Acts 26:9-18 meaning

In Acts 26:9-18, Paul continues his defense before Agrippa, telling of his violent past as a persecutor of believers in Jesus, and how Jesus appeared to him and turned him into a preacher of the gospel, no longer an enemy of God.

At the auditorium in Caesarea, Paul was summoned to tell about his life and the accusations against him. Governor Festus and King Agrippa II are key members of his audience. Agrippa II’s sister Bernice has also attended the hearing, along with many officials and elite citizens of Caesarea.

Paul has explained that he was a devout Pharisee in Jerusalem as a young man. He is being tried because he believes in the promises God made in scripture. He believes that God has fulfilled those promises through Jesus the Messiah. He believes that God has raised someone from the dead, and flips the question back on his accusers that they should find God incapable of resurrecting someone.

Here, Paul continues his life story. He had just informed Agrippa II and the crowd of his background, that,

“from [his] youth up, which from the beginning was spent among [his] own nation and at Jerusalem…[he] lived as a Pharisee according to the strictest sect of [the Jewish] religion.”
(Acts 26:4-5)

He now tells of his violent and severe opposition to Jesus and His followers, when the church was brand new in Jerusalem. For context, Paul does not appear in the Biblical record until Acts 7. It does not seem as though he ever saw Jesus during His earthly ministry. But Paul was aware that Jesus had been worshiped as the Messiah and the Son of God and had been put to death by the Roman authorities, acting at the behest of the chief priests and Pharisees.

As a young Pharisee in Jerusalem, Paul was also aware that the believers in Jesus claimed Jesus had come back from the dead, that they had seen Him many times (Acts 2:32). The worship of Jesus continued. The followers of Jesus of Nazareth preached in the temple and increased their number (Acts 3:11-16). Claims of miracles spread. Crowds of infirm Jews would come to the temple to be healed (Acts 5:12-16). The Sanhedrin jailed the Apostles, the twelve ringleaders of the growing faith, but these men somehow escaped the jail and continued preaching (Acts 5:18-21).

The Sanhedrin beat these men, and threatened them, but they would not stop preaching that Jesus was the resurrected Messiah (Acts 5:40-42). Thousands of Jews were joining this sect of the Nazarenes.

Paul’s own tutor, Gamaliel, said that the movement would die out if it was built on lies and was not in God’s will (Acts 5:38-39). But the movement was not dying out. It kept growing. This should have clued in Saul/Paul and his contemporaries to the possibility that the followers of Jesus were walking in God’s will, that Jesus was actually the resurrected Christ, the anointed Messiah.

Indeed, the truth did resonate to some of the Jewish religious leadership. During this time of enormous growth in the church, even “a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7). But the top Jewish leadership did not see the truth. The high priests were probably unnerved and vengeful now that they were losing many from their own numbers to faith in Jesus Messiah.

They looked for an opportunity to strike back at the growing Christian church.

Then Stephen—an influential, intelligent, miracle—working believer in Jesus—was arrested and tried before the Sanhedrin (Acts 6:8-15). Paul witnessed this trial. When Stephen was dragged out of the city and stoned by the Jewish leadership, Paul thought this death sentence was the right decision. He even watched over the robes of the priests and rabbis while they murdered a man for his faith (Acts 7:58-60).

At the slaying of Stephen, the Sanhedrin was unleashed. They waged a war on the believers in Jesus. Paul volunteered and became the primary agent of this persecution (Acts 8:1, 3).

Here, in Acts 26 in Caesarea, around 27 years later, Paul explains his perspective and actions during this persecution to King Agrippa II, Festus, and the crowd of Roman and Jewish elites:

“So then, I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth (v. 9).

Paul notes that it was a thought which originated within himself. His hostility towards Jesus and His followers was something “I thought to myself.” Paul, as a strict Pharisee, viewed the followers of Jesus as enemies to God, the temple, the Law, and so on. He was once on the side of his current accusers. He knows how they think, how they fail to perceive the truth.

