Bahan Alkitab: Acts 9:1-31
Tanggal: 25/04/2021
Ringkasan:
Saul was a gifted and highly educated Pharisee who fully believed that his zeal for Jewish law and tradition could earn his salvation. He was so antagonistic to the message of God’s grace through Christ that he made it his mission to destroy the followers of Jesus and the growing church (Galatians 1:13). He helped kill Stephen and arrested Christians wherever he could find them. But before Saul could get to Damascus and start arresting Christians, something amazing happened to Saul. God called Saul to himself. The risen Christ confronted him, and the glorious grace of the Lord Jesus shone right into his heart and life, saving Saul and transforming him into a new person.
The Lord forgave and washed away all his sins and brought him into the fellowship of his church. Freed of his guilt and self-righteousness, Saul humbly responded to the Lord with complete devotion, ready to serve him and to tell others the good news of God’s grace in Jesus Christ (Acts 9:3-19). This is what the Holy Spirit does in saving sinners and changing them. Through his power in the lives of those whom God calls to himself, he transforms sinners into saints. Saul’s conversion from a murderous Pharisee who persecuted Christians to a zealous missionary for Jesus Christ was a result of the power of the Spirit to make his old heart and mind become new.
Ayat Hafalan:
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.