Thoughts on Acts 26:12-19

Thoughts on Acts 26:12-19 by John W. Ritenbaugh

"While thus occupied, as I journeyed to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, (13) at midday, O king, along the road I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who journeyed with me. (14) And when we all had fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me and saying in the Hebrew language, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' (15) So I said, 'Who are You, Lord?' And He said, 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. (16) But rise and stand on your feet; for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness both of the things which you have seen and of the things which I will yet reveal to you. (17) I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, (18) to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.' (19) 'Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,'

This passage provides us with an example of how misled a sincerely wrong person can be. Paul, despite his zeal, did not know the true God even though he was sincerely religious. He was sincerely deceived. Jesus basically asked him, "Paul, why do you continue to beat your head against the wall by following the path you are on?"

Can we hear in that question His expectation even of the unconverted? There is in the unconverted some minimal level of understanding and repentance that enables them to see that their values are wrong and to change to those coming from a different, far better Source—Him. If He expects that of them, what does He expect of us whose minds have been opened?

Paul's conversion led to many being given the opportunity to change their values more fully. However, the fact remains to this day what king David wrote and that Paul later quoted in Romans 3:11, "There is none who seeks after God." Carnal people are so imbued with their own systems that they will not change unless essentially forced to.

Satan has the world so deceived (Revelation 12:9) that God is veiled from the eyes of their understanding, so Satan is the god of this world (II Corinthians 4:4) and the source of its ways of living. He is worshipped and responded to by all of mankind.

We must pray that God will move to change our values (John 6:44), for or ourselves, we haven't the power or the will to change for the better.

When God moves, He will demand repentance of us and then loyalty to Him in our lives from then on. Instead of having a mind that is focused on the world and its vanity, we will focus on the precious, "unspeakable gift" that JESUS has purchased for us with HIS shed blood. We will have HIS mind and we will seek HIS will and we will do HIS work.