Irresistible Grace
Acts 9:3–9 (NKJV)
3 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” 5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” 6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” 7 And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. 8 Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
We closed our last study at verse 5, by which there was some variations between the two traditions of manuscripts, and we labored to understand that both traditions are sufficient to grant us the whole counsel of God. Upon collection of the whole account throughout the totality of the manuscripts and an examination between the two scribal traditions, there are no contradictions or discrepancies between the two, as if one is not sufficient to proclaim the whole counsel and inerrant Word of God. Lord willing in this study we will pick up in verse 6, which also begins with a variation from the Alexandrian tradition. The extension of the Lord’s response to Saul was that it would be impossible for him to go against God’s will. The Lord used the phrase “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” Goads are sharp instruments used in farming that would stab the oxen if they backed up away from the harness of the plow. They were a control measure that keep the oxen moving forward as the plowman steers the plow to cultivate the hard soil and prepare the land for sowing fresh seed. The Lord was essentially saying to Saul that he was going against the plowing of his own soul and that it would be impossible for him to resist the will of God. Stephen and Philip were also among the apostles who were plowing the regions with the good news of Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of the Old Covenantal Law, while Saul was kicking against the husbandry of grace in the surrounding regions of Jerusalem. In other words, Saul ignorantly wanted to remain under the yoke of the law, rather than the yoke of grace in Jesus Christ.
6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
The TR contains: τρεμων τε και θαμβων ειπεν κυριε τι με θελεις ποιησαι και ο κυριος προς αυτον αναστηθι και εισελθε εις την πολιν και λαληθησεται σοι τι σε δει ποιειν; while the earliest scripts only contain: ἀλλὰ ἀνάστηθι καὶ εἴσελθε εἰς τὴν πόλιν, καὶ λαληθήσεταί σοι ὅ τί σε δεῖ ποιεῖν. Upon careful examination of both scripts we have a broader and more accurate picture of Saul’s experience that day. After being humbled by the brightness of the light and glory of Jesus Christ, Saul was confused within himself and trembled with fear and amazement. Having truly believed that he was doing the Lord’s will by putting an end to this Christian sect of Judaism, who were apparently against the law of Moses, was confronted with his opposition to the Lord’s revealed will for Israel. Through the fear and confusion within himself he is brought to a place where he looks to the Lord to better understand His will.
Saul’s questioning of his original understanding of the Lord’s will is not found in the earlier manuscripts. Why, you may ask? I’m not sure why or how they have been excluded from the Alexandrian or included in the TR; but the TR does, however, give us a better understanding of Saul’s confusion and hardness of heart towards the early Christians and Christ. But what is also left out of the TR is recorded in the Alexandrian for us to feast upon. The Greek conjunction ἀλλὰ which is translated ‘but’ in the ESV has no real definition equivalent in the English, but acts merely as a marker or transition between Saul’s prostration before the Lord and the Lord’s command to rise up and go into the city. It also is an emphatic particle that singles out Saul as the direct object of the Lord’s affection and attention, as previously noted in an earlier study of Saul’s experience with the Light. It is sometimes translated as ‘now’ with emphasis on immediate attention to an imperative verb. The command to enter the city was explicitly and immediately directed for Saul to obey even though the voice, without the understanding, was heard by those who traveled with Saul.
The irony and power of this interaction is that while Saul was commissioned by the high council to end the rebellion of the Christians, is now commissioned by the higher and glorified Christ to seek further instruction from those he was sent to kill and arrest. Saul was now sent in a humiliated state by the Lord to surrender himself to his victims to plead for mercy. The Lord gives him no further instruction as to where to go once in the city or to whom he is to seek for instruction, but only that within the city he will be told what he must do. This was also a divine providence for Saul to pass the test for the commission of apostleship. An apostle of Jesus Christ had to be a direct eye witness of the risen Lord to carry the authority of the office of Apostle. The thirteen apostles shared equal authority as the over-shepherds of the churches of God. There was no one head over the churches except for the Holy Spirit working with the Word of Christ in the apostles.
7 And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one.
We covered this verse in a previous study, so I am not going to give much further attention to it, except by way of reminder. This verse gives attention to the fact that Saul had witnesses of his experience on his journey to Damascus. The men who were sent with him saw the light and heard the voice. They also were struck with terror and confusion hearing the voice but were not able to understand the Lord’s speech that was given in the Hebrew tongue. Collectively they all saw and were amazed at the event but could not make heads or tails of what happened without Saul’s translation of the Hebrew tongue. This also gives further evidence that Saul was emphatically sought out by the light and voice of the Lord. Saul was not seeking to be found, nor was he seeking to know “the Way” to God, however the Way was seeking Saul, and he will be found again in the city by Ananias, who was sent by God to ‘seek’ Saul. This was a divine and sovereign intervention by the glorified Lord Himself. There is no doubt to the sovereignty and Lordship of this confrontation with Saul.
