY QUESTIONS 1:1517<\/strong><\/p>\n

93.<\/p>\n

How did Gods good pleasure act in Paul?<\/p>\n

94.<\/p>\n

When was God at work?<\/p>\n

95.<\/p>\n

Why did Paul not heed the call?<\/p>\n

96.<\/p>\n

When is the word separation used in Acts in relationship to Paul?<\/p>\n

97.<\/p>\n

How did Paul know that God called him at birth?<\/p>\n

98.<\/p>\n

Is this the first time God did this to men?<\/p>\n

99.<\/p>\n

What was at work to give Paul a chance to answer the call?<\/p>\n

100.<\/p>\n

How did Paul reveal Christ?<\/p>\n

101.<\/p>\n

Name the places where Paul revealed the Lord.<\/p>\n

102.<\/p>\n

Name the Gentiles who received Pauls revelation.<\/p>\n

103.<\/p>\n

Did Paul preach a lawgiver or a Saviour?<\/p>\n

104.<\/p>\n

What did Paul say about conferring?<\/p>\n

105.<\/p>\n

Where did Paul go instead of to Jerusalem?<\/p>\n

106.<\/p>\n

Does this verse indicate where the apostles were?<\/p>\n

107.<\/p>\n

Do we have a record of Paul preaching in Arabia?<\/p>\n

108.<\/p>\n

Where did he go after the trip to Arabia?<\/p>\n

109.<\/p>\n

Did he preach in Damascus?<\/p>\n

110.<\/p>\n

How was it received?<\/p>\n

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

(15) In pursuance of his main argument, the Apostle lays stress upon the fact that his very conversion and mission to the Gentiles had been first predestinated in the divine counsels, and afterwards carried out through divine interposition: it was throughout the work of God, and not of man.<\/p>\n

Pleased.<\/strong>The word specially used of the free will and pleasure of God, determined absolutely by itself, and by no external cause.<\/p>\n

God.<\/strong>The word should be printed in italics. It is wanting in the true text, but is left to be supplied by the reader.<\/p>\n

Separated me.<\/strong>Set me apart, marked me off from the rest of mankind, for this special object (i.e.,<\/em> the Apostleship of the Gentiles). (Comp. Rom. 1:1<\/span>, and Note there.)<\/p>\n

From my mothers womb.<\/strong>A comparison of other passages where this phrase is used seems to make it clear that the sense is rather from the moment of my birth than from before my birth. (See Psa. 22:10<\/span>; Isa. 49:1<\/span>; Isa. 49:5<\/span>; Mat. 19:12<\/span>; Act. 3:2<\/span>; Act. 14:8<\/span>.) From the moment that he became a living and conscious human being he was marked out in the purpose of God for his future mission.<\/p>\n

Called me.<\/strong>The call is identical with the conversion of the Apostle through the vision which appeared to him on the way to Damascus. As the Apostle was conscious of having done nothing to deserve so great a mark of the divine favour, it is set down entirely to an act of grace.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

15<\/strong>. <\/strong> Pleased God<\/strong> Not the divine will blank and bare of all reason or reasons, but the divine will according with the wisest of reasons. Why Paul was then selected there is no difficulty in conjecturing. Divine providence selects its instruments from a recognition of their fitness, and a pre-recognition how they will in full freedom fulfil their mission. See notes on Rom 9:10-11<\/span>. <\/p>\n

Separated<\/strong> Set me apart, individualized me, as the duly endowed and fitting instrument. Nevertheless, it should be carefully noted that St. Paul, in all this passage, speaks not of his predestination to salvation, but of his providential fitting for his apostleship. <\/p>\n

From my mother’s womb<\/strong> Meyer says: “Not in the womb, as Wieseler; nor ere I was born, as Ruckert; but, from my birth.” <\/em> Comp. Psa 22:10<\/span>; Isa 44:2<\/span>; Isa 49:1<\/span>; Isa 49:5<\/span>; Mat 19:12<\/span>; Act 3:2<\/span>; Act 14:8<\/span>. The very elements of his physical and mental being were such as to point him out. To be an apostle he needed to be a Jew; to be an apostle of the Gentiles, he needed to be a Gentilized Jew. He needed a powerful vitality, a piercing intellect, and an iron will. He needed to be one moulded before birth for this wonderful future. Yet we are not to suppose that Paul’s generative process or formation was supernaturally interfered with. God, as divine nature, wrought him in the course of nature. His selection and call were fixed upon him on account of the endowments and qualities that met in him. <\/p>\n

Called<\/strong> Note, Rom 1:1<\/span>. <\/p>\n

Grace<\/strong> Favour, but not compulsion. Note, Rom 3:27<\/span>. Our whole existence is based in grace; our hopes of glory are based in higher grace; the privilege of being God’s apostle on earth was based in highest grace. Paul narrates the whole to show that he is not a man’s apostle, an apostle’s apostle, but solely, God’s apostle.<\/p>\n

Professor Lightfoot, however, entirely misses Paul’s point: which is not to show “the sole agency of God as distinct from his own efforts; but the sole agency of God as distinct from any man, <\/em> as the source, <\/em> either of Paul’s gospel<\/strong>, or his apostleship.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

‘But when it pleased him, who separated me, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me that I might preach him among the Gentiles, immediately I did not confer with flesh and blood, neither did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me, but I went into Arabia. And again I returned to Damascus.’<\/p>\n

Paul here stresses that he was a specially chosen instrument, chosen according to God’s own good pleasure. He was an instrument in whom Christ had revealed Himself so that his special knowledge of God did not come from men, not even from the Apostles. It came from God revealing His Son in him.<\/p>\n

He had previously been well versed in the Old Testament, and had probably had a fairly wide knowledge of the Christian message from men whom he had arrested and subjected to questioning, (as occurred to Paul himself in Acts 21<\/span> onwards) but the appearance of the risen Christ to him had transformed his ideas, turning them upside down. It had given new meaning to all that he knew. He had then first proclaimed Christ in Damascus immediately after his conversion (Act 9:20<\/span>), but he had soon felt the need to think things through, and to learn from God, and so he had gone into Arabia, presumably into desert places, as Elijah (1Ki 17:3-7<\/span> compare 2Ki 1:8<\/span> for his desert clothing), and John the Baptiser (Luk 1:80<\/span>; Luk 3:2<\/span>. Compare Mat 3:1-4<\/span>; Mar 1:4-6<\/span>), and Jesus Himself (Mar 1:12-13<\/span>) had done before him, so as to receive the word of God (Luk 3:2<\/span>). This demonstrates that he felt himself within the prophetic line.<\/p>\n

‘When it pleased Him.’ His conversion was no accident. It was the direct result of God’s good pleasure. While he had been marking down Christians for imprisonment, God had been marking him down for conversion. Yes, and even before that, for He had been marked down from birth. He was a prepared instrument.<\/p>\n

‘Who separated me, even from my mother’s womb.’ There seems little doubt that he has in mind here the words of Jer 1:5<\/span>, ‘Before I formed you in your mother’s body I knew you, and before you came out of the womb I set you apart you. I ordained you a prophet to the nations’. Thus he sees himself as in the line of prophets. It was also said of the coming Servant who represented the true Israel (Isa 49:3<\/span>), ‘the Lord has called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother he has made mention of my name’ (Isa 49:1<\/span>). So to be separated from the womb was to be a chosen servant of God. And that was what had happened to him.<\/p>\n

‘Called me through His grace.’ He was personally called by God, and he knew that he was without deserving. Indeed he never ceased to wonder at the unmerited favour that God had personally shown to him. It was partly this that made him so aware that God worked through grace and not directly in response to man’s strivings. If any man had striven, he had. But it was only when the grace of God came to him revealing to him Christ the Crucified One that his burdens fell away and he found himself free.<\/p>\n

‘To reveal His Son in me.’ The revelation came strongly within his very being that here was God’s very Son. Not just Jesus, or the Christ (Messiah), but God’s own beloved Son. The transforming nature of such an experience was stupendous. All he had heard and scoffed at had begun to fall into place with vivid illumination by the Spirit, and he had seen Jesus as He really was.<\/p>\n

‘That I might preach Him among the Gentiles.’ Paul had recognised the special nature of his calling almost immediately (Act 22:21<\/span> see also Act 13:46<\/span>), as later did the Apostles (Gal 2:7-9<\/span>). It is clear that the Apostles still looked on their responsibility as being mainly to the Jews (Gal 2:9<\/span>), although acknowledging that Gentiles could be accepted (Act 10:44-48<\/span>). It was Paul who stressed the wider vision, something which the Apostles as a whole came to later.<\/p>\n

‘Did not confer with flesh and blood.’ A deliberate reference to the fact that he sought truth from a Higher source. He did not want men’s ideas, but God’s. That was why he did not go to ‘those who were Apostles before me’. He went directly to God.<\/p>\n

‘But I went into Arabia.’ Possibly none apart from him knew of this up to this point. Acts is silent on the matter. This possibly comes between Act 9:25-26<\/span>, although it may connect with Act 9:22<\/span>. Here we learn why it was. It was in order to spend time alone with God so that he might receive His help in rethinking his whole position. We do not know how long this period was. It may well have been for ‘forty days’. Or it may have been longer.<\/p>\n

‘And again I returned to Damascus.’ He had then continued his ministry without recourse to human assistance, returning to Damascus and proclaiming Christ.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Gal 1:15<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>Who separated me<\/em><\/strong><\/strong> See Jer 1:5<\/span> and the history of this Apostle’s call, Act 9:1<\/span>; Act 9:43<\/span>. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Gal 1:15<\/span> . But when it pleased<\/em> , etc. Comp. Luk 12:32<\/span> ; 1Co 1:21<\/span> ; Rom 15:26<\/span> ; Col 1:19<\/span> ; 1Th 2:8 ; 1Th 3:1<\/span> . It denotes, of course, the free placuit<\/em> of the divine decree, but is here conceived as an act in time, which is immediately followed by the execution of it, not as from eternity (Beza).<\/p>\n

] who separated me<\/em> , that is, in His counsel set me apart from other men for a special destination, from my mother’s womb;<\/em> that is, not in<\/em> the womb (Wieseler); nor, from the time when I was in the womb (Hofmann, comp. Mller); nor, ere<\/em> I was born (Rckert); but, as soon as I had issued from the womb, from my birth<\/em> . Comp. Psa 22:11<\/span> ; Isa 44:2<\/span> ; Isa 49:1<\/span> ; Isa 49:5<\/span> ; Mat 19:12<\/span> ; Act 3:2<\/span> ; Act 14:8<\/span> (in Luk 1:15<\/span> , where is added, the thought is different). , Joh 9:1<\/span> , has the same meaning. Comp. the Greek , and the like. We must not assume a reference to Jer 1:5<\/span> (Grotius, Semler, Reithmayr, and others), for in that passage there is an essentially different definition of time<\/em> ( . . .). We may add, that this designation of God completely corresponds with Paul’s representation of his apostolic independence of men. What it was<\/em> , to which God had separated<\/em> him from his birth and had called<\/em> him (at Damascus), is of course evident in itself and from Gal 1:1<\/span> ; but it also results from the sequel (Gal 1:16<\/span> ). It was the apostleship<\/em> , which he recognised as a special proof of free and undeserved divine grace (Rom 1:4<\/span> ; Rom 12:3<\/span> ; Rom 15:15<\/span> ; 1Co 15:10<\/span> ); hence here also he adds . [28] Rckert is wrong in asserting that cannot refer here to the call at Damascus, but can only denote the calling to salvation and the apostleship in the Divine mind<\/em> . In favour of this view he adduces the aorist<\/em> , which represents the as previous<\/em> to the , and also the connection of with by means of . Both arguments are based upon the erroneous idea that the revelation of the gospel was coincident with the calling of the apostle. But Paul was first called<\/em> at Damascus by the miraculous appearance of Christ, which laid hold of him without any detailed instruction (Phi 3:12<\/span> ), and thereafter, through the apocalyptic operation of God, the Son of God was revealed in him:<\/em> the at Damascus preceded this ; [29] the former called him to the service, the latter furnished him with the contents, of the gospel. Comp. on Gal 1:12<\/span> . Moreover, the <\/em><\/strong> is never an act in the Divine mind, but always an historical fact (Rom 8:30<\/span> ). This also militates against Hofmann, who makes <\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong> <\/em><\/strong> belong to <\/em><\/strong> as well a connection excluded by the very position of the words. And what a strange definition of the idea conveyed by <\/em><\/strong> , and how completely foreign to the N.T., is the view of Hofmann, who makes it designate “an act executed in the course of the formation of this man<\/em> ”! Moreover, our passage undoubtedly implies that by the calling and revelation here spoken of the consciousness of apostleship and apostleship in reference to the heathen was divinely produced in Paul, and became clear and certain. This, however, does not exclude, but is, on the contrary, a divine preparation for, the fuller development of this consciousness in its more definite aspects by means of experience and the further guidance of Christ and His Spirit.<\/p>\n

[28] For . . belongs to as a modal definition of it, and not to , as Hofmann, disregarding the symmetrically similar construction of the two participial statements, groundlessly asserts. Paul knew himself to be (1Co 1:1<\/span> ; 2Co 1:1<\/span> ), and he knew that this was that of the divine grace<\/em> , 1Co 15:10<\/span> ; 1Co 3:10<\/span> ; Gal 2:9<\/span> ; Rom 1:5<\/span> ; Rom 12:3<\/span> .<\/p>\n

[29] Hence also by no means diminishes the importance of the external phenomenon at Damascus (as Baur and others contend).<\/p>\n

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

DISCOURSE: 2052
CONVERSION, AND ITS EFFECTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gal 1:15-16<\/span>. When it pleased God, who separated me from my mothers womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood<\/em>.<\/p>\n

GREAT were the trials which the Apostle Paul met with in the Churches of Galatia through the subtilty of some Judaizing teachers, who laboured, and with too much success, to turn the newly converted Christians from the faith which Paul had preached to them, and to bring them over to a faith compounded of Judaism and Christianity. To give the greater weight to their doctrines, they represented Paul as preaching a Gospel which he had received only from human authority, and not from the Lord Jesus Christ, as all the other Apostles had; and consequently, as unworthy of the confidence which his followers reposed in him. To counteract the sad effects of their representations, St. Paul, in the very introduction to his Epistle to the Galatians, declared, that he had received his Gospel, not of men (as the authors), nor by man (as an instrument), but directly from the Lord Jesus Christ, and from God the Father, who had raised him from the dead [Note: ver. 1.]: and then, after expressing his wonder that they had been so soon turned away from him who had called them into the grace of Christ, he proceeds to vindicate more fully his apostolic authority: I certify you, brethren, says he, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man: for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ [Note: ver. 11, 12.]. Then, after specifying the time when it was revealed to him, namely, in his way to Damascus, he asserts, that he studiously avoided every thing which might be construed into a reception of it from men; for he had not gone at all at that time to Jerusalem, where the other Apostles were, but into Arabia, where there was none but God to teach him.<\/p>\n

