Two thousand years ago, one single individual dedicated his life to traveling around the Roman Empire, making disciples, planting churches, appointing leaders, writing letters. He established doctrine and theology for the fledgling church, and exposed and corrected false teaching and heretical ideas. In doing so, he wrote letters to the churches he established and to the disciples he made, letters that would later be gathered together and included in what we now call the New Testament. That man was Paul.
Paul’s story is one of the most transformative and compelling accounts in Christian history. His call and conversion were pivotal moments in Christianity, as Christ appointed him to share the good news of the gospel to all nations. This encounter changed Paul and the trajectory of his life. And what proceeded from this moment held profound implications for the entire world.
Paul’s encounter with Christ led him to a greater understanding of the faith, and from that encounter, Paul developed a theology of mission that affected everything about him, specifically in four areas:
- The nature of his call and conversion and his role as an apostle to the Gentiles,
- Paul’s gospel-centered preaching, building on Old Testament promises, fulfilled in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ,
- Paul’s practice of contextualization, in both church planting and disciple making, and
- Paul’s experience of persecution and suffering for the sake of Christ, in which he chose to boast.
Each of these contributes to the missiology of Paul, and from them, we can learn much about God’s missio Dei, his desire to reach all nations with the good news of Jesus Christ, and the offer of salvation he extends to each of us. In this article, we’ll explore the nature of Paul’s call and conversion, and how this formed Paul’s theology of mission.
Paul’s Call and Commission: Divine Encounter
Paul’s transformation begins in Acts 9 and is repeated twice more in Luke’s account of the early church (Acts 22 and 26). Prior to his encounter with Jesus, Paul (known as Saul) heavily persecuted believers in the resurrected Messiah, considering them a threat to Judaism. But Jesus appeared to him on the Road to Damascus, appearing in a bright light from heaven that surrounded him, and asked, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4).[1]
This was a profound encounter, and it left Paul both blind and humbled. Those with him led him into Damascus, where a man named Ananias, a believer in Christ, was instructed by Jesus to go and pray for Saul. As he did so, scales fell from Paul’s eyes, he regained his sight, and he was immediately baptized (Acts 9:18).
“Paul’s transformation begins in Acts 9 and is repeated twice more in Luke’s account of the early church.”
On the Road to Damascus
This experience marked the beginning of Paul’s divine call and commission.[2] It was a powerful catalyst that redirected Paul’s entire life onto a new track. Paul’s new mission was to spread the message of the gospel around the world. Both his missiology and his authority as an apostle are rooted in this Damascus Road experience.[3] What he received from Jesus in this event formed the foundation for everything to come.
“Just as God has shown his reconciling grace through Christ and has taken the initiative in man’s redemption, so those who experience reconciliation through this grace must, in turn, become messengers of grace to the unredeemed.”[4]
This is the profound impact the Damascus Road event had on Paul’s life.
This in itself would have impacted the world in significant ways, but there is more to Paul’s call and commission. Not only was he transformed into something new, but Paul was also commissioned as the apostle to the Gentiles. He was “not sent out (apostellein) to the ‘circumcised’—like Peter—but to the ‘uncircumcised’” (Galatians 2:7-8). He is indeed the apostle to the Gentiles (Galatians 1:15-16; Romans 11:13), commissioned to proclaim God’s grace in Jesus Christ to all the nations—Jew and Gentile alike.”[5]
“Not only was he transformed into something new, but Paul was also commissioned as the apostle to the Gentiles.”
Apostle to the Gentiles
Paul repeatedly referred to his call to the Gentiles—to all peoples—in his writings. This was not a calling that he gradually developed. During his encounter with Christ on the Road to Damascus, “Paul received the gospel and Christ’s commission for him to go to the Gentiles and proclaim the gospel, that is, to be his apostle to the Gentiles.”[6] Paul’s call and commission as an apostle, along with his theology and missiology, originated in that momentous event.[7]
In Acts 20, Paul states that his purpose is to “testify to the gospel of grace,” and to declare “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:24, 27). These statements are made to the Ephesian elders, and while Paul does not explicitly state here that his call is to the Gentiles, that’s exactly what his listeners are, since Ephesus was a prominent city in the province of Asia, and an important part of the Roman Empire,[8] where Paul had experienced an extended period of ministry earlier.[9]
If Paul’s call to the Gentiles wasn’t stated openly in his conversations with the Ephesian elders,[10] it is clearly seen in his interactions in various other locations where he sought to share the gospel. In Antioch of Pisidia, his Jewish hearers rejected his message, causing Paul and Barnabas to turn to the Gentiles, citing Isaiah 49:6 in support of this move (Acts 13:44-47).[11] In addition, in Paul’s testimony before Agrippa where he recounts his conversion, he distinctly declares the call from Christ to be a call to the Gentiles (Acts 26:16-18, 23).
