Who was Paul in the Bible?

This apostle was of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of pure descent, born at Tarsus, a city of Cilicia, a fact which gave to him the privilege of Roman citizenship. He was a disciple of Gamaliel and a strict Pharisee. He is first introduced to us as a young man, by name SAUL, at whose feet the witnesses who stoned Stephen laid their clothes. He became afterwards a violent persecutor of the saints, both of men and women, acting with great zeal, thinking he was doing God's service. His conversion as the effect of the Lord appearing to him was unique, and he was so completely changed that he became at once as bold for Christ as before he had been a persecutor of Christ in the persons of His saints. He immediately preached in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God. This was the distinctive point of his testimony. As the Jews sought his life at Damascus, he departed into Arabia, where doubtless he had deep exercise of heart and learnt more of the Lord.

(*Paul was a Jew, of the sect of the Pharisees, of the honoured tribe of Benjamin, a free-born citizen of Tarsus of Cilicia, educated in Jerusalem, under Gamaliel, converted in A.D. 36, and sixteen years afterwards commenced writing these inspired communications bearing his name, as also that to the Hebrews; was martyred by beheading at Rome, A.D. 68, under Nero, perhaps the cruelest of the Caesars. Thus died Paul, after 32 years' life of service and suffering, unexampled by all then or since. His record is on high.)

Saul of Tarsus was completely transformed by the impact made upon his circumstances and upon himself by the risen and glorified Christ. Roman by birth, "a citizen of no mean city" — "free-born" (Acts 22:28); a Jew by religion, he profited in Judaism above many his equals, being exceedingly zealous of the traditions of his fathers (Galatians 1:14); brought up at the feet of Gamaliel (Acts 22:3); of the seed of Abraham and of the tribe of Benjamin; a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Few, if any, in his day possessed the outstanding abilities of this truly remarkable Israelite. But the circle in which he moved, revolving as they did around the pride and self-seeking of man away from God, had no appreciation, either in their standing or religion or culture, of the one blessed Man in whom everything was centred for the glory of God. Paul's discourse before Agrippa, as related in Acts chapter 26, shews the vehemence with which he did "many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth," and his exceeding madness against the followers of Christ. As a "young man" (Acts 7:58) he was truly characterized by the features predicated of Benjamin, from whom he sprang by birth — "Benjamin, as a wolf will he tear to pieces; In the morning he will devour the prey" (Genesis 49:27, New Trans.); "He made havoc of the church;" he breathed "out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord" (Acts 8 and 9). Having vented his fury on the believers in Jerusalem he pursues his headlong course towards Damascus when, suddenly, "light from heaven" dispels the influence of earthly glories, and the voice of the risen Lord silences the tumult of his rebellious intent. The light which brought the arrogant Pharisee to the ground, is now to be the illumination of his pathway, as a "chosen vessel" — one who should bear the Name (which hitherto he sought to exterminate), "before the Gentiles, and kings, and the people of Israel." The voice which he heard secured, on the one hand, his obedience to the will and authority of Christ as Lord, and also filled his heart with an ever deepening sense of the grace and mercy of the One who had met him in infinite love. His previous circumstances of affluence and power become completely untenable as his affections perceived the preciousness of Christ in glory. The self-willed assertive Saul of Tarsus becomes, as Paul the apostle, "less than the least of all saints." Christ is now his Object; for him to live is Christ; in all things and at all times Christ should be magnified in his movements here; he would "count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." For Him he had suffered the loss of that which he beforehand had prized — and yet in the experience of Christ's love as his satisfying portion he could say "I have all things in full supply and abound" (Philippians 4:18 New trans.). Suffering as perhaps no other follower of Christ suffered, his heart was so full of heavenly joy and peace that over and over again he breaks forth in those precious doxologies which adorn the pages of Scripture.

