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The first spoken words of Paul the saved were, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do".
Even in the epistle to the Galatians, where inspiration demands two chapters out of six to
prove the independence and authority of Paul, even there, at the very last, and written
with his own hand, he speaks of the "brand marks" that he bears in his body as the bond
slave of Christ. Yet as we learn through this self-same Paul that the Lord he served laid
aside His glory and humbled Himself, taking upon Him the "form of a slave", we can
begin to appreciate that Paul could know no higher honour than to be called the bond
slave of that same Christ.
"A called apostle."--It is not correct to read as in the A.V., "called to be an apostle".
He was "a called apostle". What this means may be gathered from Heb. 5: 4, "And no
man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God". The apostle being
called of God was neither self appointed nor commissioned by man. We can trace this
feature in several references to his apostleship:--
"Paul, an apostle (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father,
Who raised Him from the dead)" (Gal. 1: 1).
"Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not
ye my work in the Lord?" (I Cor. 9: 1).
"I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle (I speak the truth in Christ and lie not), a
teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth" (I Tim. 2: 7).
The word "apostle" is from apostello, "to send from" someone as his legate
(Acts 22: 21, 26: 17). In this sense the Lord Himself is called "the Apostle"
(Heb. 3: 1), for He was pre-eminently "the Sent One" (see John's Gospel). The "sent
one" or the "apostle" comes with all the authority of the One that sends him (Matt. 8: 9;
Luke 10: 16), and it is this fact that lies behind the title "apostle". Not only was Paul an
apostle, he was peculiarly separated unto the gospel of God. This separation took place
at birth and at Antioch:--
"But when it pleased God, Who SEPARATED me from my mother's womb, and
called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him among the
Gentiles . . . . ." (Gal. 1: 15, 16).
Here we have three items that are repeated in Acts 13:, 14: and Rom. 1:, viz.,
(1) the separation; (2) preaching Him; (3) among the Gentiles:--
"The Holy Ghost said, SEPARATE me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I
have called them . . . . . they preached the word of God . . . . . I have found David . . . . .
of this man's seed hath God according to His promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus
. . . . . as it is written in the second Psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten Thee
. . . . . by Him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be
justified by the law of Moses . . . . . it was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you (Jews) . . . . . we turn to the Gentiles . . . . . they rehearsed all
that God had done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith unto the
Gentiles" (Acts 13: and 14:).