For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.—John 1:17
Christ here gives all His people an example of the manner of His working for the salvation of men and women. The Son of God identified Himself with the office and authority of His organized church. His blessings were to come through the agencies He has ordained, thus connecting humanity with the channel through which His blessings come.
Paul’s being strictly conscientious in his work of persecuting the saints does not make him guiltless when the knowledge of his cruel work is impressed upon him by the Spirit of God. He is to become a learner of the disciples. He learns that Jesus, whom in his blindness he considered an imposter, is indeed the Author and foundation of all the religion of God’s chosen people from Adam’s day, and the Finisher of the faith now so clear to his enlightened vision.
He saw Christ as the Vindicator of the truth, the fulfiller of all prophecies. Christ had been regarded as making of none effect the law of God, but when his spiritual vision was touched by the finger of God, he learned of the disciples that Christ was the originator and foundation of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices, that in the death of Christ type met antitype, [and] that Christ came into the world for the express purpose of vindicating His Father’s law. In the light of the law, he saw himself a sinner. That very law which he thought he had been keeping so zealously, he finds he has transgressed. In the light of the law he finds himself a sinner, and he dies to sin and becomes obedient to the claims of God’s law. He repents of his sins and has faith in Jesus Christ as his Saviour, is baptized, and preaches Jesus as earnestly and as zealously as he once condemned Him.
In the conversion of Paul are given us important principles which we should ever bear in mind. The Redeemer of the world does not sanction the experience and exercise in religious matters independent of His organized and acknowledged church, where He has a church.—Letter 54, 1874.
Further Reflection: Have I ever caught a vision of Jesus, and if so, what difference has it made in the way I practice my faith?
From Jesus, Name Above All Names - Page 320
Jesus, Name Above All Names