The Conversion of Paul

Published by Stanley Pouw in 2016 · 26 June 2016

Beyond the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Paul has had the greatest influence on my life. He is the author of 13 of the New Testament books and the dominant figure for most of Acts, and the main player on the stage after our Lord ascends back into heaven. He is the inspired author of these New Testament books that shape all our theology and our understanding of the gospel.

His conversion is one of the great stories of human history. And as we come to Acts 9, we see what God did to a man named Saul, whose name was eventually changed to Paul. So great was that transformation that it needed to be reflected in his name. And so we are told in Acts 13:9, that his name was changed to Paul. His conversion was so important that it occupies much of the book of Acts. His conversion is repeated in Acts 22 as he gives his own testimony, and then repeated again in the Acts 26.

The conversion of Paul was pivotal to the future of the church, and it was fitting that because he was such a unique individual: by birth, a Jew; by conviction, a Pharisee; by citizenship, a Roman; by education, a Greek; and then by grace, a Christian. He became a missionary, a theologian, an evangelist, a pastor, a teacher, a preacher, a leader, a thinker, a statesman, a fighter, and a lover, all at the same time.

We met him back in Acts 7:58, when Stephen had preached a wonderful sermon, going through the history of the Old Testament and culminating in the arrival of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ whom the Jews had betrayed and murdered. They rushed Stephen to stone him to death; and before casting the stones, verse 58 says, “They laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.” And Acts 8:1 begins, “Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death.”

Here is some information about Saul. His home was in Tarsus, right on the Syrian border. Today, it would be on the border between Syria and Turkey. Tarsus was distinguished for its higher education, having one of the three great universities in the ancient world. The others were in Athens and in Alexandria in Egypt. And its crowded wharfs were on the Sidonis River which made it a bustling cosmopolitan city.

Saul’s father was a Roman citizen, but a Jew who passed on the assets of Judaism and Roman citizenship to his son. Saul was so very Jewish that he says in Philippians 3:5-6, these words: “I was circumcised on the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, which means completely devoted to the law, a Pharisee.” “As to zeal, a persecutor of the church. As to the righteousness, which is in the law, found blameless.” He was a devout Jew.

Every young Jewish boy had to learn a trade, and young Saul was taught to weave cloth out of black goat’s hair and fashion it into strips that could be sewn together to make tents. At about 13, when a Jewish boy would become officially a son of the law, it is very likely that Saul was sent off to Jerusalem. Because his family wanted him to study Judaism at the highest level under a well-known teacher named Gamaliel.

So Saul became an expert in Judaism, and in the Old Testament. And by the time of Stephen, Paul is in Jerusalem. And we know that he was highly agitated and angry because he is also a Hellenistic Jew from outside Israel like Stephen. And this man has been circulating among the Hellenistic synagogues in Jerusalem and preaching Jesus Christ. And Stephen is able to gather together a large number of Hellenistic Jews to come to hear about Christ.

And these new believers in Jesus are saying that He died to pay the penalty of our sins, and He rose from the dead to provide salvation; so they are preaching a risen Christ. The church is expanding and exploding by thousands of new people and Saul is furious. He may have tried to argue with them in synagogues, but he certainly silenced Stephen, not with an argument, but with an execution. He then rose to become the leader of the movement to stamp out Christianity.

Years later, he said in Acts 26:9-11, “I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10 And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. 11 And I punished them in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.”

After clearing Jerusalem of those he believed to be heretics, Saul himself decided that he would go after them. He heard that a group of them had gone to Damascus and he received permission from the religious leaders to go to Damascus. Now read Acts 9:1-2, “But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.”

“Breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” means that Saul lived to arrest and kill Christians. And this led to a trip to Damascus, a journey which changed the world. The high priest, as president of the Sanhedrin, was the head of the Jewish state so far as its internal affairs were concerned, and he acted as the one who had absolute authority to give to Saul. With that authority, he takes off for Damascus.

Damascus in ancient times was called, “a handful of pearls and a goblet of emeralds.” Because it was a lovely white city in a green area of plains and trees. Asians used to call Damascus “the paradise on earth.” There was a large Jewish community there, right in the corner of the Mediterranean, where Syria meets Turkey today. And it is estimated by historians that there were tens of thousands of Jews there in 66 A.D and 20,000 of them were massacred.

Paul knew there were Christians in Damascus. In verse 2 they are identified as “belonging to the Way, both men and women.” That is most likely a sarcastic designation because the Christian believed that Jesus Christ was the only way to God. Remember our Lord’s words in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.” Anybody who was associated with Jesus was for Paul a sign of the enemy and he would make them prisoners.

From Jerusalem to Damascus, you just basically go north. Historians tell us it took about six days for that kind of trip. And then verse 3-6, “Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. 4 And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”

Verse 7-9, “The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.” What happened? He just met the Lord Jesus Christ, and then came his momentous conversion.

