Why is it that the apostle Paul could speak so boldly, fearlessly and confidently before the mob trying to kill him? In the mail they send out a few times a week, “The Pour Over” (thepourover.org) have a quote by Tim Keller:
“If you’re falling off a cliff, strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch. Salvation is not finally based on the strength of your faith, but on the object of your faith.”
Tim Keller (1950-2023)
Tim died on Friday past after a long struggle with cancer. Today he is with “the object of his faith” … the Lord Jesus. It is this very Jesus who met Paul on the Damascus Road and changed him from a persecutor of the Christian Faith into one of the greatest servants of the Gospel as well as one of the human contributors the Holy Spirit used to write large parts of the New Testament. He could stand boldly before the mob, in all his pain and agony after being beaten so badly. May I suggest that whoever you are and whatever you are facing today, remember Tim Keller’s quote … “If you’re falling off a cliff, strong faith in a weak branch is fatally inferior to weak faith in a strong branch. Salvation is not finally based on the strength of your faith, but on the object of your faith.” We are dealing with Paul’s testimony of his persecuting the Church to his conversion and being sent by the Lord Jesus to Ananias.
1) What Ananias did.
Ac 22:13 He stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ And at that very moment I was able to see him.
Although we do not read about Paul exercising faith in Jesus when being confronted by the risen Lord, his absolute submission and obedience shouts out loud that he exercised faith in Jesus. Strategically Jesus left him blinded. What caused the blindness? Was it the brilliant light displaying the glory of God and His presence, was it the dust from the sandy road coupled with tears causing a paste or was it a supernatural disabling of sight? We cannot say. All we know is:
Ac 9:18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again.
The word “scales” here is used for the scales of fish, egg shells and husks or shells of plant seeds. It does not really matter what it was. The main issue is that he was blind and now he is able to see. A miracle occurred. He was spiritually blind. Jesus gave him spiritual sight. This was confirmed to him through being committed to blindness from one day to the next where Ananias, a brother in Christ said … ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight!’ Immediately his sight returned. There was no fuzzy sight first and no period of restoration of sight. It was immediate. This act assured Paul that what happened was not a dream or vision, but a real encounter with the Risen, Reigning Lord Jesus Christ. His faith as Tim Keller put it … was in the object … in Jesus … the Jesus of the Bible! When last have you thanked the Lord Jesus for opening your spiritual eyes and giving you the ability to grasp eternal matters?
2) What Ananias said.
Ac 22:14 “Then he said: ‘The God of our fathers has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all men of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’”
(1) God chose Paul for a dual purpose. The first is salvation and the second is ministry. This God is the God of the Hebrew people. Again this is significant because at no point must we think that Judaism and Christianity are two distinctly different religions as they are presented in the Bible to us. It is the same God and the same religion. Calling it by two different name is to help us understand how Judaism was associated with one nation, whilst Christianity is associated with the entire world. Abraham was seen as the father of Judaism. Paul shows us in Romans that Abraham is the father of all, Jews and non-Jews, who exercise saving faith in Jesus Christ.
(2) God chose Paul to know His will. For us it is so strange as we try to grasp what happened in the courts of heaven before all of creation took place. Our lives as those chosen by God for salvation and ministry (service) might take deviant pathways or sinful rebellion and distancing ourselves from God by following some sort of idol god. Yet God’s plan shall materialize. It might take years. It might include pain and suffering. It might be costly and regrettable as one journey’s towards the day God stops waywardness and saves your soul and reveals His will to you to yourself.
(3) God’s will is … and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. In Paul’s case it was as has become known as his “Damascus Experience”. He literally saw Jesus … the Righteous One. This is not the first time Luke records the words “the Righteous One” with reference to the Risen, Reigning Jesus.
Ac 3:14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One.
Ac 7:52 Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him.
The “Righteous One” refers to the Lord Jesus, God’s Messiah. For Paul this would be the confirming qualification of being an apostle coupled to hearing “words from His mouth”. He actually heard Jesus speak. He saw and he heard.
Ac 1:20 … “‘May another take his place of leadership.’ 21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.”
Paul’s qualifications we not strictly according to this requirement, but he saw and heard Jesus personally. He was an apostle … according to his own words when addressing the Resurrection of Jesus, saying:
1 Cor 15:7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
There is no doubt as to Paul’s appointment to be an apostle. Our salvation is not through seeing Jesus personally, nor through hearing His actual words spoken from His mouth. Today we have the Gospel and the Bible. As we hear the Gospel and Bible expounded (or as we read the Bible as was in my case), God the Holy Spirit reveals the Truth of the Gospel to those who were chosen before creation. He gives understanding, where our minds grasp that we are sinners and in need of a Savior; that Jesus is God’s Messiah who through His substitutional, sacrificial and penal death provides forgiveness of sin, redemption of the soul, adoption into God’s family, justification, sanctification and credited righteousness. The Holy Spirit does this through wooing us by Truth to the point of birthing us into God’s Eternal Family. If any Church or preacher tells you salvation is another way, they are false prophets. Salvation as in Paul’s case was all of God as He applied the merits of Jesus to the sinner’s account and the exact same is true for all who are brought to faith in Jesus by the Holy Spirit.
Thank You, Lord, for the mind boggling way You work in our hearts and souls to bring us to understand and willingly receive the Gospel. Amen.