“For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it. And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.” (Galatians 1:13–14, ESV)
It is very unusual for people to turn from their core beliefs. I am talking about their predispositions and the traditions to which they have been strongly aligned for many years. The problem is that when someone has devoted their lives to something it is very difficult for them to turn their back on it.
There are a variety of reasons for this. One which is prevalent is pride and prestige. People do not want to admit that they have pursued something passionately that was wrong. Another is that, having made a name for themselves in something, they will not want to lose the prestige in the eyes of others that they had earned through life. Another issue is that core beliefs are something that become ingrained and it takes a major influence to get someone to examine something else.
One such person who had such an experience is a philosopher named Anthony Flew. He was an intellectual who taught at prestigious universities including Oxford. He was a leading proponent of atheism. He had written various works on the subject of atheism and even was a signer on the Humanist Manifesto III. Yet in 2004 he converted from atheism to deism. It was a result of following his lifelong commitment to go where the evidence leads. His new view believed in the existence of God and he wrote a book about his discovery titles, “There Is a God.” These types of conversions in thought are rare, but do exist.
If you really think about it, Paul experienced such a dramatic conversion as well. He was steeped in Pharisaic doctrine, a Pharisee of Pharisees, one who was on his way up to the top in the institution of Judaism of his day. He was so zealous for that tradition that he persecuted the church in order to stop what he then thought was a heretical teaching. Yet something miraculous happened to Paul. On the road to Damascus while trying to seize believers in Jesus who were fleeing persecution in Jerusalem, he had an experience with the risen Lord.
Following this experience on the Damascus Road, he chose not to go to Jerusalem and meet the apostles, but to first travel to Arabia. In that time, he communed with the Lord and fully understood the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith.
Consider the audience to whom Paul addressed the letter. They were being inundated by the Judaizers who were teaching that one must be saved by works of the flesh. Paul, a Pharisee, who had formerly held these views as his core belief system, now had a dramatic change of viewpoint. Who would be better qualified to write such a letter to the churches in Galatia than Paul? For he strongly held to the same views as the false teachers who were plaguing the churches but then had a complete turnaround. His transformation would stand as a strong affirmation of the truth that he had taught them, that salvation was by grace through faith in Christ alone.
It is the same for us who have believed today. The transformation that has occurred in our lives is the testimony that strongly affirms the message of God’s grace. We may not have been holding to the false teaching of works salvation such as held by the Judaizers. However, every one of us who have believed formerly held to some core belief system that was ingrained in our lives. In a similar way to the Judaizers we may have believed that we could justify ourselves before God by doing good works. We may have been atheists or agnostics. We may have been hedonists, with a core philosophy of seeking pleasure. We may have been involved in some cult or in some occult practice.
In every case, we who have believed have experienced a transformation from our former ways to the new life in Christ. Moreover, people have noticed the change. This change is our platform that elevates the truth of the gospel.
Renewing the Heart 