Acts 9:2, commentary and pictures

Saul asked for and received letters and authority from the high priest and chief priests through the Sanhedrin to the synagogues at Damascus. By those letters he was to find any of this way, the community of followers of Jesus and the new faith in Him, whether men or women, and bring them bound as prisoners to Jerusalem for trial, punishment, imprisonment, and death. He did this energetically, conscientiously, and sincerely, yet in error, ignorance, unbelief, prejudice, and spiritual blindness, supposing he was serving God and defending the law. On that course Jesus stopped and arrested him with brightness above the midday sun, convicting him that in persecuting the saints he was persecuting Christ, and wholly changed and converted him so that he joined and preached for the very people he had set out to destroy. Christ then sent him to learn from the disciples and placed him in connection with the organized church as His appointed channel of light, showing that sincerity does not make error right and that conscience must be enlightened and instructed rather than followed alone.

Letters and Arrest Mission

Saul asked for and received letters and authority from the high priest and the chief priests, acting through the Sanhedrin, addressed to the synagogues at Damascus. The letters empowered him to search the synagogues for those suspected of believing in Jesus, to identify followers of the way, and to act under official guard. His authority came from the highest Jewish religious leadership for a mission directed outward from Jerusalem.

This way means the community of followers of Jesus and the new faith in Him. His commission was to find any of that way, whether men or women, seize them, and bring them bound as prisoners to Jerusalem. There they were to face trial, condemnation, punishment, imprisonment, and death, being brought before tribunals where some were imprisoned and some were condemned because of faith in Jesus. He intended to preach no mercy to men or women who preached Jesus, but to take them in chains to Jerusalem.

The campaign extended the Jerusalem persecution to Damascus, where the faith had gained many converts. He intended to search even while traveling, to question people about their faith and associations, to enter homes and seize believers, and to let none escape. Those seized were to be handed to priests, rulers and judges for imprisonment and death, delivered to those who would kill them. He traveled with servants, while the Roman authorities secretly helped rather than stopped the work.

He expected honor and success in stopping the new faith from spreading there. Instead he entered Damascus blind, helpless, dependent on companions, remorseful, himself effectively a prisoner and virtually a prisoner. His fierce role in the persecution surrounding Stephen's death led to his election to the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin continued the same effort by choosing men to track the apostles, especially Paul, oppose their work, and seek their punishment as breakers of Jewish law.

Mistaken Zeal and Blindness

Saul pursued the followers of Jesus to Damascus with energetic, conscientious, sincere yet erroneous zeal, acting in ignorance, unbelief, prejudice, spiritual blindness and bigotry while supposing he was serving God, defending the law and doing God's work. His request for letters to the synagogues so he could seize men and women of this way and bring them bound to Jerusalem for prison and death was made in living up to the best light he had, and his reversal from that course displays the miraculous power of Christ to convict mind and heart. He used his power and authority against the truth to persecute Christ in His people while thinking he was doing God service, and learning this afterward humiliated him, filled him with abhorrence of himself and his work, and brought bitter remorse for his zeal.

He verily believed it his duty with utmost power to exterminate the doctrine that Jesus was the Prince of life and Redeemer, because faith in Jesus virtually repudiated God's law and the service of sacrificial offerings and made them of none effect, including circumcision. He held that Jesus Himself had disregarded the law, taught His disciples it was now of no effect, and was an impostor who made of none effect the law of God. He sincerely but mistakenly regarded believers as a deluded, ignorant, poor, fanatical, weak sect lacking culture and authority and teaching an alarming false doctrine, while holding priests and scribes to be right. In appealing not to the lower ignorant class but to the highest religionists in the world, the men who had put Christ to death and possessed the spirit of Caiaphas, he thought he was following God with determined helpers to put down the little handful, when he was following the banner of the prince of darkness, used by Satan and satanic agencies to hunt souls for persecution.

