PAUL’S CONVERSION TESTIMONY
KEY VERSE – It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (Gal. 5:1) SECONDARY THEME VERSES: “A man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2:16); “If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing” (Gal. 2:21).
THEME: Salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone releases us from the yoke of the law, freeing us to live a life of love through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Legal (Imputed) Righteousness: We are justified by faith in Christ (Gal. 2:16). Imparted Righteousness: Immediate Moral Change at conversion (Gal. 6:15); Gradual Moral Change through the fruit-growing work of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22) which requires our cooperation (Gal 5:16-17, 25, 6:8). We cooperate by using CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection, Confession/Thanksgiving. Foundational verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14)
Good Teachers: (1) Constantly re-evaluate what they are doing; (2) Set large goals; (3) Ask – Does everything I do contribute to learning?; (4) Prepare well; (5) Check for understanding; (6) Like teaching; (7) Get results from their teaching; (8) Have perseverance. Don’t give up.
TEACHING GOAL: To understand clearly the various aspects of Paul’s conversion to Christ.
TEXT FOR THE DAY:
For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. (Galatians 1:13-17)
PAUL’S CONVERSION TESTIMONY
1. Pre-Conversion (13-14)
2. Conversion (15-16b)
3. Post-Conversion (16c-17)
INTRODUCTION
The problem Paul is facing is “How can I prove to the Galatians the essentially supernatural nature of the gospel which I preached to them and which I still preach?”
1:11-12 Paul’s thesis statement: My Gospel was received by divine revelation.
From 1:13-4:31 Paul defends his position as an apostle and for the divine authenticity of the Gospel of Grace that he preaches.
How does he defend his thesis? He starts by giving his testimony, and then talking about his relationship with the church leadership in Jerusalem. Galatians 1:13-2:21 is the biographical section of the letter.
Paul endeavors to show his independence from: (1) Human Teaching (1:13-17); (2) The Judean churches (1:18-24); (3) The Jerusalem “pillars” (2:1-10); (4) The Apostle Peter (2:11-21).
II. CONVERSION
How do you convert a bigot and fanatic?
BUT WHEN GOD
Notice when Paul described his life before his conversion in vss. 13-14 – “my way of life,” “I persecuted,” “I was advancing,” “[I] was extremely zealous” “my fathers.”
In verse 15-16 everything shifts …But when GOD … God set me apart, God called me, God revealed His Son in me.
In verses 13-14 Paul is the subject of the sentence, the actor in his ego centered life. In 15-16 Paul is the object of the sentence and is being acted upon.
If you have always been the “subject” of the sentence when you describe your relationship with God, you are not a believer. Those who are believers have been ‘acted upon’ by God, been a ‘direct object.’
If it is always ‘I found God’ and not ‘God found me’ you need to rethink your relationship with God.
People may ask you, “Why do you believe that?” as if we had a choice. When God is the subject, we don’t make choices on whether or not we believe the Gospel.
“The knowledge of Christ and of faith is not a human work but utterly a divine gift.” (Martin Luther)
SET APART FROM BIRTH
“Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name. . . . . And now the LORD says – he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD and my God has been my strength. (Isaiah 49:1, 5)
The word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:4-5)
We should not be surprised at Paul’s statement. We see this also in relation to our salvation: “He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.” . . . “In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will . . .” (Ephesians 1:4,11)
At the time of Paul’s conversion God revealed to Ananias in a vision that “This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles ….” (Acts 9:15/
Paul speaks of himself in Romans 1:1 as “. . . set apart for the Gospel of God —“
If he was set apart before his birth then he had nothing to do with his conversion.