In the account which he thus gives of himself, he gives us an insight into the work of conversion, and into that line of conduct which all converted persons should pursue. It is for the elucidating of these two things that we have selected the passage which we have just read: from which we shall take occasion to shew,<\/p>\n

I.<\/p>\n

Wherein our conversion<\/em>, must resemble Pauls<\/p>\n

Certainly it is not at all necessary that our conversion should resemble his in the external circumstances; for in respect of them he stands alone, not so much as one of his attendants being, as far as we know, converted with him. Nor even in respect of the suddenness of it, is it at all necessary that we should resemble him: our conversion may be so gradual that we cannot trace it to any particular time; and yet it may be as certain and as evident as his. But in its essential parts conversion is the same in all. Ours therefore must resemble his,<\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

In its origin, the electing love of God<\/p>\n

[God separated him from his mothers womb to the apostolic office, just as he had done the prophet Jeremiah to the prophetic office [Note: Jer 1:5<\/span>.]. It was evidently not for his righteousness that he was thus chosen to know Christ for himself, and to preach him to others: for, to the very instant of his conversion, he was a blasphemer, and injurious, and a persecutor. His election can be traced to nothing but the sovereign will of God. And to this must our<\/em> conversion also be traced, if ever we have been converted at all. We have not chosen Christ, but Christ us: yea, we were chosen of God in Christ before the foundation of the world, and predestinated to the adoption of children into his family. In this very epistle St. Paul most studiously marks this. He speaks of the Galatians as having known God: but, fearing, as it were, lest they should suppose that the work had begun on their part, he recalls his word, and says, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God<\/em> [Note: Gal 4:9<\/span>. See also Php 3:12<\/span>.]. Let us bear in mind therefore, that, if we are converted, it is not because we loved God, but because he loved us [Note: 1Jn 4:10<\/span>.]: he loved us with an everlasting love; and therefore with loving-kindness hath he drawn us [Note: Jer 31:3<\/span>.].]<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

In its means, the effectual grace of God<\/p>\n

[God called him by his grace; and without the effectual working of his grace the Apostle would never have been called at all. Nor shall we ever attain to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus in any other way. Of ourselves we can do nothing, no, not so much as think a good thought: it is God alone who can give us either to will or to do any thing that is good [Note: Php 2:13<\/span>.]. If we are brought into a state of grace, it is he who hath made us willing in the day of his power. We are his<\/em> workmanship created<\/em> in Christ Jesus unto good works [Note: Eph 2:10<\/span>.]: the new creation is his work as much as the old: whatever be the means, or whoever be the instrument to plant or water, it is he alone that gives the increase [Note: 1Co 3:6<\/span>.]. Every child of man must say with the Apostle, By the grace of God I am what I am [Note: 1Co 15:10<\/span>.]: whoever he be that is born again, he is born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God [Note: Joh 1:13<\/span>.].]<\/p>\n

3.<\/p>\n

In its manner, by a revelation of Christ to the soul<\/p>\n

[As far as relates to the external<\/em> circumstances, we have before said that no analogy exists: but as it respects the revelation of Christ to the soul, conversion is the same in all. There may be a preparatory work of conviction without this; but no conversion: for in this consists the essence of conversion, if we may so speak. The revelation given in the Scriptures may inform the mind; but it is the revelation made to the soul, that can alone convert and save the soul. The means which converted Saul, produced no such effect on his companions. Many others heard the word preached to them, as well as Lydia: but she received benefit from it which others did not, because the Lord opened her heart to attend to the things that were spoken. So, if we are savingly enlightened, it is because God has opened the eyes of our understanding, and given us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of his Son [Note: Eph 1:17-18<\/span>.], and shined into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ [Note: 2Co 4:6<\/span>.]. It is then only that we truly receive Christ as our<\/em> Saviour [Note: Joh 1:12<\/span>.]: then only do we feed truly on his flesh and blood; then only do we believe in him to the saving of the soul.]<\/p>\n

4.<\/p>\n

In its end, to make him known in the world<\/p>\n

[We are not all called, like St. Paul, to preach<\/em> Christ among the heathen; but we are called, like Paul himself, to confess him openly [Note: Act 22:14-15<\/span>. <\/span>Mat 10:32-33<\/span>.], and to become his avowed followers, and to shew forth in our life and conversation the power of his grace. We are all to shine as lights in a dark world, holding forth the word of life [Note: Php 2:15-16<\/span>.]. We are to be his witnesses, even epistles of Christ known and read of all men. We are so to make our light shine before men, that all who see us may approve of his ways, and glorify his name [Note: Mat 5:16<\/span>.].]<\/p>\n

From the effect produced on him by his conversion, we are led to consider,<\/p>\n

II.<\/p>\n

Wherein our conduct must resemble his<\/p>\n

It is probable that his words relate rather to his not seeking any intercourse with those who were at that time the pillars of the Christian Church, than to any workings of his own mind, which he studiously suppressed. Yet the decision of his character on the occasion shews us what we should be and do, when once we have received the converting grace of God. We must enter on the duties assigned us,<\/p>\n

1.<\/p>\n

Without hesitation<\/p>\n

[Many doubts will be suggested by our own corrupt hearts, how far it is necessary or expedient to devote ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ; and our carnal friends will not fail to remonstrate with us on our new views and pursuits. They will tell us of the injury which we shall sustain in our reputation and interests, if we make ourselves singular, and join ourselves to a sect that is everywhere evil spoken of. They will beseech us with much affectionate importunity to put away these enthusiastic notions: and, if they have power over us, they will blend menaces with their entreaties. But, from whatever quarter the temptation may come, we must examine its tendency, and, as soon as we see that its effect will be to draw us back to the world, we must say to it, as our blessed Lord under similar circumstances said to Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. We must listen to nothing, however specious it may be, that would cause us to dissemble with God, or divert us from the path prescribed to us in his word. Our one question must be, What does my Lord and Saviour require of me? and by that must we be determined, though the whole world should endeavour to obstruct our way. We must neither be allured by interest, nor deterred by fear; but must hate father and mother, and even our own lives also, in comparison of Christ.]<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

Without delay<\/p>\n

[Thus did Paul: immediately<\/em> he betook himself to the work assigned him [Note: Act 9:19-20<\/span>.]. Thus should we also: we should not say, Let me go home first and take leave of my friends, or bury my father: No: let the dead bury their dead: our duty is to fulfil the will of Him who has called us to his kingdom and glory. We shall occasionally feel strong temptations on this subject. When difficulties and dangers present themselves, we shall be ready to think we shall find some more convenient season, when our way will be more plain and easy. But we must, like Matthew at the receipt of custom, or like others of the Apostles at their nets, forsake all and follow Christ.]<\/p>\n

Application
1.<\/p>\n

Let those of you who have experienced converting grace, give God the glory<\/p>\n

[There is a strange backwardness in man to do this. If all be traced to the sovereign grace of God, we bring forward a thousand objections, that so we may divide the glory with him. But this is not so in heaven: nor should it be on earth. In heaven there is no song but that of Salvation to God and to the Lamb. Let it be so on earth. It is our indispensable duty, our truest interest, our highest happiness, to give glory to the God of heaven. Let us do it cheerfully, and without reserve.]<\/p>\n

2.<\/p>\n

Let those in whose hearts Christ has been revealed, seek to know more and more of him<\/p>\n

[It is but little that any man knows of him. Paul himself, after preaching Christ for twenty years, desired to know more of him, in the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings. Let us also seek to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of him. The more we behold his glory, the more we shall be changed into his image: and the more we comprehend of his unsearchable love, the more shall we be filled with all the fulness of God.]<\/p>\n

3.<\/p>\n

Let all learn how to avoid the snares which Satan lays for their feet<\/p>\n

[We must not parley with temptation, but act with promptitude and decision. There must be in us a firmness that is immoveable: yet should that firmness be tempered with suavity. We must not think, that, because our superiors are wrong in their endeavours to keep us back from Christ, we are at liberty to slight their admonitions on other subjects, or even on religion itself, as far as we can without violating the commands of Christ. Whilst we guard against an undue conformity to the world, we must guard also against two common evils, superstition, and unnecessary scrupulosity: scrupulosity makes that to be sin which is no sin; and superstition makes that to be duty which is no duty. Let us get our minds rightly instructed: in matters of indifference, let us be willing to yield; but in matters of vital interest and importance, let us be firm and faithful even unto death.]<\/p>\n<\/p>\n


<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me<\/em> by his grace, <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ver. 15. Who separated me from, &c.<\/strong> ] How knew he this, but by the event? Whosoever is lawfully called to the ministry may conceive that he also was sanctified thereunto from the womb, and should therefore do his utmost in the work. Verbi minister es, hoc age, <\/em> Be a servant of words, do this, was Mr Perkins’ motto. <\/p>\n

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

15 17<\/strong> .] After his conversion also, he did not take counsel with<\/em> MEN.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

15<\/strong> .] It was God’s act, determined at his very birth (cf. especially Act 13:2 ), and effected by a special calling: viz., that on the road to Damascus, carried out by the instrumentality of Ananias, To understand of an act in the divine Mind, as Rckert, is contrary to our Apostle’s usage of the word, cf. Gal 1:6<\/span> ; Rom 8:30 al. This calling first took place, then the revelation, as here.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Gal 1:15<\/span> . . Paul looks back on his parentage and early years as a providential preparation for his future ministry: this view is justified by his antecedents. By birth at once a Hebrew, a Greek and Roman citizen, educated in the Hebrew Scriptures and in Greek learning, he combined in his own person the most essential requisites for an Apostle to the Gentiles. He was further moulded by the spiritual discipline of an intense, though mistaken, zeal for the Law of his God, which issued in bitter remorse. By this career he was fitted to become a chosen vessel to bear the name of Christ before the Gentile world. He did not hesitate accordingly to regard himself, like Hebrew prophets of old (Isa 49:1<\/span> ; Isa 49:5<\/span> , Jer 1:5<\/span> ), as dedicated from his birth to the service of God.<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

separated. Greek. aphorizo. Compare Rom 1:1. <\/p>\n

womb. Compare Isa 49:1, Isa 49:5. Jer 1:5. Note the steps: <\/p>\n

(1) Separation before birth; (2) calling, Act 9; <\/p>\n

(3) setting apart for the ministry, Gal 13:2, Gal 13:3 in fulfilment of Act 9:15. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

15-17.] After his conversion also, he did not take counsel with MEN.<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Greek Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Gal 1:15. , it pleased) The good pleasure of God is the farthest point which a man can reach, when he is inquiring with respect to the causes of his salvation. Paul attributes nothing to merit; presently he adds, from the womb; comp. Rom 9:11.- , who separated me) that he might show to me this good pleasure.- , from my mothers womb) Jer 1:5.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Gal 1:15<\/p>\n

Gal 1:15<\/p>\n

But when it was the good pleasure of God,-God had respect for Paul on account of his sincerity, earnestness, and his conscientious zeal in doing what he thought was the service of God. He persecuted the church, but he did it believing he was doing Gods service.<\/p>\n

who separated me, even from my mothers womb,-Even from his birth Paul was set apart by God for the work to which he was appointed. The same is said of Isa 49:1 : Jehovah hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name; of Jer 1:5; and of John the Baptist (Luk 1:15). Paul uses similar language regarding himself. (Rom 1:1). It is an essential part of his argument here that from his birth it was Gods choice that made him an apostle.<\/p>\n

and called me through his grace,-God did not save him while persecuting his people, but revealed to him the divine truth that he might deliver him from his sin. Jesus appeared to him and convinced him of his wrong course and put him in the right way. Paul with a grateful heart accepted it as a kindness from the Lord. He recognized that he was a sinner, the chief of sinners, in bitterly persecuting the church of Christ, and thus he obtained pardon because he did it ignorantly in unbelief.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Chapter 4<\/p>\n

All of Grace<\/p>\n

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace.<\/p>\n

(Gal 1:15)<\/p>\n

Grace tis a charming sound,<\/p>\n

Harmonious to mine ear;<\/p>\n

Heaven with the echo shall resound,<\/p>\n

And all the earth shall hear.<\/p>\n

Grace first contrived the way<\/p>\n

To save rebellious man;<\/p>\n

And all the steps that grace display<\/p>\n

Which drew the wondrous plan.<\/p>\n

Grace first inscribed my name<\/p>\n

In Gods eternal book;<\/p>\n

Twas grace that gave me to the Lamb,<\/p>\n

Who all my sorrows took.<\/p>\n

Grace led my roving feet<\/p>\n

To tread the heavenly road;<\/p>\n

And new supplies each hour I meet,<\/p>\n

While pressing on to God.<\/p>\n

Grace all the works shall crown,<\/p>\n

Through everlasting days;<\/p>\n

It lays in heaven the topmost stone,<\/p>\n

And well deserves the praise.<\/p>\n

Christianity is a religion of grace. Grace is the love of God operating toward man. We teach our children early that grace is Gods Riches At Christs Expense. Our hymns are hymns of grace. We speak of Gods grace in our worship services all the time. It is the incessant theme of every pulpit where Christ is worshipped.<\/p>\n

Saved sinners find the thought and experience of grace so overwhelmingly wonderful that they never get over it. Grace is the constant theme of their talk and their prayers. In times past men have written hymns about it. They have fought for it, accepting ridicule and loss of privilege, if need be, as the price of their stand. As Paul fought these Judaizers at Galatia, so Augustine fought the Pelagians, and the Reformers fought scholasticism, and the descendants of Paul, Augustine, and the saints of God have been fighting Romanizing, Pelagianizing, Arminian, legalistic, and humanistic doctrines ever since. With Paul their testimony is, By the grace of God I am what I am, and their rule of life is, I do not frustrate the grace of God.<\/p>\n

Yet, there appear to be very few who profess to be Christians who believe what the Word of God teaches about grace. Why do so few people believe in Gods free and sovereign grace? (1.) They fail to see the moral ill dessert of man. (2.) They have a wrong view of Gods justice. (3.) They have a weak and unscriptural view of the merits of Christs sacrifice. (4.) They fail to recognize mans spiritual impotence. And (5.) They refuse to recognize the sovereign freedom of God.<\/p>\n

Pattern<\/p>\n

Before God called him by his grace, Paul had been a persecutor of Christ and his people, and went armed with letters to Damascus to hail men and women and drag them to prison. But on his road to Damascus he saw a light, exceeding in brightness the light of the sun, and a voice spoke to him out of heaven saying, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? By this miraculous interposition of God, this man Saul was converted. He became a saved man. He spent three days in darkness; but when Ananian came to tell him the gospel of Jesus Christ, scales fell off his eyes. He was baptized and became an instrument of great usefulness in the kingdom of God.<\/p>\n

