And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.
Ananias was answering Jesus in vision at Damascus, reporting what he had heard about Saul's evil done to the saints at Jerusalem and that he had come with authority to bind all who call on Jesus' name, in fear and hesitation at being told to go to him. That authority was official power from the chief priests with letters to seize believers in the synagogues and bring them bound to Jerusalem for trial and punishment. He came to Damascus to use it to hunt believers down in their homes, hale them before tribunals, imprison them and deliver men and women to death. He did this in mistaken, strict, conscientious zeal, believing he was doing God service while in ignorance, prejudice and blindness, yet his treatment of Christ's followers was persecuting Christ Himself. His objection was answered by imperative command to go, because Saul is a chosen vessel commissioned to bear Christ's name before the Gentiles and kings and Israel, whom Christ stopped on the way to transform from zealous persecutor into penitent believer and witness.
Words and Setting
The words belong to Ananias answering Jesus in vision at Damascus when commanded to go to Saul, reporting what he had heard from many about how much evil Saul had done to the saints at Jerusalem and that Saul had now come to Damascus with authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Jesus' name. The report explains his fear and hesitation, for Saul was known as a feared persecutor whose persecution had spread far and near, and approaching such a man seemed dangerous. His reply was an expostulation born of fear and unbelief, for he could hardly credit that Saul was praying and receiving visions.
The command sent him to Saul of Tarsus in the house of Judas on the street called Straight in Damascus. At that time Saul was totally blind and in utter darkness of mind, spending three days in fasting and earnest prayer while waiting to be told what was required of him. Saul had already been shown in vision Ananias coming to lay hands on him that he might receive sight.
All that call on the name means Christians, His disciples scattered in places like Lydda and Joppa. What such believers are like is shown by Dorcas at Joppa, a worthy and greatly beloved disciple whose life was filled with acts of kindness, who knew who needed comfortable clothing and who needed sympathy and freely ministered to the poor and the sorrowful. Saul's authority against them included letters authorizing him to arrest suspected believers in the synagogues and send them as prisoners to Jerusalem for trial and punishment. That official power from the chief priests, joined to his position on the Sanhedrin and his zeal, enabled him to have believers brought before tribunals, where some were imprisoned or put to death because of their faith.
The objection was overruled by imperative command to go, because Saul is a chosen vessel to bear Christ's name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.
Persecuting Authority and Deeds
Saul had received official authority from the chief priests to seize, arrest and bind everyone who called on Jesus' name, and he came to Damascus to use it against the believers. He had obtained letters authorizing him to arrest suspected believers in the synagogues and send them to Jerusalem for trial and punishment, and his position on the Sanhedrin gave him official power to act. Ananias knew of that authority and of the reports of persecution of Christ's followers, which explains his fear and hesitation to approach Saul. That persecution sprang from mistaken zeal and his conviction that the priests and rulers were right.
He used that authority to hunt believers down and seize them in their homes, hail them before tribunals and judges, bring them bound to prison, and have men and women imprisoned and delivered to death because of their faith. His campaign made him a terror to the church, in contrast with his later conversion into a preacher of Jesus as the Son of God which convinced many. He consented to Stephen's death, and Stephen's faithfulness, martyrdom and lasting witness remained in Saul's memory and helped bring about his conversion. He had stood with the wicked men who triumphed when faithful Stephen was stoned, yet God used that very circumstance to convert him to the faith, through whose word thousands were brought to gospel light, showing God was strengthening His cause even when appearances were against Him and wicked men seemed to triumph.
That persecuting history caused the disciples to refuse Saul when he attempted to join them, for they remembered his former persecutions and suspected he was acting a part to deceive and destroy them. Although they had heard of his wonderful conversion, because he had immediately retired into Arabia with nothing definite heard afterward they had not credited the rumor of his great change, and their rejection brought him great grief and disappointment. After his conversion he preached Jesus in Jerusalem but the priests and rulers sought to kill him, and his former persecution of believers did not persuade them to accept his testimony about his change. His conversion changed him from a persecutor into a witness for Jesus, and his testimony later reached rulers and many others.
Zeal, Blindness, and Conviction
He persecuted in mistaken, strict, conscientious zeal, believing in earnest that he was doing his duty and doing God service by opposing the faith. He acted in ignorance and unbelief, with blind error, prejudice and bigotry as a rigid Pharisee, convinced that the priests and rulers were right. Yet even while he had premeditated the destruction of the disciples, his heart remained open to divine impressions.
