Phil Gons

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The Life of Paul the Apostle: The Glory of God’s Grace through the Gospel of Jesus Christ

I delivered this message at Spring Creek Bible Church on February 26, 2017.

Prefer what I actually said? Read the transcript (lightly edited for readability).

0. Introduction

0.1 An Honorable Task

It’s an honor to be able to talk to you tonight about Paul of Tarsus.

After Jesus, Paul is my favorite human Bible character.

His life and writings have had a profound impact on me. I came to love the gospel and the study of theology primarily through Paul’s writings. Major historical characters throughout the history of the church came to faith through Paul’s writings: Augustine (Romans 13:13–14) and Luther (Romans 1:17) to name a few. And millions of common people like you and I have too.

It is acknowledged by many that Paul’s letter to the Romans was the greatest letter ever written.

He’s one of the most important people in the Bible, in the history of the church, and arguably of the world.

0.2 A Daunting Task

But it’s also a very daunting task, for many of the same reasons.

Giving an overview of such an important person’s life in 45 minutes is no small undertaking.

Paul’s life has been the subject of hundreds of books. I checked my own library, and I have more than 100 books on Paul’s life.

When you expand out to his teaching, you quickly get into the thousands of books.

Add in commentaries on his letters, and you’re quickly into the tens of thousands of volumes.

Perhaps more books have been written on his life, thought, and writings than any other person in human history.

0.3 No Shortage of Material

Unlike many of the other people we’ve considered in our series on the men of the Bible, we have a wealth of biblical material on Paul’s life.

After Jesus, Paul is the most prominent person in the New Testament, and the second most prominent person in the entire Bible.

He’s referred to more than anyone else in the NT (3,259 references, including pronouns and implied subjects of verbs), including God the Father (3,126). The next closest is Peter with 907.

The only non-divine person with more references in the Bible is David, with 3,876. Moses is the next closest with 2,737.

Paul authored 13 books of the NT, which is half of the NT’s 26 books. But from a word-count perspective, he’s second to Luke (assuming we don’t credit Paul with Hebrews) and responsible for slightly less than 25% of the NT.2

AuthorOL WordsEnglish WordsVersesBooks
Luke37,85847,3212,1512
Paul32,30045,2542,03113
John28,05933,1791,4165

While we typically refer to the book of Acts as the Acts of the Apostles, it wouldn’t be incorrect to think of it as the Acts of the Apostle Paul.

There are 1,142 references to Paul in Acts, while there are only 536 references to Jesus, 381 references to God, and 279 references to Peter.

Acts is preoccupied with God’s work through Paul to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.

So there’s an incredible amount of both biblical and extrabiblical content on Paul. And there’s no way I’m going to begin to do justice to it tonight.

Even still, I have bad news: my manuscript is 20-pages long, so my talk on Paul might take on some of the characteristics of Paul’s talk in Acts 20, where he “kept on talking until midnight” (20:7) and put people to sleep as he “talked on and on” (20:9), when Eutychus fell and died (20:9), and after Paul raised him from the dead (20:10), he picked up right where he left off and kept “talking until daylight” (20:11)! :-)

The good news is that Pastor Steve preached about half of my manuscript this morning—better than I could! So we should be able to finish well before midnight! :-)

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0.4 Talking about Paul as Glorifying God

There’s a way to talk about a person that glorifies that person and robs God of his glory. We do that by focusing on the person as the one responsible for their greatness and successes and therefore as the one worthy to be praised.

But the answer isn’t to ignore the lives of God’s people. Rather, it’s to see God behind and through and in the lives of his people, as the one who created them and gave them their natural gifts, the one who redeemed them and gave them their spiritual gifts, and the one who by his grace sustains them and causes them to live fruitful lives.

As we look at Paul’s life, perhaps more than most others’, it’s essential that we do so with a perspective that’s faithful to Paul’s own teaching. We would dishonor Paul’s life and teaching if in our looking at Paul our amazement went no deeper than his brilliant mind, his heart for God, his love for people, his fervency and zeal in mission, his incredible sufferings, and on and on we could go. There is much to be in awe of in the life of this man, but there’s a way to do it that glorifies God and gives proper honor to Paul, and there’s a way that fails to do either.

It would be nothing short of an ironic tragedy to use Paul’s life as nothing more than a good example.

To make sure we stay the course and turn our thoughts about Paul into praise of God, it’s important to start out with a couple of interpretive principles, taken from Paul’s own writings.

