“Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1-2).

When Paul later described himself as consumed with zeal for his ancestors’ traditions he had in mind two examples of zeal from the Old Testament—Phinehas and Elijah. In Paul’s day both were cited as models of zeal. They were noted for expressing their righteousness by violence against idolaters of their day. That’s what Paul thought he was doing when he persecuted Christians.

We can understand his hateful actions when we realize that he thought he was defending the one true faith. He regarded Jesus and His followers as a dangerous threat to his religion. They seemed out to destroy the very foundation of his religious life. He defended his core belief violently, though it was misguided.

As a Christian apostle, he would go to a city and visit its synagogue first. He knew the ones who came there to worship because he had been one of them. With his exhaustive knowledge of the Old Testament he was able to show them how Jesus fulfilled what the Old Testament promised about the Messiah.

In his letter to the Roman church he used over fifty references to the Old Testament. When Paul became a follower of Jesus he was able to show how God’s plan from the Old Testament is fulfilled in the person of Jesus. God took a Pharisee with misguided zeal and made him the foremost theologian and evangelist of the early Church. That’s the power of an encounter with Jesus.