ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Saul of Tarsus, who is better known as the Apostle Paul, is a very interesting study in the grace of God.  If there ever was one whom the early Church considered unreachable with the gospel message, it was Paul. 

 

Naturally speaking, Paul was equipped with everything that he needed to become a great man of God.  He was born into a respected tribe of Israel, highly educated in the Law of Moses (which he observed religiously, and considered himself blameless in its precepts).  Overall, he was viewed as a “Hebrew of the Hebrews.”  Just as his father had been, Paul was a member of the Jewish sect known as the Pharisees.  This faction was the most influential of the three main Jewish sects of the day.  He was a student of the famous and respected teacher, Gamaliel.  Paul was also born a Roman citizen.  This gave him special privileges throughout the Empire. 

 

Paul was a doer.  He wasn’t content to just sit by passively and talk about his religion: he needed to be engaged, and he needed to be involved.  It was his zeal that led him to what might have become his life’s work: persecuting and rounding up Christians to be imprisoned and killed.  You see, for all Paul’s religion and godliness, he was misguided and very full of his own “rightness.”  It was he, this righteous man, who openly approved the stoning of the Christian martyr Stephen.  Later, he obtained official letters to take to the synagogues in Damascus giving him authority to apprehend Christians and take them back to Jerusalem to stand judgment. 

 

It was at this point in Paul’s life that something incredibly life-altering occurred.  On his way to Damascus, there suddenly was a great light which shone so brightly on Paul that it blinded him, and he fell to the ground.  A voice then spoke to him that said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me.”  The greatest shock of his life, though, was when Paul asked who this heavenly being was who was speaking to him, and the voice answered, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest,” (Acts 9:4, 5).  Can you imagine the confusion in Paul’s mind at considering the fact that the very One whom he thought he was serving was the One whom he was actually persecuting!  No wonder that he sat in blindness for three days afterwards pondering his life and his beliefs.  Much like when one has been in a dark room for a time and then walks out into a bright, sunlit day and must shield their eyes from the brightness; so Paul was blinded by the light that flooded into his dark soul.  He initially was blinded by this heavenly light, but it was only so that he might really see for the first time in his life.  Paul’s next words were significant.  He asked, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” (Acts 9:6 NKJV).

 

It's not until we encounter Jesus in a personal way that we can see ourselves in the light of God's love and brilliance.  That revelation is often so intense that we cannot see or understand it at first.  Like Paul, we may struggle with the truth for a while until our eyes are opened and mercy prevails.  Ultimately, though, we come to see the danger in choosing to do what we think is right as opposed to what the Lord would have us to do, and what He would show us is right.  Then we, too, are content to leave our own works, and ask God what He wants us to do.

 

It's easy to see ourselves in Paul’s story.  Even as Christians we sometimes can get so wrapped up in the “rightness” of our cause, that we become cruel in our judgments against other people, Christians and sinners alike.  Like Paul, we are willing to stand by and see others “stoned” and not step in to defend them, but instead we approve, or worse, participate in the “stoning.”  We gossip, we judge, we tear apart others, all because we feel that ours is a position of superiority, wisdom, and truth.  All the while, it is really the Lord Jesus whom we are hurting by seeking to inflict our “punishments” on others.  

 

Jesus said to Paul, “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks,”  “Pricks” are long, pointed iron tipped stakes that were used as goads to prod animals when they strayed from the direction that the cattle herder wanted them to go.  The Lord was telling Paul that He had been trying to get his attention all along, but Paul was too busy going his own way, and resisting the very things that God was using to prod him into the right way. 

 

The name Saul means “desired.”  All along, even at his worst, Saul was a chosen vessel to God.  God desired for Saul to know Him and to serve Him.  After his conversion, Saul preferred to be called Paul, which means “small,” or “little.”  Paul was forever humbled by his experience on the road to Damascus, and he considered himself small from that time forth.  His testimony became focused not on his own self-righteousness but, instead, on this: “what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith,” (Philippians 3:7, 8). 

 

Sometimes we are so occupied with our destinations that we often miss the trip itself.  We can be so focused on some lofty goal that we miss the road that we travel to get there.  Like the priest and the Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan, we can ignore the desperate needs that we encounter on the road, not wanting to get our hands dirty, or to reach out to those we think are beneath us.  It is how we react to the hazards of this road of life that defines our true character.  It has been said that we can be so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.  Many people have been duped into believing that they are going to heaven regardless of what they do on earth in the meantime.  Scripture tells us very clearly, however, that we must, “…grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).  This brilliant light that is Christ is meant to transform us from our old nature into the divine nature.  Like looking into the sun, it is usually painful at first, and blinding to our sensibilities, but God’s intent, ultimately, is only that we may see Him Who died and rose again for our salvation, and by seeing Him clearly, we might become transformed into His likeness little by little, and day by day.

 

"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:13, 14).