Acts 9:17, commentary and pictures

Ananias entered the house in Damascus, laid his hands on the blinded Saul, welcomed him as a brother, and told him that Jesus who had met him on the road had sent him so that his sight would be restored and he would be filled with the Holy Spirit. His sight returned at once, and he was then baptized and strengthened with food after three days of blindness, fasting and prayer. Though Christ had arrested Saul directly, He would not finish the work apart from His people, but sent Saul to learn from the disciples and sent Ananias as His representative to teach and restore him. Saul had persecuted Christ in His saints while thinking he was serving God, but humbled and convicted of his sin against God's law he yielded, cast himself on Jesus for pardon, and was made a sincere penitent and believer. He was revealed as a chosen vessel to carry Jesus' name to the Gentiles, to kings, and to Israel, and to suffer for that mission.

Historical Setting and Wording

The verse belongs to Saul's journey to Damascus, undertaken under authority from the high priest to arrest believers in Jesus and carry them as prisoners to Jerusalem. After Jesus met him on the road, Saul spent three days blind, fasting, without food, praying in darkness and uncertainty about his duty at the house of Judas in Damascus, humbled to the dust in penitence and stripped of self-confident pride.

Ananias entered the house, put his hands on him, touched his eyes and prayed, called him Brother Saul, and declared that the Lord, even Jesus, who had appeared to him on the way as he came, had sent him that he might receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. He came in obedience to the Lord's command, vision and angelic direction, acting in Christ's name and authority to bring healing and spiritual blessing.

The laying on of hands brought immediate restoration of sight as scales falling from his eyes, followed at once by baptism and being strengthened with food. After Ananias baptized him, Saul immediately began preaching Jesus to the believers and teaching in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

The Damascus journey was the turning point that changed the course of Saul's life, and it comes earlier than Peter's healing work at Lydda and the life of Dorcas at nearby Joppa. The verse stands after Stephen's martyrdom: Saul had consented to Stephen's death and was persecuting the church, but Stephen's faith, steadfastness and constancy, heavenly glory and radiance, and words remained in Saul's memory testifying to the truth he had proclaimed and helping bring about his conversion. Though at first the stoning looked as if wicked men were triumphing and God's cause was not being strengthened in the earth, from that very circumstance Saul was turned into a preacher of Jesus' name, chosen to strengthen the disciples and to take up Stephen's important work in the church.

Ananias Obedience and Ministry

Ananias went to Saul in obedience to the Lord's command given in vision and by angelic direction, even though he knew Saul had been breathing threatenings and hatred against all who believed on Jesus and held authority to bind the saints at Jerusalem. He sought him out at Damascus after three days of blindness, fasting and prayer in darkness about his duty, because Saul was a chosen vessel to bear the name of Jesus before the Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel. He laid hands on him and declared that the Lord Jesus who had appeared to him on the way had sent him so that he might receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost, and the laying on of hands brought immediate restoration as scales fell from his eyes, followed at once by baptism.

In addressing the feared persecutor as Brother Saul he welcomed the former persecutor into fellowship with the Christian community he had persecuted. The greeting marked his reception despite his persecution, and was followed immediately by regaining sight, baptism, and proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God. Through this a disciple served as the agent by whom Christ helps and directs a repentant persecutor.

Ananias touched Saul's eyes so he could see, laid hands on him, and prayed in Christ's name and authority, and through this Saul received his sight and the Holy Ghost. He served in Christ's stead as Christ's representative on earth and as representative of Christ's appointed ministers, with Christ as source and foundation and the church as the ordained channel of communication, light, instruction and guidance. By this Jesus placed Saul in connection with the very disciples he had purposed to destroy and directed him to receive instruction in the Christian religion through the church and its appointed ministers.

Saul's recovery of sight in answer to Ananias's prayers and ministry proved the reality of his miraculous conversion after Jesus had personally appeared and talked with him on the way to Damascus, and it secured his reception by the apostles. After the healing he maintained in the synagogues of the city that Jesus was the Son of God. The disciples had heard about the conversion but did not yet believe it because he had gone to Arabia and they had received no definite news of his changed life.

Christ Working Through Church

Jesus could have healed Paul's blindness, forgiven his sins, and told him his duty directly, yet He only arrested his course and convicted him, then sent him to learn from the disciples and sent Ananias to him rather than giving an experience independent of the organized and acknowledged church. Jesus had revealed Himself to Saul and convicted him but did not then explain the work assigned to him, so Saul was to learn his duty through Christ's church and its representatives. Christ used an appointed human agent rather than doing the work directly, and His blessings came through the agents He had appointed, with the men authorized to act in His stead having a responsible part in Saul's salvation and restoration.

Paul was required to take the steps of conversion, confession, and union with the very people whose destruction he had planned, becoming their learner and joining the disciples he had persecuted. He had to make confession to the very men whose destruction he had premeditated and unite himself to the very people he had persecuted for their religion, being placed in connection with the very disciples he purposed to destroy. The act required his union and confession to them, with immediate restoration of sight and baptism following.

