God’s Word for You

Galatians 1:15-16 From my mother’s womb

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, June 3, 2024

15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and who called me through his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me, in order that I might preach about him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately go to anyone who was flesh and blood for advice.

The main point Paul makes here is that when he was converted to faith, he did not jump up right away and go talk with the apostles or get his message from a mere mortal human, “anyone who was flesh and blood.” He has already made this point three times in the letter:

    1:1 “an apostle—not from men, nor through a man”
    1:11 “I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached
      is not something from man.”
    1:12 “For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it;
      rather, I received it through a revelation from Jesus Christ.”

Now he adds that he was set apart to preach the gospel even before he was born. Isaiah and Jeremiah said the same thing about their own ministry (Isaiah 49:1; Jeremiah 1:5) and Paul will say it again in Romans 1:1. His call to be a Christian minister and the missionary to the Gentiles was not based on any merits in Paul or on account of his particular righteousness. God had Paul in mind for this before faith had even entered Paul’s heart; he was still in his sins in his mother’s womb. But God had already set boundaries around Paul, for aphorizo (ἀϕορίζω) means to remove or set apart as with a boundary line (Leviticus 20:26).

We will notice in passing that this is also a verse that describes the unborn baby in the womb (1) as being a living human being in God’s sight, for he is not a God of the dead but of the living, “for to him all are alive” (Luke 20:38), (2) that a child in the womb has a soul, since the soul is the life of the individual even while the body is being “knitted together in the womb” (Psalm 139:13), and the soul is also the seat of faith: “Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Psalm 139:14). To this we add (3) that a child’s soul is also created at conception, for souls do not exist apart from their bodies except in that time between the death of the body and the resurrection of the body (Luke 16:22; Ecclesiastes 12:7). Finally (4) a baby is guilty of original sin even in the womb and needs a Savior, as David preaches: “I was sinful when my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5).

It is dangerous, foolish, and irrational to make claims about the unborn that imply that they are somehow not yet human by various signposts of life. If it is claimed that the unborn are not yet fully developed and are simply embryos, what about those children who are born who never fully develop? Are they not human, or are they a lesser class or race of human? Or are they something else? Legally, could an underdeveloped being fall outside the protections of the slave laws? An underdeveloped physical being could certainly be made to do work in a factory; if he or she is not considered human, then do any safety or wage laws apply? In the same way, if a being in the womb is not considered human because he or she does not yet breathe air, then we run into the same dangerous speculations. Could an unscrupulous but enterprising man manipulate a population of beings, human in form, who simply do not breathe air as we do? Could this population, however large or small, be forced to work as slaves under water because the definition of human being does not line up with what the Bible says? Similar arguments can be made for the assumption that to be human one’s mind must be correctly developed, or any number of criteria that finally fall equally among fetal development and later birth defects, abnormalities, or irregularities.

Another human argument one hears today is that some people consider a baby within the womb to be in some sense the property of or a bodily portion of the mother’s body. But that isn’t how God speaks. It is not Paul’s mother who was set aside for a special gospel purpose, but Paul, her son, while she was carrying him. It was not Isaiah’s mother, nor Jeremiah’s mother, who were called to be prophets, but Isaiah and Jeremiah. God speaks of his prophets and apostles in the womb just the same as he does out of the womb. They are not the possessions of their mothers, but possessions of God. They are not their mother’s prophets and apostles, but God’s prophets and apostles. And just as the mother is responsible for her own sinful condition on account of her original sin and her actual sin, so also the baby she carries, carries his own sin on his head, inherited from his mother and father, but laid on his own account, not his mother’s account.

Paul very clearly and without apology or the need to explain himself, says that he, Paul, existed in his mother’s womb, a sinful human being without any merit or worthiness, but set apart by God for a special task in the world. God called him, not merely because Paul would be able to serve, but with such service in mind, out of his grace, “to rage against the (erring) church” (Luther).

Why do I say, “without any merit or worthiness?” Because God set apart Paul “by grace.” And when a thing happens by the grace of God, it is completely removed from any merits or worthiness on the part of man. God acted on his own initiative; his action was motivated only by his own unconditional and undeserved love. “By the grace of God,” Paul said, “I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

At the beginning of verse 16, Paul curiously says that God was pleased to reveal his Son “in me.” We would expect him to say, “to me,” and this would be usual in Greek, as well. God reveals his gospel, his grace, or his Son “to” someone in Matthew 11:25, 16:16; 1 Corinthians 2:10; Ephesians 3:5; 1 Peter 1:12 and other places. But here he says, “in me.” Why? Paul’s experience of this revelation was, of course, “to me,” but he says “in me” because it totally consumed him; it was within as well as without. “It filled his very heart, soul, and spirit so as to abide with him forever” (Lenski).

Having expressed this, Paul says once again that he did not go to verify this or to get advice about it from anybody. If the message is from Jesus, the Son of God, why confirm this with a trip to Jerusalem to talk with Peter and John? Why take classes from the apostles when he has been instructed by Christ? And there we come back to Paul’s point, answering some opponents among the gospel-twisting Jews in Galatia. They were saying, “You’re gospel is insufficient, Paul. It isn’t what anybody else teaches.” Oh, no? It’s the Gospel from Christ himself. Who doesn’t teach what Christ taught and still teaches?

What Paul isn’t saying directly is clear anyway. He says, “God revealed his Son to me so that I might preach about him among the Gentiles, and I didn’t go to anyone for advice first.” What he doesn’t say but which is still clear is this: “But instead of that, I went and preached to the Gentiles, just as Christ commanded me.”

Paul is defending his ministry and pointing out an error, but because he speaks the absolute truth and is under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, his words can be brought directly into our lives, and we can apply this message with fierce confidence. When any human argument is set over against the Word of God, the world will dispise the Word, but the Word is correct and true. The Word of Christ will always have its effect: either it will create faith, strengthen faith, convict a sinner, comfort a sinner, or, with an unbeliever, it may harden a heart. But it is never neutral and without any effect. “My word will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11). And again: “It is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21). Be confident with God’s holy Word. It will accomplish what he desires.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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