“In Antioch of Pisidia, his Jewish hearers rejected his message, causing Paul and Barnabas to turn to the Gentiles.”
Paul’s understanding of this can also be seen over and over in his letters. While such references are too numerous to cover exhaustively here, a few examples are in order. His letter to the church in Rome is bookended with statements affirming his call to the Gentiles. In Romans 1:1-5, Paul extends a greeting to the church in Rome, stating his authority as an apostle in order to “bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations.” This includes the Jews, as can be seen in verse 16. Paul frequently begins his efforts in new communities in Jewish synagogues. But his call must extend to the Gentiles, which includes the Roman believers.[12]
At the opposite end of the letter, Paul reiterates that the gospel is meant for all nations (Romans 16:25-27). This has been a major theme throughout the entire epistle, that God’s offer of salvation is for all peoples, Jew and Gentile alike; all are sinners in desperate need of God’s grace.[13] This can also be seen in his correspondence with the Corinthians. Paul’s famous statement of being “all things to all people” includes both Jews and Gentiles. Paul sees the offer of salvation to be extended equally to all, and so he will do or be whatever is necessary to reach all people (1 Corinthians 9:19-23; cf. Galatians 3:28).[14]
It must be noted, however, that Paul does not view his call as exclusively to the Gentiles, or the role of other apostles, such as Peter, as exclusively to the Jews. As previously noted, Paul frequently began his work among the Jewish population of various cities, and within the synagogues found there, moving from there to the Gentile population.
“Paul frequently began his work among the Jewish population of various cities, and within the synagogues found there, moving from there to the Gentile population.”
Paul did not see his role to be only to a specific subsection of the world, while other apostles focused on the Jewish subsection. There was no opposition; there was, in fact, koinonia.[15]
[1] All Scripture references are from the English Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.
[2] Andreas J. Köstenberger, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Mission (London, Downers Grove: Apollos; InterVarsity Press, 2020), 138-139. Köstenberger argues that Paul’s encounter was both a conversion and a call. It was a call because God chose Paul to carry out this commission. But it was first a conversion because it changed Paul’s thinking dramatically about the messianic identity of Jesus and his redemptive work on the cross. I have chosen to focus more on the call/commission here, even though the conversion is a foundational aspect of Paul’s transformation.
[3] Seyoon Kim, The Origin of Paul’s Gospel (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2007), 31.
[4] ean S. Gilliland, Pauline Theology and Mission Practice (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 1998), 55-56.
[5] Johan Christiaan Beker, Paul the Apostle: The Triumph of God in Life and Thought (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1992), 6.
[6] Kim, The Origin of Paul’s Gospel, 330.
[7] Kim, The Origin of Paul’s Gospel, 332.
[8] N. T. Wright, Paul: A Biography (New York: HarperOne, 2020), 241.
[9] Eckhard J. Schnabel, Paul the Missionary: Realities, Strategies and Methods (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2008), 108.
[10] Nils Alstrup Dahl, “Gentiles, Christians, and Israelites in the Epistle to the Ephesians,” Harvard Theological Review 79, no. 1–3 (July 1986): 33. While his conversation with the Ephesian elders may not be overtly Gentile-centric, his letter to the church in Ephesus is. Dahl states, “Ephesians contains almost no theological discussion but blames the Gentiles for their sins and praises God and what he has done in Christ, and does both things in order to extol the lot of those Gentiles who have been called by God and have become members of the church of Christ.” Paul’s Gentile commission is clearly seen in this brief letter.
[11] Schnabel, Paul the Missionary, 83.
[12] Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans, A Pillar Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 51.
[13] Grant R. Osborne, Romans, vol. 6 of The IVP New Testament Commentary Series, ed. Grant. R. Osborne (Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 2004), 419.
[14] Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1987), 428-429.
[15] Schnabel, Paul the Missionary, 48-49.
