How did Saul's early preaching of Christ as Son of God relate to the earlier Jewish program?
Saul’s early preaching fit the earlier Jewish program begun with John the Baptist and Christ’s earthly ministry. He went first to synagogues, still Jew only, and proclaimed Christ as the Son of God—not a gospel based on Christ’s death and resurrection, which he did not yet know.
Les explains that after Saul received his sight and was baptized, that baptism was right in line with the Jewish program that began with John the Baptist. Straightway Saul preached Christ in the synagogue, not in the Gentile marketplace; he was still Jew only. He preached Christ as the Son of God, but Les stresses this was not the later message of Christ dying and rising. Saul did not yet know anything of a gospel based on death and resurrection. This was in perfect alignment with what had been on the scene since Christ’s first appearance, or even John the Baptist. Les then points back to Matthew 16, where Jesus, nearing the end of His three years of earthly ministry, asks the disciples whom men say He is.
And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.
When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
More Questions
Why could God not let Saul of Tarsus go preach that Jesus is the Son of God?
In Acts 9:20 Saul, later called Paul, preached that Jesus is the Son of God, but God could not let him go preach that message because it was not going to be the gospel for the Gentile.
What did Saul preach in the synagogue in Acts 9:20?
In Acts 9:20 Saul preached “that He is the Son of God, period”—not that Jesus died for the sins of the world and rose from the dead.