Paul’s self—guided discernment led him significantly astray of God’s will. He thought to himself that he had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. The word had is also telling. Paul decided this was something he must do. It was a mandate he imposed upon himself. He must destroy the lives of people who believed in Jesus of Nazareth. Paul felt he had to do many things hostile to diminish and ultimately bury the name of Jesus for good, since killing Him had not solved the problem.

He goes on to describe the various many hostile things he did, beginning in Jerusalem:

“And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them (v. 10).

Paul explains that this is just what I did in Jerusalem, referring to the many things hostile he thought that he had to do to persecute the name of Jesus. The persecution began in Jerusalem because at the time, that was where all believers in Jesus were gathered. All that Paul did against the church was because he had received authority from the chief priests. The chief priests were the most powerful leaders among the Jews, next to the king. The day of Stephen’s murder marked the beginning of this campaign, which soon drove all the believers out of the city, besides the twelve apostles:

“And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.”
(Acts 8:1)

Paul’s actions against believers were as follows:

• not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons,
• but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them (v. 10)
• “And as I punished them often in all the synagogues,

I tried to force them to blaspheme (v. 11).

The word saints is a translation of the Greek word “hagios,” which is sometimes translated “holy ones.” In this context the term refers to believers in Jesus. Paul calls them saints now in hindsight because they are those who are being made holy by God through faith in Jesus. They have been declared righteous by God due to their faith in the Christ which is their source of holiness (Romans 4:3-5, 5:1).

The persecution might have taken the saints by surprise. Under the leadership of the apostles, the church had been stalwart, bravely enduring previous pushback from the Jewish leadership (Acts 4:29-31, 5:41). Persecution reached a new level after Stephen became the first Christian martyr (someone explicitly killed for their belief in Jesus, Acts 7:54-58). No one had been put to death since the church began, until this point. Then the persecution that followed was vicious and rapid.

As leader of the persecution, Paul was able to lock up many of the saints in prisons. When word of the mass arrests spread to other saints, they began to flee Jerusalem to avoid imprisonment and death. (This of course had the effect of spreading the gospel to the world, which continues the pattern of God turning evil to good, Romans 8:28).

Paul did not single—handedly make these arrests. He was supported by the Jewish temple guards, a small military force permitted to the priests by Rome. He reports that he was able to lock up many of the believers in Jesus before the exodus from Jerusalem. There were so many arrested believers, that it required a plurality of prisons to house them.

But the chief priests and Paul did not find it sufficient merely to imprison the saints. Paul confesses that not only were they imprisoned, but they were also being put to death. Paul was not only complicit to their deaths by way of arresting them, he was directly involved in deciding their sentence of execution.

He admits that also when they were being put to death that Paul himself cast his vote against them. There was a voting process in sentencing the saints to death, likely a selected jury where the outcome was predetermined, assuming it followed the pattern of Jesus’s trial (see our article on the illegalities of the trial of Jesus).

The persecution expanded beyond Jerusalem, to all the synagogues throughout Israel: And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme (v. 11).

Paul visited multiple synagogues where he caught and punished those who were advocating for faith in Jesus. Jesus had often taught in synagogues (Matthew 12:9, 13:54, Mark 1:21-23, 3:1, 6:2, Luke 4:16, 6:6, John 6:59, 9:22, 16:22). As we see in John 9:22 and 16:22, the Jews threatened to put other Jews out of some synagogues for believing in Jesus even while He was alive.

It appears that for a time after Jesus’s resurrection, believers were still able to assemble in synagogues, which were like local churches or community centers where Jews gathered to hear the reading of scripture. But then a mass persecution began that Paul testifies included all the synagogues.

It isn’t known how many synagogues Jerusalem had in the first century, but as the capital city of Judea it contained multiple locations for assembly. Paul likely also expanded his raids to neighboring villages like Bethany and Bethlehem. Given that Paul was on the way to Damascus in Syria to persecute believers when He met Jesus in Acts 9, it seems likely that by the phrase all the synagogues Paul includes the entire territory of Judea.

