Acts 26:19

Act_26:19-23

Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.

The heavenly vision

This is Pauls account of the decisive moment on which all his own future, and a great deal of the future of Christianity and of the world, hung. The Voice had spoken from heaven, and now everything depended on the answer made. Will he submit or resist? The text makes us spectators of the very process of his yielding, I became not disobedient; as if the disobedience was the prior condition. Surely there have been few decisions big with larger destinies.

I. This heavenly vision shines for us too. Paul looked back to this as being equally available as ground for his convictions as were the appearances of the Lord to the eleven after His resurrection. And what we see and know of Christ is as valid a ground for our convictions as this. For the revelation that is made to the understanding and the heart is the same whether it be made, as it was to Paul, through a heavenly vision, or, as it was to the other apostles, through their senses, or, as it is to us, by the Scripture. Pauls sight of Christ was for a moment; we can see Him as long as we will by turning to the Book; it was accompanied with but a partial apprehension of the great and far-reaching truths he was to learn; we have the abiding results of the life-long process.

II. The vision of Christ, howsoever perceived comes demanding obedience.

1. The purpose for which Christ made Himself known to Paul was to give him a charge which should influence his whole life. And the Lord prepared the way for the charge. He revealed Himself in His radiant glory, in His sympathetic unity with them that loved Him, in His knowledge of the doings of the persecutor; and He disclosed to Saul how the thing that he thought to be righteousness was sin. And so whatsoever glimpse of the Divine nature, or of Christs love, nearness, and power, we have ever caught, was meant to animate us for diligent service. So the question for us all is, What are we doing with what we know of Jesus Christ? It is not enough that a man should say, Whereupon I saw or understood the vision. Sight, apprehension, theology, orthodoxy, they are all very well, but the right result is, Whereupon I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

2. But notice the peculiarity of the obedience which the vision requires.

(1) There is not a word about the thing which Paul always puts in the foreground as the hinge upon which conversion turns--viz., faith; but the thing is here. He got up to his feet not disobedient, though he had not done a thing. That is to say, the mans will had melted. The obedience was the submission of self to God, and not the consequent external activity in the way of Gods commandments.

(2) Pauls obedience is also an obedience based--

(a) Upon the vision of Jesus Christ enthroned, living, bound by ties that thrill at the slightest touch to every heart that loves Him and making common cause with them.

(b) Upon the shuddering recognition of Pauls own unsuspected evil.

(c) Upon the recognition of pity in Christ, who, after His sharp denunciation of the sin, looks down with a smile of forgiveness, and says, But rise and stand upon thy feet, for I will send thee to make known My name.

III. This obedience is in our own power to give or to withhold. Paul shows us the state from which he came and that into which he passed--I became--not disobedient. It was a complete, swift and permanent revolution, as if some thick-ribbed ice should all at once melt into sweet water. But whether swift or slow it was his doing, and after the Voice had spoken, it was possible that Paul should have risen not a servant, but a persecutor still. Men can and do consciously set themselves against the will of God, and refuse the gifts which they know all the while are for their good. It is no use to say that sin is ignorance. Many a time when we have been sure of what God wanted us to do, we have gone and done the exact opposite. There are men and women who are convinced that they ought to be Christians, and yet there is no yielding.

IV. This obedience may, in a moment, revolutionise a life. Paul fell from his horse a bitter enemy of Jesus. A few moments pass. There was one moment in which the crucial decision was made; and he staggered to his feet, loving all that he had hated, and abandoning all in which he had trusted. His own doctrine that if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, etc., is but a generalisation of what befell himself on the Damascus road. There are plenty of analogies of such sudden and entire revolution. All reformation of a moral kind is best done quickly. It is a very hopeless task, as everybody knows, to tell a drunkard to break off his habits gradually. There must be one moment in which he definitely turns himself round and sets his face in the other direction. Christ cured two men gradually, and all the others instantaneously. No doubt, for young people who have grown up in Christian households, the usual way is that slowly and imperceptibly they shall pass into consciousness of communion with Jesus Christ. But for people who have grown up irreligious, the most probable way is a sudden stride out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Gods dear Son. So I come to you all with this message. No matter what your past, it is possible by one swift act of surrender to break the chains and go free. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Visions of the soul

Have you ever reflected upon the wonderful gift of sight? The Bible is also full of spiritual seeing--looking. I need not quote any passage, though I might quote a hundred in succession. There is a spiritual vision, and by that vision we see spiritual things. It is a very strange fact that some persons should find it so difficult to believe that there is a spiritual vision. People will believe in material vision, in the optic nerve, and not believe that there is a spiritual vision. The Apostle Paul had many a vision of one kind or another. Do you not remember how Christ Himself lived on earth; and He is our Example, is He not, most of all in the spiritual life? Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father doing: for what things soever He doeth, these the Son also doeth in like manner. Thus He represents His inner life as a constant looking to a pattern and reproducing that pattern. That is spiritual vision. One of the most influential thinkers of the present day--and he belongs to Switzerland, Professor Secretan--wrote quite lately a sentence something like this: Never shall I forget that night in December when, under the light of the stars, the love of God shone into my heart. And that was when he was quite a young man. Have you had your vision? Do you know what it is to have a vision of God? To have a sight of spiritual things? The Apostle Paul had that sight of Christ. He did not need to be told who it was. We are apt to think that Paul was entirely and exclusively passive in that matter. He shows us that he was not: I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. God does not want simply to pour love into us and through us, and then receive it again. He wants to be loved by us. Paul was not disobedient. Very likely he had some temptation even then to disobey. He may have said to himself at the first instance, What is this? Can this be Christ indeed? Then he began to think of consequences. What is that dazzling brightness? Perhaps the sun itself has been acting upon me in such a way that I have that sort of thing which is called a vision, but is an entirely different thing. Christ is the enemy of Moses, the enemy of the temple. Besides, if I do proclaim myself a disciple of the Nazarene, what becomes of me? All my prospects go. I will take time to think about it. Things will be seen in a clearer light tomorrow. Paul might have found very many reasons. But he did not resist. He was obedient. What would he have lost? Now we come to ourselves, and I say, Have you had your heavenly vision? The question is, Have you now a sight of Christ in your soul? Not the name of Christ in the Bible or Prayer book, but a sight of Christ in your soul. Do you know the difference between having the light of Christ in your heart and not having it, as we know the difference between having the sunshine and the rain? Do you know that it makes a difference to you? One of you young men, when you began to reflect, you met that history of Christ in the Gospels, and you could not help saying, Why, if moral power is anywhere, it is in that Man. If moral beauty is anywhere, there it is. And if God is anywhere to be found, He is in the heart and life of Jesus Christ. And I wish I was more like Him. Were you obedient to that vision? But if you were obedient to the vision you got another vision. When you tried to follow in the footsteps of Christ, you were conscious of the infinite distance between Him, the Holy One, and you, full of uncleanness. Then you turned to Christ again. Then you heard the voice of John the Baptist saying, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. Then you have a vision of One hanging upon a Cross for you, and you feel that the majesty of Gods law was never more revered and honoured than on that Cross. And again, that the infinite love of God through Christ crucified is poured upon you in boundless streams of mercy. What a vision that was! Were you obedient to that vision? But if you have been obedient to the heavenly vision, then you have another vision after a while. You have found that Christ is not only the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, but that He is, and claims to be, your Lord and Master. By His redemption He has not only delivered you, but purchased you. You are bought with a price. You are willing enough to have your sins forgiven and give some of your heart and time and gifts to Christ. But what, shall He have everything? Is He nay Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Shall I accept Him as my Master? If I do so, then I cease to belong to myself. And you have trembled, as well you might, at the thought of being disobedient. If you obey, what then? Then you find that the Lord is the gentlest of masters, far gentler than those who love us best. But then, again, after a little time you have another vision. Then He reveals Himself as He who is not only your Lord, but your Life. Then He shows you that He first of all gives you that which He asks of you. Every one of His precepts is bound up with a promise. You will observe that we have considered Christ in succession first as Leader, then Christ as Lamb, then Christ the Lord, then Christ the Life. And, perhaps, I may say that there has come to us here another vision--another vision of duty and of blessedness. (T. Monod.)

The heavenly vision

The heavenly vision came to Agrippa as he listened to Paul speaking. Believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest, says the great preacher, and at that moment the possibilities of a new life presented themselves. Had he been obedient, his influence for good might have ranked with that of the greatest apostles. Let us revert to Pauls case, and consider in what the heavenly vision consisted that had so mighty an influence over his life.

1. It was first of all a revelation of self and of sin. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me? The light which shone down upon him on that Damascus road showed him very plainly how much there was in the innermost recesses of his heart that was antagonistic to the God whom he thought he was serving. I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest.

2. It was a revelation of self and sin, but it was also a revelation of Christ. How full and how complete that revelation was we only know from the writings of his later life.

3. It was a revelation of self, it was a revelation of Christ, and, above all, it was a revelation of duty. To whom much had been forgiven from him much was to be expected. In some form, at some time or other, the heavenly vision comes to every man.

4. Let us consider the effect of obedience to the heavenly vision, and, first of all, let Us consider its effect upon character. It destroys existing ignoble traits. We see this very clearly and vividly in the life of the Apostle Paul. When once the heavenly vision possesses a man fully and completely, there is no room in his life for the low aims which have previously directed his actions. He has now learned to say with the apostle, This one thing I do, etc.

5. It is difficult to overstate the influence of obedience to the heavenly vision upon the life of him who is thus obedient. The memory of that vision ennobles life amidst the most ignoble surroundings. It makes the poor slave Onesimus a worthy subject for one of the great apostles Epistles.

6. They who would obey the Divine call have constantly to contend with the objections of those who endeavour to measure eternal issues by temporal standards, and who estimate the value of lofty actions of heroism and self-denial in the scales of a hard utilitarianism, or what they are pleased to call a matter-of-fact common-sense. Such persons tell us that obedience to the ideal involves waste, that it is far better to act always in the cold, clear light of reason, than to allow ourselves to be guided by what they are pleased to call sentiment. The life in which there is no obedience to the heavenly vision, no faithfulness to the highest ideals of duty, may be successful if judged by the sordid rule of a hard utilitarianism, a selfish and self-complacent common sense, but such a life can lift no man, can do nothing to make the world better. The world has been, is now, and ever will be saved from corruption by those who, at all costs, are true to their ideals and obedient to the heavenly vision. (H. S. Lunn.)

Obedience to the heavenly vision

1. God could address each one by name, and thus indicate what we should believe and do. He could speak to us by dreams or visions, as He did to Abraham, Isaac, and Eliphaz; He could address us by a voice, as He did Samuel; He could send a special messenger to us, as He did to Ahaz, Ahab, David, and Hezekiah; He could direct an angel to convey a message to us, as He did to Daniel, Zacharias, and the Virgin Mary; He could call us to His service by an internal voice, as He did Jeremiah and Ezekiel; or He could speak to us in His glory, as He did to Isaiah, to Saul, or to John.

2. There were reasons, however, why this should not be the usual method by which He addressed mankind. Such a mode, while it might have the advantage of determining at once the question of duty, would to a great extent render useless the faculty of reason, designed to aid us in investigating truth, and take away the stimulus to human effort in the search after what is right.

I. As we cannot rely on dreams, visions, etc., to guide us, what methods are there by which our Maker makes known His will to us?

1. By His Holy Word. The Bible does not address each one by name, but it gives directions adapted to our common nature, and applicable to all the situations in which man can be placed. A case has never occurred in relation to which some principle could not be found in the Bible that would be a true indication of the will of God.

2. Our rational nature. We cannot suppose that God would so endow man as to lead him astray; nor that any direct statements from Himself by a revelation would be contradictory to what mans reason compels him to regard as true. Reason never lends its voice in favour of irreligion or crime. When, indeed, it attempts to penetrate the counsels of the Almighty and to form a system of religion which shall supersede that of revelation, it errs, for it has departed from its appropriate sphere. But it does not err when it speaks of the obligations of virtue, justice, and truth; when it directs the mind up through His works to God Himself.

3. The voice of conscience. Its province, indeed, is often mistaken; and hence, like reason, man makes it an unsafe guide. It is not given to be a revelation, for it communicates no new truth. In its own place, however, it is a method by which God communicates His will, and is as true to its office as the magnet to the pole. It urges to duty; it condemns wrong; and, when we have done what is right, it expresses approbation in a manner which we cannot but regard as the voice of God Himself. It is a way in which God is speaking to millions; and in such a manner, that if they would follow His counsels according to the laws of this arrangement, they would be in no more danger of erring than was Saul of Tarsus when he yielded obedience to the heavenly vision.