He believed that faith in Jesus rejected and disregarded God's law and sacrificial worship, and he counted Jesus an imposter. He therefore sought with determined zeal to destroy that teaching and the church. His strict religion did not make him a Christian. His treatment of Christ's followers was persecuting Christ Himself in the person of His saints, which Christ revealed to him face to face and arrested him to show him he was in the wrong path.
He himself blasphemed the name of Christ with contempt and exceeding bitterness, and used every means in his power to make others blaspheme it. He hailed believers before judges and counted the saints worthy only of persecution, thinking he must wipe them from the earth. Even as one of the most determined enemies of the gospel, his hatred and opposition did not mean he was beyond rescue. Beneath them was a soul Christ's grace could save, and that revelation converted him and made Christ his highest love.
When he learned he had persecuted Christ, he was humiliated and filled with abhorrence of himself and his work and bitter remorse for his zeal. In the light of the law he saw himself a sinner where he had thought he zealously kept it, found he had transgressed it, and died to sin. Convicted by the Holy Spirit of sin, shown his mistakes and the claims of God's law, he pleaded for pardon and acceptance through Christ.
Conversion, Calling, and Church
On the road to Damascus Christ stopped him, arrested his course, and confronted him face to face, and the Holy Spirit convicted him of sin, showed him his mistakes, and opened to him the claims of God's law. He had believed faith in Jesus disregarded God's law and the sacrificial worship, but after that encounter he recognized Jesus as the one who came to uphold the law and fulfill the sacrificial system and the prophecies concerning Israel's Redeemer. He had acted under blind error and prejudice, yet Christ halted him and turned him toward the church which Christ had ordained as the channel of light and salvation.
He was completely transformed from a deliberate, forceful, zealous persecutor into a penitent believer, devoted worker and witness, immediately abandoning his former course, professing faith in Jesus, and preaching that Jesus is the Son of God as earnestly as he once condemned Him, so that his conversion convinced many. His commission to seize believers in the synagogues and send them as prisoners to Jerusalem makes his later preaching of the gospel and strengthening of believers a striking reversal. He was a chosen vessel commissioned and fitted for the most important work of bearing Christ's name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, carrying the gospel to the Gentiles and converting them, with the Saviour's mission and his own work made clear to him on the road to Damascus. That preparation fitted him to recognize God's call to preach to the Gentiles.
He learned that Jesus whom in blindness he had counted an imposter is indeed the Author and foundation of all true religion of God's people from Adam's day and the Finisher of the faith, the vindicator of the truth and fulfiller of all prophecies. He learned that Christ did not make of none effect the law of God but originated and founded the entire Jewish system of sacrifices, that in Christ's death type met antitype, and that Christ came into the world for the express purpose of vindicating His Father's law. In the light of the law he saw himself a sinner where he had thought he zealously kept it, found he had transgressed it, died to sin, and became obedient to its claims.
He was required to take the steps necessary in conversion by making confession to the very men whose destruction he had meditated, uniting himself with the very people he had persecuted, becoming a learner of the disciples, repenting of his sins, having faith in Jesus Christ as his Saviour, and being baptized. He exchanged Phariseeism with its popularity, positions of honor and ambitious preferment for the gospel of Jesus Christ with all its trials, humiliations and at last martyrdom, counting it no sacrifice and binding himself to Christ. Christ placed him in connection with His organized and acknowledged church to be told what he must do and to learn God's will from ordained disciples, working through appointed human agents rather than doing everything directly. Ananias acted in Christ's stead when he restored Saul's sight and laid hands on him, all done in Christ's name and authority, which condemns religious experience independent of Christ's body and the idea that a person is responsible to Christ alone apart from His church.
He later remembered the persecution he had brought on Christ's disciples and rejoiced with gratitude that he had come to recognize and preach the truth he once despised and hated. For his love of Christ he received the same cruel treatment he had once cooperated in giving. Humbled by a view of his own unworthiness and assured of full, free forgiveness, he arose a changed man transformed by beholding divine love. That conversion was thorough, and ministers need a conversion as thorough as his before they are fitted for God's work, since men who war against God's law with carnal minds at enmity with God are not subject to His law and cannot be subject to it unless thoroughly converted like Paul.
Warning and Encouragement Today
The whole chapter stands as a lesson that history is to be repeated in present and future experience, when the self-exalting power of Lucifer will work upon just such unconverted men to hunt up souls to persecute and to bind all who call on the name of Christ under authority from the chief priests. Great education and experience will not help unless they perfect the knowledge of the glory of God to exalt the Lord Jehovah and His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. Brethren must therefore wake up and receive the converting power of God, lest in their own power they do the same work of persecution that Saul did.
