{"id":8267,"date":"2020-08-10T16:16:52","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T16:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8267"},"modified":"2024-09-20T21:07:11","modified_gmt":"2024-09-20T21:07:11","slug":"the-conversion-of-saul-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8267","title":{"rendered":"The Conversion of Saul"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0<\/p><p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif;\">[<strong>Note<\/strong><strong>:\u00a0 <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our <strong>Brief Articles 2<\/strong>\u00a0 page.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Saul of Tarsus was a fierce persecutor of Christians when he first appears in the New Testament record (Acts 7:58\u20138:3). His change from cruel crusader against the church to Jesus\u2019 most ardent advocate as Paul, the apostle of Jesus, is one of the remarkable narratives of history. Saul\u2019s conversion holds significant implications:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Those who have lived, are living, and will live in the Christian Age cannot be saved from the eternal consequences of sin by their physical ancestry. Saul was born as a member of God\u2019s chosen race under Moses\u2019 Law. However, at Jesus\u2019 death, His Will\/Law for all men replaced Moses\u2019 Law (Col. 2:14; Heb. 10:9\u201310). Saul had to obey the Gospel to be saved\u2014as must all others (Mark 16:15\u201316; Rom. 1:16\u201317; 2 The. 1:7\u20139).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Saul\u2019s piety, sincerity, and zeal couldn\u2019t save him (Acts 22:3\u20135; 23:1; 26:5; Gal. 1:14). In spite of these, he was lost. So are millions today\u2014religious, sincere, zealous\u2014and lost.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">One may be religious, sincere, and zealous, but still oppose Christ and His church, as did Saul (Acts 26:9\u201311). Multitudes of sincere, zealous, religious people today oppose Jesus by their unauthorized religious bodies, doctrines, and practices.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">To mistreat Jesus\u2019 church is to mistreat Him. Saul persecuted the <strong>church<\/strong>, but when Jesus appeared to him near Damascus, He asked him, \u201cWhy persecutest thou <strong>me<\/strong>?\u201d (Acts 8:1; 9:4). When men neglect, pervert, despise, or persecute the Lord\u2019s church, they do the same to the Lord. Likewise, we express our love for Jesus, first by obeying His plan of salvation and thereafter by serving Him faithfully in His church (John 14:15; Eph. 3:21).<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">One cannot be saved by faith alone. After confessing his faith in the Christ, still on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1\u20135), Saul then asked, \u201cWhat shall I do, Lord?\u201d (22:10). Jesus didn\u2019t say, \u201cNothing, Saul: you were saved the moment you believed.\u201d No, Jesus told him in Damascus he would be told \u201cwhat thou <strong>must<\/strong> do\u201d (9:6, emp. DM). If Saul was saved when he believed in Jesus, neither Saul nor Jesus knew it. The Lord doesn\u2019t have different plans of salvation for different people; He has never saved anyone by faith alone, as essential as faith is.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Baptism is the culminating act in Jesus\u2019 plan of salvation. God doesn\u2019t forgive\/save the penitent sinner at the point of faith, but in the act of baptism (Acts 2:38). Note carefully: Saul believed in the Lord and fasted and prayed three days (Acts 9:9\u201311, obvious evidence of repentance), but, he still was not forgiven of his sins\/saved. Ananias, the Lord\u2019s messenger, told Saul: \u201cbe <strong>baptized<\/strong>, and <strong>wash away thy sins<\/strong>\u201d (22:16, emp. DM), <strong>thereby <\/strong>calling on the Lord for salvation. That which Ananias commanded Saul to do is what Jesus stated: \u201cHe that believeth and is baptized shall be saved\u201d (Mark. 16:16).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 12pt;\">Only by following Saul\u2019s pattern of conversion\u2014involving faith that results in baptism for the remission of sins and a life of faithful service to Christ\u2014can we say with Saul\/Paul at last, \u201cI have kept the faith:\u2026henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness\u2026\u201d (2 Tim. 4:7\u20138).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\">[<strong>Note: <\/strong>I wrote this article for and it was published in the <em>Denton Record-Chronicle, <\/em>Denton, TX, April 15, 2016.]<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>Attribution<\/strong>: From <em>thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner, curator, and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'book antiqua', palatino, serif; font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Views: 0[Note:\u00a0 This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles 2\u00a0 page.] Saul of Tarsus was a fierce persecutor of Christians when he first appears in the New Testament record (Acts 7:58\u20138:3). His change from cruel crusader against the church to Jesus\u2019&#8230;<\/p>\n<div class=\"easywp-readmore\"><a class=\"read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=8267\">Continue Reading&#8230;<span class=\"easywp-sr-only\">  The Conversion of Saul<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[509,37,68,137,84,140,411,206,18,83,102,510,269,40,72,216,154,302],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ancestry","category-baptism","category-christ-authority","category-deity-of","category-the","category-confession-of-faith","category-faith-only","category-faithfulness","category-false-teachersdoctrine","category-law-of-moses","category-love","category-neglect","category-persecution-2","category-plan-of","category-salvation","category-serving","category-sincerity","category-zeal","wpcat-509-id","wpcat-37-id","wpcat-68-id","wpcat-137-id","wpcat-84-id","wpcat-140-id","wpcat-411-id","wpcat-206-id","wpcat-18-id","wpcat-83-id","wpcat-102-id","wpcat-510-id","wpcat-269-id","wpcat-40-id","wpcat-72-id","wpcat-216-id","wpcat-154-id","wpcat-302-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8267"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23763,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8267\/revisions\/23763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}