Acts 9:1-23

Acts 9:1

Early History and Conversion of Paul.

Viewed as a public event in the history of the Christian Church, the conversion of Paul furnishes new and independent testimony to the Divine origin of the gospel. The story is perfectly authenticated. Twice did the Apostle repeat it in detail before public assemblies; and the book in which we find it recorded was written less than thirty years after the events were said to have occurred. We learn from the incident:

I. The wisdom of God's providence. Saul, as he himself tells us, was separated from his birth for the work of Apostleship; but though he was advancing towards middle age before he was actually converted, yet all his intervening history was in reality a preparation for the true labour of his life. His birth and boyhood in a Greek city gave him familiarity with that language which he was to use in all his journeyings. His intimate acquaintance with the system of the Pharisees, acquired in the school of Gamaliel, enabled him to cope with those Judaizing adversaries with whom he had everywhere to contend. A "Hebrew of the Hebrews, yet at the same time a native Hellenist and a Roman citizen," he combined in himself, as Dr. Schaff has said, "the three great nationalities of the ancient world, and was endowed with all the natural qualifications for a universal apostleship."

II. We see here all the riches of the Redeemer's grace. Had the Christians then in Jerusalem been asked to name the man who was least likely to become a convert to the faith, they might possibly have specified Saul of Tarsus. Yet observe how thoroughly he is changed, and how the transformation was effected by the might of gentleness. Nothing is more remarkable in the whole narrative than the tenderness of the remonstrance which our Lord addressed to the persecutor. He came in love, He spoke in gentleness, and the heart which might have been hardened by condemnation was melted by mercy.

W. M. Taylor, Paul the Missionary,p. 27.

References: Acts 9:2. Homiletic Magazine,vol. viii., p. 340; Ibid.,vol. xix., p. 117. Acts 9:3; Acts 9:4. Preacher's Monthly,vol. iii., p. 46. Acts 9:3. B. F. Westcott, The Revelation of the Risen Lord,p. 191.Acts 9:4. G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines,p. 309; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. iii., p. 169.