As Saul used his power against the truth while thinking he was doing God service, persecuting Christ Himself, so those who despise the messages God sends for the salvation of His people and use their capabilities to make His work of none effect must learn the humiliating truth about themselves. Learning it filled Saul with abhorrence of himself and his work and with bitter remorse for his zeal in persecuting God's people. As he did, they must repent, cast themselves hopeless and helpless on Jesus as the only one who can pardon and clothe with righteousness, and confess their sins.
Saul did his work of seizing men and women for faith in Christ to bring them bound to prison and death conscientiously while living up to the best light he had, in ignorance and unbelief. He is the likeness of Christians in every church who do not know the truth yet live up to the light they have, even while living in error in worshipping an idol sabbath and serving the Lord as conscientiously as Paul did. Christ can still reveal Himself to such and save them, so they are to be won without piling condemnation on them.
Saul came filled with bitter prejudice as the pattern of a hard class filled with bitter prejudice and fiercest opposition, and no present prejudice exceeds his, with strong iron walls of prejudice about him, yet God can work mightily even for those so prejudiced. God's servant meeting such people must hide in God and let His Spirit soften his own spirit, not get in the way and hedge up his own way, but labor with melting love and pity and tenderness while clinging to Jesus Christ. He must be humble and teachable and molded by His Spirit, be ready to be counseled by more experienced brethren, and not be too easily discouraged at difficulties or fiercest opposition. He must go forth not in his own name but in the might and power of Israel's God, endure hardness as a good soldier of the cross as Jesus endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself, and press on in faith, courage and hope considering the life of Christ.
The mercy of Christ changed that persecuting enemy into a chief apostle. It is the same mercy that saved the thief on the cross, that received denying Peter, and that honored Mary Magdalene as the first witness of the resurrection. His blood cleanses from all sin, so that one cast naked and helpless upon that mercy can stand complete in Him, even the worst persecutor.
The conversion of Farel is compared with Paul's, for before turning to Christ Paul zealously persecuted those who called on Jesus' name with authority from the chief priests, and both turned from persecuting zeal to devotion to Christ. Paul had stood with the wicked men who triumphed when faithful Stephen was stoned to death, yet God used that very circumstance to convert Paul to the faith. Through his word thousands were brought to the light of the gospel, showing that God was strengthening His cause in the earth even when appearances were against Him and wicked men seemed to triumph.
Ananias was answering Jesus in vision at Damascus, reporting what he had heard about Saul's evil done to the saints at Jerusalem and that he had come with authority to bind all who call on Jesus' name, in fear and hesitation at being told to go to him.
That authority was official power from the chief priests with letters to seize believers in the synagogues and bring them bound to Jerusalem for trial and punishment.
He came to Damascus to use it to hunt believers down in their homes, hale them before tribunals, imprison them and deliver men and women to death.
He did this in mistaken, strict, conscientious zeal, believing he was doing God service while in ignorance, prejudice and blindness, yet his treatment of Christ's followers was persecuting Christ Himself.
His objection was answered by imperative command to go, because Saul is a chosen vessel commissioned to bear Christ's name before the Gentiles and kings and Israel, whom Christ stopped on the way to transform from zealous persecutor into penitent believer and witness.
Words and Setting
The words belong to Ananias answering Jesus in vision at Damascus when commanded to go to Saul, reporting what he had heard from many about how much evil Saul had done to the saints at Jerusalem and that Saul had now come to Damascus with authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Jesus' name. The report explains his fear and hesitation, for Saul was known as a feared persecutor whose persecution had spread far and near, and approaching such a man seemed dangerous. His reply was an expostulation born of fear and unbelief, for he could hardly credit that Saul was praying and receiving visions.
The command sent him to Saul of Tarsus in the house of Judas on the street called Straight in Damascus. At that time Saul was totally blind and in utter darkness of mind, spending three days in fasting and earnest prayer while waiting to be told what was required of him. Saul had already been shown in vision Ananias coming to lay hands on him that he might receive sight.
All that call on the name means Christians, His disciples scattered in places like Lydda and Joppa. What such believers are like is shown by Dorcas at Joppa, a worthy and greatly beloved disciple whose life was filled with acts of kindness, who knew who needed comfortable clothing and who needed sympathy and freely ministered to the poor and the sorrowful. Saul's authority against them included letters authorizing him to arrest suspected believers in the synagogues and send them as prisoners to Jerusalem for trial and punishment. That official power from the chief priests, joined to his position on the Sanhedrin and his zeal, enabled him to have believers brought before tribunals, where some were imprisoned or put to death because of their faith.
The objection was overruled by imperative command to go, because Saul is a chosen vessel to bear Christ's name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.
