Search
Thus far, we have seen God’s plan and Saul’s birth, religion, life, and conversion. Now we want to see Saul’s vision and commission. Acts 26:17-18 says, “Delivering you from the people and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” These verses show us the five items of Saul’s commission: (1) to open their eyes; (2) to turn them from darkness to light; (3) to turn them from the authority of Satan to God; (4) that they may receive forgiveness of sins; (5) and that they may receive an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in the Lord Jesus.
The word inheritance in verse 18 may also be translated into “lot” or “portion.” This Greek word is also used in Colossians 1:12 which says, “Giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you for a share of the allotted portion of the saints in the light.” The portion of the saints in Colossians 1:12 is the portion of those who have been sanctified by faith in the Lord in Acts 26:18. Colossians 1:12 refers to the portion of the saints, and Acts 26:18 refers to the portion among those who have been sanctified. The saints are the persons who have been sanctified by God. The portion of the saints is Christ Himself. The entire book of Colossians deals with the fact that God gave the all-inclusive Christ to us as our portion. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in this all-inclusive person (Col. 2:3), and all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily (v. 9). Christ has been given to us as a divine portion allotted to us by God.
In Acts 26:19 Paul told King Agrippa that he “was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” Paul could not be disobedient to what he had seen. His commission was according to his vision. What you are going to do for the Lord must be according to what you have seen of the Lord. Because you have seen something of the Lord, you have to do something for the Lord according to what you have seen. Thus, the commission is according to the vision, and the vision creates the commission.
If we have really seen God’s plan and have been really converted from the things other than Christ to Christ Himself, what we have seen and experienced will produce or create a commission for us. This vision will cause us to act, to work for Christ, to serve Christ, according to what we have seen of Him. If I have really seen that Christ is everything, that He is my life, my experience, and the meaning and center of my life, there will be no need for the responsible ones of the church to come to tell me that I have to do something for the Lord as a member of the church. Once you have seen a vision of God’s plan and have been converted from everything to Christ Himself, there will be something within you energizing you to carry out God’s plan. Because you have experienced something of Christ and have seen something of Christ, no one can stop you from working together with the Lord and from ministering something of Christ to others. There will be something within you energizing you to contact people.
When we contact other believers, we will fellowship with them about the Christ whom we know. Our commission and ministry come out of the heavenly vision. The more that you contact the Lord in prayer, the more you will be burdened for so many unbelievers. As a result of your inward burden for those who do not know Christ, who do not have Christ, it will be easy for you to preach the gospel. Preaching the gospel will not merely be an outward work for you but something being worked out from within you. Then when you contact people, you are not going to bring them some doctrines, forms, regulations, or creeds. You are not bringing a religion to them, but you are bringing the living person of Christ to them. Your burden is to impart Christ to them.
It may be that you would fellowship with another Christian brother about Christ being in the believers (Col. 1:27; 2 Cor. 13:5). He may say that he knows this. Then you can ask him, “What is your experience of Christ as life?” If you are so living in the spirit, what you say to him will impart Christ and will have an impact. The Holy Spirit will honor what you say. Within one or two minutes you can make a real impression on this brother. After his contact with you, he may wonder for days what it means to have Christ within him. He will desire to get back in touch with you to find out what it means to have Christ within him. He will be so open, and you will be able to minister Christ into him. You are going to bring Christ to people, and this commission depends on your seeing. Because you have experienced the Lord and seen Him, you have something within you energizing and operating to impel you to serve the Lord in ministering Him to others.
The five points of Paul’s commission in Acts 26:18 are all-inclusive. First, we need to open others’ eyes. Whenever you talk with people, it should open their eyes. This is something different from merely teaching someone. This is the way to realize whether or not a ministry is living. If a ministry is living, it must open people’s eyes. A man may be quite learned, possessing a high degree, but when he speaks, he does not open the eyes of people. On the other hand, another brother may be unskilled in utterance and even stammering in his speaking, but because of his vision he can open people’s eyes. When you have the heavenly vision, you will open others’ eyes even if you speak without eloquence. You may be dull in utterance but skilled in opening people’s eyes. Saul as a young man in God’s plan had his eyes opened, so he knew how to open the inner eyes of others. Whether or not your word, your ministry, could open other people’s eyes depends upon how much you have seen and how much you have experienced.
What you speak should also turn people. Whoever listens to you speak should not be the same as he was before. You need to turn people from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God. Darkness is a sign of sin and death; light is a sign of righteousness and life (John 1:4; 8:12). The authority of Satan is Satan’s kingdom (Matt. 12:26 and footnote), which belongs to darkness. On the positive side, people have to be helped to realize the real forgiveness of sins from God, and also they need to receive Christ, the Son of God, as their portion.
These five points in Acts 26:18 must be the very contents of our commission, which comes from a living vision of Christ, from the real experience of Christ. Because you are living under the heavenly vision, many times you will work unconsciously, and Christ will be ministered through you. You will have a surplus of Christ, and whenever you come to the meetings of the church, you will exhibit Christ (see Hymns, #864). If we all would bring a surplus of Christ to the church meetings, Christ would be exhibited in a rich way. When people come into such a meeting, they will see that we are weighty, living, and powerful. The Lord wants to recover Christ Himself to be realized by us as everything. Christ Himself is our knowledge, our teaching, our regulation, our form, our gifts, our power, our weight, and our riches. If you have Christ, you have everything. The Christian life is not a matter of religion, of teachings, of forms, of regulations, or of gifts, but a matter of Christ Himself.
If you would be faithful to the Lord, the Lord could work out something through you to accomplish His eternal plan. However, if you take the traditional way, the religious way, the organizational way, you cannot carry out God’s plan. If you take the way of Christ, the living way (Acts 9:2 and footnote; 2 Pet. 2:2 and footnote 2), something wonderful will be worked out through you for the Lord. You may think that you do not have any gift or ability, but you will be a fruitful person bringing many able and gifted persons to the Lord. You will do this not merely by preaching or teaching but by a living contact with people, imparting Christ into them.
This young man, Saul of Tarsus, is a real example to us. It may be that in the entire Scriptures only the Lord Jesus as a man could exceed this man Saul, who was later called Paul. Paul even told us in 1 Timothy that he was a pattern to the believers (1:16). Saul was religious and natural, yet one day he received the heavenly vision and was converted from all things other than Christ to Christ Himself. From that day he became very useful in the hand of God and had a prevailing impact. The Lord was able to accomplish many wonderful things through him. This is the kind of person whom God can use today. May we all go to the Lord and pray, “Lord, here I am. I am open to You, to Your vision, and to Your commission, and I am ready to pay any cost, any price. I want to count all things loss and count only You as gain. I am ready to be occupied, possessed, and filled by You.” If we go to the Lord and spend some time with Him to receive the heavenly vision, we will have a living contact with Christ and be a living, functioning member of His living Body. Then we will be persons in God’s plan.
