“Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die?” Ezekiel 18:31
“For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the LORD God. “Therefore turn and live!” Ezekiel 18:32
God’s Message Is Simple: Get A New Life In HIM!
Paul’s new life would no longer entail persecuting the new believers who were not understood by the established authorities [Scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees]. Jesus had chosen fishermen at the start of the building of his group of disciples. Now Jesus picked scholarly Paul [Saul], a Pharisee and whose father was also a Pharisee. In addition to these matters of the heart, Paul would also be able to argue for God’s Son from an intellectual point of view having been schooled as an advocate of Old Testament Law.
If you examine closely the life of Paul, you will find out that he wasn’t a Christian one moment and then the next moment a humanist. He wasn’t with God one moment [or day] and not with God the next moment [or day]. He didn’t decide to show up for Sunday morning church services so he could be a “good” Christian. Then, the rest of the week, feel free to go about some ungodly business [sinful activities].
No, for Paul had given God the FATHER his whole heart through Christ. Then, he was filled with the FATHER’s Holy Spirit. Paul was now “fully hot” to do God’s will. Paul’s perspective on life and eternity had changed.