Righteous Saul vs. Righteous Paul

In this hour, believers must be clear about who they are in Christ. Many of us are functioning day-to-day with the mentality of a servant rather than the identity of a son. We're constantly working for God, hoping to be "used" by Him. At the end of the day we hope, pray, and cross our fingers that we've done enough to please God. Our day could have been so much richer and fuller if we had only lived as sons and daughters-having received what He's done for us. The Father wants to release us into the glorious liberty of sonship. The glory of the redeemed-the right to call ourselves the sons of God is ours by inheritance, but settling into that mentality is a journey. It may start on a Sunday morning, and then it rolls over into our lives-into our work week, into our relationships-as we are released into the liberty of who He has created us to be. This book takes a look at the ultimate example of religious performance and the story of one man's most radical transformation: The conversion from Saul of Tarsus to the Apostle Paul. We will track with Saul through the machinery of works and achievement, to the depths of hell, where zeal finds it starkest expression. Like Saul, blinded on the road to Damascus, we must each confront our own religious zeal in the face of our Lord Jesus, and then confront our blindness as well. Saul entered the encounter with his eyes wide open to his own ability and self-righteousness, only to have them darkened to those realities. When the scales fell from his eyes (Acts 9:18), he walked out of the home of Ananias and began a journey into sonship. Saul went in, but Paul came out. If you head into this book confident in your ability to live for God, do the right thing, curry favor through your perseverance, or if you are exhausted from trying, then I pray that you too become blinded to your own ability so that your eyes can be opened to His love and finished work on your behalf. Go into this journey as a Saul-that's fine-but come out the other side, a Paul.