THE LIGHT OF VISION (1)

“Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the HEAVENLY VISION” – Acts 26:19

In this third Month of our Year of Divine Light and Life, we shall encounter, embrace, and be obedient to the LIGHT of VISION: “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the HEAVENLY VISION” (Acts 26:19). This is Paul's account of the Acts 9 Encounter, the decisive moment on which all his own future, and much of the future of Christianity and of the world, hung. As a prisoner awaiting to be sent to Rome for trial, looking back on his life and ministry, the apostle presented his case to the Roman governor, Festus, and the puppet king, Agrippa.

Paul’s conversion story is told by Luke thrice in the Acts of the Apostles (Chapters 9, 21, and 26). The Redeemer’s Light had shined and His glorious voice heard from heaven. Everything depended on the answer made in the heart of the man lying there blind and amazed. Rather than being hardened by resistance to the Call of the Exalted Lord, he rose melted by love, and softened into submission (Acts 9: 3-6). The persecutor of Jesus met the risen, ascended, glorified Christ. He, who had been jailing and killing Christians, suddenly caught the vision that made him one of them!

This blasphemer and “insolent man,” who had persecuted and ravaged the church of God, suddenly obtained mercy (Acts 8:1-3; 22: 3-5; 1Cor.15:9; 1Tim.1:13). The heavenly vision on the road to Damascus influenced his whole life and ministry. This vision remained with him as a permanent and dynamic force in his life, guiding, sustaining, and strengthening him. He faced much difficulties and trials in ministry. He had been beaten, imprisoned, ship-wrecked, hungry and thirsty and gone without sleep. But in the midst of all these, he could say, “For when I am weak, then am I strong” (2 Cor.12:10b).

In Philippians chapter three, a piece of Paul’s autobiography narrates what the encounter with the crucified and risen Christ meant in his life. This Pharisee was proud of his Jewish religious pedigree (Gal.1:13-14). His was not the conversion of a penitent immoral sinner but a self-righteous Pharisee who strove but failed to please God by the strict observance of the Law. He burned with zeal for his religion, sincerely believing that to persecute Christians was to do God’s will (vv.9-11). But from that day he wrote off all his religious assets for the sake of Christ (Phi.3: 4-9). Paul became yielded, no longer “disobedient to the heavenly vision.”

The Vision of God and His call are not transient things or passing phenomena in the life of a Christian. The Light of Heavenly Vision of the crucified and risen Christ brought about a crisis of faith for Paul. It shook the very foundation of his religious life. It shattered the very ground of his faulty foundation, liberated him from the shackles of his religion, and established him on the true Foundation of Faith in Christ Jesus.