Okay, this is where I turn into a writer for Cliff Notes.
In Galatians 1:13:17 Paul gives us his before and after story…at least the beginning of it.
13 For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it. 14 And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
Those to whom he is writing in Galatia had no doubt heard everything about Paul, either before he showed up or when he was with them as he certainly would have given what we would call his ‘testimony’.
He was a Jewish Pharisee before he became a believer. They were the religious sect of the Jew who believed in following the law down to the smallest, most obscure detail and they seriously looked down their noses at anyone who did not do as they did. This new sect of the Jews (for that is what it was at the beginning) that advocated following this Christ and doing away with some of the Jewish identity markers such as circumcision, dietary laws and religious holiday observances did not go over well with Paul. In fact he saw it as his mission to wipe them out…and he tried this by arresting Christians wherever he could and hauling off the Jerusalem for heresy trials. He wanted to stamp them out however he could. He tried to lay waste to both people and property
He was the guy with multiple PHDs at the Jewish seminary. He was excessive in all he did in his Jewish faith. He was beyond zealous in all that he did. By the way, the traditions that he mentions are not what are contained in the Old Testament but rather later additions added by religious teachers. They were essentially grafted in to the law.
And then the unthinkable happens. Way back before Paul was ever born, God had already mapped out a plan to use him as a apostle. This guy, the one who hated Christians so much. He was going to be a mighty preacher of the gospel among the Gentiles (the non-Jews) but he did not know it until Jesus knocked him off his horse on the way to Damascus into order to show Paul who He really was.
Paul did not come to know Jesus because any man said he should. This was done solely because it was God’s plan and it please Him for this to happen. There was nothing in Paul which would persuade God to choose him. This call was only through God’s grace.
The man who grew up hating Gentiles became the preacher and apostle to the Gentiles…God’s subtle sense of humor perhaps?
But what is interesting is what happened immediately after. He did not look for human confirmation for what happened. He didn’t need to know because it was not a matter of someone telling him about Jesus but rather Jesus being revealed in him…much different.
Specifically, Paul says, he did not go to Jerusalem to talk with any of the other apostles to see what they thought about all of this. That was not necessary and helps with the idea that Paul’s gospel and ministry did not come from man because it did not need human
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