Creator, Father, King #258

Before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him to reveal his Son to me so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles.

SAUL FELL TO THE ground—terrified, helpless, and temporarily blinded. He had been traveling on a desert road between Jerusalem and Damascus at midday, with the sun at its zenith, yet a mysterious light had flashed from heaven so brightly, it dwarfed the sun’s brilliance and knocked Saul over.

Suddenly, a voice thundered from heaven: “Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”

“Who are you, lord?” he replied, honestly unaware.

The voice answered, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting!” (Acts 22:6-16).

Saul, the great persecutor of the early church, would never be the same.

Rewind to a tragic scene in Jerusalem. With malicious approval, Saul had watched as the Jewish religious leaders stoned Stephen to death (Acts 7:58). He hated Christians. As a devoted Pharisee, he didn’t believe in Jesus’ deity, and he considered Christianity a threat against Judaism. In Saul’s mind, Christianity had to be eradicated.

Then Saul met the risen, glorified Savior, and everything changed.

What’s It Mean?

Few conversions, if any, in the history of Christianity are more radical than Saul’s. After being stunned by Christ’s glory, Saul (who changed his name to Paul) spent the rest of his life proclaiming the gospel and planting churches all over the Roman Empire and writing nearly half (thirteen) of the New Testament’s twenty-seven books.

Paul literally changed the world. Two thousand years later, we still benefit daily from his ministry as we read his divinely inspired letters and digest the gospel truths that he so beautifully explained.

But Paul’s incredible transformation wasn’t his own doing. Look at today’s verse: God sovereignly “chose” and “called” Paul, then gave him a job to do (“proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles”).

Today, God is still calling and equipping all his chosen to “do the good things he planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10). Everyone whom God graciously chooses to save he effectively calls by his Spirit to respond to the gospel. Then he equips them for the ministry that he kindly planned in advance for them.

God has a plan for you! Like Paul, submit to God’s will and use your gifts to change the world, one life at a time.

Now What?

Read about Paul’s miraculous conversion in Acts 9:1-31.

Did You Know?

Paul recounts his conversion experience and other interesting autobiographical details in Acts 26:1-20; Galatians 1:11–2:14; Philippians 3:4-6; and 1 Timothy 1:12-16.