Where the Holy Spirit prevails, love reigns in the church, and the gospel is preached among all those who do not know Jesus. Saul remained a certain number of days in the church at Damascus, penetrating deeply into the Holy Scriptures and giving thanks to God. Insight into the New Covenant through prophecies of the Old Covenant became evident to him.
Saul could not hide the treasure of his experience and encounter with Christ. He was known to the synagogue of the Jews as the ambassador of the high council in Jerusalem. He came into the midst of the synagogue and preached Jesus openly. He was not satisfied in just showing that the Nazarene was a man of God, a great prophet, or the promised Messiah, as the apostles had done at the beginning of their preaching. He saw the glory of Jesus, and testified that He is true God from true God, begotten, not created, of one essence with the Father. This testimony had caused a spiritual revolution, and challenged the Jews´ lifeless belief in monotheism. Each and every statement that God has a Son was considered by the Jews to be blasphemy, desecrating to their religion. Saul, however, testified to the truth of the Holy Trinity from the very start of his preaching. He had heard the voice of Jesus, eyed His glory, and understood that the Man Jesus is the Son of God Himself. He did not doubt this truth whatsoever, but professed it over and above all other traditions, interpretations, and doctrines. Paul declared that the fatherhood of God is not a strange thought, for God is as such, and only as such. There is no other god except the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The dead belief in abstract monotheism is a strange imagination void of any extract of life or power. Our God is love, which is realized through the communion of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He who rejects the Son does not know the Father, and he who does not believe in the heavenly Father has not received the Holy Spirit.
Saul, the educated legal expert who was filled with the Holy Spirit, proved to the captious, disobedient Jews that Jesus of Nazareth is the true Christ. Likewise, all Jews are sinners, because they had killed the Son of God who was sent to them. Saul did not discuss with them secondary matters, but went straight to the heart of the issue. He did not preach a beloved Christ who endows His favors on all His hearers and blesses them unconditionally. He called for submission to Christ the king. His Lord had encountered him in holy, shining light, and showed him that his zealous righteousness was of no avail. Grace alone was to be the foundation of his life.
The Jews at Damascus were fearful and perplexed. They had expected to find in the ambassador of the high council a strong ally with whom they could work together to root out the Jesus movement growing in their community. Now this legal expert was showing Jesus to be the Victor and the living God. None of the strict, legalistic Jews could overcome him. After many days the number of Jews who believed in Christ was increasing. These, in turn, became Paul´s students, manifesting enthusiasm in his activity. So the rulers of the synagogue decided to kill Paul. He had to hide himself when the spies of the Jews, despised as faithful friends, entered into the houses of believers. Those who had an influence on the chiefs of the city participated with the guards in watching the city gates, so that Saul might not flee away.
The young believer experienced, for the first time, that preaching the gospel brings a reaction: reception or refusal, gratitude or curse, love or hatred. Saul decided not to stay in Damascus. He did not say to himself: “Now, I must stay here at any cost, and suffer martyrdom for Christ”. Instead, he agreed with the faithful brothers that they would let him down from the wall in a basket by night. Some weeks earlier he had come to Damascus as a proud rider. Now he became a refugee, needing urgently to depart the oasis city. Just as his heart had been cold, hard, and full of zeal for the law, now his innermost love for Christ flamed up. The power of the Holy Spirit prompted the one-time apostle of Judaism to become the apostle to the whole world.