1. God works; therefore, we work. And he gets the glory.

1 Corinthians 15:10 (NIV)

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

This is one of the most important verses to understanding Paul’s view of God’s grace at work in the lives of believers. Paul was aware that he was extraordinarily gifted and privileged and excelled beyond others, but Paul doesn’t take credit for it. He doesn’t even share the credit with God in some sort of 50/50 split or even 90/10 split. And Paul’s view of God’s grace doesn’t lead him to be passive. To the contrary, Paul worked harder than anyone else. But this itself was God’s grace operating within Paul.

To honor Paul’s life appropriately, we must see God’s amazing grace behind, in, and through all the good Paul did.

Two other texts from Paul that support this idea of God’s grace being behind all of our working:

Philippians 2:12–13 (NIV)

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

As we work out our salvation, God is the one causing us to work. Yet not us, but the grace of God.

1 Corinthians 3:6–7 (NIV)

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.

In our gospel labors and service for others, the same is true. Yet not us, but the grace of God.

2. God’s the giver; we’re the receiver; therefore, all boasting is removed.

This second principle is the other side of the coin, and barely indistinguishable from it.

1 Corinthians 4:7 (NIV)

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

Stop and think for a second about something you didn’t receive? Can you come up with something? Anything?

The answer is no. There’s absolutely zero ground for boasting in a world where we are nothing more than recipients of God’s grace.

1 Corinthians 1:28–31 (NIV)

God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him. 30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 31 Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

There is no room for even of hint of boasting in God’s work of salvation, from beginning to end.

Perhaps no verse sums this aspect of Paul’s theology better than the close of Romans 9–11:

Romans 11:36 (NIV)

For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

From God’s eternal plan to his working out of that plan in time through his Son and Spirit to the endless ages where we’ll worship him forever, it’s all of grace and all for his glory.

So as we look at Paul’s extraordinary life, let us do so in a way that truly honors Paul’s life—in its entirety—as the gracious gift of his sovereign Lord who worked behind and through and in Paul in a way that removed every ounce of boasting and ensured that all the glory belongs to God alone.

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Transition: I’m very tempted to skip over Paul’s life and jump right into the riches of his teaching. And while that would be a fruitful use of our time together, it would also be a loss for at least two reasons:

  1. One of the things we learn from Paul is the connection between doctrine and life, and that’s especially true of Paul’s own life. It’s not just what he taught others. He lived it out. If we skipped over his life, we’d miss the chance to see an illustration of that deep connection between theology and practice.
  2. Many of the emphases in Paul’s teaching probably find their roots in his life experiences.
    1. For example, his strong emphasis on God’s absolute sovereignty is likely rooted in his dramatic conversion experience, where God entered into his life in a way that was nothing short of irresistible grace.
    2. And his focus on union with Christ, which was impressed on him by the risen Lord’s question to him: “Why are you persecuting me?” Paul had never met Jesus prior to that event and didn’t know him. How could he be persecuting him? Because Christ was mystically yet really united to his church in a way that became immediately clear to Paul at that moment. And it forever permeated his teaching about the relationship between Christ and his church.

So we will understand Paul’s theology better as we look at it through the lens of his life and his own experience of God’s grace.

What I’d like to do with the remainder of our time is (1) take a high-level view of Paul the man and his life and then (2) cover a couple of the big themes we can learn from Paul.

We could cover lots of facts about Paul tonight, most of which you’ll probably forget. My aim tonight isn’t to fill your head with interesting facts, though we’ll do some of that, but to give you a couple of big points for your hearts, to change the way you think, that will hopefully help you change the way you live.

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1. Who was Paul?

1.1 Roles and Attributes of Paul

We know a lot about Paul, and I’m going to quickly read through a list of some of the major things we know. But then I’d like to focus in on just a few key things.

