IT IS ALL ABOUT THE SPIRIT
As Old/First Covenant religionists, Paul and his Pharisee cronies, indeed all of Israel, could at first only see Jesus as a physical man. And since he did not satisfy their expectations of what Messiah would look like, only a few could accept who he was. This was a natural consequence of their exclusive focus on the literal law. Everything they did and all of their doctrines were filtered through this literal mind set. In effect, they could see only what their natural eyes could see. They were blind to seeing with spiritual eyes and deaf to hearing with spiritual ears. Their view of God was limited to what they read in the Law of Moses and the prophets just like Christians’ view of Jesus is limited to the New Testament.

The eyes and ears of Old/First Covenant religionists such as Saul were miraculously opened to spiritual understanding, however, when they stopped interpreting the law literally and began listening to God’s voice. Before that time, religionists did not have eyes to see nor ears to hear the truth about their religion, and they only honored God with their lips while their hearts were far from him. That is the condition of religious people who limit their understanding of God to what they read without listening to his voice. Thus, they interpret the Bible literally and not symbolically. In their self-righteous beliefs that religion based on what they read is the right religion, they have all hardened their hearts and have gone astray from what God says to their hearts by his spirit.

Because people have gone astray in their ability to hear his voice, God wants them to return to him (i.e. be converted) and practice Pure Religion which is possible only by hearing God’s voice. This transition from Defiled Religion to Pure Religion is the kind of conversion that God wants to effect in Jews and Christians who are focused on the written word to the exclusion of the spoken word.

Israel was already God’s chosen people. They were not converted from paganism to believers. They were already believers in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but they had gone astray in their defiled religious practices. They had eaten the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and God wanted to them to return to him and pure religion. As Old Covenant religionists, their eyes were blinded to the truth about the New Covenant.  Before they can return to God, however, their eyes must be opened just as Saul of Tarsus’ eyes were opened on the way to Damascus.

Saul, who was later known as Paul, experienced a radical change in perspective. As a pharisee,  he zealously tried to preserve Judaism by persecuting the church (i.e. the New Covenant). Once his eyes were opened, however, he fought the good fight of taking on the religious establishment for the sake of advancing the New Covenant.

STUDY TIP: See Religion is the Enemy, Gods at War, Sibling Conflict, Model Warriors, Death, Resurrection and New Life, and Two Deaths for more about what it means to fight the good fight.

The story of Saul/Paul is not just the story of a unique Bible character. It is the story of everyone who makes the transition from Old/First Covenant religionist to New Covenant disciple. Saul’s story encourages us to trust that if God was willing and able to convert a hard core religionist like Saul from Old/New Covenant religion to New Covenant faith, he can and will effect that conversion for others — even those who initially resist seeing and hearing with spiritual eyes and ears.

Considering all of the above scriptures, there is little wonder that both Christians and Jews still have trouble discerning the difference between God’s written word and the voice of his spirit speaking to the hearts of people. The only way to begin to discern the difference is by looking at scriptures that use both words in close proximity as we see in the following scriptures: