He Saw a Light (Acts 9:3; 22:6; 26:13)
He Saw a Light (Acts 9:3; 22:6; 26:13)
Luke wrote that “suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him [Paul],” and Paul told the Jews “a bright light from heaven flashed around me.” 1 His description to Festus and Agrippa was “I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions.” Note the sequence: a light, a bright light, a light brighter than the sun. This reminds us of Proverbs 4:18: “The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day.”
Light was an important metaphor to Paul. 2 He took Isaiah 42:6–7 personally and made it a key verse in his life: “I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” (See also Acts 13:47; 26:15–18, 23.)
Paul had always believed that the Gentiles were living in spiritual darkness, because that was a basic tenet in Hebrew theology. But now God made it clear to Paul that he, a Jew, was also in spiritual darkness! In his masterful letter to the Romans, Paul explains that God didn’t ask the Gentiles to go higher and become like the Jews; He told the Jews they were on the lowest level with the Gentiles. “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:22–23). What a humiliating blow!
Seeing ourselves as God sees us and admitting our great need are the first steps toward becoming a child of God. Paul could brag to himself and others about his first birth (Phil. 3:4–11; Gal. 1:11–17), but he could not boast about anything before the throne of God. “Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded” (Rom. 3:27). Changing our minds and telling the truth about ourselves and Jesus is what the Bible calls repentance; and like every lost person, Paul needed to repent. Before conversion, there must be conviction, and there is evidence that Paul was being convicted about his sins—but more about that later.
The rebellious rabbi was about to enter into the new creation (2 Cor. 5:17), and God said, “Let there be light” (Gen. 1:3). Years later Paul could ask, “Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” (1 Cor. 9:1).