Read Acts Chapter 9 verses 1-18 for the details.
By birth, heritage, and training, Saul of Tarsus was a
proud, and intense Jewish Pharisee whose convictions led him to become the main
persecutor of the early Christian church, see e.g. Acts
22:4.
But God spoke to Saul
in a dramatic way at a time when he was breathing out “threatening
and slaughter” (Acts 9:1) which resulted
in him completely changing his mind about the most important things in his life.
The main issue in his mind was, “what is God’s way of making us right with
Himself?” Traditionally, Saul had
been taught, and he fervently believed, that rightness with God was achieved
through keeping God’s law. This was something that was dependent on his own
goodness and his ability to obey God’s law. That was why Saul was so fervent a
member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law (Phil
3:5). But when he grasped that Jesus was the Son of God who had died on
the cross as a sacrifice for sin, he recognized that instead of working to
secure his own salvation (an impossibility!), he should trust Christ to save
him. He himself testified, “what things were gain to me
those I counted loss for Christ (Phil 3:7). Salvation, he recognised, was
not based on his own efforts but on Christ’s action. Not surprisingly, Saul
renounced a religion that ignored Christ’s sacrificial death and resurrection,
and he embraced with all his heart the living Lord Jesus and His cause.
When a man is truly converted to Christ, his life is
changed and with God's help he changes his world. The Lord Jesus said, 'Except
ye be converted...ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven' (Mat
18.3).
God Himself is the initiator of a man's conversion by: (a)
commanding him to be converted; (b) calling the man to return unto
Him; (c) calling him to forsake his sin; (d) upholding before man
the promise of the forgiveness of sins, restoration and a life of
rich blessings; and (e) warning man of judgment if he fails to heed
God’s call and command.
Conversion is not a human invention nor the product of the human
mind; it originates in the mind and will of God, who
commands all men everywhere to repent (Acts
17.30) and be converted (Acts
3.19).
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