‘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.'
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.
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 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 (Acts 9:20), 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 (1 Kings 17:3-7 compare 2 Kings 1:8 for his desert clothing), and John the Baptiser (Luke 1:80; Luke 3:2. Compare Matthew 3:1-4; Mark 1:4-6), and Jesus Himself (Mark 1:12-13) had done before him, so as to receive the word of God (Luke 3:2). This demonstrates that he felt himself within the prophetic line.
‘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.
‘Who separated me, even from my mother's womb.' There seems little doubt that he has in mind here the words of Jeremiah 1:5, ‘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 (Isaiah 49:3), ‘the Lord has called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother he has made mention of my name' (Isaiah 49:1). So to be separated from the womb was to be a chosen servant of God. And that was what had happened to him.
‘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.
‘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.
‘That I might preach Him among the Gentiles.' Paul had recognised the special nature of his calling almost immediately (Acts 22:21 see also Acts 13:46), as later did the Apostles (Galatians 2:7-9). It is clear that the Apostles still looked on their responsibility as being mainly to the Jews (Galatians 2:9), although acknowledging that Gentiles could be accepted (Acts 10:44-48). It was Paul who stressed the wider vision, something which the Apostles as a whole came to later.
‘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.
‘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 Acts 9:25-26, although it may connect with Acts 9:22. 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.
‘And again I returned to Damascus.' He had then continued his ministry without recourse to human assistance, returning to Damascus and proclaiming Christ.