A few years after Jesus was crucified and raised, one of the most enthusiastic opponents of his followers was a man named Saul. He “breathed threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (9:1). Saul’s purpose was to keep God’s people pure and holy and bring this ‘heresy’ to an end. But God had other ideas.
As Saul was heading to Damascus, to round up the believers there, Jesus appeared to him on the road and he was blinded by a bright light. For Saul, seeing Jesus face to face wasn’t comforting. It was terrifying. Christ’s light shone into Saul’s darkness and revealed that his entire life’s purpose was upside down. Saul discovered that God had another purpose for him. The Lord said he was “an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel” (9:15).
Our priorities may not be as upside down as Saul’s were. But we still need God’s light to shine into our darkness. Like Saul, we need Christ to rearrange our lives and our priorities. It is this light that makes us pure and holy, so we don’t need to strive to please God. Living out of His love, we can focus more on others than on ourselves.
In short, we can live out God’s purposes for our lives: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9).
Jacob Traeger
