After meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus, Saul had time for the great re-think. His three-day fast and blindness forced Saul to focus on God. Acts 9: 8 Saul picked himself up off the ground, but when he opened his eyes he was blind. So his companions led him by the hand to Damascus. 9 He remained there blind for three days and did not eat or drink. [1] During this time, God began to show Saul the difference between Jesus’ Gospel of grace and the traditional Mosaic religion.
As a devout Pharisee, Saul would have had much of the Old Testament memorized. He had a great mind and was one of the up-and-coming theologians of the day, which would have allowed him to mentally file through what Scripture had foretold about the Messiah.
Jesus Was Alive
Saul did not believe the testimony of the believers who said God had resurrected Jesus. But now Saul saw the risen Jesus with his own eyes. This fact turned Saul’s world upside down. This experience tore down everything he had believed and worked so hard for and replaced it with a new truth. I think Saul was trying to sort out all his emotions as he saw Jesus for Himself. There would have been terror, ruin, awe, horror, and glory all at once.
The revealed truth was the very thing Saul had tried to stomp out. By persecuting the followers of Jesus, he was persecuting Jesus himself. Saul thought he had been serving God, but after rethinking, he realized he had opposed God. The fact that Jesus is the living Messiah overturned everything he had learned and, at the same time, confirmed everything he had learned. Jesus was a new lens through which to interpret the Scripture he knew so well.
A New Grace
God had done something new in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jewish people were expecting a political messiah that would make their nation great again. Instead, God had brought Messiah in a shocking and scandalous way. Jesus was a spiritual Messiah who, through His suffering and death, paid the sin price no human can pay. His resurrection gives believers a promise of a resurrection after our earthly death.
Saul had tried to obey every command to earn good standing with God, but now he realized he had made a very great mistake. He wasn’t converted away from His God and religion but was called to a new understanding of the same God and a radical fulfillment of that same religion. Jesus fulfilled all of God’s promises. Saul would lose his religion but gain the righteousness of Christ.
We, too, must come to the same understanding of who Jesus is. We cannot earn our way to heaven by good works but must rely on the grace of Jesus’ gift of salvation. Saul would later explain this in a letter to the church in Ephesus. Ephesians 2: 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.[2] Do you need the great re-think for yourself? To learn more, listen here:
https://podpoint.com/light-of-christ-church-podcast/god-arrests-saul
[1-2] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation. Tyndale House Publishers.