Ananias acted in Christ's stead as Christ's representative and as representative of Christ's appointed ministers on earth, with all done in Christ's name and by His authority. By laying hands on Saul and acting in Jesus' name, he served as the means through which Christ restored Saul's sight and gave him the Holy Spirit. He touched Saul's eyes so he could see and laid hands on him, praying in Christ's name, and Saul received the Holy Ghost.

Christ is the source and foundation while the church is the ordained channel of communication, light, instruction, and guidance, which gives sanction and authority to the organized church and its work of directing repentant sinners in the way of life. Through Ananias, Jesus places Saul in connection with the church and gives sanction to its authority and appointed work of guiding repentant sinners, for Christ is the source and the church is the channel through which He communicates light and directs people toward salvation. Christ directs Saul to the church, which instructs him in the Christian religion and serves as a channel of light, with Christ as foundation and the church as channel of communication.

Even Saul as a learned teacher in Israel and a chosen vessel had to be instructed in the Christian religion through the church, showing respect required to Christ's ordinances and the means He ordained for enlightenment and salvation. Though Saul was met directly by Christ and was a chosen vessel for a most important work, Christ only arrested his course and convicted him, then placed him in connection with the church to be told what to do. Though chosen for important work, he first needed to learn God's will through the church and from people ordained to teach the truth, and his experience beginning with direct revelation from Jesus was not independent of the church.

Saul Conviction and Transformation

Saul had sincerely believed he was defending God while he was in fact persecuting Christ in the person of His saints, opposing faith in Jesus as if it repudiated God's law and sacrificial worship, and carrying out his religion strictly by sending men and women to prison and death in ignorance. His conversion overturned those convictions and ended his persecution, for Christ revealed Himself to him on the way and showed him that he was persecuting his Master, and then he became converted and joined the very people he had hated and despised. He was made physically blind by the glory of the One he had blasphemed, that he might gain spiritual sight. During days and nights of blindness he had time for reflection, no longer saw himself righteous but sinful, and felt the far-reaching claims of God's law taking hold of his life and reaching to the thoughts and emotions of his sin-corrupted heart, condemning his thoughts, words, and actions.

It was a hard struggle for one who could say touching the righteousness in the law he was blameless to see himself a transgressor with all his supposed goodness swept away and to give up his supposed righteousness. Hopeless and helpless he yielded to the convictions of the Spirit, felt bitter remorse and abhorrence of himself and his cruel work, humbled himself, confessed his unworthiness, and cast himself on Jesus as the only One who could pardon him and clothe him with righteousness. He sought pardon and acceptance through the crucified and risen Christ, and his prayers were answered as divine grace transformed his heart and brought him into harmony with God, giving him full and free forgiveness so that he arose a changed man with a desire for others to be freed from sin. The heavenly vision had revealed the divine glory of the One he had hated and whose followers he was trying to destroy, bringing terror then consolation. Transforming mercy made the rigid Pharisee in stubborn unbelief a sincere penitent, fervent believer, and humble suppliant for mercy, whose tongue once ready to blaspheme Christ became eloquent in praise of Him who called him out of darkness into marvelous light.

With eyes anointed by the grace of God and opened to gospel truths he had once despised, he saw the mistakes of his life and learned that Jesus is the Christ and Redeemer, the Son of God, the Author and Finisher of faith, the vindicator of truth, and altogether lovely and supreme. He repented, trusted Christ as Saviour, had faith in Jesus Christ, was baptized, and immediately began preaching Jesus to the believers and teaching in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God, preaching as earnestly as he once condemned Him. He used his education and arguments from prophecy to defend the gospel he had once tried to destroy, and he came to see himself as a sinner under God's law who turned from sin, obeyed the law, and trusted Christ. His conversion was complete and public, demonstrated to all who heard him to come from overwhelming evidence and not from impulse or fanaticism. The man who had come from Jerusalem with authority from the high priest to seize believers and carry them as prisoners to Jerusalem was turned into a preacher who strengthened the disciples he had set out to destroy and continually made new converts to the faith he had once zealously opposed, to the thorough surprise and confounding of the Jews who knew his position and errand, and his changed life was expected to convince his former associates to believe as he had.

Saul was revealed as a chosen vessel to bear the name of Jesus before the Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel, commissioned to carry the gospel to the Gentiles and to suffer for that mission. That appointment prepared him to accept God's call to preach to the Gentiles, his eyes opened to see and his heart opened to feel the power of the glorious truths he once despised, so that he afterward rejoiced even in the Philippian dungeon to suffer shame for Christ's sake. Afterward Jesus appeared to him in a vision while he was praying at Jerusalem and told him to leave because the people there would reject his testimony, and that he would be sent far to the Gentiles, showing that his change came through God's power.

