THE PLAYWRIGHT AND THE PLAYERS | PART 4

By Jill Roberts and Michael Canalé

 

Last week, Michael and I were talking about this blog, when he said something so profound. Speaking of Paul, he said,

 

“If there hadn’t been a Saul, there could never have been a Paul.”

 

I have given this statement a considerable amount of thought and, having done so, I can see that it and all of its ramifications, should and will be the subject of this week’s blog.

 

Years ago, when I was a table leader at Mariners Church Bible Study, I taught a lesson which does much to illuminate our subject today. It involved the following quote from a blog by Dennis Bloodworth:

 

“Two men stand staring in front of a painting in an art gallery. In the painting, a man is playing chess with the devil. The devil is grinning ear-to-ear because he has the man cornered. The title of the painting, “Checkmate,” indicates that the game is over. The devil has won. This opponent has failed. He has no more moves.

 

The first man looking at the painting wants to move on to view other paintings in the gallery. But, the second man, an international chess champion, wants to look at the painting longer, so he waves his friend on and tells him he will catch up later. The chess champion stares and stares at the chessboard. Then, suddenly, he steps back, flabbergasted. ‘It’s wrong!’ he exclaims! ‘There’s one more move.’ He runs to his friend and together they look at the painting. ‘We have to contact the painter, the chess champion says. ‘It’s not checkmate. The King has one more move!’

 

Throughout the Bible, this game has been played: The Israelites found momentary freedom only to face the formidable Red Sea with Pharaoh and his armies in hot pursuit. The King has one more move. Daniel was lowered into a den of hungry lions for defying a tyrant and standing up for his faith. The King has one more move. A nine-foot tall fighting champion named Goliath, called for a winner-take-all , one-on-one fight to settle the war. A little shepherd boy took him on. The King has one more move! Jesus was tortured, crucified and buried for three days. But the King has one more move!”

 

To turn back to Saul/Paul – as we know, Saul was the formidable, raging, murderous persecutor-in-chief of Christianity, his path in life a foregone conclusion, his eternal soul’s destination a fait accompli. Checkmate, game over, the devil had won. But, to the utter amazement of the Church, the Disciples and, perhaps, most of all, to Paul, himself, THE KING HAD ONE MORE MOVE! That move took place on the road to Damascus, when God, in the person of Jesus, changed the script for the play – not only for Saul’s life but for the life and future of Christianity itself. It looked like Saul was headed in one direction, but Jesus moved the euphemistic chess pieces of the game in which Saul was living, in a move that altered history.

 

Having established this, why, as Michael said, could there not have been a Paul, an apostle of apostles, without Saul? What was it about Saul that caused Jesus, the King of Kings, to make that one more move down the spiritual chessboard? The answer is multifaceted.

 

First, in a piece of great irony, it was absolutely necessary, in the mind of Jesus, to use a Jew to bring Christianity to the Gentiles. Saul was, of course, a Jew. Wait a minute, one might say, weren’t there many Jews who could have met this qualifying factor? The answer is, “No.” Saul was quite unique in his Jewishness. Writing to the Church in Philippi, Paul laid out his religious curriculum vitae. He says that he was,

 

“…circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a HEBREW OF HEBREWS, (emphasis added), in regard to the law, a Pharisee…as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.”

(Philippians 3:5-6) NIV

 

This was only the beginning:

 

“I am verily a man, which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city, ( Jerusalem), at the feet of GAMALIEL, (emphasis added), and taught according to the perfect manner of the fathers, and was zealous toward God…”

(Acts 22:3) KJV

 

Now the field of prospective apostles for Jesus narrows. Saul was a student of Gamaliel, arguably “the most honored rabbi of the first century. He was well known and respected as an expert on religious law and possessed a VOICE FOR MODERATION with regard to Christians. (emphasis added), (From a footnote in the KJV of the Life Application Bible)

 

Saul studied under Gamaliel who, when a mob wanted to put some of the original apostles to death, addressed the ruling body of the Jews:

 

