Galatians 1.15-17 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. – St. Paul
You could say, by reading the above, that God took Paul
off of one track, and set him upon another. It appears that God looked at the
life and desires of the apostle before he was Paul, while he was still Saul, and
said: You are zealous for things of which
you are ignorant. I will show you what is real, and who you really are, and how I’m
going to really use you for My glory and goodness.
St. Paul had no idea who he really was; he only knew what
he thought he was. Paul was a teacher
and a proclaimer, he just taught and proclaimed the wrong things. So, God
showed him what was the truth and what was the real purpose of his life. God
was pleased to reveal His Son to Paul, and when He did, Paul became a different
person. That ought to give hope to someone.
We do what we do because as humans, we see what we see
intellectually. But our intellect can be (and often is) faulty – at least
according to God. Our reasoning, because of who we are apart from Him, is very
suspect and can lead us to say and do the wildest things just because of what
we think. And left to our thinking alone, we are dangerous at worst, and
utterly foolish at best. Because He loves us, God is pleased to show us a
different way and to, like He did for Paul, reveal to us His Son who saves us
from our worst enemy: ourselves.
God takes full responsibility for Who He is and what He has done. He claims sovereign responsibility for His creation and all that is in it. God did not cause the fall of man, but God made a way for man to return from his own devices. And, remarkably, God gave man freewill; something never to be taken lightly. The problem is: man is incapable of coming to God unless God first takes pleasure to reveal to him His salvation. Man wants it his way. Man wants to flaunt his own creativity and cleverness. Paul the Apostle was creative and clever, but his creativity and cleverness couldn’t out-clever or out-create God.
If we are so inclined, we reason we must first attain to
something in order to please God. We think we must show up in God’s presence to
prove to Him how good we are. And thereby having proven our worth, we reason we
deserve God’s approval. But God is pleased
when we are at our worst and most undeserving, to reveal to us His Salvation:
the Person of Jesus Christ. God takes into account His salvation, not our efforts at extracting ourselves from our own
fallen reasoning and intellect.
When God is pleased, and He always is, people are saved.
We weren’t created so God could find some divine pleasure in watching us crash
and burn. God is the Creator of Life and He is pleased to give us that life that
we may enjoy Him for eternity; never growing old, never growing tired.
I’m glad for that… I’m glad for His pleasure.
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