Paul is our pattern – 3/4

The apostle Paul was clear that he could not save himself. Before he met Christ on the road to Damascus, he tried very hard to do it by obeying the law of Moses. He was a student of the great Gamaliel, one of the Jewish theologians of that time in Israel (Acts 22:3).

Paul was committed to the perfect manner of the law of his fathers, but he was unsaved. Many people are zealous of the law, religious, and sincere, but lost. It describes the life of the apostle Paul before he met Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus.

There are thousands of very dedicated church people who are all on their way to damnation because they attempt to save themselves by their religious achievements and dedication to religious ceremonies and rituals. They are spiritually asleep and not even aware that they are lost.

Only after Paul met the grace of God did he realize who Jesus Christ was. We read he fell to the earth when the grace of God’s forgiveness shone on him from heaven.

5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said: I am Jesus whom thou persecutes (Acts 9:5).

After he met Jesus Christ, Paul realized he was lost. There was no way that he could earn his salvation by obeying the law of Moses. To live a religious life without the grace and knowledge of the will of God is like jumping in the sea with a rock (millstone) tied around your neck. It will cause you to drown! Paul wrote:

8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast (Eph. 2:8-9).

God did not save us because we did something, but by believing in what Jesus Christ did for us two thousand years ago. He died for our sins, his disciples buried him, and God the Father raised him from the dead on the third day for our justification (Rom. 4:25). He did it all for us! It is his faith that saved us.