We shall see how everything in Paul’s life was planned and worked out by divine wisdom. It is only as we read the record carefully that this is apparent. Saul tells us himself how he was separated from his mother’s womb and called by God’s grace, that God’s Son might be revealed in him, and that he should carry the gospel of the grace of God to the Gentiles. He was specially chosen of the Lord to be His servant, and this was marked in his very birth. He was born in Tarsus, in the province of Cilicia, in what we now call Asia Minor. We gather that his father was a man of some position, for he was a Roman citizen, which carried the same citizenship for his son. He could tell the Chief Captain at Jerusalem that he was freeborn, and not like the Captain, who bought the privilege and prestige of being a Roman citizen by the payment of a great sum. That his father could send his son to Jerusalem to be brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, strengthens the supposition that his family was of some standing something like a family in the present day who can afford to send their sons to be educated at some University. Of the Jewish apostles it could be recorded that they were “ignorant and unlearned men,” but this could not be said of Saul of Tarsus. He was learned. Evidently Gamaliel was a very prominent professor or rabbi, for there is a saying in the Talmud, “Since Rabban Gamaliel died, the glory of the law has ceased.”

Saul was from Tarsus in Cilicia, where he had become acquainted with Greek life, literature, art and philosophy. The chief industry of Tarsus was tent making. This trade the young Saul learned. He had a married sister living in Jerusalem (Acts 23:16). He also was a Roman citizen.

For the first time, and that in connection with this incident, the name of Paul is mentioned. Some have suggested that he took the name in honor of Sergius Paulus, but that is incorrect. Paul is a Roman name, and means "little." Later he writes of himself as "less than the least of all saints." He took the lowest place, and the name which signifies this comes now into prominence. Barnabas is taking the second place; not Barnabas and Saul, but Paul and Barnabas is now the order.

In Acts ix., we see a man on the highway to Damascus with a commission from the high priest to persecute the Jewish Christians. That was the only commission Paul received from man-an authority, not to preach the Gospel, but to extinguish it, if it were possible. But the Lord, in sovereign grace not only converted Saul of Tarsus, but sent him out, direct from Himself, a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. Paul thus becomes the standing type of Christian ministry. Apart from miraculous facts, he exemplified livingly the words, "we believe, and therefore speak." (2 Cor. iv.)

While he was on a journey to Damascus his meeting with the Lord Jesus - which was going to have the most far reaching consequences - took place. This meeting was very important as to the future life of Saul (Acts 9). Saul was converted to God who had already separated him from his mother's womb and who called him now to preach His Son among the heathen nations. This is how Paul (as he was called later on – Acts 13:9) became the Apostle of the nations (Gal. 2:7-8: Rom. 11:13; 15:16).

This was the administrative order according to God; let us now come to the substance of his position. Paul was the servant of Christ — that was his character, his life. But others were, more or less, that. He was more than that. He was an apostle by the call of the Lord, a "called apostle"; and not only that, and laborious as occasion presented itself, he was nothing but that in life here below. He was set apart for the glad tidings of God.

Paul begins the epistle with a reference to his office. He was the servant of Jesus Christ, a called apostle, separated unto the gospel of God; that is, so to speak, his title. He served the Lord, and to this end he had been called and separated, in quite a special way; he was not amongst those who had followed the Lord on earth; he did not know Him thus. On the contrary, he had been the most violent enemy to the name of Jesus on earth, and sought to exterminate this new doctrine - that is, faith in Jesus - from the midst of Israel, and to punish every adherent of it. This path was put a stop to by the Lord, who revealed Himself to him in glory, and now this very glory became the starting-point of Paul's service. It was the most signal proof of the work of reconciliation being accomplished, that He who had suffered for sins was now in glory; and not only that, but the persecuted Christians were acknowledged by the Lord, not as disciples, but as united to Him - the glorified Man, the Son of God in heaven. Thus Paul was called in an entirely special way; but he was separated also in a special way. The revelation of the Lord in glory separated him first of all from Judaism, yet not that he should turn to paganism; but, acknowledging Christ in divine glory as Lord, he was taken out "from amongst the people and the Gentiles" (Acts 26:17), and was sent into the world by the glorified Man, the Lord of glory, to proclaim an accomplished redemption, to deliver from sin all who should believe in Him, and the Jews from the yoke of the law. Therefore, henceforth, he knew no one after the flesh, not even the Lord Jesus; that is, not as the carnally-minded Jews desired to have Him here in the world, as Son of David, although fully recognising that He had come as such, and that He had a perfect right to this title. But the Lord had been rejected as Son of David, and now all should be pure grace, as well for the Jews as for the Gentiles, since the first had lost every title to the promises through their rejection of Him in whom they should have their fulfilment. God will assuredly make good His promises; but now all is of pure grace, and, through the risen Man, whom Paul had seen in glory. This point is clearly established further on in the epistle.