How was SAUL Saved ?

Robert

Well-Known Member
Hi , and I am sure that most realize that Gal 3:28 was written some 30 years after Saul was saved and no one knew about Gal 3:28 , until Paul wrote about it , nor knew how anyone was inducted into the Body or even knew that there was a Body of Christ ,

And other important fact is the Paul is the only that uses the phrase " in Christ " and only Paul wrote about it , and Jesus nor the 12 used this phrase nor wrote about it , dan p

All Paul did was to confirm and expand upon what Jesus said:

Jesus:

"“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full."(John 15:1-11, NASB, emphasis mine)

Paul:

"But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either. Behold then the kindness and severity of God; to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; otherwise you also will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?" (Romans 11:17-24, NASB, emphasis mine)


Also, I happen to be in Galatians right now, which Paul wrote concerning those who came from Jerusalem to try to convince the believers in Galatia that they had to first be good Jews in order to be good Christians. The Lord used Paul's pen hand to smash that erroneous idea to bits:

"Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead), and all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen." (Galatians 1:1-5, NASB, emphasis mine)

Paul opens with the greeting that he is an authorized representative of the Lord, and able to speak on the matters in the letter with the authority of an apostle. And he wastes no time in doing so: he immediately reaffirms that Jesus Christ was indeed sent by God the Father to die for our sin on the Cross. Through Paul, the Lord affirms that indeed, the believers in Galatia do have peace with Him because of Jesus Christ and no other way.


The Lord (via Paul's pen hand) then cuts right down to the matter:

"I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! (Galatians 1:6-9, NASB, emphasis mine)

Paul speaks directly to the Galatians' wavering faith, and calls them on how so readily they believed what the Judaizers had told them. In comparison to what Paul had taught them, what the Jews who came from Jerusalem had spoken of was not "good news" at all, and served to free no one from anything!!! He tells them that the ones who had come did so specifically to confuse them and lead them astray, warping the true Gospel into something that it was not. So, to set the record straight, Paul tells them that if they hear anything that contradicts what has already been given to them, no matter WHO says it, they were not to believe it...

PERIOD.

Paul continues on:

"For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ. For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ." (Galatians 1:10-12, NASB, emphasis mine)


We learn here that Paul's motivation is not to make men happy, but to serve the Lord. As a point of fact, Paul makes it clear here that to serve men and to serve God are so diametrically opposed, that "never shall the twain meet", as so to speak! To that end, the Gospel that Paul is preaching is not of man's fashion, but is the very truth from God Almighty, and in preaching it, Paul is doing God's will and not man's.

That should serve to underscore an important point for us: when we serve the Lord, it will not be man's will and he will oppose it. Man's ways and God's ways are worlds' apart, and it is man's very rebellion against God's ways that resulted in sin entering the world.


Paul then related to the Galatians that at one time, he had been what he describes in Philippians 3:5 "a Hebrew of Hebrews":

"For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus." (Galatians 1:13-17, NASB, emphasis mine)

Paul at one time had been so zealous for the Jewish faith, that he had hunted and persecuted those that believed in Jesus Christ, thinking that he was doing God a service! But it was the God whom he thought he was serving, who was (and is!) Jesus Christ, whom called him not just out of Judaism, but to send Paul to spread the Gospel to the very Gentiles that at one time he would not even speak to!

Paul tells them of what happened to him after his conversion:

"Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days. But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. (Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.) Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ; but only, they kept hearing, “He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.” And they were glorifying God because of me." (Galatians 1:18-24, NASB, emphasis mine)

The "Cephas" mentioned here is Peter, the same Simon Peter whom the Lord asked to "feed my sheep"; Paul had stayed with him for roughly two weeks. Then, Paul promises to them, before God, that he is not lying to them. In this day and age, it has become commonplace to "swear to God" that one is not lying; but for Paul, to call the Lord as a witness was a gravely serious matter! He was essentially telling the Galatians that, with God Almighty as his witness, that he was telling them the truth. Paul was promising them that the One who had sent him was his "guarantor" and that he was indeed telling them the truth!

Paul then speaks of how the churches in Judea were giving God glory because one whom had sought to destroy them was now preaching and worshiping with them! Not only does this serve to illustrate that indeed Paul was called by the Lord, but also a reason why those in Jerusalem hated him: they felt Paul had betrayed them and was now their enemy. In this way, Paul is giving the Galatians what they didn't know about the Judaizers: they were doing this to get back at Paul, at the expense of the churches in Galatia.


