Changing a life's direction

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

"Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked.

"I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting," he replied. "Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."

The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything.

In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!"

"Yes, Lord," he answered.

The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight."

"Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name."

But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."

Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord--Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here--has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit." Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul's eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, "Isn't he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn't he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?" Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ (Acts 9:1-22).

Have you ever changed your mind about something important? I’m not talking about getting dressed for a party and then changing your clothes once or twice before you leave; I’m not talking about starting to look at the want ads by the end of your first day on a new job. I’m talking about something big, a major change in how you look at something in your life. Perhaps you were engaged to be married, but then your intended did something that completely changed the way that you looked at him/her—and suddenly marriage didn’t look very appealing anymore. Maybe you bought a home that you thought was absolutely perfect, but ten years and three children later, that perfect home was not so perfect anymore. Have you ever changed your mind about something important in your life? Have you ever wished that you had made some decisions differently?

The Greek language has a word for this. Metanoeo means "to have a change of heart." Most Bibles translate this word as ‘repent.’ "To repent" is to have a change of heart, to look at your life differently than you did before, to rearrange your priorities and regret past decisions. When you repent the past, you are showing that you are ready for something new—a new way of life with new values, new priorities, new goals. Repentance prepares a person for conversion to something different. Repentance rejects being stuck with the problems of the past; conversion embraces a new future, bright with hope.

Saul experienced a remarkable conversion. This conversion was so life-altering that God subsequently changed his name to Paul, to show that the apostle to the Gentiles was fundamentally different from the man who started his career trying to destroy Christ’s church. Saul began life a very different man than he ended it. The first mention of Saul is at the death of Stephen the martyr. Stephen was the first follower of Jesus to be killed because of his faith in the Lord, and Saul watched this execution with great interest. In Galatians 1:14 he tells us, I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. Saul took his faith in God very seriously. He believed that no one goes to heaven unless they have a healthy relationship with God; it was important to live your life in a way that obeyed God’s rules, and when you sinned, you had to offer a sacrifice of atonement to be reinstated into God’s good graces. People who didn’t live this way would be cursed to everlasting torment in hell. Saul knew his Old Testament very well—he was an exemplary Jew.

Which is why Saul hated Jesus and His followers so much. As far as Saul was concerned, Jesus was a false Messiah, a mere man who had the audacity to claim that He was God’s own Son. Saul was greatly pleased that Jesus was executed for the high crime of claiming to be God; no one should be allowed to get away with such a terrible deception. But then Jesus’ grave was found to be empty, and Jesus’ disciples were claiming that He had risen from the dead and ascended bodily into heaven! Of course, Saul didn’t accept these wild claims—like many, he believed that the disciples had moved Jesus’ body to some unknown location and were now perpetuating the lie that He was the Messiah from God. This was intolerable; the disciples were teaching people that sacrifices for sins were no longer needed, because this Jesus had offered Himself to God as a final sacrifice for every person’s sins. Because of this teaching, people were not offering sacrifices for their sins anymore—they were rejecting the method by which they could be forgiven. In Saul’s estimation, these disciples were leading good Jewish people to the gates of hell—they were servants of Satan himself!

So Saul set out to destroy this new church before more Jewish souls were put at risk. Saul organized the arrest, interrogation, and even the execution of these ‘pawns of the devil’. Saul brought holy justice against these followers of a ‘lying deceiver’. And Saul took great pride in his work on God’s behalf.

It is hard to imagine that God would show compassion to a man who, out of pride, was bringing terror and death to the faithful in Christ. But God’s compassion is often a mystery to us, and our Lord was determined to show Saul the error of his ways and bring about a new outlook on life. So Jesus appeared to Saul in a blinding light and spoke to him personally. Saul was confronted by the truth that he had turned a blind eye to for so long—that Jesus really is God, Son of the heavenly Father. And, being confronted by that truth, Saul reevaluated everything that he had believed up to that point in his life. Saul looked back at the time he could have spent learning at Jesus’ feet but did not; he reflected on the pride he had felt as he treated Jesus’ followers like criminals; and he was ashamed of those decisions. Because of his encounter with Jesus, Saul’s values, priorities and goals were seen clearly as being wrong-headed and sinful; Saul realized that when he thought he had been doing the right thing, in actuality he had been acting in opposition to God.

Although he could see just fine, Saul had been blind to how things really were—and to bring this point home, Jesus now made Saul physically blind. Saul had to be led into the city, where he sat dejected, refusing food or drink, agonizing over the mistakes of a misspent life. Saul had changed his mind about how his life should be lived; Saul had repented. Now at last, Saul was ready to listen to Jesus and pay attention to His teachings. So the Lord sent Ananias to show Saul that he was forgiven by restoring his sight. Then Saul was given the blessings that come with conversion—through baptism, he received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and membership in the kingdom of God!

