“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:5
It is relatively easy to believe God’s call of Jeremiah the prophet, even when he said that He had done so before Jeremiah was born. When we look at the Apostle Paul, we are confronted with the same matter, going back to before he was born. Paul wrote to the believers in Galatia that God had set him apart from his mother’s womb, called him by His grace, and was pleased to reveal His Son in him, so that he might preach Christ among the Gentiles, or the nations.” (1:15,16) The calling of Jeremiah and Paul were the same, having begun in the heart and mind of God even before they were born. How can this be, especially when looking at the differences between the two individuals? It can only be explained by resting in the wisdom, grace, and mercy of God, His sovereign power and foreknowledge, working to bring them both to the place where they became the Lord’s servants, effective and fruitful in their calling. Why do we first need to consider the realization of their calling to be impossible? How does this fact apply to us?
When “the word of the Lord” came unto Jeremiah concerning his calling, the magnitude of it, with his own limitations, both physical and spiritual, especially in regard to being a prophet, and preaching the word of the Lord to his generation, his response was very revealing. He said to the Lord, “Alas, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, because I am a youth.” (Jer. 1:7) There is no doubt that in his own eyes, Jeremiah did not feel sufficient, or adequate, for the challenge, or calling. The consideration of his meager resources as a “youth” rose up before him like a mountain, a hindering obstacle from going forward. The Lord’s response was very clear, concise, and convincing: “But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say I am a youth, because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, saith the Lord.'” (1:7,8) Jeremiah’s impossibility would become God’s possibility when Jeremiah committed himself to follow and obey Christ. Christ’s call was not for him to look within to see if he had the resources to answer the call of God, but to look at the faithful, everlasting and sovereign God, to meet him, and to deliver him in it. All things are possible to him that believeth.
For the Apostle Paul, such a monumental revelation of Christ to one who had been vehemently opposed to Him, there was the impossibility for this Saul of Tarsus to change totally the direction he was going in, being a persecutor of Christ’s disciples, to become a disciple himself. This was later born out in his words, “…I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” (Romans 7:14) He went on to say, “O wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (7:24) Here is a man who has been born again of the Spirit but is still living in bondage to the “law of sin” in his members. The more he seeks to “try” to follow Christ, doing that which is good and right, the more he is faced with failure, and the very conscious, and convicting reality that he is indeed wretched,” sin dominating his life. How can this man who is called of God, who is in an impossible situation and state, rise up to follow Christ victoriously? That which is impossible with man is possible with God. How then did God bring Paul to victory, as He did for Jeremiah? He revealed basically two wonderful truths to Paul, the first being that of no condemnation in Christ. The second was the freedom from sin and death by the Law of the Spirit of life.
Dear Father, Save us to serve. In Jesus’ name, Amen.