who before was a blasphemer and persecutor, and an insolent overbearing [man] but mercy was shewn me because I did it ignorantly, in unbelief.
Paul looks back at the man he was before Christ met him, and he uses three of the ugliest words he can find. Yet the verse turns on one word: mercy. And on a strange reason for it — he acted in ignorance and unbelief.
Three words, three worlds
The three words Paul picks are not random insults. Each belongs somewhere else in Scripture, and no one else in Scripture wears all three.
The apostle sums up his life at that time in three telling words, and they explain it: "a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious." Telling words, we say. The first is one of the sins that mark the last days (2 Tim. 3:2). The second is what marked the Jews in the days of the apostles (1 Thess. 2:15). The last, "injurious," appears in the New Testament as a sin of the pagan world (Rom. 1:30). None of the pagans in that chapter of Romans are charged with blaspheming. No one in 2 Timothy 3, where the marks of the last days are listed, is called "injurious." But all three together marked Saul.
The ESV translates that third word as "insolent opponent."
Whom did he blaspheme?
Blasphemy is speech against God, not against people. A careful Pharisee took pains to avoid that charge. So the word itself says something about who Jesus is.
The Pharisees were careful, at least on the outside, never to face a charge of blasphemy — that is, of insulting the Name of God. Speaking against men, however wickedly or unjustly, is not blasphemy. And Paul, as a strict Pharisee, would not insult God on purpose. Who then did he blaspheme? He tells us himself, quite plainly: "I myself thought that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth." Later he came to know that this blessed Person is "God over all, blessed forever" — and then he called himself a blasphemer. The Man of Galilee is none other than the eternal God!
The words he would never have used at the time
Paul confesses this after his conversion. At the time, Saul had a flattering name for each of these three things.
Before his conversion he would never have used such words about himself. Far from thinking he was blaspheming God, he was quite sure he was serving God. Far from seeing himself as a persecutor, he no doubt felt he was a faithful champion of the truth. His overbearing insolence he no doubt viewed as praiseworthy zeal. Such is the blindness of a heart that has never been born again.
Sincerity was no protection
Nothing in Saul's conscience objected. He had religion and credentials on his side.
There was certainly no lack of sincerity: not a doubt clouded his conscience. He thought he ought to do much against the name of the Nazarene. He carried the authority and commission of the chief priests. He was confident of the strictest Pharisee teaching and the most careful practice, and satisfied that the religion of the true God had come down unbroken from Sinai.
What "ignorantly" does and does not do
Paul gives ignorance as the reason mercy could reach him. Ignorance is not innocence. But it does mark his sin off from sin done on purpose.
If we were ignorant, why were we ignorant? Ignorance means carelessness of some kind... The plea of ignorance helps in only one way — it marks the sin off from sin done on purpose. So of the sin of his unconverted state the apostle could say, "I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief."
The old law drew the same line, and it still runs today.
There was no forgiveness for sins done with a high hand under the law. The law says plainly, "if anyone sins through ignorance." Paul says he received mercy "because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief." In the old days, if a man sinned in open defiance, as in blasphemy, they stoned him. There is forgiveness for such sins now — but not if it is done after full knowledge of Christ, so as to give Him up.
Not a murderer in cold blood
Ignorance also placed Saul under an old provision. God gave cities of refuge — towns a man could run to if he had killed someone without meaning to.
He "did it ignorantly in unbelief." So he was not the deliberate killer, guilty of the planned, cold-blooded murder of the Lord Jesus. He was rather the man who kills without meaning to and without knowing what he does (Josh. 20:3). For such cases God appointed "cities of refuge." His mercy was available for such men. No doubt the same blessed truth shines in the word of the Lord Jesus from the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk. 23:34).
Mercy that reaches further than Saul
The same ground of mercy is held out to a whole nation. Paul's case is not a one-off.
In mercy. To us Gentiles, to Saul of Tarsus, and in the future, to Israel, when sunk in unbelief. As he says to Timothy, "I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief." And the same mercy will be shown to Israel in days to come: "For God has shut all up together in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all" (Romans 11:32).
Summary
- Blindness — Saul called his blasphemy zeal and his persecution faithfulness. A heart that is not born again renames its own sins.
- Blasphemy — the word only makes sense if Jesus of Nazareth is God; Paul's confession is a witness to who Christ is.
- Ignorance — it excuses no one. But like the man who killed without meaning to, Saul had a refuge open to him.
- Mercy — his sincerity could not save him. Mercy did what his certainty could not.
- Reach — the ground of mercy shown to Saul is the ground on which mercy is promised to others still in unbelief.