4. The events of Divine Providence. Every one may find in his own life not a few events that were designed to indicate to him what was the will of God. The Providence which commits to his care an aged parent, an unprotected sister, which lays at his door the afflicted, so speaks to him that he is in no danger of mistaking the Divine will. The Providence, too, which has given to a man wealth or learning, or which takes away an endeared object of earthly affection which stood between the heart and God, is an intimation as clear as if the lesson were written with a sunbeam. So a man in one pursuit in life finds his plans blasted, encounters obstructions; and he may find in these things an intimation that he is in a wrong path as clear as was that in the case of Saul.

5. The calls of the gospel--when the minister brings before a man undoubted truth in such a form as to be adapted to the particular circumstances.

6. The voice of a stranger. So it was when the eunuch was addressed by Philip. And so, now, on a steamboat, on a railroad car, in a remote hut where a traveller may tarry for a night, in a Christian sanctuary casually attended, the feet of the stranger may have been guided in order that he might speak about the way of salvation.

7. The influences of the Holy Spirit: a teaching and a guidance superadded to all the others, and without which none of them would be effectual. Life is made up of thousands of suggestions from some unseen quarter, starting some thought of what is wise and right. Sometimes they come with the gentleness of the evening zephyr; sometimes with the fury of the storm; sometimes when we are alone, or in the crowded place of business; or under the preaching of the gospel; and sometimes when there are no apparent causes giving a new direction to the thoughts. Can anyone on any other supposition explain how it was that Saul of Tarsus, Augustine, Luther, Bunyan, John Newton were converted? Can any mere philosopher explain how it was that John Howard was led to spend his life in the dungeons of Europe, that he might relieve the sufferings of the prisoners? or how it was that Clarkson and Wilberforce were directed to the evils of slavery? And can we be in danger of error in supposing that the same Spirit breathed into the hearts of Morrison, and Schwartz, and Henry Martyn, a desire for the conversion of the world; and that God by His Spirit appeals now to the sinner by a voice as real as that which addressed Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus?

II. To what does God call us in these various methods? Let us learn from the example of Saul. As in his case, so now, God calls the sinner--

1. To forsake the ways of sin.

2. To faith in the Saviour.

3. To prepare for another world; to be ready to give up their account to Him.

4. To devote themselves to His cause. (A. Barnes, D. D.)

Heavenly visions and human duty

An experience on the very threshold of Pauls spiritual life! An experience rare, it is to be feared, and uncommon--realised by few--fulfilled by still fewer! What is it? Never to disobey the heavenly visions, never to run counter to the heavenly voices, never to resist the heavenly influences.

I. Our possession of heavenly visions. Here it was a voice and a vision too--it was the face and voice of Christ. And this is just as true for all of us. Behind the heavenly influences that play about our paths from veriest childhood, that try to arrest and touch and move us behind them all; in and through them all we, too, can hear these words of power and pathos, I am Jesus. Behind light, and voice, and vision, there is to be traced the personal agency of the personal Lord. Let us thank God for such visions, and voices, and influences; providences, if you like, adapted to serve Gods purpose and His will concerning us. Where would Paul have been, and what would he have become, but for this voice and vision from heaven? This is Gods way of coming into contact with man. We are not to be left utterly to ourselves. Voice or vision shall declare to us what we are to be and do, and where to go. But for these heavenly visions and voices we should stand still in blankest ignorance or doubt, God knows whether. Thank God, lights do flash, and fingers do point, bright visions do make the face to smile, and the heart to rejoice, and set the being all astir with a tumult of joy and wonder. Then add to these the vision and voice that looks out and speaks from out the pages of the written Word. Add to this those ideals of higher Christian life; of duty and sacrifice, that come to us in those solemn pauses of life.

II. Our attitude towards these heavenly visions. Pauls was obedience. How, then, shall we act if we obey the heavenly visions? Turn back, if He bids us, from our worldward wanderings! give up, if He bids us, our life of rebellion; throw down, as did Saul, the weapons of our hostility to Christ and truth. It may be they may never come back again to us. The bright light that flashed across the paths of earlier years, and the voice that then arrested us may never call us again by name. (Theodore Hooke.)

But showed … to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance.--

Preaching to the Gentiles

It is difficult for us to realise what Pauls message to the Gentiles--That they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance--actually meant to the world that lay between Rome and Asia Minor. Tertullian (Apol. 12-15) gives a picture of that ancient world and its religion, which may not be repeated here. Suffice it to say, that the heathen gods were conceived of by their worshippers as guilty of the most shameful crimes; and while the philosopher scoffed at the popular religion, the crowd eagerly followed it, and the vicious and degraded pleaded the examples of the gods as an excuse for their own excesses. Divine worship was in many cases an exhibition of the most shocking immorality. The dishonest man prayed at the shrine of Mercury for a blessing on his dishonesty; the debauchee, at those of Bacchus and Venus. Men generally, says Canon Rawlinson, describing the period, looked to this life as alone worthy of their concern or care, and did not deem it necessary to provide for a future, the coming of which was uncertain … Death, ever drawing nearer, ever snatching away the precious moments of life, leaving mens stores perpetually less and less, and sure to come at last and claim them bodily for its victims, made life, except in the moments of high-wrought excitement, a continual misery. Hence the greatness and intensity of the heathen vices; hence the enormous ambition, the fierce vengeance, the extreme luxury, the strange shapes of profligacy; hence the madness of their revels, the savageness of their sports, the perfection of their sensualism; hence Apician feasts, and Capuan retirements, and Neronic cruelties, and Vitellian gormandism; they before whose eyes the pale spectre ever stood, waving them onward with his skeleton hand to the black gulf of annihilation, fled to these and similar excesses, to escape, if it might be for a few short hours, the thought which haunted them, the Terror which dogged their steps. It was into this world where religion was divorced from morality that Paul carried his proclamation of a God who punished all sin, and to whom men should turn, bringing forth fruits meet for repentance. (S. S. Times.)

The three stages of the spiritual life

are accurately noted:

1. The repentance for past sins, which is more than a regret for their consequences.

2. The turning to God, which implies faith in Him, as far as He is known, and therefore justification.

3. The doing works meet for repentance (we note the reproduction of the Baptists phrase; see Mat_3:8), which are the elements of a progressive sanctification. (Dean Plumptre.)

The arguments on both sides of the question concerning the validity of a death bed repentance

All men would be happy; and in consequence of an inclination so natural and invincible, there are few persons but design at least one time or other to repent and turn to God. But it is not so generally agreed whether it be absolutely necessary to the salvation of penitent sinners that they should do works meet for repentance or live to discover the effects of it in their future reformation; for a great many are of opinion so they do but in their last moments confess their sins in a humble manner to God and sincerely resolve upon a new course of obedience such a resolution will recommend them to His favour, though they have no time wherein to evidence the sincerity of it.

I. The chief arguments on both sides the question concerning the validity of a late or death-bed repentance.

1. I begin with the opinion of those who represent the case of a sinner that defers his repentance to a death bed as wholly desperate, even though we could suppose it to be sincere. As harsh as this doctrine may seem, yet it must be owned the reasons where by it is supported are by no means contemptible; for--

(1) It is urged by those who maintain it that Christianity is represented as a state of continual striving and watching and praying and doing all diligence; that it is compared to a race, wherein those only that run through the several stages of it, from the beginning to the end, shall obtain the prize. To the same effect, Christians are represented also as soldiers fighting under the Captain of their salvation, the Lord Christ, against those powerful enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil.

(2) It is further urged that more fully to explain the meaning of these metaphorical expressions we are required (Rom_14:8; 1Co_15:58; Php_2:15). How does a sinner who exercises not any act of repentance till the last moments of his life come up to these characters, or indeed to any one of them?

(3) As the precepts of the gospel require, so the promises of it are all made upon condition of a constant and uniform course of obedience (Joh_15:7; Heb_3:14; 2Co_7:1). If the promises, then, of the gospel are only made to Christians upon these and the like conditions, how can we reconcile the hopes of a dying sinner with them? of a sinner who never had any vital or sensible communion with Christ, who has been so far from going on to perfection in a state of holy living, that he has hitherto perhaps lived, to all appearance, without God in the world, or so much as any true or distinct notion of holiness?

(4) It is said, further, that at the day of judgment sentence will pass upon man, not according to some transient and occasional acts of piety and religion, but according to the general course and tenor of their lives or the habitual or standing bent of the inclinations towards good or evil (Mat_16:27; Rev_20:12). Upon all these considerations of the general expressions in Scripture concerning the necessity of a holy life, of the precepts and promises of the gospel, and the account we have in it of the process of the last judgment, several pious and learned men are of opinion that sinners who have all along lived in a wicked and unregenerate state and never repent till they come to die cannot, according to the terms of the new covenant, die the death of the righteous, though we could suppose that there is much greater reason always to suspect that their repentance may be sincere; for repentance, say they, in the Scripture notion of it, does not barely imply a thorough change of mind and a steady resolution of amendment, but a new and actual obedience, and a resolution to become better can no more be called that new obedience than the spring can be called the harvest or a blossom the fruit. A good resolution is a hopeful step to begin our obedience upon; but till it carry us forward and discover itself in some real and sensible effects it is still only a principle of obedience, but cannot be called obedience itself.

(5) Men are the more confirmed in this opinion, that repentance does not only consist in our forsaking of sin and resolving to do well, but in the actual, or rather indeed habitual, practice of piety, because we have no instance or example in Scripture of any person that was saved at the article of death who had all along lived in a wicked and vicious course of life. As to the case of the thief upon the cross (besides that it was extraordinary, and which therefore no rules can be drawn from, in the ordinary and standing methods of Gods grace), we do not know how he had behaved himself in the general course of his life; he might have been drawn into the fact he is charged with in the gospel by ignorance, by inadvertency, or surprise. There are mitigating circumstances of his crime; and some of the best men in Scripture are charged with crimes of as high a nature, and with committing them deliberately. This poor criminal might have been, in other respects, of a regular and sober life, or he might, during the time he was in prison, have exercised a hearty repentance for his past sins and miscarriages, and have evidenced the sincerity of his repentance by some real and sensible effects. As to the parable of those who were called at the last hour, and yet received the same wages with those who bore the heat and burden of the day, it is equally insignificant to prove the validity of a death bed repentance. The design of that parable is plainly to show that the Gentiles, under the gospel dispensation, are entitled to the same privileges with the Jews, who were the first in covenant with God and called so many ages before to be His chosen and peculiar people. Accordingly our Saviour Himself explains the design of this parable (Luk_13:29-30). If no arguments can be drawn from either of these parables for the validity of a death bed repentance, what shall we say to that parable of the wise and foolish virgins, which seems to conclude directly against it? There is the greater reason to suppose that this parable is particularly designed by our Lord to show the incapacity sinners are under of being saved who never take any care to prepare themselves for another world till they are going out of this from the application which our Saviour Himself makes of this parable (Mat_25:13).

(6) Besides these arguments from Scripture, there are others made use of from the nature and reason of the thing itself to show the invalidity of a death bed repentance. True repentance implies at least a thorough change in the frame and temper of our minds; it requires that we put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt, according to deceitful lusts; and that we put on the new man, which is created in righteousness and true holiness. Now, it is as contrary to the nature and established order of things that a man should all of a sudden pass out of one of these different states into another as that he should be in a high fever and the same moment in a perfect state of health. The ill habits of the soul, as they are contracted by degrees, so they can only be destroyed by contrary and repeated acts. And till the body of sin be destroyed, how good soever our resolutions may be, we are but where we were; and should we die with such ineffective resolutions, God, who sees us in a state of disorder, and whose judgment is always according to truth, cannot, say they whose principles I here proceed upon, but judge us, notwithstanding all our designs of forsaking our sins, to die in a sinful and unregenerate state. So that could we suppose the repentance of an old beaten sinner in his last moments might recommend him to the pardoning grace of God, yet without His sanctifying grace also, and that too in a very extraordinary manner, such a sinner could not die in that heavenly temper of mind which is necessary to qualify him for the vision and enjoyment of God. According, therefore, to that principle whose grounds I have been explaining nothing but a miracle can save a dying penitent who has lived all along in a sinful, impenitent state; that is, nothing can save such a sinner but what might have saved him if he had never exercised any repentance at all--nothing but that Divine almighty power which is able of these stones to raise up children to God. I proceed now--

2. To lay before you the reasons of those who are of opinion that a late or death bed repentance, if it be sincere, may come within the conditions of the new covenant, upon which the pardon of sin and eternal life are promised.

