The Inevitable Christ

Was Saul’s conversion as sudden as it seemed? Of course, to all outward appearance nothing could have been more sudden or unexpected. It was so sudden that people could not believe that it had really taken place. They could not believe that the man who left Jerusalem to persecute any Christians he might find in Damascus entered the gates of the Syrian city a penitent and humble believer in the Jesus against whom he had raged so furiously. When God’s voice bade Ananias go and call on Saul as he sat in his blindness in his lodging in the street called Straight, Ananias at once made objection: “Lord, I have heard from many of this man, how much evil he did to Thy saints at Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call upon Thy name.” Ananias couldn’t believe that the persecutor had turned disciple. It needed a special assurance from God Himself to convince him upon that point. Three years later, when he went up to Jerusalem and tried to join the Church there, they were all afraid of him. When they had last seen Saul he was their bitterest enemy, he was their fiercest persecutor. They could not believe that in the meantime he had become a disciple. And there is this much to be said in excuse of their scepticism—that Saul, judging again by appearances, was of all men the most unlikely to turn Christian. For he was the head and front of the fierce, bitter, intolerant Pharasaic party which was intent upon exterminating the Christian faith. It was an astounding—almost an incredible—thing that this man should leave Jerusalem a Pharisee and enter Damascus a Christian.