Paul was Law-keeping Pharisee of Israel who would not blaspheme God. But, he was among those who consented to stoning Stephen (Acts 8:1). This made Paul “a blasphemer” (I Tim. 1:13) rendering him ineligible for salvation under the kingdom’s Law program. Recall that the Lord Jesus had warned, “him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost it shall not be forgiven” (Luke 12:10).

How then could God save Saul of Tarsus?

The Lord had warned, “And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world (Gk. aion, age), neither in the world (Gk. aion, age) to come.” (Matthew 12:32 (KJV)

• The nation of Israel, with Paul consenting, blasphemed the Spirit during the age in which the Lord Jesus spoke of “this world (age),” when they went onto reject and stone Stephen to death, “a man filled with the Spirit” (Acts 7:55).
• “The world (age) to come” is defined in Hebrews 2:5 as the kingdom, the “world” which God will “put in subjection” under Christ at His 2^nd coming as “King of Kings,” where people will fully know “the powers of the world to come” (Heb. 6:5).

Note here that Paul says He was born not during the Jewish age of Jesus’ earthly ministry, and obviously not in a new age of Jesus’ 2^nd coming, but rather he was one born in what was a new age of God’s grace.

“And last of all he (Jesus) was seen of me (Paul) also, as of one born out (outside) of due time. (1 Corinthians 15:8 KJV)

Since blasphemy against the Holy Spirit was and is unforgivable in both these worlds (ages), we know Saul was saved under the ‘grace program’ of a whole new relational program age called “the dispensation of the grace of God,” which is “this world (this dispensational age)” in which we today live (Eph. 1:21).

In “this present world (age)” in which we are to “walk in the Spirit” to please God (Titus 2:12), for we are “not under the Law but under grace” (Romans. 6:14).