We generally consider Pauls conversion very remarkable in its suddenness and distinctness, and truly it is. Yet, at the same time it is no exception to the general rule of conversions, but is rather a type, or model, or pattern of the way in which God shows forth his longsuffering and grace to his elect. The Holy Spirit tells us distinctly that Paul was a pattern of Gods method of grace (1Ti 1:16). That simply means that the grace of God Paul experienced shows us exactly how it is that God saves sinners.<\/p>\n

Though he was suddenly converted on the Damascus road at Gods appointed time of love (Eze 16:8), the Lord God had had thoughts of grace toward Saul of Tarsus long before he was born. God did not begin to work in Paul on his road to Damascus. That was not the first occasion on which the eyes of divine love and grace had been fixed on this chief of sinners. He declares that God had separated him, and set him apart, even from his mothers womb, that he might reveal his Son in him.<\/p>\n

Salvation is all of grace. We are not saved by our works, or our wills, our obedience, or our faith; but by the grace of God we are what we are; so that no flesh may glory in his presence. That great work whereby sinners are made righteous and brought to he aven is entirely a work of Gods free and sovereign grace, acting in love towards hell deserving sinners.<\/p>\n

Commonly, when we think of the word salvation, we tend to think only of the time when the chosen sinner, being born of God, first believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. But that is a great mistake. Salvation includes the whole work of Gods free grace in Christ: everything required to bring hell-bent, hell-deserving sinners into heavens everlasting glory in perfect conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. From beginning to end, the whole work is wrought of God. Salvation is of the Lord. It is altogether by grace and by grace alone. It is not determined by and does not depend upon the will, work, or worth of man to any degree.<\/p>\n

Planned<\/p>\n

The grace of God planned our salvation (Eph 1:3-14). The whole work began with Gods determination to save the people of his choice in eternal, electing love. He chose whom he would save. He predestined them unto the everlasting glory of the sons of God. He arranged all things from eternity, according to his purpose (Rom 8:28). And looking upon his elect in the person of his Son, our Mediator and Surety, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, he made them accepted in the Beloved, and blessed them with all the blessings of grace and salvation in Christ before the world began, to the praise of the glory of his grace. In divine providence our God constantly works all things according to the purpose of his all-wise decree for the eternal salvation of his elect (Rom 8:28-31).<\/p>\n

The cost of our salvation was born by our God alone (Eph 1:7-12). The price demanded by his own holy law and justice was the precious blood of Christ (1Pe 1:18-20). He found a way, by his own wisdom and prudence, to redeem and save the people of his love; and that way is Christ. The Lord God graciously trusted his chosen into the hands of Christ as our Surety, the same Surety we now trust to the praise of his glory.<\/p>\n

God the Father planned our salvation (Eph 1:3-6). God the Son purchased our salvation (Eph 1:7-12). And God the Holy Spirit performs the work of grace in us by the power of his omnipotent, irresistible grace (Eph 1:13-14). He brings the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, to every chosen sinner at the appointed time of love, creates life and faith in the chosen, seals to the believer all the promises and blessings of the everlasting covenant, and seals the believer in the grace of God, keeping him by infallible grace, until the resurrection day, to the praise of his glory.<\/p>\n

Precedes<\/p>\n

Grace planned salvation; and grace precedes salvation. We seldom hear or read anything about it in our day; but this grace that precedes grace is what the old writers used to call prevenient grace. This prevenient grace is demonstrated in Pauls life. He was molded by the hand of God, inwardly and outwardly, for the specific purpose of doing the very thing for which the Lord God had separated him from his mothers womb, to proclaim the unsearchable riches of his grace to the Gentiles. His personality, his education, his religious training, even his persecutions of the church were things used and over ruled by his God for his souls good.<\/p>\n

I mention his persecutions of the church in this matter because Paul seems never to have gotten over the fact that the Lord had so wondrously made him a member of that very body he once tried to destroy. His past acts of sinful cruelty to Gods people were matters of repentance to him, ever humbling him. The remembrance of what he had been and done as a lost man seem to have inspired in him greater zeal and boldness in the cause of Christ than he otherwise could have known.<\/p>\n

How we ought to thank God for his secret, prevenient grace. I doubt Peter would have been so bold on Pentecost had he not fallen before the maid. Luther probably would not have been so mighty a defender of grace, had he not known what it was to seek eternal salvation by his own works. Yes, when God almighty has set his heart upon a sinner from eternity, he causes all things to work together for his good.<\/p>\n

It is impossible to say when the grace of God begins to work in his elect. You can tell when quickening grace comes, but not the grace itself. Gods grace begins in our earliest years as formative grace. He sovereignly puts us in our homes. He moulds our dispositions. He forms our thoughts. In later years Gods grace is upon us as preventive grace. He keeps many from a course of open sin and degradation. Then there is that marvelous restraining grace of God. He allows many to walk in sin and yet restrains their vice and keeps them from destruction, even while they live with their fists shoved in his very face (Jud 1:1). As he says to the mighty ocean, so he says to the object of his love, Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further! And at the appointed time of love, he steps into the lives of his elect by omnipotent, saving mercy, revealing his Son in them and calling them by his grace.<\/p>\n

Preparation<\/p>\n

The grace of God prepares the hearts of chosen sinners for his salvation (Mat 13:3-9). He makes them willing in the day of his power (Psa 110:3). He makes them willing to hear his Word. He gives them a tender conscience. He creates in them a dissatisfaction with their present condition. He strips them of joy and peace, creating trouble and woe in their souls (Psalms 107). And he sends his Holy Spirit to convince them of their sin, Christs righteousness, and of redemption accomplished by Christs atonement (Joh 16:8-11). God the Holy Spirit turns the eyes of the despairing prodigal heavenward. By his invincible grace, Christ effectually calls his sheep, and causes them one by one to come to him in faith (Psa 65:4).<\/p>\n

Preserves<\/p>\n

The grace of God preserves our salvation, too (Joh 10:27-29; Php 1:6; 2Ti 1:12). This thing called salvation is Gods work. He will carry it through. Christs sheep shall never perish. Here is a divine promise. I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish. That is a blanket, unconditional promise of the Son of God concerning his people. It takes into consideration all times, all circumstances, all contingencies, all events, and all possibilities. Our Lord says, concerning all his sheep, I give unto them eternal life, and because they are my sheep and I give eternal life to them, they shall never perish.<\/p>\n

What if they are babes in Christ and their faith is weak? They shall never perish. What if they are young men in Christ and their passions are strong? They shall never perish. What if they are old men and their vision grows dim? They shall never perish. What if they are tempted? They shall never perish. What if they are tried? They shall never perish. What if all hell breaks lose against them? They shall never perish. What if they sin? They shall never perish. What if they sin again? They shall never perish. What if they fall? They shall never perish. What if they fall seven times a day? They shall never perish. What if they fall seventy times in a day? They shall never perish!<\/p>\n

This promise takes in all the flock. They shall never perish. Not one of Christs sheep shall ever perish; no, not even one! This is not a distinctive privilege reserved for a favored few. It is a common mercy to all the chosen flock. If you are a believer, if you trust the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have received eternal life, you shall never perish! Christ himself has promised it. No, you cannot even sin away the grace of God bestowed upon you in Christ. Noahs fall did not alter Gods grace. Abrahams weakness did not make Gods grace less strong. Lots wickedness did not make him less righteous before God. Davids crime did not cause him to perish. Peters denial of the Lord did not cause his Lord to deny him. Salvation is of the Lord! Christs sheep shall never perish.<\/p>\n

This doctrine of the believers security in Christ is in every way consistent with all revealed truth. It is most surely believed among the people of God. Deny this promise and with it you deny every promise of God. If one word from God cannot be believed, no word from God can be believed. Here are seven reasons why the sheep of Christ shall never perish.<\/p>\n

1.The promise of God must be fulfilledThey shall never perish (2Ti 2:19; 1Jn 3:19).<\/p>\n

2.The purpose of God cannot be frustrated (Joh 6:37-40). Gods covenant cannot be disannulled. Gods purpose in election cannot be overturned. The suretyship engagements of Christ cannot be defeated (Heb 2:13).<\/p>\n

3.The redemptive work of Christ cannot be nullified (Isa 53:10-11).<\/p>\n

The Book of God declares an actual, literal, accomplished, substitutionary redemption. Since Christ died for his sheep, in their room and in their place, they cannot and shall not die. He paid all our debts. — We have no debt to pay. He bore all our punishment. — There is no punishment left for us to bear. Christ satisfied the offended justice of God for us. — There is nothing left for us to bear, and nothing for us to satisfy. Justice pleads as strongly as mercy for the eternal salvation of those people for whom Christ died at Calvary (Rom 5:10; Rom 8:31-34). If even one of those for whom Christ died were to perish, then his purpose in dying for them would be frustrated (Eph 5:25-27; Gal 1:4-5; Tit 2:14). If even one of those for whom Christ died were to perish, then he could never see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.<\/p>\n

4.The believers justification in Christ is an irreversible act of grace.<\/p>\n

The trial is over. The court of heaven has pronounced an irreversible verdict upon us — Justified! God will not impute sin to a believing soul (Rom 4:8). God has put away our sins forever by the sacrifice of his Son. Our acceptance before God is in Christ. Our justification is free, full, and forever!<\/p>\n

5.The work of Gods grace can never be defeated (Php 1:6).<\/p>\n

That which God has begun he will carry on to perfection. God is willing to complete his work in us. God is wise enough to complete his work in us. God is strong enough to complete his work in us. Without the least presumption, every true believer may gladly sing, <\/p>\n

The work which Gods goodness began, <\/p>\n

The arm of His strength will complete;<\/p>\n

His promise is yea and amen, <\/p>\n

And never was forfeited yet:<\/p>\n

Things future, nor things that are now, <\/p>\n

Not all things below nor above,<\/p>\n

Can make Him His purpose forego, <\/p>\n

Or sever my soul from His love.<\/p>\n

My name from the palms of His hands, <\/p>\n

Eternity will not erase:<\/p>\n

Impressed on His heart it remains<\/p>\n

In marks of indelible grace:<\/p>\n

Yes, I to the end shall endure, <\/p>\n

As sure as the Earnest is given,<\/p>\n

More happy, but not more secure, <\/p>\n

The glorified spirits in heaven.<\/p>\n

6.The intercessory work of Christ must prevail (Joh 17:9-11; Joh 17:15; Joh 17:20; 1Jn 2:1-2). Our cause can never, never fail, for Jesus pleads and must prevail!<\/p>\n

7.The seal of the Holy Spirit cannot be broken (Eph 1:13-14).<\/p>\n

Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. We are preserved in the heart of his love. And we are preserved in the hands of his power. All thy saints are in thy hands. We are in the hands of Christ our God and Savior. We are always in his hands. What a blessed place to be! This is the place of our security. These are the hands that were pierced to redeem us. These are the hands of omnipotent power. These are the hands that hold the reins of universal dominion. These are the hands that hold us in life. These are the hands of God himself. — “My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one” (Joh 10:29-30). Gods elect are preserved in Christ forever, forever, infallibly secure in him (Zec 4:6-7; Jud 1:24-25), because this blessed work called salvation is ALL OF GRACE!<\/p>\n

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

The Inner Revelation<\/p>\n

It was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mothers womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles.Gal 1:15-16.<\/p>\n

It would not be easy to overestimate the service which has been rendered to the cause of true religion by such narratives as that which Bunyan has given of his own conversion in his Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, or the similar narrative which Scott, the commentator, gives of his religious history in The Force of Truth. This text in Galatians is just such a narrative. It is St. Pauls account of his own conversionthe secret history, as we may call it, of that ever-memorable event. It is perhaps the shortest and most compact piece of religious autobiography that was ever penned. And one need hardly say that, in this case, the story may be read without any misgiving respecting either the truth of the facts or the wisdom of the narrator.<\/p>\n

St. Paul is vindicating the Divine origin and authority of his apostleship against those who had questioned his title to occupy an apostles place. He claims that the words he speaks were given to him by the direct communication of Heaven, without the interposition of any human or intermediate agency: he bases his right to have his spiritual authority recognized upon the intimacy of the relationship in which God has met him; and he recalls, by way of substantiating his claims to apostolic status, the circumstances which had made his conversion and his call entirely exceptional and unique. No earthly voices of counsel or instruction, he says, had intruded themselves upon him; no earthly presences were at hand when his new Christian allegiance began to determine his course and shape his inward life. Flesh and blood had revealed nothing to him; even they who possessed experience in these thingsthey who were Apostles before himhad no share in the moulding of his destinies; but he had retired into the Arabian desert, and had listened there, in the silences and solitudes, to the heavenly voices that had told him what God would have him to do. Who shall dare, he seems to ask, to question the validity of such an ordination as thatan ordination wherein no hands of men, but the invisible touch of God, consecrated me, and wherein the anointing and sanctifying influence was the breath of the Eternal Spirit? In secret God had spoken to him. It was as he had stood in Gods unveiled presence that his spiritual inspirations had come.<\/p>\n

How have I seen in Araby Orion,<\/p>\n

Seen without seeing, till he set again,<\/p>\n

Known the night-noise and thunder of the lion,<\/p>\n

Silence and sounds of the prodigious plain!<\/p>\n

How have I knelt with arms of my aspiring<\/p>\n

Lifted all night in irresponsive air,<\/p>\n

Dazed and amazed with overmuch desiring,<\/p>\n

Blank with the utter agony of prayer!<\/p>\n

Shame on the flame so dying to an ember!<\/p>\n

Shame on the reed so lightly overset!<\/p>\n

Yes, I have seen Him, can I not remember?<\/p>\n

Yes, I have known Him, and shall Paul forget?1 [Note: F. W. H. Myers, Saint Paul.] <\/p>\n

I<\/p>\n

A Destiny<\/p>\n

It was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mothers womb.<\/p>\n

This may be viewed as the utterance of adoring humility on the part of the Apostle, combined, however, with the strongest possible assertion of the Divine origin of his mission. A similar statement of Gods arbitrary selection of a particular human being for a particular function is found in Isa 49:1, The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name; v. 5, That formed me from the womb to be his servant; and again, with yet more striking resemblance, in Jer 1:5, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. It is difficult to believe that this conviction of the Apostle concerning himself as the object of Gods predestinating purpose, and perhaps even the form of its expressionfor compare the words in the next verse, that I might preach him among the Gentileswas derived mainly from Jeremiah. The Apostle feels that all the while that he had been pursuing that career of persecuting impiety and passionate Pharisaism, the Almighty had kept His eye upon him as His predestined Apostle, and had been waiting for the fitting hour to summon him forth to His work.<\/p>\n

