His Pure Holy Love

Sometimes, we may feel tainted by our past and thus may deem ourselves unfit to be in the presence of God. But the flame of God's love is so pure and so perfect that it purifies our sins and our past indiscretions. His love heals from any pain or bad memories from our tainted past. God does not see our faults, He only sees through His pure, Holy and perfect love. And in His eyes, we are perfect.

The life of Apostle Paul epitomises God's unconditional love, as it shows that no one is beyond saving. Paul formally known as Saul was essentially a religious terrorist as he had been raised in a faith that did not allow him to compromise in his beliefs. In his mind he was serving and doing God's work whiles he was doing the opposite. And in doing so ended up viciously and ruthlessly prosecuting and killing innocent people. As stated in Acts 8:3 "But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison".

The most fascinating part of the story of Paul is that God chose to show his grace to him when he was at the apex of his extremism towards the early church. The account of Paul's first encounter with Jesus occurred on his way to Damascus as recorded in the book of Acts chapter 9. “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest ² and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem”.  On the road when he was about to get to Damascus, Saul was caught up in a light from heaven which caused him to fall face down on the ground. He hears the words, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” He says, “Who are you Lord?” Jesus answers directly and clearly, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting”. He subsequently went on into the city and was later converted into a disciple of God and his name was changed from Saul to Paul.

Therefore, from this remarkable story of Paul we’ve seen that anyone can be transformed by the grace of God. He was literally transformed from a religious extremist into a chosen instrument who preached the name of Jesus to the Gentiles. Paul never had the chance to meet Jesus in person like his disciples did and he certainly didn’t have the opportunity to learn from Jesus like the Peters of this world and yet he went on to write many of the New Testament books. Most theologians agree that he wrote Romans, 1^st and 2^nd Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1^st and 2^nd Thessalonians, Philemon, Ephesians, Colossians, 1^st and 2^nd Timothy and Titus. This is what the saving grace of God can do.

The pharisees always wondered why Jesus would spend time and associate himself with "tax collectors and sinners", in other words people who the pharisees thought less of. And when they finally asked Jesus about it Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32)

God does not call people who are perfect or worthy in the eyes of society. Instead he calls those we see as weak, unfit, broken and then he transforms them. As seen in the book of Roman 8: 29-30 " 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn[b] among many brothers and sisters. 30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory". the Bible says that after he called, he gave them the right standing with himself. Therefore, God didn't call people who were qualified but instead he qualified the people he chose.