He does not explain what he means by punished them, but it probably means the saints were beaten and taken captive. We can get an idea what the punishment might have looked like by observing the manner in which the Jews treated Paul after he became a witness for Jesus (2 Corinthians 11:24-25).

Apparently, Paul tried to force them to blaspheme, perhaps in the synagogues where they were caught, to make an example of them and frighten and deter Jews in the synagogues from becoming professing believers in Jesus as the Messiah. To blaspheme is to speak evil against someone or something. Paul infers that he used a threat of punishment in order to get people to blaspheme by denying Jesus as Lord. The “thirty—nine lashes” Paul says he received five times “from the Jews” in 2 Corinthians 11:24 would have been a painful threat he could have used to force the believers to blaspheme.

The word translated as blaspheme is often used to mean to speak evil against God. If Paul was trying to force the believers to blaspheme, he was probably trying to make them blaspheme the name of Jesus, the Son of God. If they would blaspheme in front of their peers, it would discourage other Jews from believing in Jesus.

Many oppressive governments since the first century have done the same to believers, tormenting them to force a denial of their faith. One of many examples would be Japanese authorities against Japanese Christians in the 1600s. This continues until today, as believers in Jesus are being persecuted in places such as Africa, the Middle East, and China.

The fact that Paul used the word tried when he says he tried to force them to blaspheme, rather than saying he “forced” them to blaspheme, might indicate that he failed on this point. This infers faithfulness and courage of the saints—those who had believed in Jesus. This may mean that the believers refused to deny Jesus as the Christ and Son of God, even while enduring social rejection or physical assault.

Though Paul had captured some of the believers and driven the others out of Jerusalem, it did not quell his hatred. He confesses to Agrippa II and the crowd gathered that being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities (v. 11). This again infers that believers were resisting his threats.

The Jewish believers who fled Jerusalem to escape persecution went into neighboring regions of Judea (Acts 8:4). We read in Acts 9:31 that after Paul’s conversion, the church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria “enjoyed peace” for a season. This again indicates that Paul’s persecution was prosecuted throughout the Roman provinces of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria.

Still others went even further, beyond Judea. Some sailed to the island of Cyprus, or went north to Phoenicia, or further north to Antioch in Syria (Acts 11:19). These were the foreign cities to which the believers in Jesus traveled and formed new church communities. This was the great irony of Paul’s persecution of the church—it grew the church.

The gospel was spread far and wide, and though some had lost their lives to martyrdom, even more were brought to faith in Jesus. Paul pursued these believers even to these various foreign cities (Acts 11:20-21). God called Paul his “chosen instrument” to bear witness to His name. Paul was fulfilling this calling even while thinking he was opposing the risen Christ.

Paul kept pursuing the followers of Jesus, even to foreign cities, but the only foreign city which the book of Acts records Paul specifically traveling to during this persecution is Damascus, Syria, one of the oldest cities in world history. It was on the road to Damascus where Paul’s life changed forever. Paul now recounts the story first recorded by Luke in Acts 9:

“While so engaged as I was journeying to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests, at midday, O King, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around me and those who were journeying with me (vs. 12-13).

Paul draws attention to the fact that it was with the authority and commission of the chief priests that he was engaged upon this journey. The chief priests had authorized and sent Paul to pursue any believers who had fled as far as Damascus. He may be making this point to show the immoral intentions behind the chief priests’ actions back then, drawing a line to their similar intentions now.

Though these were different chief priests who wanted Paul dead here in Acts 22-26, they were of the same ilk and same motivation. Now Paul was one of the saints and believers in Jesus, whom they had pursued to Caesarea, seeking to end his life.

Paul’s description of this murderous campaign against fellow Jews possibly would have dismayed some of those listening in the crowd who were neither followers of Jesus nor members of the Jewish priesthood or Pharisaical order. It would not have sat well with the Roman officers, Roman governor, and Jewish king who listened. Though they might not be concerned whether Jews live or die, they did have an agenda to keep the Roman peace.

