Acts 9:11, commentary and pictures

The Lord spoke to Ananias in a vision at Damascus, telling him to arise and go to the street called Straight and inquire in the house of Judas for Saul of Tarsus, for he was praying. Saul lay there blind and humbled, spending earnest and continuous prayer in penitence and bitter remorse, confessing his unworthiness, crying for pardon, and relying on the merits of the crucified and risen Saviour. Jesus had revealed Himself to him as the One he was persecuting, and Saul recognized Him as Christ and Redeemer, repented and believed, and was marked as a chosen vessel to bear His name before Gentiles and kings and Israel. Rather than instructing him apart from others, Christ placed him in connection with His representatives on earth, sending Ananias to him as His appointed channel of light and instruction. The direction to a certain street and house for a man called by name proves that the Lord knows each one, watches over every household, and guides His servants to seek out His sheep.

Place and Circumstances

The Lord spoke to the disciple Ananias in a vision at Damascus, commanding him to arise and go into the street called Straight and inquire in the house of Judas for Saul of Tarsus, for behold he prays. Saul is identified there by his prayer and by his place, as one waiting blind and fasting in distress and uncertainty about what he must do. He had come toward Damascus intending under authority from the high priest to find and seize men and women of this way and bring them bound to Jerusalem. He pursued that mission with mistaken zeal, hunting up souls to be persecuted while used by Satan.

At the house of Judas he spent three days totally blind, led there by his companions, without sight and without eating or drinking. He was in distress and darkness of mind and in uncertainty about what was required of him, with his faith tested and his former plans broken up. His pride and self-confidence were gone. His blindness and isolation left him helpless and alone.

He remained in solitude and lonely seclusion with ample opportunity for reflection and prayer. He was shut out from human sympathy, having no communication with the church because believers feared his purpose to persecute them. He had no desire to appeal to the unconverted Jews because they would not listen to him.

An angel was sent to Ananias directing him to that house and revealing Saul's place, prayer, and need for help. It was added that Saul had been shown in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hands on him that he might receive his sight.

Prayer and Repentance

Saul was truly praying in the house of Judas, and his praying there was earnest and continuous, a fervent plea for pardon and acceptance in which he confessed his unworthiness and relied on the merits of the crucified and risen Savior. In utter darkness of mind as to what was required of him he cried earnestly to God during three days of total blindness, fasting from eating and drinking, uncertainty and distress. Bowed down and humbled to the dust in penitence, shame and bitter remorse, with fervent supplications he cried earnestly to God for pardon and prayed to be instructed what he was to do next. His prayer marked his turn from persecuting the followers of Jesus toward seeking God, as a penitent inquirer whom Christ had stopped and convicted.

Struck physically blind by the glory of the One he had blasphemed so that he might gain spiritual sight, he spent the days and nights of blindness in reflection and no longer saw himself righteous but sinful, with his thoughts, words and actions condemned by the law. Hopeless and helpless he cast himself on Jesus as the only One who could pardon him and clothe him with righteousness, filled with bitter remorse and abhorrence of himself at the thought of his zeal in persecuting God's people. It was a hard struggle to give up his supposed righteousness as one blameless in outward law-keeping and to yield to the Spirit as the far-reaching claims of God's law took hold of the thoughts and emotions of his sin-corrupted heart. He changed from a proud Pharisee who thought himself justified by good works to a humble suppliant for mercy whose tongue, once ready to blaspheme Christ, became eloquent in His praise, and his heart was transformed by divine grace.

In his blindness and isolation he reflected with repentance, remembered Stephen's witness, faith, constancy, glorified appearance and martyrdom, and mourned his own guilt in yielding to malice and prejudice and in persecuting believers in Christ. He recognized that prejudice and unbelief had clouded perception and led him and the Jews generally to reject strong evidence and to reject Jesus of Nazareth as the promised Messiah. In his darkness he recalled the Scriptures he knew, tracing the passages and prophecies referring to the Messiah, until his former blindness of understanding became plain to him. In the light of the law he saw himself a transgressor and a sinner though he thought he had kept it zealously, died to sin, and became obedient to the claims of God's law. The setting marks the beginning of his changed life and his preparation to receive instruction from Christ's disciples, as a penitent inquirer whom Christ stopped and convicted but did not immediately tell his assigned work.

