We must not forget that as we observe the life of the person they called Paul. We must also brace ourselves for some rather hideous surprises. The first pen portrait of Paul ( whom we first meet as Saul of Tarsus ) is both savage and bloody. If an artist were to render it with brush and oils, not one of us would want it hung framed in our living room. The person appears more like a terrorist than a devout fan of Judaism. Through our lives we’ve naturally adopted a Christianized mental picture of the apostle Paul.

Of course, he is the person who gave us both letters to the Corinthians.

He wrote Romans, the Magna Carta of the Christian life. He penned that liberating letter to the Galatians exhorting them and us to live in the liberty God’s grace provides. And he wrote the Jail Epistles and the Pastoral Letters so full of knowledge, so rich with significance. Primarily based on all that, you’d believe the man liked the Savior from birth. Surprising though it may appear, we mustn’t ever forget the pit from which he came.

The better we understand the darkness of his past, the more we’re going to understand his deep gratitude for grace.

The 1st portrait of Paul’s life painted in Holy Scripture isn’t of a little baby being lovingly cradled in his ma’s arms.

Neither does it outline a Jewish lad jumping and bounding with neighborhood pals thru the narrow streets of Tarsus. The first portrait isn’t even of a brilliant, young law student sitting faithfully at the feet of Gamaliel. Those photographs would only mislead us into believing he enjoyed a storybook past.