The change in Saul’s life was incredible. Within a matter of days, Saul was preaching in public—preaching about Jesus, the Son of God! Saul had known the Old Testament as well as any religious scholar, and now, illumined by Jesus through his conversion, Saul could see what those Scriptures said in a whole new light. The Old Testament contains over 300 predictions about God’s promised Messiah, and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Saul could see that each and every prophecy was fulfilled in Jesus! Every Jew held that the Old Testament was the true word of God, and Paul was now able to prove from those very Scriptures that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. Saul could see where he and his fellow Jews had been right—God does expect His people to set aside time to worship Him, and to lead morally upright lives according to His rules of conduct. It is also true that everyone is born weak, that we all anger God every day by acting selfishly. And the Jews were correct in believing that God was willing to forgive such sins if the right sacrifice was offered for them. But where Saul and people like him had gone off track was in understanding the kind of sacrifice that God wanted. In the Old Testament, God was content to accept sacrifices burned on altars of stone. But a time came when people offered sacrifices not out of sorrow over sins, but as if life were merely a game of Monopoly—for most, offering a sacrifice for sin had become no more meaningful than playing a "Get Out of Jail" card.

So God the Father sent His Son Jesus to assume the role of ultimate sacrifice. Jesus came to earth to die once for all human sin. When Jesus was slain on the wooden altar of the cross, the Old Testament system of sacrifices was brought to an end—Jesus’ life as the Son of God was worth more than all the sins that could ever be committed. And best of all, Jesus made this self-sacrifice so that forgiveness would be available to anyone—all that is needed is to ask for it, trusting that Jesus will give it.

As a result of his meeting with Jesus, Saul’s life was turned upside down. Formerly a man of pride, he later wrote in Galatians 6:14, May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. When he was pursuing Christians to arrest them, Saul lived his life according to his own desires; after becoming an apostle of Christ, his lifestyle changed considerably. In 2nd Corinthians chapter eleven Paul spoke of his life as a minister of the Lord: Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. From Paul’s own lips we see fulfilled Jesus’ words: I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.

But we must not misunderstand Jesus. Paul’s sufferings as an apostle had nothing to do with Jesus ‘getting even with him’ for persecuting the church. Those hardships were not Paul’s way of paying off a debt of guilt. Remember, in Jesus all sins are completely forgiven—including Paul’s crimes against Christianity. No, the reason that Paul suffered for his Savior is because every Christian suffers for his Lord. Jesus said, If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me (Luke 9:23). In Revelation chapter two our Lord tells us: Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution... Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. Christians suffer because Satan hates God and those who speak for Him. Satan tries to stop us from speaking about Jesus by making us afraid—afraid of people making fun of us, afraid of losing friends because we act ‘too religious’, afraid of being targeted by terrorists who hate Christ and His followers. And the more active we are in Christ’s service, the harder Satan tries to distract us with troubles.

Paul took satisfaction in his sufferings because the harder that Satan tried to stop him, the more reassured he was that he was doing Jesus’ work. In addition, Paul knew that going through suffering can strengthen a Christian; in Romans 5:3-5 he wrote, we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Living a life in service to Christ gave Paul a new perspective on what a person really needs to be happy: I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength (Philippians 4:11-13). Paul was able to face suffering with patience because he looked beyond the problems of the day and concentrated on the big picture: I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18).

The life of the apostle Paul gives us a wonderfully complete picture of what being a Christian is all about. We enter this world separated from God, hostile to His message and His leadership. But when we are introduced to Jesus, something amazing happens—when we look at our priorities, our goals and the decisions that we’ve made in pursuit of them, the light of being in our Savior’s presence allows us to look at it all in a whole new way. Jesus shows us where we’ve gone off track, and when we repent, when we have a deep-down change of heart, our Lord rearranges our lives with new priorities, new goals, and release from the guilt of past mistakes. Through holy Baptism, we are gifted with an inheritance in heaven, and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The Spirit of God helps us to read and hear the Holy Bible with an understanding we never had before, and enables us to convey the truth of who Jesus is to other people. Of course, Satan will try and get in our way, but we have the reassurance that any suffering we undergo as a Christian will be used by our Savior to strengthen us so that we can be a source of Christian strength to others.

Saul was far from being a perfect man. Even after he was renamed Paul, he was still sinner until the day he died—near the end of his life, Paul wrote: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life (1 Timothy 1:15-16). This is the hope that we have by looking at Paul’s life—if he could be forgiven and remade as useful to God, you and I can certainly be as well.