Paul's conversion from a persecutor of Christ to a true Christ-follower is one of the most eye-opening and most powerful conversions ever recorded in the Bible. Though all of our conversions are equally powerful and individually special in the sight of God, one cannot help but recognize the great things we can learn from Paul's salvation.
There are a lot of things we can learn from Paul's conversion, but for this article we will choose to zero-in on three things I consider the most important. Here they are:
1) That God can save anyone, even the most antagonistic to the faith
We understand that Paul, then named Saul, was a fervent persecutor of those who followed the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in Acts 9 that he was on his way to another location in his crackdown against the "followers of the Way," but the Lord has another plan for him:
"As [Saul] journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?"" (Acts 9:3-4)
Such was Saul's famous antagonism towards the faith that even the church couldn't believe he would be saved! Acts 9:26 tells us,
"And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple."
Is there anyone we deem "un-save-able"? God is able to save anyone who draws near to Him. In this case, those who respond to Him when He calls them.
2) Our salvation should make us realize how blind we were before Christ saved us
Saul literally went blind after his encounter with Christ (see Acts 9:8-9). This man who was perfectly healthy lost his sight after seeing just how glorious, holy, and majestic God is. This reminds us of Job, who said of the Lord,
"I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:5-6)
Truth is, whenever we get a glimpse of God or see Him, we recognize our smallness in comparison to His greatness. We see our dirt in comparison to His purity. We recognize our unrighteousness in comparison to His righteousness.
Our salvation in Christ makes us realize just how depraved and lost we are without Him. Before we met Him we used to think that we are OK, that we are good, even great. When we meet Him, however, we see our inability to save ourselves and to make ourselves right with God.
We realize just how blinded we were by sin the moment He opens our eyes.
3) We are saved from something and for something
When we read the Acts 9 account on how Paul was saved, we can't help but notice that God saved him from something, and was given a new direction - that he was saved for something. This is the same for all of us who are in Christ.
We read in Acts 9:1-6 that Saul was busy with his work of persecuting Christians, but God stopped him from continuing further down that path.
God did the same to all of us: He stopped us in our tracks. He stopped us from doing what we shouldn't do. Through His Son's atoning sacrifice, God saved us from sin and sinful living.
We then read in Acts 9:6-29 the things that happened to Saul after meeting Christ: he was humbled, freed from the blindness caused by sin (see verse 18), given a new life, empowered by the Holy Spirit, preached the Gospel, and went on serving Christ even when he was persecuted.
He then went on to become one of the key movers of the Gospel, planting churches everywhere he goes and writing several of the books in the New Testament.
God didn't just save him from something; God saved him for something. And the same is true for all of us. When God saved us from sin, Satan and hell, He also saved us for holiness, Himself, and heaven.
"He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:13-14)
In Christ, we all have a role to play in God's kingdom. We weren't meant to sit down and watch Him do miracles; we were meant to stand up for Christ, walk with Him, and allow Him to use us to make His miracles (see Mark 16:15-18)!
