I FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT, I FINISHED THE RACE, AND I KEPT MY FAITH
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans: “Ek het die goeie stryd gestry, ek het die wedloop voltooi, en ek het die gelowig gebly.”
Someone wrote to me and asked:
"Can you tell me how Paul died?"
About Paul I could easily write a book.
Now I know the person asked me how Paul died but I would first like to say something about the earlier life of this phenomenal man.
I want to start with the following statement: In my opinion no man has had such a great influence on the Gospel of Jesus and Christianity as Paul of Christ (as I like to call him).
I’ll be bold to say that even the influence before his conversion on the spread and growth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, already has been so phenomenal that the positive effects of his unconverted actions, have been equalled by no other Evangelist to this date.
That being said – It is in my opinion not even to be doubted that what he has accomplished after his conversion, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he, so to speak, was and is entirely in a class of his own.
Let me first explain what he did with a little help from his fellow citizen before his conversion to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus' command to His disciples, in other words also to you and me, was and is:
MATTHEW 28:18 -20
18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
Look at what in fact happened at the beginning:
Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to many, many people and was then taken up into Heaven.
Thousands of people were converted. On occasion about 3000 in one day. They lived and held church too wonderfully in their comfort zone with each other and for each other, while around them in the world out there, millions of people were on their way to hell – and it was of course not exactly as our Lord intended. Just look at how wonderful it went with them:
ACTS 2:41-47
41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.
42 And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
43 And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.
44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common.
45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.
46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts,
47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
Too wonderful to live like that. It was all wonderful, but not exactly what our Lord told them to do. They had the Holy Spirit dwelling in them, but they did not just have to stay in Jerusalem and live the Gospel in their comfort zone. They had to spread the Gospel all over the earth:
ACTS 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."
Now a young Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus, whose zeal knows no bounds, will act full of hatred and resentment against the followers of Jesus and drive them out of their comfort zone into the whole world and in his attempt to destroy this Gospel, force them to carry out their God and Saviour’s command as missionaries – and to preach this Gospel to the whole world. We first read of this man's great zeal in Acts 7.
First, he takes care of the people's clothes while they were stoning Stephen:
ACTS 7:58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
ACTS 7:59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
Then we read:
ACTS 8:1-3
1 And Saul approved of his execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
2 Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.
3 But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.
He himself testified years later about this time in his life as follows:
GAL 1:13 For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.
GAL 1:14 And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
You see he was not just a Pharisee. He was one of the leaders among his contemporaries. He was up there and still climbing. On another occasion he writes to show that people who now want to boast as Christians about their Jewish background, how worthless it is what that they want to boast about:
PHILIPPIANS 3:4-8
4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless.
7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.
Despite all this opposition, Paul persevered with the help of our Lord to preach and spread the Gospel of Jesus:
2CORINTHIANS 11:24-30
24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;
26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers;
27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?
30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
Before his conversion, this Paul of Christ helped that in a very short time thousands of missionaries from Jerusalem entered the world to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
After his conversion on the road to Damascus when he was directly confronted by Jesus, our Lord entrusted him with most of the New Testament and this is in my opinion one of the greatest compliments our Lord gave to Paul. To show how our Lord trusted him with the Gospel was the following:
Eleven disciples were all at the Passover when Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper – but Jesus do not allow any of them to teach you and me about the use of the Lord's Supper – rather Paul is the apostle to whom our Lord entrust it to inform you and me about this holy sacrament and he was not even there with Jesus when Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper. You can read about it in 1Corinthians 11:23.
Now I finally come to the question of how Paul died according to tradition.
The first thing we need to know is that apart from James, we have no biblical information about how the other apostles died. There are traditions from the early Christians about how the apostles were killed, but as I mentioned, the Bible only tells us about how James died. We read of James' death from the Word:
ACTS 12:1 About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church.
ACTS 12:2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword,
So, I just want to make it very clear, that what I am going to write now, I do not have testimony from the Bible, but it is word from the early Christians that I share with you:
According to tradition, Paul was beheaded in Rome after being cruelly tortured at the command of the evil emperor Nero.
All we read in the Word regarding with this tradition, is that Paul finally ended up in prison in Rome.
Now I shortly share with you how he ended up there and most likely died there. After he ended up in prison in Rome, everything we read in the Word about him took place in the prison in Rome and according to what we read in the Word, there is nothing further known about my great hero Paul of Christ. What I now share with you is inferences I make – but I can also say with great peace in my heart that it is enlightened, and Word inspired inferences:
See, my great hero Paul was a very intelligent man and when Festus asked him if he would stand trial in Jerusalem, Paul, as a Roman citizen appealed to the Emperor – because he knew that the Jews wanted to have him ambushed more than two years ago when he was being transported as a prisoner:
ACTS 23:14 -22
14 They went to the chief priests and elders and said, "We have strictly bound ourselves by an oath to taste no food till we have killed Paul.
15 Now therefore you, along with the council, give notice to the tribune to bring him down to you, as though you were going to determine his case more exactly. And we are ready to kill him before he comes near."
16 Now the son of Paul's sister heard of their ambush, so he went and entered the barracks and told Paul.
17 Paul called one of the centurions and said, "Take this young man to the tribune, for he has something to tell him."
18 So he took him and brought him to the tribune and said, "Paul the prisoner called me and asked me to bring this young man to you, as he has something to say to you."
19 The tribune took him by the hand, and going aside asked him privately, "What is it that you have to tell me?"
20 And he said, "The Jews have agreed to ask you to bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to inquire somewhat more closely about him.
21 But do not be persuaded by them, for more than forty of their men are lying in ambush for him, who have bound themselves by an oath neither to eat nor drink till they have killed him. And now they are ready, waiting for your consent."
22 So the tribune dismissed the young man, charging him, "Tell no one that you have informed me of these things."
You can read for yourself the further course of those events. Perhaps, because he himself was a Pharisee before his conversion and he knew the thinking of the Pharisees well, he also knew in this case, in a court in Jerusalem, he does not stand a chance and perhaps he heard again that, as a few years before, when he was still a prisoner of Felix, they again planned to assassinate him now that he was a prisoner of Festus.
However, when Festus (now more than two years later while Paul is still in prison because he preaches the Gospel of Jesus) asked Paul if he would stand trial in Jerusalem – I believe it was our Lord who made Festus act in the way – Paul appealed to the Emperor and for that he would have to go to a prison in Rome.
ACTS 25:12 Then Festus, when he had conferred with his council, answered, "To Caesar you have appealed; to Caesar you shall go"
Eventually Paul ended up in a prison in Rome and from a human point of view, after a very affected, frantic life, this was Paul's last abode here on earth of which the Word tells us. He was most likely beheaded there, as tradition would have it.
This Paul of Christ, first a murderer of Christians, then the greatest apostle of all time, sit as an old man in a prison in Rome, waiting for his execution because he has preached the Gospel of Christ.
2TIM 4:6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come
Then he writes – and one feels to exclaim: " What a life and what a testimony!" Yes, while he, you might say, hear the footsteps of the executioner approaching, he writes:
2TIM 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
How wonderful it would be if you and I could jubilantly say at the end of our lives here on earth:
“I fought the good fight, I finished the race, and I kept my faith!"
Greetings,
Sakkie