Perspective on Paul: His Life-Part 1 of 4

To get a full picture of Paul’s life, one must look at both the book of Acts and his letters.  It is important to look at Paul from an external perspective (i.e. Luke’s narrative) and how Paul describes himself. We do not get the full picture from Luke’s account, but it fills the gaps and is complimentary to what Paul leaves us in his letters. 

Luke’s Account

In Acts, we see a graphic description of Paul’s former life as a Pharisee. Luke was able to show how extreme and zealous Paul was in regard to the Old Testament (OT) law.

Paul was fully committed to the ways and religion of his people. Paul was not satisfied with just knowledge of his God, but was passionately committed to carrying out and enforcing the Mosaic laws. If he had not been stopped on the road to Damascus, many more believers would have been martyred, either by his own hand, or the hands of his followers.

Paul did mention that he pursued Christians in his letters, but it was Luke that gave us the extent of his commitment to Jewish law. Luke’s vivid account of Paul standing by, during the stoning of Stephen, put an exclamation point on Paul’s zealousness. It is not a mistake that Luke used Paul’s former name “Saul” in the beginning of his account in order to show the complete change that was made in Paul’s life after his calling.

Paul’s life did a complete about face, from persecuting Christians, to one of the strongest proponents for Christianity that the world has ever seen. His zeal for the law paled in comparison to his new found passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Paul now considered himself a new creature in Christ and would never, at least in the New Testament (NT) letters, refer to himself to by his old name. 

Paul the Jew

Paul was Jewish in his thinking, evidenced in both Luke’s account and in his own letters. In Encountering the New Testament, Elwell and Yarbrough stated “Paul’s preaching in Acts 13:17 and his numerous references to Abraham in Romans and Galatians (nine references in each epistle; see also 2 Cor. 11:22) confirm that Paul did not see himself as the founder of a new religion.”^[1] 

Paul’s views did not produce a new religion, but it was a continuation of what was stated in the Law and the Prophets. While Paul was able to relate to the Greek culture and way of thinking because of his education, citizenship, and upbringing, he never forsook his people and his Jewish identity.

Paul never forgot about the place Jews hold in God’s redemptive plan.

Nowhere is this seen more than in the book of Romans where Paul declared that God’s promises and plans for salvation are to the “Jew first and also for the Greek” (Romans 1:16, NKJV). He mentioned this a total of three times, in similar form, in the first two chapters of this book. Paul realized that it was a great privilege to be a Jew and never forgot, nor denied, his roots and Jewish identity.

Call or Conversion

Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus is best characterized as a call, rather than a conversion. In Acts 9:6, Paul was summoned to a particular activity; to go into Damascus and meet with one of Jesus’ disciples. After he obeyed that call, God spoke to the disciple, Ananias, and revealed the call upon Paul’s life, in that he would bear the Lord’s name to the Gentiles.  

This was a specific call for Paul, as no other apostle could make the same claim. Furthermore, in 1 Timothy 1:12, Paul describes himself as being put into the ministry by the Lord Jesus Christ.  

Moreover, in Galatians 1:15, Paul removes all doubt that he was called when he stated that God called him through His grace. 

There is some evidence for the argument of conversion in the First Chapter of Galatians, such as the fact that he formerly persecuted Christians, but now preached Christ (Galatians 1:23), and also in the second chapter of Galatians, in verse nineteen, where Paul stated that he died to the law that he might live to God.

Both instances show a definite change from one viewpoint to another, but this happened after the actual call.

Some may view this argument as one of the “chicken or the egg,” but there is clearly more evidence that the call came first, during Paul’s road to Damascus experience. 

Stay tuned for Part 2: His Ministry.

References

^[1] Walter A. Elwell and Robert W. Yarbrough, Encountering the New Testament: A Historical and Theological Survey, ed. Walter A. Elwell, Fourth Edition., Encountering Biblical Studies (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2022), 246.