But human authorities are not immune to corruption. Festus was willing to tolerate the Sanhedrin’s campaign against Paul (Acts 25:9) even though it seemed obviously prejudiced and not based in any legal claim. Whether anyone was surprised or concerned to learn about the Jewish leadership’s slaughter of their own people only a few decades ago, Paul’s testimony showed that he was now currently the subject of the exact same type of threat to his life, motivated only by political and religious frustrations.

At the end of this defense, Agrippa will conclude that Paul is innocent of wrongdoing, so he was at minimum persuaded that Paul’s treatment had been unjust (Acts 26:31-32). (He expresses willingness to do the right thing only after he no longer has the power to do so, having delayed for two years.)

Paul now describes the supernatural turning point in his life, calling Agrippa II’s attention to this moment by addressing him personally: O King. He tells the King that as he was journeying to Damascus, not yet in the city, Jesus spoke to him. This moment occurred at midday. Paul saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining all around him and those who were journeying with him.

The men who were journeying with Paul were probably temple guards or hired men sent to aid Paul in arresting the refugee believers in Damascus. The light from heaven was clearly a supernatural occurrence. It was not the sun itself; it was something sudden and even brighter than the sun. It was so bright and powerful it was shining all around him, as well as the guards, as though the light enveloped Paul and his companions.

As the light swallowed Paul where he stood, he could no longer see. He was blinded. Luke, the author of Acts, does not record Paul mentioning this detail here in Acts 26, but Paul will reveal some additional details not found in previous accounts.

Acts 9 describes how Paul was struck blind, and how the men with him heard the voice but did not see Jesus, only the bright light (Acts 9:7). In Acts 22, when Paul tells his testimony to a crowd of Israelites, he notes that the men traveling with him could not understand the words which Jesus spoke (Acts 22:9). After the vision, the men traveling with Paul had to lead him into Damascus because he was now blind. In Damascus, Paul prayed and fasted for three days, and remained blind until a believer named Ananias came to him and restored his sight (Acts 22:12). Ananias was commanded by the Lord in a vision to heal Paul, and to tell Paul that he was a chosen instrument of God’s, appointed to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, to kings, and to the Israelites (Acts 9:10-16).

In the Acts 22 retelling, Paul shares that Ananias also said that Paul was appointed to know God’s will, to see the Righteous One (Jesus), and to hear a message from Jesus (literally “to hear Jesus’s voice”) (Acts 22:14). Jesus notified Paul about future visions and revelations in this Acts 26 retelling as well: for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you. After his sight was restored, Paul was baptized (Acts 9:18, 22:16).

Here in Acts 26, Paul’s main focus is the revelation given him by Jesus in the vision on the road. His blindness and interaction with Ananias are not relevant to his primary goals in giving an account of himself to Agrippa II; his intention here is to demonstrate that Jesus is the risen Messiah, that He appointed Paul to gospel preaching, and that all that Paul teaches is the fulfilment of the Old Testament. Each account (Acts 9, 22, 26) tells the same story, but with varying emphasis.

Here, Paul describes Jesus talking to him in greater detail than the prior accounts, so it appears that Jesus personally revealed His appointment to Paul on the road, while three days later repeating it through Ananias in Damascus when Paul’s sight was restored to him.

In this Acts 26 retelling to Agrippa II, Paul explains that he and the other men dropped to the ground at the overwhelming presence of the light on the road to Damascus. And then, Jesus spoke to Paul:

“And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' (v. 14).

It was when they had all fallen to the ground that the Lord Jesus addressed Paul. Jesus’s voice spoke to Paul in the Hebrew dialect, meaning that He spoke either Hebrew or the Hebrew dialect of Aramaic, which was the common tongue in Judea in the first century. Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, and He spoke the Hebrew dialect during His life on earth.

That He spoke the Hebrew dialect here to Paul may have been for the purpose of identifying Himself as the voice of Yahweh, the “I Am,” the one true God of the Jews, rather than using Greek or any other language Paul probably knew (Exodus 3:14).

