JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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In fact, so zealous was Paul in hunting down this new religious movement called "The
Way," that he took sadistic delight in seeing her first martyr Stephen stoned to death (Ac 7:54-
8:1). He was probably involved in other similar cases as well (22:4; 26:10).
Paul was a unique witness to the risen Christ in that he was not among the 500 other
believers who had seen Him resurrected. Rather, he was "last of all" (1 Co 15:8) allowed to see
the risen Christ. The Lord's appearance to Paul was not only postresurrection but postascension.
It was not during the forty days in which Jesus appeared to all the others, but several years later
that Paul saw the risen Christ. All the others to whom Jesus appeared, except possibly James,
were believers, whereas Paul (then known as Saul) was a violent, hateful unbelievers when the
Lord manifested Himself to him on the Damascus road. In addition to this encounter, Paul also
experienced Jesus' appearances elsewhere (Ac 18:9-10; 23:11; 2 Co 12:1-7).
What turned this zealous firebrand around? Paul gave the reason repeatedly:
encountering the risen Christ (9:1-19; 22:3-21; 26:1-18; 1 Co 15:8-9; Gal 1:13-16; 1 Ti 1:15-
16). It was this same Paul who wrote the most extensive treatise on the resurrection:
1 Corinthians 15. Only the resurrection of Jesus, says Paul, can adequately explain his own
sudden change from zealously persecuting Christianity to vigorously promoting it with his very
life (Ro 8:36).
Paul never got over God's grace in revealing Himself to him. He never ceased to be
amazed that Christ would have called him to apostleship. He not only considered himself to be
"the least of the apostles" (1 Co 15:9), but not even "fit to be called an apostle, because [he]
persecuted the church of God" (v. 9).
Paul's memory of having persecuted the Christian church was a powerful motivation for
his being determined that God's grace would not prove vain in his life (1 Ti 1:12-17; 2 Co 11:23-
12:12).
It was the resurrected Christ who changed Paul from being the greatest persecutor of the
church to being her most dynamic defender. As zealously as he had once opposed the Christian
movement, he now served it.
George Ladd said of the historical significance of the change in the apostles:
"The historian must also admit that historical criticism has not yet found an
adequate historical explanation for these facts; that for the historian the transfor-
mation in the disciples is an unsolved problem. He must also admit that the view
that Jesus actually rose from the dead would explain all the facts."28