Breathing threatenings and slaughter he hunted believers and made himself a terror to Christians in Jerusalem, with an influence that led many where he led the way. His hand did not do the murder, but he had a voice in decisions against them, zealously sustained them, prepared the way, and gave believers into hands that imprisoned and killed those precious in God's sight, while thinking he was led of the Lord. His zeal was not according to truth and holiness, and it took the revelation of the brightness of the personal Saviour to bring him to see his error.

His strict religious zeal did not make him a Christian, for in seeking authority to seize followers of Christ and bring them bound to Jerusalem he was not yet a Christian. His carnal mind was at enmity with God, warring with all his powers against God's holy law, breaking that law and not subject to it, neither indeed able to be. He was converted only when Christ revealed Himself and showed him that in persecuting the saints he was persecuting his Master, and then he joined the very group he had despised.

Stopped and Transformed by Christ

Saul was on an active course of persecution toward Damascus, armed with official letters to the synagogues so he could identify followers of the way, whether men or women, and bring them bound to Jerusalem, when Jesus stopped and arrested him on the road. Jesus, the name above all others which Saul hated and despised, revealed Himself in miraculous power in brightness above the glory of the midday sun, felling Saul to earth without exalting him and bringing light into the darkened chambers of his mind to show his mistaken zeal. In that light Saul learned that in persecuting the saints he was persecuting Christ his Master, and that Christ would make this most unpromising instrument a chosen vessel and witness to bear the gospel to the Gentiles. His life in the flesh had been wholly against Christ as a blasphemer and persecutor doing hateful things without knowing Him, but at his arrest he was wholly changed, converted and born again.

The glory of the Lord struck him blind in order to teach him that his conscience must be enlightened before he could correctly discern spiritual things. His conscience had followed the dictates of his own faith while he caused saints to be cast into prison and put to death, and it did not condemn him until he saw what spirit was moving him, showing conscience is after the order of faith. When the revelation of Christ opened his eyes to behold his terrible mistake and wicked course, learning that work humiliated him and filled him with abhorrence of himself and his work and with bitter remorse. He saw himself a great sinner, exchanged Pharisaism for the gospel, and turned away from popularity, positions of honor and ambitious preferment to serve Christ with all its trials and humiliations, counting it no sacrifice.

In the light of the law the very law he thought he had kept so zealously exposed him as a transgressor, and he repented of his sins, died to sin, became obedient to its claims, trusted Christ as Saviour through the crucified and risen Saviour, was baptized, and joined the despised group he had thought worthy only of persecution. He forsook his evil ways, acknowledged his mistakes, sought pardon, bound himself to Christ, and at last suffered martyrdom for His sake. After his conversion he preached Jesus as earnestly and zealously as he once condemned Him, strengthening the very disciples he had intended to imprison and reversing the mission to seize men and women as prisoners for Jerusalem. The vision of the risen Jesus had revealed the divine glory of the One he had despised and made him a penitent believer and apostle.

His change was not brought about by impulse nor fanaticism but by overwhelming evidence. Enlightened and made a learner, he learned that Jesus 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 vindicator of truth and fulfiller of all prophecies. He recognized Jesus as the one who came to vindicate His Father's law, who originated and founded the entire Jewish system of sacrifices, in whom type met antitype at His death on the cross, and who fulfilled the prophecies about Israel's Redeemer. In Damascus the very believers he set out to destroy became the first audience for his preaching that Jesus who had been put to death is indeed the Son of God, and his conclusive arguments from prophecy, attended by the power of God, confounded the opposing Jews of Jerusalem and Damascus and left them unable to answer.

Stephen's faith, composure, steadfastness, glorification, appearance, words and faithful death at the hands of wicked men remained in Saul's memory, testified to the truth he had proclaimed, and deeply impressed him. That faithfulness left a lasting impression and helped bring about his conversion, ending his zealous seeking out of believers to have them seized and brought for punishment. God used that witness to bring Saul to conversion and through him to bring thousands to gospel light.

