THE CONVERSION OF SAUL PART 1

by John Thomas Lowe
(Woodruff, S.C.)

The Conversion of Saul
INTRODUCTION
Let us imagine for a moment that this is the week of Saul's arrival at Damascus. By this time, Saul had become the movement's ringleader to wipe out Christianity. A devout Hellenistic Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, Saul was a Pharisees and was taught by none other than Gamaliel, whom we have already met (Acts 5:34-40). Saul disagreed with his teacher, Gamaliel, on how the Christians should be dealt with; however, he sought the arrest, trial, conviction, and punishment (with imprisonment the norm and death the ideal, it would seem) of those in Jerusalem. His career as a persecutor of Christians seems to have begun with Stephen, but it quickly spread to all Christians in Jerusalem (Acts 7:58–8:3). Saul was not content to punish some and to drive the rest from the "holy city." He did not want to contain Christianity or merely drive it from Jerusalem; he wanted to rid the earth of Christianity and its followers. Thus, his opposition to Christ and His Church took on a "missionary" spirit. Saul went to other cities where he sought to arrest Christians and bring them back to Jeru-salem for a trial and punishment. Damascus, a city some 150 miles northeast of Jerusalem, was one such city. Word was out that Saul would soon arrive at Jerusalem looking for Christians.
Now, suppose you were a Christian and had just arrived in Da-mascus, and you had been able to learn the hiding place of a group of believers. Let us suppose further that the Church had gathered on this particular evening for a time of prayer, prompted by the news that Saul was soon to arrive, with all the necessary legal machinery (that is, the authorization of the chief priests and the Sanhedrin) to arrest and extradite the Christians who were in the city. What do you suppose the saints would have prayed at this special prayer meeting? We are given a little insight from the account in Acts 12 when Peter was imprisoned, and it appeared he would soon be exe-cuted, as James had already been, and as we would infer Herod pur-posed to do with Peter (Acts 12:1-4). No one seems to have prayed for Peter's miraculous escape on this occasion. At least we can say that no one had enough faith to believe it, even as Peter stood at the door, knocking to get in (12:12-17).
I very much doubt anyone prayed that this Saul might be saved. I can believe someone might have prayed that Saul is waylaid or "terminated" in some divine act or providential accident ("act of God"). I believe the saints who gathered to pray would have prayed for the protection of the Church in Damascus and the safety of indi-vidual saints, especially the leaders and the most visible Christians. No one, it would seem, was even thinking of what God was about to do. Ananias is not only surprised by his commission; he is resistant to it, at least initially.
There would likely be another group meeting the evening before Saul arrived in Damascus—those who did not believe in Jesus as their Messiah and eagerly sought the eradication of the Church in their city. Were these people as eager as Saul to destroy the Church? Did they send it to Saul? Or did they somewhat dread his arrival, knowing how zealous he was in his opposition to the Church? If he were viewed as a reactionary, a troublemaker, perhaps some unbelievers thought Saul was too much trouble. Nevertheless, there must have been those who intended to use Saul's coming to oppose the Church. They may have attempted to compile a list of known (and even sus-pected) Christians, along with addresses, to facilitate Saul's task.
What a shock Saul's conversion must have been to both groups! To the Church, Saul turned out to be a friend, a colleague-believer, and a flaming evangelist. They proclaimed Christ more clearly and powerfully than anyone had previously done in Damascus. The Church did not shrink or suffer from Saul's arrival but grew because of it. Moreover, the second group, who were waiting for Saul to come and help them deal with the followers of "the Way," discovered that Saul had joined them, perhaps bringing other opposition members along with him. Did they think their task would be a simple one? They found that Saul's arrival shut down their cause, and his conversion took the wind out of their sails. What can you say about Christianity when its most outspoken and zealous opponent suddenly claims to have seen the risen Christ and trusted in Him as the Messiah?
The importance of Saul's conversion can hardly be overesti-mated. Three times in the Book of Acts, it is reported, the first time in the third person ("he") by Luke (Acts 9:1-31), the second time in the first person ("I") by the apostle, as he spoke to his unbelieving Jewish brethren in defense of his ministry (Acts 22:1-21), and the third time, again in the first person, as his testimony to King Agrippa, Festus, and Bernice (Acts 26:1-23). This three-fold repetition indi-cates the importance of this event, especially in the themes Luke seeks to develop in the Book of Acts.
It is not just in the Book of Acts that the importance of Saul's conversion is evident. On various occasions in his epistles, Paul made either direct or indirect references to his former life of opposition and his radical conversion. Paul's theology, lifestyle, ministry, and methodology are rooted in his conversion. This text portrays one of the historical landmarks of the Church. "Luke attached great im-portance to the story of Saul's conversion as the turning point not simply in the career of the man, but an epoch in the history of apos-tolic Christianity. . . It is impossible to overestimate the worth to the student of Christianity of this event from every angle because we have in Paul's Epistles his emphasis on the actual appearance of Jesus to him as the fact that changed his whole life (1 Cor. 15:8; Gal. 1:16f.)."
Problems in the Passage
If this passage is profoundly important, it also poses its prob-lems. There are differences between the three accounts given to us in Acts. All of these should be expected and can be relatively easily explained. However, there is a more significant discrepancy between the accounts of Saul's conversion in Acts and that which Paul gave in Galatians 1. I. Howard Marshall summarizes the problem in these words:
"Nevertheless, we obtain a different impression of things from Galatians 1:16-24, according to which (1) Paul did not confer with men after his conversion nor go to the apostles in Jerusalem, but (2) departed to Arabia and then returned to Damascus; then (3) three years later he went to Jerusalem for a visit lasting a fortnight during which he saw only Peter and James, and at this time he was unknown by sight to the churches of Judea; after that (4) he went to Syria and Cilicia. This account is accompanied by an assertion of its truth which suggests that some people were contradicting it."
As I look at the problem, I believe several conclusions must be drawn. First, some problems appear to be serious. Second, we are not given enough information in the biblical text to solve them dogmati-cally. Third, these discrepancies may have been evident to the writ-ers, who did not see fit to remove or explain every problem. Fourth, there would be no problem if we had all the facts. Fifth, faith must take the text at face value, as it is written, and believe it is God's inspired, inerrant, authoritative word.
The Structure of the Passage
The passage which we are studying can be divided into these major segments:
o Saul's Arrest—Verses 1-9
o Convincing Ananias—Verses 10-16
o Ananias and Saul—Verses 17-19a
o Saul's Witness in Damascus—Verses 19b-25
o Saul's Witness in Jerusalem—Verses 26-30
o Peace Returns to the Land—Verse 31
Our Approach
We will begin this lesson by making some general observations concerning this account of Saul's conversion,1 "Luke evidently at-tached great importance to the story of Saul's conversion as the turning point not simply in the career of the man, but a period in the history of apostolic Christianity. . . It is impossible to over-estimate the worth to the student of Christianity of this event from every angle because we have in Paul’s Epistles his own em-phasis on the actual appearance of Jesus to him as the fact that changed his whole life (1 Cor. 15:8; Gal. 1:16f.).” 34, we will ex-amine the sequence of events leading up to Saul's conversion, the events surrounding his conversion, and the consequences of his con-version as depicted by Luke. We will next seek to learn how this de-scription of Saul's conversion fits into and contributes to the devel-opment of Luke's argument in Acts. We shall then identify the char-acteristics of Saul's conversion, typical of every conversion. We will also attempt to determine to what degree Saul's conversion was typ-ical and to what degree it was unique. Finally, we shall attempt to fo-cus on applying this passage to our own lives.