When Saul of Tarsus was on his way to Damascus, as we learn from Acts 9, he was arrested by a light from heaven shining round about him above the brightness of the sun. The astonished, persecuting Saul fell to the ground. He had now come to the end of himself, not only as to the sins of the flesh, but as to the righteousness of the flesh with all its advantages, natural and acquired, from birth to that day and hour. This is the true preparation of heart for the right apprehension of a glorified Christ—our heavenly Object. When we are down, when we see we are nothing, and we are no longer looking for holy feelings within, or a change for the better to make us worthy of divine favor, when with our faces on the
ground we are obedient to the heavenly vision, the light of the glory shines into our souls. "He heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? And he said, Who art Thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." Here we have the proper object of the Christian, and that which should form and govern every Christian's character. Saul learns from Christ Himself in the glory that He was Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified, and that Christians are a part of Himself—one with Himself in the glory. "Why persecutest thou Me?... I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." Who would look to their own righteousness or religiousness, who had caught a glimpse of Christ glorified?