8 Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus.
We have the conversion of Saul laid before us as he was previously on his way to Damascus leading others to destroy the disciples of ‘the Way.’ But after his encounter with Christ he is dramatically changed by the Lord. Even though Saul doesn’t literally change directions, his understanding of the Way was a full 180 degree rotation of pursuit. Instead of pursuing to destroy the Way, he was now sent to understand and be led by the Way. He once saw himself as the leader, but now he rightly sees the need to be led. He once dragged Christians out of their homes and shut them up in prison, now he is blindly being led into a state of confusion and into the ‘unknown.’ The brightness of the Lord’s glory was seared into his eyes and prevented him from seeing the other men as he arose according to the Lord’s instruction. Through this, the Lord has caused him to be dependent on others to lead him to the proper destination and receive further instruction from the Lord. God has put Saul in a state that he can be teachable and more able to hear the Word of the Lord. He has indeed been laid low by the nature and power of the light of God. Saul was once driven by his own will and way, but is now ready to be controlled by the will and way of God having been humbled under His mighty right hand.
9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Verse 9 testifies of the dramatic change of Saul’s nature. The change in his physical senses were just an outward manifestation of the inward change of his spiritual senses. Saul’s heart was now transformed to receive the truth about the Messiah and to further understand His will. He had been given three days to reflect on what he heard Stephen teach as he was stoned to death. The brightness of Christ blinded him from world’s light that once filled his taste buds and soothed his worldly appetite and opened his eyes to the darkness of the world system that controlled his internal thoughts and inclinations. Saul now had a straight path to see into the darkness of his own heart. Indeed, upon the exposure of the darkness of Saul’s heart he heard Stephen’s prayer, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin.” The prayer of this saint haunted and tugged at Saul’s heart during his murderous rampage of Christians. Now he was given the golden opportunity to see who Stephen saw in the clouds of glory -- the resurrected Christ. This encounter changed Saul against his will, as he fell prostrate before the light, by which he has been given grace to see and understand through his blindness and change of appetite, towards seeking God by grace through faith, rather than through the works of the law. During these three days we know that he sought the Lord in prayer (Acts 9:11).
Never before had Saul sought the Lord in such a way. Saul most likely followed the routine and repetitious prayers that Judaism taught until he was enabled by grace to seek the Lord for genuine mercy, rather than to seek the Lord for prestige and honor. In those days Judaism was a system to attain to the best seat in the synagogue – a place and seat of honor. It was a false use of Lord’s original intent of the mercy seat in the holiest place of the temple. It was changed to a place that received benefits from others rather than a place to offer benefits to others. It was the top of a pyramid scheme rather than a platform to offer the mercy of God to sinners.
Matthew 23:1–12 (NKJV)
1 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. 4 For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. 5 But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. 6 They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’ 8 But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. 9 Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10 And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. 11 But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
However, this was never the Lord’s original commandment, the seat of Moses was a seat that was reserved for the Lord Himself, as He would have observe the priests offering the sacrifices of the people.
Exodus 25:22 (NKJV)
22 And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are on the ark of the Testimony, about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel.
Leviticus 16:1–2 (NKJV)
1 Now the Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered profane fire before the Lord, and died; 2 and the Lord said to Moses: “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.
Numbers 7:89 (NKJV)
89 Now when Moses went into the tabernacle of meeting to speak with Him, he heard the voice of One speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the ark of the Testimony, from between the two cherubim; thus He spoke to him.
Saul was now empowered to bypass the false standard and profane fire that dominated an apostate Judaism who were in defiance to the commandment of the Lord. The glory of God had long departed from their precious sacrificial system having never sought the Lord by grace through faith according to the proper prescription of the Lord (1Sam.4:21). The Pharisees and Sadducees had hijacked the covenant that the Lord sits upon, where Moses previously sought mercy for Israel, understanding their transgression of the law. Saul had now come to understand that he sought the wrong high priest in Israel and was divinely seeking mercy at the right hand of God (Heb.9:11-14). Instead of seeking his place among the elite dictatorship of Israel, he got on his knees and asked to receive his sight to behold the glory and face of God, as Moses had done, having tasted of the powers to come. Saul now hungered and thirsted for more of the glory of God than for the temporary pleasures of this world. Saul, indeed, was changed by the grace of God. Have you been confronted by the glorious light of Jesus Christ? Has the law of God persecuted you into the secret place where you can no longer look into its image as a mirror for your salvation and self-esteem? Has the law done its work to cause you to look above it and seek mercy from the sovereign King who sits over it? Are you ready to meet Jesus face to face in the brightness of His glory? And the holiness of his righteousness? Have you fallen upon your face in the unveiling of His resurrection, who stood above and sat down upon the lifeless coffin of dead works, and who gives new life to the old way and new direction to the old paths that are in Jesus of Nazareth?
