Your Own Salvation.
I. What was the particular sin from which St. Paul had to be saved, the salvation from which made him a new creature in Christ Jesus, that old things passed away, and all things became new? It was not a sin of morals, in the general sense of the word; it was a sin of ignorance, by which he was led into deeds of cruelty and wrong. The Christians, so it seemed to his blinded eyes, were against God and Fatherland, and anyhow they must be put down. They were unbelievers, and infidels, and destructives, and all power must be kept from them, and they must be crushed down, even if it did look cruel; the honour of God, and the welfare of their country required it. Better that a few should be imprisoned or stoned, that the whole nation perish not; and so, like many another persecutor of old and modern times, with prayer to God, and virtuous living, he went to root out the false doctrines and the false preachers.
II. St. Paul was saved by Christ from a false and mistaken view. His old ardent and upright character remained the same, but it had a new direction, a new intention, a new Lord and Master. He meant well as he rode along that noonday with Damascus in view. He was a pillar of orthodoxy, and zealous for the faith; he was, so it seemed to him, doing a service for God and religion, when suddenly the piercing words which rent his soul were heard. He saw his errors, all his terrible blunder with its sin; it pleased God to make a change in his thoughts and perceptions; it pleased God to revealHis Son within him; and not from his old virtuous and God-fearing life, but from his false views and misleading ignorance did the Heavenly Father save him.
W. Page Roberts, Reasonable Service,p. 91.
References: 1 Timothy 1:15. J. H. Wilson, The Gospel and its Fruits,p. 23; A. W. Hare, The Alton Sermons,p. 124; Christian World Pulpit,vol. xvii., p. 284; Homiletic Magazine,vol. xv., p. 236; E. Cooper, Practical Sermons,vol i., p. 111; H. P. Liddon, Advent Sermons,vol. i., p. 317; Homilist,2nd series, vol. ii., p. 419; Good Words,vol. vi., p. 47. 1 Timothy 1:15-17. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxxi., No. 1837; J. Baldwin Brown, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxii., pp. 305, 340; Ibid.,vol. xxxi., p. 65; Preacher's Monthly,vol. i., p. 357. 1 Timothy 1:16. R. Roberts, My Later Ministry,p. 213; H. W. Beecher, Sermons,1870, p. 476; E. White, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxiv., p. 136; E. Cooper, Practical Sermons,vol. ii., p. 158; T. J. Crawford, The Preaching of the Cross,p. 236; Homilist,2nd series, vol. ii., p. 203; Ibid.,3rd series, vol. vi., p. 168. 1 Timothy 1:17. L. D. Bevan, Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 404; A. Dunning, Ibid.,vol. xxix., p. 218; Bishop Westcott, The Historic Faith,p. 215.