Paul: A Man of Grace and Grit (Great Lives from God's Word)

by Charles R. Swindoll

the truth comes out: Ministries fold, marriages crumble, children wander from the Lord unattended, and our character weakens to the point of blowout. Those painful experiences demonstrate that the dangers are real. We’re not nearly as resourceful as we think.

In less than a week, God transformed Saul from a vicious, Christian-hating murderer into a passionate preacher. Not until then do we begin to see the Christ-born virtues that made this man truly great.

His ongoing process of preparing Saul was time away, all alone, to think through the implications of his newfound faith, to begin to know his Savior much more intimately, to come to terms with what it meant to be a messenger of grace.

Galatians chapter one, Paul writes of that experi...

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.

But when He 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, 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.

Saul’s emphasis changes from what he had been doing to what God had done.

Paul deliberately mentions two things he did not do.

First,

didn’t immediately consult with flesh and blood, that is other people. He didn’t go searching around Damascus, seeking others...

Se...

didn’t rush to Jerusalem to present himself to the apostles—the very men who had walked with ...

Paul did not derive his understanding of the Christian message from any who were Christians before him. Specifically, he did not learn from, nor was he commissioned by, those who had been apostles before him.

It is of primary importance for Paul that he had been directly commissioned by Jesus.3

If he didn’t consult with other Christians or their leaders in Jerusalem, where did he gain all his insight into the nature of God’s call, the reality of the Gospel, and his direct commission from Christ?

convinced he received all that and much more during his period of solitude, silence, and obscurity when he “went ...

Though we are hard-pressed to identify the precise location of Saul’s Arabian retreat,

But, make no mistake, it was a barren wilderness. For the most part, it was deserted, except for a few Bedouins.

Far more important is the why of Arabia.

Whenever the Bible remains silent on a subject, scholars and theologians love to fill in the holes with theories.

various suggestions abound.

Early church fathers believed Saul traveled there...

One scholar proposes that Saul fled to Arabia to protect himself from the Jewish leaders who, having heard of his newfound faith, wanted to nip it in the bud.

Someone else suggested that he needed the same amount of time (three years) that the disciples enjoyed while traveling with and learning from the Lord Jesus.

Truth is, we don’t know.

only thing Paul reveals is, “three years later I went up to Jerusalem to

become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fift...

For three years, Saul lived somewhere in the desert, cut-off from his former manner of life—in solitu...

I’m convinced it was there, in that barren place of obscurity, that Paul developed his theology. He met God, intimately and deeply. Silently and alone, he plumbed the unfathomable mysteries of sovereignty, election, depravity, the deity of Christ, the miraculous power of the Resurrection, the Church, and future things.

More than that, it’s where Paul tossed aside his polished trophies and traded his resumé of religious credentials for a vibrant relationship with the risen Christ. Everything changed.

It was there, no doubt, he concluded “whatever things were gain to me, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3: 7–8).

Let’s revisit the necessity of cultivating the hidden life—of putting into place those disciplines of solitude, silence, and obscurity, which became for Saul the key to his monumental effectiveness.

He went into Arabia for quiet and solitude. He seems to have stayed there for three years. In this period of withdrawal, as he meditated on the Old Testament Scriptures, on the facts of the life and the death of Jesus that he already knew and on his experience of conversion, the gospel of the grace of God was revealed to him in its fullness. Now he had Jesus to himself, as it were, for three years of solitude in the wilderness.6 —John R. W. Stott

Grain by grain his profound self-reliance and impetuosity were worn away. No longer confident in himself, he was henceforth more than content to be the slave of Jesus Christ. We all need to go to Arabia to learn lessons like these.7

I believe we can grow deep during protracted times we deliberately set aside for quietness, soul searching, confession, and meditation. Personally, I long for more of that in my own life. Such times are essential for our spiritual depth and emotional survival.

Try to imagine! In that interlude, while his public ministry was put on hold, he gained the immeasurable benefits of what Raymond Edman calls “the discipline of delay.”

Then came the discipline of delay in the desert of Arabia, where he learned by revelation of God, not by precept of man, the glorious gospel of the grace of God. From Arabia he could go to Antioch and its world-wide missionary program, to Athens and its proud Areopagus, to Achaia and its wicked Corinth, to the arena of Ephesus, and if necessary, Rome. The delay that instructs and prepares saves time, never loses it. From it one can walk with a step of assurance and a heart of flame.8

In that period of delay he learned about the real Saul—the Saul God had uniquely called and chosen for a ministry of grace to the world. It was also there he saw the darker side of himself—the ugliness of his depravity.

against that bleak backdrop shined the greatness of God’s mercy and love. Arabia became a temple where he worshiped the Lord in a way he had never experienced in his life. Solitude helped. The scales of spiritual blindness fell from his heart as he gained a fresh glimpse into the marvelous mystery of God’s plan. As the desert winds howled across rocky gorges, God revealed Himself to His servant. As the stars l...

PRESCRIPTION FOR GROWING DEEP

believe part of the solution is to pursue the benefits of solitude and silence found in times of obscurity.

Resist that temptation to crowd out the Lord. What a perfect opportunity to carve out time to be alone, just you, the family, and the Lord. Computer off. Fax unplugged. Cell phone tossed in the ocean.

Radical change is essential if we’re going to become deeper, more effective servants. Let me get even more specific.

like to suggest three strategies

that will help you make some of those radical, but esse...

First, instead of speeding up, slow dow...

Taking time to discover what really matters is essential if we’re going to lift the curse of superficiality that shadows our lives.

But time spent in solitude prepares us for the inevitable challenges that come at us from the splintered age in which we live.

Second, instead of talking more, be quiet and reflect.

Silence is rarely tolerated in our culture.