Grace from Evil

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For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.
– 1 Corinthians 15:9-10a NIV –


Over half of the New Testament was written by one man: the Apostle Paul. The Apostle Paul is renowned as being a great man of faith and one of the strongest early supporters of the Christian faith. These things are true. What is also true is that the Apostle Paul was once the Pharisee Saul who persecuted and ordered the execution of Christians. Jesus touched Paul’s life in a dramatic way and everything changed. Paul embraced and taught grace, but Paul knew that he was once this evil, murderous Saul.

I bet most of us have never done the terrible things that Pharisee Saul did, but I also bet that most of us can think back on things we’ve done that we’re not proud of. Often when we think on these things we wish the memories could go away or that we could go back and do things differently. I imagine Paul felt this way as well. The truth is we can’t change the past, but it’s equally true that God can graciously use our past in both the good and bad things we’ve done.

God used (note: but did not cause) the Pharisee Saul’s evil actions to demonstrate the crazy grace that God was offering when he turned him into the Apostle Paul. Paul was able to preach from his experiences about the grace that God offers. Whatever we think back on and regret, we can find encouragement that God can redeem even bad situations and bad decisions. It doesn’t change what happened, but thank God that we worship a God who is so powerful and gracious that God can bring good out of evil.

To Read More:  Acts7:1-8:1, Romans 3:23-24

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