(1) It is said that in other cases where there is no opportunity for practising our duty God will accept a virtual instead of an actual obedience. By a virtual obedience I understand not only a true sense and conviction upon our minds of the general obligation we are under to obey the laws of the gospel, but a firm and settled resolution to do it as the occasions of obedience may be offered; and by actual obedience I understand our putting those good resolutions in practice when such occasions are offered. Now the apostle, in the case of charity to the poor, has expressly determined (2Co_8:12). And indeed if God did not in other cases accept a virtual for an actual obedience--that is, as we commonly say, the will for the deed--the obedience of the best of men would be only partial and temporary, because it is impossible that any man should actually discharge all the duties of religion at all times; nay, there are some particular duties of religion which very good men may not have a call or opportunity to exercise at any time. If we may not be allowed to judge thus favourably of the case of late penitents, what shall we think of those (and there were a considerable number of them) who had no sooner embraced Christianity but they suffered martyrdom for the profession of it? Shall we say that these short-lived converts, who were faithful unto death, shall not inherit the crown of life? Shall we be so uncharitable to conclude that because they had not time to evidence the sincerity of their repentance by doing works meet for it that therefore they died in a state of impenitence and disorder? No man will say so.

(2) That God Almighty does sometimes infuse such a charity into the hearts of dying sinners, upon their sincere repentance, seems highly agreeable to the doctrine of the Church of England, the practice of whose clergy it is not only to administer the Holy Sacrament to sick persons who desire it, though they have been of a very wicked and dissolute life, but to notorious criminals and condemned malefactors, where they give any visible or public testimony of their repentance. This practice of the Church, it is said, supposes it to be her doctrine that if the greatest sinners truly repent and turn to God, though in their last moments, they may partake worthily of the Lords Supper. Why else is it administered to them? And if they be duly qualified to partake of so high an ordinance, then it is beyond supposition that they partake of all the real effects and benefits of it; so that their sins are not only pardoned, but their natures sanctified and renewed: they dwell in Christ and Christ in them; they are one with Christ and Christ with them. It is impossible that a penitent upon whom the holy sacrament, according to the doctrine of the Church, has these heavenly and sublime effects, should die in an unregenerate or unsanctified state. But--

(3) As to the objections on the other side, from the metaphorical allusions that occur in the gospel, from the precepts and promises of it, and the process of the last judgment, which were said all along to suppose an entire and continued course of obedience, it is answered, they may be accounted for from the distinction of a virtual obedience, where men have not time or opportunity to reduce it into act, and that God will look upon a foreseen course of piety and reformation which men sincerely resolve upon, as if they had lived to execute their resolutions. It is granted, indeed, that we have no example in Scripture of any dissolute and habitual sinner to prove the validity of a death bed repentance. It is acknowledged, further, that the parable of those who were called at the last hour has no relation in the main scope and design of it, as we have observed, to such penitents. But it is answered, again, that the silence and want of precedent in Scripture to prove that a death bed repentance may be valid, is, at the best, but a negative argument, which ought not to be admitted against great appearances of truth and reason on the other side. As to the parable of the virgins, it seems to be directly intended to discourage men from casting all their hopes upon the uncertain issue of a death bed repentance. This, too, is readily owned by those who contend for the validity of such a repentance. But then, say they, we are not to strain every passage or circumstance of a parable, which is mentioned for the greater decorum of it, too far, but are to consider the chief arguments and tendency of it according to the general sense and other concurring proofs of the Holy Scriptures; and therefore what we are to understand by the parable of the virgins is this, that all the prayers and tears, all the deep sighs and bitter lamentations, of a sinner in the extremity of life, will be to no effect except he sincerely repent and turn with all his heart to God, which, because it is a case that very rarely happens, and which, when it does happen, no sinner, considering how deceitful the heart of man is, can certainly know to be his own case, therefore all wise persons will take care to be always prepared for the coming of the Lord, and not put their everlasting salvation upon the dangerous and, to say the best of it, very disconsolate issue of a death bed repentance.

II. Take what side of the question you please, it is the highest folly men can be guilty of to delay their repentance to the last and concluding scene of their lives.

1. If you do believe that he only who leads a holy and religious life can have hope in his death, and that a sinner who does not timely repent and turn to God, so as to do works meet for repentance, is excluded the covenant of grace, why then, considering the uncertainty of life, you have in effect, every moment you continue in a sinful state, the sentence of death, of eternal death, in yourselves; and should you happen to die, as you cannot foresee you shall not, by a sudden disease or accident, by your own principles and out of your own mouth shall God judge you.

2. Because sinners are more generally of opinion that a death bed repentance may, if it be sincere, at last save them, I shall more particularly apply what I have to say to such persons, and desire them to go along with me in the following considerations:--

(1) It is extremely uncertain whether men who go on in a course of sin, in hopes that they may take up and remedy all at last by a death-bed repentance, will, when they come to die, have any time to repent.

(2) But what if a sinner should not be surprised by a sudden and immediate death, but have some short warning of its approaches, yet how is he sure that he shall be in a condition to exercise any true or proper acts of repentance? He may be deprived of the use of his understanding or memory, or the pains of his distemper may seize upon him in so violent a manner that, though he may have some confused notions and designs of repentance, yet he cannot apply his thoughts distinctly without great distraction to the business of it; and repentance is a work which at all times, but especially at a time when a thorough change of a corrupt heart is to be wrought all at once, requires great attention and composure of mind.

(3) Supposing God Almighty should be so merciful to a sinner as to allow him not only some short time to prepare for death, but the free and undisturbed use of his reason--let us suppose, I say, a case which very rarely happens, that the approaches of death should be so easy and gradual as to give a man no sensible pain of body or disturbance of mind, yet it is still uncertain whether he may find in his heart any true inclinations to repent and turn to God; for it is no easy matter for a man to resolve in good earnest to hate what he has all his life long placed his great happiness and satisfaction in, or even to desire to free himself from the chains which have held him for many years in so agreeable a captivity.

(4) But let us suppose, further, that a sinner in his last moments may have some good inclinations towards repentance, yet still it is uncertain whether they may be so well grounded or rise so high as to make his repentance sincere; for it is natural for wicked men, if they be not wholly hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, to have their conscience awakened under the apprehensions of death and a judgment to come, so that they cannot but wish at least that they had served God more faithfully and never indulged themselves in those transient pleasures of sin for which they are now in imminent danger of suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Why this is no more than the repentance of a hardened malefactor when he is going to execution; a mere motion of self-love is sufficient to fill him with regret for having made himself a sacrifice of public justice, without any real change in the temper and disposition of his mind. And it is to be feared that the repentance of a dying libertine seldom proceeds from any better principle than that of a servile fear of suffering for his sins; for he now finds that he can sin no longer, and that there is no other remedy left to deliver him from the punishment of his sins but to repent and turn to God. Besides, he looks upon the terrors which he feels in his conscience and the indignation which he expresses at himself for not having incurred the wrath of Almighty God as proper evidences of the sincerity of his repentance. And it must be owned these are good ingredients of a saving repentance; but, alas! how often do they prove of themselves to be, in the event, deceitful and ill-grounded! So that here is uncertainty upon uncertainty to discourage any man from the hopes of a happy death who defers his repentance till he come to die; and therefore, admitting that a death bed repentance, if sincere, may be available to salvation, yet there are so many blanks against one prize, that no man, one would think, who might otherwise be sure of it, should run the hazard, the almost desperate hazard, of drawing it. Even those persons who talk the most loosely of a death bed repentance, yet look upon it as the best plank, after shipwreck, upon which it is possible indeed a man may come safe to shore; but no man that duly consults his safety would choose to venture his life upon such a contingency. (R. Fiddes, D. D.)

Repentance should be immediate

Should not goodness rule at once? Two men are fighting, and we beg them to leave off. Do you recommend them to leave off gradually? Shall they take an hour or two over it? Why, they might kill one another in that time. A fire is about to consume your house--do you say to the firemen, Get it out gradually? If my house were on fire I should long to see the flame quenched at once. If anybody held a pistol at my head I should not say, Take it away by degrees. I would wish him to remove the revolver at once. Yet all these things are matters which could be prolonged over a space of time without such risk as would be involved in a slow process of conversion. Changes of mind such as are necessary to conversion had need be quick when sin is to be forsaken, for every moment deepens the guilt. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day.

Perseverance

The grace of perseverance is, then, a very precious one. It is the continuance of life in your soul. I have seen little chickens that have died in their shells, without hatching out. They did not pick vigorously enough, or resolutely enough, at the thin white wall that shut them from the sun and air. They gave it up as hopeless, the breaking through of the shell, in which they could see no rift and so they died. There is many a good intention that dies like an unhatched chick. All that is wanted to perfect it is perseverance, a determination to go on in spite of obstacles, to work on in spite of restraint. Persevere in good, and obstacles wilt give way and obstructions crack and fall before you. Only he who fights the good fight of faith, and having done all he can, stands on his ground, not driven from it, will be rewarded as a victor. (S. Baring Gould.)

The nature of the gospel ministry

I. The strength of the gospel ministry is of God. There is an acknowledgment here--

1. That the preservation of life and health is from God. It is very evident that a reference is here made to the wonderful deliverances by which his career had been marked.

2. That the preservation of consistency, faithfulness, and zeal is of God. We know well that that God who imparted spiritual life is alone able to preserve and to consummate and to complete it. One great truth must be remembered here--viz., the great importance of our seeking the help of God in prayer.

II. That the topic of the gospel ministry is Christ. Note the very careful and emphatic endeavour of the apostle to state the perfect identification of the great subject of his own personal ministry, with the arrangements of the early economy (verses 5-7; Act_22:14-15). The only difference between the law and the gospel consisted not in nature but in degree. That was the type, this was the antitype--that was the shadow, this was the substance--that was the prediction, this was the fulfilment--that was the first fruits, this was the harvest--that was the dawning of the morning, this was the splendour of the day. Now, the one grand topic that is here mentioned is that the excellency of the two united dispensations of Divine mercy is found in the person and work of Christ. In the Mosaic economy, the various arrangements which there were made were all concentrated in Christ; and Moses delivered Codes by which the attention of mankind was to be directed to Him. Ceremonies, sacrifices, predictions, and events were all made to offer one united testimony to Him (Luk_24:25-27; Luk_24:44). Here is Christ--

1. In His mediatorial humiliation. That Christ should suffer. It was fixed in the eternal purposes that the Messiah, when He came in the fulness of time, should be given, to suffering and to death, and accomplish the object of the great sacrifice for sin which, through the medium of faith, should be the one ground of pardon and eternal salvation. From the creation of the world this great object was declared. All the victims whose blood was shed upon the Patriarchal and Jewish altars were only so many signs and symbols of that great offering which, in the fulness of time, was presented on the summit of Calvary. And if we refer to the prophets, did not David speak of the sufferings of Christ? (Psa_22:1-31.). Did not Isaiah speak of Him who was to be wounded for our transgressions? etc. Did not Daniel testify that the Messiah should be cut off, but not for Himself? Did not Zechariah tell of Him who was to be pierced? The great doctrine of the Atonement by the sufferings of Christ is one upon which both men and angels delight to dwell. It is a doctrine which graces all the perfections of Jehovah. It is a doctrine which chases away the clouds of despair, and sheds around the tomb the brightness of life and immortality.

2. In His mediatorial glory. And that He should be the Firstborn that should rise from the dead. The types of the resurrection of Christ might be found in the ceremonial law, more particularly in the reappearance of the high priest on the great day of annual atonement. That this was one great topic of the prophetic writings must be evident to every person reading Act_13:1-52, and one which occupied much space in the ministry of the apostles. That Christ, in our text, should be said to be the first to rise, cannot be considered in the sense of priority in point of time; for it is well known that several persons were raised before; and therefore it must signify a priority in point of dignity and importance. He is elsewhere called the Firstborn from the dead, that in all things He might have the preeminence, signifying that He was more illustrious and dignified than anyone restored, or to be restored, from the abodes of the sepulchre. With regard to the precise purposes for which Christs resurrection in His mediatorial capacity was accomplished, He rose--

(1) To testify to the fact of His Messiahship. His resurrection was a proof beyond dispute that He really was all that He professed, and that He really deserved all that He demanded.

(2) To proclaim the acceptance of His sacrifice.

(3) To give a pledge of the resurrection of His people. Christ is the First fruits of them that sleep.

3. In His mediatorial influence. And that He should show light unto the people, etc. Light, in this application, is a figure frequently used in the Scriptures (Isa_49:6). And when Simeon held the infant Redeemer in his arms, he said, Mine eyes have seen Thy salvation,…a Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the Glory of Thy people Israel. Here, it will be observed, that light is the emblem of knowledge opposed to ignorance, of holiness opposed to impurity, of happiness opposed to misery; and these blessings are held through the administration of our gracious Messiah to be imparted to the nations of the earth.