READING: At the age of fifteen, however, Lewis was not ready to take on the world. He wrote repeatedly to his father asking to be removed from Malvern, eventually threatening to shoot himself unless his father allowed him to withdraw. Accordingly, Albert Lewis sent him to live with a private tutor named William Kirkpatrick, who ran a small ‘cramming school’ in Great Bookham, Surrey. “Kirk” or the “Great Knock” (as he was dubbed by the Lewis family) had been the schoolmaster at Lurgan College near Belfast, which Albert had attended and where he had accumulated a great many fond, if sentimental, memories. Kirkpatrick turned out to be utterly unlike the mawkish reminiscences Albert had shared with his sons. He was a forthright and skeptical man, a pugnacious atheist of the old-fashioned Thomas Huxley variety. Lewis says he “came near to being a purely logical entity,” who considered even the most casual remark a “summons to disputation.” Many a teenager would have quavered under such a teacher, but the young Lewis enjoyed the intellectual challenge and the rigorous standards of logical precision. He thrived under this style of tutoring as “red beef and strong beer.” (The Most Reluctant Convert, 51-52)
All of this prepared C.S. Lewis to be the greatest Christian apologist of the last century. His books are carefully crafted, his arguments for belief logically stated.
QUESTION: Think back on your life. What happened prior to your conversion that prepared you for the ministry that the Lord has given you today?
CALLED ME
The Galatians were “called” to the Gospel (vs. 6). Now Paul says he was “called” to service (vs. 15).
“Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God –“ (Roman 1:1)
God’s call is an irresistible call, a powerful call.
ILLUSTRATION: When God speaks, there is light, there is vegetation, there are animals. All God does is say, “Let there be light.” When Jesus said to the sea, “Peace be still” it was still. God’s call is a call of power. There is not much power in our call. We call the children and they reply, “Coming.” Two minutes later we call them again, “Coming in a minute.” Finally we go in and pick them up and bring them.
Our calling of someone is not effectual. God’s specific call to an individual is a call of power.
QUESTION: As you look back upon God’s call to you …. does it seem like a call of power? As you look back on your life does it almost seem like you were being drawn along to Christ, in spite of yourself?
BY HIS GRACE
He reminded the Galatians in vs. 6 of the “one who called you by the grace of Christ.”
Paul says that God’s setting him apart from birth and God’s call him were acts of grace.
Paul writes in II Timothy: ”God has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time.” (II Timothy 1:9)
In Deuteronomy we read: The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all people. (Deut. 7:7)
Salvation is by grace. A call to type of service we are involved in is also by grace.
WAS PLEASED
“To Paul the origin of all human salvation lies in the mind and loving purpose of God.” (Cole, 90)
“Paul neither deserved mercy nor sought mercy nor was interested in mercy. But mercy found him.” (Stott, 32)
Only God can make the Gospel occur. God is always the contemporary author of Good News.
REVEAL HIS SON IN ME
“God revealed His Son in and through me.” (NEB)
“To me” and “in me” are both valid translations. If “to me” … an objective experience. If “in me” a subjective experience.
Dr. Timothy Keller says that unless a person has embraced objective truth along with having a subjective experience he is not a Christian.
ILLUSTRATION: Our faith cannot be based just on a subjective experience – He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart. We must also embrace objective truth: God sent His Son, they called Him Jesus. He came to love, heal and forgive. He lived and died to buy my pardon. An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives. (Bill Gaither)
What begins as a revelation to Paul … Jesus is the Son of Man, the Messiah, becomes a revelation in Paul as the crucified Savior begins to live in Paul.
It is interesting that the Father in heaven revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God (Mt. 16:17) and here again it is God who reveals to Paul that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Truly it is God who makes His light shine in our hearts. (II Cor. 4:6)
THAT I MIGHT PREACH HIM
“Paul does not say that his mission began with the preaching of a wiser path of life, a better route to happiness, and so on. He does not say even that his task was to preach a non-Law gospel in contrast to the Law. God called him to preach Christ, the good news being Christ’s advent into the world.” (JLM, 159)
In Acts 9:15 we read that Paul was to bear Christ’s name before the Gentiles. In I Cor. 1:23 he wrote, “But we preach Christ crucified” and in I Cor. 2:2 he even states, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
Christ is the core of the Gospel. He is the message and fills out the message.