Jesus addressed Paul by the Jewish version of his name, Saul. He speaks it twice, Saul, Saul, perhaps to capture Paul’s personal attention, as well as to express authority and sorrow in what He will confront Paul about, namely Paul’s murderous campaign against Jesus’s followers.

Jesus’s voice asks Paul, why are you persecuting Me? It is an interesting question. From an earthly standpoint, Paul was not persecuting Jesus directly, because Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven (Colossians 3:1). The time when Jesus could be harmed by human hands has passed. But there is a spiritual reality to what Jesus asked. Paul was persecuting Jesus because he was persecuting His people who become part of His body when they believe.

Believers in Jesus are, in a spiritual sense, considered by God to be a part of Jesus; we are “in Christ” and have His righteousness (2 Corinthians 3:18, 5:21, Romans 3:22, 6:11, 8:1). As 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, believers in Jesus are “new creations in Christ.” Paul planned and executed his persecution campaign because he determined that he had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth (v. 9) by punishing His followers. Jesus tells him that in doing so, Paul was persecuting Him.

In John 14:20, during His ministry, Jesus was speaking to His disciples about His eventual ascension to heaven after His resurrection, and said, “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” Paul, in his letter to the Colossians, wrote about this spiritual reality, that we have died to sin and that our life is now with Jesus: “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).

As Christians (“little Christs”), we are being led on a journey toward spiritual maturity. Those who are willing to enter the narrow gate and take the difficult path that leads to life are being trained to become Sons of God just as Jesus is, so that we may be rewarded with the shared inheritance of Jesus’s throne when He returns to rule the earth (Matthew 7:13-14, Hebrews 2:9-10, Revelation 3:21). To persecute believers in Jesus is to persecute Jesus.

Jesus follows His question to Paul with a statement about Paul’s struggle against God’s will: It is hard for you to kick against the goads. A goad was a nail fixed to the end of a stick, used to prod oxen to urge them to move forward, or to guide them into a different direction. Here Jesus is goading Saul to stop attacking the church, to repent and reverse course, to believe in Jesus as the Messiah who came to save His people.

Jesus tells Paul that it is hard, it is difficult, for him to kick against the goads. Like a stubborn animal, Paul has been kicking against many goads to go his own way and accomplish his own desires. Jesus had a ministry for Paul to fulfill, and Paul was fighting it. It is as though Jesus were saying, “Why are you persecuting Me? I have been calling you to Me, and you have been fighting Me. I am calling you, and you are kicking at Me.” Paul was fighting against what God Almighty was calling him to do (Acts 9:15, Galatians 1:15-16).

It is not only hard to kick against the goads, it is futile. Humans can resist for a season, but God’s will is always accomplished. In this case, God wanted to include Paul in these works He had prepared for him to do (Ephesians 2:10). The goads from Jesus Christ would not cease until Paul stopped kicking.

Paul replied to this voice:

"And I said, 'Who are You, Lord?' (v. 15).

He wanted to know who this voice was speaking to him, though he probably could have guessed. Though he was persecuting many people, it was all for the purpose of diminishing the name of Jesus of Nazareth (v. 9). That Paul addresses the voice as Lord indicates his fear as to what was happening. He uses the term Lord to express humility and submission.

Jesus removes all doubt as to who He is:

And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting (v. 15).

Jesus of Nazareth, the name which Paul and his masters hated, was truly the Son of God. He was alive. They had killed Him but He did not remain in the grave. He rose and ascended. Now He spoke from heaven, just as Stephen the martyr had preached to Paul and the Sanhedrin before they stoned Stephen to death (Acts 7:55-56).

Everything Stephen said was true. The chief priests and chief rabbis who accused Stephen were wrong. Paul realized in this moment that he had been persecuting, imprisoning, and murdering men and women who served the Most High God and His Son: Jesus. He likely felt fear, sorrow, and shame at this realization.

Jesus did not rebuke Paul any further. The purpose of this confrontation is to put an end to Paul’s persecution of Jesus by changing him into a servant of Jesus. The Lord tells Paul exactly what He wants Paul to do now. Paul has a job given to him by God:

‘But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you (v. 16).

