Q: Was Paul a witness of the resurrection of Christ before his return to heaven? I'm pretty sure I read this in Corinthians somewhere, but now I can't find it.
A: Thank you for your question. Paul was a witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but he was not present at the time Jesus returned to heaven. In fact, nobody actually witnessed Jesus exiting the empty tomb. The first recorded appearance of Jesus after His resurrection was with Mary Magdalene outside the tomb (John 20:14-16). After Jesus was taken up to heaven in Acts 1, the Bible records what happened afterward. "Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James (Acts 1:12-13)." Paul was not present at this time. We would not even see Paul, who was called Saul at the time, mentioned until Acts 7 during the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:58). This is many years after the ascension of Jesus Christ and Paul was a persecutor of Christians at this time, not an apostle.
The apostle Peter outlined the qualifications for being an apostle in Acts 1 when he and the other disciples were discussing who was eligible to take the place of Judas, who had betrayed Jesus and was now dead. "Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection (Acts 1:21-22)." Thus, we see that an apostle must be a witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In other words, they had to have seen Jesus alive after His death. This is were we find out how Paul met this qualification. As mentioned previously, Paul was a persecutor of the Church. He was on his way to Damascus to find Christians who were in the synagogues and take them as prisoners back to Jerusalem. "As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" "Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked. "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied (Acts 9:3-5)." This encounter took place some nine years after the resurrection. Therefore, Paul was qualified to be an apostle.
This leads us to the verse you are asking about. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is in the midst of talking about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and its relevance to the Gospel. After mentioning Jesus' death, burial and resurrection he comes to the verse in question. "Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born (1 Corinthians 15:7-8)." Paul outlines how he was the last person Jesus appeared to after His resurrection. Given the time frame we discussed earlier, this happened after Jesus was taken up into heaven. There is no doubt that Paul was around during the life of Jesus Christ, His death and His resurrection. However, since He was an enemy of the Gospel, he was most likely not interested in the message of the Gospel, much less being an apostle. Personally, I believe it is safe to say that Jesus took matters into His own hands, so to speak, when it comes to His miraculous appearance before Paul. Paul had no intention of being a Christian, much less an apostle, when Jesus appeared to him. But, given the fact Paul was persecuting the Church, there was probably little chance anybody would have risked their life in order to witness to him. So, Jesus did the witnessing Himself.
I hope this has shed some light for you on the subject of whether or not Paul was a witness of Christ's resurrection before He was taken up to heaven. While he was not present before Jesus ascended, he definitely was an eyewitness to His resurrection. And thank God that he was because here we are nearly two thousand years later benefiting from what God said to us through the writings of Paul in the New Testament. And the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the central theme of all that Paul wrote concerning our faith. "For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins (1 Corinthians 15:16-17)." Paul knew that without the resurrection of Jesus Christ our faith is worthless and it was his personal encounter with the risen Christ that solidified his faith, energized his life, made him give that life up and guaranteed his own future resurrection. We can take heart in this truth and allow it to encourage us as we allow Jesus to live His life through us. A life that indwells us because of His resurrection. Grace and Peace.
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