1 Tim.3:16 – And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:

God was manifested in the flesh,

Justified in the Spirit,

Seen by angels,

Preached among the Gentiles,

Believed on in the world,

Received up in glory.

Paul new from his own first hand experience that God had become a man. He saw Jesus for himself on the Damascus Road. This was more than an impartation of revelation by the Spirit, all of Paul’s senses were involved in this encounter. He saw the physical body of Jesus, he heard the sound of His voice, and he even observed the marks of crucifixion in the body of our Lord. So John had first hand experience confirming what the Apostle John said in his gospel, “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us”. So the deity and humanity of Christ are confirmed and made known to Paul in this sudden unexpected encounter on his way to Damascus. Rather than attacking the Christians in Syria he began to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Here is how Augustine explains this moment.

“But when the fullness of time came, Wisdom was sent in the flesh, not to fill angels nor to be an angel, except insofar as she announced the Father’s plan which was also her own. She was sent not to be with men and in men, for this too had been done before, both in the Fathers and in the prophets, but that the Word itself might become flesh, that is, that it might become a man. This future mystery, when revealed, would likewise be the salvation of those wise and saintly men, who had been born of women before he himself was born of a virgin, and ever since it has been accomplished and preached, it is the salvation of all who believe, hope and love.”

For Paul to change from an angry Pharisee, hating everything that was related to the Christian faith, into the Apostle Paul who preached Christ for the rest of his life until he was martyred for his faith, something drastic and authentic had to happen to him. Paul’s conversion was sudden and had the feel of authenticity on it, it was hard to doubt someone who had changed a full 180 degrees in a moment of time. Paul saw Jesus as a real man, a human being, and at the same time he saw the radiance of God shining out from Jesus.