{"id":37729,"date":"2016-05-28T14:20:10","date_gmt":"2016-05-28T12:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kernbeisser.ch\/job-and-paul\/"},"modified":"2024-11-18T20:13:06","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T18:13:06","slug":"job-and-paul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kernbeisser.ch\/en\/job-and-paul\/","title":{"rendered":"Job and Paul"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text text_lead=”yes” uncode_shortcode_id=”141163″]The story of Paul can be read well as an extended example of the story of Job. Paul’s life shows how God works in time. Paul experienced God’s action in his own life. He reports on this, and it makes extremely exciting reading.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”146950″]<\/p>\n

Paul’s experience<\/h3>\n

In the Epistle to the Romans, in the middle of a passage about God’s activity in time, Paul writes:<\/p>\n

“How unsearchable are His judgments, and how inscrutable His ways!”<\/em>
\nRom 11:33<\/p>\n

Certainly, Paul is not only writing about God,<\/strong> but also writing from his own experience<\/strong>. God left important traces in Paul’s life. His own course of life must have been puzzling to him in some respects. Because God’s action with him starts even before his birth<\/em>. In Galatians the apostle writes:<\/p>\n

“But when it pleased God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles through the gospel…”<\/em>
\nGal 1:15-16<\/p>\n

Here we learn that God had already “set<\/em> Paul apart from the womb”<\/em> for a later task. However, that comes much later. Indeed, Paul first persecuted the church (Acts 7:58, Acts 8:1-3, Acts 9:1-2) and he was a “blasphemer and persecutor and sacrilegious”<\/em> (1 Tim. 1:13). That is, until it “pleased<\/em> God to reveal his Son in me”<\/em> (Gal 1:15-16). This is an amazing account and context that shows that God chose Paul, yet allowed him to remain for a long time. Until it was enough. Until it was time.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”774142″]<\/p>\n

An understanding of God’s ways takes time<\/h3>\n

To Timothy Paul writes:<\/p>\n

“And therefore I give thanks to him who has given me strength, to Christ Jesus our Lord, that he has counted me faithful and appointed me to the ministry, who before was a blasphemer and a persecutor and an evildoer. But mercy was shown to me because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the mercy of our Lord became great beyond all measure, together with the faith and love that is in Christ Jesus. Credible is the word and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the greatest. But for this reason mercy has been shown to me, so that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as an example to those who would hereafter believe in him for eternal life.”<\/em>
\n1Tim 1:12-16<\/p>\n

“But therefore mercy has been shown to me …”<\/em> Paul is anything but proud of his “career”, but he knows where all these experiences and God’s grace should lead: He should become an example for those who should believe in Christ after him<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Whether Paul or Job, the ways of God and His mercy are experienced by men only after long, difficult years. Of course, this does not always have to be the case, but we should not be surprised if we ourselves experience many things before God speaks into our hearts. Paul thus came to know something of God’s action particularly deeply, namely His “grace,”<\/em> which is nowhere more evident in the Bible than in Paul’s letters.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text uncode_shortcode_id=”914747″]<\/p>\n

Exchange questions<\/h4>\n