PREACH HIM AMONG THE GENTILES
Reaching the Gentiles with the Gospel has always been the longing of God’s heart. In Isaiah the LORD says, “. . . I will make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Isa. 49:6)
The word for Gentiles is “ethnesin” from which we get “ethnic” and just means the peoples, people groups of the world.
Paul gives a detailed explanation about his call:
Acts 9:15-16 – A chosen instrument to go to Gentiles, kings, people of Israel.
Acts 22:15 – A witness to all men of what you have seen and heard.
Acts 26:16-18 – Sent to open eyes, turn from darkness to light.
II Tim. 2:7 – A herald, apostle, teacher … to the Gentiles.
Eph. 3:8 – This grace given to me to preach to the Gentiles.
Paul’s conversion and call were not a two step or two stage process. It all came together in one great experience.
There is no question that Paul had a call and commissioning not dissimilar to the original 12 apostles … “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel” and certainly superior to any call experienced by the Judaizers who were challenging his apostolic credentials.
III. POST CONVERSION
I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.
PAUL’S INTIAL STEPS AFTER HIS CONVERSION
He did not consult with any man (flesh and blood). When Peter declared that Jesus was the Messiah Jesus noted that “flesh and blood” had no revealed this to him.
I don’t think we understand how this conversion affected Paul’s worldview. J.L. Martyn writes, “Paul had to rethink the whole of to conceptual world in which he had been living.” (JLM 163) The idea of a crucified Messiah that had come, died and risen was completely unbelievable and unfathomable to him.
He went to Arabia. What did he do there? Some feel that he both preached the Gospel to the Gentiles in Arabia and he also used this for a time of reflection. His conversion was clear but had to be assimilated into his belief system. His call was clear and demanded action … preaching to the Gentiles.
Paul eventually had to flee Damascus and some felt this was due to his preaching and causing an uproar in Arabia. (II Cor. 11:24; Acts 9:23-24) Damascus was the capital city of the area.
PAUL’S FOLLOW THROUGH AFTER HIS CALL
In Acts 26:19 towards the end of his life when speaking before King Agrippa Paul said, “I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven.”
In Acts 20:24 he states to the Ephesian elders: However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me – the task of testifying to the Gospel of God’s grace.
ILLUSTRATION: Interestingly, in his last letter, written from a Roman prison he was still busy at fulfilling the task. He asks Timothy to come to him (vs. 9); he asks timothy to send Mark to him (vs. 11); he asks Timothy to bring his cloak and his scrolls (vs. 13); he warns Timothy about a man who could cause Timothy harm (15); my desire has always been that the Gentiles might here the message (17).
ILLUSTRATION: While reading the biography of Bill Bright, I came across the same emphasis. They wrote that in his final days Bill Bright was still working on projects that would advance the Gospel around the world. This was his concern to his last days.
ILLUSTRATION: Peter Wagner writes about the last visit he made to Donald McGovern, the founder of the church growth movement. He said that Mr. McGovern could hardly speak but quoted just one verse, “All power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go therefore and preach the Gospel.” (Mt. 28:18-19)
ILLUSTRATION: I just completed reading the biography of Mr. LE Maxwell the founder of the Prairie Bible Institute. His grandson, who had just managed to escape and recover from a serious mugging, visited him at his bedside. He said, “Granpa, Steve is here.” His grandfather could hardly speak but responded, “Spared for a purpose.”
We are all going to change gears as we get older but we must never change course!!!
Bill Bright signed all of his letters: Yours for fulfilling the great commission in this generation.
Hopefully we will all be able to say with Paul, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race (the course marked out for me), I have kept the faith.” (II Tim. 4:6)
SO WHAT?
1. Have we experienced God acting on us or have me been the person doing the subject.
2. Have we had a revelation of who Christ is and embrace the objective truth of the Gospel and also a subjective experience of Christ in me, revealing himself to me?
3. Have I sensed God’s call on my life to a specific ministry? This could be caring for a grandchild, involvement in a ministry of helps, supporting a husband who is involved in some ministry, etc.
4. Are we still focused on the call that God gave us? Are we on course even though we may be changing gears?