Changed by Grace
6/2/25 Bible Thought (Acts 22)
Paul was a man changed by grace.
He was a man who went from persecutor to preacher. He went from one who spent his life attempting to tear down the church to eventually building it.
In Acts 22, we see his life’s testimony once again. Yet, it has an extra interesting spin on it. Paul was testifying to the grace of Jesus in the very same city where he used to persecute the church!
Formerly, it was said that he was ravaging the church, entering homes and committing people to prison (Acts 8:3) and this was taking place in Jerusalem!
Shortly thereafter, he met Christ on the road to Damascus. He was apprehended by grace, and he would never be the same. Now, rather than pulling Christians from homes, he was standing before a crowd and sharing his testimony in Jerusalem.
All of this was because, as Ananias once said to him,
“The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth” (Acts 22:14).
God knew that Saul would be a zealous persecutor of the church, and yet He chose him!
A man with that much zeal surely could do a lot of good for the Kingdom of God if that zeal was redirected. As we’ve seen in recent weeks in Acts, this was proven true as he traveled about on his missionary journeys.
Paul was set apart by God, even before he was born and was called by the grace of God (Gal. 1:15). Surely, when this all happened, no one would’ve had “Saul of Tarsus gets saved” on their bingo card. Yet, God does unexpected, amazing things beyond our ability to fathom.
Reading about Paul’s conversion this morning has me reflecting on my own life and the process that God took me through to bring me to where I am today.
This last week, I had the opportunity to spend much of the weekend in my hometown and in the house where I grew up. It’s a wonderful privilege to be able to get together with family and find that we all love each other, but it’s always an interesting experience for me.
While I wasn’t the most wretched sinner on the face of the planet, I’ve done a lot in my life that I wouldn’t do again. I’ve had to ask God’s forgiveness for many sins in my life and going back home oftentimes brings this back to memory. I didn’t serve God in my youth like I should have—not even close.
When I’m home, these memories come flooding back, some good, some horrible, and some in between. Yet, they make me marvel at the grace of God.
There’s a gentleman in my hometown, a member of my former church, who is friends with my neighbor. I remember him once recounting to me how he thought I’d never get saved.
He’d see me out on my skateboard time after time, blaring some pretty rough heavy metal for the whole neighborhood to hear and just shake his head. Now, this past weekend, I saw him at a graduation party, and he came up to me and addressed me as “pastor.”
The grace of God is an amazing thing, and as I look to Paul’s life it makes me think of my own. What about you?
Perhaps you gave your life to Christ at a young age and maybe your past isn’t as colorful as some others. You experienced a preventative grace. Thank God! You can likewise look at your life and ponder, “Apart from the grace of God, where would I be?” God kept you (Jude 24) from all manner of folly, and without Him, who knows where you would’ve ended up.
Others can look at their lives and know where they were and see where they’d probably be if they’d have continued on the same broad road to destruction.
Apart from the grace of God, where would you or I be?
I thank God, that He saved me, made me new, and that I am a man changed by grace.