Mr. Gladstones character, as Lord Morleys biography brings out well, was in one respect exceedingly simple. His life became immensely powerful and influential; but it all flowed from one sourcethe moral crisis, almost in the form of a religious awakening or conversion, through which he passed in his Oxford days. For immediately upon this there followed the consecration of his whole life as the life of a layman, and yet to be lived from the highest motives. His opinions, religious and political, changed afterwards from time to time. In religion, from Evangelical and individualistic, they became more High Church and historical. In politics, from Conservative they became avowedly Liberal. But while such subsequent revolutions changed the direction, they do not seem to me to have added to the amount of the force which at that date began to move. Up to the age of twenty-two, Gladstone was like a hundred other lads around him. From that age till he died at eighty-nine he lived in the lavish expenditure of power generated in him by one yearperhaps one hourof conviction. But that force was a moral force; and for seventy years thereafter it poured itself with amazing volume into each new channel of opportunity which seemed to him a path of dutymuch as if his chief guide in life had been the ancient indiscriminating exhortation, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.1 [Note: A. Taylor Innes, Chapters of Reminiscence, 172.] <\/p>\n

1. So nicely balanced, and so carefully hung, are the worlds that even the grains of their dust are counted, and their places adjusted to a correspondent nicety. There is nothing included in the gross, or total sum, that could be dispensed with. The same is true in regard to forces that are apparently irregular. Every particle of air is moved by laws of as great precision as the laws of the heavenly bodies, or indeed by the same laws; keeping its appointed place, and serving its appointed use. Every odour exhales in the nicest conformity with its appointed place and law. Even the viewless and mysterious heat, stealing through the dark centres and impenetrable depths of the worlds, obeys its uses with unfaltering exactness, dissolving never so much as an atom that was not to be dissolved. What now shall we say of man, appearing, as it were, in the centre of this great circle of uses? They are all adjusted for him: has he, then, no ends appointed for himself? Noblest of all creatures, and closest to God, as he certainly is, are we to say that his Creator has no definite thoughts concerning him, no place prepared for him to fill, no use for him to serve, which is the reason of his existence?<\/p>\n

God has a plan for all our lives. There is a definite and proper end, or issue, for every mans existence; an end which, to the heart of God, is the good intended for him, or for which he was intended; that which he is privileged to become, called to become, ought to become; that which God will assist him to become, and which he cannot miss, save by his own fault. Every human soul has a complete and perfect plan cherished for it in the heart of Goda Divine biography marked out, which it enters into life to live. This life, rightly unfolded, will be a complete and beautiful whole, an experience led on by God and unfolded by His secret nurture, as the trees and the flowers by the secret nurture of the world; a drama cast in the mould of a perfect art, with no part wanting; a Divine study for the man himself, and for others; a study that shall for ever unfold, in wondrous beauty, the love and faithfulness of God; great in its conception, great in the Divine skill by which it is shaped; above all, great in the momentous and glorious issues it prepares.<\/p>\n

The world is not a mere necessary sequence of material phenomena, but a spiritual stream that, swift or sluggish be its course, flows irresistibly to God. The existing fact is not the law; choice between good and evil, heroism, sacrifice are not illusions; conscience, the intuition of the ideal, the power of will, and moral force are ultimate and mastering spiritual facts. The Divine design controls it all, and man has liberty to help Gods plan. And he who knows this, knows that a supreme power guards the road, by which believers journey towards their goal, and he will be bold with God through God. The crusaders cry, God wills it, is for him, and his are the courage and consistency and power of sacrifice that come to those who know they battle on the side of God.1 [Note: Bolton King, Mazzini, 240.] <\/p>\n

When a farmer goes into town on a market-day to hire, let us suppose, a ploughman into his service, it may happen that the man he hires is one who was previously quite unknown to him, and whom he had no thought of engaging till he chanced to meet him in the street. In these matters we are obliged to do the best we can in a rough haphazard way, with very little of fore-ordination. But it is never so with the Great Husbandman. When He comes into the market-place and hires labourers into His service, He never hires a man with whom He had no previous acquaintance; He never makes an unpremeditated choice. The man who is hired may not have known Christ before, but Christ has known him; and not only known him, but had His eye upon him, ever since he had a being; and has been all along preparing him for the place intended for him in the service. Christ, in everything He does, and especially in calling men into His grace and service, acts by determinate counsel and foreknowledge.2 [Note: W. Binnie.] <\/p>\n

2. How did St. Paul know that, before he was born, God had destined him to be an Apostle? Did Ananias tell him that he was a chosen vessel unto God? There are more ways than one by which Gods purposes may come to light. As St. Paul looked back upon his life he could see that the Divine purpose had been controlling his personal history from the very beginning, and preparing him for a service of which he had no thought, and which, if it had been proposed to him, he would have regarded with horror. His birth, by which he inherited the rights of Roman citizenship, though he was also of the stock of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; his early years in Tarsus, a great Greek city, famous for its wealth, its commerce, and its schools of learning and philosophy; his life as a student in Jerusalem; his zeal in mastering the doctrines and methods of the Rabbis; the earnestness and fidelity with which he had submitted to the discipline of the most austere of Jewish sects, so that touching the righteousness which is in the law he was blamelessall these had contributed in various ways to his fitness for the work to which God had destined him.<\/p>\n

All the good impressions I ever received came through reading. When I was about nine, some one gave me a copy of Baxters Call, which I read through with great interest and earnestness; then Alleines Alarm. Then I got hold of a copy of Doddridges Rise and Progress, and not only read it through, but prayed all its prayers upon my knees. Then, when I was about ten, Squire Brooke came to the village, and a number of lads, myself amongst them, went like a flock of sheep into the vestry. The others were soon made happy, but I went mourning for some days. One night during a noisy prayer-meeting a big lad told me it was my duty to stand up and say I was saved. I did as I was told, but it was not true. I went to class, prayed in prayer-meetings, but it was weary bondage until, in my seventeenth year, I ran away from it all. I think it was on that account more than any other that I buried myself out of the sight and hearing of every one who knew me with the intention that it should be for life. When I was in my twenty-first year I dreamt that I had to die in a fortnight. The news did not give me any fear, but I said, What a fool I have been! Here is the end of my life, and I have not even begun to serve the purpose for which God gave it me. Six weeks afterwards I suddenly remembered this dream with all I thought and felt, the result being that on the spot I resolved to be a Christian.1 [Note: John Brash: Memorials and Correspondence, 23.] <\/p>\n

O blessed Paul elect to grace,<\/p>\n

Arise and wash away thy sin,<\/p>\n

Anoint thy head and wash thy face,<\/p>\n

Thy gracious course begin.<\/p>\n

To start thee on thy outrunning race<\/p>\n

Christ shows the splendour of His Face:<\/p>\n

What will that Face of splendour be<\/p>\n

When at the goal He welcomes thee?2 [Note: Christina G. Rossetti, Verses, 83.] <\/p>\n

II<\/p>\n

A Call<\/p>\n

And called me through his grace.<\/p>\n

In the Acts of the Apostles the external details of the call of St. Paul are described; here he gives us only the internal experience. He alone could give this, and this was the really important thing. The flashing light, the arrested journey, the audible voice, the blindness, were all accessories. The one important thing was the inward voice that brought conviction to the heart of the man. Every Apostle needed a call from Christ to constitute him such. But every Christian has some Divine call. We have not the miracle to convey the call, and we do not want it. By the manifest claims that present themselves to us, by the discovery of our own powers and opportunities of service, by the promptings of our conscience, Christ calls us to our lifes work. To see a work for Christ needing to be done, and to be able to do it, is a providential call to undertake it.<\/p>\n

1. The call is an act of Gods gracecalled me through his grace. God Himselfwithout the intervention of Apostles, without human intervention of any kindhad spoken to him the strong and gracious word which had broken his heart to penitence, and which had drawn him to Christ. There had been no movement towards Christ on his own part. He was on his way to Damascus, vehement, passionate in his hatred of the new sect, resolved to suppress it; it was Gods gracewhat else?that called him to receive the Christian redemption and to preach the Christian Gospel. At that point, indeed, his own free response to the grace of God came in; till now, all that God had done to prepare him for his Apostleship was done without any free concurrence of his in Gods great purpose; he had known nothing of it. Now, however, he might have thwarted and defeated the Divine love; but, as he says elsewhere, he was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.<\/p>\n

2. The call is ever a secret between the soul and God. We have to find out for ourselves how our spiritual life is to develop and form itself: there is no programme we can draw up and publish as binding upon all who would fulfil the requirements of Christian service; nor is it demanded that the sacred summons, when we have heard and obeyed it, should affect us all in precisely the same manner, or work in all of us exactly similar results. When we yield ourselves to holy inspirations, it does not mean that our characters are, as it were, run into a common mould or stamped with a common pattern. God may call you, and you may answer to the call and lift up your eyes to behold Him; but perhaps you may have a vision of Him totally different from the vision given to me; and according to our visions, according to the aspect in which each one of us has seen Him, will He control and affect our lives. One may grasp God by intellect, reaching up to Him through reasoning processes and exercises of thought. Another may be conscious of God coming near to him through the avenues of sensibility and feeling, be touched by the wonder of His majesty, overawed by the immeasurableness of His power. Yet another may be held to God by the influences of love, and may be constantly filled with the experiences of His tenderness and grace, and find the sweetness of a personal relationship with God the dominant factor in his spiritual consciousness. And so we get various types of the spiritual life, according to the various aspects in which various hearts behold God.<\/p>\n

This thought of the essentially private and individual character of spiritual processes in the human heart deepens our responsibility and makes the spiritual life altogether a more solemn thing. Somehow the ordinary views of the Christian life often leave us too easily satisfied. When we take it as involving the possession of certain feelings, as requiring the employment of certain phrases, we force ourselves into the use of the conventional words, we persuade ourselves that the necessary emotions have taken possession of our hearts, and we rest content with these utterly trivial matters, forgetting the more important aspects, the deeper and weightier concerns, of the spiritual life. But let us once realize that Gods call to us is something we have to face absolutely alone! Solemn indeed is it to know that we are shut away with the ministries which God exercises upon us, and have to give ourselves up to their working and derive unaided from them the good they are meant to bring; that impassable lines are drawn round the place where God meets us and summons us to stand face to face with Him; that, as we bow before that majestic Presence, waiting for the sacred commands, all human companionships have to be left far away.<\/p>\n

I think you have rather confused the inward motion of the Spirit with the call, which are not exactly coincident, though they must be mostly considered together. First observe the distinct phrase used by the Church, Do you trust that you are inwardly moved? etc. The matter is frankly set forth as one of faith, not of sensible consciousness. The motion of the Spirit is to be inferred from its effects in and on our spirit; any other view is likely to degrade and carnalize our apprehensions of spiritual operations, not to exalt them. Now I do not think it possible for one man to lay down absolutely for another what inward thoughts and aspirations are or are not trustworthy indices to a genuine motion of the Holy Ghost; but the Churchs words do themselves suggest some necessary elements of thema direct and unmixed (I mean, clearly realizable and distinguishable) desire to be specially employed in promoting Gods glory and building up His people. If a man does not feel a clear paramount desire,often interrupted and diluted and even counteracted, but still distinctly present whenever he is in his right mind,to tell men of God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent,in a word, to preach the Gospel, that is, announce the Good Tidings,I very much doubt whether he has a right to trust that he is inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost.1 [Note: Life and Letters of F. J. A. Hort, i. 278.] <\/p>\n

III<\/p>\n

A Revelation<\/p>\n

It pleased God to reveal his Son in me.<\/p>\n

This should be read along with the fuller Narrative in the Acts. So read, it will be found quite intelligible. We learn from that narrative, that, for three days after Sauls arrest on the way to Damascus, he lay in the city without a ray of lightbound, as it were, in chains of darkness: there were scales on his eyes and a cloud on his heart. It was dark without and dark within; and he could neither eat nor drink. At length, on the third day, the cloud was taken away, he received his eyesight, and the peace of God filled his soul with light. Such is the account given in the Acts. Mark the secret history of the same blessed deliverance as it is given here.<\/p>\n

He says that it pleased God to reveal His Son in him. Why in him? Why does he not say, It pleased God to reveal His Son to me? Was not the light which he saw an outer vision? Did it not arrest him at midday with a glory above the brightness of the sun? Did it not bar the way to his old nature, and bid his life pause in the midst of his journey? Surely that picture of his Lord was a vision to his eye. But can any picture be a vision to the eye? Can a thing be revealed to me which has not been revealed in me? Is the landscape on which we gaze revealed only to the outward vision? No, or it would not be revealed at all; there could be no beauty without if there were not a sense of beauty within. Is the music to which we listen revealed only to the outward ear? No, or we should be deaf to it for evermore; there could be no harmony without if there were not a sense of harmony within. So is it with the beauty of Him who is fairer than the children of men. Often have we envied the lot of those who were permitted to gaze upon His outward form, to see the beam on His face, to hear the thrill in His voice. Yet was it not the very chief of these to whom the words were spoken, Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee? It was not the eye that saw the beam, it was not the ear that heard the thrill; it was the soul, the heart, the life, the responsive spirit bearing witness with His spirit, the kindred sympathy that ran out to meet its counterpart, and found in Him all its salvation because it found in Him all its desire.<\/p>\n

As there is an external call and an internalthe former universal, but often ineffectual; the latter personal, but always efficientso there is an outward revelation of Christ and an internal, of which the understanding and the heart are the seat. Hence it is, with the utmost propriety, said to be a revelation in us. The minds of men, until they are renewed, resemble an apartment shut up and enclosed with something which is not transparent; the light shines around with much splendour, but the apartment remains dark, in consequence of its entrance being obstructed. Unbelief, inattention, love of the world and of sin, and hardness of heart, form the obstructions in question. Let these be removed, and the discoveries of the word penetrate and diffuse a light and conviction through the soul: The light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. Thus it was with St. Paul before his conversion: his prejudices against the gospel were inveterate, his animosity violent and active; but no sooner was Christ revealed in him, than all was changed.1 [Note: Robert Hall, Works, v. 203.] <\/p>\n

George Fox has given a very simple and impressive account of the experience which ended his long search for somebody who could speak to his condition and give him authoritative direction to a religion of verity and reality. When all my hopes in men, he says, were gone, so that I had nothing outwardly to help me, nor could tell what to do, then, O then, I heard a voice which said, There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition; and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy. I knew experimentally that Jesus Christ enlightens, gives grace and faith and power. I now knew God by revelation, as He who hath the key did open. This is a typical piece of early Quaker biography. The testimony of the Yorkshire yeoman William Dewsbury is not so well known as that of Fox, but it comes up out of actual experience, and it, as well as that of Fox, has the power of a pure and sincere life behind it. His spiritual travail was long and hard, beginning when he was a boy of thirteen. I heard, he says, much speaking of God and professing Him in words from the letter of the Scripture, but I met with none that could tell me what God had done for their souls. At length all his fig-leaf coverings were rent, the Lord manifested His power to him, and brought the immortal seed to birth within him, and he bears this personal testimony: I came to my knowledge of eternal life not by the letter of Scripture, nor from hearing men speak of God, but by the Inspiration of the Spirit of Jesus Christ who is worthy to open the seals.1 [Note: W. C. Braithwaite, The Beginnings of Quakerism, xxxv.] <\/p>\n