New Faith and Calling

Jesus revealed Himself to Saul on the way to Damascus and showed him that in persecuting the saints he was persecuting his Master, exposing his mistaken zeal. Though strict and zealous in religion, Saul was not yet a Christian until Christ revealed Himself and talked with him. At that revelation he came to recognize Jesus as the Christ and Redeemer, received assurance of full and free forgiveness when shown his unworthiness, and accepted Him as Saviour.

He had verily believed that faith in Jesus repudiated the law of God and the service of sacrificial offerings, that Jesus Himself had disregarded the law and taught His disciples it was now of no effect, and that it was his duty to strive with utmost power to exterminate the doctrine that Jesus was the Prince of life. He learned instead that Christ vindicates the law and fulfills the sacrificial system, upholding God's law and fulfilling the prophecies and sacrificial types of the Old Testament. He came to see Christ as the vindicator of truth and fulfiller of all prophecies, not making of none effect the law of God but as originator and foundation of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices, in whose death type met antitype, who came for the express purpose of vindicating His Father's law. He then understood the difference between living faith and dead formalism, remaining faithful to the Ten Commandments while knowing the ceremonial rites that pointed forward to Christ would cease now that their meaning was fulfilled.

He repented, turned from sin, trusted Christ, arose, was baptized, and preached in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God as earnestly and zealously as he once condemned Him. The Holy Spirit enabled him to explain from Scripture that the prophecies about Jesus' first coming, suffering, death, and resurrection had been fulfilled, convincing many. His eyes were opened to the gospel and he was given the privilege of preaching the truth he had once despised.

Jesus marked him as a chosen vessel to bear His name before the Gentiles and kings and Israel and to suffer great things for His name. Though Christ arrested his course and convicted him when brought directly into His presence, He did not directly teach him the lessons of truth he must learn even though he was to be fitted for a most important work as a chosen vessel. Those events prepared him to accept God's call and appointment to preach to the Gentiles, and he was commissioned to carry the gospel to them.

The fierce persecutor who consented to Stephen's death and sought to destroy the followers he set out to arrest became a sincere penitent, fervent believer, and devoted worker for Christ, wholly devoted to the Crucified One. Beneath hatred and contempt, even in a persecutor, grace rescued his soul to make him serve Christ, and for love of Christ he then received the same cruel treatment he had once cooperated with others in giving. The heavenly vision that terrified him became a source of consolation as it revealed Jesus in divine glory, and from that time he was called to be an apostle of Christ by God's will, changed through Christ's mercy into a chief apostle to fill Stephen's place in the church.

Christ and His Church

Jesus placed Paul in connection with His representatives on earth and gave authority and sanction to His organized and acknowledged church, directing the praying penitent inquirer at Damascus to the disciples where they would tell him what he must do, rather than giving him instruction and the lessons of truth independently of it. Saul was tarrying with Judas at Damascus, led there blind by his companions, passing three days without food and without sight, in darkness of mind and uncertainty about what was required of him, with his faith tested and his pride gone. Bowed down and humbled to the dust in penitence and shame he cried earnestly to God for pardon and prayed to be instructed what he was to do next, while an angel was sent to Ananias directing him to that house and revealing that Saul was praying and had been shown in vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight. Christ had stopped and convicted him on the road but did not immediately explain his assigned work; the law exposed his sin, leading him to repent, turn from sin, obey God's law, trust Christ as Saviour, be baptized, and preach Jesus.

Christ could have acted for Saul directly but chose to bring His blessings through the agents He had appointed. Ananias acts in Christ's stead as a channel of light and instruction, and the men authorized to act in Christ's place had a responsible part in the work. Saul also had to confess to those whose destruction he had intended, making his connection with the church a necessary part of his conversion.

Christ chose to work through His organized church and its appointed agents rather than do everything directly, making Saul's conversion through the disciples he had persecuted an example of how God brings salvation through the agencies He has ordained. Christ uses ordained means and requires respect for the church's ordinances, placing Saul in communication with Christ's church as a channel of light and instruction. Although Saul was arrested in his course and convicted when brought directly into Christ's presence to be fitted for a most important work as a chosen vessel, he was not directly taught the lessons of truth he must learn but was directed to the organized and acknowledged church to be told what he must do, for the Redeemer does not sanction religious experience independent of His church and no one is responsible to Christ alone apart from Christ's acknowledged body in the world. The direction of Ananias in vision to go to the praying Saul, who had also seen a vision of Ananias coming to restore his sight, illustrates how heavenly messengers and earthly servants work together in God's care for people.