Persecuting Authority and Deeds
Saul had received official authority from the chief priests to seize, arrest and bind everyone who called on Jesus' name, and he came to Damascus to use it against the believers. He had obtained letters authorizing him to arrest suspected believers in the synagogues and send them to Jerusalem for trial and punishment, and his position on the Sanhedrin gave him official power to act. Ananias knew of that authority and of the reports of persecution of Christ's followers, which explains his fear and hesitation to approach Saul. That persecution sprang from mistaken zeal and his conviction that the priests and rulers were right.
He used that authority to hunt believers down and seize them in their homes, hail them before tribunals and judges, bring them bound to prison, and have men and women imprisoned and delivered to death because of their faith. His campaign made him a terror to the church, in contrast with his later conversion into a preacher of Jesus as the Son of God which convinced many. He consented to Stephen's death, and Stephen's faithfulness, martyrdom and lasting witness remained in Saul's memory and helped bring about his conversion. He had stood with the wicked men who triumphed when faithful Stephen was stoned, yet God used that very circumstance to convert him to the faith, through whose word thousands were brought to gospel light, showing God was strengthening His cause even when appearances were against Him and wicked men seemed to triumph.
That persecuting history caused the disciples to refuse Saul when he attempted to join them, for they remembered his former persecutions and suspected he was acting a part to deceive and destroy them. Although they had heard of his wonderful conversion, because he had immediately retired into Arabia with nothing definite heard afterward they had not credited the rumor of his great change, and their rejection brought him great grief and disappointment. After his conversion he preached Jesus in Jerusalem but the priests and rulers sought to kill him, and his former persecution of believers did not persuade them to accept his testimony about his change. His conversion changed him from a persecutor into a witness for Jesus, and his testimony later reached rulers and many others.
Zeal, Blindness, and Conviction
He persecuted in mistaken, strict, conscientious zeal, believing in earnest that he was doing his duty and doing God service by opposing the faith. He acted in ignorance and unbelief, with blind error, prejudice and bigotry as a rigid Pharisee, convinced that the priests and rulers were right. Yet even while he had premeditated the destruction of the disciples, his heart remained open to divine impressions.
He believed that faith in Jesus rejected and disregarded God's law and sacrificial worship, and he counted Jesus an imposter. He therefore sought with determined zeal to destroy that teaching and the church. His strict religion did not make him a Christian. His treatment of Christ's followers was persecuting Christ Himself in the person of His saints, which Christ revealed to him face to face and arrested him to show him he was in the wrong path.
He himself blasphemed the name of Christ with contempt and exceeding bitterness, and used every means in his power to make others blaspheme it. He hailed believers before judges and counted the saints worthy only of persecution, thinking he must wipe them from the earth. Even as one of the most determined enemies of the gospel, his hatred and opposition did not mean he was beyond rescue. Beneath them was a soul Christ's grace could save, and that revelation converted him and made Christ his highest love.
When he learned he had persecuted Christ, he was humiliated and filled with abhorrence of himself and his work and bitter remorse for his zeal. In the light of the law he saw himself a sinner where he had thought he zealously kept it, found he had transgressed it, and died to sin. Convicted by the Holy Spirit of sin, shown his mistakes and the claims of God's law, he pleaded for pardon and acceptance through Christ.
Conversion, Calling, and Church
On the road to Damascus Christ stopped him, arrested his course, and confronted him face to face, and the Holy Spirit convicted him of sin, showed him his mistakes, and opened to him the claims of God's law. He had believed faith in Jesus disregarded God's law and the sacrificial worship, but after that encounter he recognized Jesus as the one who came to uphold the law and fulfill the sacrificial system and the prophecies concerning Israel's Redeemer. He had acted under blind error and prejudice, yet Christ halted him and turned him toward the church which Christ had ordained as the channel of light and salvation.
He was completely transformed from a deliberate, forceful, zealous persecutor into a penitent believer, devoted worker and witness, immediately abandoning his former course, professing faith in Jesus, and preaching that Jesus is the Son of God as earnestly as he once condemned Him, so that his conversion convinced many. His commission to seize believers in the synagogues and send them as prisoners to Jerusalem makes his later preaching of the gospel and strengthening of believers a striking reversal. He was a chosen vessel commissioned and fitted for the most important work of bearing Christ's name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel, carrying the gospel to the Gentiles and converting them, with the Saviour's mission and his own work made clear to him on the road to Damascus. That preparation fitted him to recognize God's call to preach to the Gentiles.
