His Impact
Throughout the last two millennia, no person has had a greater influence on men's lives than the risen Christ. One often sees astounding changes in the lives of men and women who have encountered the Savior. Go back to the days immediately after Jesus was crucified. His disciples had deserted him, some denied even knowing him, and they were scattered like sheep without a shepherd, afraid for their lives. Even though Jesus said He would rise again, they did not seem to expect it. Yet encountering the risen Christ and receiving the Holy Spirit whom Jesus had promised to send, transformed this group of men and women into an army which "turned the world upside down."
While great leaders inspire and influence men, none have done so like Christ. Historian Philip Schaff described the overwhelming influence which Jesus has had on world history and culture: "This Jesus of Nazareth, without money and arms, conquered more millions than Alexander, Caesar, Mohammed, and Napoleon; without science...he shed more light on things human and divine than all philosophers and scholars combined; without the eloquence of schools, he spoke such words of life as were never spoken before or since, and produced effects which lie beyond the reach of orator or poet; without writing a single line, he set more pens in motion, and furnished themes for more sermons, orations, discussions, learned volumes, works of art, and songs of praise than the whole army of great men of ancient and modern times."
In the poem, One Solitary Life, the unknown author penned "He was born in an obscure village, the son of a peasant woman. He grew up in yet another village, where he worked in a carpenter's shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he became a wandering preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He didn't go to college. He never visited a big city. He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of those things one usually associates with greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through a mockery of a trial. He was executed by the state. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind's progress. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life."
People who encounter the Lord are transformed totally. Their outlook on life, their personal goals and dreams, are changed forever. They are willing to face persecution and torture, even death, and willfully disregard their own needs and desires, all for this Jesus of Nazareth. They are changed so because they have been made award of their sin, made aware of their great guilt, and have found forgiveness and cleansing in Christ, as dying men giving a sudden reprieve.
Probably the most amazing transformation recorded in the Bible is Saul, a member of the Jewish religious sect known as the Pharisees, who persecuted the church. After meeting Christ, Saul changed his name to Paul and became a fiery messenger of the gospel. Luke records the transformation in Acts, "As for Saul, he made havock of the church, entering into every house, and haling men and women committed them to prison.... And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest" (Acts 8:3; 9:1-5 KJV).
Paul was a young zealot, "a Hebrew of the Hebrews", he called himself. He was intent on keeping Israel's faith pure, and that meant wiping out the scourge of Christianity. So, Paul marched around the countryside, going from house to house, searching for anyone who claimed to follow that Galilean preacher. His gunbelt was full of notches, and Paul was proud of his service for his faith (Philippians 3:4-7). Until one day, while in route to Damascus with more orders in one hand and a sword in the other, Saul was stopped in his tracks by a bright light and a voice like thunder, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?"
Saul, trembling and astonished, picked himself up from the ground, and the men who were with him led him by the hand to Damascus. For the next three days, Saul was blinded and could not see. Not able to look at anything else, he was forced to look inside himself, and he did not like what he saw. "I doubt if you can find any one out there who had more confidence in his own flesh that I did," he would later say to the church at Philippi. "I followed the law to the letter like a Pharisee. I labored for my faith and persecuted the church. I was righteous and blameless." Give a man religion without showing him his sin, and the result is Saul. Blameless in following the rules and keeping the traditions, he is arrogant and tells other how to live. However, show a man his sin and show him Jesus too, and the result is Saul-become-Paul who turned the world upside down. "I want to be found in Jesus," Paul said, "not having my own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. I want to know Jesus and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. I want to be made conformable unto His death. I want to forget all those things about me; I want to forget the old Saul. Now, I want to press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus!"
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