“So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities. “While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’
Acts 26:9-18
Actually, the title for the article was going to be ‘From Murderer to The Greatest Man Not Called Christ’ but that would be too long a title and maybe I will use it as a book title but only God knows. Yes, I do consider Paul to be the greatest man not named Christ as well as the most sanctified man to ever live and that’s why I am starting this series which I am thinking will have 3 articles but I love Paul so much, as his writings have challenged me and rebuked me in ways, I never thought possible, that the 3 might become 10 but that I leave to God’s Providence.
So, you may ask, why have I decided to tackle the life of Paul? Well because we live in a world that has made it its mission to either discredit Paul and his writings or take his writings, warnings, and exhortations entirely out of context. Whether it be his strong stance on homosexuality (Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11), women who call themselves pastors or elders (1 Timothy 2:11-15; 3:1-7, 1 Corinthians 14:34-36, Titus 1:5-16), women submitting to their husbands and husbands loving their wives (Ephesians 5:22-31, 1 Corinthians 7:4) for more on Biblical Womanhood and their roles we have a series that deals with that titled ‘Esther, Ruth and Feminism’. Also, his stances on spiritual gifts, the church as the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12-14), and many more that I can’t tackle as they could fill up an entire book, you know what there actually is one by Dr. John Piper titled ’Why I Love The Apostle Paul’. Mainly the reason why there’s a huge uproar against Paul is his unwillingness to compromise on the gospel no matter the cost (Philippians 3:6-8,).
However, what makes this rather urgent is not the fact that the world is causing the uproar as that is very much expected cause as the word makes us aware of is that the world doesn’t love the Father (1 John 2:15-17). The issue is that the church is either compromising on it or directly and indirectly supporting these uproars against him and hence the urgency. So, the goal of this series is not mainly to defend him even if that will happen but the reason why that isn’t my main goal is that he has already been given a crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:7-8) but rather to make him known as he ought to be and to show you why he is the perfect model for every Christian in this world in which we are increasingly choosing safety over faith when that was never the case with Paul.
Since we are in the knowing him phase why don’t we start with his name?
The Saul to Paul Debacle
But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him…………. Now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia; but John left them and returned to Jerusalem.
Acts 13:9, 13
Before we dive deep with Paul, we have to address the issue concerning his name as many assume that he was given the Abram to Abraham treatment after his conversion to Christianity and for quite some time I was one of the many until I did the simple task of reading the Bible which shows the necessity of reading the Bible on a constant or rather daily basis. So, what did the Bible show me;
But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us in public without trial, men who are Romans, and have thrown us into prison; and now are they sending us away secretly? No indeed! But let them come themselves and bring us out.” The policemen reported these words to the chief magistrates. They were afraid when they heard that they were Romans, and they came and appealed to them, and when they had brought them out, they kept begging them to leave the city. They went out of the prison and entered the house of Lydia, and when they saw the brethren, they encouraged them and departed.
Acts 16:37-40
The Bible shows us that Paul was not only a Jewish Citizen but a Roman citizen as well, as he was born in the city of Tarsus which was a Roman City. The question arises what does that have to do with his name and the answer is that well back then there was a custom for dual names and it wasn’t any different for Paul as since he was both Jew and Roman by registration it made sense as to why he had two names to distinguish the two.
Another source of evidence that shows this as true is during his conversion in Acts 9:1-19 nowhere does Jesus actually call him Paul even while talking to Ananias. So, if his name change was divine then why would Jesus suddenly forget that while talking to Ananias and not only that why didn’t He directly change it the same way He did when He changed Simon’s name to Peter in Matthew 16:18-19? The questions lead to the simple answer which is that there was no divine name change from Saul to Paul.
What then prompted Paul to stop using Saul and exclusively use Paul? Well, the answer is that had to do with his commission which was to be an ‘apostle to the Gentiles’ (Romans 11:13). This brings us back to Acts 13:13 and what happens in this particular chapter is that Paul officially started his mission to the Gentiles. So, in short, he delighted in using the name Saul until he began preaching to the Gentiles and as he tells us in 1 Corinthians 6:19-23 that for the sake of the gospel he was willing to become all things for all people. Thus, it makes sense that to have a sense of ease with the Gentile world in spreading the gospel that he would use his Roman name.
