Act 9: What Place Does Sin Have after Christ's Death for Sin

This is the final post in a series on sin after Christ’s death. The first two posts are here and here. I think this final piece will only make sense to you if you read the other two, first. Let’s begin.

I have argued from Acts 2 and 3 that sin changed once Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Jesus Christ becomes the pivotal point for each human life. In biblical language, he is the stone that some have rejected, but that does not necessarily have to be so. For others he has become the chief cornerstone. See Acts 4:11. [For those of you who don’t know, the cornerstone sets the length, width, and height of the structure. All other stones in the structure will be set in reference to the chief corner stone.]

What happens to a man when he has rejected Christ? We have no better example for us than Saul. Let’s first turn to Acts 8:1: And Saul approved of their killing him. The “him” in this verse is of course Stephen who was stoned to death for proclaiming to the people their perpetual resistance to the Holy Spirit, accusing them of crucifying the promised Messiah as a culmination of their generational stiffneckedness, and revealing Jesus glorified. Over this denunciation, they were “furious and gnashed their teeth at him” and “they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him” and they killed him outside the city.

But Saul’s assent to the killing of Stephen has more fateful implications for Saul. He has rejected Jesus as Messiah, as risen, and as glorified. But what Saul shows us is that the rejection of Jesus Christ is not a philosophical disagreement or an argument over disparate points of view. This is not a debate that you can win. There are facts that you can accept or reject.

Rejection of Christ after a presentation of the facts leads to death. The irony here is Stephen didn’t die that day; he lived, in the presence of Jesus Christ and the Father. It was Saul who died; he assented to the death of his own soul.

What did that soul death look like in Saul’s life?

Saul became a beast. Turn to Chapter 9 where it begins: “Saul was still breathing out threats of murder and slaughter against the Lord’s disciples.” That word “breathing out” literally means “to inhale.” In other words, murder, violence, and slaughter had become Saul’s oxygen; his life was death and he had become a child of the great dragon. Cp. Revelation 12:17.

To put a finer point on the bestial nature of Saul, remember what his rabbi, Gamaliel, had said in an appeal to reason (in Chapter 5):

Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God. (emphasis added)

So, Saul not only had to reject reason and walk away from his teacher, but he also had to align himself with his theological and political enemy, the high priest:

He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

Whereas the chief priests were the great compromisers and aggrandizers, the Pharisees, of which Saul was one, were not. But here Saul is getting his “legal and moral authority” to destroy the church from an enemy. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, I suppose. In all this, you should see that Saul is lost, blind to God, and blind to himself, as would be the case with all dead men.

Read what Paul (f/k/a Saul) wrote in Romans, Chapter 3. It is stunning:

For we have already made the charge that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin. As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away; they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The venom of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and of bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery lie in their wake; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Paul knows this to be true from his personal experience, which Luke presents to us. He was that man in Romans 3, which Luke gives us in Acts 8:1-3 and 9:1-2. His bestial nature is the natural result of rejecting Jesus Christ; it is direct opposition to God, as Gamaliel suggested. That opposition to God will expresses itself in us in as many different ways as there are people. We will not necessarily drag people off to prison; but He knows our hearts.

Nebuchadnezzar found himself similarly situated in Daniel 4. A failure to give God the glory turned Nebuchadnezzar into the ass he already was. In a similar manner, Saul was blind rage devoid of reason—his outward violence mirroring the inward violence in his soul, the genesis of which was a proclamation by Stephen that Jesus was Messiah.

I have belabored the point because Saul’s life gives us hope. Some might read this and conclude I am the ass, and out of my head. But others may be horrified, “what do we do now” as the crowd in Acts 2 asked.

Good news! Jesus is full of grace and truth. Christ saved the very man who opposed him the strongest, who rejected him the most vehemently, and who intentionally destroyed the people Jesus cared for. You would think that such a man was beyond redemption. And he was beyond redemption if Jesus Christ had not died on the cross for him, if Jesus Christ had not, from his throne, confronted Saul with his blindness and saved him from himself.

Christ loves us and is mighty to save his enemies. That is a blessed hope because that is what we are before Christ saves us too.

So, to summarize. Sin has become tethered to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Words and deeds will be examined on the Day of Judgment to be sure; but really only one question has to be asked, “Did you love my Son?” How you have answered that will govern the course of your life in this world and in the ages to come. Choose wisely.