  1. Saul (Σαῦλος; שָׁאוּל; “the Hebrew name of the Apostle Paul” [BDAG]); sometimes we think that Saul was his pre-Christian name and Paul was his Christian name, but that’s not accurate; he’s called Saul after his conversion (e.g., Acts 11–13).3
  2. Paul (Παῦλος; Roman surname; never a praenomen [BDAG])
  3. Born and raised in Tarsus and Jerusalem (Acts 21:39; Acts 22:3); “of the . . . town of Giscalis in Judea”; “in Galilee, not Judea”
  4. Jew (Acts 22:3) / Hebrew of Hebrews (Phil 3:5); Jewish (Acts 21:39; Acts 22:3; Rom 11:1; Phil 3:5; 2 Cor 11:22; Gal 1:13)
  5. Circumcised on the eighth day (Phil 3:5)
  6. From the tribe of Benjamin (Rom 11:1; Phil 3:5)
  7. Pharisee, the strictest sect of the Jewish religion (Acts 23:6; Acts 26:5; Gal 1:14; Phil 3:5)
  8. Studied under Gamaliel (Acts 22:3)
  9. Zealous for God (Acts 22:3; Gal 1:14)
  10. Intelligent / spoke Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic (Ac 21:40; Acts 22:2), and Latin
  11. Roman citizen (Acts 22:28)
  12. Murderer (Acts 8:1; 22:20)
  13. Persecutor (Acts 7:58; 8:1–3; 9:1–2, 13–14, 21; 22:4, 19–20; 26:10–11; Gal 1:13–14, 22–23; 1 Cor 15:9; Phil 3:6; 1 Tim 1:13–15)
  14. Blasphemer (1 Tim 1:13)
  15. Set apart from the womb (Gal 1:15–16)
  16. Convert / converted on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1–22; 22:1–21; 26:1–18)
  17. Called by God (Gal 1:15–16)
  18. Apostle (1 Cor 15:9)
  19. Apostle to the Gentiles (Rom. 11:13; Gal. 2:8; Acts 9:15)
  20. Prophet (Acts 13:1)
  21. Tent-maker (Acts 18:3)
  22. Servant of God / minister
  23. Prisoner of God
  24. Ambassador
  25. Missionary
  26. Travelor
  27. Evangelist
  28. Witness
  29. Bold
  30. Weak
  31. Ineloquent (1 Cor. 2:1)
  32. Church planter
  33. Mentor
  34. Friend (the list of people greeted by Paul in his letters is impressive!)
  35. Brother
  36. Persecuted/sufferer
  37. Soldier
  38. Athlete / runner
  39. Preacher / herald (2 Tim. 1:11)
  40. Teacher (2 Tim. 1:11)
  41. Author (he wrote almost 25% of the New Testament)
  42. Theologian
  43. Debater (spent hours reasoning and arguing and persuading the Jews that Jesus was the promised Messiah)
  44. Sinner / the worst of sinners
  45. Saint
  46. Spiritually gifted / speaker of tongues / performer of miracles (2 Cor. 12:12)
  47. Martyr / martyred in Rome

And we could add to this list many more descriptions. But I’d like to zero in on just a couple of key items.

How Paul Introduces Himself

A good source to find the most important designations of Paul is in the opening of his thirteen letters.

  • Paul (13x)
    • “Paul” (5x; Rom. 1:1; Eph. 1:1; 1 Tim. 1:1; 2 Tim. 1:1; Tit. 1:1)
    • “Paul . . . and Sosthenes” (1x; 1 Cor. 1:1)
    • “Paul . . . and Timothy” (4x; 2 Cor. 1:1; Phil. 1:1; Col. 1:1; Phile. 1:1)
    • “Paul, Silas, and Timothy” (2x; 1 Thess. 1:1; 2 Thess. 1:1)
    • “Paul . . . and all the brothers and sisters with me” (1x; Gal. 1:1)
  • servant (3x)
    • “a servant of Christ Jesus” (Rom. 1:1)
    • “servants of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:1)
    • “a servant of God” (Tit. 1:1)
  • apostle (9x)
    • “called to be an apostle” (Rom. 1:1)
    • “called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” (1 Cor. 1:1)
    • “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” (2 Cor. 1:1)
    • “an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (Gal. 1:1)
    • “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” (Eph. 1:1)
    • “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” (Col. 1:1)
    • “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope” (1 Tim. 1:1)
    • “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 1:1)
    • “an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness—2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3 and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior” (Tit. 1:1–3).
  • prisoner (1x)
    • “a prisoner of Christ Jesus” (Phile. 1:1)
  • set apart for the gospel (1x)
    • “set apart for the gospel of God” (Rom. 1:1)

Paul introduced himself as a servant and apostle (which means “sent one”) by the will of God. Paul was on a mission for God.

He was a sinner.

But Paul was more than a servant sent to be a messenger of the gospel. He was well aware that he remained a sinner.

Though Paul had gifting and privilege and grace beyond most, he never lost sight of who he was outside of Christ and who he was before his conversion.

1 Timothy 1:15–16 (NIV)

15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.

And he never lost sight of his sinfulness and unworthiness:

1 Corinthians 15:9 (NIV)

For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

2 Corinthians 12:11

I am nothing.

Ephesians 3:8 (NIV)

Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ,

I don’t think this was false humility in Paul. I think he had such a truly deep grasp of his sinfulness, God’s holiness, and the gospel of God’s grace that he was able to see his sin with a greater clarity than most of us do.

Paul mentions repeatedly his murderous persecution of Christ and his church: Acts 7:58; 8:1–3; 9:1–2, 13–14, 21; 22:4, 19–20; 26:10–11; Gal 1:13–14, 22–23; 1 Cor 15:9; Phil 3:6; 1 Tim 1:13–15.