III. That the objects of the gospel ministry are all mankind. Witnessing both to small and great. This commission was precisely accordant with the general commission which our Redeemer gave to all His apostles, and through them to all His ministers to the end of the world. (J. Parsons.)

Man dependent upon God for natural and spiritual life

Memorials of mercies received, and deliverances experienced, appear to have been common in every age of the world; whether dedicated, in the enlightened sincerity of true religion, to the honour of the only Jehovah, or appropriated, by mistaken superstition, to the idolatrous reverence of some imaginary Deity, the work of mens hands, wood, and stone (see Gen_8:20; Gen_13:18; Jos_4:1-9; 1Sa_7:12). Altars and temples, statues and pictures, arches and obelisks, hospitals and churches, nunneries and convents, schools and almshouses, have abounded in all ages as marks of the founders vanity or thankfulness. Where they testified the undissembled sincerity of the latter feeling it well demands our respect and imitation. The gratitude due to God for the bounties of His providence, or the higher and nobler gifts of His grace in Jesus Christ, may not be recorded upon tables of stone, to attract notice, and challenge admiration. But no mercy should be received, no blessing enjoyed without its recollection being engraven on fleshly tables of the heart; that He who seeth in secret may read the memorial.

I. It is, then, because you have obtained providential help of God that you continue in life unto this day. Amidst perils of every description, by which the life of a persecuted man could be beset, Paul was still delivered. Hazard less apparent, danger less imminent, may have accompanied you in your journey through life. But preserved as you are from the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and from the destruction that wasteth at noonday, while thousands have fallen at your side, and ten thousands at your right hand, to what is your safety owing, except to the unslumbering watchfulness of Him who called you into being, and whose providence has been your guard. Visited, as many of you have been, by sickness--nearly as you have viewed, and closely as your feet have trodden the borders of the eternal state, it is of the Lords mercy that you have not been consumed. Will anyone presume to say that he hath continued unto this day by some of those lucky combinations of fortuitous circumstances, by which a ship, deprived of mariners, sails, rudder, and compass, might float upon the ocean, the sport of every wind, and yet escape shipwreck and utter loss? Shall we not rather confess that He who, in the person of His dear Son, bought our dying souls with the sacrifice of Himself, and would save us from everlasting woe, did we flee to the refuge of His Cross, now upholds us in life? Shall we not glory to acknowledge that, however long may be the chain of second causes, and however invisible its termination, God, as He sits upon the throne of providential dominion, holds every link in His hand? Are you in prosperity? it is the gift of God; in adversity? it is His messenger of reproof and love; in health? it is His loan; in sickness? it is His memorial. He is providentially with you; He ministers to the life He gave: and however little His interference may be discerned, or His love acknowledged, it is because you have received help from God that you continue unto this day.

II. I turn now to matter of still higher and more solemn import. Let me then admonish any here who are living insensible of their souls danger, prospect, and hope, and careless of the salvation of Jesus Christ that, only because you have obtained from God the help of His long-suffering mercy, and of His unmerited, unsought, undervalued forbearance--you continue unto this day, blessed with the gospel, and not separated forever from its redemption. Saul, the injurious blasphemer, continued his daring career, when a single word from on high would have freed the suffering Church from his malice, and hurried him before the judgment throne of that Saviour whom he had persecuted in ravaging His Church. Now, who among you is living in the spirit and temper of Saul, unbelieving and unconverted? Who among you is a law unto himself? Who has preferred his sin to his salvation, or been a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God? Whence, then, is it that you continue to this day? Whence is it that the Spirit is still pleading with you, that ministers, conscience, the Scriptures, and the voice of God, uttered in almost every mode in which He speaks, and man can hear, are soliciting you to be happy? It is simply because, insensible and disobedient as you are, you have received help from God, and therefore continue to this day. It is because He would not that any should perish, but that all men should come to repentance and live. Oh see, then, ye whom it may concern--see, while yet sight may profit, that ye receive not this grace of God in vain.

III. And now, who are believing, obeying, and journeying heavenward, with the patient undivided perseverance enforced in Pauls motto, This one thing I do--let me remind you (although I know your own hearts in the humility and thankfulness of Divine experience will gladly own it) that, having received help from God, you continue unto this day. You feel for the danger in which those to whom I have just spoken are placed by their insensibility to the salvation of Christ. Why, such were some of you: but ye are washed; but ye are sanctified; but ye are justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. Whence, then, is this good derived? Was it wrung, as it were, from the hand of the Most High, as the merited price and purchase of your own godliness, virtue, piety, and love? No, it is with you, as with the apostle, you have obtained help from God; and therefore you continue to this day to run the way of His commandments, and to live by faith on His Son, who loved you, and gave Himself for you. It was His Spirit which found you in unbelief, and rooted out the infidelity, deeply seated as it was; and enabled you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that you might be saved. That same Spirit, in mercy, subdued the enmity of the carnal heart, mortified the love of sin within you, and made the love and service of Jehovah your pursuit and your delight. His goodness induced you to flee for refuge to the hope set before you. You were not sufficient of yourselves to think anything as of yourselves, but your sufficiency was wholly of God. While, therefore, I earnestly exhort you to believe that this is the true grace of God wherein you stand, I as affectionately beseech you to believe that you still continue in it, only because you have received help from Him. Are you liberated from all need of working out your own salvation, because you know that God worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure? Far, very far otherwise. The same Paul who declared, By the grace of God, I am what I am, was not a whit behind the very chiefest of the apostles; nay, he laboured more abundantly than they all, though he added, Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

1. Let me now commend the obvious deduction from this Scripture to those who live in entire disregard of that help from God, upon which alone depends the life of the body and the life of the soul. Let me say to each of them, Truly as the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step between thee and death. If you continue to neglect the gospel pardon and redemption, there is no other refuge whither the endangered spirit may betake itself and live. The compassions of heaven, however, still wait, although their wings may be plumed for flight; because they are unwilling to forsake and carry the last hope away with them forever: Why sit ye here then until ye die?

2. In conclusion, I affectionately exhort those whom the help of God, in the provisions of His Sons mercy, hath quickened to newness of life, to run the way of His commandments with earnest zeal, and yet with simple reliance upon the effectual power of His grace. (R. P. Buddicom, M. A.)

The gospel ministry

I. In what lay the strength of St. Pauls ministry? Having therefore obtained help of God I continue unto this day. The apostle clearly alludes to his ministry in past years, and acknowledges--

1. That both his life and his health were preserved by God: and who can review the apostles history without observing the truth of this? And which of ourselves can look back to the years that are passed and not discover the same merciful care and protection of God manifested to ourselves? Our spared lives, the many trials and difficulties which have awaited us, both as minister and people, and through all of which we have been safely conducted, loudly proclaim that our mercies have been many and great: they call for our gratitude to the Father of mercies, and ought to inspire us with the feelings of the Psalmist (Psa_116:13).

2. But the words of the apostle may equally imply that God had preserved him in his zeal and faithfulness for the truth. The principle which he fell within him, and which animated him in all his labours, was the constraining love of God; it was shed abroad within the apostles heart, and in the midst of his most trying difficulties it was the buoy that upheld and encouraged him in his work. And the same principle of love to God must inspire and animate every minister in his work and duty, and which alone will enable him to labour with success, and to triumph over his difficulties, and in the end to lead him on his way rejoicing. In the most trivial circumstances of life, unless God be with us, how can we prosper? Except the Lord build the house, their labour is but lost that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. But in the far more important concerns of the soul, how much more needful is prayer! It is God that worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. And is not prayer equally needful to keep alive within the Christians heart that spark of spiritual life, so easily quenched and so ready to become dormant and sluggish, if not carefully watched over and cultivated by the spirit of meditation and prayer? How needful also for the minister of the gospel, considering the many temptations and trials that beset his path! It was this feeling of the need of prayer which led the apostle, together with his fellow labourers, on one occasion to exclaim, We will give ourselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the Word. Oh, for more of this spirit of prayer to descend upon us who are your ministers; and upon you who are our people! Oh, that each one amongst us this day may be directed in the spirit of David to say, We will lift up our eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh our help; and with him also to feel that our help cometh from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

II. What was the subject of the apostles ministry? He tells Agrippa that it was Christ. He clearly sets before Agrippa and the Jews that they accused him without just grounds--that he said none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come, that Christ should suffer--that they could not fairly condemn him, without at the same time condemning their own writings,--that the gospel which he preached was not different from that which their own prophets and Moses had declared--that they could not, as they received and acknowledged the writings of the Old Testament, justly condemn him for preaching Jesus.

III. To whom was the apostle to direct his ministry? who were to be the objects of it? All mankind: witnessing both to small and great. Wherever the apostle went, in whatever situation he was placed, he called the attention of sinners to the same great truths, telling them that if they repented and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, they should be saved. Conclusion: The subject is full of instruction, equally important to the minister and to his hearers.

1. To the minister. It reminds him of his high calling and responsible position, that he may occasionally be placed in a difficult position in upholding his office.

2. And to you who hear the subject before us is not without a word in season likewise: it reminds you of your duty to receive the truth in affection, and to pray for it, that it may have free course. (J. L. F. Russell, M. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 26:19-20. Whereupon — Or, from that time, as οθεν may be rendered, that ever-memorable time, through the grace of God, giving me inclination and power to obey; I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision — With which he was pleased thus miraculously to favour me. But showed first unto them of Damascus — Preached first to the Jews there, to which place I was going when the vision was granted me; and afterward to those at Jerusalem, and throughout all Judea — In the country towns and villages thereof, as Christ had done; and then to the Gentiles — Wherever I came, in my various and widely-extended travels from one country to another; that they should repent — Of all their sins, internal and external; and turn to God — In heart and life; and do works meet for repentance — The repentance which they profess, and the sincerity of which can only be thus evidenced.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL REMARKS

Act_26:19.—Begins the third part of Paul’s defence, and furnishes the reason for his Gentile mission. Whereupon.—Lit., whence, wherefore, accordingly—i.e., having been so instructed.

Act_26:20. Showed first unto them of Damascus.—(Compare Act_9:20.) No contradiction to Gal_1:17, which does not assert that Paul’s evangelistic work did not commence till after his return from Arabia (Holtzmann).

Act_26:21. Works meet for repentance.—I.e., such works as proved repentance to be sincere. It is simply ridiculous to find in this an evidence of non-historicity, since Paul’s doctrine was that of justification by faith alone (Zeller).

Act_26:22. Witnessing.—If μαρτυρούμενος (Received Text) be correct, then the rendering should be “borne witness to” (see Act_6:3, Act_10:22, Act_22:12); but, as Paul was not witnessed to, but accused by small and great, the reading μαρτυρούμενος (Revised Text) is to be preferred, in which case “witnessing,” “testifying,” is an accurate translation.

Act_26:23. That Christ should suffer.—Better, how that, or if, or whether—εἰ presenting the points—ζητήματα questions (Act_25:19)—as Paul was wont to discuss them.

1. Whether the Messiah, not must suffer, but is capable of suffering—παθητός, passibilis (Vulgate); i.e., not whether He should have a nature capable of suffering, but whether the idea of suffering was possible to be harmonised with the conception of Messiah laid down in the Old Testament. And

2. Whether by rising from the dead (1Co_15:22; Col_1:18) He should be the first to show (or proclaim) light unto the people and to the Gentiles (Eph_2:17). As the revelation contained in the law and the prophets had been called (Isa_2:5), so was the gospel (2Co_4:4) now styled, “Light.”

HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_26:19-23

Paul’s Subsequent Career as a Christian; or, how he turned to the Gentile Mission

I. The hidden impulse of his ministry.—The heavenly vision of the glorified Saviour who had appeared to him, pardoned, called, and appointed him to his special life-work. Captivated by that “vision” he felt himself to be no longer a freeman, but the bond-slave of Jesus Christ (Php_1:1). It remained in and with him, a memory unfading, which cheered him in solitude and depression, strengthened him in weakness and weariness, and generally rendered it an absolute necessity to preach the gospel and keep ever moving on towards regions beyond (1Co_9:16; 2Co_10:16). It accompanied him wherever he wandered, supplying him at every stage and in every time of need with fresh inspiration, zeal, and courage. Whatever he had been and done since that memorable day, he told the king, had been due to that “heavenly vision” to which he had not been disobedient. Did Christ’s people evince the like joyful submission to, and cheerful following of, the “heavenly visions” which shine in upon their souls, they might emulate, if they could not rival, the apostle in lofty characters and noble deeds.

