No Favorites in the Kingdom, Part 3
God prepared the apostle Paul for his special ministry long before he had one, shares Pastor Chuck Smith in his book, Why Grace Changes Everything. In this installment of our teaching series taken from the book, Chuck describes how God used Paul’s background to enable him to reveal His Son to the world—something He wants to do in our lives as well.
Chosen by Grace
Paul saw his whole life as the result of God's gracious choice. He says, It pleased God ... to reveal His Son in me (Galatians 1:15-16, KJV). That is what God wants to do in every one of our lives. That is what God wants to do in you now. God desires to reveal His Son to the world through you.
In fact, God has been working in your life since the moment you were conceived to make you the perfect instrument to reveal His Son. That is why Paul wrote, God ... separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace (Galatians 1:15, KJV). It is remarkable to see how God prepared Paul for his ministry long before he had one.
God knew He was going to need a special person to bring the gospel of grace to the Gentiles. This man would have to break with the ingrained tradition of the Jews, who tended to be a clannish people. They would not mix with Gentiles—even refusing to eat with them or enter their houses. In fact, when a Pharisee walked down the street, he would hold his robes very tightly around him for fear that his garment might touch a Gentile. Should a Pharisee accidentally touch a non-Jew, he would go home, take a bath, wash his robes, and stay away from the temple that day. He considered himself unclean. Yet the man God needed to proclaim the Good News would have to go out and live with the Gentiles and become one with them.
How interesting it is that God chose for this special task the Jew who was most zealous for the traditions of his fathers!
As Paul looked back, he could see how God's hand had been on his life from the very beginning. Since Greek culture had saturated the world, the man God chose had to be steeped in its customs and philosophy. Because he was going to be traveling extensively throughout the Roman Empire and facing all kinds of perils, he needed to have Roman citizenship.
Therefore, God arranged that Saul should be born a Roman citizen. How his citizenship was attained is not known, but it would definitely serve as a big advantage to Paul, saving him from some difficult and even life-threatening circumstances (Acts 22 and 25).
Tarsus also enjoyed a strong Greek culture. Paul had more than just a small exposure to Hellenistic custom and thought; he was part of it. This made it possible for him to deal effectively with the Gentiles and to know the nuances of Greek thought. His background allowed him to communicate the truths of Jesus Christ to the Greeks.
At the same time, God needed a person who was thoroughly Jewish. When Paul was about 12 years old, his parents sent him to Jerusalem to study at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the great Jewish scholars of the day. There Paul became absorbed in Hebrew culture and tradition, mastering the Talmud and the Hebrew Scriptures. Paul grew extremely zealous for the law and sought to become righteous by keeping it to the best of his ability. He excelled among his contemporaries.
To the Philippians he wrote, If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more (Philippians 3:4, KJV).
Peter and the other disciples, with their backgrounds as fishermen or tax collectors, weren't prepared to understand the law as thoroughly as Paul did.
When the day finally came for God to reveal His grace to Paul on the Damascus Road, the apostle could instantly fit together the Scriptures of the Old Testament with the recent appearance of Jesus Christ. He began to look at the Messiah from a new point of view. Paul was the perfect choice to preach the gospel of grace, for if anyone had sought to be righteous by the law, it was Paul. Here was a man who could say, Concerning ... the righteousness which is in the law, [I was] blameless (Philippians 3:6). He knew the futility of trying to be righteous by the law, so when he came to the glorious knowledge of Jesus Christ, he gladly embraced the new righteousness imputed to him through his faith in Jesus Christ.
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In our next installment, Pastor Chuck describes how God prepared him personally, separating him from the womb, to the work God called him to.
Follow the series “No Favorites in the Kingdom” at Part 1, Part 2
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