God's Personal Watchcare

The Lord's children are never absent from His mind, for He knows each one by name and knows the very house in which each lives and the street and city where it stands. He guides His servants to seek out those who are His sheep, and He cares for each one as if no one else existed. The direction to go to a certain street in a certain city, to a particular house, to find Saul proves that His watch-care extends to every household and encircles every individual, and it is an example of God at times sending His servants to a particular place to find one of His children.

He does not become perplexed by the multiplicity of grievances nor overpowered by the weight of burdens. He marks every tear and is touched with the feeling of infirmities. The trials and afflictions permitted here work out His purposes of love toward His people, that they might be partakers of His holiness and thus become participants in that fullness of joy which is found in His presence, so everything great and small is to be committed to God. Prayer was also the setting for a later vision in which Jesus told Paul to leave Jerusalem, because its people would not accept his testimony, and to go to the Gentiles.

Pattern for Others

Saul's conversion displays the Holy Spirit's miraculous power to convict mind and heart in a startling manner, and stands as the example of thorough conversion that distinguishes being religious from being a true Christian. Though strict and zealous in religion he was not yet a Christian until Christ revealed Himself to him, after which Christ was to him supreme, the chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely. Ministers need that same thorough change before they are fit for God's work, for those who with all their powers war against and break God's holy law have carnal minds at enmity with God, not subject to His law and unable to be subject, unless like Paul they are thoroughly converted.

Though he had breathed threats and slaughter and sought to bring bound to Jerusalem men and women of this way, he was conscientiously serving the Lord in error and ignorance. Yet that conscientiousness in persecuting the saints does not leave him guiltless once the Spirit impresses his cruel work upon him. He must become a learner of the disciples and learn that Jesus whom he blindly counted an imposter is indeed the Author and foundation of all the religion of God's chosen people from Adam's day and the Finisher of the faith.

The same is applied to Christians in every church who do not know the truth but live up to the best light they have, even while living in error worshipping an idol sabbath. They are not to be met with piled condemnation but with Christlike plans to save them, because Jesus can reveal Himself to them as He did to Paul. He can count a former blasphemer and persecutor faithful, put him into the ministry, fill him with the Holy Spirit, baptize him, strengthen him, and set him straightway preaching Christ as the Son of God, since grace is exceeding abundant and Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

Saul, filled with bitter prejudice, shows that prejudice no greater than that found in hard cases now can be mightily worked for by God to save such brethren and bring them into working order when His servant does not get in the way but labors with melting love, pity, and tenderness, clinging to Jesus Christ and being ready to be counseled by more experienced brethren. Even beneath hatred and contempt grace can rescue a soul and make a determined enemy of the gospel into a devoted minister of Christ, for the heart of a persecutor can be susceptible to divine impressions. His prayer is the experience all must have who despise the messages God sends, repenting and confessing to be forgiven, for without it they cannot be saved.

Without the converting power of God coming to the soul, men will do the same persecuting work now, using all their power to oppose and harm as the satanic agencies in Christ's day crucified Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God. History is to be repeated, for Lucifer's act to exalt himself still works with power upon such men in present and future experience. Paul's conversion provides the pattern for Farel's conversion, who like Paul turned from zealous opposition and former religious life and allegiance to become a follower of Christ and find the liberty found in Christ.

His conversion from a persecutor to a believer shaped all his after life and encouraged him as he worked on the side of Him whom he once ridiculed and despised. Exchanging Phariseeism for the gospel without counting it a sacrifice, he turned from popularity, positions of honor, and ambitious preferment to Christ's service with its trials and humiliations, even to martyrdom. He kept a living faith by cultivating a sense of Christ's presence, received strength in prayer, and as a faithful soldier ever looked to his Captain for orders so that no obstacles made the work seem impossible. Because he had experience and personal knowledge of the Lord he could speak intelligently of Him and became a safe expositor who worked out in his life what he saw in vision.

Afterward he related his conversion before kings and governors and in the power of the Spirit so impressively that only those filled with the bitterest hatred could withstand it, bringing listeners to conviction and belief. From that very circumstance of Stephen's stoning, which wicked men were permitted to triumph in, Paul was converted to the faith, and through his word thousands were brought to the light of the gospel. The account is to be looked at and its life traced out alongside studying the life of Jesus Christ and beholding the shame of Christ crucified on the cross as a criminal. After that conversion he immediately retired into Arabia, so the disciples in Jerusalem heard nothing definite of him, did not credit the rumor of his great change, remembered his former persecutions, suspected him of acting a part, and would not receive him when he attempted to join himself to them, to his grief and disappointment.