So, what exactly took place on the Road to Damascus. Let’s review the biblical references to that event. The following is a concatenation of the events of Saul’s Damascus Road experience recorded in Acts 9, Acts 22, Acts 26 and Galatians chapters 1 and 2.
In this connection he (Saul) journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus about noon, and suddenly a great light from heaven shone around him. Saul saw the light brighter than the sun, that shone around him and those who journeyed with him. And they all fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to Saul in the Hebrew language, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” And answering Saul said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said to me, “I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.
The men who were traveling with him saw the light but seeing no one, and they heard the voice of the one who was speaking to him but not understanding, they stood speechless. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.
And Saul said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to him, “rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your 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 power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me. Enter the city of Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for what you are to do.”
It is interesting to compare the vocabulary Jesus used in his communication with Saul on the Damascus road with the vocabulary that Saul used to describe his own new self-identity in Romans 1:1-4.
A cursory look at the similarities indicate that the very same concepts that Jesus communicated to Saul on the Damascus road become the very same concepts that Saul used for identifying his new self-personification and his new worldview that we find in Romans 1:1-4. What do we find?
We find, on the one hand in Saul’s Damascus Road experience, that Jesus referred to Saul as being…
1. a chosen (called) instrument (Act 9:15)
2. a servant (Acts 26:10)
3. sent by Jesus (Act 22:21 & Act 26:17)
4. delivered (set apart) from his people (Act 26:17)
And on the other hand, we find in Romans 1:1-4, these very same concepts. Here’s what we find in Romans 1:1…
1. In Romans 1:1, Saul identifies himself as a “called” apostle. Is it an accident that the word “called” in Romans 1:1 is a derivative of the word “chosen” in Acts 9:15? It seems that the concept that God specifically “called” and “called out/chose” Saul, used in 9:15 and also used again in Acts 26:10 as “appointed”, is seared into Saul’s self-identity on the road to Damascus. It seems that in the very first sentence of his introduction in Romans 1:1 Saul fully embraces the concept that he is "a called out" one, or "chosen" one for his apostleship.
2. In addition, in Acts 26:10, Jesus tells Saul that he is appointed to be his (Jesus’) “servant.” Is it a coincidence that Saul also identifies himself as (Jesus’) “servant” in Romans 1:1? It seems that Saul acquired his identity as a "servant" on the road to Damascus, and as we will see, this identity becomes an interpretive key to understanding his letter to the Roman Christians.
3. In both Romans 1:1 and Acts 22:21 and 26:17 Saul identifies himself as “one who is sent by Jesus.” Saul is called and chosen for the specific purpose of being Jesus' servant who is sent as an apostle to carry his name before the Gentiles. Saul’s self-identification as an “apostle” in Romans 1:1 can be traced back to his Damascus road experience when Jesus himself called Saul and chose him for the specific role of apostle, sent to the Gentiles.
4. The most striking similarity between Saul’s Damascus road experience and his self-identification in Romans 1:1 is his use of the concept of being “set apart” or “severed.” We know that Saul sees himself as being "set apart" or "severed" for the purpose of preaching the "gospel." He states that very clearly in Romans 1:1. But what he does not tell us is from what he was severed in order for him to be able to preach the gospel. The key to understanding this concept is found in Acts 26:17 where Jesus tells us that Saul was “delivered” or “severed” from (the worldview of) his former stringent, law-bound worldview and community of Jewish leaders in order for him to be newly connected to Jesus as the conquering Messiah. The phrase is "delivering you from your people..." the word used for "delivering" in Acts 26:17, although it is not the same word used in Romans 1:1, it is a word like the word in Romans 1:1, in which both are synonyms for the word "sever." Can there be a coincidence in these similarities?
What’s more, in the next three verses of Romans 1, there are three more indications that the Damascus Road experience played an instrumental role in Saul’s new self-identification.
Paul’s own commentary throughout the first paragraph in Romans reveals that the person, Jesus of Nazareth, the very person he once vehemently hated and relentlessly tried to destroy, he now confesses to be the “Christ,” the “Messiah,” “the Son of God,” two massively heretical viewpoints for any staunch adherent to the Jewish religious institution of Saul’s day.
First, in Romans 1:1, Saul identifies himself as a servant of “Christ Jesus.” Is it significant that Saul uses the phrase “Christ Jesus” here at the very beginning of his letter, in contrast to his use of the inverted phrase “Jesus Christ” four other times within the next seven verses? It has been noted that when the term, “Christ” occurs before the name “Jesus,” the author wishes to emphasize the messianic character of Jesus.
On the other hand, when the name “Jesus” occurs before the term, “Christ,” the author intends to emphasize the humanity of Jesus. We know from Acts 22:8 that Jesus introduced himself to Saul as “Jesus of Nazareth, whom Saul was persecuting.” Saul was very aware of whom it was who appeared to him on that dusty desert road; it was the crucified, buried and now resurrected Jesus of Nazareth. It was a most startling revelation to Saul that the conquering Messiah whom the prophets had long promised would someday arrive...had indeed arrived and now stood before him face to face on that dry dusty road.
