Last week, we began discussing the idea of conversion. We saw our need for conversion in the fact that we each are more concerned with satisfying ourselves than we are with glorifying God. This is a very serious problem, since God alone deserves and demands glory and since we were created to glorify Him. We are rebelling against both God’s identity and our designed purpose by failing to glorify Him. This is what the Bible calls sin—and it is a fundamental problem that is shared by all.

Thankfully, we also saw that conversion is possible—we can be converted—by the direct intervention and power of Christ. We cannot change ourselves (anymore than we could create ourselves) but Christ can change us. He is the conquering King who has authority over all things, including our lives.

It is Christ, remember, who becomes sin for us. Since He has no sin of His own, He is able to take our sin on Himself. As He does that, on the cross, Christ is sin; He is cursed. And this is the beauty of the Gospel, because God’s wrath against sin was poured out on that sin—was poured out on Christ. So God is able to forgive us—not because He pretends like we aren’t sinners (that would be lying)—but because the wages of our sin have already been paid for us.

By the way, if you ever doubt that the wages of sin is death, look to the cross. God did not ‘bend the rules’ for His own Son: when Christ became sin, He bore God’s judgment against that sin, and it cost Him His life. Left alone, your sin will lead to your eternal death; that is what God tells us it earns, and that is an unchangeable truth. Only if Christ pays your death for you can you escape that penalty. And that’s what He did as He suffered and bled and died on the cross.

But Christ did not stay dead. His substitutionary sacrifice was acceptable to God, and since death had no power over Christ, He rose from the grave victorious. The power of Christ now extends to His people, as He directly intervenes in our lives, stopping us in our sinful and wicked ways that lead straight to hell, and changing us from within. This is what we call conversion. We can be converted because of Christ and we can be converted only by Christ. Conversion involves both a turning from sin (repentance) and a turning to Christ (faith), both of which are empowered and enabled by God making us alive together with Him.

Finally, we observed that those who are converted are then supposed to be about the good works that God has prepared for them. Once we have been converted, we submit to the Lordship of Christ and obey Him with our lives. Remember, it’s not good works that save us—only Christ saves us—but once we have been saved, we are to walk in a manner worthy of the Gospel by which we have been called. We belong to Christ and He tasks us with what Ephesians 2:10 calls “good works” that God has prepared for His people beforehand.

If you remember, we saw each of these things in the life of Saul. When we are introduced to Saul in the book of Acts, he is approving of the death of Stephen and is “ravaging the church” [Acts 8:3], dragging men and women who proclaim Christ off to prison and approving of their deaths. He hates Christ and he hates all those who follow Christ. He even asks the high priest for permission to go to the city of Damascus and round up the Christians in that community. He is a man going full-out against God and rejecting the true identity of Christ with every fiber of his being.

And yet, mercifully and graciously, Christ comes to him. It was on that very road to Damascus that—in the middle of the day, no less—Saul is knocked from his horse by a blinding light and sees Christ Himself. Saul sees Christ for who He truly is and he sees his sin for what it truly is and He is changed by the power of Christ.

This murderous ravager of the church is now seen to be praying, fasting, and waiting in Damascus. He is humbly submitting to the Lordship of Christ, the first scraps of evidence that testify to the fact of his conversion being genuine and real. Today, we are going to see even more evidence that speaks to the reality of Saul’s Christ-centered internal transformation.

The same things that mark the genuine conversion in Saul’s life will also be found in the lives of those who are truly changed by Christ in our day as well. We’re going to see what this text teaches us: that a changed life is only genuine if it displays the external markings of the internal transformation brought about by the intervention and power of Christ. These marks include:

1. Swift obedience.

When we finally see Christ for who He is as Lord, we immediately understand on a very fundamental level, that our lives belong to Him. This is borne out through the New Testament as we see references to Christ purchasing His people; that we were “bought with a price” [1 Corinthians 6:20] and that we are a “people for His own possession” [Titus 2:14 & 1 Peter 2:9]. The imagery is of One who purchases a slave. We were under the mastery of sin but Christ has bought us from that slavery at the price of His own blood. Now, He claims us as His own; He is our Master. We serve Christ alone.

For Saul, this change was instantaneous. He’s knocked down by the vision of Jesus, and he sees the risen Christ—and sees Him as the sovereign Lord. So when Jesus tells him to “rise” [Acts 9:6] and go into the city, Saul doesn’t argue or question, he obeys.

