Why Paul? 

In the seventh chapter of the book of Acts, the persecution of the 
fledgling Christian church had reached a climax with the stoning to 
death of Stephen. At the end of that chapter, and the beginning of 
chapter eight, we see a new figure arise on the scene, Saul, who “was 
consenting unto his (Stephen’s) death” (verse 1), and had apparently 
taken the lead in the persecution of the church. In chapter nine, while on 
the way with orders to arrest some of these Christians in Damascus, Saul 
has his famous meeting with the Lord: 

“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there 
shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the 
earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why 
persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the 
Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to 
kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, 
what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, 
and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And 
the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, 
but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his 
eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and 
brought him into Damascus.” (Acts 9:3-8 ) (KJV) 

Saul is taken into Damascus to the house of a man named Ananias, 
regains his sight, is told that he will bear the Lord’s name “before the 
Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel…and straightway he 
preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God” (verse 
20). This confounded the Jews there in Damascus, and they sought to 
kill him. Some of the disciples helped him to escape to Jerusalem where 
he is shunned by all but a disciple named Barnabas, who gets him 
accepted by the leadership (Peter, James and John - see Gal. 2:9). He 
continues his preaching there, fomenting another assassination plot 
against him, and flees to Caesarea and then Tarsus (verses 23-30). At 
this point he disappears and Peter, who had dominated the first 7 


chapters of the Acts, appears back on the Scene, and Saul disappears. In 
chapter 11 he reappears with Barnabas in Antioch where they spend the 
next year teaching among the brethren there. In chapter 13 he and 
Barnabas are separated by the Holy Ghost from the other disciples, “for 
the work whereunto I have called them, and his name is changed from 
Saul to Paul. From this point on he dominates the rest of the Acts (we 
only hear from Peter, who had been the prominent figure through the 
first twelve chapters, one other time in chapter 15). 

The question must arise in the inquiring mind: “why has this fellow, Saul 
(Paul), suddenly taken such a prominent role in things during this 
tumultuous period of time for the early church?” Since he was never in 
the scheme of things from the beginning, and it was Peter who was 
given the “keys of the kingdom” (Matt. 16:19), where does he fit into 
all this? Traditional Christian theology offers at least a couple of stock 
answers to these questions : 1. He was the true replacement for the 
betrayer, Judas, or the “true” 12th apostle; 2. He was the apostle who 
would take the gospel (the same message being preached by the 12) to 
the Gentiles, or the “13th” apostle. While there is no scriptural truth 
whatsoever in the first assertion,[1] there is in the idea of him being sent 
to the Gentiles; chapter nine, verse 15 makes this clear. This stance goes 
astray, however, by presupposing that Paul would be taking the same 
gospel message to the Gentiles that Peter and the other disciples in the 
Jerusalem church were preaching to Israel. This is based on the fact that 
he started out preaching what he later referred to as “the gospel of God 
(Romans 1:1-4): that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living 
God” (Acts 9:20-22; Matt. 16:16). Apparently, it is assumed that, 
because he preached this, he also preached repentance and baptism for 
salvation (Acts 2:38), even though there is no written record that he did. 
In Acts 13 it is made evident that the apostle did, indeed, preach 
something quiet different from the Acts 2 message. 

The Acts 13 Separation, And The Gospel Of Christ 

We find in Paul’s letter to the Galatians, the explanation for the apostle’s 
absence between Acts 9 and 11 (1:17,18). In chapter one of this letter 


Paul clearly establishes that during this absence he received a gospel that 
was “not after man…but by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:11,12), 
i.e., he was not taught it by the other apostles.[2] In the Acts we see this 
message emerge in chapter 13, when he and Barnabas get separated out 
from the other disciples by the Holy Ghost, “…for the work whereunto 
I have called them.” (verse 2). That work would be the preaching of 
the “gospel of Christ” (Romans 1:16), which is revealed in the sermon 
Paul preaches in Antioch: 

“But he (Jesus) whom God raised again (from the dead), saw no 
corruption. Be it known to you therefore, men and brethren, that 
through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and 
by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye 
could not be justified by the law of Moses.” (Acts 13: 37-39). 

Contrast this with what Peter preached at Jerusalem on the day of 
Pentecost: 

“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath 
made that same Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ. 
Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts, and 
said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what 
shall we do (to rectify this situation)? Then Peter said unto them, 
Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, 
for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy 
Ghost. (Acts 2: 36-38) 

First of all, Peter charges Israel with the crime of crucifying Jesus 
Christ, their Messiah. Paul charges those Jews and Gentiles he’s 
preaching to in Antioch with no such crime. Second, Peter’s remedy for 
this specific crime is to repent and get baptized (with/in water). This 
means, “admit you did it, and repent (show Godly sorrow for what you 
did); then, to seal the deal, get baptized.” (Notice that this is the very 
same prescription John the Baptist preached to Israel in Matthew 3 and 
Mark 1. ) For those who did this the payoff is the gift of the Holy Ghost, 
which empowers them to produce the signs that “shall follow them that 


believe” (Mark 16:17), and to “endure unto the end to be 
saved” (Matt. 10:22 ). Since Paul charges no one with a crime, he 
therefore calls for no one to repent (or to be baptized - see 1 Cor. 1:17), 
but rather establishes the fact that their sins are forgiven, and, 
furthermore, anyone who is willing to believe this will be “justified from 
all things.” Whereas Peter is speaking of a temporary remission, which 
will only be in force so long as the believer continues (endures) in faith 
(Acts 2:42-46), Paul is offering his hearers a permanent pardon with no 
strings attached. He confirms this in Romans 3,4 and 5: 

“Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them 
who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all 
the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of 
the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is 
the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the 
law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; 
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto 
all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference, for all 
have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. (3:19-23) 

“To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of 
debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that 
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” (4:4,5) 

“Therefore, being justified by faith we have peace with God through 
our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into 
this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of 
God.” (5:1,2) 

…and later on in the letter to the Ephesians: 

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: 
it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. (2:8,9) 


The clear and consistent theme in all these passages is that salvation and 
justification cannot be obtained by works (the deeds of the law), but only 
by ceasing from such, and simply believing something, which is: 

“…how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; and 
that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to 
the scriptures….for our justification.” (1 Corinthians 15:3,4; 
Romans 4:25) 

All this together makes up what the Apostle referred to twelve times in 
his letters as, “The gospel of Christ.” It is never referred to as such 
anywhere else in the New Testament, including the four “gospels,” 
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. There is a perfectly sound explanation 
for this: it could not have been revealed before Paul revealed it because 
he said it was a “mystery:” 

The “Mystery” 

“Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, 

[3] and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of 
the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is 
made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to 
the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all 
nations for the obedience of faith.” (Romans 16:25, 26) 
If, as it clearly says in this passage, this gospel was kept a secret until 
revealed by Paul, it could not have been revealed by the Lord in his 
earthly ministry, or by the twelve apostles in the first part of the Acts. If 
it was revealed in those parts of scripture, then Paul is a liar and his 
letters need to be expunged from the cannon of scripture. This would be 
the honest thing to do, rather than what the traditional religious teaching 
does in its attempt to “blend” Paul’s revelation in with the New 
Testament/Covenant/Kingdom message given to the 12. The fact is, 
Paul’s revelation isn’t part of the New Testament, nor does it establish a 

N.T. church: It reveals and establishes a new dispensation wherein a 
“new man” is being formed. 

The Dispensation of Grace 

“For this cause, I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, 
if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which is 
given me to you-ward: how that by revelation he made known unto 
me the mystery….that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the 
same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel… 

(Ephesians 3:1-3;6) 

The Gentiles are to be made fellowheirs, and partakers of his promise in 
Christ. This is not the case in the New Covenant, where the Gentile 
Nations will not be fellowheirs, but servants of Israel (see Isaiah 
60,61,62; Jeremiah 31). Whereas the New Covenant promises an earthly 
inheritance, the promises of the dispensation of grace are strictly 
heavenly (Ephesians 1:3; 2:8). Those who are to be partakers of this 
heavenly calling are individuals who have trusted in the word of truth 
(the gospel of Christ), and are thereby placed, through a spiritual 
baptism into a “.. new man… which is his (Christ‘s) body” (1 
Corinthians 12:13; Eph. 1:23; 2:15). The only way this new man could 
be instituted was to abolish any and all religious observances: 

“But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made 
nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made 
both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition 
between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of 
commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of 
twain one new man so making peace…” (Eph. 2:13-15) 

Contrary to what the Christian establishment teaches, Paul was not 
raised up to take the gospel of the kingdom to the Gentiles, nor to 
establish a new religion with a litany of new religious practices, but, 
according to what it says in the above passage, to abolish religious 
observance altogether, and to usher in a new dispensation with a new 
message: Christ died for our sins…was buried….and raised again 


the third day…for our justification. Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ and thou shalt be saved….sealed, and bound for glory in 
heaven. The “our” in these verses is you, my friend. No matter who 
you are, where you are, what you’ve done or failed to do; you can be 
saved eternally by simply trusting Christ and what he did on your behalf 
at Calvary. If you’ve never done this, why not now? 

Mike Schroeder 

Questions and comments may be addressed to: The “Amazing Grace 
Bible Study Fellowship,” 1220 Airline, Suite 130D, Corpus Christi, 
Texas 78412; or at: agbsf@stx.rr.com. Please feel free to reprint and 
distribute this article. All scripture references are taken from the King 
James Bible. 


[1] Judas was replaced by Matthias (who had fulfilled the requirement of having been in 
company with the disciples during the Lord’s three year ministry), through the Old 
Testament practice of casting lots (about 16 references to this practice in the O.T.), which 
was absolutely in order. This was of necessity to fulfill the requirement of having 12 
apostles for 12 tribes (of Israel). 
[2] Certainly he was familiar with the gospel they preached. 
[3] Whenever Paul refers to “my gospel” , he is referring to “the gospel of Christ,” and 
by referring to it as his gospel establishes it as his exclusive message.