Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself
for me.
Apostle Paul was one of the few who had a full-on vision of Jesus after the resurrection and the experience left him blind for 3 days on the road to Damascus. He was an Apostle but not one of the big 12; however, fourteen of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament are attributed to Paul.
It was God’s plan for him to be well-educated, and he was sent to a fine school in Jerusalem. He harmed early believers. He confessed that "beyond measure" he persecuted the church of God prior to his conversion.
God edified redemption in his choice of this cruel man to have the privilege of seeing Christ in such a way that he knew beyond doubt it was the son of God. Thanks to his education, he became God’s instrument for creating compelling letters that stabilized the fragmented body of the early church. He wrote outrageous things like, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”
Imagine that it was your task to encourage and grow the scattered early churches in the first century that followed the death of Jesus. We call him Saint Paul now, but who better to understand what could tear the believers apart than someone with a long history of doing just that?
Paul lived in an awful age when people were swift to shed blood. Individuals were recognized by ancestry (Paul was tribe of Benjamin) and they were treated either horribly or gently depending on which tribe was in power at any given moment. He was both a Jew and a Roman citizen, and he started churches all over Asia Minor and Europe.
At the time of writing to the Galatians, they were turning away “so soon removed to another gospel.” Paul’s letters were a revival, and he instructed them specifically not to discriminate, “for the same Lord is over all.” Paul is beloved for insisting that salvation is available to “whosoever believeth,” a concept that was not lost on Martin Luther.
Paul lived long ago, but his writings are still relevant. In this first century of the 3rd millennium, people are still swift to shed blood. We read daily of failed asylum seekers and war refugees and hundreds of thousands of economic refugees in a fragmented world. It is no less urgent that we embrace God’s redemption as the road to peace.
Christ liveth in me,
Vickie Schreffler
Apostle Paul was one of the few who had a full-on vision of Jesus after the resurrection and the experience left him blind for 3 days on the road to Damascus. He was an Apostle but not one of the big 12; however, fourteen of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament are attributed to Paul.
It was God’s plan for him to be well-educated, and he was sent to a fine school in Jerusalem. He harmed early believers. He confessed that "beyond measure" he persecuted the church of God prior to his conversion.
God edified redemption in his choice of this cruel man to have the privilege of seeing Christ in such a way that he knew beyond doubt it was the son of God. Thanks to his education, he became God’s instrument for creating compelling letters that stabilized the fragmented body of the early church. He wrote outrageous things like, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.”
Imagine that it was your task to encourage and grow the scattered early churches in the first century that followed the death of Jesus. We call him Saint Paul now, but who better to understand what could tear the believers apart than someone with a long history of doing just that?
Paul lived in an awful age when people were swift to shed blood. Individuals were recognized by ancestry (Paul was tribe of Benjamin) and they were treated either horribly or gently depending on which tribe was in power at any given moment. He was both a Jew and a Roman citizen, and he started churches all over Asia Minor and Europe.
At the time of writing to the Galatians, they were turning away “so soon removed to another gospel.” Paul’s letters were a revival, and he instructed them specifically not to discriminate, “for the same Lord is over all.” Paul is beloved for insisting that salvation is available to “whosoever believeth,” a concept that was not lost on Martin Luther.
Paul lived long ago, but his writings are still relevant. In this first century of the 3rd millennium, people are still swift to shed blood. We read daily of failed asylum seekers and war refugees and hundreds of thousands of economic refugees in a fragmented world. It is no less urgent that we embrace God’s redemption as the road to peace.
Christ liveth in me,
Vickie Schreffler
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