Setting the Record Straight

Acts 22

6 “As I was on the road, approaching Damascus about noon, a very bright light from heaven suddenly shone down around me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’

8 “‘Who are you, lord?’ I asked.

“And the voice replied, ‘I am Jesus the Nazarene, the one you are persecuting.’ 9 The people with me saw the light but didn’t understand the voice speaking to me.

10 “I asked, ‘What should I do, Lord?’

“And the Lord told me, ‘Get up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything you are to do.’

11 “I was blinded by the intense light and had to be led by the hand to Damascus by my companions. 12 A man named Ananias lived there. He was a godly man, deeply devoted to the law, and well regarded by all the Jews of Damascus. 13 He came and stood beside me and said, ‘Brother Saul, regain your sight.’ And that very moment I could see him!

14 “Then he told me, ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and hear him speak. 15 For you are to be his witness, telling everyone what you have seen and heard. 16 What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized. Have your sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord.’”

To hear the religious wrong tell it, the man who would become the Apostle Paul was “saved” on the road to Damascus. Yet, when Paul tells his story of conversion to Christ, he makes it quite plain that he was NOT saved on the road. He had an encounter with Christ, and Jesus instructed in verse 10 to, “go into Damascus, and there you will be told everything you are to do.” So, he obeyed Jesus, and Ananias came to him giving him the instructions found in verse 16: “Get up and be baptized. Have your sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord.” Sure do wish the religious wrong could get this story right!