Let us consider four simple events. First, a divine contact, then divine conviction, divine conversion and finally divine communion. The divine contact comes in verse 3 where Saul suddenly saw a light from heaven. Here is another illustration that the Holy Spirit was making everything happen according to the will of God. This again, is how salvation happens. This is a direct sovereign act of God on Saul. Now not all saved people have this kind of experience.

God usually calls in a still, small voice, but in the case of Saul, He called with a blazing appearance. Now verse 3 here is very cryptic. But there is a lot more detail in Acts 22 and 26 where Paul gives his testimony when he is called into court. Those chapters tell us it was about noon, directly under a bright sun. But there was something extraordinary because we read there that the light of God was much brighter than the sun.

The whole group then collapses to the ground in sheer terror. Acts 22:9 says, “Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.” This is similar to John 12:29, “The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” God spoke there to Christ, and the people heard the sound, but couldn’t understand it.

And in their lack of understanding, they experience something very different from Paul. Verse 7, “The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.” But look what happened to Paul. Look at verse 17, “So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Paul saw the Lord Jesus. Well, what does that mean? In 1 Corinthians 15:8, he says, “Last of all, as to one untimely born, Jesus appeared also to me.” He saw the glorified Christ coming out of the middle of this blazing light. This is a glorious sequel to Stephen when he saw heaven open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And Stephen’s prayer is answered when he said in Acts 7:60, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

And then we see in verse 4, the divine conviction. In bringing a person to salvation, there is an initial contact initiated by God, and then there is the conviction of sin. And verse 4 says, “And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He doesn’t know what hit him, obviously. In Luke’s writings, the repetition of a name like this implies a rebuke or a warning: “Martha, Martha.” “Jerusalem, Jerusalem.” “Simon, Simon.” Here, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?

Why does Jesus say that? Jesus wasn’t even on earth, He was back in heaven. But our Lord teaches this significant reality to us, that to persecute any of His people is to persecute Him, because He is inseparable from His people. He is bound together with all the members of His body so that every stroke which is directed against us is a blow that falls on Him. Persecuting us is persecuting Him.

Later on in his life, Paul would say in Colossians 1:24, “I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church.” Saul learned the great truth that he soon taught and lived, that every member of the body of Christ is one with Christ, the glorious head of the body. That’s how identified we are with Him. Isaiah 53:4, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.”

There are many sins in the world, but the most terrible sin is rejecting Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 16:22, “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.” That is the unpardonable sin and the unforgivable crime. And Saul is literally smashed with that indictment: “You are persecuting the Son of God.” Now that leads to the divine conversion in verse 5, “And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”

Saul knew very well the Christian gospel. But it was because he thought it was blasphemy that he was killing these people. He knew they were proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah, this man as the Son of God. This man is God’s chosen sacrifice for sin. This man rose from the dead. And Saul did not forget the words of Stephen that they had killed the Righteous One, a Messianic title, and that Stephen saw Him, the Son of Man, standing at the right hand of God in heaven.”

And now Saul knows that Jesus is alive. He is the Messiah. He is the One who was standing at God’s right hand. Saul’s heart was broken, he is lying beneath the conquering Christ needing mercy. His heart is full of repentance and sorrow, but at the same time it is healed in faith. His conversion was shocking and sudden. All his doubts were erased and Saul knew the truth immediately.

The battle was over. It had been a difficult battle for Saul. He had been kicking against the goads. What does that mean? A goad was like a nail which was used to pierce and stab an ox to keep him moving. It means to inflict pain on yourself by continuing to do what you do. You can’t fight God, and not experience pain. So all of this is just to describe the feelings of Saul in this amazing encounter.

Proof of that conversion comes really fast. How do we know he was converted there? In his testimony in Acts 22:10 Saul answered and said, ‘What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, ‘Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do.’” The first response of a true conversion is submission and confessing Him as Lord. Saul had a new master: “Master, Lord, what do you want me to do?”

Acts 9:7-9, “The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.” He is broken, devastated, submissive and obedient. This are signs of salvation.

And there’s one final component: the divine communion. What did he do for three days? Saul communed with his new Master. The last thing he had seen before he went blind was the blazing presence of the glory of Jesus. Great guilt weighed him down. He didn’t know what he was supposed to do, all that he had considered precious became rubbish. Salvation was sudden, but its depth are experienced slowly. He is now confused, helpless and without friends. He has friends who are now enemies, and enemies who don’t know they are to be friends. For three days, he communed with his Lord.

This is a magnificent picture of salvation in all its beauty and glory. It is sudden, it is explosive, it is a miracle in the blink of an eye. And it embodies that sovereign work, that conviction of rejecting Christ as the great sin, that conversion of submitting while saying, “Lord, what will you have me to do?” And then that contemplation and communion that thinks deeply about this miracle. Well, that’s only the beginning. Much more to come about even this encounter can we learn later. Let us pray.