II. The wide extent of his ministry.—

1. It commenced in Damascus. There he preached in the synagogues and confounded the Jews, proving that Jesus was the Christ (Act_9:20; Act_9:22).

2. It advanced to Jerusalem. There he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Grecians (Act_9:29).

3. It extended throughout Judæa. Not before or immediately after his first visit to Jerusalem, when he retired to Syria and Cilicia (see Gal_1:22). Perhaps when he repaired to the Metropolis on the occasion of the famine (Act_11:30), or when he visited the capital between his first and second missionary journeys (Act_18:22).

4. It passed to the Gentiles. First in Antioch of Pisidia (Act_13:46), and ever afterwards, as opportunity presented, in Iconium (Act_14:1), in Lystra (Act_14:15), in Philippi (Act_16:17), etc. Note the ever-widening circles of the apostle’s usefulness. First in Damascus, where he had been converted; next in Jerusalem, where he had been known from his youth up (Act_26:4); then in Judæa, among the homes and haunts of his countrymen, for whose salvation he ardently longed (Rom_9:3; Rom_10:1); and lastly in the heathen world, beyond the confines of Palestine.

III. The unvarying burden of his ministry.—

1. That the Messiah predicted by Moses and the prophets had come, as was testified by the correspondence between their writings and Christ’s sufferings, death, and resurrection. If Paul attempted to establish Christ’s Messiahship by finding in the Old Testament allusions to His death and resurrection, this cannot, with reasonable fairness, be ascribed to the apostle’s Pharisaic Bible studies and vivid imagination, but must be set down to the fact that such allusions are really in the Old Testament, although prior to the illumination shed upon these by the events in Christ’s history, they were not perceived by him any more than by the other apostles (Joh_2:22).

2. That Christ by His resurrection had brought light to both Jews and Gentiles,—light they did not possess and could not have possessed until after that event, as, e.g.,

(1) upon the personality of Christ Himself, showing Him to be both the Messiah and the Son of God (Rom_1:4);

(2) upon the purpose and plan of salvation, which had ever been through grace and by faith (Rom_3:24-26);

(3) upon the character and value of Christ’s death, which was thereby declared to have been an atonement for sin (Rom_4:25); and

(4) upon the reality of a resurrection to eternal life and glory (Rom_8:11; 2Ti_1:10).

3. That Jews and Gentiles both should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance. This had been a never-failing theme in Ephesus (Act_20:21), in Athens (Act_17:20), in Thessalonica (1Th_1:9), and elsewhere—as, indeed, it could not have been otherwise, if his mission were to be executed in accordance with instructions received (Act_26:18).

IV. The enormous difficulty of his ministry.—This arose from—

1. The severe labours it entailed in travelling from place to place, on long and arduous journeys, amidst severe bodily weakness and much infirmity.

2. The manifold dangers it involved, of which the apostle furnishes an affecting enumeration in 2Co_11:23-27. But chiefly from

3. The ferocious enemies it aroused, who were principally found amongst his own countrymen, the Jews, the Gentiles having seldom opposed him except when stirred up by these. Note.—“There are three chief points in the writings of the prophets. Christ’s sufferings, Christ’s resurrection, and the publication of them among all nations. And it was precisely these three points that the Jews were most against; they were offended at the first, denied the second, and grudged the third” (Starke). And

4. The deadly persecutions it raised against him, from the period of his first evangelistic labours in Damascus (Act_9:23) till the day when the Jews apprehended him in the temple at Jerusalem, and sought to kill him (Act_26:21). Only a man of heroic spirit could have undergone the fatigues, hardships, oppositions, and persecutions, that fell to the lot of Paul; and not even he, any more than Paul, could have done it in his own strength.

V. The secret support of his ministry.—The help of God. As he claimed to be what he was solely by the grace of God (1Co_15:10), so he arrogated to himself no credit or glory for what he had done in the ministry of the gospel, but ascribed all to God’s power, which had been graciously vouchsafed to him (Php_4:13). Never before had the nothingness of human strength in the domain of religion been realised as it was by Paul, and certainly no one has surpassed, or even rivalled, him since in the feeling of dependence upon God. Paul, in all that he became, all the soul-grandeur which he exhibited, was like plastic clay in the hands of the potter; in all that he achieved he served as a passive instrument in God’s hand. “Not I, but the grace of God which was with me,” constituted his explanation of both phenomena. “That which impels him is never caprice; egoistic, subjective interests are wholly wanting in him. What impels him is to him always something higher than himself. The objective rules over him. His personality is only the ‘vessel’ for the heavenly contents” (Hausrath, Der Apostel Paulus, p. 51). At every stage in his life’s journey Paul could have sung:—

“Here I raise my Ebenezer,

Hither by Thy help I’m come;

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.”

Learn—

1. That the first act of a converted heart is faith.

2. That the first sphere of labour for a convert should be amongst his own.

3. That the first word in the gospel message should be “repent and turn to God.”

4. That the first sign of repentance should be forsaking old sins and performing new works.

5. That the first trial which a convert will encounter will be the opposition of the unbelieving world.

6. That the first qualification requisite to constitute Christ a Saviour was His resurrection from the dead.

7. That the first thing demanded by a Christian for the successful performance of his duty is the help of God.

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Act_26:19. The Heavenly Vision.

I. The highest privilege that can possibly be conferred upon a soul.—To see Christ by the eye of faith is to see God revealed as a Saviour, and is therefore the beginning of new life to the soul.

II. The most powerful force that can operate upon soul.—The soul that beholds that vision is immediately changed in its whole inner nature, lifted out of its old grooves of thought, feeling, and action, and started upon a new career, which will terminate in eternal life and glory.

III. The sublimest message that can be uttered by a soul.—Nothing greater can be told by human lips than what such a vision of the Divine love, grace, and pity, means for fallen man.

Was Paul’s Vision of Christ an Objective Reality?—“It is incontrovertible that Paul felt convinced that Jesus had there (i.e., before Damascus) stepped forth to meet him objectively, visibly, and audibly. He does not at all compare this appearance with the visions which, according to his own and others’ faith, continued even at a later time to be possible, and which he himself, along with others, actually shared—or with the wonderful subjective experiences in which, when in a condition of ecstasy, he saw and heard the Lord, or in which, without knowing whether he was in the body or out of the body, he found himself rapt up into the heavenly paradise (2Co_12:2 ff)—but exactly with those appearances of which the Evangelists have reported to us the details, and concerning which Paul clearly supposes and presupposes as generally recognised, that they are now closed, since he says that to him as the last of all (1Co_15:8) had Christ become visible. And just this appearance of the Risen One with the word addressed to him by that Risen One was the power which brought him, the persecutor of the Christian Church, to faith in Christ.”—Köstlin: Der Glaube und seine Bedeutung, etc., p. 40.

Visions of Heavenly Things.—“Wherefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision” (Act_26:19). “For, see, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern that was shewed thee in the mount” (Heb_8:5). These words bring before our minds the work of two of the very greatest men in the world’s history, and they suggest an important analogy of experience, as fitting them for their work. The work of Moses, it is true, might easily be under-estimated. We might think of him as the lawgiver of but one nation; that nation, moreover, being very restricted in its domains, and of comparatively small numbers. We have rather to think of the unique mission of Israel as a people that should ultimately pervade the world with their influence, and of the work of their lawgiver as fitting them to fulfil this mission well. It is impossible, however, to do justice to the work of Moses without taking into consideration, along with it, the work of his great successor, Paul. For it was in the mission of the apostle that the mission of Moses was continued and fulfilled. The Jews were already scattered abroad in many lands; “for Moses from generations of old hath in every city them that preach him” (Act_15:21). Thus was his law more or less penetrating the nations with its influence. And in that day, when “the fulness of the Gentiles” shall have “come in, and all Israel shall be saved” (Rom_11:25-26), it shall be more than ever manifest how great is the world’s debt to these two men of God. In either case, the work was extremely difficult. Think of the condition of Israel at the time when Moses was entrusted with his great responsibility. Think, again, of the condition of the Roman world at the time when Paul received his commission. In such work, moreover, there is one element of inspiration, one secret of strength, without which no mere enthusiasm of feeling, or power of devotion, can be effectual—viz., the inspiration and strength of a Divine Ideal.

I. Great ideals are the glory of man.—No other creatures here can have them; only men may receive an inspiration that shall raise them above themselves. This being so, whence comes the ideal? It is not of man himself, obviously, but of God. So Moses could have no inspiring ideal of what Israel might be, and should be one day, an ideal that should possess his imagination and fill his soul with a holy glow of hope, abiding with him day and night, and making him strong to endure and to do, unless the pattern had been shown him in the mount. But there God unveiled to him all the possibilities of that people of Israel, and thenceforth Moses set himself, by God’s help, to make the vision real. In like manner, Paul could not have portrayed for himself the glowing picture of a regenerate Roman world, all bowing in adoration to the Crucified, had not the glory, beyond the brightness of the sun, shone from the heavens, blinding, for a while, the natural vision, but photographing itself indelibly on the soul; so that thenceforth only “one thing” could he do—traverse city and country, land and sea, toil tired but untiringly, and endure infamy and death, if only he might reduce vision to fact, and make his high imaginations actual realities. So all man’s true ideals, of personal life and of service for man’s sake, are of God. They may come to us mediately, indeed; for they shine before us in the lives of noble men, they burn with quenchless fire in the poems of the ages, they lift their fair beauty before our view in the manifold Scriptures of God, and they show themselves as at once ideal and real in the glory of the Only-Begotten, “full of grace and truth” (Joh_1:14). But, mediately as these ideals may thus be presented to us, they must take immediate hold of our imagination, and kindle the fervours of our own soul—even as though we ourselves were in the mount, alone with God, or were struck by the sudden glory from the skies. Otherwise their Divine purpose will be unfulfilled, and our life largely unblessed.

II. It has been already partly assumed, but must now be more strongly emphasised, that the great ideals which are intended to ennoble find transfigure human life are not ideals of mere happiness, as though we were to be only dreamers dreaming of our own joy, although there shall be a supreme happiness as the inevitable result of making our life according to the pattern shown us in the mount, and of obeying the heavenly vision. But such happiness comes only when it is not sought for its own sake, its delicate bloom being spoiled, and its very essence perishing, if we snatch at it greedily. The ideal, so far as it pertains to ourselves, is an ideal of character, a revelation to ourselves of what, by the grace of God, it is possible we may become. And just in so far as it is a revelation of possibilities of character, it is a command to us that we do our utmost to make the possible an accomplished fact, saying to us ever, with a more august and sacred behest than that of more words, “Thou shalt!” Thus the true ideal of man’s life is the law of life. But human character, at its best, is possible only through service, loving and loyal service rendered to man, for man’s own sake and for God’s. For even character may be made too exclusively an end in itself, as an achievement of our own, and as meaning the ennoblement merely of our personal manhood; in which case its nobleness is tarnished, being vitiated by the selfishness of our motive and aim. Our own character cannot have true worth save in so far as it is in true relation to the characters of others, and to the one perfect character of God. And such relation implies service—the service of loyal love.

III. The ideals of life are necessarily progressive, partly on account of the material which has to be fashioned by them, and partly through their own nature.—The material will not always allow of the ideal being at first so perfect as it shall be afterwards. The pattern of what Israel was to become, as a people, did not show all the possibilities of ultimate good; nor did the heavenly vision, perhaps, reveal immediately to the apostle all that was in God’s heart for the world. Enough, if, for the present, the ideal can accomplish its present work. King Alfred’s ideal of what England might be made, as a nation, was perhaps not such as may be cherished by the successors of his spirit, discerning the needs and the possibilities of our country in the light of later history. In like manner, the ideal of our personal life will not be so full, perhaps not so imperious, in the immaturer days of life; it will rather be according to our needs and our capabilities. The ideal grows in significance as the material which is to be fashioned by it becomes more susceptible more responsive. But in its own nature the ideal is necessarily growing and progressive. It grows with all our growth; but it grows likewise because it is intrinsically infinite, and must always make larger demands on our faith and loyalty the more fully we yield to the demands already made. Let us learn, however, the solemn truth that, just as surely as our ideals will grow and live, if we believe in them and live by them, so surely will they dwindle and die, if we are untrue to their Divine claims and promises. Yes; the pattern may lose its beauty, the vision may fade; the inspirations of life may die away.—T. F. Lockyer, B. A.

Act_26:20. Works Worthy of Repentance.—Are works—

I. Springing from a spirit of repentance.

II. Attesting the sincerity of repentance.

III. Accomplishing the purpose of repentance.

IV. Disclosing the beauty of repentance.

Act_26:21. Men Whom the World Sometimes Seeks to Murder.

