A work and a workman of another character begin now to dawn upon the scene.
We have seen the inveterate opposition of the heads of Israel to the
testimony of the Holy Ghost, their obstinacy in repelling the patient grace
of God. Israel rejected all the work of the God of grace in their behalf.
Saul makes himself the apostle of their hatred to the disciples of Jesus,
to the servants of God. Not content with searching them out at Jerusalem,
he asks for letters from the high priest, that he may go and lay hands on
them in foreign cities. When Israel is in full opposition to God, he is the
ardent missionary of their malice-in ignorance, no doubt, but the willing
slave of his Jewish prejudices.
Thus occupied, he approaches Damascus. There, in the full career of an
unbroken will, the Lord Jesus stops him. A light from heaven shines round
about him, and envelopes him in its dazzling brightness. He falls to the
earth, and hears a voice saying unto him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me?" The glory which had thrown him to the ground left no doubt-accompanied
as it was by that voice-that the authority of God was revealed in it. His
will broken, his pride overthrown, his mind subdued, he asks, "Who art
thou, Lord?" The authority of the One who spoke was unquestionable; Saul's
heart was subject to that authority: and it was Jesus. The career of his
self-will was ended for ever. But moreover the Lord of glory was not only
Jesus; He also acknowledged the poor disciples, whom Saul desired to carry
prisoners to Jerusalem, as being Himself.
How many things were revealed in those few words! The Lord of glory
declared Himself to be Jesus, whom Saul persecuted. The disciples were one
with Himself. The Jews were at open war with the Lord Himself. The whole
system which they maintained, all their law, all their official authority,
all the ordinances of God, had not prevented their being at open war with
the Lord. Saul himself, armed with their authority, found himself occupied
in destroying the name of the Lord and His people from off the earth: a
terrible discovery, completely overwhelming his soul, all-powerful in its
effects, not leaving one moral element of his soul standing before its
strength. Extenuation of the evil was fruitless; zeal for Judaism was zeal
against the Lord. His own conscience had only animated that zeal. The
authorities constituted of God, surrounded with the halo of centuries of
honour, enhanced by the present calamities of Israel which had now nothing
but her religion-these authorities had but sanctioned and favoured his
efforts against the Lord. The Jesus whom they rejected was the Lord. The
testimony which they endeavoured to suppress was His testimony. What a
change for Saul! What a new position, even for the minds of the apostles
themselves who remained at Jerusalem, when all were dispersed-faithful
indeed in spite of the opposition of the rulers of Israel, but themselves
in connection with the nation.
But the work went deeper yet. Misguided no doubt, but his conscience in
itself-for he thought he ought to do many things against the name of Jesus
of Nazareth-left him the enemy of the Lord. Blameless righteousness
according to law, as man could measure it, more than left him hardened in
open opposition to the Lord. His superiors, and the authorities of the
ancient religion-all his soul was based on morally as well as
religiously-all was smashed within him for ever. He was broken up in the
whole man before God. Nothing remained in him but discovered enmity against
God, save as his own will was also broken in the process, he who an hour
before was the conscientious, blameless, religious man! Compare, though the
revelation of Christ carried him much farther, Galatians 2:20; Philippians
3; 2 Corinthians 1:9; 4:10; and a multitude of passages.
Other important points are brought out here. Saul had not known Jesus on
earth. He had not a testimony because he had known Him from the beginning,
declaring that He was made Lord and Christ. It is not a Jesus who goes up
into heaven where He is out of sight; but the Lord who appears to him for
the first time in heaven, and who announces to him that He is Jesus. A
glorious Lord is the only one whom he knows. His gospel (as he expresses it
himself) is the gospel of the glory. If he had known Christ after the
flesh, he knows Him thus no more. But there is yet another important
principle found here. The Lord of glory has His members on earth. "I am
Jesus, whom thou persecutest." It was Himself: those poor disciples were
bone of His bones and flesh of His flesh. He looked upon them and cherished
them as His own flesh. The glory and the oneness of the saints with Jesus,
their Head in heaven, are the truths connected with the conversion of Saul,
with the revelation of Jesus to him, with the creation of faith in his
heart, and that in a way which overthrew Judaism in all its bearings in his
soul; and that in a soul in which this Judaism formed an integral part of
its existence, and gave it its whole character.
