That Was Then, This is Now!

Galations 1:23 - But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preaches the faith which once he destroyed

    Paul was an ardent persecutor of the church before he met Christ. He was driven by his religious belief that Christianity was a cult. It was, in his mind, a deception and an affront to faith in Jehovah God. He persecuted anyone that had anything to do with the church. He chased them, hunting them down and dragging them away to prison. When Stephen, the first martyr, was murdered, he stood by in approval. He was convinced that his zeal to destroy the church was of God. He believed that he was doing the will of God by eradicating Christian believers. There is no blindness like religious blindness, and there is no hatred like religious hatred. Paul, known only as Saul then, was definitely not considered by the majority to be a potential believer in Christ. From the outside no one could see that God had his hand on Saul and just as he persecuted and hunted the church, Jesus was ceaselessly tracking Saul. A man by the name of Francis Thompson once wrote a poem entitled, ‘The Hound of Heaven’ which is a reference to God relentlessly on the hunt, pursuing people to win them and rescue them.

   Those early believers were well aware of Saul. His reputation always preceded him. Once Saul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, they began to hear that Saul had dramatically changed. They began to hear that the persecutor of the church was now the protector of the church. He was the bully and the oppressor in times past, but now he is the proclaimer of the faith. He has become the defender of the faith. He is now the church’s greatest asset and ally. In times past he was a certain way. That was then, this is now. Everyone has a past of some kind. God is the great intervener of our history. He enters our life and makes the past to become, in reality, the past. That was then, this is now. If Jesus had not revealed himself to us, our past would still be following us into our future; He makes the difference in our story. Before we knew the Lord, we were like Saul; blind, driven and lost, but there has been a divine intervention. Everything has changed because of the grace of God. That was then, this is now!