This is an obvious change. Saul intended to go to Damascus to persecute Christ and when he gets there he instead sits patiently waiting for Christ to command him. This man is not the same. He is no longer mainly concerned with serving his own desires or doing what seems right in his own eyes; now he is concerned with obeying Christ and submitting to Him. Witness the life-changing power of Christ: a life that was once defined by open defiance is now defined by humble obedience!

Now, there are some who have a problem with the word “obedience” thinking that it sound too much like a works-based religion, so let’s try to clear up what we mean when we say that we must obey God. (Though, to be perfectly honest, we didn’t come up with this idea on our own. It is God who says we must obey Him.)

From the Bible’s perspective, obedience is required, not as a pre-requisite for salvation, but as a response to salvation. In other words, we don’t obey God in order to become saved. We can’t earn His favor or deserve His forgiveness. Our best efforts to dress ourselves up are filthy, bloody rags in His sight (see Isaiah 64:6). We all fall short of God’s glory and nothing we do—absolutely nothing—gets us one step closer to the righteousness He demands (see Romans 3:10-23). The entire message of Scripture makes it clear that God does not use obedience of His commands as the cause of our salvation; in fact, the message of the Gospel is that precisely because we cannot work our way to God, He came down to us.

So we see that obedience, in a biblical sense, is not something that leads to salvation but something that flows from it. It is the proper response to what God has already done on our behalf through the person and work of Christ. When we obey God, we aren’t doing it to earn or even to keep our salvation; we are obeying Him as a willful expression of gratitude, humility, and submission to His Lordship.          

Mark Rooker, who wrote a helpful book on the Ten Commandments, explains this concept in the following way: "Obedience to the law was not to be the means to a relationship with God but was the desired response to that relationship. It was the great deliverance of the exodus that served as the foundation for the Lord’s right to expect obedience to His commands. Similarly, in the New Testament, the responsibilities of Christians are based on redemption provided by Christ’s atonement." [The Ten Commandments, 178]

Does obedience characterize your life? Do you obey God when He directs you? Do you live your life according to the principles He has laid out for us in His Word? Forget about this trap that we often fall into of seeking to know God’s specific will in some ultra-personal way; to get the ‘inside information’ about our individual lives. Instead, start with the basics: are you doing what His Word commands every Christian to do?

What are some of these commands for all believers? Here are just a few examples:

            “Be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger…”  [James 1:19]

            “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances…”

                        [1 Thessalonians 5:16-18]

            “Do not lie to one another…” [Colossians 3:9]

            “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with

                        thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” [Philippians 4:6]

            “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building

                        up…” [Ephesians 4:29]

            “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ

                        forgave you.” [Ephesians 4:32]

            “Do everything without complaining or arguing…” [Philippians 2:14 NIV]

            “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.”

                        [2 Corinthians 13:5]

That last verse is especially important in light of what we are talking about today. We are supposed to examine ourselves to see if our conversion is genuine. This process begins with an honest assessment of what our faith is in. Do we trust in Christ alone for salvation? Is our confidence rooted solely in Him? That is the first step and foundation, so it must be the start of our examination.

But testing ourselves doesn’t end with an evaluation of our faith; it also extends to an examination of how our outward lives conform to God’s Word. We can check all the right boxes when it comes to belief, but they don’t mean anything if they are not consistent with our behavior. Think of the list we just looked at from Scripture. Do you see these things evident in your life: patience, thinking before you speak, honesty, prayer, joy, thankfulness, forgiveness?

None of us have perfected these areas, of course. That’s not the point we’re trying to make. We all still have times when we struggle with anger or complaining or bitterness. The question is not ‘do you have any of these things in your life?’ but ‘do you see evidence of growth in these areas?’ Are we striving to live, by the power of the Spirit, in a God-glorifying way? When we test ourselves, do we see any evidence of obedience?

The Bible is forcefully clear on this issue: if we claim to love God, yet we do not keep His commandments, then we are lying to ourselves. We do not love God if we do not do what He commands. This is exactly why Jesus said: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” [John 14:15] True love towards God is expressed in faithful obedience to the truths He has revealed to us.

When Jesus was asked to sum up the entire law, remember, He said: “And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” [Luke 10:27] Loving God, and loving others the way God instructs, is only possible by obeying His commands. There is no separation between loving God and obeying Him.