Another point, borrowed from his account of the vision later in the book,
which is remarkable in connection with his career: "Separating thee," says
the Lord, "from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I now send thee."
This moral end of Saul separated him from both-of course from the Jews, but
did not make a Gentile of him either-and united him with a glorified
Christ. He was neither a Jew nor a Gentile in his spiritual standing. All
his life and ministry flowed from his association with a heavenly glorified
Christ.
Nevertheless he comes into the assembly by the usual means-like Jesus in
Israel-humbly taking his place there where the truth of God was established
by His power. Blind for three days and fully engrossed-as was natural-with
such a discovery, he neither eats nor drinks; and afterwards, besides the
fact of his blindness, which was a quiet, continual, and unequivocal proof
of the truth of that which had happened to him, his faith must have been
confirmed by the arrival of Ananias, who can declare to him from the Lord
that which had happened to him, although he had not been out of the city-a
circumstance so much the more striking because, in a vision, Saul had seen
him come and restore his sight. And this Ananias does: Saul receives sight,
and is baptised. He takes food and is strengthened. The conversation of
Jesus with Ananias is remarkable, as shewing with what distinct evidence
the Lord revealed Himself in those days, and the holy liberty and
confidence with which the true and faithful disciple conversed with Him.
The Lord speaks as a man to his friend in details of place and
circumstances, and Ananias reasons in all confiding openness with the Lord
in regard to Saul; and Jesus answers him, not in harsh authority, though of
course Ananias had to obey, but with gracious explanation, as with one
admitted to His confidence, by declaring that Saul is a chosen vessel to
bear His name before Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel; and
that He will shew him how great things he must suffer for His sake.
Saul makes no delay in confessing and declaring his faith; and that which
he says is eminently worthy of notice. He preaches in the synagogue that
Jesus is the Son of God. It is the first time that this is done. That He
was exalted to the right hand of God-that He was Lord and Christ-had been
already preached; the rejected Messiah was exalted on high. But here it is
the simple doctrine as to His personal glory; Jesus is the Son of God.
In the words of Jesus to Ananias, the children of Israel come last.
Saul does not yet begin his public ministry. It is, so to speak, only the
expression of his personal faithfulness, his zeal, his faith, among those
that surrounded him, with whom he was naturally connected. It was not long
before opposition manifested itself, in the nation that would have no
Christ, at least according to God, and the disciples sent him away, letting
him down by the wall in a basket; and through the agency of Barnabas (a
good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, whom grace had taught to
value the truth with regard to the new disciple) the dreaded Saul found his
place among the disciples even at Jerusalem. [see note #16]
Wonderful triumph of the Lord! Singular position for himself there, had he
not been absorbed by the thought of Jesus. At Jerusalem he reasons with the
Hellenists. He was one of them. The Hebrews were not his natural sphere.
They seek to put him to death; the disciples bring him down to the sea, and
send him to Tarsus, the place of his birth. The triumph of grace has, under
God's hand, silenced the adversary. The assemblies are left in peace, and
edify themselves-walking in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy
Ghost, the two great elements of blessing; and their numbers increase.
Persecution accomplishes the designs of God. The peace which He grants
gives opportunity for ripening in grace and in the knowledge of Himself. We
learn the ways and government of God in the midst of the imperfection of
man.
Peace being established through the goodness of God-sole resource of those
who truly wait upon Him in submission to His will-Peter passes throughout
all parts of Israel. The Spirit of God relates this circumstance here,
between the conversion of Saul and his apostolic work, to shew us, I doubt
not, the apostolic energy in Peter existing at the very time when the call
of the new apostle was to bring in new light, and a work that was new in
many important respects (thus sanctioning as His own work, and in its
place, that which had been done before, whatever progress in accomplishment
His counsels might make); and in order to shew us the introduction of the
Gentiles into the assembly as it was at first founded by His grace in the
beginning, preserving thus its unity, and putting His seal upon this work
of heavenly grace.
The assembly existed. The doctrine of her oneness, as the body of Christ,
outside the world, was not yet made known.The reception of Cornelius did
not announce it, although paving its way.