1. This inner revelation meant the translation of the historical Christ into the present Christ; of the Christ according to the flesh into the Christ of spiritual consciousness. What is translation? It is (1) the extracting of a thought from its visible or representative envelope, and then (2) it is the recasting of this thought into another form of our own intelligent selection. By this process, faithfully carried out, we make the thought our own. We bring it out of its mere external relation to the mind as an object, and make it a part of our mind as subject. It is no longer something that we contemplate merely with the minds eye, and which passes from memory when our attention is withdrawn, but it is now bound up with our mind, and must remain part of our conscious being.<\/p>\n

St. Paul had never seen the Lord veiled in the flesh. He was not required to grope his way through preconceptions and prejudices to a slowly maturing revelation. He learned with all the suddenness of a surprising and blinding vision what his fellow-Apostles had learned with dull, reluctant, and hesitating receptivity. The Divinity of the Lord came upon him almost as the dawning of a glorious summer morning after the deep darkness of the night, and he was able to grasp moreover the larger, deeper meaning of the Saviours death and resurrection with a quickness and breadth of apprehension which had not been given to the rest. The spiritual significance of Calvary and of the empty sepulchre was read more promptly, if not more intelligently, by one who, with a richly inspired mind, looked at these things from afar than by those who had seen them with all their disguising surroundings; and it is to St. Paul that we owe the fullest exposition of these great facts and mysteries.<\/p>\n

2. There was something deeper than this process of translation, there was actual identification with Christ. It seems no strain of language to say that in the consciousness of St. Paul, Christ was inseparable from himself. He could not abstract the ego, as metaphysicians would say, from a non-ego. He could not think of himself without thinking of Christ. I am crucified with Christ.<\/p>\n

St. Paul applies the same mode of thought to his converts and disciples. When, by the act of their own will, they became Christians, they were in spirit buried with Christ. At the same time, by realizing the Divine energy in themselves which raised Him from the dead, they were in spirit raised up along with Christ. It is upon this basis, thus firmly laid in the Christian consciousness, that St. Paul builds his system of conduct. The Christian conduct is a perpetual self-renunciation, a perpetual self-identification with the Spirit of Christ. It is the mind dying out of the earthly passions rooted in egoism, and living into the new ideal of manhood, the new creation. And so through the whole series of the historical events. They are renewed. They become history once again in the mind of the Christian. The selection of Christ as Gods Beloved includes the selection of the Christian in Him; the exaltation of Christ to external glory means the present inward exaltation of the Christian to the heavenly regions.<\/p>\n

As a Methodist I have never dealt much with the favourite Keswick doctrine of the sinners identification with Christ in His death and resurrection. But on Good Friday I preached upon itOne died for all, therefore all died, etc. As I was meditating on the subject, after I had preached, I saw with the vividness of a lightning flash, that it was my present personal privilege to reckon myself one with Christ in His risen life. In the same moment I knew that it was realthe world, the flesh, and the devil under my feet. I could have shouted for joy. The blessed freedom and the near access to God through Christ remain with me still. I suppose that my experience was somewhat similar to that of Dr. Dale when he had as clear a perception of the truth that Christ lives. How simple is the way of faith, and how simple is faith itself!1 [Note: John Brash: Memorials and Correspondence, 102.] <\/p>\n

IV<\/p>\n

A Mission<\/p>\n

That I might preach him among the Gentiles.<\/p>\n

1. St. Paul recognized at once his obligation to be a witness for Christ. That I might preach him. We are saved for service. Our receipts make our debt. We are not absolute owners, we are responsible trustees. As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. The men who had learned directly of Christ never regarded their spiritual gifts save in this aspect. They never once supposed that the heavenly light had been kindled in them solely for their own glory, that the Divine treasure had been bestowed upon them simply for their own enrichment, and that for their own sakes alone they had been singled out for a benefit so vast, a mercy so wonderful, a salvation so grand and complete. How could they suppose that, unless Calvary had developed in them the Pharisees pride or the misers greed? How could they entertain that thought, unless they had been plunged in a blinding maelstrom of intolerable self-conceit? What had they done to deserve this signal grace and the promotion from rude fishermen to companionship with the King of kings? No, they knew that the Divine love which had fixed itself on them was felt as fully and as freely towards the whole human race, and that the light had shone on their hearts first that through them the illumination might spread everywhere. It was not their own. It was the most sacred and responsible of trusts. It belonged to all men. To withhold it would be to rob men of what God had made their right. It would even be to deny and forfeit their own calling. Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel. And everyone feels this who has truly understood and rejoiced in Gods great gift. If it has not yet penetrated and suffused the hearts of all Christians, it is because selfish human elements have counteracted the workings of the Divine, and because mans littleness has brought Gods great thought down to the measure of the market and the shop.<\/p>\n

What marvellous writing that of Paul is! There is a depth of meaning in it which seems unfathomable. Oh! for more of that mans spirit, his love, his faith, and above all his dauntless intrepidity for Christ. What a hero he was! What a splendid specimen of humanity! I am selfish enough to love him all the more because his bodily presence was weak and his speech contemptible; and yet no man ever did more for Christ and for Christs world.1 [Note: Dr. MacGregor of St. Cuthberts, 120.] <\/p>\n

Dr. McLaren of Manchester writing to his friend Shields to thank him for a copy of his Paul which the artist had sent to him says: Thank you for your noble Paul (what do you call him saint for?). I think you have never done a truer embodiment of a great soul. The wasted eagerness, the weakness re-inforced by supernatural strength, are magnificently rendered. I wish every lazy, smooth-haired and smooth-souled preacher had a copy of it hanging in his study to flame down rebukes at him. I have had him framed to hang in mine, and you through him will spur me often.2 [Note: E. Mills, Life and letters of Frederic Shields, 331.] <\/p>\n

2. St. Pauls mission was wider than he at first dreamed. Among the Gentiles. Naturally his soul turned towards his own people with ardent desire. Was he not an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin; and could he be indifferent to the needs of his brethren according to the flesh? Surely it would not be difficult to unfold the meaning of the sacred symbolism through which their forefathers had been disciplined in those very wastes. That the rock was Christ; that the water which flowed over the sands foreshadowed His mission to the world; that the law given from Sinai had been fulfilled and re-edited in the holy life of Jesus of Nazareth; that the sacrifices offered on those sands had pointed to the death of the cross; and that the fire which burned in the bush had also shone on His faceto teach all this and much more, and to lead his people from the desert wastes of Pharisaism to the heavenly places of which Canaan was the type, was the hope and longing of his heart. What work could be more congenial to his tastes and attitudes than this?<\/p>\n

But he came to learn that not as a privileged Jew, but as a sinful man, had Divine grace found him out. The righteousness of God was revealed to him on terms which brought it within the reach of every human being. The Son of God whom he now beheld was a personage vastly greater than his national Messiah, the Christ after the flesh of his Jewish dreams, and his gospel was correspondingly loftier and larger in its scope. God was in Christ, reconciling, not a nation, but a world unto himself. The grace conferred on him was given that he might preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and make all men see the mystery of the counsel of redeeming love. It was the worlds redemption of which St. Paul partook; and it was his business to let the world know it. He had fathomed the depths of sin and self-despair; he had tasted the uttermost of pardoning grace. God and the world met in his single soul, and were reconciled. In his latest Epistles, he declares that the grace of God which appeared to him, was for the salvation of all men. Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. The same revelation that made St. Paul a Christian made him an Apostle of mankind.<\/p>\n

Often at the beginning of the new life we attempt to forecast the work which we hope to accomplish. We take into account our tastes and aptitudes, our faculties and talents, our birth and circumstances. From these we infer that we shall probably succeed best along a certain line of useful activity. But as the moments lengthen into years, it becomes apparent that the door of opportunity is closing in that direction. It is a bitter disappointment. We refuse to believe that the hindrances to the fulfilment of our cherished hopes can be permanent. Patience, we cry, will conquer every difficulty. The entrance may be strait, but surely it is passable. At last we reach the wide and large place of successful achievement. We cast ourselves against the closing door, as sea birds on the illuminated glass of the lighthouse tower, to fall dazed and bewildered to the ground. And it is only after such a period of disappointment that we come to perceive that Gods ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts as our thoughts; and that He has other work for us to do, for which He has been preparing us, though we knew it not. When we are young we gird ourselves, and attempt to walk whither we will; but in after years we are guided by Another, and taken whither we would not.1 [Note: F. B. Meyer, Paul, 65.] <\/p>\n

Is there some desert or some boundless sea<\/p>\n

Where Thou, great God of angels, wilt send me?<\/p>\n

Some oak for me to rend, some sod<\/p>\n

For me to break,<\/p>\n

Some handful of thy corn to take<\/p>\n

And scatter far afield,<\/p>\n

Till it in turn shall yield<\/p>\n

Its hundredfold<\/p>\n

Of grains of gold,<\/p>\n

To feed the happy children of my God?<\/p>\n

Show me the desert, Father, or the sea.<\/p>\n

Is it Thine enterprise? Great God, send me!<\/p>\n

And though this body lie where ocean rolls,<\/p>\n

Father, count me among All Faithful Souls!2 [Note: Edward E. Hale.] <\/p>\n

The Inner Revelation<\/p>\n

Literature<\/p>\n

Banks (L. A.), The Sinner and his Friends, 39.<\/p>\n

Binnie (W.), Sermons, 90.<\/p>\n

Clark (H. W.), Meanings and Methods of the Spiritual Life, 68.<\/p>\n

Dale (R. W.), Fellowship with Christ, 215.<\/p>\n

Findlay (G. G.), The Epistle to the Galatians (Expositors Bible), 68.<\/p>\n

Hall (R.), Works, v. 199.<\/p>\n

Hayman (H. H.), Rugby Sermons, 145.<\/p>\n

Hodge (C.), Princeton Sermons, 223.<\/p>\n

Matheson (G.), Moments on the Mount, 52.<\/p>\n

Meyer (F. B.), Paul, 27.<\/p>\n

Miller (J.), Sermons Literary and Scientific, i. 52.<\/p>\n

Moore (E. W.), The Promised Rest, 160.<\/p>\n

Moule (H. C. G.), The Secret of the Presence, 202.<\/p>\n

Russell (A.), The Light that Lighteth every Man, 41.<\/p>\n

Sanday (W.), The Oracles of God, 59.<\/p>\n

Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xi. (1865), No. 656; liv. (1908), No. 3078; lvi. (1910), No. 3202.<\/p>\n

Virgin (S. H.), Spiritual Sanity, 16.<\/p>\n

Christian World Pulpit, xx. 234 (E. Johnson).<\/p>\n

Church of England Pulpit, lxiii. 106 (W. J. S. Simpson).<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

it: Deu 7:7, Deu 7:8, 1Sa 12:22, 1Ch 28:4, 1Ch 28:5, Mat 11:26, Luk 10:21, 1Co 1:1, Eph 1:5, Eph 1:9, Eph 3:11 <\/p>\n

who: Isa 49:1, Isa 49:5, Jer 1:5, Luk 1:15, Luk 1:16, Act 9:15, Act 13:2, Act 22:14, Act 22:15, Rom 1:1 <\/p>\n

and: Rom 1:5, Rom 8:30, Rom 9:24, 1Co 1:9, 1Co 1:24, 1Co 15:10, 2Th 2:13, 2Th 2:14, 1Ti 1:12-14, 2Ti 1:9, 1Pe 5:10 <\/p>\n

Reciprocal: Gen 6:8 – General Num 6:2 – When Num 8:14 – separate Deu 10:8 – time the Lord 1Sa 3:4 – called Samuel 1Ch 23:13 – separated Psa 22:10 – from Psa 71:6 – thou art Psa 75:7 – he putteth Psa 110:3 – day Isa 44:24 – and he Mar 3:14 – he ordained Luk 19:6 – he Joh 15:16 – ordained Act 9:6 – Arise Act 22:21 – for Rom 8:28 – the called Rom 15:15 – because 1Co 9:1 – I not an Eph 3:2 – the dispensation Col 1:27 – whom 1Th 5:24 – calleth<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

THAT I MIGHT PREACH HIM<\/p>\n

It pleased God, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him.<\/p>\n

Gal 1:15-16<\/p>\n

So St. Paul recalls his Divine ordination time, his crisis of consecration to the apostolate, that office which summed up all ministerial orders in it, and out of which they were unfolded by Gods providence. Called to be an Apostle, St. Paul was called not only to inspiration, but to daily duties for others, for body as well as soul, and to patient and laborious government of one little mission-congregation after another. Deacon, presbyter, overseeing pastor of pastors, he was always all this in one, and more than this. But all other functions of his apostolate are for him overshadowed and dominated by this: he was called to preach his Lord.<\/p>\n

I. The pastors message.That I might preach Him.<\/p>\n

II. The pastors qualification.It pleased God to reveal His Son in me.<\/p>\n

III. Gods sovereignty.It pleased Godsovereign, though with a sovereignty of love. Every sight that any one of us has, or has ever had, of Christs supreme reality, His mighty tenderness, His finished work. His indwelling presence, is ours becausein the last analysisit pleased God. It pleased God to reveal His Son; to lift the veil from the souls face, and show it the Jesus Christ not of theory only, not even of holy orthodoxy taken by itself, but of experience, of trust, of love. To reveal His Son in me. Wonderful phrase! We might have expected to read to reveal His Son to me; but the thought, the experience, the word, goes deeper: To reveal His Son in me. Such is that unveiling in the depths of the souls consciousness that the Lord, Who is Divinely and for ever objective, not ourselves, to be dealt with as not ourselves, to be appealed to and leaned upon as One Who does not mean to move and vary with us, but is the same today and for ever in Himself, is yet so seen and known by the believing spirit that He is within it. He is not an element of its personality, indeed, but He is lodged by faith in its depths, to give peace, and strength, and holiness, and heaven.<\/p>\n

IV. Here is the open secret behind a living ministry; the spring shut up, the fountain sealed, out of which flows the pure river of power for God. He revealed His Son in me. Shall not that secret be the possession of every minister? Shall we not humbly purpose, and then diligently seek, that nothing short of that shall animate our work and witness, till we enter, through great mercy, into the joy of our Lord? What a force, strong as it is gentle, goes with the ministry which somehow indicates that indeed the minister hath seen the Lord! The man may be anything but eloquent. His literary equipment may be far from perfect. His manner may be the very opposite of impassioned. But if it is found out that he is always speaking of Jesus Christ as the soul of his message, and speaking of Him as One Whom he knows, Whom he has seen and does see with the inner eye, as One Who is to himself a gloriouslet me simply say a solidfact: then that man, deacon or presbyter, shall be found, whether it is known here below or not, to have worked supernatural results as his Masters implement.<\/p>\n

