Example #12 – Saul of Tarsus

We have one final example which should dispel any doubts about the foolishness of a doctrine which teaches that man’s will is free from the hand of the Potter. IT IS TRUE GOD DOES NOT FORCE US TO DO ANYTHING: “… the goodness of God LEADETH thee to repentance” (Rom 2:4). God is the potter and we, mankind, are all the lump of clay (Rom 9:21). A potter does not force the clay to do anything; he ‘leads’ it, he forms it. Since salvation is of the Jews, we must all, Jew or Gentile, be formed as Gentiles first: it is God who leads and forms us this way first: “Ye know that ye were [ past tense] Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, EVEN AS YE WERE LED” [ formed by the Potter] (1Co 12:2). Before Adam ever ate of the tree, he was formed by the Creator “of the earth, earthy” flesh and blood and therefore corruptible (1Co 15:50).

Thus David tells us: “I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Psa 51:5). David was a man “after God’s own heart”, yet he made this statement concerning our original state. Do we dare to disagree? We are all born naked, composed of clay, dust, ‘shapen in iniquity’, ‘conceived in sin’.

Saul of Tarsus was no exception. He was first formed a vessel of dishonor, “marred in the Potter’s hand” (Jer 18:6). Notice how God led Saul to repentance. If only God will give us eyes to see that these twelve examples are NOT exceptions to God’s way of working. If only God will let us see that all these things are for our examples and are written for OUR admonition. Then we can give Him His due credit and recognition. Then we can rest in His assured love knowing that “He worketh ALL THINGS after the counsel of HIS OWN will” (Eph 1:11).

Saul as a zealous young church leader had consented to the stoning of righteous Stephen. He was constantly “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord” (Act 9:1). Let us observe how God reforms this “marred vessel”. Observe how the goodness of God led Saul to repentance. Is Saul’s own will free of the forming and leading of the Potter? Of course not.

Saul went to the high priest “and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way [ following Christ], whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem” (Act 9:1 & 2). He ‘freely’ chose to slaughter the disciples of ‘this way’. This Saul was a marred vessel in the hand of the Potter: “and the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the Potter” (Jer 18:6). The Potter does not make mistakes. He deliberately makes vessels to honor and vessels of dishonor.

The vessels of dishonor are endured “with much longsuffering” so God can “demonstrate His wrath and make His power known” (Rom 9:22). These vessels of wrath are “fitted to destruction that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He hath AFORE prepared unto glory. Even us whom He hath called not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles.” Saul’s experience demonstrates how God “destroys” a vessel of wrath.

“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who art thou Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do” (Act 9:3-6). At this point Saul’s highly esteemed ‘freedom of choice’ was looking very much like a pile of dung. “Kick against the pricks” is scriptural lingo for pitting our ‘free will’ against the will of the Potter.

“And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: and they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and did neither eat nor drink” (Act 9:7-9). God didn’t force Saul to do anything. He forms and leads Saul to willingly ask the very man he was moments before threatening to slaughter, “Lord what wilt thou have me to do?” One moment Saul is asserting his ‘own free will’, and the next moment he is conscious of how blind he was. He is now seeking to know the will of Him who worketh ALL THINGS AFTER THE COUNSEL OF HIS OWN WILL. He did this willingly. God didn’t need to force him to ask “what wilt THOU have me to do?” God simply destroyed the marred vessel and “he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the Potter to make it… as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in my hand…” (Jer 18:44-6).

Are we so spiritually blind that we think this account of Saul is just an interesting segment of early church history? No, this too, is for our admonition.

Jesus said “… I am come into this world that they which see not might see; AND THAT THEY WHICH SEE MIGHT BE MADE BLIND” (Joh 9:39). Saul of Tarsus certainly thought he could see: “Touching the righteousness which is in the law, [ Saul was] blameless” (Php 3:6). Saul had to be shown just how blind he had been. “He was three days without sight…”

After three days of total darkness, a disciple named Ananias, who lived on a street called Straight, prays for Saul. “And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith…” (Act 9:18). This was written for our admonition. Saul’s ‘road to Damascus experience’ once again is NOT an exception to the ways of God. It may be unusually dramatic, but that is for the purpose of making the truth an open door for those to whom “it is given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom” of God, while hiding the truth from those to whom “it is not given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God.”

Saul of Tarsus had more than any other man “… whereof he might trust in the flesh” (Php 3:4). He thought he had need of nothing, yet he was brought to see AGAINST his own fabled ‘free will’ that in reality he was naked and blind (Rev 3:17).

Until we are chastened and scourged as was Saul (Heb 12:6), we will not be received by God. We will continue in our blind, naked condition thinking we have need of nothing. Christ will tell us “you have not chosen me” and we will maintain we still have freedom of choice. He will say we are “predestinated” and “he worketh all things after the counsel of HIS OWN will” we will yet take the credit for accepting Him as our savior.

Such is the reluctance of the beast of Ecc 3:18 to vacate and relinquish its claim to the temple of the Holy Ghost [ Spirit] (1Co 6:19). Through the false, deceptive doctrine of free moral agency, the abomination that maketh desolate is “standing where it ought not (let him that readeth understand)…”

It takes no spiritual vision to see a physical man standing in a physical temple in a physical nation called Israel. It takes no spiritual vision to see a physical number stamped in a physical right hand and a physical forehead. So while the whole deceived, blinded Christian world allows Jezebel and those who say they are Jews but are not to cause them to commit fornication, He causeth ALL, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond to receive a mark in the [ spiritual] right hand and in their [ spiritual] foreheads. He that hath understanding counts the number of the beast and understands that it is [ spiritually] the number of ‘a’ [ any one in Adam] man. For Adam, along with all the other beasts, was created on the sixth day. It is ‘Adam’ who stands in the temple demanding our worship.

And all those to whom it is not given to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of God will and do worship this beast in themselves and will gladly kill any who dare suggest that we love our enemies, or put up our sword, or in any way suggest that ‘Adam’ is poor, miserable, blind and naked. To propose that it is those who name the name of Christ who need to repent is considered the same as giving aid and comfort to the enemy. In reality, of course, it is those who want to fight a physical fight who are giving aid and comfort to old unrepentant Adam.

“The weapons of our warfare ARE NOT CARNAL, but mighty through God to the pulling down of [ spiritual] strongholds” (2Co 10:4). “For we WRESTLE NOT AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, AGAINST SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS in high places [ heaven]” (Eph 6:12).

Though the opposite may appear to Adam to be so, those who know Christ, and see things through the eyes of Christ, will not let the “things which do appear” to deceive them into thinking that the weapons of our warfare are physical and carnal.

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