So, Like How Did YOU Become a Christian Anyway?

Today I want us to look together briefly at two verses from Galatians chapter 1: verses 15 and 16.  What Paul says almost in passing in these two verses, is filled with doctrinal meat.  Let’s start with verse 11.

11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man's gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. 13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. 14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone; 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus. (Galatians 1:11-17 ESV)

We need to keep in mind as we read this passage that Paul is defending himself against his Jewish detractors who are saying Paul’s gospel is not from God but from some other source, and probably from his own head.  They are saying Paul does not speak for God when he tells Gentiles that salvation is by faith and not works.  Paul’s message, they say, is fiction.  It’s merely a creation of men, not God.

Isn’t that exactly what we’re told about the Bible today?  “Well, it’s just a collection of stories and fables written by a bunch of illiterate farmers and fishermen.  And it’s changed so much over the years because it’s been passed down verbally.  Then you have translations of translations of translations and no original documents.  Who knows what the Bible is really supposed to say?  And what about all those other ancient gospels!  Bible isn’t inerrant.  It’s just a book like any other book.  Certainly not the only book from God, if it’s from God at all!”

Paul is going to great pains here to make the point that his message did come to him directly from God.  The message he preaches among the Gentiles is a divine message with a divine Author.  And in these verses, namely verses 15 & 16, he explains how this gospel came to him and why he preaches it.  Look at them once more with me very carefully:

15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles (Galatians 1:15-16 ESV).

This is the central point Paul is trying to make in this section of his letter.  Without a lot of explanation, he simply states several very important truths.  If what he says here is true, then the Galatians and everyone else needs to hear it.  I want to break this down by asking five questions:

1. Who? Who set Paul apart for this work?  [The One who set Paul apart is God the Father.]
2. When? When was he set apart for it?  [The timing of Paul’s separation was prior to his birth.]
3. How? By what means was Paul set apart?  [Paul was set apart by God's free grace.]
4. Why? Why was Paul set apart?  [Because it pleased God to do so.]
5. What? What is God accomplishing in this?  [Two purposes: To show Paul His Son (i.e. to save him) and so that Paul might show Christ to the nations.]

1.  Who? Who is responsible for Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles?  This is part of Paul’s answer to the Judaizers.  Concerning his gospel he has already said in verse 12 I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it. Well where did it come from?  In verse 15, he says God the Father is the one who set him apart for this ministry.  We know this because in verse 16 Paul says the one who set him apart revealed His Son, the Lord Jesus, to him.  In other words, this has been a work initiated by God the Father, and by no one else.  God is the Author of the Gospel message, not Paul.  His ministry among the Galatians was God’s idea, and clearly not Paul’s.

2.  When? All of this did not begin on the road to Damascus.  Paul says that not only was it God’s idea to set him apart for this peculiar ministry, but God set him aside for this work without his knowledge or consent.  God didn’t ask Paul if he wanted to be a missionary.  God determined that Paul would take the message of the Gospel to the Gentiles before he was even born.

It had always been God’s plan, even from eternity past, to use this particular man to perform this particular task of taking the good news of Jesus Christ to the nations.  Paul NEVER anticipated doing anything like this.

4 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:4-5 ESV)

Do you know where that verse comes from?  It sounds like something Paul might have said.  It sounds like what we just read!  But it comes from Jeremiah 1, verses 4 and 5.  It may be that these words from Jeremiah actually foretold the coming of the apostle Paul.  Centuries before Paul was born, this word was given to Jeremiah.  In His omniscience and according to His eternal purposes, God set Paul apart long before his experience on the road to Damascus to be His missionary.  He was appointed a prophet to the nations from before the foundation of the world.

3.  How? How does a man who went about breathing threats and murder toward Christians become one of the very people he wanted to kill?  Something miraculous happened that day as Paul was going to Damascus.  Verse 15 tells us: It was by grace that he became God’s emissary.  The power of God’s grace caused Paul to be transformed for this work.  How else could you describe it?  Look with me at Acts 22 for a moment and see the power of grace at work:

6 “As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. 7 And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 8 And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’ 9 Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. 10 And I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.’ 11 And since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, I was led by the hand by those who were with me, and came into Damascus. (Acts 22:6-11 ESV)

When Paul responded to Jesus whom he had been persecuting by saying, “What shall I do, Lord?’, the Lord could have said, ”You shall die.”  “Saul, WHY are you persecuting ME, the risen Son of God?  Now you shall feel MY wrath!”  We might even have reason to expect the Lord to say that to Paul.  But that isn’t what the Lord said.  On the contrary He said, “Get up and go to Damascus and you’ll find out everything I’ve appointed you to do.”  Now look at verse 12:

12 “And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, 13 came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. 14 And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; 15 for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

This, beloved, is the grace of God!  I cannot help but think that this miserable man, this hater of Christ and of Christians, this persecutor of the Lord Jesus, must have been baptized in his own tears before he was baptized by the very believers whom he had come to arrest.  Jesus had appeared to him visibly and he saw Him.  Jesus spoke to Paul audibly, and he heard Him.  Jesus revealed God’s will to him, and Paul obeyed Him.  This is how the grace of God works.  God called Paul by means of the power of His grace.