Paul was knocked down by the overwhelming light, so the first command is But get up and stand on your feet. It is a call to action, and a call to rise, to stand on new feet to walk a new life of working for God’s purpose, rather than against it.

Jesus explains Paul’s purpose with an unmistakable preface: for this purpose I have appeared to you.

The reason Jesus has appeared to Paul is for the purpose of appointing him to his new role. Jesus appeared to Paul to appoint him as a minister and a witness. The word minister is translated from the Greek word “hypēretēs.” It can also be rendered as “servant” or “anyone who serves with his hands.” It is used to refer to officers and servants who carry out the commands of their master (John 18:18, 36, Matthew 26:58, Luke 4:20, Acts 13:5).

Jesus has appeared to appoint Paul to a lifelong office of being an apostle to the Gentiles (Romans 11:13). Paul will serve Jesus and carry out His commands. Paul will also be a witness, which is the Greek word “martys” a relative of the English word “martyr.” Paul will be a witness (and in this chapter is actively being a witness) not only to the things which he has seen—referring to the vision of Christ appearing to him then on the road to Damascus—but also to the things in which I will appear to you. This is a promise that Jesus has more to tell and show Paul.

The New Testament records several instances where Jesus appeared to and spoke to Paul (Acts 18:9-10, 22:17-21, 23:11). Also, in Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians he references a vision he experienced of heaven and Paradise, where he “heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak” (2 Corinthians 12:1-4). This was a vision too wonderful and/or too full of revelation for Paul to be allowed to tell in detail (although he was permitted to mention that he had seen the vision).

It is entirely possible Jesus appeared to and spoke to Paul many other times, which did not need to be recorded for the benefit of readers of God’s Word. Paul wrote to the Galatians that he was taught the gospel message he was meant to preach not by man, but directly by Jesus (Galatians 1:11-12).

Jesus is commanding Paul that he will be a witness in what he has seen in the present as well as what he will see in the future.

As a witness, Paul will tell the world what God has shown him. This message is not for Paul alone, but for everyone.

Jesus continues, telling Paul that He is rescuing him from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you (v. 17).

The word rescuing is translated from the Greek “exaireō.” “Exaireō” is an interesting word, sometimes used to connote something being plucked out, and sometimes used to mean something being selected or chosen from among a group. Paul was being plucked out from among the educated elite and selected from the Jewish people for this job. He is being appointed.

But “exaireō” is translated many times to mean “delivered” or “rescued,” as it is translated here. Paul is certainly being rescued from being on the side opposed to God. He has been kicking against the goads for some time, and is now being delivered from a life of rebellion and serving the purposes of a temporary human government—the Sanhedrin—to being given an office in the administration of the eternal King.

But it seems Jesus is also promising Paul future deliverance, from destruction by the Jewish people and from the Gentiles. Jesus fulfilled this promise of rescuing Paul many times over. Because of Jesus’s ongoing rescue, Paul:

• escaped a plan to kill him in Damascus (Acts 9:23-25)
• escaped a plan to kill him in Jerusalem (Acts 9:29-30)
• survived being stoned in Lystra (Acts 14:19-20)
• was delivered from prison in Philippi (Acts 16:25-28, 34)
• eluded a violent mob in Thessalonica (Acts 17:5-6)
• was granted total safety by Jesus in Corinth (Acts 18:9-11)
• escaped judgement in Corinth (Acts 18:12-17)
• was protected from a mob in Ephesus (Acts 19:30-31)
• evaded an assassination plot in Corinth (Acts 20:3)
• was rescued from the mob in Jerusalem (Acts 21:30-36)
• was spared the torture of a Roman scourging (Acts 22:24-29)
• eluded another assassination plot in Jerusalem (Acts 23:12-33)
• appealed to Caesar, avoiding an ambush on the road (Acts 25:3, 11-12)
• Paul lists many other dangers and sufferings he has survived (2 Corinthians 11:23-27)

As recently as the previous chapter, Paul was rescued from an assassination plot when he appealed to go to Caesar.

