The Incomparable #1: “The Terrorist of Tarsus: How God Turns His Worst Enemy Into His Greatest General”

by | Jan 16, 2026 | Foundations of Faith

Estimated reading time: 20-25 minutes

Series: The Incomparable: The Life of Paul (Episode 1)

Keywords: conversion of apostle paul, saul of tarsus, damascus road, acts 9 study, stephen and saul, ananias and saul, salvation of lost causes, irresistible grace.

Introduction: The Man You Would Be Afraid to Evangelize

Imagine a dangerous man. Not a common criminal who steals wallets in an alley, but an ideological fanatic. A man who is cultured, brilliant, articulate, and driven by a cold, calculated hatred against your faith. Imagine someone who carries official government authorization to invade your home in the middle of the night, drag your wife out by her hair, and throw your children into prison, all while believing he is doing God a favor.

If you lived in the year 34 A.D., this man had a name: Saul of Tarsus.

Today, we look at statues of “Saint Paul” in cathedrals, holding a scroll and a sword, with a golden halo around his head, and we forget who he really was before Grace collided with him. We romanticize Paul. But the early church did not romanticize him; they were terrified of him. Luke, the author of Acts, describes Saul with a chilling phrase: “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples…” (Acts 9:1). He didn’t just threaten; he breathed death. His oxygen was the destruction of Christians.

In this first episode of our new series “The Incomparable,” we are going to dive into the mind of this religious “monster.” We will discover that Saul’s conversion is not just a nice story about a man who fell off a horse; it is the definitive proof that no one is a lost cause. If God saved the “Terrorist of Tarsus,” He can save your alcoholic husband, your rebellious child, or that atheist boss who mocks your faith. Prepare to witness the greatest miracle of transformation in history.

1. Profile of a Monster: Who Was Saul Before Christ?

To understand the magnitude of the miracle, we need to understand the magnitude of the obstacle. Saul was not a debauched atheist living a wild life of parties and drugs. He was the opposite: he was the pinnacle of human religion.

In Philippians 3:5-6, he gives us his résumé:

  1. “Circumcised on the eighth day”: He was born into the right covenant.
  2. “Of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin”: He had a purebred pedigree.
  3. “A Hebrew of Hebrews”: He spoke the sacred language; he wasn’t just a culturally assimilated Hellenist Jew.
  4. “In regard to the law, a Pharisee”: He belonged to the strictest sect. He knew the Torah by heart.
  5. “As for zeal, persecuting the church”: Here is the key.

Saul devoutly believed that Jesus of Nazareth was a false messiah, a charlatan who had been cursed by God (because the Torah said, “cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”). To Saul, Christians were a plague, a spiritual cancer that was leading Israel away from the One True God. He didn’t persecute them because he was “bad”; he persecuted them because he was zealous. He thought he was cleaning up God’s honor.

The Geographical Context: He was from Tarsus, a university city (in modern-day Turkey) that rivaled Athens in philosophy. This means Saul had the best of both worlds: the rigorous theology of Jerusalem (he was a student of Gamaliel, the greatest teacher of the era) and the intellectual philosophy of the Greek world. He was a genius. And a genius at the service of destroying the Church.

2. The Trigger: The Blood of Stephen and a Guilty Conscience

Saul’s conversion didn’t start on the road to Damascus. It started a little earlier, at a brutal execution in Jerusalem. In Acts 7, we see the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr. Stephen preached a sermon that cut the religious leaders to the heart. They were furious, covered their ears, and dragged him out of the city.

And the Bible says in Acts 7:58:

“Meanwile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.”

Saul didn’t throw the stones (likely because as a leader, he was supervising the execution), but he “approved of their killing him” (Acts 8:1). He held the coats so the others could kill with more agility. But something happened there that Saul never forgot. As the stones crushed Stephen’s bones, that young deacon didn’t scream curses. He looked up to heaven, saw Jesus, and said: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

Saul saw a man die forgiving his murderers. That was a needle in Saul’s conscience. How could a heretic have such peace in death? How could a “false believer” have the face of an angel? Jesus later said to Saul: “It is hard for you to kick against the goads” (Acts 26:14). God was already pricking his conscience. The blood of Stephen was the seed of the church, but it was also the seed of Saul’s conversion.

3. The Collision: High Noon in Damascus (Acts 9)

Disturbed by Stephen’s death, Saul tries to silence his conscience with more activism. He demands letters of authority to go to Damascus (in Syria, 135 miles away) to arrest the believers who had fled there. He travels with a troop. It is noon. The desert sun is at its peak. Suddenly, a Light brighter than the midday sun explodes over him. This wasn’t an “inner illumination”; it was a physical event. Everyone saw the light; everyone fell to the ground.

And a voice speaks in Aramaic (Hebrew dialect):

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute ME?”

This is the most profound theological question in the New Testament. Saul asks: “Who are you, Lord?” The answer must have made Saul’s blood run cold:

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

The Shocking Revelation:

  1. Jesus is Alive: If Jesus spoke, then the tomb is empty. The Christians were right. Stephen was right. Saul was wrong. He wasn’t serving God; he was fighting against God.
  2. The Mystical Union: Jesus didn’t say: “Why do you persecute my church?” He said: “Why do you persecute ME?” Saul learned his first lesson in Ecclesiology right there: To touch a Christian is to touch Jesus Himself. The Church is the Body of Christ. No one hits the Body without hurting the Head.

