In the face of Christ Jesus the eternal purpose of God, His original intent and thoughts towards man were made plain. This revelation destroys every false identity and unlocks the truth about us. The light that confronted Saul on the way to Damascus was both a destructive force and a life-giving encounter. The flaming fire of the presence of God eternally destroyed Saul, and simultaneously brought forth Paul – the true person that God had in mind since the beginning. As Paul continued to look into this light, he saw the face of Christ shining with the knowledge of the glory of God. As he looked deeply, he became aware of the real significance of Christ, a significance far beyond the miracles He performed, a significance far beyond the few years He spent on earth. He began to recognise, in the face of Christ, the true identity of mankind.
It is this insight into Christ which takes us beyond a mere historic appreciation of Him, into a present awareness of the One who lives; the One who represents my innocence at the right hand of God.
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I sometimes wonder what it must have been like for Paul this Christ hating jew , religious to the extreme and born into the most religious nation on the earth . We know as you say he had the awsome glory of his own and man-kinds true idenity revealed in this direct face to face encounter with Christ . But can you also imagine the shock to Pauls system when God revealed to this legalistic self righteous pharisee that now in the gospel of grace their is contained another righteousness not man made but that comes from God as a gift through faith in Jesus Christ from first to last . This revelation of the gift of R must have sent sizemic shock waves through Pauls inner world . No wonder he had to disappear into the Arabian desrert for a couple years to allow this new revelation to dismantle the centuries of religious conditioning that had been so hard wired into him as a child growing up in ancient Isreal . Can you imagine how the currents of heaven flowing in revelations of the grace of God must have been reverberating through this mans spirit and inner consciousness in tidal waves of glory . God was revealing in this vessel the sharp contrast of the fading glory of old covenant and the ever increasing never fading glory of the new covenant that ushers us into the face to face presence of Christ . What a God , what a man and what a gospel and we have been MADE competent ministers of this gospel from God that brings with it its own righteousness and right standing with God and an open heaven to all who simply believe….Yahooo