It is the most important question. Is Jesus God or isn’t he? If Jesus is not God, then even if he lived a perfect life, he could only pay for the sins of one person. Life for life. But if he was indeed God, he could pay for the sins of all mankind past, present, and future. Because he is eternal.
The reason the Jews hated Jesus so much was that he claimed to be God. If he merely claimed to be God, it would not be sufficient proof. What would we need to know for him to prove he was God?
1) We would need to know that he was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecys regarding the Messiah.
2) He would need to be able to perform miracles however and whenever
3)He would need to live a morally perfect life.
4) He would need to do something that only God could do.
That was the rub with the Jews. Because Jesus had all of these things. He was the fulfillment of the prophecies, he performed many miracles of healing and resurrection, he lived morally perfect so that he could stand in a crowd and ask if he had done anything wrong, and he was resurrected from the dead, something that only God can do.
At first, Paul didn’t believe any of this. Then he had an encounter with the Lord. Next he was healed. He then studies the Scriptures and found that Jesus did fit the ticket. So what did he do?
At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God (v. 19).
This was shocking as this was the man who imprisoned and approved of the murder of Christians. And now?
All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah (v. 20-22).
When his eyes were opened, his eyes were opened. No one was sure what to think. The disciples didn’t trust him as he had brought so much suffering to them. The Jews were unsure either, until after many days had gone by and they saw that it was real. Their response? No surprise.
After many days had gone by, there was a conspiracy among the Jews to kill him, but Saul learned of their plan. Day and night they kept close watch on the city gates in order to kill him. But his followers took him by night and lowered him in a basket through an opening in the wall (Acts 9:23-25).
Wherever it is preached that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, there will be persecution. It’s mind-boggling to think that God would become a man. The humility of that act is far beyond what we know.
But we have every reason to believe that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. That he is the Messiah of the Scriptures. And that he was able to verify that reality by his life, death and resurrection.
What we believe about Jesus is the most important thing we can come to know.