Arminian Today

Have you taken time to slowly read through the conversion of Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9?  I mean really taken time to slow down and work over each sentence?  I did this past week during my devotions and my studies left me praying Acts 9.  How dramatic is the conversion of Saul!  Here was a man who in Acts 7:58 is at the stoning of Stephen and then in Acts 8:1 we read that this man approved of the execution of Stephen and he led an attack upon the Lord’s Church beginning that day.  The attacks led to the saints of God being forced out of Jerusalem and into the world (Acts 8:4).  Acts 9:1 opens with Saul still breathing threats and murder against the disciples.  How many disciples did Saul see killed?  How many were murdered by Saul and his mob?  Scripture does not tell us but I am sure many!

And then Jesus comes into the scene.  Can you imagine the conversion of Saul and how that would sound to the persecuted saints of God?  No wonder in Acts 9:26 that we read that the disciples in Jerusalem did not believe that Saul was a true disciple.  I would not have either.  It would be like an atheist in our day such as Richard Dawkins coming to the Lord but even more if Dawkins were actually seeking to kill Christians.  Even more, it would be like Dawkins being a Jew and seeking to destroy the faith of Jews in a Jewish rabbi named Jesus of Nazareth.  I think really we have no ability to really grasp what the conversion of Saul would have sounded like to the disciples of that day.

A few things stand out to me about Acts 9.  First is the ultimate reality that salvation is truly of the Lord (Jonah 2:9).  God is sovereign in salvation.  In this case, God Himself steps into Saul’s life.  We read of no evangelists here in Acts 9 preaching to Saul.  We read of no tracts.  Jesus knocks Saul off his horse (Acts 9:4).  Perhaps Saul had heard the gospel through Stephen.  We can safely assume that he heard the entire sermon by Stephen in Acts 7 and perhaps God used those words and the character of the godly saint Stephen to show Saul his sins.  We don’t know.  We only know that God stepped into Saul’s life here in Acts 9 to save him.  As Saul would later write in Galatians 4:4 that when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son and He did this clearly in Acts 9 in Saul’s conversion.

Secondly, I note that Saul’s conversion should be like our own in that no person including ourselves should get glory for our salvation.  Only Jesus saves (Matthew 1:21).  There is no other Savior but Him (Acts 4:12).  He alone is our mediator (1 Timothy 2:5-6).  Jesus alone is our salvation (Romans 6:23).  Jesus alone reconciles us to God the Father (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).  In Saul’s case, no person could be glorified for saving Saul but Jesus.  Jesus alone struck him down and saved him.  This must be our testimony as well.  We didn’t save ourselves.  None “led us to Christ” but the Spirit (John 6:44).  Jesus Christ alone and not a church, a group, a person, or a plan saved us.

Third, I notice the faith of God’s servant Ananias that we first meet in Acts 9:10.  A couple things about Ananias.  First, I admire his ability to hear the Lord.  Jesus said that His sheep would know His voice and in this case, Ananias does know the voice of the Lord (John 10:27; Acts 9:10).  Second, the faith and boldness of Ananias to believe the word of the Lord and to go to Saul who had been killing Christians and utters the words, “Brother Saul.”  How incredible.  Ananias did two things here.  He believed God in faith that what God said about Saul was true and he had boldness to call Saul “brother” without fear.

We never hear of Ananias again.  I have often pondered that fact.  We know nothing about Ananias or his conversion.  We know nothing about how he himself came to faith.  Perhaps he did know Saul in some way.  I am probably going too far there but what is amazing to me is that Ananias did his part for God.  He was the one who went to Saul and prayed for him to regain his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.  He played his part.  He obeyed God.  He may not be known as a John Wesley or an Arminius or an Edwards but he is to be praised for being obedient to the Lord when the Lord needed him.  That describes most of us.  We will not have our names go down in history as earth shakers for Jesus.  But let us do our part.  Let us be willing to do whatever God wants us to do to exalt His name.  Ananias never appears again in Scripture.  We have no mention of him in the New Testament letters.  But he did what God told him to do and that is enough (Luke 17:10).

What led me to pray Acts 9 is that I want to see conversions like this.  I want to hear the stories of people whom the Lord strikes down and He saves.  We hear evangelists from time to time share how they have seen this many or that many repent of their sins and I to God that these conversions are true but I want to hear the God-conversions where God steps into a life and He stops a person in their tracks and He saves them.  I don’t doubt that God uses the preaching of His Word to save sinners.  In fact, I don’t believe a person can be saved without the gospel message (Romans 10:17).  The great commission of Jesus makes no sense (Matthew 28:19-20) if in fact He can save people without the preaching of the gospel but I do believe that all of salvation is of the Lord.  He saves sinners.

Later Saul of Tarsus would write 1 Timothy 1:12-17.  I would urge you to read those passages very slowly as well.  Let them sink into your soul as you consider the fact that Saul murdered disciples.  Saul understood in 1 Timothy 1:12-17 that his salvation is to be found in Jesus alone.  Not in Ananias.  Not in a church.  Not in the Apostles.  Only in Jesus and His grace could Saul trust.

I pray that many people around me would experience Acts 9 conversions.  I know of so many ungodly, pagan, lost men at my work.  They need the gospel.  I pray that they see Jesus in me.  I pray that the gospel would flow through me like a river.  I pray that the Holy Spirit will take the gospel message and shine it though me and that He would exalt Jesus in allowing me to preach the truth when I can.  I believe His promise in Acts 1:8 to empower me to be His witness.  I pray that many Acts 9 conversions would take place.

We also need these conversions in the Church.  Far too many people are lost in the Church.  They look the part.  They act the part.  But inwardly, they are lost.  They are far from God.  They claim to know God but their actions deny Him (Titus 1:16).  Such religious people are lost and bound for hell apart from God’s grace (1 John 3:6-9).  I pray that God would strike them down as He did to Saul in Acts 9.  Saul was religious but lost (Romans 10:1-4).  So many fit that description in the modern Church.  Religious but lost.  Happy but lost.  Clappy but lost.  Smiling but lost.  Oh for Acts 9 to be applied by God’s sovereign grace!

I urge you to pray for the lost.  We disciples of Jesus can intercede for the lost (1 Timothy 2:1-6).  We can pray 2 Peter 3:9 for the lost.  We can pray John 3:16-17 for the lost.  We can pray Mark 16:15 for the lost.  We can pray for the gospel to bear fruit and for the Lord to strike people down by His sovereign hand.  Let us pray for more Saul’s to be converted to Jesus Christ our Lord.  All this is for His glory alone (John 14:12-14).