Doctrine of Law and Prophecy

The conversion to which receiving sight and being filled with the Holy Ghost belongs shows the Holy Spirit's miraculous power to convict of sin, expose error, and lead to recognition of God's law. Humbled, Saul confessed his unworthiness and sought pardon and acceptance through the crucified and risen Christ, and his prayer was answered as divine grace transformed his heart and brought him into harmony with God. In that light he recognized Jesus as the one who vindicated God's law and fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies concerning Israel's Redeemer. Christ was the originator and foundation of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices and of all the religion of God's chosen people from Adam's day, the Author and Finisher of the faith, the vindicator of truth who came expressly to vindicate His Father's law and not to make it of none effect, and at His death on the cross type met antitype.

Paul thus learned the difference between living faith and dead formalism. He continued to keep the Ten Commandments, but he knew the sacrificial ceremonies were types fulfilled in Christ's death and destined to cease, with the gospel giving the ancient rites a new significance. In the light of the law he saw himself a sinner and transgressor of the very law he had thought he kept zealously, died to sin, and became obedient to its claims. He was thoroughly converted from warring against God's law with all his powers to being subject to that holy law, the same thorough conversion needed by carnal minds at enmity with God that break His law and are neither subject to it nor able to be. After baptism and being strengthened with food he immediately began preaching Jesus as the Son of God to believers and in the synagogues, as earnestly and zealously as he had once condemned Him, using his education and arguments from prophecy to defend the gospel he had once tried to destroy.

Application to Believers Today

Acts 9:17 means that a conscientious persecutor acting in ignorance can be met by Jesus and restored to sight and the Spirit through a human messenger, for Saul of Tarsus as a determined enemy of the gospel became Paul the devoted minister, suddenly arrested while persecuting and completely changed to devote his life to serving Christ. Christians in other churches who live up to the best light they have while living in error in worshipping an idol sabbath serve as conscientiously as Paul did when sending men and women to prison and death, and they are to be saved by devised saving methods rather than piled-up condemnation, with the expectation that Jesus will reveal Himself to them as He did to Paul. Saul's hunting of souls before conversion is a lesson to all that God's converting power must come or Satan will use unconverted men as he used Saul. Unconverted men will work with all their power to do harm, as satanic agencies crucified Christ the only begotten Son and that history is to be repeated, since great education and experience do not help unless they perfect knowledge of God's glory to exalt Jehovah and Jesus, for Lucifer's self-exaltation remains a power upon such men.

Saul was filled with bitter prejudice, no more than those who now oppose truth, and God can work mightily for them when the worker hides in God and lets His Spirit soften his own spirit. The strong iron walls of prejudice are broken down when the worker labors with melting love and pity and tenderness, clings to Christ, is ready to be counseled by more experienced brethren, does not get in the way, and goes forth not in his own name but in the might of Israel's God without discouragement by difficulties or fiercest opposition. Paul's experience involved a thorough conversion which ministers need to be fitted for God's work, living out the truth they preach, possessing spiritual life, and speaking words received from God. His conversion from a persecutor who ridiculed, despised and blasphemed Christ to a believer bore on all his after life, and the assurance conveyed at the first he never forgot. Because he had experience and personal knowledge of Jesus he could speak intelligently of Him, keeping living faith by cultivating Christ's presence, receiving strength in prayer, and as a faithful soldier looking to Christ his Captain regarding no piled-up obstacles as making the work impossible.

His one great purpose became to serve and honor Him whose name had once filled him with contempt and to win souls to Him, remaining wholly devoted to the Crucified One though Jew and Gentile opposed him. Afterward he related his conversion in the Spirit's power with impressive effect, lived out what he saw in vision, and carried out varied service of working with his hands, traveling, establishing churches, and writing letters while keeping faithfulness to Christ before him. After conversion Paul recognized that he had persecuted his Master in the person of His saints, became one of the despised sect he had hated, and for love of Christ received the same cruel treatment he had cooperated in giving, later suffering under the same hatred directed against Christ. His eyes were opened to see and his heart opened to feel the power of glorious truths he once despised, leading him to rejoice even in the Philippian dungeon to suffer shame for Christ. Humbled at Damascus with a view of his unworthiness he received full and free forgiveness and arose a changed man, seeing the Lord and glimpsing the loveliness of God's character which awakened desire for others to be freed from sin.

From then on Christ was supreme and altogether lovely to him, converting him from a religious man to a Christian. His conversion is to be looked at and traced through his following life as an example alongside studying the life of Jesus and the shame of His crucifixion, and before conversion his heart as a persecutor could still be moved by divine impressions. Farel's turn from bondage of religious tradition and allegiance to the pope to liberty of belonging to God and giving his heart to Jesus is compared to and serves as a likeness of Paul's conversion. After opposing Christ and His followers in good conscience Saul was convicted, forsook his former ways, professed faith in Jesus, and his changed life was expected to convince former associates to believe as he had. Paul remembered his own prejudice against Christ's followers and felt remorse when he returned to Jerusalem where Stephen had been martyred, but the voice that spoke to his heart gave him trust that God could also speak to his countrymen.