Staying Away From Jerusalem
Interesting point Paul makes here by telling the Galatians that his calling did not happen on the road to Damascus but he was called by God’s grace from his mother’s womb. Most would say he was called when the Lord met him on the road to Damascus but that is not so. What happened on the road to Damascus was Jesus revealing Himself in Paul and salvation came to his soul at that time. When did redemption come to Paul? It came at the same time it came to everyone else, on the cross of Calvary. His experience that day was a revelation of Jesus in him and that’s when he saw his redemption and he experienced salvation.
We can assume many things as to what Paul did after this experience and I am sure many have different ideas. I even heard one guy say that he went to Arabia to Bible College. I thought that was pretty hilarious but this guy was serious. The only thing it says is that he went to Arabia. But one thing he makes very clear and he says it in verse 16 is that he DID NOT confer with flesh and blood so they could explain to him what he had experienced. He was not interested in finding out what the religious world would tell him about what he had experienced.
In verse 17 he makes it very clear that he DID NOT go to those that were apostles before him. The last place he wanted to go was to Jerusalem and meet with the apostles and get indoctrinated back into law and bondage. He knew what he was supposed to do and his calling was made clear to him when the Lord revealed Himself in him. Note that it does not say “to him” but “in him”. Jesus was already in Paul and all that happened was He was revealed to Paul inside of Him. He did not “invite him in” as He was already in Paul.
When we see Paul saying he did not go to Jerusalem or later when he did go to Jerusalem, he makes it clear when saying that, that he is talking about going to see the apostles that were before him. This is very important as you continue to read the book of Galatians and Paul mentions Jerusalem. So we know what guys he was talking about as he mentions them by name later on in the book. So we see he did NOT go confer with the apostles but headed the other way for a lot of years to get what I believe was total training by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
Paul had seen the direction some of these apostles had taken and he certainly was not interested in meeting with any of them at the time of his experience with the Lord. When Jesus is revealed to anyone, what is actually revealed is Truth. Jesus is the way the Truth and the life. So when He reveals Himself, He reveals these things in us as that is Who He is. He showed Paul what the gospel of grace and peace was and then Paul went to the heathen (gentiles) to preach this liberating gospel and not the bondage some of the apostles were bringing people back under. Galatians becomes very clear on this in later chapters.