Romans 7:24–25 (NIV)

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Almost 40% of the mentions of sin in the NT occur in Paul, while only Paul’s writing make up less than 25%. So Paul spoke of sin more than other authors.

He was saved by the glorious gospel of grace.

But Paul spoke even more of other themes:

  • Grace: 70% of the NT occurrences are in Paul
  • Gospel: 82% of the NT occurrences are in Paul
  • Glory: 42% of the NT occurrences are in Paul

Paul was consumed with the glorious gospel of God’s grace in Christ Jesus. While Paul was the apostle of sin, he was even more the apostle of grace.

He bookends all 13 of his letters with grace.
Opens
  • “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 1:7).
  • “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. 1:3).
  • “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 1:2).
  • “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 1:3).
  • “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:2).
  • “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:2).
  • “Grace and peace to you from God our Father” (Col. 1:2).
  • “Grace and peace to you” (1 Thess. 1:1c).
  • “Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 1:2).
  • “Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord” (1 Tim. 1:2).
  • “Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord” (2 Tim. 1:2).
  • “Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior” (Tit. 1:4).
  • “Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phile. 1:3).
Closes
  • “The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you” (Rom. 16:20b).
  • “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen.” (1 Cor. 16:23–24).
  • “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor. 13:14).
  • “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen” (Gal. 6:18).
  • “Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love” (Eph 6:23–24).
  • “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen” (Phil. 4:23).
  • “Grace be with you” (Col. 4:18).
  • “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you” (1 Thess. 5:28).
  • “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all” (2 Thess. 3:18).
  • “Grace be with you all” (1 Tim. 6:21).
  • “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you all” (2 Tim. 4:22).
  • “Grace be with you all” (Tit. 3:15).
  • “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit” (Phile. 1:25).

1.2 His Relationships

His Family

  1. His “father” was a Pharisee [maybe a reference to Gamaliel?] (Acts 23:6)
  2. His sister (Acts 23:16)
  3. His nephew (Acts 23:16)
  4. He also refers to his “mother” (Rom 16:13), but this is likely a spiritual relationship like Timothy as his “son” and fellow believers as his “brothers” and “sisters,” etc.

We know that Paul was unmarried when he wrote 1 Corinthians (1 Cor. 7:8), but we can’t be 100% sure that he was never married. Almost all Pharisees married, and married young. While it does seem unlikely that Paul wouldn’t have ever mentioned his wife, you can make a pretty good case that Paul was a widower.4

His Coworkers

Paul worked closely with many men and women.

Acts 20:4 (NIV)

He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy also, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.

An analysis of all the texts that refer to Paul reveals those who are mentioned in with Paul most often:

  1. Timothy (339)
  2. Silas (138)
  3. Luke (71)
  4. Barnabas (67)
  5. Aristarchus (66)
  6. Tychicus (32)
  7. Titus (31)
  8. Trophimus (27)
  9. Gaius (25)
  10. Pyrrhus (25)
  11. Secundus (25)
  12. Sopater (25)
Peter

We don’t know much about his relationship to Peter. In Acts they’re mentioned in only one place: the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15.

We know from 1 Corinthians that Paul, Apollos, and Peter all had followers (1:12; 3:22).

We know from Galatians that Paul went to Jerusalem meet with Peter and stayed with him for 15 days (1:18).

We also know that Paul opposed Peter, when Peter was not acting in accordance with the gospel and was forcing Gentiles to live like Jews (Gal 1:14).

Finally, there’s a gem in 2 Peter where Peter refers to Paul as “our dear brother Paul” and one who “wrote . . . with the wisdom God gave him” and that “his letters contain some things that are hard to understand.”

Outside of 2 Peter, Paul is not mentioned by any of the other NT authors.

His Friends

Paul had close relationships with a staggering number of people. As a missionary and traveler, he met thousands upon thousands of believers in dozens and dozens of churches, and he was close with many of them, mentioning them by name and greeting them in his letters. When you add up all the people he or greets in his letters or interacts with in his recorded travels in Acts, it totals just under 100, according to one source.5

1.3 Timeline6

The major events and periods of Paul’s life break down into these eleven categories:

  1. Birth (AD 5–10)
  2. Training under Gamaliel (AD 15–20)
  3. Pharisee and Persecutor of the Church (AD 32–33)
  4. Conversion/Calling (AD 33/34)
  5. Pre-Missionary Service (AD 34–46)
  6. First Missionary Journey (AD 46–47)
  7. Second Missionary Journey (AD 48/49–51)
  8. Third Missionary Journey (AD 52–57)
  9. Arrest, Trial, and First Imprisonment (AD 57–62)
  10. Second Imprisonment (AD 66)
  11. Death (AD 67)

1. Birth (AD 5–10)

Paul was probably born somewhere between AD 5 and AD 15 in Tarsus, which is in southern central Turkey near the Mediterranean Sea. He was born to Jewish parents from the line of Benjamin and was a Roman citizen (Acts 22:3, 28; Rom. 11:1; Phil. 3:5) by birth. He was raised in Tarsus and Jerusalem (Acts 22:3).

