In our last time together, we considered what it means to walk with God in a wicked generation. We briefly surveyed the lives of Abraham and Lot, and discovered the sharp contrast between a life lived by faith, and a life lived in the flesh. We saw that the inheritance of Abraham is still increasing to this day, while Lot’s life yielded two wicked nations: the Ammonites and Moabites. What sorrow!
Two men lived at the same time and walked together for a season, yet drew from two distinct wells; something revealed after their separation. It is the fruit, or lack thereof, that proves the heavenly value of their lives.
Even here, we behold the purpose of God, Who across generations patiently bears with His saints as He works toward the full expression of Christ.
How merciful is our God! He truly is patient, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9)!
We will continue in our theme by briefly contrasting the pre-Christ life of Saul of Tarsus with the miraculous life of the Apostle Paul. By God’s grace alone, we will look to the Word of God and ask the precious Holy Spirit to flood our hearts with the illumination that only He can bring to our hearts.
May the Word of God come alive in our hearts like never before. May we see Jesus, because of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, exalted to the right hand of God, always interceding on our behalf (Hebrews 2:9; Acts 2:33; Heb. 7:25)! Oh God, grant it we pray, amen.
Saul of Tarsus Ruined by “The Man, Christ Jesus”
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. – Galatians 2:20
Before the Apostle Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, penned the beautiful words of Galatians 2:20, he met a Man Who changed the trajectory of his life. This Man had so ruined Saul of Tarsus, eclipsed the old man, that he wrote to Philemon, “yet for love’s sake I rather appeal to you–since I am such a person as Paul, the aged, and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus (Philem. 1:9). Saul means “asked for” or “requested,” recalling the moment Israel asked for a king of flesh and blood rather than the infinite and majestic Creator of the universe! But Paul means “small, little, or humble.” In his own words, Paul was less than the least of all saints (Ephesians 3:9).
What happened to Saul of Tarsus, the one who received his training from the revered and respected Gamaliel? What happened to the man who sought to destroy the church of the Living God? He was utterly devastated and brought to an end by our living Lord Jesus Christ! When he fell down on the Road to Damascus, blinded by the Lord, he saw for the first time with his spiritual eyes, the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn’t meet a new religion. He met a Man, a heavenly Man, the “Son from Heaven” (1 Thessalonians 1:10)!
“Who are You, Lord?” – Acts 9:5
Here the Lord reveals something central: “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:6). It wasn’t just His followers who were being persecuted, it was Jesus Christ Whom Saul was persecuting! Our Lord’s identification was and still is one with His Body, “that they may be one even as We are One” (Jn. 17) that He might bring many sons to glory (Hebrews 2:10). That is the glorious end to which God is currently working, the summing up of all things in Christ (Eph. 1:10). “That He Himself might come to have the preeminence in everything” (Col. 1:18). When He presents to Himself the church in all her glory, she will fully bear the image of the firstborn from among the dead, the image of His Son (Eph. 5:27; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29). Look how many of these verses were just quoted from Paul’s letters!
From that day forward, Saul of Tarsus saw the church as synonymous with the Lord Jesus Christ. That Man ruined more than his theology; He ruined every iota of his desire to be the most important man in the room. Let’s look at his Pre-Road to Damascus credentials:
Circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. – Philippians 3:5-6
But let’s look at what happened to that man of prominence, that “requested” and esteemed teacher of the Law, Saul of Tarsus:
But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ… – Philippians 3:7-8
My dear brothers and sisters, has this Heavenly Man so eclipsed the old that it is now His life we live by faith? Do we count everything of the old Adamic nature as loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus as Lord? If we’re still clinging to anything of the old, may God in His mercy open our eyes to see it, and may we accept the invitation to His throne of grace!
Truly, the present sufferings “are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18)!
May our hearts laid bare “before Him with Whom we have to do,” share the same earnest heart cry of the Apostle Paul, that “Christ might be all and in all.” These were not mere words to Paul, they governed his life. In his own words:
and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 3:9-14
I can still hear my father-in-law (absent from the body, present with the Lord since 2008) say, “Eric, it will cost you everything to follow the Lord. But Oh, He is worth it!”
There is no greater honor than to “walk in the same manner as He walked” though the cost is the loss of everything (1 John 2:6)!
Lord willing, as we continue together in our writing journey, we will discover the kind of man the Apostle Paul was. We will discover what his inheritance looks like through reading some of his final words to his “dear son in the faith.” Oh, how I wish I could continue right now!
Much love to you, “until the day dawns and the morning star arises in our hearts,”
Eric