Grace Before Salvation... Act 9

In “Grace Before Salvation,” from Acts 9, Saul is presented not as a distant villain but as someone who could “fit right in” among sincere, disciplined, Bible-knowing churchgoers—religious, passionate, yet spiritually blind. Saul was not ignorant of truth, but was actively resisting the Holy Spirit while believing he was serving God. When Jesus finally intervenes, it is not because Saul was seeking Him, but because grace found him middle of his rebellion. His three days of blindness portray repentance and the death of his old identity, and Ananias calling him “Brother Saul” illustrates grace welcoming him into the family of faith. Ultimately, the sermon invites listeners not only to consider whether they may be resisting conviction, challenging them to respond in humility before grace confronts them personally, but also to ask whether we are denying full fellowship to those whose past makes us uncomfortable — forgetting that the same grace that saved us is powerful enough to redeem them.