What happened to Saul when he recognized Jesus as the Crucified One on the Damascus road?
On the Damascus road the Lord spoke to him and knocked him to the ground. When Saul of Tarsus recognized he was dealing with the ascended Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified One, Saul died. He was crucified in the Old Adam, and immediately became a new man, a new creation.
Les explains that Paul was not speaking of dying on a Roman cross; if he died as a martyr, it was by beheading, for he was never crucified. Rather, Paul refers back to the road to Damascus, when the Lord spoke to him and knocked him to the ground. At the moment Saul of Tarsus recognized he was dealing with the ascended Jesus of Nazareth, the Crucified One, Saul died—crucified in the Old Adam—and immediately became a new man, a new creation. This is Paul’s thrust: believers now have two forces working within. God reckons Old Adam absolutely dead, but in experience he is still there. The Old Adam, more than Satan, confronts us, while the new nature is energized by the Holy Spirit.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.