This same idea is picked up on by John in one of his letters: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.” [1 John 5:1-3]

 Again, Rooker is helpful in explaining this: "Loving God and keeping His commandments are one and the same. The behavior of those who love God is characterized by obedience to God’s laws, while a man cannot be considered to love God is he does not keep His commands. The fact that love can be commanded of the believer proves that love is not an emotional feeling but a behavior characterized by obedience and commitment to the Lord." [The Ten Commandments, 47]

God has saved us; changed us through the intervention and power of Christ. In response to this tremendous mercy and grace and love, we love Him in return. That love is not a matter of talk, but of action. It’s why Paul clearly states that “the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power” [1 Corinthians 4:20] and John echoes that very same idea when he says: “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” [1 John 3:16-18]

Our love for God is our obedience to Him. Does this kind of obedience characterize your life? To phrase it in another way: “If somebody accused you of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”

We must test ourselves to see if we are of the faith because the first external evidence of true inward change is swift obedience. But that is not the only way we must examine the genuineness of our conversion. A truly changed life will also be characterized by:

2. Strong proclamation.

Immediately, Saul told others about Christ. The word that we see in Acts 9 is that he proclaimed the truth. “And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God”…and…proving that Jesus was the Christ. [Acts 9:20-22]

In Scripture, the word for ‘proclaim’ carries with it a connotation of ‘teaching.’ So it not just speaking, or even loud speaking, but it speaking with a purpose to teach, instruct, and edify. That’s why, for example, the Bible tells us that every time we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, we “proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.” [1 Corinthians 11:26] Communion is designed so that when we celebrate it together and someone—maybe a visitor or a child—asks us, “What is that all about? Why do you do that thing with the crackers and juice?” we can teach them; we literally proclaim the truth to them through the Lord’s Supper.

So when Saul was proclaiming Christ in Acts 9, he was teaching the truth to others. This is one of the external signs of a genuine conversion. It was evident in Saul and it must be evident in each of us who profess Christ as well. Our lives must be characterized by a strong proclamation.

Think about what we’ve already seen in the book of Acts. The central character of the story shifts from Peter to Stephen to Philip to Saul/Paul, which seems an odd way to write a book, until you realize that this book isn’t about these individual men, it’s about their common mission—their call to proclaim Christ.

The authors of the New Testament understood this. Not only did they live it, but they reminded their brothers and sisters in Christ that this task of proclamation belonged to them as well. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” [1 Peter 2:9] So we have been chosen by God that we might proclaim the excellencies of Christ.

And this means, by the way, that it might require a bit more than just handing out a tract, wearing a t-shirt with a Scripture verse on it, or sticking a fish symbol on the back of your car. None of those things are bad—and in fact can be quite useful—but they are not the same as proclaiming Christ. They can point toward a conversation, but they do not capture the idea of proclaiming the Gospel.

To get a better idea of exactly what this strong proclamation should look like in our lives, we’re going to look more closely into what Saul was doing here in Acts 9. We’re going to think about this strong proclamation in three ways: first, what he proclaimed, then how he proclaimed and, finally, where he proclaimed.

A) What he proclaimed: Jesus is the Son of God and the Christ

Acts 9 tells us that Saul proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God and as the Christ. Both of these titles tell us something significant about who Jesus is.

The title Son of God doesn’t have quite the same impact on us that it would have had in the first century. A devout Jew might have called himself the Son of Abraham, but he never would have said he as an individual was the Son of God. That title implied a personal relationship, a union and intimacy with God that no person could have. Unless, of course, that person was God Himself, come to earth in human flesh. For Jesus to say that God was His personal Father and that He was the very Son of God was to state that He Himself was God; that they shared one nature, that there is perfect union between them. To be the Son of God is to be “of God.”

The other title that Saul proclaimed about Jesus is that He is the Christ. Christ is a Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah—both mean ‘the anointed One’ and are used specifically in reference to the redeemer God promised to send. It was through this deliverer that God would set His people free, not from bondage to an earthly empire, but from slavery to sin. It is Jesus, Saul argues, that is this promised Messiah. Only Jesus meets the requirements of God and is able to fulfill the prophecy and purpose of Christ.

So how did He prove Jesus was this Messiah? By using Scripture, which for Saul only included the Old Testament. Let me ask you: do you know the Old Testament well enough to prove that Jesus is the Messiah? Of course, we have the New Testament, the full and final revelation of God concerning His Son, but in the days when the events of Acts occurred, there was no New Testament. Saul was able (due to his Jewish upbringing and Pharisaical training) to use the Scriptures to show that Jesus is the Christ. God has opened his eyes to the truth that Jesus was alive, and thus vindicated by God, and therefore the Promised One that the Old Testament pointed to.

So what Saul proclaimed is that Jesus is the Son of God and the Christ. Next, we turn our attention to:

B) How he proclaimed: Boldly

The text tells us that he preached boldly. We all know what it means to be bold—strong, emphatic, purposeful. This was not a wimpy, half-hearted “I guess this is true” or “well, it works for me” but a strong proclamation that Jesus Christ is Lord—whether you believe Him or not, whether you want it to be or not—it is the truth!

