Saul's Life Research Paper

The sun bore down on Saul and his group, it was around midday. Saul planned to enter Damascus that day and bring back the “blasphemous disciples” in chains. He had the backing of the Jewish hierarchy, it would surely be a worthwhile trip. Suddenly, a bright light shone upon Saul and he heard the voice of Jesus speak to him. At this moment, Saul’s life was forever altered as the Messiah called him by name. Saul’s call was beyond any mere conversion experience or commission into ministry; instead it was an impact-moment of revelation through which Christ adopted the wretched chief of sinners as His own child and charged him with life-long purpose. This collision between all of Saul’s hatred towards the church and all of Christ’s love towards

Saul was not merely a cruel Roman or disillusioned Jew, but one trained in the scriptures and Jewish laws. Even Saul’s name implied the spite he held for the church, the same as that of Israel’s first King. McDonough adds: “It is surely relevant that Saul son of Kish was the chief persecutor of the Messiahs forebear David. (1 Samuel 18-31)” We know that Saul was present and supportive of Stephen’s stoning for which he never forgave himself. Studying under Gamaliel meant that Saul was in one of the highest roles of the Jewish faith one could attain. (Acts 22:3) At the beginning of Saul’s conversion we find him seeking disciples to take away in chains. Scripture says he was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” "The partitive genitive of apeiles [threats] and phonou [murder] means that threatening and slaughter had come to be the very breath that Saul breathed,” Says Constable, “like a warhorse who sniffed the smell of battle… He exhaled what he inhaled.” From this exposition we can see that Saul, while not the executioner, was passionately involved in persecuting the church. But that would soon change, Saul’s plan was to bring back disciples in chains, but God had a different plan. The chief of sinners would now live a life of service and suffering for the very name for which he had pursued the disciples in

Dr. Constable would argue that “Without question, the story of Saul’s ‘conversion’ is one of the most important events if not the most important event, that Luke records in Acts.” This is a key turning point in Acts, and the event spurs on the man eventually write much of the New Testament. Paul’s rebirth served as an example to the Gentiles, the apostles, and to our own lives. Because Paul was not fully Jewish, his presence earned equal potential for Jews and Gentiles to trust or dismiss him. This is evident in his persecution at the hands of Jews and Gentiles alike, particularly when both parties attempt to Stone Paul and Barnabas in Iconium. (Acts 14:2-5) Additionally, Paul’s Roman citizenship would play an enormous part in his missionary work further in his life. This attribute was unique to Paul amongst the apostles, giving him a unique privilege to work amongst the Roman culture more freely. Early after his encounter with Jesus, the church was extremely weary of Paul and his attempts to minister alongside them. How could God call the great persecutor of the church to the same role as those who followed Jesus in person? Even the church did not originally understand what Polhill calls “the complete transformation of Paul from persecutor of the church to the one who was persecuted for