2. Training under Gamaliel (AD 15–20)

At a young age, perhaps 15, he trained under Gamaliel, a leading Pharisee and teacher of the law (Acts 22:3; 26:5; Gal. 1:14; Phil. 3:5–6).

3. Pharisee and Persecutor of the Church (AD 20–33)

Saul first comes on the scene in Acts 7 as the radical Pharisee who was a leader in the persecution of Christians. He approved of the murder of Stephen. And he was trying to destroy the church by dragging people and throwing them in prison.

And it was while Saul was breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples that God intervened in his life in what was probably the most significant conversion in all of history.

4. Conversion/Calling (AD 33/34)

Acts 9:1–19

1 But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank. 10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; 19 and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.

Acts 22:2–16 (To the Crowd in Jerusalem)
Acts 26:12–18 (To King Agrippa)
Galatians 1:13–24

For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15 But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased 16 to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. 17 I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus. 18 Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. 21 Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they praised God because of me.

1 Timothy 1:12–17

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. 13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. 14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

5. Pre-Missionary Service (AD 34–46)

After his conversion, Paul went to Arabia and then bounced between Damascus, Jerusalem, Tarsus, Antioch, and Jerusalem again.

6. First Missionary Journey (AD 46–47)

Paul’s first missionary journey is covered in Acts 13:4–14:26 and probably lasted 1.5 years.

7. Second Missionary Journey (AD 48/49–51)

Paul’s second missionary journey is covered in Acts 15:36–18:22 and probably lasted 2.5 years.

8. Third Missionary Journey (AD 52–57)

Paul’s third missionary journey is covered in Acts 18:23–21:17 and probably lasted around 5 years.

9. Arrest, Trial, and First Imprisonment (AD 57–62)

Paul is arrested at the end of his third missionary journey in Jerusalem, recorded in Acts 21:27–36. He’s tried and eventually taken to Rome, where he lives under house arrest and is eventually released.

10. Second Imprisonment (AD 66)

After a short time of freedom, Paul is again arrested and imprisoned in Rome, where he writes his final letter, 2 Timothy.

11. Death (AD 67)

The Bible doesn’t record Paul’s death, but we do know that Paul knew his death was near in 2 Timothy 4:

2 Timothy 4:6–8

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

2 Timothy 4:18

The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Tradition says Paul was beheaded by sword in Rome under Nero’s reign. Nero died in AD 68, so Paul would have died before then.

Paul may have lived to be about 60, a very full life considering the times in which he lived and all that he suffered and endured.

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2. What can we learn from Paul?

Boiling Paul’s life and writings down to a few big ideas isn’t easy. So I make no claim that the few points we’ll focus on are a fair summary of the great apostle to the Gentiles.

Rather, these are a few of the big ideas that have stood out to me personally. I hope they’ll be an encouragement to you as well.

I’ve learned hundreds of things from Paul’s life and writings, but when I think about the bigger, broader categories, the three most important that come to mind are these.

  1. What the gospel is and who it’s for.
  2. How to hold seemingly competing truths, embrace mystery, and maintain balance.
  3. How to be real about sin without being okay with it.

2.1 What the gospel is and who it’s for.

The gospel is rich and multi-faceted and worthy of a lifetime of study and reflection.

Many people first encounter the gospel through John 3:16 or the Romans road. They think of it in a few simple statements:

  1. God created us and is holy.
  2. We sinned against him and deserve his wrath.
  3. Jesus became a man to die and rescue us.
  4. We must repent and believe in Jesus to be saved.

These simple truths do capture the essence of the good news. But depth, breadth, and height of God’s saving work and the gospel of Jesus Christ goes far beyond this.

The doctrinal portions of Paul’s letters unpack the richness of the gospel.

  1. Foreknowledge
  2. Election
  3. Predestination
  4. Effectual calling
  5. Regeneration
  6. Conversion
  7. Repentance
  8. Faith
  9. Indwelling of the Spirit
  10. Baptism by the Spirit
  11. Justification
  12. Adoption
  13. Reconciliation
  14. Union with Christ
  15. Substitutionary atonement
  16. Ransom
  17. Redemption
  18. Filling of the Spirit
  19. Progressive sanctification
  20. Perseverance
  21. Final justification
  22. Glorification

The better we understand this rich, multi-faceted gospel, the greater our capacity to worship God and the greater our ability to share the gospel will others.