“And a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin…

‘Men of Israel, consider carefully what you want to do to these men…I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But, if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

(Acts 5:34-35, 38-39) NIV

 

Saul’s primary spiritual influence, Gamaliel, who was a man with unimpeachable credentials in Saul’s mind, was a Christian defender!” How extraordinary! He had defended the very elite group of apostles with whom Saul was destined to join ranks! We believe that the most reasonable inference to draw is that this speech to the Sanhedrin, planted a seed in Saul, this “Hebrew of Hebrews.” This seed sprouted and immediately blossomed on the road to Damascus and, in time, throughout the known world as Paul also became a “Christian of Christians.”

 

What other factors also support Michael’s original thesis that, “ If there hadn’t been a Saul, there could never have been a Paul?” Once again, what prompted King Jesus making that “one more move,” down the theological chessboard, in bringing about Saul’s divine appointment on the road to Damascus? Because of Saul’s background, this was an individual who was well-versed in defending his spiritual beliefs and was now destined to be extraordinarily effective for Jesus in his new primary calling to the Gentiles but also in reaching the Jews:

 

“For though I be free from all men, yet I have made myself servant to all, that I may gain the more.

And unto the Jews, I became as a Jew, that I may gain the Jews…to them that are without law…(being not without law to God but under the law to Christ), that I might gain them that are without law.

To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak. I am all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”

(1 Corinthians 9:20-22) KJV

 

In the big picture of his ministry, it was essential for Paul to have once been Saul. Now commissioned by Jesus, his life experience had taught him how to be all things to all people. As Saul, he understood sin and weakness when, in retrospect, he, Paul, reflected on his egregious sins against Christianity – trespasses which caused him to characterize himself as the world’s chief sinner. God used this for him to relate and preach to others who had missed the mark in their own lives.

 

Furthermore, Paul had to have been Saul to arrive at the state of humility that he felt. In Jesus’ employ, he had a day job as a tent maker, something which also kept him from burdening the various churches he had planted and nourished. He accepted no compensation as a salary. In short, Paul “counted the cost,” (Luke 14:28), NIV, and anted up his life.

 

Finally, as a classically educated Saul, Paul was, as Michael says, “longingly waiting for the Messiah.” A student of Torah, he emphasized the prediction of the coming of the Messiah with a fervor that no Gentile of that time could have mustered. This is evidenced throughout Paul’s epistles. Because the word, “Christ,” is a title and synonymous with the word, “Messiah,” Scripture is replete with instances of Paul referring to Jesus as Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1, 2, 11, 33, 38). As Saul, he believed in the Messiah; he just didn’t know that Jesus was he until he appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus. Once he understood this, based on his knowledge and great anticipation of the Messiah, there was nothing to do but devote the rest of his waking moments to this promised Savior. He would preach of him across the world and, in the end, he would be martyred for him.

 

How apt to turn to the following Biblical passage which reflects Paul’s faithfulness to his Gospel calling. Once, so necessarily Saul and now so strongly Paul, he writes:

 

“For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith.”

(2 Timothy 4:6-7) NIV

 

In his novel, Look Homeward Angel, Thomas Wolfe wrote that,

 

“We are the sum of all the moments of our lives – all that is ours is in them…”

 

Thus, Saul was a season without which there would not have been a Paul. In saying this, Michael is speaking of this one remarkable life and of the human condition in general. God uses every aspect of who a person has been, in encouraging who they are today and in producing who He alone can make them tomorrow and on into eternity.

 

In all circumstances, the King always has one more move and it is always toward the same end. Michael summed it up so well:

 

“God is always cradling you, protecting you, moving you out of harm’s way.”

 

What peace we have, knowing this is our destiny, as He takes us where He is, on mission for this King of Kings, the Master of the Universe.

 

POSTSCRIPT

Next week’s blog will actually close out our study of the Apostle Paul. It will focus on 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13, the Love Chapter and what Michael and I believe was Paul’s finest hour. With the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, this promises to be a blog of great importance to each and everyone of us.