The New Testament book of Acts chronicles the account of a man named Saul as he systematically “…began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison” (Acts 8:3 NIV). However, the following chapter details an encounter that changed Saul’s life and subsequently altered the course of untold numbers of human lives to follow…
“As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ Then the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting… Then the Lord said to him, ‘Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do'” (Acts 9:3-5, 6).
We’re later told that Paul continued on to Damascus, regained the eyesight he lost during that encounter, and immediately began to preach Jesus as the Messiah. From the moment he first encountered Jesus until the end of his life, Paul consistently displayed the revolutionary impact of that meeting.
For instance, Saul was described as someone who “…kept up his violent threats of murder against the followers of the Lord” (Acts 9:1 GNT) prior to his conversion. But following his Damascus Road experience, Paul freely expressed his love for those he formerly persecuted. While he was occasionally provoked to anger by the actions of others, he was quick to make amends. And even though Paul was unwavering in his faith in Christ, he sought to find common ground with others wherever possible.
Despite the transformative shift in Paul’s life, there was one consistent element that distinguished his pre and post conversion experience: a sense of fervent zeal. While he once preached adherence to the Mosaic law (and zealously persecuted those who abandoned that law to follow Christ), Paul later re-channeled those energies in bringing the message of salvation through faith in Christ to others.
Paul explained that commitment in a letter to the church that met in the ancient city of Corinth…
“For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthian 5:19-21 NLT).
Image Attribution: Caravaggio, The Conversion of Saint Paul on the Way to Damascus, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons