Was Paul only saved when he was baptized and “washed away his sins”?

Q. Many speak as if Paul’s salvation took place when he saw Jesus on the road to Damascus. In fact, the term “Damascus Road experience” is often applied to those with a dramatic conversion testimony. In Acts 9, we learn that Paul was knocked to the ground, terrified by the heavenly light. The Lord told him to go into the city and wait. In the meantime, the Lord spoke to Ananias and told him to go and visit Paul. Later, in Acts 22:16, we learn that Ananias said to Paul, “And now, why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on His name.” So perhaps it was only after acknowledging his sins and calling on the Lord for forgiveness that Paul became a saved sinner? What do you think? (By the way, water baptism can’t save or “wash away sins” or be part of a “work” required to be saved. However, believers should agree to water baptism. But that’s another topic.)

Your question highlights how, on the one hand, we may speak of a “moment of conversion,” but how, on the other hand, we may also describe conversion as a process. It’s true that when people are converted suddenly and dramatically, we often call that a “Damascus Road experience,” as if Paul’s own conversion had been sudden and dramatic. But as you point out, there was more to it than the encounter with Jesus on the road. Luke relates in Acts 9:9 that Paul fasted for three days after he was led into the city, and Jesus tells Ananias in Acts 9:11 that Paul has been praying. Christians of some traditions would refer to this as the “use of means” toward salvation. So things were still in process between the time Paul encountered Jesus on the road and the time when Ananias came to visit him.

One way to think about the sacraments is that they are the church community bearing witness to the work of God in individual lives. Based on what Jesus told him about Paul, Ananias was prepared to call Paul his “brother” in the faith and to offer him baptism (indeed, to challenge him to be baptized). So we could say that Paul’s baptism was the moment at which, from the perspective of the Christian community, for all it knew, Paul was a saved sinner. (Only God ultimately knows people’s hearts.) However, we see both a moment and a process even here. When Paul went to Jerusalem, the believers there did not want him to join them. They were afraid of him, thinking that he was not a genuine disciple but only trying to infiltrate their group so that he could arrest more of them. It was only when Barnabas vouched for Paul that the Christian community ultimately considered that, from its perspective, for all it knew, Paul was a saved sinner.

Furthermore, in appreciating how the “moment of conversion” is also one step in an extended process, we might consider what leads up to that moment. Suppose someone is converted suddenly and dramatically at a gospel meeting. What brought them to that meeting in the first place? In many cases, they had developed a relationship with a believer who invited them, and they agreed to come. All of this testifies to God’s ongoing prior work in their life. We might similarly recognize God’s work in Paul’s life prior to his Damascus Road experience. The most important question for Paul before his conversion was, “Who is Jesus?” He was convinced that Jesus was not the Messiah and had not risen from the dead, and so in his zeal for God, he persecuted the followers of Jesus. Well, he had the wrong answer. But he had the right question! It was alive in him, driving him, and he no doubt saw and heard much that ultimately helped him recognize that Jesus was the Messiah and had risen from the dead, for example, when he tried to make Christians renounce Jesus but they refused, despite threats, coercion, and punishment.

So I think the answer to your question is that we can speak meaningfully of the moment of Paul’s conversion, but we can also recognize how his conversion was a process. That’s a paradox, but so are many other things in the Christian life!

Thank you for your question. Here are a couple of other posts on this blog that relate to it.

Am I still considered a Christian if I haven’t been baptized?

What if I’ve never had “that moment” of asking Christ into my heart?