But in this promise of rescuing Paul, Jesus also reveals who Paul’s target audience will be: the Gentiles, to whom Jesus is sending him. When Jesus appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus in Acts 9, the gospel had not yet gone to the Gentiles; that transpires in Acts 10 with Peter being called to testify to Cornelius in Caesarea.

Paul would begin preaching the gospel to all peoples with whom he came into contact, beginning with the Jews in Damascus (Acts 9:19-20, 22). After preaching and debating in Jerusalem for only a couple of weeks, Paul went to live in Tarsus, Cilicia for a number of years (Acts 9:28-30), before being accepted as a teacher into the church of Syrian Antioch, which was composed of both Jews and Gentiles (Acts 11:20, 25-26).

When Paul’s missionary journeys began, he would spend years traveling all over the Roman world, preaching the gospel and planting churches in Cyprus, Galatia, Macedonia, Greece, and the Roman province of Asia (modern—day western Turkey). His particular calling was to be the minister and witness to the Gentiles (Galatians 2:7-9).

Jesus presents a summary of the message He gives Paul to take to the Gentiles:

to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me' (v. 18).

The gospel, the good news of Jesus the Messiah and Son of God, will also rescue the Gentiles. It will open their eyes, which are blinded by sin and worship of false gods. This giving of new sight to see the truth is so that they may turn from darkness to light. This parallels someone whose eyes are blind, and are then healed, open to see (Matthew 9:28-31).

A blind man sees only darkness. Someone who does not know or believe in the gospel lives in spiritual darkness. They live spiritually separated from God. But with open eyes, they can turn from the darkness and live in light (Isaiah 42:7, Psalm 146:8). God’s righteousness, truth, and eternal life are often compared to light throughout scripture. The Apostle John wrote about God’s light many times in his gospel as well as in his epistles. In his first letter, he writes,

“This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”
(1 John 1:5)

In his gospel account, John writes that Jesus is the Light of men who gives life and light to humankind: “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men…There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (John 1:4, 9).

Jesus tells Paul that his gospel—preaching will help Gentiles turn also from the dominion of Satan to God. Just as the Gentiles will lose their blindness by gaining eyes that are open and exit darkness to live in light, they will leave Satan’s kingdom to join God’s kingdom.

This world which God created as a perfect place fell into sin and death due to Satan’s deception of humanity. This caused humans to fall from God’s design for them to reign over the earth in harmony with Him and with one another (Hebrews 2:5-9).

Through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, the world does not work as God originally designed. Humans do not fully govern the world in harmony with God, nature, and one another as God intended. Instead, sin and death abound. Satan, the Enemy (Psalm 8:2), is now in charge of the world, rather than humans (John 12:31). Satan delights in death, disharmony, and destruction (John 8:44).

Ever since the Fall of Man, the world has been the dominion of Satan. We see this throughout scripture. Though God is sovereign over all outcomes, the earth is currently full of evil and suffering because, for now, Satan has gained influence over the earth. We can see this from the fact that Satan offered to Jesus the authority over all earthly kingdoms if Jesus would bow and worship Satan, which Jesus rejected (Matthew 4:8-10). Before He died, Jesus called Satan the "ruler of the world" (John 14:30).

However, after Jesus resurrected and returned to heaven, God gave all authority over heaven and earth to Jesus for His perfect obedience (Matthew 28:18, Romans 5:14, Hebrews 2:9). His kingdom will come to earth one day and Satan will be completely dethroned. But not yet (Acts 1:6-7). For now, the world and the ways of the world function according to the evil dominion of Satan. He is like a lame—duck president; his term will end soon, and his power and influence will be taken away.

Satan rules by shrouding the earth in darkness and shutting the eyes of God’s creation.