Bishop H. C. G. Moule.<\/p>\n

Illustration<\/p>\n

Is it unreasonable to say, as I find myself often saying in my soul in the pulpit What else is there to preach about? What am I here for if not to preach Him? These human souls, made in the Lords image, and for endless life, but wrecked in the Fall, in danger lest they die the death that cannot die, exposed every hour to temptations that may strike deep as their being, liable at any moments notice to overwhelming griefsthese men, these women, capable of Gods own indwelling by His grace (His grace which is in Christ Jesus and nowhere else); capable of learning the joys and Divine surprises of a present and known acceptance, a present and joyful triumph, against the devil, the world, and the flesh; capable of living in this world as not of it, and so of being its riches and its blessingswhat do they want at my lips? Whether they know it or not, they want me to preach Him. They want to know Him as their peace, their light, their life, their power, their everlasting hope, full, quite full of immortality. They want Him, evidently set forth, crucified amongst them, in a Gospel which does not dismiss the Cross to the background or to the middle distance, but erects it in all its bleeding glory in the front of truth, and cannot get away from it. They want Him as their living and interior power, dwelling in their hearts by faith, as the Holy Spirit strengthens those misgiving hearts to hail their sacred King of Glory to come in.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Gal 1:15. , -But when God was pleased, who set me apart from my mother’s womb. The of the received text has for it, D, K, L, ; but B, F, G, omit it. The Greek fathers are doubtful, but the Vulgate and Jerome have it not. The words are left out by Tischendorf and Alford; but if they are a gloss, they are an old one. Ellicott refers to . preceded and followed by , as the probable source of omission. One may say, on the other hand, that the supposed demands of syntax might seem to warrant the insertion of the words; yet the phraseology of the following clauses is so precise, God’s destination and call of the apostle, the revelation of His Son in him with his commission to preach to the Gentiles, that though in the hurry and glow of thought the nominative was omitted, nobody could doubt what it was. I persecuted the church of God, yet HE was pleased to select me,-all the more solemn from the omission of the name. Comp. Gal 1:6, Gal 2:8; Rom 8:11; Php 1:6. He, provoked as He might have been, -was pleased of His own sovereign grace. The verb is, as usual with Paul, followed by an infinitive, though it is found in other constructions with a simple accusative. Heb 10:6. It occurs with an accusative and in 2Pe 1:17; and with and a dative in Mat 3:17, and probably in 2Th 2:12. <\/p>\n

The verb is not used here in a mere physical sense (Aquinas, Cajetan, Paulus), as if were local, but is ethically to set apart, and is followed by , pointing to the end, as in Act 13:2, Rom 1:1. Instead, however, of being followed here by , the construction leads on to an infinitive of purpose, but connected with the previous verb. The points out the time from which his destination is to be reckoned (Winer), and the phrase is an imitation of open Hebrew speech. Jdg 16:17; Psa 22:11; Psa 70:6; Isa 44:2; Isa 49:1; Isa 49:5; Mat 19:12; Act 3:2; Act 14:8. It is equivalent in sense to , Joh 9:1, and does not glance in any way at pharisaic separatism (Wessel). The apostle means to say that God destined him from his birth to his vocation, no matter how wayward and unlikely had been the career of his youth. The words do not mean from eternity (Beza), though, indeed, every act of God is but the realization of an eternal purpose; nor do they mean, before he was born. To support this sense, advocated by Jerome, Grotius, Semler, Rckert, Wieseler, and Hofmann, reference is made to Jer 1:5; but there the language is different, . It is therefore only an inference, but not the sense, to say, If he was chosen from the womb, he was chosen in it. His being set apart from his birth was of God’s sovereign good pleasure. The phrase may imply also, in an undertone, that his education had been, under God, adapted to his high function. Not only from his birth was he a designated apostle; but he adds: <\/p>\n

-and called me by His grace. Designation was not enough: he brings out another essential link-that of vocation-as a second step in his progress. The participles are closely connected, no article being before the second one-the designation showed itself in the . The is instrumental-by means of His grace (1Co 15:10); and the call came to him near Damascus. This is the plain historical sense and allusion. The apostle refers to the period of his conversion, and to its medium, as not of merit but of grace. Now he proceeds to show how his call to the apostolate was connected with qualification for it. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Gal 1:15. Separated is from a word that means to “appoint, set apart, one for some purpose.” From my mother’s womb means from the time of his birth. At the time of Paul’s birth, God determined to use him as a special messenger of Christ. However, that was not made known to him for many years, and even then He did not put that appointment in effect until He had called him by his grace or the Gospel. That call is recorded in Acts 9.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Gal 1:15-16. But when it pleased God who set me apart from my mothers womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son within me, etc. Now he comes to his conversion and accumulates words to show the sole agency of God and the entire absence of all effort and merit of his own in this radical change from fanatical and persecuting Judaism to the apostleship of Christ. Lightfoot well explains the drift of Gal 1:15-17 : Then came my conversion. It was foreordained before I had any separate existence. It was not, therefore, due to any merits of my own. The revelation of His Son in me, the call to preach to the Gentiles, were acts of His pleasure. Thus converted, I took no counsel of human advisers. I did not betake myself to the elder Apostles as I might naturally have done. I secluded myself in Arabia, and, when I emerged from my retirement, instead of going to Jerusalem, I returned to Damascus.Pleased, according to His free, sovereign will, uninfluenced by any cause from without.Set me apart, elected and devoted me to the gospel service; comp. the same word in Rom 1:1; Act 13:2, and the corresponding Hebrew verb hiphdil, which is used of the separation and dedication of the priests and Levites to the service of God (Num 8:14; Num 16:9; 1Ch 23:13). The English version separated is misleading.From my mothers womb, before I was born, or from the moment of my birth and personal existence. The same is said of Isaiah (Isa 49:1, the Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name), of Jeremiah (Gal 1:5), and of John the Baptist (Luk 1:15). The decree of election is as eternal as Gods omniscience and love (comp. Eph 1:4), but its actualization in time begins with the natural birth, and is completed with the spiritual birth or the effectual call.<\/p>\n

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Here we have second evidence which St. Paul brings to prove himself an apostle extrordinary, called by God himself unto the ministerial service; and that the doctrine he delivered was not immediately from the mouths of the apostles, but by immediate revelation from Jesus Christ. <\/p>\n

Thus he speaks: “When, says he, it pleased God, who decreed and determined to separate and set me apart for the work of an apostle, even from my very infancy, and afterwards of his mere grace and good-will called me to preach the gospel to the Gentile world, having first revealed his Son in me, and to me, and then by me, immediately I set about the work, and complied with my duty, not consulting any person living, neither my own carnal reason, nor any man’s advice; neither went I up presently to Jerusalem to confer with, to receive authority or instruction from them, which were apostles before me; but I went immediately from Damascus, the place of my conversion, into Arabia, and preached the gospel three years among those wild and barbarous Heathens, and then returned again unto Damascus: From whence it evidently appears, that I neither had instruction nor commission from any of the apostles that were before me, having never seen any of them as yet, but both my mission and my message were immediately received from Jesus Christ.”<\/p>\n

Here observe, 1. The qualification necessary in a minister that reveals Jesus Christ unto his people, namely, that Christ must be revealed to him, and in him. We must learn Christ ourselves, before we pretend to preach him to others: When it pleased God to reveal his son in me, I preached him among the Heathen. As there is no knowledge like the knowledge of experience; so there is no preaching like experimental preaching. Happy those that can say, not only that which we have heard and read, but that which we have tasted, and felt, and experienced from the Holy Spirit’s operation in and upon our own hearts, that declare we unto you.<\/p>\n

Observe, 2. What haste the apostle made to obey the call and command of God, after he had received it; Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood. He consulted neither himself nor others, neither his own heart nor the wisest heads, he consulted not his own safety nor carnal interest, but instantly did what he was commanded to do. The great commendation of duties, is the ready discharge of duties. When once the mind of God is declared, and conscience thoroughly satisfied, we cannot be too quick and expeditious in the execution of divine commands. Lord! how readily should all men, but especially thy ministers, answer and obey thy call, and execute thy will and pleasure! Immediately I conferred not, says St. Paul; I made haste and delayed not, says holy David. In a good work it is good to make haste: In God’s work we cannot readily make more haste than good speed.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Gal 1:15-17. When it pleased God He ascribes nothing to his own merits, endeavours, or sincerity; who separated me from my mothers womb Set me apart for an apostle, as he did Jeremiah for a prophet, (Jer 1:5,) and ordered my education with a view to that office. Such an unconditional predestination as this may consist both with Gods justice and mercy. And called me by his grace By his free and almighty love, to be both a Christian and an apostle; to reveal his Son in me By the powerful operation of his Spirit, (2Co 4:6,) as well as to me by the heavenly vision; that I might preach him among the heathen Which I should have been ill qualified to do, or even to preach him to mine own countrymen, had I not first known him myself; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood Being fully satisfied concerning the divine will, and determined to obey it, I took no counsel with any man, neither with my own reason or inclination, which might have raised numberless objections; but laid aside the consideration of all carnal respects and interests whatsoever. Neither went I up to Jerusalem The residence of the apostles, to be instructed by, and receive commission from them. But I went into Arabia Where there were few Christians, and none of them of any note. This course, we may believe, the apostle took by the direction of Christ, who sent him into that country, to instruct him in the duties of his office, and in the doctrines of the gospel, by immediate revelation. The truth is, now that the Lord Jesus was gone to heaven, this was the only proper method of training an apostle. For if the ministry of men had been used in instructing Saul, he would have been considered as an apostle of men, and on that account might have been reckoned inferior to the other apostles, who were all instructed by Christ himself. In Arabia, therefore, Saul continued more than two years; and during all that time, it is probable, employed himself in studying the Jewish Scriptures more carefully than ever, by the help of the new light which had been bestowed on him; in searching into the true nature of the law of Moses, and in attending to such revelations as Christ was pleased to make to him. And, by these revelations, he acquired a complete knowledge of all Christs doctrines, sayings, miracles, sufferings, resurrection, and ascension, and of the design both of the law and of the gospel, and of the confirmation which the gospel derives from the writings of Moses and the prophets. Luke, in his history of the Acts, takes no notice of this journey of the apostle into Arabia; but, from the manner in which it is mentioned here, it seems probable that the apostle went into Arabia almost immediately after he recovered his sight and strength, which had been impaired by the bright light with which Christ was surrounded when he appeared to him, and by the terror into which he was cast by that miraculous appearance; staying, however, at Damascus, as we may infer from Act 9:19, certain days, after he had recovered his sight, during which he preached Christ in the synagogues. From Arabia he returned again unto Damascus Where he boldly declared the necessity of believing in Christ, in order to salvation, even in the presence of those Jews whom he knew to be strongly prejudiced against that important doctrine, increasing, in the mean time, in strength, as is mentioned Act 9:22, confounding the Jews, and proving Jesus to be the very Christ.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mother’s womb, and called me through his grace, <\/p>\n

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

SECTION 5. PAULS CONVERSION AND JOURNEY TO ARABIA.<\/p>\n

CH. 1:15-17.<\/p>\n

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mothers womb, and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that as good tidings I might announce Him among the Gentiles, immediately I did not set the matter before flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and I returned again to Damascus.<\/p>\n

Gal 1:15-16 a. A new era in Pauls life, due entirely to the good pleasure of God, an historic realisation of an eternal purpose.<\/p>\n

When it pleased God; suggests that the time was chosen by the good will of God, who might have spoken to him earlier or later.<\/p>\n

Separated me, etc.: placed me, from the moment of my birth, apart from other men, i.e. in a unique position. This can refer only to the as yet unrevealed purpose of God. Paul cannot forget that the voice on the way to Damascus was a manifestation of a purpose which had followed him from the first moment of his personal existence. Even then God designed him for special work. Cp. Isa 49:1; Jer 1:5.<\/p>\n

Called me: Rom 8:28 : by the voice of Jesus. This voice was the first link in the historic realisation of Gods purpose. Cp. Rom 8:30.<\/p>\n

Through His grace: channel by which the voice came to Paul. God first looked on him with undeserved favour; and then, in order to place him in the unique position for which from birth He had destined him, He spoke to him on the journey. Notice the parallel: it pleased God to reveal His Son in me; and by His grace He called me.<\/p>\n

To reveal, etc.: an inward unveiling and vision, in the heart of Paul, of the Son of God, of His Nature and Mission. See under Gal 1:12. Thus to know Christ is the highest gain and joy, and would itself compensate for the lack of all besides. This revelation followed immediately Pauls reception of the Holy Spirit: for he at once (Act 9:20) began to preach. But it would be developed as day by day the Spirit gave him a nearer and clearer view of Christ. Paul then adds the definite purpose of this revelation.<\/p>\n

In me: in the mind and spiritual life of Paul; of which every part was permeated and ennobled by this vision of the unveiled face of Christ. It cannot refer, as in 1Ti 1:16, to an objective manifestation of Christ to men in (cp. Gal 1:24) the person of Paul. For this would need to be clearly specified, would confound these words with those following, and would omit an all-important link of the chain, viz. Pauls own inward vision of Christ. For, none but those in whose inner life Christ is revealed can preach Him aright. The other idea, the word manifest (2Co 4:10 f) would better express.<\/p>\n

Announce Him: for Christ is Himself the matter of the good news.<\/p>\n

Among the Gentiles: a definite element in Gods purpose; and a close coincidence with Act 26:17.<\/p>\n

Gal 1:16-17. Pauls action immediately after this divine revelation, described, as his wont is, first negatively then positively.<\/p>\n

Set the matter before: for advice, as though Pauls conduct would be influenced thereby. Same word in Gal 2:6 : similar word in Gal 1:2.<\/p>\n

Flesh and blood: men; whose intelligence is limited and their counsel moulded by the constitution of their material clothing. Cp. Mat 16:17; Eph 6:12. Similarly, 1Co 15:50; Heb 2:14 recall the conditions imposed by mans bodily life. That Paul does not refer here to taking account of the needs and comfort of the body, is proved by his mention in Gal 1:17 of the earlier apostles; and by the scope of DIV. I., viz. his independence of human authority.<\/p>\n

Nor did I go up, etc.: another negation specifying the former one.<\/p>\n

Go up to Jerusalem: Gal 2:1 f, Act 11:2; Act 15:2; Act 21:12; and Act 18:22, which refers probably to Jerusalem. It was not only the head of the nation, but was situated on high ground. On receiving the heavenly vision, Paul did not go to present himself to the Mother-Church of Christendom in the metropolis of his nation. Consequently, his success was in no way due to any commission from those who were apostles before him.<\/p>\n