Because he had come with persecuting purpose to wipe Christians from the earth and haul them bound before judges, the believers knew of it, feared his apparent change of heart was a deception meant to help him persecute them, and kept away from him. When he tried to join the disciples they remembered his former persecutions and deliverance of believers unto death, had not credited the rumor of his great change because he had retired into Arabia, and suspected him of acting a part to deceive and destroy them, so they would not receive him. He had expected that when friends and former associates heard the circumstances of his marvelous conversion and saw his changed life they would be convicted of error and join believers, but the Jews were filled with grief and anger at his conversion.

Christ and His Church

Acts 9:2 shows Saul setting out with authority from the chief priests to pursue the followers of Jesus at Damascus, seeking to suppress the teaching about Jesus by seizing believers and bringing them bound to Jerusalem. He acted in conscientious zeal yet in blind error and prejudice. On that persecuting course Jesus revealed Himself to him, arrested his course, convicted him that he had opposed the Redeemer, and called him to be a messenger of the gospel to the Gentiles. After that conviction Christ did not Himself teach him directly the lessons of truth he must learn, but sent him to the very disciples he had persecuted and placed him in connection with the organized, acknowledged church to learn God's will and be told what he must do.

The verse therefore means that religious light and experience are not given independent of Christ's acknowledged body. Even one met directly by Christ and to be fitted for a most important work as His chosen vessel is led into dependence on the church for instruction. Christ directs converts to receive instruction through His organized church as His appointed channel of light and communication.

His sincere belief that he was doing right did not make him guiltless once the Spirit brought his cruelty to his knowledge. Conversion required him to confess his wrongdoing and join the very disciples he had intended to destroy. Enlightened, he was made a learner of the disciples he had persecuted, learning that Jesus whom in blindness he had regarded as an impostor making of none effect the law of God 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 vindicator of truth and fulfiller of all prophecies, the originator and foundation of the entire Jewish system of sacrifices in whom type met antitype at His death, come into the world for the express purpose of vindicating His Father's law.

Sincerity Conscience and Error

A man can be conscientiously wrong as well as conscientiously right, and sincerity in faith does not make belief right. Saul hunting Christians from city to city while verily believing he was doing service to God proves that belief held in error remains destructive, that zeal not according to truth and holiness still leads many astray, and that influence follows zeal so that many go where such a leader leads. The more conscientious a man is in error the more dangerous his opposition to truth becomes, and it took the revelation of the brightness of the personal Saviour to bring him to see his error. Conversion does not lessen zeal but turns it, making the converted opposer as zealous and persevering in spreading truth as he was in opposing it.

Conscience is after the order of faith and must be enlightened and well instructed before it can correctly discern spiritual things. It is not safe to take the position of always following the dictates of one's own conscience, for Saul with great zeal followed his own conscience in persecuting the saints, causing them to be cast into prison and put to death while thinking he was doing God's work and really persecuting Christ in the person of His saints. His conscience did not condemn him until he saw what spirit was moving him to action, and the revelation of Christ opened his eyes to behold the terrible mistake, changed his character and his conscience, revealed that his work was against Christ, and gave him a terrible view of his wicked course. Conscience must not take the place of Thus saith the Lord, for consciences do not all harmonize and some are dead, seared as with a hot iron, and the question is whether a man has a well-instructed, good conscience or one biased and warped by preconceived opinions; Christ came to lighten every man that comes into the world so men may have a correct faith, and the Lord's glory struck Saul with blindness in order to teach him that his conscience must be enlightened.

Like Saul acting ignorantly in unbelief and living up to the best light he had when he asked for letters to Damascus to find men and women of this way and bring them bound to Jerusalem for prison and death, sincere Christians in every church now live up to the best light they have while living in error in worshipping an idol sabbath. Therefore such erring believers are not to be met with piled-up condemnation but with devised methods to save them, because after a while the Lord Jesus revealed Himself to Saul and made him a chosen vessel. Christ's arresting Saul in that persecuting course after Christ was crucified, when the nation rejected the gospel brought in the power of the Holy Spirit, stoning Stephen, killing James by the sword, and haling men and women and committing them to prison, teaches complete forgiveness for persecutors. Even those who taunted Christ upon the cross and abused Him in the judgment hall would have been forgiven if they had repented as Saul did.

