44: Saul’s Conversion

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Bible students exploring Biblical truths that might not be fully explored in typical sermons or Bible studies.

My name is Eddie Lawrence. Saul of Tarsus, blinded on the road, fasting in Damascus, and then told to be baptized to wash away his sins.

What does Saul's conversion reveal about the connection between baptism and salvation?

Let's find out. Paul, formerly known as Saul, recounts the story of his conversion three times in the book of Acts, in chapters 9, 22, and 26.

In the first two accounts, the Bible associates the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the removal of his sins with baptism.

So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him, he said,

Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the

Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight.

Then he rose and was baptized. Acts 9, 17, and 18.

And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law well spoken of by all the

Jews who lived there, came to me, and standing by me said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight.

And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. And he said,

The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one and to hear a voice from his mouth, for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.

And now, why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

Acts 22, 12 through 16. As with differing accounts in the gospel, the conversion stories of Saul or Paul in Acts 9, 22, and 26 highlight various details, some of which are emphasized more in certain passages than in others.

Rather than seeing these variations as contradictions, it's important to harmonize them and understand how they fit together.

Ananias states that he was sent to restore Saul's sight and fill him with the

Holy Spirit. However, the phrasing doesn't demand that both events, restoring sight and receiving the

Holy Spirit, occurred at the same time. A cursory reading of Acts 9, 17 might lead one to assume that the healing of Saul's sight and the indwelling of the

Holy Spirit happened at the same time. However, when we harmonize the accounts in Acts 9 and 22, it seems likely that Ananias first restored

Saul's sight with the reception of the Holy Spirit and the washing away of sins occurring at baptism, as emphasized in Acts 22, 16.

What reason is there to think this is so? One of the main purposes of miracles in the

New Testament was to confirm the authority of the messenger and the authenticity of the message.

When someone performed a genuine miracle, it lent credibility to the message they brought.

Since God healed Saul's blindness through Ananias, Saul had every reason to trust and pay attention to what

Ananias had to say. Did Ananias speak his words in Acts 22, 14 -16, after the scales fell from Saul's eyes in Acts 9, 18, but before his immersion?

While the two accounts emphasize different aspects of Saul's conversion, we can reasonably harmonize them into a single narrative that reflects a plausible chronological order of events.

However, it's important to recognize that we infer the sequence from the text and the scripture does not explicitly state it.

If we were to merge the two conversion accounts in this way, it might sound something like this.

So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him, he said,

Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me, so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the

Holy Spirit. And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight.

And he said, The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the righteous one and to hear a voice from his mouth, for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard.

And now, why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.

Then he rose and was baptized. Even though Saul had seen

Jesus on the road to Damascus and had been praying and fasting for three days, he was still in his sins.

Ananias told him to be immersed and in so doing, his sins would be washed away.

Here again, we see the removal of sins connected with immersion.

It was during Saul's immersion that the Holy Spirit washed away his sins.

We have several clear -cut statements in Scripture related to the indwelling of the

Spirit and the removal of our sins. First, only saved people have the

Spirit according to Romans chapter 8 verse 9. The Spirit saves us when he indwells us and not before.

Second, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit happens simultaneously with the forgiveness of sins.

Peter said that immersion in water is for the forgiveness of sins.

It's related to the gift of the Holy Spirit. Third, we see a direct statement in Acts chapter 22 verse 16 that during immersion,

Saul's sins would be washed away. Those who wish to deny that baptism is directly connected to salvation have a very thorny theological problem to deal with.

Peter specifically said immersion is related to the forgiveness of sins.

Ananias confirmed Peter's statement when he told Saul that immersion would remove his sins.

Let's be clear. The water did not wash away Paul's sins. The Holy Spirit did that.

He did it when he came to live inside Saul. Just like the purification washings of the

Old Testament, the baptismal waters illustrated what the Spirit was doing to Saul's heart.

The Spirit is the purifying agent in our conversion. The timing of this purification is during immersion in water.

Saul received the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit that we read about in Titus chapter 3 verses 5 through 7.

He was cleansed by the washing of water with the Word that Ephesians chapter 5 verse 26 mentions.

Saul was born again of the water and the Spirit, just like Jesus told

Nicodemus in John chapter 3. Based on passages we've studied so far in this series on baptism, we can't consistently assume that God would remove one's sins separate from the

Spirit indwelling them. The passages teach that all this happens during immersion.

Ananias also told Saul to call on the name of the Lord as he was being baptized.

What does this mean? We'll talk more about that in the next episode.

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