Individual Independence
389
The angel informed the servant of God that he had revealed to Saul in
vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him
that he might receive his sight. Ananias can scarcely credit the words
of the angel, and repeats what he has heard of Saul’s bitter persecution
of the saints at Jerusalem. But the command to Ananias is imperative:
“Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name
before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.”
Ananias was obedient to the direction of the angel. He laid his
hands upon the man who so recently was exercised with a spirit of the
deepest hatred, breathing out threatenings against all who believed on
the name of Christ. Ananias said to Saul: “Brother Saul, the Lord,
even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath
sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the
Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been
scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.”
Jesus might have done all this work for Paul directly, but this was
[432]
not His plan. Paul had something to do in the line of confession to the
men whose destruction he had premeditated, and God had a responsible
work for the men to do whom He had ordained to act in His stead.
Paul was to take those steps necessary in conversion. He was required
to unite himself to the very people whom he had persecuted for their
religion. Christ here gives all His people an example of the manner
of His working for the salvation of men. The Son of God identified
Himself with the office and authority of His organized church. His
blessings were to come through the agencies that He has ordained,
thus connecting man with the channel through which His blessings
come. Paul’s being strictly conscientious in his work of persecuting
the saints does not make him guiltless when the knowledge of his cruel
work is impressed upon him by the Spirit of God. He is to become a
learner of the disciples.
He learns that Jesus, whom in his blindness he considered an
impostor, is indeed the author and foundation of all the religion of
God’s chosen people from Adam’s day, and the finisher of the faith,
now so clear to his enlightened vision. He saw Christ as the vindicator
of truth, the fulfiller of all prophecies. Christ had been regarded as
making of none effect the law of God; but when his spiritual vision was
touched by the finger of God, he learned of the disciples that Christ
was the originator and the foundation of the entire Jewish system of