I. Those who would lead it into higher truths.—Too often verified in other spheres than that of religion. Prophets and preachers with new ideas have commonly had a poor reception from the world.

II. Those who decline to be partners in its wickedness.—When a man enters upon the path of holiness, all who walk in sinful ways interpret his behaviour as a silent protest against, and rebuke of, their ungodliness and dislike, if they do not hate and persecute him accordingly (1Pe_4:4).

III. Those who have conferred upon it most good.—The world has never been kind to its philanthropists and social benefactors, but for the most part has killed them, if not by open assassination by cold and cruel neglect (see Ecc_9:15).

Act_26:22. Paul a Model Witness of Gospel Truth.

I. Through whom does he witness?—Through the Lord, whose strength is perfected in his weakness.

II. Before whom does he witness?—Small and great, the people and the Gentiles—i.e., all who have ears to hear.

III. Of whom does he witness?—Of Christ, promised, manifested, crucified, raised, preached.—Gerok.

Act_26:22-23. The Glory of the Gospel of the Grace of God.—This consists in the following facts, that the Gospel is—

I. Designed for all.—

1. All ranks and conditions of men. Small and great—i.e., high and low, rich and poor, young and old.

2. All times and climes on earth. For pre-Christian ages, since it was substantially contained in the Hebrew prophets and in Moses; for the Christian centuries, since it was meant to be published among the Gentiles.

II. Adapted to all.—Proclaiming as it does—

1. An atonement for sin, which all need. This involved in the idea of a suffering Messiah (Isa_53:5-6; Isa_53:10).

2. A resurrection from the grave, which all desire. This guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus (1Co_15:20).

III. Offered to all.—This a necessary consequence of the public proclamation of the gospel, both to the people (the Jews) and the Gentiles, since it is inconceivable that men should be called upon to accept, and punished for refusing, what was not really offered to them. Compare Mar_16:15; Rom_1:16; Rom_3:22.

IV. Bestowed on all.—All who believe without distinction become partakers of its light and life.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Acts

‘BEFORE GOVERNORS AND KINGS’

‘THE HEAVENLY VISION’

Act 26:19.

This is Paul’s account of the decisive moment in his life on which all his own future, and a great deal of the future of Christianity and of the world, hung. The gracious voice had spoken from heaven, and now everything depended on the answer made in the heart of the man lying there blind and amazed. Will he rise melted by love, and softened into submission, or hardened by resistance to the call of the exalted Lord? The somewhat singular expression which he employs in the text, makes us spectators of the very process of his yielding. For it might be rendered, with perhaps an advantage, ‘I became not disobedient’; as if the ‘disobedience’ was the prior condition, from which we see him in the very act of passing, by the melting of his nature and the yielding of his will. Surely there have been few decisions in the world’s history big with larger destinies than that which the captive described to Agrippa in the simple words: ‘I became not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.’

I. Note, then, first, that this heavenly vision shines for us too.

Paul throughout his whole career looked back to the miraculous appearance of Jesus Christ in the heavens, as being equally availably as valid ground for his Christian convictions as were the appearances of the Lord in bodily form to the Eleven after His resurrection. And I may venture to work the parallel in the inverse direction, and to say to you that what we see and know of Jesus Christ is as valid a ground for our convictions, and as true and powerful a call for our obedience, as when the heaven was rent, and the glory above the midday sun bathed the persecutor and his followers on the stony road to Damascus. For the revelation that is made to the understanding and the heart, to the spirit and the will, is the same whether it be made, as it was to Paul, through a heavenly vision, or, as it was to the other Apostles, through the facts of the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, which their senses certified to them, or, as it is to us, by the record of the same facts, permanently enshrined in Scripture. Paul’s sight of Christ was for a moment; we can see Him as often and as long as we will, by turning to the pages of this Book. Paul’s sight of Christ was accompanied with but a partial apprehension of the great and far-reaching truths which he was to learn and to teach, as embodied in the Lord whom he saw. To see Him was the work of a moment, to ‘know Him’ was the effort of a lifetime. We have the abiding results of the lifelong process lying ready to our hands in Paul’s own letters, and we have not only the permanent record of Christ in the Gospels instead of the transient vision in the heavens, and the unfolding of the meaning and bearings of the historical facts, in the authoritative teaching of the Epistles, but we have also, in the history of the Church founded on these, in the manifest workings of a divine power for and through the company of believers, as well as in the correspondence between the facts and doctrines of Christianity and the wants of humanity, a vision disclosed and authenticated as heavenly, more developed, fuller of meaning and more blessed to the eyes which see it, than that which was revealed to the persecutor as he reeled from his horse on the way to the great city.

Dear brethren, they who see Christ in the word, In the history of the world, in the pleading of the preacher, in the course of the ages, and who sometimes hear His voice in the warnings which He breathes into their consciences, and in the illuminations which He flashes on their understanding, need ask for no loftier, no more valid and irrefragable manifestation of His gracious self. To each of us this vision is granted. May I say, without seeming egotism to you it is granted even through the dark and cloudy envelope of my poor words?

II. The vision of Christ, howsoever perceived, comes demanding obedience.

The purpose for which Jesus Christ made Himself known to Paul was to give him a charge which should influence his whole life. And the manner in which the Lord, when He had appeared, prepared the way for the charge was twofold. He revealed Himself in His radiant glory, in His exalted being, in His sympathetic and mysterious unity with them that loved Him and trusted Him, in His knowledge of the doings of the persecutor; and He disclosed to Saul the inmost evil that lurked in his own heart, and showed him to his bewilderment and confusion, how the course that he thought to be righteousness and service was blasphemy and sin. So, by the manifestation of Himself enthroned omniscient, bound by the closest ties of identity and of sympathy with all that love Him, and by the disclosure of the amazed gazer’s evil and sin, Jesus Christ opened the way for the charge which bore in its very heart an assurance of pardon, and was itself a manifestation of His love.

In like manner all heavenly visions are meant to secure human obedience. We have not done what God means us to do with any knowledge of Him which He grants, unless we utilise it to drive the wheels of life and carry it out into practice in our daily conduct. Revelation is not meant to satisfy mere curiosity or the idle desire to know. It shines above us like the stars, but, unlike them, it shines to be the guide of our lives. And whatsoever glimpse of the divine nature, or of Christ’s love, nearness, and power, we have ever caught, was meant to bow our wills in glad submission, and to animate our hands for diligent service and to quicken our feet to run in the way of His commandments.

There is plenty of idle gazing, with more or less of belief, at the heavenly vision. I beseech you to lay to heart this truth, that Christ rends the heavens and shows us God, not that men may know, but that men may, knowing, do; and all His visions are the bases of commandments. So the question for us all is, What are we doing with what we know of Jesus Christ? Nothing? Have we translated our thoughts of Him into actions, and have we put all our actions under the control of our thoughts of Him? It is not enough that a man should say, ‘Whereupon I saw the vision,’ or, ‘Whereupon I was convinced of the vision,’ or, ‘Whereupon I understood the vision.’ Sight, apprehension, theology, orthodoxy, they are all very well, but the right result is, ‘Whereupon I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.’ And unless your knowledge of Christ makes you do, and keep from doing, a thousand things, it is only an idle vision, which adds to your guilt.

But notice, in this connection, the peculiarity of the obedience which the vision requires. There is not a word, in this story of Paul’s conversion, about the thing which Paul himself always puts in the foreground as the very hinge upon which conversion turns-viz. faith. Not a word. The name is not here, but the thing is here, if people will look. For the obedience which Paul says that he rendered to the vision was not rendered with his hands. He got up to his feet on the road there, ‘not disobedient,’ though he had not yet done anything. This is to say, the man’s will had melted. It had all gone with a run, so to speak, and the inmost being of him was subdued. The obedience was the submission of self to God, and not the more or less diligent and continuous consequent external activity in the way of God’s commandments.

Further, Paul’s obedience is also an obedience based upon the vision of Jesus Christ enthroned, living, bound by ties that thrill at the slightest touch to all hearts that love Him, and making common cause with them.

And furthermore, it is an obedience based upon the shuddering recognition of Paul’s own unsuspected evil and foulness, how all the life, that he had thought was being built up into a temple that God would inhabit, was rottenness and falsehood.

And it is an obedience, further, built upon the recognition of pity and pardon in Christ, who, after His sharp denunciation of the sin, looks down from Heaven with a smile of forgiveness upon His lips, and says: ‘But rise and stand upon thy feet, for I will send thee to make known My name.’

An obedience which is the inward yielding of the will, which is all built upon the revelation of the living Christ, who was dead and is alive for evermore, and close to all His followers; and is, further, the thankful tribute of a heart that knows itself to be sinful, and is certain that it is forgiven-what is that but the obedience which is of faith? And thus, when I say that the heavenly vision demands obedience, I do not mean that Christ shows Himself to you to set you to work, but I mean that Christ shows Himself to you that you may yield yourselves to Him, and in the act may receive power to do all His sweet and sacred will.

III. Thirdly, this obedience is in our own power to give or to withhold.

Paul, as I said in my introductory remarks, puts us here as spectators of the very act of submission. He shows it to us in its beginning-he shows us the state from which he came and that into which he passed, and he tells us, ‘I became-not disobedient.’ In his case it was a complete, swift, and permanent revolution, as if some thick-ribbed ice should all at once melt into sweet water. But whether swift or slow it was his own act, and after the Voice had spoken it was possible that Paul should have resisted and risen from the ground, not a servant, but a persecutor still. For God’s grace constrains no man, and there is always the possibility open that when He calls we refuse, and that when He beseeches we say, ‘I will not.’

There is the mystery on which the subtlest intellects have tasked their powers and blunted the edge of their keenness in all generations; and it is not likely to be settled in five minutes of a sermon of mine. But the practical point that I have to urge is simply this: there are two mysteries, the one that men can, and the other that men do, resist Christ’s pleading voice. As to the former, we cannot fathom it. But do not let any difficulty deaden to you the clear voice of your own consciousness. If I cannot trust my sense that I can do this thing or not do it, as I choose, there is nothing that I can trust. Will is the power of determining which of two roads I shall go, and, strange as it is, incapable of statement in any more general terms than the reiteration of the fact; yet here stands the fact, that God, the infinite Will, has given to men, whom He made in His own image, this inexplicable and awful power of coinciding with or opposing His purposes and His voice.

‘Our wills are ours, we know not how;

Our wills are ours, to make them Thine.’

For the other mystery is, that men do consciously set themselves against the will of God, and refuse the gifts which they know all the while are for their good. It is of no use to say that sin is ignorance. No; that is only a surface explanation. You and I know too well that many a time when we have been as sure of what God wanted us to do as if we had seen it written in flaming letters on the sky there, we have gone and done the exact opposite. I know that there are men and women who are convinced in their inmost souls that they ought to be Christians, and that Jesus Christ is pleading with them at the present hour, and yet in whose hearts there is no yielding to what, they yet are certain, is the will and voice of Jesus Christ.

IV. Lastly, this obedience may, in a moment, revolutionise a life.

Paul rode from Jerusalem ‘breathing out threatenings and slaughters.’ He fell from his warhorse, a persecutor of Christians, and a bitter enemy of Jesus. A few moments pass. There was one moment in which the crucial decision was made; and he staggered to his feet, loving all that he had hated, and abandoning all in which he had trusted. His own doctrine that ‘if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away and all things are become new,’ is but a generalisation of what befell himself on the Damascus road. It is of no use trying to say that there had been a warfare going on in this man’s mind long before, of which his complete capitulation was only the final visible outcome. There is not a trace of anything of the kind in the story. It is a pure hypothesis pressed into the service of the anti-supernatural explanation of the fact.

There are plenty of analogies of such sudden and entire revolution. All reformation of a moral kind is best done quickly. It is a very hopeless task, as every one knows, to tell a drunkard to break off his habits gradually. There must be one moment in which he definitely turns himself round and sets his face in the other direction. Some things are best done with slow, continuous pressure; other things need to be done with a wrench if they are to be done at all.

