Why did God raise up and save Saul of Tarsus?
God raised up and saved Saul of Tarsus after Israel rejected and crucified the Messiah and proved they would not believe. Saul, a rebel who hated Jesus, was saved by grace as the epitome of grace, then sent to the Gentiles while Israel went into spiritual blindness.
Les teaches that Israel could have had the King and the Kingdom, but in God's foreknowledge it could not happen; the Messiah had to die. Israel rejected and crucified Him and kept rejecting Him in the early Acts, even though Peter and the eleven preached. When Israel proved they would not believe, God raised up that other little Jew, that rebel, that raging bull who hated Jesus of Nazareth, and saved him by grace. The salvation of Saul of Tarsus is the epitome of grace. God told Saul right up front, before he even got out of Damascus, that He would send him far hence to the Gentiles. Israel would go into spiritual blindness, but Saul would go to the Gentiles. Because Israel rejected the Old Testament promises, her Messiah, and her King, the windows of heaven opened for Gentiles whose forefathers were pagan, steeped in idolatry, the occult, or mythology. God sent this apostle among pagan Gentiles, and they began to swarm to the Gospel with spiritual hunger.