Resurrection Evidence: It's Effect on Saul of Tarsus

There was one more Post-Resurrection appearance of Jesus Christ of which we are given testimony, and its source bears stark witness to its ultimate reality. Those who have been friends, relatives and followers of Christ could well be expected to affirm that He rose from the dead. But Saul of Tarsus was not one of these… in fact, just the opposite. The birth of this new sect, called “The Way” at that time, filled him with hatred and anger. He wanted nothing more than to destroy the followers of what he thought to be yet another false Messiah and set about to do exactly that. Who was Saul?

Saul was a student of the great teacher, Gamaliel. He was the son of a Jewish father and Greek mother. His father had served on the Sanhedrin and was greatly respected in Jerusalem religious circles. Saul was educated both in the finest Greek academies and in the Hebrew School in Jerusalem. Gareth Reese, in his commentary on the Book of Acts, points out that Gamaliel was known as “the great light of Jewish thought in Jerusalem” and that there is every indication that Saul was intended to be his successor. He was advanced in the religion of the Jews above his contemporaries and was a member of the Sanhedrin, although not yet 39 years old.

We first meet Saul at the execution of Stephen. Luke says that “When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.” This doesn’t mean that Saul just held their coats. It is an expression that means that he was taking responsibility for their actions. If trouble arose with the Romans over this Saul would smooth things out. This was the beginning of Saul’s persecution of the Church.

Some time after that Saul decided to pursue the followers of Jesus to the city of Damascus and bring them back to Jerusalem to be tried by the Sanhedrin. It was on this journey that his life was forever changed. Luke relates the story in Acts 9:3-5: “As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? And he said, Who are You, Lord? And He said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting...”

The very claim that those of “The Way” made and that Saul so greatly despised now came home to him in stark reality. Jesus, Who they had beaten, mocked and crucified had truly risen from the dead. The reality of the Resurrection immediately and forever changed this enemy of Christ, this persecutor of the church, this legalistic Law keeper into a preacher of the gospel of salvation by grace through faith in the risen Savior. It changed Saul of Tarsus, avenger of the Sanhedrin, into the apostle Paul… the man who would carry the faith he once so hated to every corner of the known world and author 2/3 of what we know as the New Testament.

If the Resurrection were a farce, a hoax based on mistakes, hysteria or illusion why would such a man convert to it and preach its message? He had nothing to gain by it and everything to lose. It cost him his position on the Sanhedrin, his friends and mentors, most likely some (if not all) of his family and eventually his life. Would a man of the education, training and intellect of Saul be taken in by chicanery and deception?

It is very unreasonable to suppose so. Rather it is far more reasonable to admit that, confronted with the risen Savior and with the light of God thrown on the vast knowledge that he possessed of the Old Testament Scriptures Christ had fulfilled he had no choice but to bow to the weight of evidence and call Jesus “Lord”. But others have been confronted with the same evidence and have sought to make excuses to deny the testimony of the eye witnesses and the witness of Paul. In the next parts we will consider some of these theories.