March 10th, 21

Paul was a slave. And he didn't know it. And God came and said, Paul free. Paul describes it as a revelation of God. It was not some doctrinal formula that he had heard and was persuaded of. It was not some new insight into the Bible that he had studied so diligently. Now he says in verse 12, I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation, from Jesus Christ. God revealed God to Paul. And you know what, that is the way it is with all of us. God revealed Himself to you. Maybe you did read a book, or you did hear a message, or you came around in your thinking to the truth of the gospel, those things do happen. But when they happen, this is what is always happening. God is revealing himself. God is opening your eyes, he's removing scales as he did with Paul, so that you can be free to actually see and begin to enter into what God has done for us in Christ. In these moments of conversion, or awakening, or revelation, God is revealing what has already been done for you, and who you are in him. Those are moments of liberation, moments of freedom, chains are coming off, scales falling off. And these scales are deceptions There lies that blind us to the truth of who God really is. Paul believed lies about God, that blinded him from truly seeing what God was like. Paul's vision of God was so different. Prior to this moment on the Damascus Road, Paul's vision saw a God who was okay with and even pleased with the killing and imprisonment of human beings who believe differently that his followers, this God was so obsessed with theological purity, that he was willing to commission his people to kill others, in the name of their theological purity. The nature and the character of this god that Paul followed, was based on a lie about God. Paul was deceived by these lies. God is not like that. But God broke through in the Paul's life. And Paul had nothing to do with it. He didn't merit this intervention at all. And God began this new journey and transformation of the life of Paul, where he begins to discover the true loving, Grace filled, beautiful character of God, a God who values and loves people, far more than our ideas about theological purity, and that God introduces himself at that moment. He says, Paul, why are you persecuting me? Paul asked him who he is. And he says, I am Jesus, the one you're persecuting. And Jesus knows that we like Paul are blind. And unless he opens our eyes, we will never see him for who he really is. So God loved the world so much, that he comes to us. He's not willing to see humanity spiral into non being. So he intervenes, like he did with Paul. And this begins a journey, a journey where we discover the true nature of God, we begin to see that God is completely revealed to us in Christ, the true loving nature of God. That is come to give himself on behalf of us all. This beauty, this truth, this grace, begins to set us free and make us new. The revelation that changes Paul's life is Jesus today, our eyes can be opened even further. As we look into the face of Jesus, where we see God for who he really is.

You are loved!