Like blind men in darkness, the human race is also like slaves in the dominion of Satan, slaves to sin (John 8:34). But Jesus came to free the captives, to usher us into the dominion and the kingdom of God (Luke 4:18, Philippians 3:20-21). The outcome of turning to the light, of leaving the dominion of Satan, is that the Gentiles may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. Using very similar language to his defense here in Acts 26, Paul reminds the Colossians this very thing in his letter to them,

“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
(Colossians 1:13-14)

We see the same message, that Christ rescues those who believe in Him from the domain of darkness/Satan and puts us in His kingdom, so that we receive forgiveness of sins.

This is what faith in Jesus accomplishes. We immediately and in perpetuity receive forgiveness of sins. Sins are errors. They are the ways we have gone astray from God’s good design. God is calling us to live rightly and justly in harmony with one another and Him. But we live with a sinful nature, acting and thinking sinfully.

By turning to Jesus in faith, our sins are forgiven. It is something we receive, not something we earn (Ephesians 2:8-9). It is gifted to us. We simply have to look upon Christ on the cross in faith like the dying Israelites did in the wilderness. There they were delivered from death due to venomous snakes when they believed Moses and looked at the bronze serpent raised on a pole. All it took was for them to believe that looking at the bronze, raised serpent would heal them from deadly snake bites (John 3:14-15).

When we look at Jesus raised on the cross, believing in His death and resurrection, He promises to save us from sin and death. Just as God saved the Israelites who had the faith to believe and look, so He does with all people, including the Gentiles.

Our sins are done away with when we believe on Jesus; they are no longer kept in account as to whether or not God considers us righteous. We are now righteous in His sight. With open eyes, our sins no longer have the power to prevent us from living in the light of God’s good design. The intended purpose of this forgiveness is that we are then freed to be sanctified by faith in Jesus.

To be sanctified means to be made holy, to be set apart to live obediently to God. It is in Jesus that we are sanctified, and when we are sanctified we will share in an inheritance. God the Father named Jesus the Son as inheritor because He was a faithful servant as a human (Philippians 2:6-10). Jesus was given authority over the entire earth (Matthew 28:18). Jesus has always been the eternal Son of God, but He lived faithfully on earth as a human, and took His place at the right hand of God as both God and as a human. He restored the right for humans to reign in the earth through the “suffering of death” (Hebrews 2:9-10).

Since Christ came down to the earth as both fully man and fully God, He was able to show to us the truest form of obedience. Jesus, as a human man, was then elevated to a position of authority over creation, and He paved the way for humanity to be restored to our original design to rule the earth, if we are faithful servants and live in imitation of Christ’s perfect obedience (Matthew 25:21, Philippians 2:6-10).

Jesus will one day return and set up His kingdom on the earth, and the dominion of Satan will no longer exist (Revelation 19:15-16). Jesus showed us that if we are obedient to God on earth (sanctified) we can also be named sons as a reward for our obedience (Romans 8:17, Hebrews 2:9-13). Believers who overcome as Jesus overcame will share in what is now Christ's inheritance (Revelation 3:21). Jesus will reward those who follow Him in faith by making them sons and inheritors with Him (Hebrews 2:10, Revelation 3:21, 21:7).

This inheritance which we may receive is a joint inheritance; it is given and shared among those who have been sanctified by faith in Jesus—the entire family of Sons of God who live out faithful obedience to God, through the power of Christ (Me). It is Jesus who gives us the ability to become holy and live rightly as God intends for us. Those who possess the inheritance they are granted do so by exercising their faith daily in this life, led by the Lord. When we fail, we can confess and be forgiven of mistakes and rebellion and have our fellowship with Him restored (1 John 1:9).

Through a walk of faith we can live in light instead of darkness, no longer a slave in the kingdom of Satan, but living as heirs of Christ (Romans 6:11-13). By walking in faith we can gain the experience of eternal life and possess the inheritance we have been granted.

This amazing reward is an incredible promise that is beyond our comprehension (1 Corinthians 2:9). It is so wonderful that Paul stated in 2 Corinthians 4:17 that he considered the intense suffering he endured for the gospel as a “momentary, light affliction.” This reality is what drove Paul to live to win the prize of life (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).