Paul calls us to embrace the full gospel of God’s grace in Jesus. And it’s what he wrote about in all of his letters.

The gospel is for Christians.

Right along with this discovery for me was that the gospel wasn’t just for the lost. It was also for the saved. In fact, it’s probably accurate to say that it’s primarily for the saved.

It’s the central message in all of Paul’s letters, which were written to believers in churches much like ours. It undergirds all of his exhortations and admonitions. When Paul had the opportunity to share something with Christians, he didn’t skip over the gospel because his audience was already saved. To the contrary, he unpacked the gospel because he audience needed to hold fast to the good news and continue to be saved.

Just as these two discoveries came together for me; so these two errors go together. Minimizing the gospel to a simple set of steps to get saved naturally leads to relegating the message to conversations with the lost.

But Paul taught by his life and words that the gospel is both rich and never something to move beyond and the key truth that Christians need every single day.

2.2 How to hold seemingly competing truths, embrace mystery, and maintain balance.

Theology/doctrine and practice: Paul holds together a deep love for truth and a deep commitment to a transformed life. The key is the heart. Head, heart, hands.

Theology and practice

Or you could call this

  • Indicatives vs. imperatives
  • Truth vs. love
  • Theology vs. practice
  • Thinking vs. doing

There is a tendency among some Christians to gravitate toward the mind, toward theology and the proper understanding of Scripture. These Christians often neglect the commands of Scripture about loving and serving and going and doing. Certain theologically minded denominations have tended this direction.

Among others there’s a tendency to downplay doctrine as divisive and unimportant instead focus on what we should do, how we should live, etc. Liberalism’s social gospel and extreme fundamentalism’s focus on externals are examples.

While most of us are wired toward one of these, God calls us to both. And Paul models this commitment to deep and rigorous theology and a life of complete devotion to love and service and giving and holiness.

And for Paul these aren’t two competing things to hold together like the opposing force of magnets. Rather, they’re deeply interconnected.

Sound theology is the necessary basis for all right living. And right living is the necessary overflow of a mind and heart captivated by the truth of God.

The key to bringing the mind and the hands together is a heart awakened to the beauty of God and his grace.

Several of Paul’s letters are structured in a way that demonstrates this important relationship.

In Romans Paul spends the first 11 chapters unpacking the rich doctrines of the gospel, and then he turns in chapter 12 to the outworking of those truths in the life of the church.

He repeats this same pattern in Ephesians, where the first three chapters are the doctrinal indicatives that undergird the applicational imperatives of the last three chapters.

In other books the structure isn’t so bifurcated. Instead, he weaves his indicatives and imperatives together, but they’re always deeply connected.

From election to eschatology, all of the doctrines Paul writes about are immensely practical and given to us for our growth in godliness.

While each of us may have a leaning toward thinking or living, we must heed the commands and example of Paul and bring them both together. Only then will God get the glory he truly deserves the we the joy we deeply long for.

God’s sovereignty and human responsibility

There is likewise a tendency to exalt the sovereignty of God and downplay human responsibility, or to emphasize the will and responsibility of man and explain away the sovereignty of God.

But Paul refuses to give on either. He refuses to let his inability to fully grasp how God can be completely and exhaustively sovereign over all things and still hold people accountable for their every thought and action.

If anyone could have focused too much on the sovereignty of God and neglect human responsibility, it would have been Paul. God’s sovereignty in Paul’s salvation was unmistakable. Paul’s high view of God’s sovereignty is no doubt owing to his dramatic encounter with the sovereign saving God. But Paul didn’t go off track and compromise one biblical truth for the sake of another.

He refuses to let people off the hook to come, repent, believe, pray, obey, work, and persevere.

We’ll look at two quick examples where we seem this at play in Paul’s writings: missions and prayer.

Missions and the sovereignty of God

One of the most common objections to the biblical doctrine of election, God’s sovereignty in salvation, is that it eliminates the need for evangelism and missions. And for some, it’s done just that. But Paul again refuses to let one biblical truth be used to mute another.

There was no greater defender of the doctrine of election than Paul. Yet there was likewise no great missionary.

Paul found in election not an excuse to stay home, but powerful compulsion to go. No doubt the words of the Lord to Paul in Corinth recorded in Acts 18:10—“I have many people in this city.”—gave Paul confidence to call sinners to repentance.