What do you think Saul’s major concern at this point of his life was? His own reputation? His own protection? No, he was no longer concerned with his own self at all, so he spoke boldly. He was willing to proclaim Christ, even at the risk of his own acceptance, safety or life.

There is a school of thought that suggests the best way to share the Gospel is to first build up a relationship with someone; to show them over a period of time that you do care about them and can be trusted. Then, or so it goes, perhaps you will be able to share Christ with them in a non-threatening way.

Certainly, there is merit in establishing long-term relationships with people in an effort to win them to Christ. You will have the person’s ear in a way that a stranger may not, and your words will have a gravitas to them because of the testimony of your life. So there is nothing inherently wrong with this idea.

However, I suspect that most people who advocate this approach do so, not out of a desire to proclaim Christ in the most effective ways but out of a desire to not proclaim Christ at all. How easy it becomes to justify our silence with thoughts like “now’s not a good time” or “they aren’t ready yet” or “I still haven’t established a strong enough relationship with them.” This is utter nonsense, and a tool of Satan to keep our mouths quiet concerning the reality of Christ.

What this lost world needs is not more stealthy Christians biding their tongues; it needs the strong, bold proclamation of the Gospel! As the letter to the Roman church reveals: “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?…faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” [Romans 10:14-17]

Let’s make sure we understand something clearly: the Gospel is an offensive message. It tells us that we are accountable to the God who created us, and that our sin has made us His enemies, so we will be judged, found guilty, and sentenced to an eternity of His wrath. And we can’t do anything about it on our own.

It doesn’t matter how much time you spend getting to know someone, or how solid your relationship with them is, that is still going to be an offensive message. It’s supposed to be! Most people in our culture think that they are ‘good people’ and the idea that they need someone to help them get to God is far from their minds. There are millions of spiritual advisors and life coaches and self-help gurus that tell them they are good enough on their own, that goodness is within themselves, that whatever god governs this cosmos fully accepts them as they are and is happy as long as they are happy. Lies, lies, lies, as far as the ear can hear.

Who will speak the truth? Who will boldly proclaim the truth, even at risk of losing reputation, acceptance, social standing, personal safety, or even your life? Is the truth of Christ not worth all those things combined and more?

So, does bold proclamation characterize your life? We know what we are to proclaim (Jesus is the Christ) and we know how we are to proclaim it (boldly) so we are left to consider where it must be proclaimed:

C) Where he proclaimed: Damascus and Jerusalem

The text tells us that he preached boldly, both in Damascus and Jerusalem. Think how difficult that must have been. It can be easier to proclaim Christ in a place where we aren’t as well known—if we are known at all! The people in Damascus had certainly heard of Saul, and they knew his reputation, but we don’t have any cause to believe that they had met him or spoken with him before. So after his conversion, Saul begins to boldly proclaim the truth of Christ.

But what about when he returns to Jerusalem? Even though most scholars think about three years has passed since he left, Jerusalem was where he lived and trained. He openly persecuted Christ and His followers in that city. They know him; they know all about him. He is no stranger in Jerusalem, so we might expect him to stay silent. But Saul does not fade away or shrink into a corner—he boldly proclaims Christ.

Let’s apply this to our own lives for a moment. When we find ourselves with opportunities to share the Gospel, do we take them, even if they are with our co-workers? Do we strongly proclaim Christ to our neighbors, parents, friends, or children? Friends, the Gospel is—in the most literal sense possible—a matter of life and death. How dare we stay silent! Wherever we are, we must be people of proclamation.

Remember, our bigger context is that we must examine ourselves to see if we are of the faith. When a baby is born, if she doesn’t cry, it’s a sign to the doctor that something is wrong. It’s the same thing spiritually: when we are born again, our hearts—our very lives—cry out with the reality of Christ and who He is! If we are silent, it is sign that things aren’t right—perhaps that there isn’t really a new life at all.

A changed life is only genuine if it displays the external markings of the internal transformation brought about by the intervention and power of Christ. These marks include swift obedience and strong proclamation. Finally, we see that it also includes:

3. Severe persecution.

Right away, we see God’s word to Ananias in 9:16 come true. Remember, God told Ananias that “I will show [Saul] how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” [Acts 9:16] And here we see that the Jews is Damascus don’t like what they are hearing from Saul. Remember, from their point of view, this man was supposed to come and help them deal with the growing problem of these pesky followers of Jesus. Saul was coming with the authority of the high priest to round these Christians up and drag them away—and now he has become one of them!