By going into Arabia instead of going up to Jerusalem, Paul went away from Christian counsellors. He went, probably, to the kingdom of Aretas, bordering Judaea, with Petra as capital. Cp. Josephus, Antiquities bk. xiv. 14. This journey is most easily harmonised with Act 9:19 f by supposing that immediately after his conversion Paul preached for a short time (some days., Act 9:19) in the synagogues at Damascus, and then went to Arabia; that after a short sojourn he returned to Damascus and stayed there a great part of the three years mentioned in Gal 1:18; and that his departure from Damascus to Jerusalem was prompted, as narrated in Act 9:23 ff and 2Co 11:33, by plots of the Jews. That the journey to Arabia is not mentioned in the Book of Acts, suggests that it was short, and thus perhaps unknown to the writer or omitted as unimportant. The purpose of the journey is not stated, and is unknown to us. Chrysostom and other early writers suppose that Paul went to Arabia, a Gentile country, to preach the Gospel there, thus beginning at once his destined work. If so, the temporary rule of Aretas over Damascus (see note under 2Co 11:32) may have afforded him a favourable opportunity of preaching in the capital of the Arabian kingdom. Or, in harmony with the deepest and noblest instincts of human nature, his sudden and wonderful change may have prompted Paul to seek retirement in order to ponder in the solitude of a foreign country the commission received from Christ. In this case, he may, like Elijah, have travelled as far as Sinai, which was included probably in the kingdom of Aretas: and to this visit may be due the allusion in Gal 4:25. Between the above suggestions we cannot decide. Possibly, solitary contemplation in a land of strangers may have been combined with some measure of evangelical activity. In either case Paul went away from Christian counsellors: and this is the point he wishes to emphasise.<\/p>\n

Again: even from Arabia, which was nearer to Jerusalem than to Damascus, Paul simply retraced his steps to Damascus. These last words imply that his conversion was at Damascus, of which in this Epistle no other mention is made: an undesigned and important coincidence with Act 9:3.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called [me] by his grace, <\/p>\n

The term translated “pleased” is used in Mat 3:17 at the baptism of Christ “And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This must indicate that God was pleased – well pleased in relation to His Son. <\/p>\n

When? When it pleased God. Not before, not after, but when – God has a plan, and it is on schedule no matter what we do, no matter what the world does, no matter what the Devil does – God is on track with His desire and plan for the ages. What a comfort that ought to be when things aren’t going well, when we seem out of control, when all the world is against us – we have Him on our side and His plan for us is steady and on course. <\/p>\n

Years ago I found a little greeting card with a haggard little man with the whole world on his back, and he is saying to his bedraggled wife “I guess its you and me against the world!” At that time it was quite fitting for our life. It continued to say something like “And personally I think we are going to get creamed!” <\/p>\n

Those days were long, haggard and lonely, but we knew God was on our side and that all would come to pass in His time. <\/p>\n

Note. The time of God being pleased wasn’t when Paul was born, not when he was converted, and not when he was in the wilderness with Christ, but while he was yet in his mothers womb. A note of realization might be in your mind. From the womb Paul was called, but it was after he was mature that he was actually called, it was after he was high up in the Jewish religion that he was actually called, and it was after he was a persecutor of Christians that he was actually called – think of the implications here. <\/p>\n

God had His mark on Paul in the womb, but he allowed Paul to go his natural course by himself for many years before marking him with salvation. He allowed sin to run its course in Paul’s life so that he would truly and fully understand the grace that he was receiving in salvation. <\/p>\n

So it is with many believers – He allows sin to have its reign over them, but ultimately saves them for His own glorious use. I have met many that were saved late in life and all were bent on following God to the best of their ability. Not, that people saved in their childhood or their youth can’t be just as dedicated, but many are not. <\/p>\n

When a person sees sin running rampant in their life, it is easier to see grace when it is coming down the road and it is easier to be open to yielding your life to the Lord and His plan. <\/p>\n

“Separated” has the thought of divide off, one way to translate it is to divide off from others with boundaries. There is not only the thought of separation, but also a thought of isolation from. God had separated this man from the womb – had isolated him for His own purpose. <\/p>\n

This was a separation that Paul did not know about, nor sense in any way. This is obvious from his reaction on the road to Damascus when he met the Lord. He didn’t act as if he expected any of this apostle stuff – he was out persecuting Christians with a vengeance, why would he think forward to the time that he would be one of them. <\/p>\n

He was separated for the purpose of God and when it was time to go to work for God his sin was stopped in its place and he became the servant of God that he had previously been destined to be. <\/p>\n

God “called” the apostle to His service in the womb. God not only calls, but he separates his ministers to the ministry that He has planned for them. The passage mentions the purpose of this separation and calling – to reveal His Son to the world. <\/p>\n

The person called to the ministry is to reveal Christ through his\/her life – not make big bucks, not make a big name, and not make a huge church — reveal Christ in your life – that is what you are called to do and nothing more. What God does with that revelation in people’s lives is His business – it is your business to do it. <\/p>\n

This believer must admit that in later life the pulpit filling and interim pastorates had stopped coming his way. There was a long time when great question was in mind. Why have you stopped using me Lord? Then one day a light bulb moment awakened stupid from his stupor. All my life I have said if I had my perfect choice of things to do in life it would be to study and research for others. <\/p>\n

The dawn enlightened a foggy mind to the reality that with all this retirement time on the hands of one trained to study and research that it might be that God has changed His methodology and wanted some study and research put down in writing to assist others in their ministries. <\/p>\n

A number of books have come forth from this minor redirection. Be open to what God might want to do in your life, maybe you can connect with His best a little quicker than slow one did. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

1:15 But when it pleased God, who {l} separated me from my mother’s womb, and called [me] by his grace,<\/p>\n

(l) He speaks of God’s everlasting predestination, by which he appointed him to be an apostle, of which he makes three distinctions: the everlasting council of God, his appointing from his mother’s womb, and his calling. And we see that there is no mention at all of foreseen works.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

What totally revolutionized Paul was God’s choice to reveal Himself to him (cf. Isa 6:1-9; Isa 49:1-6; Jer 1:4; Eze 1:4 to Eze 3:11). [Note: See J. Munck, Paul and the Salvation of Mankind, pp. 24-35, for parallels between God’s calling of Paul and His calling of Jeremiah and the Suffering Servant of the Lord.] <\/span> God had taken the initiative in grace, and Paul had simply responded to that grace. God’s purpose generally was to manifest Christ through him, which is His purpose for every believer. Specifically, God’s purpose was that Paul would become an evangelist to the Gentiles. This calling had been God’s intent from the time of Paul’s birth. Paul’s conversion probably took place in A.D. 34.<\/p>\n

"Paul had emphasized that he did not receive his message from men before or at the time of his conversion. Now he affirmed that he was free from human influences afterward as well." [Note: Campbell, p. 592.] <\/span><\/p>\n

Since his calling had been undoubtedly supernatural and abundantly clear, Paul did not need to consult with anyone natural (i.e., less than supernatural). The term "flesh" (Gal 1:16) is important in Galatians. It has several meanings: sinful human nature, the physical body, and here the whole of humanity (cf. Gal 2:16; Rom 3:20; 1Co 1:29). It is a synecdoche, a figure of speech in which a prominent part stands for the whole or vice versa. [Note: See Robert A. Pyne, "Dependence and Duty: The Spiritual Life in Galatians 5 and Romans 6," in Integrity of Heart, Skillfulness of Hands, p. 145.] <\/span><\/p>\n

Paul did not need the approval of the other apostles who had also seen and received commissions by the risen Christ either. Paul’s revelation was just as authoritative as any they had received. Instead he went to an undefined area of Arabia. The geographical area of Arabia included the lands east of Palestine, south of Syria, and west of Mesopotamia. Damascus stood on its northwestern edge. Probably Paul retreated into the part of Arabia just south of Damascus. [Note: See C. W. Briggs, "The Apostle Paul in Arabia," Biblical World 41 (1913):255-59.] <\/span> He did so apparently to restudy the Scriptural revelations of Messiah but mainly to preach the gospel as an apostle (Gal 1:16). [Note: Fung, pp. 68-69.] <\/span> Then he returned to Damascus, rather than Jerusalem, still feeling no need to obtain the blessing of the other apostles but preaching the gospel (cf. 2Co 11:26-27). Paul was not being arrogant or uncooperative by behaving as he did. He simply believed in the divine origin and authority of his commission.<\/p>\n

"Our study of Gal 1:11-17 has shown that Paul’s conversion is to be understood as involving (a) recognition of the risen Jesus as Messiah, Lord, and Son of God, (b) the experience of being justified by faith apart from legal works, (c) the revelation of the basic principles of the gospel, and (d) the call to be an apostle to the Gentiles." [Note: Ibid., p. 70.] <\/span><\/p>\n

Gal 1:11-17 constitute one of six New Testament passages that describe Paul’s conversion and calling (cf. Act 9:1-7; Act 22:6-10; Act 26:12-16; 1Co 9:1-2; 1Co 15:3-11). [Note: See George Lyttelton, Observations on the Conversion and Apostleship of Saint Paul.] <\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Chapter 5<\/p>\n

PAULS DIVINE COMMISSION.<\/p>\n

Gal 1:15-17<\/p>\n

IT pleased God to reveal His Son in me: this is after all the essential matter in Pauls conversion, as in that of every Christian. The outward manifestation of Jesus Christ served in his case to bring about this result, and was necessary to qualify him for his extraordinary vocation. But of itself the supernatural vision had no redeeming virtue, and gave Saul of Tarsus no message of salvation for the world. Its glory blinded and prostrated the persecutor; his heart might notwithstanding have remained rebellious and unchanged. “I am Jesus,” said the heavenly Form, – “Go, and it shall be told thee what thou shalt do”; – that was all! And that was not salvation. “Even though one rose from the dead,” still it is possible not to believe. And faith is possible in its highest degree, and is exercised today by multitudes, with no celestial light to illumine, no audible voice from beyond the grave to awaken. The sixteenth verse gives us the inward counterpart of that exterior revelation in which Pauls knowledge of Christ had its beginning, – but only its beginning.<\/p>\n

The Apostle does not surely mean by “in me,” in my case, through me (to others). This gives a sense true in itself, and expressed by Paul elsewhere (Gal 1:24; 1Ti 1:16), but unsuitable to the word “reveal,” and out of place at this point of the narrative. In the next clause-“that I might preach Him among the Gentiles”-we learn what was to be the issue of this revelation for the world. But in the first place it was a Divine certainty within the breast of Paul himself. His Gentile Apostleship rested upon the most assured basis of inward conviction, upon a spiritual apprehension of the Redeemers person. He says, laying emphasis on the last two words, “to reveal His Son within me.” So Chrysostom: Why did he not say to me, but in me? Showing that not by words alone he learned the things concerning faith; but that he was also filled with the abundance of the Spirit, the revelation shining through his very soul; and that he had Christ speaking in himself.<\/p>\n

1. The substance of Pauls gospel was, therefore, given him by the unveiling of the Redeemer to his heart.<\/p>\n

The “revelation” of Gal 1:16 takes up and completes that of Gal 1:12. The dazzling appearance of Christ before his eyes and the summons of His voice addressed to Sauls bodily ears formed the special mode in which it pleased God to “call him by His grace.” But “whom He called, He also justified.” In this further act of grace salvation is first personally realised, and the gospel becomes the mans individual possession. This experience ensued upon the acceptance of the fact that the crucified Jesus was the Christ. But this was by no means all. As the revelation penetrated further into the Apostles soul, he began to apprehend its deeper significance. He knew already that the Nazarene had claimed to be the Son of God, and on that ground had been sentenced to death by the Sanhedrim. His resurrection, now a demonstrated fact, showed that this awful claim, instead of being condemned, was acknowledged by God Himself. The Celestial majesty in which He appeared, the sublime authority with which He spoke, witnessed to His Divinity. To Paul equally with the first Apostles, He “was declared Son of God in power, by the resurrection of the dead.” But this persuasion was borne in upon him in his after-reflections, and could not be adequately realised in the first shock of his great discovery. The language of this verse throws no sort of suspicion on the reality of the vision before Damascus. Quite the opposite. The inward presupposes the outward. Understanding follows sight. The subjective illumination, the inward conviction of Christs Divinity, in Pauls case as in that of the first disciples, was brought about by the appearance of the risen, Divine Jesus. That appearance furnishes in both instances the explanation of the astounding change that took place in the men. The heart full of blasphemy against His name has learnt to own Him as “the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Through the bodily eyes of Saul of Tarsus the revelation of Jesus Christ had entered and transformed his spirit.<\/p>\n

Of this interior revelation the Holy Spirit, according to the Apostles doctrine, had been the organ. The Lord, on first meeting the gathered Apostles after His insurrection, “breathed upon them, saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost”. {Joh 20:22} This influence was in truth “the power of His resurrection”; it was the inspiring breath of the new life of humanity issuing from the open grave of Christ. The baptism of Pentecost, with its “mighty rushing wind,” was but the fuller effusion of the power whose earnest the Church received in that gentle breathing of peace on the day of the resurrection. By His Spirit Christ made Himself a dwelling in the hearts of His disciples, raised at last to a true apprehension of His nature. All this was recapitulated in the experience of Paul. In his case the common experience was the more sharply defined because of the suddenness of his conversion, and the startling effect with which this new consciousness projected itself upon the background of his earlier Pharisaic life. Paul had his Resurrection-vision on the road to Damascus. He received his Pentecostal baptism in the days that followed.<\/p>\n

It is not necessary to fix the precise occasion of the second revelation, or to connect it specifically with the visit of Ananias to Saul in Damascus, much less with his later “ecstasy” in the temple. {Act 9:10-19; Act 22:12-21} When Ananias, sent by Christ, brought him the assurance of forgiveness from the injured Church, and bade him “recover his sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost,” this message greatly comforted his heart, and pointed out to him more clearly the way of salvation along which he was groping. But it is the office of the Spirit of God to reveal the Son of God; so Paul teaches everywhere in his Epistles, taught first by his own experience. Not from Ananias nor from any man had he received this knowledge; God revealed His Son in the soul of the Apostle” sent forth the Spirit of His Son into his heart”. {Gal 4:6} The language of 2Co 3:12-18; 2Co 4:1-6 is the best commentary on this verse. A veil rested on the heart of Saul the Pharisee. He read the Old Covenant only in the condemning letter. Not yet did he know “the Lord” who is “the spirit.” This veil was done away in Christ. “The glory of the Lord” that burst upon him in his Damascus journey, rent it once and for ever from his eyes. God, the Light-giver, had “shined in his heart, in the face of Jesus Christ.” Such was the further scope of the revelation which effected Pauls conversion. As he writes afterwards to Ephesus, “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, had given him a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ; eyes of the heart enlightened to know the hope of His calling, and his exceeding power to us-ward, according to that He wrought in Christ when he raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand”. {Eph 1:17-21} In these words we hear an echo of the thoughts that passed through the Apostles mind when first “it pleased God in him to reveal His Son.”<\/p>\n