It seems that on the road to Damascus, that revelation had undoubtedly radically altered Saul's viewpoint for the rest of his life of who this Jesus was. Saul no longer viewed this crucified and buried man simply as Jesus of Nazareth, the so called Christ, but most definitely and most emphatically, he now had come to realize the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the long-awaited and conquering Messiah Jesus, the Son of God (Romans 1:1-4).
So we can conclude that as Saul found himself speaking face to face with the crucified, buried, and resurrected Jesus of Nazareth, he experienced a severing from his traditional staunch Judaic worldview, causing him to realize that Jesus was indeed the long-awaited conquering Messiah. More specifically, Saul's worldview severing was the cutting necessary to allow the grafting in of the realization of the Messianic promises coming to fruition in Jesus of Nazareth; not a destroying of the law, but a fulfilling of the law in a sense. His old, deflated way of understanding the law had now become infused with his experience on the Damascus road causing an inflation or a fulfilling of his understanding of the law.
We also know that Acts 9:22 clearly validates that Saul had been severed from his staunch law-bound worldview, as very soon after his encounter with Jesus, he sets out on a completely different-(ἕτερος) course. We notice that he whom Saul previously persecuted was the very one he now preached as being the long-awaited conquering Messiah. Luke writes soon after Saul's Damascus road resurrected-Jesus-experience,
“Saul increased all the more in strength, and he confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.”
Saul’s previous law-bound missionary mindset to disprove that Jesus was the Messiah had now been severed completely at its roots. Not only severed, but then alternatively, grafted into new roots as a complete otherness-(ἕτερος) in purpose and mission, in which now, Saul seems to be ardently pursuing, now doing everything he can to prove that Jesus indeed is the conquering Messiah. A remarkable turn of events!
Again, in Romans 1:1, we see that the one whom Saul so fervently tried to destroy, he now incredibly confesses to be the “Christ." Could it be that Saul here, at the very beginning of his letter, intentionally identifies himself as a believer in Jesus of Nazareth as the long-awaited conquering Messiah with the simple use of the reversal-phrase, “Christ Jesus?”
Second, in Romans 1:4, Saul declares Jesus to be “the Son of God,” a definite and strong Messianic declaration for any Jew. Is it a coincidence again that Saul is, with the use of this phrase, declaring Jesus of Nazareth to be the Messiah? Can it also be a coincidence that this declaration also finds its origin on the Damascus road?
Providing an account of Saul’s Damascus road experience, Luke comments on Saul’s activities very soon after Saul's encounter on the road with Jesus, the conquering Messiah. Luke confirms, in Acts 9:20, that Saul’s new worldview perspective, specifically, that Jesus was the Messianic Son of God, originated on the road to Damascus. He says that Saul immediately after Damascus road experience he…
“immediately proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”
As personal influence goes, does it not appear that Saul’s self-identification and worldview were radically reshaped by his personal encounter with Jesus of Nazareth on the Damascus road?
Third, and finally, we find that Saul’s traditional Jewish worldview is rocked to its core on the Damascus road as he realizes that the words of the prophets of old have all come into clear focus in light of Jesus’s resurrection. Saul says in Romans 1:4 that the resurrection of Jesus was the declared proof that Jesus is indeed the long-awaited conquering Messiah; and it was this “gospel” that was declared long ago beforehand “through the prophets” in the holy Scriptures that is now his focus of attention.
Doesn't it seem clear that Saul’s reference to the prophets’ declaration in the holy Scriptures is part of “the mystery that was made known to Saul (Ephesians 3:3) by revelation” on the Damascus road? In Luke’s account of Saul’s Damascus road experience, we see Saul speaking before Agrippa in Acts 26:22 saying,
“To this day I have had the help that comes from God, and so I stand here testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would come to pass…”
It is fair to say then that if we set out in Romans 1 to discover the geographical coordinates of the origin of Saul’s self-identification in the first four verses, the compass points us strongly in the direction of the Damascus Road.
To summarize then, in the first four verses of the first chapter of Romans, we find that Saul has dropped numerous location pins on his self-identification map that point us in the direction of his Damascus road encounter with the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth. In the first chapter of Romans, Saul refers to himself as a servant, a believer in Jesus as the long-awaited conquering Messiah, as a called one, as an apostle, as one severed from his Judaic legalism, and as one set apart for the gospel of God. He acknowledges that the long-awaited conquering Messiah was promised beforehand through God’s prophets in the holy Scriptures and further, he recognizes Jesus of Nazareth as that Messiah declaring him the Son of God, a highly recognized Messianic term.
Each and every one of these self-identification pin drops in Romans 1:1-4 can be traced back to the geographical location of Saul’s encounter with the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth on the Damascus road in the Arabian desert. It is there that we find the beginning of Saul's transformation from one man to another (ἕτερος). And it is there that we find the resurrected Jesus and Saul face to face.
With the Damascus road experience clearly in the mind of Saul, we will read his letter with greater clarity and with the ability for more precise application to our own lives. We will be able to navigate through the book of Romans seeing Romans through the eyes of Saul following his calling on the Damascus road. But we're not quite there just yet. We still have more work to do in our discovery of the transformation of Saul.
In my next blog we will look at “Saul the Apostle - His PostCalling Lifestyle”