passionate for the gospel

Now when Paul perceived that one part were Sadducees and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. It is with respect to the hope and the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”

Acts 23:6

Paul was transformed by the gospel. And that was a problem for the Jews. He had been a fierce opponent of Christianity when he first heard about Jesus. He had been meticulously educated to defend the Jewish Law in the highest school of Judaism in his day (Acts 22:3). He was zealous to keep the Law and agreed to persecute Christians to wipe out what was seen as a heresy (Acts 22:4-5).Until Jesus Himself confronted him on the road to Damascus and in that encounter turned him from passionate resister to passionate proclaimer of the gospel (Acts 22:6-16).

Paul was then dedicated to proclaiming the gospel despite his notorious past of persecution. He became God’s chosen apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 22:21).

And as the events played out in Jerusalem here in Acts 23, the Jews have had quite enough of his gospel-preaching commitment to bring Jesus’ Way to the Gentiles. Paul is still very passionate for the gospel. In fact, he shrewdly appeals to the gospel’s biggest offense to Judaism: The resurrection of Jesus from the dead as the hope of resurrection for all believers. And that appeal blasts his accusers into disarray so divisively that a Roman guard has to whisk Paul away from Jewish religious authority, putting his fate from that moment on in the hands of the very Gentiles Jesus had called him to reach. The gospel in that sense saved Paul again… quite literally.

Lord,

When I read of this kind of courage in Paul with the gospel I am humbled. I pray that a passion for the gospel would indeed rest in my soul. I pray I will live for its advance and rest in gospel hope.

Amen