There used to be far too much insistence upon one type of religious experience, and all men that were to be recognised as Christians were, by evangelical Nonconformists, required to be able to point to the moment when, by some sudden change, they passed from darkness to light. We have drifted away from that very far now, and there is need for insisting, not upon the necessity, but upon the possibility, of sudden conversions. However some may try to show that such experiences cannot be, the experience of every earnest Christian teacher can answer-well! whether they can be or not, they are. Jesus Christ cured two men gradually, and all the others instantaneously. No doubt, for young people who have been born amidst Christian influences, and have grown up in Christian households, the usual way of becoming Christians is that slowly and imperceptibly they shall pass into the consciousness of communion with Jesus Christ. But for people who have grown up irreligious and, perhaps, profligate and sinful, the most probable way is a sudden stride out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. So I come to you all with this message. No matter what your past, no matter how much of your life may have ebbed away, no matter how deeply rooted and obstinate may be your habits of evil, no matter how often you may have tried to mend yourself and have failed, it is possible by one swift act of surrender to break the chains and go free. In every man’s life there have been moments into which years have been crowded, and which have put a wider gulf between his past and his present self than many slow, languid hours can dig. A great sorrow, a great joy, a great, newly discerned truth, a great resolve will make ‘one day as a thousand years.’ Men live through such moments and feel that the past is swallowed up as by an earthquake. The highest instance of thus making time elastic and crowding it with meaning is when a man forms and keeps the swift resolve to yield himself to Christ. It may be the work of a moment, but it makes a gulf between past and future, like that which parted the time before and the time after that in which ‘God said, Let there be light: and there was light.’ If you have never yet bowed before the heavenly vision and yielded yourself as conquered by the love which pardons, to be the glad servant of the Lord Jesus who takes all His servants into wondrous oneness with Himself, do it now. You can do it. Delay is disobedience, and may be death. Do it now, and your whole life will be changed. Peace and joy and power will come to you, and you, made a new man, will move in a new world of new relations, duties, energies, loves, gladnesses, helps, and hopes. If you take heed to prolong the point into a line, and hour by hour to renew the surrender and the cry, ‘Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?’ you will ever have the vision of the Christ enthroned, pardoning, sympathising, and commanding, which will fill your sky with glory, point the path of your feet, and satisfy your gaze with His beauty, and your heart with His all-sufficing and ever-present love.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 26:19. Ὅθεν) whence I received the power to obey.—οὐκ ἐγενόμην ἀπειθὴς, I was not disobedient) Litotes: i.e. I was altogether and immediately obedient: Gal 1:16. Not even the conversion of Paul was irresistible. According to the opinion of the Jews, Paul ought to have been disobedient: this he denies himself.—οὐρανίῳ, the heavenly) and therefore most efficacious.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

,[160] 20

[160] Ver. 19 proves the resistibility of the influences of grace.

Act_26:19,[161] 20. Ὅθεν] Hence (Mat_14:7), namely, because such a glorious ministry has been promised to me.

οὐκ ἐγενόμην] i.e. non praestiti me. See Kühner, ad Xen. Anab. i. 7. 4.

Observe the address to the king, as at Act_26:13 in the narrative of the emergence of the Christophany, so here immediately after its close; in both places, for the purpose of specially exciting the royal interest.

τῇ οὐρανίῳ ὀπτασίᾳ] the heavenly vision, because it came οὐρανόθεν (Act_26:13).

εἰς πᾶσάν τε τὴν χώρ. τ. Ἰουδ.] The statement is threefold: I preached, (1) to them in Damascus; (2) to the city Jerusalem (Ἱεροσολύμοις, simple dative, no longer dependent on ἐν), and unto all the land of Judaea (εἰς, as in Luk_8:34, and frequently; see on Act_9:28, Act_23:11); (3) to the Gentiles.[162] Thus Paul indicates his whole ministry from his conversion till now (see Act_26:21). Consequently there is here no contradiction with Gal_1:22 (Zeller). It was also the interest of the apostle, persecuted by the Jews, to put his working for the Jews into the foreground. The shift to which Hofmann, l.c., resorts, that the apostle does not at all say that he has preached in all Judaea (he certainly does say so), but only that his preaching had sounded forth thither, is the less required, as he here summarily comprehends his whole Working.

πράσσοντας] accusative. See Bornemann, ad Xen. Anab. i. 2. 1; Kühner, ad Mem. i. 1. 9; Breitenb. ad Oecon. i. 4.

Paul certainly gives the contents of his preaching in a form reminding us of the preaching of the Baptist (Luk_3:8); but he thus speaks, because he stands before an assembly before which he had to express himself in the mode most readily understood by it, and after a type universally known and venerated, for the better disclosure of the injustice done to him (ἕνεκα τούτων, Act_26:21!); to set forth here the ΜΥΣΤΉΡΙΟΝ of his gospel, with which he filled up this form, would have been quite out of place. Without reason, Zeller and Baur (see also his neutest. Theol. p. 333) find here a denial of the doctrine of justification by faith alone; an opinion which ought to have been precluded by the very πίστει τῇ εἰς ἐμέ, Act_26:18, which leaves no doubt as to what was in the mind of the apostle the specific qualification for ΜΕΤΑΝΟΕῖΝ … ΠΡΆΣΣΟΝΤΑς.

[161] Ver. 19 proves the resistibility of the influences of grace.

[162] The πρῶτον belongs only to τοῖς ἐν Δαμασκῷ, not also to Ἱεροσολ. (Hofmann, N.T. I. p. 118), as between Damascus and Jerusalem, in the consciousness of the apostle (Gal_1:18), there lay an interval of three years.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 26:19 . ὅθεν : “wherefore,” R.V., so in Heb 2:17 ; Heb 3:1 ; Heb 7:25 ; Heb 8:3 ; Heb 9:18 (locally in Luk 11:24 , Act 14:26 ; Act 28:13 ); probably best taken here as referring to the whole revelation from Act 26:12 , marking the natural result of what had gone before; not used in St. Paul’s Epistles. βασ . Ἀ .: “cum ad sua facta redeat, apte regem denuo compellat,” Blass, marking the commencement of his real defence. ἀπειθὴς : only in Luke and Paul in N.T., cf. Luk 1:17 ; Rom 1:30 , 2Ti 3:2 , Tit 1:16 ; Tit 3:3 ; in LXX and in classical Greek. ὀπτασίᾳ : here and here only Paul himself apparently speaks of the appearance of Christ vouchsafed to him before Damascus by this word, but ὀπτασία , as Beyschlag shows, is not confined to appearances which the narrators regard as visions, cf. Luk 1:22 ; Luk 24:23 , and its meaning must be explained from the entire “objectivity” with which St. Paul invests the whole narrative of his Conversion, cf. Witness of the Epistles , p. 383 (1892), and p. 380 for further reference to Beyschlag in Studien und Kritiken , 1864, 1890, and his Leben Jesu , i., p. 435. In modern Greek ὀπτασία = a vision (Kennedy).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Paul allegeth God to be author of the office of his Apostleship, and his grace as a witness.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision--This musical and elevated strain, which carries the reader along with it, and doubtless did the hearers, bespeaks the lofty region of thought and feeling to which the apostle had risen while rehearsing his Master's communications to him from heaven.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 19. I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision] This, O Agrippa, was the cause of my conversion from my prejudices and mal-practices against the doctrine of Christ. The vision was from heaven; I received it as such, and began to preach the faith which I had before persecuted.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. He declareth now briefly to what end he rehearsed the history of his conversion; to wit, that Agrippa and the rest might understand that he had God for his author of all those things which the Jews condemned of sacrilege and apostacy. He speaketh to Agrippa by name, because he knew that Festus and the Romans knew not what an heavenly vision meant. Now, it appeareth that there is nothing in the very sum of his doctrine which dissenteth from the law and the prophets; whereby the oracle doth win greater credit, whereby Paul was commanded to teach nothing but that which was agreeable to the Scripture. Conversion, or turning unto God, is joined with repentance, not as some peculiar thing, but that we may know what it is to repent. Like as, also, on the contrary, the corruption of men and their frowardness is nothing else but an estranging from God. And because repentance is an inward thing, and placed in the affection of the heart, Paul requireth, in the second place, such works as may make the same known, according to that exhortation of John the Baptist: “Bring forth fruits meet for repentance,” (Matthew 3:8). Now, forasmuch as the gospel calleth all those which are Christ’s unto repentance, it followeth that all men are naturally corrupt, and that they have need to be changed. In like sort, this place teacheth that these men do unskillfully pervert the gospel which separate the grace of Christ from repentance.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(19) I was not disobedient.—Literally, I did not become disobedient. The language of the Apostle is significant in its bearing on the relations of God’s grace and man’s freedom. Even here, with the “vessel of election” (Act_9:15) “constrained” by the love of Christ (2Co_5:14), there was the possibility of disobedience. There was an act of will in passing from the previous state of rebellion to that of obedience.

The heavenly vision . . .—The noun is used of Zachariah’s vision in the Temple (Luk_1:22), and again by St. Paul, in reference to this and other like manifestations (2Co_12:1). It is distinctly a “vision,” as contrasted with a “dream.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. I was not disobedient] The verb should be more fully translated “I did not become disobedient.” The thought goes back to the “kicking against the pricks,” the opposition of previous times. That was at an end now. Jesus was “Lord,” and Saul’s only question “What wilt thou have me to do?”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whereupon, O King Agrippa,.... Having been favoured with this illustrious appearance of the Lord and with this declaration and commission from him:

I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision; to Christ himself, who appeared from heaven in so much light and glory, and spoke unto him, and appointed him what he should be, and do, and declared what use he should be of: he did not disbelieve what Christ said, nor was he disobedient to the orders he gave, but immediately set about the work he called him to, without consulting flesh and blood; see Gal 1:16.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

19 Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:

Ver. 19. I was not disobedient] As I should have been if I had taken flesh and blood into counsel, Gal 1:16; {See Trapp on "Gal 1:16"} but silencing my reason, I exalted my faith, and putting myself into God’s hands, said,

‘ Te duce, vera sequor: te duce, falsa nego."

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whereupon - Whence ὅθεν hothen. Since the proof of his being the Messiah, of his resurrection, and of his calling me to this work, was so clear and plain, I deemed it my duty to engage without delay in the work.

I was not disobedient - I was not incredulous or unbelieving; I yielded myself to the command, and at once obeyed. See Act 9:6; compare Gal 1:16.

Unto the heavenly vision - To the celestial appearance, or to the vision which appeared to me from heaven. I did not doubt that this splendid appearance Act 26:13 was from heaven, and I did not refuse to obey the command of him who thus appeared to me. He knew it was the command of God his Saviour, and he gave evidence of repentance by yielding obedience to it at once.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I was not incredulous, I believed God, and yielded to his call, as Isa 1:5, which cannot be counted a fault in me; and yet this is all that can be charged upon me.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19. Not disobedient—His new faith acted forth in works. In this his will was free to obey or to disobey, like Jonah, the order of Jehovah. The overwhelming light and power of Christ’s appearance were, indeed, irresistible, an “irresistible grace;” but the engaging with full faith in Christ to perform the duties and sufferings of his apostolate was a true act of the free will.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Wherefore for whereupon, A.V. Disobedient (ajpeiqhv); see Luk_1:17; Rom_1:30, etc. The turn of the phrase is moat skillful; as if be should say, "Can you blame me for obeying such a heavenly message? How could I act otherwise, being thus directed?" Vision (ojptasi) Luk_1:22 Luk_24:23; 2Co_12:1. Found also repeatedly in the LXX of Daniel and Wisdom. (comp. the use of ojpta Act_1:3)

The heavenly vision," a sermon to the young.

When Paul was "apprehended of Christ Jesus" on his way to Damascus, he was yet a young man. He was still at the outset of his career; his life was still before him. When that heavenly vision came, and he saw the Lord, he himself and his whole life were absolutely changed. The current which had surged so swiftly in one line then turned and flowed steadily and uninterruptedly in the opposite direction. That vision from God revolutionized, transformed his whole self and all his plans and hopes. What visions have we now, and what influence have they on our hearts and lives? We reply

I THAT TO THE YOUNG THERE COMMONLY OCCURS SOME VISION FROM HEAVEN. We do not expect the miraculous now. God may, and probably does, make known his will in ways that are outside and above the ordinary and the natural; but we have no right to reckon on these. He does come to us by the illuminating influences of his Holy Spirit, and he thus elevates the mind, awakens the soul, subdues the will, renews the nature, transforms the life. God visits us through various means, acts upon us by many instruments, wins us in different ways. The heavenly vision is sure to come during the days of youth, when the mind is more open and the heart more tender; "for of such is the kingdom of God.

1. It may take the form of a vision of Jesus Christ his excellency and claims. The young heart may see him, as it had never before, as One who is infinitely worthy of trust, of love, of service, of submission.

2. Or it may take the form of a vision of human life its seriousness and responsibility. The mind may awake to this great fact: having regarded human life as nothing better than a thing to be enjoyed, or as an opportunity for making money, or gaining a brief reputation, or attaining to some social position, it comes to see, in the light of God"s revealing truth, that it may be something immeasurably more and higher that it may be made a sacred opportunity of spiritual culture, of holy usefulness, and of Divine service.

