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Acts 22:10–21
“[Ananias] said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard’” (vv. 14–15).
Having been arrested in an effort to quell a riot that began when some Jews alleged that Paul was bringing gentiles into areas of the Jerusalem temple forbidden to them, Paul asked the Roman tribune for permission to speak to the rancorous Jewish crowd. The tribune, in hopes of settling the crowd, granted Paul a chance to address the people clamoring for his death. The Apostle, in fact, had not violated any Jewish law or any godly Jewish traditions, and he set out to explain that and to proclaim Jesus as the fulfillment of the hopes of the Jews. So he began his speech with an account of his history before following Christ and giving testimony to his zeal for the law of God (Acts 21:7–22:9).
Today’s passage records the rest of the speech that Paul gave to the Jewish crowd on that occasion in Jerusalem. After speaking about his persecution of the church and his meeting Jesus on the Damascus road (Acts 22:1–9; see 9:1–5), the Apostle went on to relate how he had asked Christ what he was to do. As we know from our study of Acts 9, Jesus told him to go into Damascus, where he met Ananias, who prayed for Paul and explained what Jesus was calling him to (22:10–13; see 9:6–19). Ananias told Paul that the Lord Jesus had said that God had appointed Paul to know His will and to “see the Righteous One” (22:14).
That designation of Jesus as the “Righteous One” points us to a key element of His work on our behalf. Through Jesus, we receive the forgiveness of sins, which is vital for our reconciliation to God (2:38). Yet forgiveness gives us only a blank slate, as it were, before the Lord. If faith in Christ granted us only a blank slate, we would still lack what is necessary for eternal life, which comes only to those who have perfectly obeyed God. After all, Adam, and through him his posterity, was promised life “upon condition of perfect and personal obedience” (Westminster Confession of Faith 7.2; see Rom. 5:12–21). We need the perfect obedience of Christ to be put on our record before God’s judgment seat to have eternal life, and that happens when we rest on and receive Jesus alone for salvation as He is offered to us in the gospel. The title “Righteous One” for Jesus in Acts 22:14 points us to those precious truths.
In his meeting with Ananias, Paul learned that his calling was to take the gospel to the gentiles (22:15–21). The Apostle fulfilled that mission, planting churches all over the Roman Empire.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Dr. R.C. Sproul comments, “The testimony of Paul reaches every corner of the world today, because God chose him to be the one to speak his word as the Apostle to the Gentiles.” We should be grateful to the Lord for the Apostle Paul and, indeed, for all the Apostles because it is through their work that the gospel began going out to the ends of the earth. In God’s providence, salvation was extended to the gentiles through the Apostolic ministry.
For further study
- Psalm 145:17
- Isaiah 45:21; 53:4–6
- 2 Corinthians 5:21
- 1 John 2:1
The bible in a year
- Isaiah 56–58
- 1 Thessalonians 3:6–13