To finish off some scholars say that another reason he stuck with the name Paul till his death was its meaning which is ‘little’, ‘small’ or ‘humble’ while Saul meant ‘asked for’ or ‘prayed for’. The reason they say that is because he always wanted to present himself as less than and Christ as greater as John 3:30 shows.
The Foremost of All Sinners
It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.
1 Timothy 1:15
In order to understand who Paul was, we need to understand what he meant when he called himself the foremost of all sinners. What could he have possibly done to make him consider himself the foremost of all sinners? For that, we have to go all the way back to before his conversion in Acts 9. Sadly, the only information we have on Paul before Acts 9 is when he signed on Stephen’s murder. Luckily Paul somewhat gives us 2 small autobiographies on his life before conversion that could help in answering these questions for us. For this article I will tackle the first one which comes from Galatians 1:13-14 which says:
For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.
So, you may be wondering what about anything in these two verses makes Paul the foremost of all sinners considering we have had people like Adolf Hitler who was, directly and indirectly, involved in the death of 100 million people in 6 years, Mussolini, and even during his time the Roman empire just to say the least. With that in mind it seems we also need to return to the verses that are guiding this article:
since they have known about me for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that I lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of our religion. And now I am standing trial for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers; the promise to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly serve God night and day. And for this hope, O King, I am being accused by Jews. Why is it considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead? “So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities.
Acts 26:5-11
Why does he consider himself the foremost of all sinners? Well as we see from the preceding verses it is because he thought that persecuting the followers of Christ was only the right thing to do but it was a God-given right and as I am about to show you from scripture itself there is nothing more dreadful than attaching the name of God to your sinful causes, actions, and desires.
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
Matthew 7:21-23
Was Paul orthodox? Yes, Pharisees in spite of their misgivings were actually extremely orthodox as they believed in the resurrection, were evangelists, and adhered fully to the word of God or as referred back then as the Law. However, was Paul ignorant and in unbelief? Yes, he was because in spite of adhering to all orthodoxies of scripture before his encounter with Christ he didn’t believe in the Son and as Jesus tells us in John 8:19; “You know neither Me nor My Father; if you knew Me, you would know My Father also.”
So, in spite of Paul being orthodox, that meant nothing as not only did He not believe in Christ and His resurrection before the encounter but he actively endeavored to obliterate all people who were followers of Christ in his ignorance and unbelief. So, how then does he go from an active persecutor of Christ and His church to the most sanctified man under Christ?
From Christ Persecutor to His Most Loyal Slave
The famous theologian and medical doctor Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones once said;
We are never free. Everybody in the world tonight is either the slave of sin and Satan or else the slave of Jesus Christ.
So, how did our beloved Paul go from Christ persecutor to His most loyal slave?
But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.
Galatians 1:15-17
The answer is rather simple; the problem is that many don’t like that answer as many want to attribute their salvation to themselves. God through Jesus dying on the cross and then revealing himself to Paul in His glorified state when he was on his way to arrest Christians or people of The Way as they were known back then in Damascus is the answer. From the preceding verses, we see that not only had God set Paul apart to be an apostle to the Gentiles when he was still in his mother’s womb but also that all that happened before God showered Paul with His mercy was a part of God’s plan to call Paul to Himself through His grace.
Does that negate everything Paul did? No, it doesn’t but that’s why there was necessary blood-bought sacrifice that rendered forgiveness to Paul and that was Jesus dying on the cross. Thus, because of what happened on the cross it pleased God to call Paul so that he may preach the gospel to the Gentiles. To finish off my answer being God through Christ alone, here’s Paul;
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
Ephesians 1:4-10
So, was it any work of Paul? No, it wasn’t. Not only was he dead in his transgressions but also when Christ called him, Paul was going to persecute Christ’s followers thus the change of heart couldn’t be a work he could attribute to himself and the same is true for us because we were bought with that price and that price was Christ’s death on the cross.
To Live is Christ
As Ephesians 1:21 tells us that to live is Christ if we are called of him and my goal with this series is to show as I said in the beginning why Paul is a perfect example of who we should be in Christ and I hope that this first article has shown you that Paul was like any one of us: ignorant, arrogant, filled with pride and selfishness and most importantly full of unbelief despite fully adhering to the law.
Also, I hope it has shown that the only way for your life to be Christ is through Christ Himself and if anyone tells you otherwise they are simply lying to you and you need to flee from them. Until next time, be blessed.