Grace is the benevolent power of God.  God moves and works and changes us and causes us to become His people, and moves us to do His will by the power of grace.  Listen to these verses that describe the grace and power of God:

And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. (Acts 4:33 ESV)

And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. (Acts 6:8 ESV)

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. (2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV)

Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. (Ephesians 3:7 ESV)

God’s grace and God’s power work together.  In fact, I believe it is accurate to say God’s grace is His power at work in us who believe in order to accomplish His purposes and His will through us.  That leads us to point #4.

4.  Why? Why would God do such a thing?  Why would God act in such a gracious and powerful way in this man’s life?  What is it that moved God to transform this evil man Saul, into Paul the missionary?  It should be evident that Paul gave God absolutely no reason to bless him by revealing the true identity of the Lord Jesus to him.  What conditions, what prerequisites, what qualifications had Paul met in order to earn this divine revelation of the Messiah by God the Father?

None.  This is where the phrase “Unconditional Election” comes from.  Notice it is in the midst of persecution that Jesus speaks to Paul!  Regardless of what Paul thinks he is doing for God by hunting down Christians, the reality is that Paul is not wooing God to deal well with him.  Paul is persecuting God’s Son!

Therefore, God’s decision to reveal the Lord Jesus to Paul was not based upon some great thing Paul was doing in order to gain God’s favor.  This revelation of Jesus was IN SPITE OF what Paul was doing.  What is the context in which Jesus is revealed to Paul?  Jesus Himself says, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”  Here’s Paul’s commentary on his fitness to earn salvation:

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:8 ESV).

What did the great apostle Paul have to offer in exchange for knowing Jesus Christ?  Rubbish.  Just like  the rest of us.  We have nothing with which to purchase salvation.  Even our righteousness is filthy.  So what should God think of our unrighteousness?  Why would God bother with such worthless wretches as Paul, and us?  Look at verses 15 and 16 again:

15 But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, 16 was pleased to reveal his Son to me

When God chooses to save a person, He is exercising His own free will to grant salvation to whomever it pleases Him to save.  This is what we mean by the phrase “Sovereign Grace”.  God sovereignly grants saving grace to men unconditionally, and solely according to His own good pleasure.  No one can earn salvation.  What will a man give in exchange for his soul?  It is a rhetorical question.  Even the supposedly good things we have done are entirely unacceptable to a holy God.

Thankfully, in spite of the terrible fact that we have nothing to offer, nothing with which to purchase our own forgiveness, God willingly and gladly and in spite of who and what we are, chooses to save.  It pleases Him to do so.  And if there was ever anyone who fully understood that, it was Paul.  Somehow, for some inexplicable reason, God was pleased to reveal the Lord Jesus to him, the Chief Persecutor of Christ.  The motivation behind God’s salvation of Paul, and of us, is nothing other than His own good pleasure.

In him [Christ] we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will (Ephesians 1:11 ESV).

God saved Paul why?  Because He was pleased to do so.  Because it was according to the counsel of His own good will.

5.  What? What is the purpose behind God’s working in Paul?  There are actually two purposes being accomplished in the conversion of Paul and of us: God’s glory and our salvation.  That is the order of priority.  God’s glory is always the first and foremost purpose of God in everything He does.  Our salvation is secondary.  Notice verse 16 again:

[God] was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

Another way of saying this is, God saved me in order that I might preach Christ to the Gentiles.  When the mystery of Christ was revealed to Paul, He had a two-fold purpose.  Yes, God saved Paul from his sins.  But He saved him to make him a missionary to declare His glory.  The spreading of the name of Jesus Christ was God’s primary purpose in saving Paul.

That is always the purpose of God in salvation: His glory first, and our forgiveness second.  That is the case for us all.  God does not save us solely for our own sakes.  God does not grant this saving grace to us so we can live our lives secluded in monasteries or convents or compounds in the backwoods of Idaho.  God has saved us in order that we also might preach Him to the nations.  The phrase literally means “to gospel Him among the Gentiles”.  The Lord Jesus IS the good news of the Gospel.  That was the purpose behind Paul’s salvation, as well as ours.

So we need to ask ourselves this question: How are we fulfilling God’s purpose of saving us in order to declare Jesus Christ to the world?  What are we doing to make the Lord Jesus known?

However you answer that, one answer is unacceptable: “I’m doing nothing.”  If that is true of you, that you are doing nothing of any real substance for the sake of the propagation of the gospel message, then repentance is in order.  If you are not actively serving the Lord by some means for the purpose of spreading the good news and “gospelling” the Lord Jesus, then it’s time to ask the Lord’s forgiveness.  This is what Jesus means when He teaches the parable of the unprofitable servant.

God has not saved us to be silent.  He has saved us in order to glorify Himself through our words, through our labors for the sake of His kingdom.  Can we say in all honesty that we are consistently pursuing an obedient gospel-spreading lifestyle?  We are the means God has chosen to use for the worldwide proclamation of Jesus Christ.  What are we doing, collectively and individually, in the power of the grace of God, to accomplish that purpose?

God has sought us out, set us apart, and sends us into the world with the gospel.  We dare not neglect this call.  Every Christian is a minister of the Gospel.