He learned that Jesus whom in blindness he had counted an imposter is indeed the Author and foundation of all true religion of God's people from Adam's day and the Finisher of the faith, the vindicator of the truth and fulfiller of all prophecies. He learned that Christ did not make of none effect the law of God but originated and founded the entire Jewish system of sacrifices, that in Christ's death type met antitype, and that Christ came into the world for the express purpose of vindicating His Father's law. In the light of the law he saw himself a sinner where he had thought he zealously kept it, found he had transgressed it, died to sin, and became obedient to its claims.
He was required to take the steps necessary in conversion by making confession to the very men whose destruction he had meditated, uniting himself with the very people he had persecuted, becoming a learner of the disciples, repenting of his sins, having faith in Jesus Christ as his Saviour, and being baptized. He exchanged Phariseeism with its popularity, positions of honor and ambitious preferment for the gospel of Jesus Christ with all its trials, humiliations and at last martyrdom, counting it no sacrifice and binding himself to Christ. Christ placed him in connection with His organized and acknowledged church to be told what he must do and to learn God's will from ordained disciples, working through appointed human agents rather than doing everything directly. Ananias acted in Christ's stead when he restored Saul's sight and laid hands on him, all done in Christ's name and authority, which condemns religious experience independent of Christ's body and the idea that a person is responsible to Christ alone apart from His church.
He later remembered the persecution he had brought on Christ's disciples and rejoiced with gratitude that he had come to recognize and preach the truth he once despised and hated. For his love of Christ he received the same cruel treatment he had once cooperated in giving. Humbled by a view of his own unworthiness and assured of full, free forgiveness, he arose a changed man transformed by beholding divine love. That conversion was thorough, and ministers need a conversion as thorough as his before they are fitted for God's work, since men who war against God's law with carnal minds at enmity with God are not subject to His law and cannot be subject to it unless thoroughly converted like Paul.
Warning and Encouragement Today
The whole chapter stands as a lesson that history is to be repeated in present and future experience, when the self-exalting power of Lucifer will work upon just such unconverted men to hunt up souls to persecute and to bind all who call on the name of Christ under authority from the chief priests. Great education and experience will not help unless they perfect the knowledge of the glory of God to exalt the Lord Jehovah and His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. Brethren must therefore wake up and receive the converting power of God, lest in their own power they do the same work of persecution that Saul did.
As Saul used his power against the truth while thinking he was doing God service, persecuting Christ Himself, so those who despise the messages God sends for the salvation of His people and use their capabilities to make His work of none effect must learn the humiliating truth about themselves. Learning it filled Saul with abhorrence of himself and his work and with bitter remorse for his zeal in persecuting God's people. As he did, they must repent, cast themselves hopeless and helpless on Jesus as the only one who can pardon and clothe with righteousness, and confess their sins.
Saul did his work of seizing men and women for faith in Christ to bring them bound to prison and death conscientiously while living up to the best light he had, in ignorance and unbelief. He is the likeness of Christians in every church who do not know the truth yet live up to the light they have, even while living in error in worshipping an idol sabbath and serving the Lord as conscientiously as Paul did. Christ can still reveal Himself to such and save them, so they are to be won without piling condemnation on them.
Saul came filled with bitter prejudice as the pattern of a hard class filled with bitter prejudice and fiercest opposition, and no present prejudice exceeds his, with strong iron walls of prejudice about him, yet God can work mightily even for those so prejudiced. God's servant meeting such people must hide in God and let His Spirit soften his own spirit, not get in the way and hedge up his own way, but labor with melting love and pity and tenderness while clinging to Jesus Christ. He must be humble and teachable and molded by His Spirit, be ready to be counseled by more experienced brethren, and not be too easily discouraged at difficulties or fiercest opposition. He must go forth not in his own name but in the might and power of Israel's God, endure hardness as a good soldier of the cross as Jesus endured the contradiction of sinners against Himself, and press on in faith, courage and hope considering the life of Christ.
The mercy of Christ changed that persecuting enemy into a chief apostle. It is the same mercy that saved the thief on the cross, that received denying Peter, and that honored Mary Magdalene as the first witness of the resurrection. His blood cleanses from all sin, so that one cast naked and helpless upon that mercy can stand complete in Him, even the worst persecutor.
The conversion of Farel is compared with Paul's, for before turning to Christ Paul zealously persecuted those who called on Jesus' name with authority from the chief priests, and both turned from persecuting zeal to devotion to Christ. Paul had stood with the wicked men who triumphed when faithful Stephen was stoned to death, yet God used that very circumstance to convert Paul to the faith. Through his word thousands were brought to the light of the gospel, showing that God was strengthening His cause in the earth even when appearances were against Him and wicked men seemed to triumph.