In other words: Paul exposes their motives to the Galatians, which calls into question the validity of what they told them. Paul then relays even more of his past, and sets down for the Galatians that they were being lied to:

"Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also. It was because of a revelation that I went up; and I submitted to them the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation, for fear that I might be running, or had run, in vain." (Galatians 2:1-2, NASB, emphasis mine)

Paul tells us here that after 14 years, he came again to Jerusalem and submitted what he had been preaching to those who had been leading the church at that time. His reason for doing so was that he was concerned that he might not have been "running the race" as he should have been, or to say it another way, he wanted to make sure that the message he was preaching was the correct one and that he had not gone off in a direction he shouldn't have. This speaks to us as well; we should check what we are preaching with the Word as well as with those we trust are truthfully teaching the word. There are those who have walked where we are walking now, and the Lord sets them to minister to those who are now where they once were.

Sometimes, a good brother or sister in Christ can see where we might go off the road and tell us before it happens. And this is what Paul is doing for the Galatians:

"But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage. But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. But from those who were of high reputation (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me. But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised (for He who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me also to the Gentiles), and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we might go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised. They only asked us to remember the poor—the very thing I also was eager to do." (Galatians 2:3-10, NASB, emphasis mine)

Paul reveals here that there were those who were trying to get his partner Barnabas (who was a Gentile) to become circumcised, but they didn't back down for an instant! The apostles in Jerusalem recognized that the Lord had indeed called Paul and had given him the gospel to preach to the Gentiles, and the gave their blessing to him to continue on. This reinforced Paul, confirming that he was indeed "on track" and serves as a powerful proof to the Galatians; since the disciples who walked with the Lord and had been at Pentecost had recognized what Paul was doing as genuine and authenticated in the Lord, that Paul's word to the Galatians was authentic and was the final word. The legalists who had come from Jerusalem had NO SUCH authority!


But Paul then had to confront Peter (Cephas) when he came to Antioch, because Peter was sending a "mixed message":

"But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision. The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?" (Galatians 2:11-14, NASB, emphasis mine)

Even though Peter had been with the Lord in His time on Earth and walked with Him, Peter had done something that was essentially saying that the rules of Judaism still held sway and authority; so much so that Barnabas was even buying into it! Paul had to call Peter on it and say: "Look, if you're a Jew and not living like them, why are you trying to get believers who aren't to live like them??!!"

In other words: if Peter wasn't practicing Judaism as a Christian, why should Gentile believers have to?

Paul then explains in more detail:

“We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles; nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified." (Galatians 2:15-16, NASB, emphasis mine)

Paul tells us here that we are not justified by works but faith in Jesus Christ; works alone will not save, period. This doesn't mean we can just sit around and do nothing, but acts and trying to follow the Law on our own strength will not save us. This sets the stage for the point Paul is making:

"But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.” (Galatians 2:17-21, NASB, emphasis mine)

What Paul is saying here is that in Christ, he (and us) are set free from the Law; we are no longer under the Old Testament or the covenant that pertained within. Since that is true, neither Jewish believers nor Gentile believers in Christ are required to submit to the massive amounts of oral traditions that pertained to the Levitical standards.

Christ's sacrifice supersedes all those requirements, as He has fulfilled them all.

On that note: as Paul wrote in the book of Romans, we are also not bound in a whole tirade of traditions or requirements imposed on us by legalists nowadays either. People can be well-meaning in their attempts to make rules to "keep order", but legalism can become so stifling and binding that it can choke the life out of everything! No, this doesn't mean that we can run around and do as we please, but in walking with the Lord, we are free to serve Him according to our gifts that He gives us, without fear of condemnation for who we are, what job we do, our background, or any other "criteria".

If we are walking in the spirit, then we are following the law of God; that law is" to love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and the second is like unto it: to love your neighbor as yourself".


In short: there is only one way to the Lord, and it is not one way for Gentiles and another for Jews. You do not first have to be a "good jew" to be a good christian, and frankly, to claim that Paul was saved by any other way but by faith in Jesus Christ goes against scripture. Jesus said "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:6, NASB, emphasis mine), and Paul said:"For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time." (1 Timothy 2:5, NASB, emphasis mine)

That doesn't sound to me like Paul was saved differently.
 
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