Spectacular Suspicious Sovereign Grace
- Eric Turbedsky
- Mar 19, 2008
- Series: Home page
What happened between Paul and Jesus out on the road to Damascus? Paul had stormed out of Jerusalem, papers in hand with threats and murder on his tongue, determined to finish off the Church. What the Jewish leaders had started with the crucifixion, Paul picked up with the stoning of Stephen. Paul was out to crucify Jesus again!
He was set to go out, bind them up, and bring them back to Jerusalem for execution. His caravan was in sight of the city. The disciples in Damascus were terrified and nobody was expecting what happened next. Jesus appears! We haven’t seen Jesus since chapter one. OK, Stephen sees him in chapter eight but that doesn’t count. Paul, the Champion of the Law, and Jesus, the Champion of Heaven...face to face in a high noon showdown. Paul makes the last few miles to Damascus blind, weak, and waiting.
Paul had spent his entire life waiting for the Messiah. But no more! He had seen the Messiah, and the Messiah’s name was Jesus. Now Paul was waiting for Ananias, one of the humble servants he had come to destroy, for healing and a new commission. Paul's world has been turned on its head, and three years later we find him returning to Jerusalem under new authority and purposing only to know Christ and Christ crucified.
For the Christian, Paul’s story is not unfamiliar. It is right in line with what we know of our Savior and His Gospel. We were on the road, determined to have it our way, opposed to anything that threatened our interests, and no one expected what happened next. Jesus arrested us, transformed us, and re-commissioned us for His purposes.
nd the only explanation for what happened was sovereign grace.
At Grace Church in San Diego we celebrate God's sovereign grace,