2. In the light of this inner revelation Paul received his Gentile mission.<\/p>\n

He speedily perceived that this was the purpose with which the revelation was made: “that I should preach Him among the Gentiles.” The three accounts of his conversion furnished by the Acts witness to the same effect. Whether we should suppose that the Lord Jesus gave Saul this commission directly, at His first appearance, as seems to be implied in Act 26:1-32, or infer from the more detailed narrative of chaps. 9 and 22, that the announcement was sent by Ananias and afterwards more urgently repeated in the vision at the Temple, in either case the fact remains the same; from the beginning Paul knew that he was appointed to be Christs witness to the Gentiles. This destination was included in the Divine call which brought him to faith in Jesus. His Judaic prejudices were swept away. He was ready to embrace the universalism of the Gospel. With his fine logical instinct, sharpened by hatred, he had while yet a Pharisee discerned more clearly than many Jewish Christians the bearing of the doctrine of the cross upon the legal system. He saw that the struggle was one of life and death. The vehemence with which he flung himself into the contest was due to this perception. But it followed from this, that, once convinced of the Messiahship of Jesus, Pauls faith at a bound overleaped all Jewish barriers. “Judaism-or the religion of the Crucified,” was the alternative with which his stern logic pursued the Nazarenes. Judaism and Christianity-this was a compromise intolerable to his nature. Before Sauls conversion he had left that halting-place behind; he apprehended already, in some sense, the truth up to which the elder Apostles had to be educated, that “in Christ Jesus there is neither Greek nor Jew.” He passed at a step from the one camp to the other. In this there was consistency. The enlightened, conscientious persecutor, who had debated with Stephen and helped to stone him, was sure, if he became a Christian, to become a Christian of Stephens school. When he entered the Church, Paul left the Synagogue. He was ripe for his world-wide commission. There was no surprise, no unpreparedness in his mind when the charge was given him, “Go; for I will send thee far hence among the Gentiles.”<\/p>\n

In the Apostles view, his personal salvation and that of the race were objects united from the first. Not as a privileged Jew, but as a sinful man, the Divine grace had found him out. The righteousness of God was revealed to him on terms which brought it within the reach of every human being. The Son of God whom he now beheld was a personage vastly greater than his national Messiah, the “Christ after the flesh” of his Jewish dreams, and His gospel was correspondingly loftier and larger in its scope. “God was in Christ, reconciling,” not a nation, but “a world unto Himself.” The “grace” conferred on him was given that he might “preach among the Gentiles Christs unsearchable riches, and make all men see the mystery” of the counsel of redeeming love. {Eph 3:1-11} It was the worlds redemption of which Paul partook; and it was his business to let the world know it. He had fathomed the depths of sin and self-despair; he had tasted the uttermost of pardoning grace. God and the world met in his single soul, and were reconciled. He felt from the first what he expresses in his latest Epistles, that “the grace of God which appeared” to him, was “for the salvation of all men”. {Tit 2:11} “Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief”. {1Ti 1:15} The same revelation that made Paul a Christian, made him the Apostle of mankind.<\/p>\n

3. For this vocation the Apostle had been destined by God from the beginning. “It pleased God to do this,” he says, “who had marked me out from my mothers womb, and called me by His grace.”<\/p>\n

While “Saul was yet breathing out threatening and slaughter” against the disciples of Jesus, how different a future was being prepared for him! How little can we forecast the issue of our own plans, or of those we form for others. His Hebrew birth, his rabbinical proficiency, the thoroughness with which he had mastered the tenets of Legalism, had fitted him like no other to be the bearer of the Gospel to the Gentiles. This Epistle proves the fact. Only a graduate of the best Jewish schools could have written it. Pauls master, Gamaliel, if he had read the letter, must perforce have been proud of his scholar; he would have feared more than ever that those who opposed the Nazarene might haply be found fighting against God. The Apostle foils the Judaists with their own weapons. He knows every inch of the ground on which the battle is waged. At the same time, he was a born Hellenist and a citizen of the Empire, native “of no mean city.” Tarsus, his birthplace, was the capital of an important Roman province, and a centre of Greek culture and refinement. In spite of the Hebraic conservatism of Sauls family, the genial atmosphere of such a town could not but affect the early development of so sensitive a nature. He had Sufficient tincture of Greek letters and conversance with Roman law to make him a true cosmopolitan, qualified to be “all things to all men.” He presents an admirable example of that versatility and suppleness of genius which have distinguished for so many ages the sons of Jacob, and enable them to find a home and a market for their talents in every quarter of the world. Paul was “a chosen vessel, to bear the name of Jesus before Gentiles and kings, and the sons of Israel.”<\/p>\n

But his mission was concealed till the appointed hour. Thinking of his personal election, he reminds himself of the words spoken to Jeremiah touching his prophetic call. “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest out of the womb I sanctified thee. I appointed thee a prophet unto the nations”. {Jer 1:5} Or like the Servant of the Lord in Isaiah he might say, “The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath He made mention of my name. And He hath made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of His hand hath He hid me! and He hath made me a polished shaft, in His quiver hath He kept me close”. {Isa 49:1-2} This belief in a fore-ordaining Providence, preparing in secret its chosen instruments, so deeply rooted in the Old Testament faith, was not wanting to Paul. His career is a signal illustration of its truth. He applies it, in his doctrine of Election, to the history of every child of grace. “Whom He foreknew, He did predestinate. Whom He did predestinate, He called.” Once more we see how the Apostles theology was moulded by his experience.<\/p>\n

The manner in which Saul of Tarsus had been prepared all his life long for the service of Christ, magnified to his eyes the sovereign grace of God. “He called me through His grace.” The call came at precisely the fit time; it came at a time and in a manner calculated to display the Divine compassion in the highest possible degree. This lesson Paul could never forget. To the last he dwells upon it with deep emotion, “In me,” he writes to Timothy, “Jesus Christ first showed forth all His longsuffering. I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, insolent and injurious; but I obtained mercy.” {1Ti 1:13-16} He was so dealt with from the beginning, he had been called to the knowledge of Christ under such circumstances, that he felt he had a right to say, above other men, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” The predestination under which his life was conducted “from his mothers womb,” had for its chief purpose to exhibit Gods mercy to mankind, “that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus”. {Eph 2:7} To this purpose, so soon as he discerned it, he humbly yielded himself. The Son of God, whose followers he had hunted to death, whom in his madness he would have crucified afresh, had appeared to him to save and to forgive. The grace of it, the infinite kindness and compassion such an act revealed in the Divine nature, excited new wonder in the Apostles soul till his latest hour. Henceforth he was the bondman of grace, the celebrant of grace. His life was one act of thanksgiving “to the praise of the glory of His grace.”<\/p>\n

4. From Jesus Christ in person Paul had received his knowledge of the Gospel, without human intervention. In the revelation of Christ to his soul he possessed the substance of the truth he was afterwards to teach; and with the revelation there came the commission to proclaim it to all men. His gospel-message was in its essence complete; the Apostleship was already his. Such are the assertions the Apostle makes in reply to his gainsayers. And he goes on to show that the course he took after his conversion sustains these lofty claims “When God had been pleased to reveal His Son in me, immediately (right from the first) I took no counsel with flesh and blood. I avoided repairing to Jerusalem, to the elder Apostles; I went away into Arabia, and back again to Damascus. It was three years before I set foot in Jerusalem.”<\/p>\n

If that were so, how could Paul have received his doctrine or his commission from the Church of Jerusalem, as his traducers alleged? He acted from the outset under the sense of a unique Divine call, that allowed no human validation or supplement. Had the case been otherwise, had Paul come to his knowledge of Christ by ordinary channels, his first impulse would have been to go up to the mother city to report himself there, and to gain further instruction. Above all, if he intended to be a minister of Christ, it would have been proper to secure the approval of the Twelve, and to be accredited from Jerusalem. This was the course which “flesh and blood” dictated, which Sauls new friends at Damascus probably urged upon him. It was insinuated that he had actually proceeded in this way, and put himself under the direction of Peter and the Judean Church. But he says, “I did nothing of the sort. I kept clear of Jerusalem for three years; and then I only went there to make private acquaintance with Peter, and stayed in the city but a fortnight.” Although Paul did not for many years make public claim to rank with the Twelve, from the commencement he acted in conscious independence of them. He calls them “Apostles before me,” by this phrase assuming the matter in dispute. He tacitly asserts his equality in official status with the Apostles of Jesus, assigning to the others precedence only in point of time. And he speaks of this equality in terms implying that it was already present to his mind at this former period. Under this conviction he held aloof from human guidance and approbation. Instead of “going up to Jerusalem,” the centre of publicity, the headquarters of the rising Church, Paul “went off into Arabia.”<\/p>\n

There were, no doubt, other reasons for this step. Why did he choose Arabia for his sojourn? and what, pray, was he doing there? The Apostle leaves us to our own conjectures. Solitude, we imagine, was his principal object. His Arabian retreat reminds us of the Arabian exile of Moses, of the wilderness discipline of John the Baptist, and the “forty days” of Jesus in the wilderness. In each of these instances, the desert retirement followed upon a great inward crisis, and was preparatory to the entrance of the Lords servant on his mission to the world. Elijah, at a later period of his course, sought the wilderness under motives not dissimilar. After such a convulsion as Paul had passed through, with a whole world of new ideas and emotions pouring in upon him, he felt that he must be alone; he must get away from the Voices of men. There are such times in the history of every earnest soul. In the silence of the Arabian desert, wandering amid the grandest scenes of ancient revelation, and communing in stillness with God and with his own heart, the young Apostle will think out the questions that press upon him; he will be able to take a calmer survey of the new world into which he has been ushered, and will learn to see clearly and walk steadily in the heavenly light that at first bewildered him. So “the Spirit immediately driveth him out into the wilderness.” In Arabia one confers, not with flesh and blood, but with the mountains and with God. From Arabia Saul returned in possession of himself, and of his gospel.<\/p>\n

The Acts of the Apostles omits this Arabian episode. {Act 9:19-25} But for what Paul tells us here, we should have gathered that he began at once after his baptism to preach Christ in Damascus, his preaching after no long time exciting Jewish enmity to such a pitch that his life was imperilled, and the Christian brethren compelled him to seek safety by flight to Jerusalem. The reader of Luke is certainly surprised to find a period of three years, with a prolonged residence in Arabia, interpolated between Pauls conversion and his reception in Jerusalem. Lukes silence, we judge, is intentional. The Arabian retreat formed no part of the Apostles public life, and had no place in the narrative of the Acts. Paul only mentions it here in the briefest terms, and because the reference was necessary to put his relations to the first Apostles in their proper light. For the time the converted Saul had dropped out of sight; and the historian of the Acts respects his privacy.<\/p>\n

The place of the Arabian journey seems to us to lie between vv. 21 and 22 of Act 9:1-43 (Act 9:21-22). That passage gives a twofold description of Pauls preaching in Damascus, in its earlier and later stages, with a double note of time (Act 9:19; Act 9:23). Sauls first testimony, taking place “straightway,” was, one would presume, a mere declaration of faith in Jesus: “In the synagogues he proclaimed Jesus, (saying) that He is the Son of God” (R. V), language in striking harmony with that of the Apostle in the text (Act 9:12; Act 9:16). Naturally this recantation caused extreme astonishment in Damascus, where Sauls reputation was well-known both to Jews and Christians, and his arrival was expected in the character of Jewish inquisitor-in-chief. Act 9:22 presents a different situation. Paul is now preaching in his established and characteristic style; as we read it, we might fancy we hear him debating in the synagogues of Pisidian Antioch or Corinth or Thessalonica: “He was confounding the Jews, proving that this is the Christ.” Neither Saul himself nor his Jewish hearers in the first days after his conversion would be in the mood for the sustained argumentation and Scriptural dialectic thus described. The explanation of the change lies behind the opening words of the verse: “But Saul increased in strength”-a growth due not only to the prolonged opposition he had to encounter, but still more, as we conjecture from this hint of the Apostle, to the period of rest and reflection which he enjoyed in his Arabian seclusion. The two marks of time given us in Act 9:19; Act 9:23 of Lukes narrative, may be fairly distinguished from each other-“certain days,” and “sufficient days” (or “a considerable time”)-as denoting a briefer and a longer season respectively: the former so short that the excitement caused by Sauls declaration of his new faith had not yet subsided when he withdrew from the city into the desert-in which case Lukes note of time does not really conflict with Pauls “immediately”; the latter affording a lapse of time sufficient for Saul to develop his argument for the Messiahship of Jesus, and to provoke the Jews, worsted in logic, to resort to other weapons. From Lukes point of view the sojourn in Arabia, however extended, was simply an incident, of no public importance, in Pauls early ministry in Damascus.<\/p>\n

The disappearance of Saul during this interval helps, however, as we think, to explain a subsequent statement in Lukes narrative that is certainly perplexing. {Act 9:26-27} When Saul, after his escape from Damascus, “was come to Jerusalem,” and “essayed to join himself to the disciples,” they, we are told, “were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple!” For while the Church at Jerusalem had doubtless heard at the time of Sauls marvellous conversion three years before, his long retirement and avoidance of Jerusalem threw an air of mystery and suspicion about his proceedings, and revived the fears of the Judean brethren; and his reappearance created a panic. In consequence of his sudden departure from Damascus, it is likely that no public report had as yet reached Judea of Sauls return to that city and his renewed ministry there. Barnabas now came forward to act as sponsor for the suspected convert: What induced him to do this-whether it was that his largeness of heart enabled him to read Sauls character better than others, or whether he had some earlier private acquaintance with the Tarsian-we cannot tell. The account that Barnabas was able to give of his friends conversion and of his bold confession in Damascus, won for Paul the place in the confidence of Peter and the leaders of the Church at Jerusalem which he never afterwards lost.<\/p>\n

The two narratives-the history of Luke and the letter of Paul-relate the same series of events, but from almost opposite standpoints. Luke dwells upon Pauls connection with the Church at Jerusalem and its Apostles. Paul is maintaining his independence of them. There is no contradiction; but there is just such discrepancy as will arise where two honest and competent witnesses are relating identical facts in a different connection. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called [me] by his grace, 15. it pleased God ] The commentary of Theodore of Mopsuestia on this expression is apt. “St Paul well refers it to the Divine foreknowledge, so that before he himself had any being, this should appear the … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Galatians 1:15”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29017\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}