Acts: A 14-Day Devotional For MenSample

Scandalous Grace
Acts 9:1–8

Saul’s conversion (after which he was known as Paul) is one of the most breathtaking biblical examples of God’s grace, because Paul neither knew that he needed grace nor wanted it. Up until this point in Acts, he had been growing gradually more militant against Christians. In chapter 7, he held the coats of those who stoned Stephen (Acts 7:58). In chapter 8, we see him gaining power of his own and “entering house after house,” like the Gestapo, searching for evidence of this new Christian “heresy” (Acts 8:3). And then, in the beginning of chapter 9, he comes up with a new plan to legitimize hunting Christians outside the city limits (Acts 9:1–2). Paul didn’t just resist the gospel; he took a perverse pleasure in destroying it. 

But then God stepped into Paul’s life and abruptly cut off what was an increasingly out-of-control downward spiral. Just as Paul had shattered the lives of many of God’s people, God shattered Paul’s pride and self-sufficiency, forcing him to seek as a blind supplicant the mercy of the people he hated. But while Paul’s punishment of believers had been meant to destroy, God’s punishment of Paul was meant to heal. It was the kind of loving punishment described by the prophet Hosea: “Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up” (Hos. 6:1). And the lesson stuck. For the rest of his life, Paul dedicated himself to building up rather than tearing down. 

Why God intervened with Paul is a mystery; God doesn’t always explain his reasons for doing what he does. But he has revealed, from cover to cover in the Bible, that he loves to show up in unexpected places with unexpected mercy. He loves to shine the floodlight of his grace into the darkest corners of the world. He loves to shower his mercy and grace on the least deserving. 

On people like Paul. 

And people like . . . you and me. 

Paul’s downward spiral is easy to criticize, because hurting other people is probably the one sin that most Americans agree on (at least in theory). But there are other spirals—greed, pride, sexual sin, workaholism, self-indulgence, and self-centeredness. Some of them have innocent beginnings as love of family, or humanity, or God, but become twisted somehow. Most of them are easy to see in others but hard to see in ourselves. 

If God can soften Paul’s heart, he can soften ours. Ask him to reveal your sin and send his grace anew. God’s merciful arm is never too short to reach you.—Justin S. Holcomb