Saul of Tarsus, the Pharisee, hated the new church whose members called themselves Christians. At that time there was a great persecution against these new believers in Jerusalem, and Saul, especially, played havoc with the church, putting both men and women in prison for their beliefs. But the more the Christians were persecuted, the more the church grew.
Saul decided to go to Damascus to look for Christians there to bring back to prison in Jerusalem. On the road to Damascus, he fell to the ground, blinded by a bright light. It was an encounter with the risen Christ, who said: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? . . . I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting" (Acts 9:4, 5, NIV).
After meeting Jesus, Saul was a changed man. You see, whenever we meet Jesus, we are never the same again. By beholding Him, we become changed. Saul the Pharisee became Paul the Apostle.
Not only are we given a change of name, but we are also given a change of heart. When we accept the name "Christian" we realize that along with the new name we have a new life--we become a "new creation" in Christ.
Paul was perhaps the most successful missionary of all time. He wrote at least twelve of the Epistles in the New Testament of the Bible. He carried the good news of the Gospel to more people and places at that time than any of the other followers of Christ. And he has changed the lives of multitudes even down to our day because of his writings in the Bible.
As Christians, we are saved by the "incomparable riches of [God's] grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7, NIV). We are alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord and receive the gift of eternal life. We are not only given pardon for our sins, but we are also given power for living each day through the indwelling Holy Spirit. The living Christ has promised to come to us and live in us through the Holy Spirit (see John 14:18, 20, NIV).
Yet we still have temptations--we are surrounded by all kinds of temptations that work against the Christian life. We still sin, though as Christians we are sorry and repentent. We may say with Paul: ". . .what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing" (Romans 7:19, NIV).
We must daily fight the battle against sin, but our victory lies not in our own power to overcome, but in maintaining our connection with Jesus Christ--the source of power. The best ways to maintain that connection are through prayer and Bible study. Jesus said, "I am the true vine. . . . Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. . . . I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:1, 4, 5, NIV). Abiding in Christ is the key to living for God.
Although God paid an infinite price to save us through the blood of His Son, He doesn't force us to accept His saving grace. We are each free sons and daughters with the right to choose the way we want to live.
Force enslaves us, but love sets us free. God chose the way of love by giving Adam a free will to choose to believe his Creator, or to believe the serpent and lose his Eden home and his life. Yet before the foundation of the world, God made the provision to redeem and save the human race if it fell to the temptations of Satan.
Without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith is trust. Faith is:
* to reckon yourself in Christ when he was nailed to the cross,
* to reckon yourself in Christ dead to sin,
* to reckon yourself alive in Christ and living for God.
The faith of the sinner takes what is already promised to him in Christ, for all his life--past, present, and future.
Jesus said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48, KJV). Does Jesus mean that we must reach the perfection of God, without defects or character flaws, or does He mean perfection is an ideal goal to which we must strive to attain? God is perfect, not only for what He is but for what He does. He is always working for His creation, always forgiving, always providing, always loving.
God knows we are sinners. 1 John 1:8 (NIV) says, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." We all have problems and weaknesses; but God loves us more than any earthly father loves his child. When we come to Him, He accepts us, unworthy as we are. Because we accept Christ, God accepts us in the Beloved, seeing not our sins, but only Christ's righteousness.
Jesus tells us about the greatest commandments on which everything else depends: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind," and "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Matthew 22:37, 39, KJV).
This is the perfection Christ wants us to attain. Sanctification is growing in love. When we are captivated by the love of Christ, we in turn respond to that love. When we know the love of God for us, in all of its beauty, we will love others as God loves us. We will be filled with love as we contemplate God's love for us in Christ.