Saul was a man in midnight darkness who in ignorance resisted and worked against the truth without having rejected light and evidence, and his soul was as precious in the sight of God as every soul in darkness now. He was won to Christ, proving that even those who now stand in opposition to the truth and are supposed to have passed the boundary of God's love and mercy can still be won, and the very last work in the controversy may be the enlightening of such minds. So every man must be treated as honest, with aid extended to souls in darkness and with no word or deed that confirms opposers in unbelief. His bitter prejudice made him a hard case with strong iron walls of prejudice to meet, no greater than that still filling others who oppose the truth, and God can work mightily for those so bound and its iron walls can be broken down when the worker is humble and teachable and molded by His Spirit, hidden in God, clinging to Jesus Christ, not getting in the way, ready to be counseled by more experienced brethren, and laboring with melting love and pity and tenderness without being easily discouraged by difficulties and fiercest opposition.

Warning and Encouragement Today

The whole account is a lesson that unless the converting power of God comes to the soul, even brethren will be used by Satan to hunt up souls for persecution, and unconverted men will work with all their power to persecute as satanic agencies did in crucifying Christ, so that history will be repeated. Saul using his power and authority against the truth was persecuting Christ in His people while thinking he was doing God service, and learning this humiliated him, filled him with abhorrence of himself and his work, and with bitter remorse for his zeal. His course is repeated by those who despise the messages God has sent for the salvation of His people and use their capabilities to make God's work of none effect, and unless they repent and are forgiven as Saul was they cannot be saved.

Those long in the Way can ignorantly become Satan's agents by waging merciless warfare against God's appointed workers for relieving suffering. To persecute followers of the Way with unsanctified tongues, a criticizing spirit, disparaging remarks, and unchristian practices that bruise hearts, wound reputations, and discourage almost unto death is to serve the enemy of all righteousness. It drives God's servants onto Satan's battleground to become the sport of temptation.

Even beneath hatred and contempt grace can rescue a determined enemy of the gospel and make that person shine as a jewel in the Redeemer's crown, as persecuting Saul became Paul the devoted minister of Christ. Farel's change from fierce opposition to devoted following of Christ was like Paul's conversion, both turning from intense religious zeal and bondage to tradition to faith in Christ and the freedom of God's children. Christ's mercy changing persecuting Saul, who sought to seize men and women of this way to bring them bound to Jerusalem, into a chief apostle proves His blood cleanses from all sin, so that no one needs to patch a robe from the filthy rags of his own righteousness by resting partly on self and partly on Christ, but by casting himself naked and helpless on that mercy can stand complete in Him.

Paul's conversion is the example of the thorough conversion ministers need before they are fitted for God's work, to be looked at and traced out through his whole life alongside the life of Jesus Christ and the shame of Christ crucified on the cross as a criminal. Before that conversion his carnal mind was at enmity with God, warring with all his powers against God's holy law, breaking that law and not subject to it, neither indeed able to be, yet even while seeking authority to arrest followers of Jesus and bring them to Jerusalem his heart was open to divine impressions. At Damascus Saul of Tarsus was confronted with his own unworthiness, received assurance of full and free forgiveness, and arose changed by seeing the Lord and the beauty of His character.

That change from persecutor of all who believe on Christ, who ridiculed and despised Christ, to believer in Him bore on all his after life and encouraged him as he worked on the side of Christ. Because of it he could speak intelligently from personal experience and personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, with a living abiding faith cultivated by a sense of the presence of Christ in all his works, with strength received in prayer, with obedience as a faithful soldier ever looking to his Captain for orders, and with confidence under every obstacle that all things are possible to them that believe. He had used official authority and the high priest's commission to pursue followers of Jesus, and he later remembered with remorse in Jerusalem that he had helped persecute Christ's disciples, had imprisoned, beaten, and delivered them to death. After his eyes were opened he was grateful to know and preach the gospel he once opposed and despised, grateful to suffer shame for Christ and to rejoice to be counted worthy, and at last to endure the cruel treatment and martyrdom he once helped inflict.