Romans 1:1 ESV
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,
Galatians 1:15 NASB95
But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace
Paul refers to himself in the opening of his letters as an apostle called by God. In the Romans passage, he says that he was an apostle called by God, set apart for the gospel of God. When did that calling happen? The obvious answer is on the Damascus Road when Paul was struck blind by the glory of God, and Christ spoke to him to go into the city where a man named Ananias declared Paul’s calling to take the gospel to the Gentiles. That is such a remarkable story, and yet Galatians 1:15 says that he was set apart from his mother’s womb and called by God’s grace. From Paul’s birth, God had been using the circumstances and situations of life to position Paul not just to be a follower of Jesus but an apostle to the Gentiles. What’s fascinating about this is some of the things that Paul himself had done that would seem to disqualify him ever to be used by God. Before his encounter with the Lord, Paul was the most zealous persecutor of Christianity. He was responsible for countless Christians being slaughtered. As a matter of fact, when the Lord encountered him on the Damascus road, Paul was on his way to Damascus to carry out more destruction and death to the believers in that city.
Having said that, Paul stated that he was set apart and called even from his mother’s womb. It amazes me how God will use the details of life and even our own horrific choices to posture us to have an encounter with Jesus. It is not that God wanted Paul to orchestrate the murder of Christians, but our sovereign God even uses our fallenness, not as an excuse to reject us, but to posture us to encounter him, to even use us for his glory.
Paul could have rebelled and missed his destiny in Christ, but instead, he surrendered in faith. Doesn’t it encourage you, because it encourages me, to know that our God is so big and so good that he’ll use everything, including our own bad choices, to posture us for our destiny in Jesus? I’m not saying it’s okay to make bad choices. What I’m saying is that God never gives up on us, and he’ll use everything, including the junk, to redeem us and our story.