In this article we will look at Saul’s conversion to a new creature in Christ who became the apostle Paul and compare it to some of his writings. In modern America we tend to think of conversion as something that just happens rather than striving to know how conversion really happens. The theology of the apostle Paul is not something distinct from his conversion, but instead his theology explains his conversion. Saul did not become Paul just because he intellectually understood some facts about grace, but because the grace of God overcame his heart and he became a new creature because of who God was and not because of what Saul/Paul had done. We must learn to drink at the well of living water rather than just read about it. A human being can die of thirst on the shores of a large body of water if s/he does not drink. So just reading about grace and the theology of grace can leave a soul with a lot of information but without the life of God in the soul.
“Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, 2 and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; 4 and he fell to the ground and 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 get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” 7 The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank” (Acts 9:1-9).
One of the passages that Paul wrote about was drilled home to the heart of Paul. “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET” (Rom 7:7). While it may sound strange to some, covetousness is the command that reaches the heart with all of the other commands. It is the grasping and covetous heart that desires to be god rather than bow to God. It is the covetous heart that wants to worship as it wants to worship rather than as God commands. It is the covetous heart that desires its own name to be honored rather than not take God’s name in vain. It is the covetous heart that does not keep the Sabbath holy and the one that follows its own heart rather than honor its parents. It is the covetous heart that is describes as lusting for other people, the property of other people, and will lie to cover its own tracks. When the light shone on Paul and then in Paul, he knew then who and why he was persecuting. He was persecuting Jesus Himself in persecuting Christians and that meant that he was an idolater who was coveting honor for himself.
Paul found out what the teaching of grace really is. He knew that he was dead in his trespasses and sins and even while he was very religious he was following the ways of self and the world. He knew that nothing would have turned him from his very religious and self-centered course other than grace. He was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” He was intent on what he was doing and it was grace that took Paul from his route to Damascus and changed his heart. It was grace that took a man who was so covetous in heart and made him a man that loved the Lord and His followers. Paul was a man committed to his good works and to zeal for the Lord (he thought) in his ways according to the Pharisees. But he later knew that it was “by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Eph 2:8). Paul’s conversion was such that it demonstrated that he was saved by grace and grace alone.
When the light shone around Paul on the road to Damascus and he heard that the one shining the light was Jesus whom he was persecuting, Paul saw his own heart. What he later wrote in Romans 8 is likely what he felt deep in his soul then as he looked back on being an unbeliever: “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God” (8:6-8). He knew that in what he thought was service to God he was acting with hostility to God and had no ability to keep the law. The truths of Romans 8 had been felt by Paul and he was writing true theology but also what he had felt in his own soul. As he wrote about the inability of man to keep the law and the hostility of the heart toward God, the anguish was probably in his own heart because he was describing himself when he was Saul.
Rom 9:14 – “What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”
Earlier in Romans 9 Paul had been talking about his kinsman according to the flesh. He moved on to speak of the Old Testament blessings that belonged to Israel. He talked about how it is not the children of the flesh who are children of Abraham and of God, but those who are children of promise. He then spoke of the glory of God shown to Moses when God told Moses that He would have mercy on whom He would have mercy. Paul was not running toward God, but away from the true God in his hostility and hatred for Him. It does not depend on the man who wills to be saved or runs in order to be saved, but instead it depends totally on God. God has mercy on whom He desires because no one deserves the mercy of God, and Paul thought of himself as especially unworthy of mercy. There could be no doubt in the case of Paul that he was saved apart from his good works and apart from his own seeking of God. It was God who decided to show mercy to Paul and save his wretched soul by grace alone. There is nothing in Acts 9 that teaches of anything but the grace and love of God set on Paul and drawing Him to Himself. Paul was dead in sin, hated God, and was persecuting the Church of the living God. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us (Eph 2:4). There is no explanation for the salvation of Paul but God who set His love on Paul because He decided to have mercy on him. Paul wrote about the doctrine of election because he saw this as salvation by grace alone. He had been arrested by God while he (Saul) was in mad pursuit of his hatred of God. Paul knew that election was true or he (Paul) would never have been saved.
Rom 3:24 – “being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. 27 Where then is boasting? It is excluded.”
Paul saw so clearly that the cause of justification is the grace of God and not himself. What cause or goodness can we find in Paul from Acts 9? What cause can we find in Paul for God to justify Paul? There was no cause at all for Paul to be justified other than the causes that God found in Himself. God saved Paul because God found causes within God to save Paul. Paul was bent on causing Christians in Damascus to suffer and die out of hatred for the true God. What did God find in Paul to cause Him to set His love on Him? It could only have been His own purposes. Paul was full of nothing but hatred for God and had a covetous heart that sought himself rather than God. In the justification of Paul, it was easy for him to write that he had nothing to boast of and that God saved him (Paul) to demonstrate His own righteousness. Paul said that he boasted in nothing but the cross (Gal 6:14) and he learned that by his theology, the Gospel, and his own heart from which he was saved.
There is much to learn from the conversion of Saul to Paul. If men will but see their own hearts and their hatred and enmity toward God, they will understand the truth of salvation by grace alone. When men see that in their hearts there is a desire to be against true Christians, they will see their own hearts and know that it is grace alone that will save them. When men see their own hearts as dead in sins and trespasses, they will know that nothing but the grace of God can bring their dead souls to life. When men understand that they are as bad as Saul and the worst of sinners, they will understand that there is nothing but the electing love of God that can raise them from the spiritual dead. When men feel the weight of their sin in their hearts and know the depravity that is twisted in with their every thought, desire, motive, and intent; they will know that they must be saved by grace or they will not be saved at all. When men begin to understand that God has no obligation to save them but is just in treating them as He treated Pharaoh, then they will understand that it means to be saved by grace alone. Saul was not saved by a choice of his will or anything else he wanted, desired, or did. But the grace of God took him and changed his heart. What he once hated and persecuted he became. The city he went to in order to persecute he was led by the hand to enter and receive the Holy Spirit. The persecutor became the persecuted because God saved him by grace alone.
God Loves... Himself 
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