Saul fell to the ground as a “great Pharisee” and stood up as a blind, broken, and dependent man. The terrorist was surrendered by the General of the Universe.

4. The Dark Room: Three Days of Death and Resurrection

Many think Saul got up from the road and immediately started preaching. No. Acts 9:9 says: “For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.”

Imagine the scene. The most powerful man in Judaism is now in a rented room on Straight Street in Damascus, blind, trembling, and in total fasting. Why three days? Because Saul needed to die. All his theology, all his pride, all his self-righteousness, all his titles… everything had to be deconstructed in the dark. In those three days, he replayed every verse he knew from the Old Testament and realized: “It was all about Him. The Lamb was Him. The Prophet was Him. The Messiah is Jesus.”

It was a time of mourning for “Old Saul.” Sometimes, God puts us in a “dark room”—an illness, unemployment, a crisis—not to kill us, but to kill our pride so that we can be reborn. It is in the darkness of the cocoon that the caterpillar dissolves to become a butterfly.

5. The Unsung Hero: The Courage of Ananias

While Saul prays in the dark, God calls an ordinary disciple in Damascus: Ananias. God says: “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul.” Ananias’ reaction is panic (and rightly so):

“Lord, I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people…” (Acts 9:13).

Basically, Ananias said: “God, do You know who he is? He is the Hitler of Christians! If I go there, I’m dead.” But God responds with the phrase that defines Paul’s destiny:

“Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.”

Ananias obeys. He walks down the street, enters the room where the monster is sitting in the dark. And the first words that come out of Ananias’ mouth are the proof that the Gospel is real. He doesn’t say: “You murderer!” or “Now you’re going to pay!” He places his hands on the eyes of the ex-terrorist and says:

“Brother Saul…”

Brother. That man had killed Ananias’ friends. He had destroyed families. But grace is so scandalous that it turns enemies into brothers in a second. Right there, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes. He could see again. He was filled with the Holy Spirit. And he was baptized. The Terrorist died. The Apostle was born.

6. Lessons for Today: What Do We Learn from Saul’s Conversion?

What does this 2,000-year-old story have to do with your life today? Everything.

A. No One is “Too Hard” for God

Maybe you have someone in your family who hates the Gospel. An intellectual father who mocks the Bible. An addicted husband. A child immersed in anti-Christian ideologies. You look at them and think: “That one will never convert. Their heart is too hard.” Saul of Tarsus was harder. If Grace knocked Saul down, it can knock anyone down. Don’t stop praying for the “lost causes.” God specializes in turning persecutors into preachers.

B. Sincerity Does Not Save Anyone

Was Saul sincere? Yes. He was sincerely devoted. But he was sincerely wrong. Many people say: “The important thing is to have faith, it doesn’t matter in what.” That is a lie. You can drink poison sincerely believing it is orange juice; your sincerity will not prevent your death. Saul needed an encounter with the Truth (Jesus) so that his sincerity could be directed to the right place. Zeal without knowledge is dangerous.

C. The Past Does Not Cancel the Future

You might think: “I’ve done too many wrong things. I had an abortion. I stole. I committed adultery. I was violent. God can’t use me.” Paul called himself “the chief of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). He carried the memory of Stephen’s face for the rest of his life. But God didn’t use Paul despite his past; God used even his past. The strength, the stubbornness, and the knowledge he used for evil, God redeemed for good. God doesn’t want to throw you away; He wants to recycle your story for His Glory.

Conclusion: Which Side Are You On?

Saul’s story places us in front of a mirror. There are only two groups of people in the world:

  1. Those who, like the old Saul, think they can save themselves by their religion, morality, and “doing good,” but deep down are fighting against God.
  2. Those who, like the new Paul, fell off their high horse, recognized their blindness, and were saved solely by undeserved Grace.

Saul’s conversion was violent because his pride was strong. Maybe you need to fall off your “horse” today—the horse of self-sufficiency, of “I know everything,” of “I am a good person.” Let the Light blind you to the world, so you can finally see Jesus.

The Terrorist of Tarsus became the Apostle to the Nations. What can God do with you, if you surrender today?

Hearing Him Org — The Grace that saved a wretch like me (and like Paul).

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Conversion is just the beginning. After Damascus, Paul had to spend years in the desert learning to hear God’s voice. In the next episode of “The Incomparable” series, we will travel with him to the Arabian Desert and discover why God sometimes “hides” us before He uses us.

In the meantime, if you have a “Saul” in your life (someone difficult to convert), don’t give up. Learn to pray effectively by downloading our guide: 👉 Prayer Guide for Difficult Family Members

Biblical References Used

  • Acts 9:1-19 (The central account of the conversion and Ananias).
  • Acts 7:58 and 8:1 (Saul at the stoning of Stephen).
  • Philippians 3:5-6 (Paul’s religious credentials).
  • 1 Timothy 1:15 (Paul declares himself the chief of sinners).
  • Acts 26:14 (It is hard to kick against the goads).
  • Galatians 1:13-14 (Paul’s persecuting zeal).

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