The ESVSB note summarizes well:

Though God had told Paul, “I have many in this city who are my people,” indicating that many in Corinth would come to faith in Christ, this did not lead Paul to conclude that he had no further part to play. Rather, Paul stayed a year and six months, longer than he stayed at any city except Ephesus, preaching the gospel in order that through his preaching those whom God had chosen would come to faith (cf. note on 27:30). Predestination implied successful evangelism.

In Titus 1:1 he talks about how he labored “for the faith of those chosen of God,” and in 2 Tim 2:10 to says that he “endured all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.”

Let me remind you of the kind of things Paul endured to see the elect come to salvation:

2 Corinthians 6:3–10

We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

2 Corinthians 11:23–28

Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

Paul endured all of these things, not in spite of the doctrine of election, but precisely because of it.

The resolution to the apparent tension between God’s sovereignty and missions is that God ordains both the end (i.e., election to salvation) and the means to the end (i.e., evangelism). So according to the Bible, election does not undercut missions. Instead, it provides the very basis for confident evangelism.”7

Romans 10:14–15

How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

In short, evangelism and missions is an absolute requirement because faith is a requirement. Election doesn’t remove the need for missions; to the contrary, it ensures it will succeed.

Prayer and the sovereignty of God

If God is sovereign and has planned out from all eternity all that will come to pass, what’s the point of prayer? Scripture seems to teach the former and command the latter. But how do they fit together? Many deny the former, and resolve the tension. Other affirm the former, but end up concluding that our prayers don’t really matter, or that they’re more about changing our hearts to align with what God already predestined to happen than with changing the outcome of what would otherwise happen.

Paul again is a helpful guide for us. He refuses to let us out easily of this tension and do injustice to one of these biblical truths.

In a number of passages there is an interesting juxtaposition of the certainty of the answer and the importance, if not necessity, of the prayer.

2 Corinthians 1:9–11

“Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.”

1 Thessalonians 5:24–25

He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. 25 Brothers, pray for us.

2 Thessalonians 3:1–3

Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, 2 and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. 3 But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one.”

READ THIS: Though the promises of God are certain and will be fulfilled, they will not be fulfilled apart from the prayers of God’s people. How are we to make sense of this? Does this somehow limit God and make Him dependent on man? No! The God who has determined to accomplish certain things is sovereign over both the end and the means. The purposes of God in world evangelism cannot be thwarted because God is sovereign over the church and will get prayers from His people so that He might answer them and accomplish His purposes. So yes, God will accomplish His purposes, but yes, the prayers of God’s people are absolutely essential to the success of those purposes.

Illustration: Let me illustrate it this way. The Scripture provides a parallel example to prayer and the purposes of God. It is evangelism and the salvation of sinners. The Bible is clear that God has chosen an elect people from every tongue and tribe and people and nation who will most certainly be saved. All that the Father has given to the Son will come! Does this mean that evangelism is unnecessary since these people are certain to be saved? Absolutely not! Some have wrongly concluded so. Even though all of God’s people will be saved, they will not be saved apart from hearing and believing the gospel. Paul is clear on this point in Romans 10:14–15. So how can both of these be true? How can God guarantee the salvation of all the elect and at the same time make salvation contingent upon hearing and believing the gospel? Very simple. He guarantees the salvation of all the elect by guaranteeing that the gospel will be preached to all of them and that they will savingly believe. In the same way God both guarantees the success of His purposes while at the same time making those purposes contingent upon the prayers of His people. How? He guarantees the success of all His purposes by guaranteeing that His people will pray for the fulfillment of those purposes. So let us pray!

So I conclude again, that God’s purposes will succeed and the prayers of God’s people are absolutely essential to that success.

Justification and sanctification

Finally, there’s also a tendency for Christians to gravitate toward either the grace of God for us (justification) or the grace of God in us (sanctification).

Those who emphasize the former tend toward licentiousness or antinomianism, not taking sin and holiness seriously enough.

Those who emphasize the latter tend toward legalism or moralism or Phariseeism, that is, thinking that their efforts contribute to their salvation and taking away from Christ’s work alone as the basis for our acceptance with God.

But in Paul we find both of these held together in perfect balance.

On the one hand, no one emphasizes the free grace of God and justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone than Paul. Paul will allow not even a hint of our works contributing to the ground or basis for our acceptance before God.

We don’t have the time to develop this from Scripture, but I’m sure almost all of you know it well. Romans 3–4 and Galatians 2 are strong defenses of the Reformation teaching of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the glory of God alone.

And yet Paul is unflinching in his commands and requirements for holiness and perseverance in order to inherit eternal life. Paul holds together the promises of preservation, the requirement of perseverance, and the warnings of falling away.

As a former Pharisee, it would have been easy for Paul to gravitate toward antinomianism in his rejection of legalism. But he didn’t.

