From the womb to the childhood in a “good Jewish home” to the training in Jerusalem by Gamaliel, to the appointment by the Jewish authorities eventually, to become a missionary to the Christian heretics. All ordained of God.

Then comes the Acts 9 account of his conversion. The blinding light. The confusion. The introduction. Christ is now revealed inside of Paul and called to preach to the Gentiles (1:16).

Luther can relate to the grace of God revealed to Paul, though Paul was a persecutor of Christ Himself. Luther:

“I crucified Christ daily in my cloistered life, and blasphemed God by my wrong faith. Outwardly I kept myself chaste, poor, and obedient. I was much given to fasting, watching, praying, saying of masses, and the like. Yet under the cloak of my outward respectability I continually mistrusted, doubted, feared, hated, and blasphemed God. My righteousness was a filthy puddle…

“I stood in awe of the Pope’s authority. To dissent from him I considered a crime worthy of eternal death. I thought of John Huss as a cursed heretic. I counted it a sin even to think of him. I would gladly have furnished the wood to burn him…”