Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Jesus is the way to a saving relationship with God (John 10:9), the way to peace with God (Romans 5:1), the way to eternal life (John 3:15), the way to abundant life (John 10:10), and the way to victorious life (Romans 8:37). He’s the only way.
After the death and resurrection of Jesus, His faith-filled followers apparently took “The Way” as a nickname. They became known as people “on the Way” … “of the Way” … “going God’s Way” … “The Way!”
While “Saul was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord… He went to the high priest and requested letters from him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them as prisoners to Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1–2). He brazenly and shamelessly persecuted people of the “Way … arresting and putting both men and women in jail” (Acts 22:4). Saul of Tarsus, the pharisaical religious zealot hated people of “the Way!”
But that was before he saw the Light, before the grace of God blinded him giving him, for the first time, spiritual sight.
Having been in the glorious presence of God Almighty on the road to Damascus, Brother Saul’s life was forever transformed and overflowed with the Spirit of the Living God. Gone was the seething hatred. Gone was his fig-leaf religion of doing good deeds to appease God by covering sin and shame. He miraculously became a new creation; old things passed away and his mind, heart, and soul became new (2 Corinthians 5:17).
What’s next? How does one respond when death gives way to life, when hate turns to love, when you are travelling north to Damascus, and God adjusts your compass and turns your life in the opposite direction?
Saul “got up and was baptized” (Acts 9:18). Immediately Saul demonstrated what God had accomplished internally. Following Christ’s example, Saul submitted to Christian baptism, illustrating the death and burial of his old way of life, and his resurrection to walk with Jesus in the new Way.
That isn’t all.
“Immediately he began proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues: ‘He is the Son of God.’ All who heard him were astounded and said, ‘Isn’t this the man in Jerusalem who was causing havoc for those who called on this name and came here for the purpose of taking them as prisoners to the chief priests?’ But Saul grew stronger and kept confounding the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah” (Acts 9:20–22).
Saul did what the once-demon-possessed man did after being freed from his dreadful life of bondage… “he went out and began to proclaim … how much Jesus had done for him” (Mark 5:20). He did what the two blind me did when they were miraculously given sight. He immediately “went out and spread the news about him throughout that whole area” (Matthew 9:31). Saul boldly and passionately directed people to “the Way!”
