Page 208 - GRACE

The Ultimate Expression of Grace

eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light,
and from the power of Satan to God, that they may
receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance
among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.¼”

Within these passages the grace operational in Paul’s life and
its divine purpose are captured: 1) To bear the name of Jesus
before Gentiles, kings and the children of Israel. 2) To
suffer many things for the sake of the name of Jesus (see also
1 Corinthians 4:9; 2 Corinthians 11:12). 3) To be a minister
and a witness of the things he had seen and the things to be
revealed to him. Then, 4) To open the eyes of the Gentiles,
and to turn them from darkness to light.

Paul was such an amazing man. He had a dramatic
encounter with the risen Saviour, Jesus, while on a journey
to Damascus to persecute Christians, the body of believers,
in that city. Until the Damascus highway encounter, Paul
had been a Jewish scholar and a religious zealot. He
severally, in his epistles, described how in unbelief he had
persecuted the Church, and actually sought to destroy the
church of God.

1 Timothy 1:12-13
“And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has
enabled me, because He counted me faithful,
putting me into the ministry, although I was
formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an
insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it
ignorantly in unbelief.”

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