Last week we began a short study of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Not only was Paul a significant person in the spread of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But he was also instrumental in clarifying the truths of salvation – particularly in the books of Romans and Galatians. And HOW this man became a Christian has a lot to say about what he was teaching.
That does not imply that everyone must be saved in exactly the same way as Saul was. You may been saved on the road to Damascus, while another was on a road towards prison. You may seen light from Heaven, above the brightness of the sun, while another was saved in the darkness of despair. You may have been overcome with emotion expressed in bitter tears, but another experienced exquisite joy. For me it was relief mixed with joy. There are similarities AND differences between Saul and everyone else whom the Lord has ever saved. And that just reminds us that the Lord uses different tools to accomplish His will.
But fact remains “without the shedding of Jesus’ blood there is no remission” of sin. There can be no escaping the necessity of the substitutionary death of Christ on the cross. There are preachers and theologians who flatly deny the necessity of Christ’s blood atonement. But the Bible positively affirms it. And it is not just Christ’s vicarious death, and the merciful grace of the Almighty, but He also requires the sinner’s repentance and faith in Him. Someone must present the death, burial and resurrection of the living Christ to the dying sinner. And we see them in the salvation of Saul.
In looking at the instruments used in Saul’s conversion we ought be able see some of them in our own. If, in what we think was our salvation, there is no resemblance to what we see in Saul, then we ought to become concerned. If there is a similarity between our conversion and that of Saul, then, like him, there should be a desire to become one of the tools in the kit of the Lord. What were some of the instruments in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus?
First of all there was the unmistakable sovereignty of Jehovah.
Have you ever compared the two Sauls that we find in God’s Word? When I was a new babe in Christ, I mistakenly confused the two, thinking they were one and the same. No, there is a Saul in the Old Testament who was the first king of Israel – the predecessor of King David. The people of Israel wanted a king – so they could be like all other nations. Despite Samuel’s warning that human kings were more trouble than they are worth, Israel insisted. At the time, there was a humble boy in family of Kish, who wanted nothing more than to stay on the farm. When some of father’s asses escaped, probably at the command of God, Saul went looking for them. Through his searching, he was providentially led to meet the prophet Samuel. And God whispered in the prophet’s ear, “This is the one I’ve chosen to become king.” Out of the thousands of Israel, God made a choice, ignoring hundreds of better qualified young men. God exercised His will; He chose; He elected one out of thousands, And God’s choice was contrary to what Saul himself would have chosen at the time. When Samuel spoke to the young man, Saul cowered, cringed and recoiled. But “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” And in time Saul chose to agree with God’s choice.
Like his name-sake, Saul of Tarsus was not looking for kingship – at least not in Jesus of Nazareth. Like everyone us, but with a little more vehemence, Saul hated the Christ of God. He wanted to stamp out the memory of Jesus the Nazarene, and to kill His followers – if they didn’t recant and return to the old faith. Saul would have sooner spit upon Jesus than to worship Him, but he was too civilized to spit. On the other hand, God in His sovereignty sought Saul when a stranger, a rebel and a blasphemer. Jehovah could have chosen anyone to convict and redeem that day, but no, He picked Saul of Tarsus. Did Saul have a choice in the matter? Well, he had no input into God’s choice – the divine election of Saul. He did everything in his power to thwart the love of God, but even God’s love is omnipotent. Later Saul/Paul will tell us that God made that sovereign choice before the creation of the world. Saul had nothing to do with God’s election. But did he have no choice at all?
I know people who don’t like the Bible’s doctrine of election – I know a lot of such people – they hate it. But there it is in unvarnished clarity – Saul was elected unto salvation. He did not become a child of God until after he repented and trusted Christ, but these things followed the Lord’s confrontation with him. In fact, repentance and faith are both gifts of God. Saul had not been practicing and strengthening his faith as he traveled up to Damascus. The road north had not been paved with his tears over sin and his unbelief. Christ knocked the man down and demanded that he submit and believe. Did Saul have a choice in the matter? In one sense “yes,” while in another the omnipotence of God was not going to be denied.
The practical implication to us who are Christians is to pray, pray, and continue to pray. Like Stephen we may have opportunity to share the gospel with our Christ-denying loved ones. But the only thing Stephen accomplished in talking to them was to make Saul and his friends so angry that they killed him. The martyr became a martyr – the living “witness” became a dying “witness.” I wonder if Stephen had been praying for the salvation of Saul? Was there no one praying for the conversion of this blasphemer? Was there anyone who thought that Saul was not too far gone? We need to pray, because the sovereign God has power over even the worst men – and women. Pray for that wretched uncle of yours; pray for that Catholic priest and the Mormon elder. Pray for the President of the United States and pray for your neighbor. I pity those who deny God’s sovereignty and yet who still pray for God to save the lost. They are as inconsistent in their theology as the atheist who swears using God’s name. We should pray for the lost, because even “the king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord;” and He can turn it whithersoever He pleases. And just because Saul isn’t a child of God at this moment, it doesn’t mean that God has not already chosen him to salvation.
The primary instrument in any conversion is the Lord Himself.
The Lord, also used the ministry of one of His chosen servants.
Which chosen servant? Someone might suggest Ananias, the man who baptized Saul, but that would be wrong. Once again, baptism has nothing to do with salvation or spiritual conversion. There are people who think “conversion” occurs when someone leaves one religion to join another. So they may picture baptism as playing a part in that religious change. But “spiritual” conversion is not a matter of switching religions – Judaism to Christianity, for example. Saul became a child of God three days before Pastor Ananias baptized him.
