12 “In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. 13 At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. 14 And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ 15 And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16 But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, 17 delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you 18 to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ (ESV)

Christian conversion is not only death to life; it is also darkness to light. On the way to Damascus, Saul literally ‘saw the light’: He met Jesus, ‘the light of the world’, and saw His glory – He whose face is brighter than the noonday sun in all its brilliance (Rev.1:16).

F.B. Meyer comments: ‘Nowhere else is there such deliverance from the glare and cross-lights of earth as is afforded by a vision of the face of Jesus, brighter than the sun at noon. To everyone there comes the opportunity of catching a vision of that face, sometimes reflected in a human one, as Paul first saw it in the countenance of Stephen. It confronts us when we go on forbidden paths, and summons us to arise and follow the life which is life indeed.’

Saul was now called to preach a message that would cause people to ‘see the light’ spiritually (18). In the light of Christ we come to see our need for forgiveness, and its glorious availability through faith in Him. We also recognise that we are in bondage to Satan, but Jesus can set us free.

The Way of Jesus, then, is:

  • The Way of resurrection: death to life;
  • The Way of illumination: darkness to light;
  • The Way of liberation: slavery to freedom.

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” C.S. Lewis