Listen to these strong statements in Paul on the necessity of a transformed life.

Philippians 3:12–14

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians 9:24–27

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Some try to water this down to mean something less than eternal life, but I don’t think that’s what Paul is saying.

1 Timothy 6:11–12

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

1 Timothy 6:17–19

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

Colossians 1:22–23

But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

Romans 11:22

Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.

1 Corinthians 15:2

By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

Philippians 2:12–13

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.

Galatians 5:19–21

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 6:9–11

Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Yes, our acceptance with God is based solely on the infinitely valuable work of Christ for us, but yes, we must continue to repent and believe and persevere in holiness in order to inherit eternal life.

We mustn’t let our love for one of these truths water down the other or explain the other away.

2.3 How to be real about sin without being okay with it.

There are extremes where people either put on a show and pretend they aren’t sinners or acknowledge they’re sinners by don’t really seem to be bothered by it.

Some Christians acknowledge they’re still sinners, but don’t seem too bothered by it.

Other Christians under-define sin and think they can live in sinless perfection. These Christians take sin seriously. Some even think that unconfessed sin results in falling from grace.

Others externalize sin and ignore what’s going on in their hearts. They live in either blatant hypocrisy or self-deception. This was true of the pharisees in Jesus’ day, and it’s true of some hyper-fundamentalist groups today.

In Paul we learn to (1) understand sin as pervasive and deep and touching every aspect of our being, (2) acknowledge that we’re never completely free from sin until glorification, that sin is something the greatest to the least of us will battle our entire life, (3) affirm that sin is serious and must be confessed, repented of, and put to death, and (4) believe that Christ’s atoning work is sufficient to cover all of it and empower us to make real progress against it.

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3. Conclusion

We’ve reached the end of our time, so let me attempt to bring this talk to a close.

3.1 See God’s grace behind, under, in, and through the good of his people.

There are many things to be impressed by with Paul: his incredible intellect, his grasp of theology, his dramatic conversion, his gifted teaching, his unwavering boldness in the face of suffering, his love for the gospel, his self-sacrificial service of others, etc.

But if all we’ve done tonight is acknowledged the greatness of an exceptional man, we’ve missed the point of his life and teaching.

For one, we’ll walk out of here feeling discouraged that we don’t measure up to this exceptional servant of God.

But that’s not what Paul, or Paul’s Lord, would want us to leave here with.

Paul himself spoke of the folly of comparing ourselves to others.

While he invited believers to follow his example, he didn’t expect them to be just like him. He taught that God gifted everyone differently, and that all we are and have are from the Lord.

Furthermore, being caught up with Paul’s greatness wouldn’t honor Paul’s life and teaching or his Lord.

We must see in Paul the gracious working of God.

Paul’s high view of God’s sovereignty and grace should lead us all to embrace who we are by the grace of God and how he’d gifted us differently.

With Paul we all must conclude, “I am what I am by the grace of God.”

Rather than walking out discouraged that we don’t measure up, we should walk out encouraged that God grace can overcome the worst of sinners and that God in his sovereignty will get glory for all of our lives as he sees fit, some in more dramatic ways than others, but all according to his perfect will.

3.2 Embrace the centrality of the full gospel for Christians.

You can never fully plumb the depths and exhaust the riches of the gospel, and it’s your calling to never stop trying. It’s through this gospel that we live our calling to image God’s glory in the world.

3.3 Embrace mystery and balance of truths in tension.

Paul offers for all of us an encouragement to give ourselves more fully to the study of doctrine or to give ourselves more fully to living in light of that doctrine.

3.4 Have the right perspective on our sin.

Paul helps us learn how to be honest about our sin, with being casual with it. He calls us to fierce battle against the sin that will . But he also points us to the infinite grace of God to receive forgiveness and come boldly into God’s presence accepted in Jesus.

Conclusion: God has given us a great gift in both the life and teaching of Paul, not just because they provide an example for us to follow but even more because they reveal the glory of God’s grace through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Notes

1. Delivered at Spring Creek Bible Church on Sunday evening at 6:00 PM on 2/26/17.

2. Moses and a few other Old Testament authors wrote more words as well. ↩

3. https://glanier.wordpress.com/2017/02/23/no-saul-the-persecutor-did-not-become-paul-the-apostle/ ↩

4. http://www.dennyburk.com/was-the-apostle-paul-married/ ↩

5. http://catholic-resources.org/Bible/Pauline_Associates.htm ↩

6. https://www.esv.org/resources/esv-global-study-bible/chart_44_06/; https://www.blueletterbible.org/study/paul/timeline.cfm. ↩

7. http://www.calvin500.com/calvinism-and-missions/ ↩