God’s chosen servant in the salvation of Saul, was a man I’ve already mentioned – Stephen. But obviously, there are different kinds of servants and different ways to evangelistically serve the Lord. One man might stand on a pulpit, behind a lectern and preach to tens of thousands. But a tiny lady laying crippled on her bed praying, may minister to far more than the preacher. You and I have no right to choose which kind servant we shall be. Our responsibility is to be ready to serve – cleansed and filled. “Ready with meekness and fear, to give an answer to every man who asks of the hope that is in us.” “If a man purge himself from (sin and the effects of the world), he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the masters use, and prepared unto every good work.” “The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.” He, who is ashamed of Christ and of His words, of Him also shall the Son of man be ashamed.
Probably, the most important human being in the conversion of Saul was Stephen – a deacon in Jerusalem. Remember that “deacon” only means that he was “a servant ” in the church. He was not some super-saint, a seminary-trained theologian, regularly preaching to the growing throng of Christians. He was merely someone excited about the Lord and excited about his own conversion, wishing that others might share in his joy.
What was it, specifically, that Stephen did in leading up to Saul’s conversion? First of all, he studied the history and ministry of Christ, and he shared it with others. In Acts 7 we see that he knew the Old Testament well enough to show how Moses and the prophets were preparing the way of the Messiah. He had no fear of anyone, so he pulled no punches – he held back nothing. “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.” What more could God ask from this servant of the Lord? The man believed what David had said so many centuries ago – “the law of the Lord as perfect, converting the soul.” It is the Word of God which is “quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.” And that sword sliced open the hearts of the people of Saul’s synagogue. “When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.”
Almost as important as Stephen’s preaching was his suffering. He gave his life to authenticate the message that He preached. Stephen felt so strongly about his message that he sealed it with his blood. There is a ministry in suffering, not to be shunned, feared or hated. Don’t you think that if Stephen was given a choice of living or dying he would have chosen life? What if in that bombardment of stones, his a collar bone, both legs and an arm were maimed? If given a choice, would he have selected living twenty years crippled, he would have taken it? If he was required by God to live in constant pain for the rest of his life, he would have been pleased? The choice was not his to make; the Lord made it for him, and Stephen died. “But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.”
As every chemist knows, in order to activate some chemical reactions a catalyst is necessary. Stephen declared God’s truth before a group of his countrymen. All that it did was drive them insane with wrath. I don’t think that just the preaching of Stephen would have touched the heart of Saul. The Word came alive in Saul – ignited by the catalyst of his love and his blood. If pain becomes a part of your life, look for the best way use it for God.
The third instrument in Saul’s conversion was God’s School.
“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”
Saul had been a student and pupil of a very well-known Jewish professor of theology – Gamaliel. Likely, as in most schools, Gamaliel tested the minds and progress of his students. How many kids would learn their lessons if there were no tests and grades? Isn’t this part of the failing of the modern public school these days – little accountability? After attending elementary school under Gamaliel, Saul graduated to the seminary of the Lord. Apparently, the lessons heard, were being driven into his heart like porcupine quills. Just as Christ had promised – “When the Spirit is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” Saul could not shake the lessons Stephen had taught him, and they inexplicably blended with his elementary lessons, even though Gamaliel’s conclusions were different. How do you find kicking against the old ox goad, Saul? Pretty painful isn’t it?
For months Saul had been hearing of the resurrected Christ. He had seen the revolutionized lives of the Apostles and other believers. The virus of Christianity was spreading like the plague all over the Mediterranean. Stephen and others, had opened up the scriptures, putting the mirror of the Word in the faces of the Jews. Saul had been told that “all his righteousnesses were as filthy rags,” and he was unfit for God. One by one, the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. And then came the test question: “Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me?”
Christian, when you see a soul, any soul, in affliction of any variety, that is a time to pray. When an unbeliever or stranger is being torn apart by grief or pain – pray. Often there is a spiritual battle going on – a test has been distributed. Will he pass? Help that struggling soul. Go to the Lord with all your strength and influence. That is a work that can bear fruit for all eternity. Saul was in God’s school.
The fourth instrument in his conversion was, quite literally, God’s glory.
“As he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:” I think that the primary problem in the work of “evangelism” today is the absence of glory of God. I don’t mean that God is not saving souls, or they are saved apart from His glory. But there are not nearly as many as the statisticians and Christian pollsters are suggesting. So much of modern evangelism is of the flesh – intellectual and selfish – both in the evangelist and his target. Very few people joining today’s churches stand under the blazing sun of the righteousness of God to see how sinful and filthy they are in that light.
Sin is not a regrettable lapse from good standards or morality. Sin is not the same thing as drug abuse or prostitution. Modern sin has been redefined as a sickness, private indiscretion, perhaps some sort of crime. But genuine sin is selfish hostility against God, resulting in rebellion against Him – as we see in Saul. Apathy is one of the obstacles in leading people to Jesus Christ the Saviour. And reason humanity is apathetic is that we have lost our vision of the Holiness of God. Saul was knocked to the ground by nothing more than the brightness of God’s glory. The glory of God brought physical pain to the eyes, the body and the heart of this man. The sanctity of God and the sinfulness of man are mutually exclusive. They repel each other – and it is always at the sinner’s expense.
There were four important instruments in the Conversion of Saul. There were God’s sovereignty, God’s servant, God’s school and God’s glory. Where do you fit into those four items? Are you one of the Lord’s servants and a part of God’s school? Perhaps you are still like Saul – in need of the lessons? I urge you to repent before God and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your person redeemer.