Pondering Paul

This morning as I was reading in the book of Galations I stopped to consider the apostle Paul, especially his conversion. Before he became a believer he was driven to understand the Old Testament (OT) teachings and he was zealous to protect them. So then Christ is revealed to him and immediately after his conversion he begins to preach the gospel of Christ, salvation by grace.What I never really gave thought to is that he did not go to the church elders until many years later. How did he know if he was preaching the same message everyone else was? I guess he didn't. He must have been totally convinced to make such a radical change and preach it with confidence. Another thing to think about... If the message was consistent between Peter and the other apostles, and Paul. Does that not validate the truth of the message??Think about it. Paul was a master of OT scriptures. There were no New Testament scriptures. He never met Jesus while he walked on this earth. Yet though Paul we see that the OT clearly promises a saviour for all men, not just jews. It promises that we can become children of promise through Abraham's seed, Jesus. That we no longer have to live under the law which we can't keep, and that we can have freedomin Christ.I think Paul was able to just preach the message because when he accepted salvation by grace, the truth, the mystery was revealed to him. It was there in the OT scriptures the whole time. Christ and his salvation are the fulfillment of the OT, and since Paul knew the scriptures so well he is able to show us how the OT points to Christ.As for how his message and the apostles were the same there is only one answer. There is only one gospel and when God revealed it to them that is what he spoke. If they made stuff up they would have preached different messages. At least that is what I think. How about you??