The apostle now recounts his own marvelous conversion; and as it was addressed to Jews, it is presented in a way suited to disarm their prejudices, if this were possible.
“And it came to pass, as I was journeying and drawing near to Damascus, that about mid-day there suddenly shone out of heaven a great light round about me; and I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying to me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? And I answered, Who art Thou, Lord? And He said unto me, I am Jesus, the Nazarene, Whom thou persecutest. Now they that were with me beheld the light, but did not hear the voice of Him that was speaking to me. And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Rise up, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which it hath been appointed for thee to do” (Acts 22:6-106And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. 7And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 8And I answered, Who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. 9And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spake to me. 10And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do. (Acts 22:6‑10)).
Thus here the intimation is that it was about mid-day, still more precisely than we were told in Acts 9:33And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: (Acts 9:3). This makes the vision far more striking. It was not a trance, but an open fact. The light which shone round about him out of heaven transcended the sun at mid-day, in the presence of men who were traveling with him. Deception was impossible. As far as we know, he, and he only, was converted thereby. The voice addressed no other at that time; and here it is particularly said that the rest heard not the voice of Him that was speaking to him. The same historian, who gives this as the distinct statement of the apostle, had himself told us that his fellow-travelers stood speechless, hearing the voice but beholding no one. This to a casual reader looks like a discrepancy; but a reader must be careless indeed, or bent on evil, who does not perceive that the two statements are altogether in harmony beneath the surface. In chap. ix. we learn that his companions heard a sound, and no more; and in our present chapter we learn that he alone heard the voice of Him that spoke to him. To the others it was inarticulate; to him it was not only intelligible, but the turning point of a life beyond all others rich in testimony to His grace who spoke to him.
For the time was now fully come for a new step in God’s ways. The heavenly glory of Christ was to be seen by a chosen witness called by Him in sovereign mercy from on high, the persecutor from the midst of his religiously rebellious career. It is grace no doubt in every case where the soul is brought from darkness into the marvelous light of God. But here all the truth shines with the utmost brilliancy. Stephen closed his testimony with a sight of Jesus in the glory of God. Saul begins his testimony for Jesus with Him seen in the same glory. It reminds one somewhat of the two prophets of old, one of whom ended his course with being taken up to heaven, whilst the other commenced it from that glorious sight which gave him thenceforth such a mighty impulse. It was none the less remarkable in the present case, because Saul had been privy to the death of Stephen, and kept the clothes of the false witnesses who stoned him whose spirit went up to the Lord Whose glory he had just seen and testified.
And if a brief interval elapsed after Stephen’s death, it was filled up by Saul still breathing threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. Nevertheless the light out of heaven suddenly shone out round about him now. Smitten to the earth, he heard the voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest then Me?” Embittered though he was with tradition and prejudice, he could not but ask with astonishment, “Who art Thou, Lord?” No man was ever more assured that he was rendering service to God in patting out of the synagogue, or even killing, the disciples. He had a good conscience according to the law, in the zeal that persecuted the church (Phil. 3). As yet he knew neither the Father nor the Son. The True Light had never entered his soul. But now the light which shone round about him was but the harbinger of a better glory invisible to human eyes, “the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” His companions saw the outward brightness; they did not behold that which none can see, unless they are, by the power of God, brought out of darkness into it.
To his amazement he learned that He Who spoke, whom he could not but acknowledge to be the Lord of all, was the very Jesus Whom he was persecuting. For thus He was known in the persons of His own: Christ and the church are one. Immense discovery! and so much the more, in circumstances so unparalleled. The enemy broken down and henceforth obedient to the heavenly vision, he has Christ in glory, God’s Son, revealed, not to him only, but in him. See Gal. 1:1616To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: (Galatians 1:16). He is life, and the Christian is one with Him. If it was true of the disciples whom he persecuted, it was no less true of their persecutor, now himself a disciple. “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” When we see the Lord at His coming again, we shall be like Him, even in body changed into the same image. If we are being transformed now, even as by the Lord the Spirit, we shall be conformed then to the Lord and by the Lord; for we shall see Him as He is (2 Cor. 3, 1 John 3).
These great principles were all involved in the apostle’s vision, though of course it is not meant that they were all unveiled to his spirit at the moment. But in due time no one knew better, nor so well; though these truths were thus conveyed, and in the most powerful way, in that great fact, incalculable in its bearing on the church, and even for the world. For who of all men ever made good a commission so unlimited as the apostle’s? It was felt and acknowledged by the twelve, that he was the apostle of the uncircumcision, as truly as they of the circumcision. This in no way precluded their seeking the good of the Gentiles; still less did it hinder him from labors abundant among the Jews, as every place, we may say, testified where there were Jews. But it did mark the characteristic breadth of his mission. He might seek to build up the church in entire and heavenly separation from the world; but it was his beyond any man to fulfill the word of his Master, “Go out to all the world, and preach the gospel to all the creation.”
What an appeal, too, his own account of his conversion was to the crowd of Jews that were then listening! None could deny the facts; the high priest could not but bear witness; all the elderhood of Israel in Jerusalem would have gladly contradicted if they could. The letters he received to his Jewish brethren could not be gainsayed, any more than his own bitter persecution of the Christian way unto death, as well as prison. The companions of his journey to Damascus, why were they silent? If they heard not the words of Jesus, they were not deaf to the preternatural sound; they did see the light above the brightness of the sun shine round about them all. But all wonders fail to convert the heart to God. It is the voice of Christ that quickens the dead; and now is the hour for quickening souls; as by and by there will come another hour, when the voice of the Son shall summon from the grave those that have done good to a resurrection of life, and those that have done evil to a resurrection of judgment, which last act of Christ solemnly closes the history of this world. But sovereign grace is now awakening the souls that hear the word of the Lord; and as this was manifested in the most extraordinary manner to Saul of Tarsus, so was he called in the highest degree to be a minister of God’s sovereign grace, and of Christ’s heavenly glory. “And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Rise up, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which it hath been appointed thee to do.” Here again was a singular break with all the apostolic antecedents. The Lord commanded no return to Jerusalem. Saul must enter Damascus and there, not through a previous apostle, still less the apostolic college, but, through a disciple set in no high position, learn what it had been appointed for him to do.