After some time (probably about three years), the Jews in Damascus became so irritated with Saul that they plotted to kill him. Why? Because he was boldly proclaiming Christ and we can infer that he was doing this so powerfully that many people believed him and came to faith in Christ. After all, no one persecutes a man who is ineffective. They only wanted to kill Saul to stop him. Likewise for us, the degree of persecution we face often speaks to the degree to which God is using us effectively to proclaim Christ.

So Saul is lowered through an opening in the city wall and makes his way back to Jerusalem. When he gets back there, no one believes that he is a genuine Christian. The other Christians in Jerusalem refuse to allow him to join them; they can’t get over his past. They think he has merely hatched a new scheme to go undercover and infiltrate the Christians from within in order to kill them.

Admittedly, Saul’s past would be a hard one to get over, and I think we can understand the initial reluctance of the believers to accept him wholeheartedly. But they eventually do, as a result of Barnabas rightly pointing out the overwhelming evidence of genuine conversion in Saul’s life. It is this external evidence that leads the church leadership in Jerusalem to welcome Saul as a brother.

Can we not also see evidence of conversion in this? Saul left Jerusalem filled with rage and self-righteous indignation; now he patiently endures the rejection of the Jerusalem church. This is, in every meaningful way, a different man. And we see that he begins addressing the very same group of people that Stephen was addressing in Acts 6. Remember, Stephen was brought before them and proclaimed Christ and they killed him—with Saul standing by approving of his death. Now? Now, Saul is standing in front of them saying the exact same thing that Stephen said, and he nearly meets the same fate as his predecessor. This is a man who has been changed by the direct intervention and power of Christ, and his life bears witness to this truth.

Before his conversion, Saul was prideful in his own accomplishments. If you recall his own testimony, he described himself as “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee… as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” [Philippians 3:5-6] Not only that, he said he was “advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.” [Galatians 1:14]

But things were different now. His suffering under the persecution of those who had once been his peers, as well as new enemies of the cross, led him to see himself differently. He no longer considered himself strong enough or smart enough to do anything on his own. He looked on the sum of his human accomplishments and called them “rubbish” [Philippians 3:8]. And he started going by the name Paul, which means small. He became small in his own eyes, echoing John the Baptist who said “He must increase, but I must decrease.” [John 3:30]

So what do the Jews in Jerusalem want to do? Kill him! (That seems to be their answer to all religious disputes in the first century, doesn’t it?) Saul made it about three years in Damascus, but he only lasted about 15 days in Jerusalem before becoming the target of another assassination plot. The apostles, apparently understanding that God’s plan was not for Saul to die in the same way Stephen did, got him out of the city.

We won’t hear from Paul for another ten years or so. He goes back to his birth city of Tarsus, and while we don’t have a record of what happened to him there, we know that he continued to proclaim Christ boldly. He kept about the work. Later, Barnabas goes to look for him and takes Paul to Antioch. From there, Paul would begin the work God had chosen for him—to take the Gospel to the Gentile world. And his persecutions would only grow more and more severe.

As we come to the close of our study in this section of Acts, we want to remind ourselves of something important. During His ministry on earth, Christ promised He would build His church (see Matthew 16:18). This is what He is doing (and is continuing to do), even through unexpected means. Despite Satan’s attacks of persecution, corruption, and division, the Church continues: “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.” [Acts 9:31]

In fact, Christ used these attacks—and even a chief attacker in Saul—as the very means by which He built His church. Who could have imagined that a man who began by hunting down and killing Christians would be God’s chosen instrument to carry His name to the entire world? Who could have scripted that the persecution and even death of early Christian leaders would actually strengthen the resolve and devotion of Christians?

Christ is still building His church. And He still often uses people that we would never imagine to accomplish this task. Paul spoke of this years later as he wrote the church in Corinth: “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’ ” [1 Corinthians 1:26-31]

Each Christian, regardless of station in life, regardless of perceived ability or skill, is commanded to “preach Christ crucified.” [1 Corinthians 1:23] We obey, we proclaim, and like our Lord, we suffer for it. These are the marks of true conversion.

A changed life is only genuine if it displays the external markings of the internal transformation brought about by the intervention and power of Christ. These marks include swift obedience, strong proclamation, and severe persecution.

Does your life bear these markings? Is the fruit of your life consistent with genuine conversion? What verdict does the evidence lead to? “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” [2 Corinthians 13:5] 

All Scripture quotations are taken from the English Standard Version.