The Road to Damascus Experience

https://odb.org/MY/2023/01/07/who-are-you-lord

When it comes to Saul, who became Paul, some people equate his experience to that of a hardened jailed criminal who turned from a life of crime to a life of service in Christ. Such a picture is, to me, somewhat inaccurate as Saul was never lost in the world of crime or drugs or organised crime. Saul was a righteous man all along.

In fact, Saul was a Pharisee who was a member of the Senhadrin, a council for Jews to adjudicate matters relating to their faith. He was thus righteous in the eyes of Mosaic law, a practising Pharisee, and although Pharisees then were regarded as hypocrites, only practising their faith for the eyes of men, it is unlikely that Paul was such a person, seeing what became of him after the Road to Damacus experience. Yes, Paul was murderous when it came to persecuting and prosecuting people of the Way, and some say he was a witness in the martyrdom of Stephen. Yet he was doing what he mistakenly thought was his duty to God.

He was on fire for God but in a totally wrong way as he ended up persecuting Christ. He was righteous before God, but wrongly so as Christ crucified and resurrected had by then became the fulfilment of the law. In other words, the world of faith had moved on from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, from Mosaic law to grace, with the law written in the hearts of man. But note that the Old Testament was not superseded but fulfilled by Christ. The chosen nation has, however, moved on to reach the Gentiles beyond Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria.

What is the lesson for us this morning? I think every one of us can be a Saul. Righteous for God but maybe in a wrong way. It will not be a direct parallel with Saul’s experience as we are unlikely to be Jews. But if we are Jewish and have been following the teachings of the Rabbis religiously for righteousness, it is possible to have a direct parallel with Saul. For the rest of us, especially those of us who reject the teaching on the contemporary manifestation of the Holy Spirit, perhaps it is time for us to allow God to bring us through the Road to Damascus experience that we may finally see the light that Pentecost is not a mere historical event but a continuing ongoing contemporary experience. Or if we had been brought up in our faith in the Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions, perhaps it is time for us to focus more on the Word than the experience. Perhaps we may want to consider knowing Jesus more through the Word than finding formulas on how to bring the glory of God and His presence into our midst. Pray and ask the Lord to open up our spiritual eyes to see beyond our own experience and knowledge and ask the Holy Spirit to broaden our knowledge and experience of Christ. Perhaps it is time for us to have the “Saul turning to Paul phenomenon” in our own lives!