Before we are introduced in the Scriptures to the famous first century apostle named “Paul”[1], we meet another (ἄλλος) man who had already reached the pinnacle of Jewish religious life and had already made another (ἄλλος) name for himself, as another (ἕτερος) man. This man is similar to Paul, being a man of the same kind, but yet different than Paul as a man of a different kind.
An intricately complex character worthy of playing the lead role in any spell-binding novel, Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:11) was an intensely zealous and radically devoted member of the Jewish political/religious party of the Pharisees.
Supremely confident in his own credentials, if anyone had reason to boast about his religious achievements, Saul had more; circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Quite an impressive resume, and quite a prestigious place in Judaism Saul had attained in his religious pursuits!!
He was a man standing on very high religious ground which makes his other (ἕτερος) life as the apostle Paul even more impressive, but we will get to that later.[2]
He was a Pharisee, and indeed the son of a Pharisee, who, like all Pharisees, possessed a hope in the resurrection of the dead, a hope which eventually becomes the bedazzlingly blinding spotlight in the dramatic transformation in the life of Saul.
One day, fueled by his raging intensity for purity to the Jewish law, Saul was traveling on the road to Damascus to fulfill his mission to viciously persecute the very followers of the early Christian movement that he eventually came to support and promote. While on the road, he experienced a sudden and very dramatic life-changing revelation of the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth, a face to face encounter with the resurrected messiah!
As a result of this Damascus road experience, the mystery of the Messiah (Eph 3:1-13), that had been promised to ages and generations past, but also kept hidden from them (Col 1:26, Eph 3:3, Rom 16:25), had now, piece by piece, fallen into place right before Saul’s eyes. On that day, for Saul, although momentarily blinded by a great light of the resurrected Jesus, the “gospel” came into crystal clear focus.
Now unveiled to Saul through this revelation on the road, this mystery-now-revealed, radically reshaped Saul’s worldview from a militaristic extremist Diaspora Jew to a fervent, yet compassionate, believer in the fulfilled promise of Jesus as the Messiah. This dramatic transformation began to permanently alter the course of his life and eventually placed him on the historical grid-map as the greatest Jesus-as-Messiah advocate in world history.
Also, as a result of his Damascus road experience, Saul no longer ruthlessly persecuted believers in Jesus, but instead began to wholeheartedly follow Him as the promised and long-awaited Messiah and then began to travel widely throughout the Roman Empire fervently spreading the mysterious message that the kingdom of God had invaded the world in the person of Jesus as that Messiah.
Saul proclaimed the mystery of the conquering Messiah; the mystery that Jesus would soon “crush the head” and conquer the ruler of the world (Satan) by ushering in the reign of God, and tirelessly encouraging this new emerging Jesus-movement throughout Asia to eagerly await his return. This mystery, hidden for ages and generations, but now revealed to him on the Damascus road by this revelation (Col 1:26, Eph 3:3, Rom 16:25), Saul now begins to, in turn, reveal to all nations.
This mystery IS the “good news”, the “gospel” that Jesus of Nazareth is the long awaited promise of blessing, the Messiah, now made known to the world through His conquering death and resurrection. This “gospel” is the good news that is music to the ears of everyone in hearing distance; and it is this Victory Song that is sung from the mountain tops.
Saul’s transformation is a fascinating event and one which changed the course of human history. His transformation and eventual legacy was not the establishment of a new religion; rather it was the establishment of a new generation of believers in Jesus as the conquering Messiah who became dedicated to the task of proclaiming the fulfillment of God’s promise (Gen 3:15) hidden from past generations.
We have seen in previous blogs that Saul uses three descriptive words to identify himself in Romans 1, Bonded, Called, and Severed. But he did not always identify himself in such terms especially in relation to Jesus as Messiah. So, just how did Saul get from zealous and relentless persecutor of the church to devoted and loyal apostle of Jesus the Messiah? “How did Saul get from one place to the next?” This question does not concern the trajectory of Saul’s travels from Jerusalem to Damascus. It concerns the trajectory of Saul's worldview-change as he travels along the road of his from Jerusalem to Damascus.
So the question “How did Saul get from one place to the next” can be answered in part by asking the question “Where is he coming from?” We have answered that question in my previous blog. We will now focus on the question, “How did Saul get from one place to the next?” To more fully answer that questions let’s, first look at Saul's life before his transformation, the starting point of the emergence of the other (ἕτερος) man.
In my next blog, we will look at “Saul the Man – His PreCalling Lifestyle”
[1] The name transition from Saul to Paul takes place in Acts 13. In Acts 13:1 Luke writes, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Eight verses later, (13:9), Luke tells us that the names Saul and Paul are interchangeable, writing “Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit…”. Then in Acts 13:13 the full name transition from Saul to Paul takes place entirely when Luke refers solely to “Paul.” [2] Considering Saul’s religious achievements, it is remarkable for him to admit that “whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ…”(Phil 3:7-8). Notice here that Paul once again focuses on the inverted "Christ Jesus" instead of "Jesus Christ." His focus is on the transformation that takes place in his life as a result of witnessing the resurrected Jesus as confirmation that he indeed is the long-awaited Messiah.
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