“About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked. ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ he replied” (Acts 22:6-8).

This is the first time Paul tells the story of his conversion. Among the many things to be noted is the effect this event had on the way Paul began to see things. Jesus appeared as a flash of lightning that lingered and blinded Paul. Paul immediately realized that Jesus is alive. He was part of the generation that had experienced the death of the Son of God. Jesus had been crucified and buried but now Paul understood that Jesus is alive. That was a foundational point of his preaching for the rest of his life.

He also saw that He had been persecuting the Messiah he and his fellow Jews had been awaiting all their lives. He thought he had been serving God by resisting the followers of Jesus but now realized he had been on the wrong side of history.

Two things happen to everyone who believes in Jesus. We spiritually see Him as He is, risen from the dead and triumphant over all of His creation. We also see ourselves as we are, in need of the Savior we have resisted. We may even be zealously religious but that doesn’t satisfy the desire to know God that drives us. Only Jesus can satisfy us and we are lost without Him.

What happened to Paul happens to everyone who believes in Jesus. Paul described that experience this way: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ’ ” (2 Corinthians 4:6).