3. Or it may take the form of a vision of the human soul its greatness and value. It may suddenly become conscious of the fact that God has created us for himself, that we may possess his likeness, live his life, and share his immortality; that within the humblest human frame resides a spirit whose worth the wealth of a planet will not weigh.

II THAT THEN COMES THE TIME FOR THE GREAT DECISION. There are other occasions in the course of human life when a decisive choice is made; when it is resolved what vocation shall be pursued, what life-companion taken, what country adopted for a home, etc.; but there is no occasion which compares with this in sacred interest, in lasting issues. It may be even said that "on this winged hour eternity is hung." Obedience or disobedience to the heavenly vision makes all the difference between success and failure, between peace and unrest of soul, between life and death. Obedience means

(1) becoming right with God;

(2) spending a life in accordance with his will and in harmony with our true and deeper cravings;

(3) a title to everlasting joy in the future.

(1) remaining under God"s displeasure;

(2) living a life at variance with his purpose and the true end of man;

(3) rejecting the offer of eternal life. C.

Disobedience means the sad and dark opposites of these:

The make of a heavenly vision, and its use.

These words are part of Paul"s own description of his conversion. He has been telling the fact, and explaining the manner and circumstances of it. In fewest words he has spoken of the blinding light from heaven at midday, but far above the brightness of a midday sun; of the voice which he heard when prostrate on the earth; of its summons to him to rise, and to be ready promptly to begin a career of activity and of danger perhaps, alike unparalleled. Then calling it altogether a "vision," and a "heavenly vision," he says, "I was not disobedient to it." For three days he remained blind; for three days, so complete was the mastery of mind over body, he did neither eat nor drink. They led him by the hand to Damascus; there the Divine will and purpose concerning him were further unfolded to him by Ananias; and there he found a grateful shelter awhile with Christ"s disciples those very persons whom he had set out to discomfit and persecute. Twenty-seven years, or thereabout, have now passed away, and looking back on that time, Paul says and the trial of those twenty-seven years amply bear him out I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." It will be instructive to notice

I WHAT IT IS WHICH PAUL HERE TERMS A "HEAVENLY VISION." The charm of words often beguiles, sometimes misleads, and, like distance, lends enchantment to the view. A heavenly vision must not every one covet it? Certainly every one would not covet this of Paul"s. A "heavenly vision," if given, must it not be irresistible? Will it not be made of fairy forms, of rainbow colors, of angel movements, of seraphs music? Poetry and dream, imagination and the refinedness of inspiration, these will be the material and make of it. But, no, it is not so; it was not so now. A heavenly vision may be as practical, of matter as hard, of manner as unceremonious and unwelcome, as the most ordinary reality of our everyday vexed and harassed life. In this, every one of us finds occasionally the hard knocks of hard facts, and so we may in a heavenly vision. And this was the kind of which Paul here speaks. The light was bright, but not with fancy"s brightness, but with blinding effect. For the rest, judge in one moment the characteristics of the heavenly vision that, beginning with blinding, goes on by giving the strong rider a heavy fall to the earth. No dreamy whisperings succeed, nor strains seraphic, but summons short and sharp, with his name twice repeated. The remonstrant and upbraiding questions succeed, and fear and trembling and unknown astonishment are the result. This sort of vision, whatever it may he called, is, according to our general thought, not so much of heavenly as of earthly things. Yet these were the facts of Paul"s vision, and equally fact is it that he terms it heavenly. And here is our lesson, that the warnings from heaven, and the persuasions that come from heaven, and the instructions that date from heaven, may, while we stay here, savor and have to savor much of the material and the methods of earth, so far as regards the instruments of them. The heavenly vision shall best justify its name often for you, when it apprizes you experimentally, not of the delicious sensations of angels, but of the fear and trembling and anguished amazement that pertain to sinful hearts and injured consciences. Paul was right; for his vision did come from heaven, and it pointed up to heaven, and it led him back with it to heaven, and an innumerable host of others also. Hard fare brought the prodigal back to himself and home to his father; and it was so with Paul, severe and unceremonious handling brought Paul to himself and his Savior and his lifework; and it may be so with us, that hard blows and smarting wounds and crowding cares may be the appointed means of calling us to ourselves, our God, and our home. So also when these come to me, even me, me myself, is it not the equivalent of the name named, and sharply named twice, "Saul, Saul"? We often individually doubt our mercies, and fail to give God praise for them; seldom do we fail to cry out individually because of our pains, or to murmur at God because of them.

II How PAUL SAYS HE TREATED IT. The treatment which Paul returned for his most merciful, but so to call it rough, usage in this heavenly vision, was prompt attention, practical obedience. The kindest, gentlest providences you may so abuse that they turn into bitter, hard experiences, and memories of pain and shame. The hardest, sternest providences may be so accepted, so treated, that they become transmuted into the brightest spots of memory, the happiest realities of a painful life, and the undoubted points of departure for a new and holier life. Of what seem the unlikeliest materials, it is possible to secure heavenly advantage by obedience to the convictions, the thoughts, the suggestions that come of the pain and darkness and fearful care that were enrapt in them. For what reason, however, does Paul say, "I was "not disobedient, instead of "I was obedient"?

1. Perhaps he chooses his expression of real, deep modesty before God. "Disobedient," he thought to himself, "I will no longer be," and that thought lingered still with him, though, as to being fully and adequately obedient," who is sufficient for it?" The twenty-seven years that have now sped away have just done this for him, made him feel that to be perfectly obedient will need an energy and an unfalteringness never seen below the sun, except in the one Lord and Master himself.

2. Or was the mode of Paul"s language rather due to the thought, perhaps all but unconsciously felt, that disobedience was the broad road and wide gate, whereat the many go in, the million to one and he had been long of the number? But Paul would say, "Being "by the grace of God what I am," I would no longer be disobedient, nor "walk in their counsel." Use we then our providences, though dark and stern, and let us not be unfaithful to their suggestions. It will be a great step towards baulking the fruitfulness of evil, and towards producing an abundant fruitfulness of good. To be not disobedient may soon usher in the ambition and the joys of a real and hearty obedience. The word may tremble on human lip, to say, "I have been obedient," but with a good conscience before man and God, Paul prefers to say, "I was not disobedient. B.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

From that time - Having received power to obey, I was not disobedient - I did obey, I used that power, Gal. i, 16. So that even this grace whereby St. Paul was influenced was not irresistible.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

How Paul had carried out the work of his call:

v. 19. Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision;

v. 20. but showed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.

v. 21. For these causes the Jews caught me in the Temple, and went about to kill me.

v. 22. Having, therefore, obtained help of God, I continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come:

v. 23. that Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people and to the Gentiles.

The miraculous vision, as well as the words of Christ in extending to him this call as apostle, had decided Paul; upon the strength of all this he had not been disobedient to the heavenly vision, the Lord’s merciful power had wrought the change in his heart, making him willing and eager to become the ambassador of the Most High, of the exalted Christ. He had begun in Damascus, preaching Christ that He is the Son of God, chap. 9:20. He had spoken boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus in Jerusalem, chap. 9:29, and throughout all the coasts of Judea. Finally, he had made at least three missionary journeys into the heathen world. And everywhere his message had been the same; it had been the message of the Baptist, it, had been the message of Jesus, namely, that men should repent and turn to God. First comes the acknowledgment of sin and of its damnableness; then the sinner despairs of himself and all his unrighteousness and turns to God for help and salvation as he hears the glorious news of the Gospel; and then come the works which are worthy of repentance, which measure up to the standard of actual repentance, with nothing of sham or deceit about them, but embodying the sincere effort of the Christian to lire worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For these causes, for the fact that Paul proclaimed the Gospel in all its glorious purity, the Jews had seized him in the Temple and had tried violently to put him to death. All the other points which they had alleged were partly pure fiction and partly perversion of truth, in order to harm the course of the Gospel. The identical thing happens in our days whenever the enemies of Christ invent excuses to suppress the preaching of the truth. But Paul had been fortunate in obtaining help from God, and thus stood firm to that day, bearing witness before the small and the great alike, making no distinction of persons, saying nothing but that which the prophets had, literally, spoken that it was destined to happen, and also Moses. The message of the New Testament does not differ essentially from that of the Old Testament; the believers of the time before Christ had the prophecies of the salvation to come in the Messiah; the believers since His time look back to, and trust in, the salvation as it has been gained by Christ’s birth, life, death, and resurrection. What Moses and the prophets preached, the great central doctrine of Christianity, salvation through faith in Jesus, that is the subject of Christian preaching to the end of time: that Christ was to suffer by the will and counsel of God, that He, as the first to rise from the dead, was destined as a light to proclaim the blessings, to bring the message of light to all people, even the heathen, to Jews and Gentiles alike. As usual, Paul insisted upon it that the identity of the Messiah with Jesus of Nazareth was proved not only by His suffering, as foretold, but also by His resurrection, and by the power which the message of this resurrection was exerting in bringing the blessings of spiritual and eternal light to the hearts of men.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Observe here, 1. How obedient the apostle was to the call of Christ: having had so glorious a vision, he did not, he durst not, rebel against the light of it: but immediately went forth and preached, first at Damascus, then at Jerusalem, then throughout all Judea, and at last among the Gentiles, the doctrine of repentance, and the necessity of good works.

Observe, 2. The ill requital which the good man met with for his diligence and faithfulness in preaching the glad tidings of the gospel: for this he had liked to have been killed by the Jews in the temple. Evangelium praedicare est furorem mundi in se derivare; "To preach the gospel is the ready way to bring the wrath and fury of the world upon themselves."

Observe, 3. With what thankfulness the apostle owns and acknowledges the merciful providence of God in preserving him both from the fraud and force of his enemies: Having obtained help of God, I continue unto this day.

And how did the sense of divine goodness upon his soul provoke him to go on with his work, declaring no other thing concerning Christ, but what Moses and the prophets did of old foretell of him; namely, that he should be put to death, and should be the first that should rise again by his own power, and be the author of our resurrection.

Note here, That the sufferings of Christ were taught by Moses in all the commands given about sacrifices; and not by Moses only, but by the prophets also, particularly the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 53 the evangelical prophet, and prophetical evangelist, who wrote as clearly of Christ’s coming, as if he had then been come.

From whence the apostle argues, how black the wickedness of the Jews was, who went abroad to kill him for preaching the same doctrine which Moses and the prophets had taught before him.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19-21. By these facts the speaker proceeds to justify his change of position, and his subsequent career. (19) " Whereupon, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision; (20) but announced, first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, and in all the country of Judea, and to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works suitable to repentance. (21) On account of these things the Jews seized me in the temple, and attempted to kill me. " This is a more detailed statement of the cause of Jewish enmity, which had been more briefly expressed by the statement that it was concerning the hope of the resurrection that he was accused.

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

19–20. I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. He could still have disobeyed. His will was free, but he could only act in good conscience by obeying Christ. He not only was baptized by Ananias in Damascus, but, after some preparation, he began to preach,

first in Damascus (9:27), and then at Jerusalem, where he disputed against the Grecians (9:28, 29). Just when he preached throughout the coasts of Judea we are not informed. Hackett thinks it was when he came up with help at the time of the famine (11:30). That they should repent. He preached more than a theory; he preached a new life.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Therefore

"Because what I have just said is true." Paul had just explained what the Lord had commanded him in his vision.

I did not disobey

This can be stated in positive form. AT: "I obeyed" (See: Double Negatives)

the heavenly vision

This refers to what the person in the vision told Paul. AT: "what the person from heaven told me in the vision" (See: Metonymy)

turn to God

To start trusting God is spoken of as if a person turns to start walking toward God. AT: "trust in God" (See: Metaphor)

doing deeds worthy of repentance

The abstract noun "repentance" can be stated as the verb "repented." AT: "and start doing good deeds to show they truly have repented" (See: Abstract Nouns)

the Jews

This does not mean all of the Jews. AT: "some Jews" (See: Synecdoche)

translationWords

king

disobey

heaven

vision

Damascus

Jerusalem

Judea

Gentile

preach

repent

turn

God

Jew

temple

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

19. οὐκ ἑγενόμην ἀπειθής, I was not disobedient. More literally, ‘I did not become, or prove, disobedient.’ The thought goes back to the ‘kicking against the pricks,’ the opposition of previous times. That was at an end now. Jesus was ‘Lord,’ and Saul’s only question ‘What wilt thou have me to do?’

τῇ οὐρανίῳ ὀπτασίᾳ, to the heavenly vision. ὀπτασία is a word of late origin. It occurs several times in N.T., Luk 1:22; 2Co 12:1; also frequently in the LXX. of Daniel.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

19. ἀπειθής] See Isa 50:5 in LXX.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.