My Former Way Of Life

“For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I was savagely persecuting the church of God and trying to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my nation, and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. But when the one who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not go to ask advice from any human being, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before me, but right away I departed to Arabia, and then returned to Damascus.” Galatians 1:14-17 NET

Paul’s former ‘way of life,’ as he put it, was that of a persecutor of Christians, a path he would come to regret. His mastery of the Hebrew texts was exceptional, surpassing his peers. His zeal for the word of God was a driving force, propelling him to strive for excellence, even if it initially meant opposing and eliminating Christians. Paul was known as Saul before he met Christ.

One of the recorded events in the Book of Acts was the stoning of Stephen. The one being stoned was traditionally stripped bare, and the onlooker’s hurled rocks at his chest; no one was perfect in their throwing stones at Stephen; many stones struck him in the head and other body parts. Saul was watching (or guarding) the cloaks (outer garments) of those throwing the stones because the crowd trusted him, and he would keep their cloaks from being stolen. The act of removing their cloaks before throwing stones, though seemingly peculiar, had a practical reason. Their outer cloaks were very restrictive and did not allow for complete range of motion. Thus, they removed their cloaks to be able to throw the stones more accurately and forcefully.

The following refers to Stephen’s death: “And Saul agreed completely with killing him. Now on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.” ACT 8:1 NET. After Stephen’s death, there was an empowerment given to the populace to attack Christians, and Saul took the advantage and unleashed a heated persecution of the Christians at that time.

Saul realized that God knew him ever since he was born and set him apart to become something greater than just a persecutor of his people; God set Saul aside to become the catalyst of what he was persecuting, from a teacher of Israel to a disciple of Jesus Christ. Saul didn’t have a choice; he was knocked off of his horse on his journey to Damascus, and God met Saul directly and forcefully. He came face to face with a divine being, which transformed his life, and changed his name from Saul to Paul.

Paul met Jesus on Jesus' terms, and it was dramatic how Jesus did it, leaving Paul no way to wiggle out; Paul was immediately struck blind by His encounter with the Lord. Paul needed tangible evidence that Jesus was speaking with him, and he got it in spades. Paul’s blindness was all the physical evidence he needed to know that this wasn’t just a vision or an apparition created from his mind; Paul had something tangible that he could not deny, he was blinded by the encounter.

Paul's mission to the Gentiles was not a random act either; it was a response to a specific context. His understanding of Jewish texts, including the dispersion of the people at the tower of Babel and the assignment of seventy nations to the sons of God, minus the sons of Abraham, informed his mission. He knew that the sons of God over these seventy nations had rebelled against Yahweh, leading the people they oversaw into corruption. God desired these nations back, and it was in this context that Paul was called to reclaim them.

Paul didn’t preach to the gentiles out of personal obligation, for they were not of the sons of Israel, these nations were foreign to Israel, and to Paul. God specifically told Paul that His heart was not just for the Jewish people, but for all people, God gave Paul a worldview that encompassed the entire earth, not just Israel. Now all men were considered God’s children, and the good news that Jesus died for all mankind to remove the curse that plagued mankind since the garden of Eden began and invite everyone back to their heavenly Father as it was in Eden.

That Edenic vision that Paul received has now been passed on to us, for we are those Gentiles who can inherit salvation which was initially meant for the Jews, it has now become our story of redemption. Eden is to cover the entire earth in the person of Jesus Christ; it is no longer a physical place on the earth; it is a manifestation of the sacred space within the lives of believers who place their believing loyalty in Jesus Christ. This was Paul’s powerful message that we are all His children, regardless of our background or past as we come to Jesus by His grace, we become the heirs of salvation, not by our works, but by our trust in the finished work of Jesus.

Stephen Barnett