Commentary - Acts 9:19b-22

Bird's-eye view

In Acts 9:19b-22, we witness the immediate and explosive aftermath of Saul's conversion. There is no probationary period, no tentative first steps. The turnaround is instantaneous and absolute. The one who came to Damascus breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord is now, without missing a beat, proclaiming that same Lord in the synagogues. This passage is a potent demonstration of the sovereign grace of God, which does not just redirect a man, but utterly remakes him from the inside out. Luke's purpose here is to show the sheer power of the gospel. It takes the chief persecutor of the Church and transforms him into its chief apostle. The astonishment of the hearers serves to underscore the magnitude of the miracle. This is not just a change of mind; it is a resurrection from the dead.

The core of Saul's message is the central confession of the Christian faith: Jesus is the Son of God. This was the very claim that got Jesus crucified, and it is now the banner under which Saul begins his ministry. His method is not mere assertion, but argumentation, "proving" from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. This sets the pattern for his entire apostolic career. The gospel is not a blind leap but a reasoned, demonstrable, scriptural truth. The passage concludes by noting Saul's increasing strength, a strength that is not his own, but a direct result of the grace that apprehended him on the road.

Outline

Context In Acts

This short section is the pivot point in the life of Saul of Tarsus and, by extension, in the narrative of the book of Acts. Up to this point, Saul has been the arch-villain, the man who made "havoc of the church" (Acts 8:3). His conversion in Acts 9:1-19 is the great turning point. What we see here in verses 19-22 is the first fruit of that conversion. It is crucial to see that this is not a private, mystical experience that Saul keeps to himself. The grace of God is a public, declarative, world-altering force. The gospel, having conquered Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, now commandeers its most hostile opponent to begin its push toward the uttermost parts of the earth.

Luke places this account immediately after Ananias ministers to Saul, highlighting the fact that true conversion results in immediate fellowship with the saints and immediate witness to the world. There is no gap. This event also sets the stage for the subsequent opposition Saul will face, not just from the Jews, but also the initial suspicion from the believers in Jerusalem (Acts 9:26). The radical nature of his transformation was difficult for anyone, friend or foe, to process.

Key Issues

Beginning: The Immediacy of Grace

When God saves a man, He does not do it by halves. The transformation of Saul is not a gradual process of moral improvement. It is an instantaneous, top-to-bottom, inside-out revolution. One moment he is breathing out slaughter, the next he is proclaiming the Savior. This is crucial for our understanding of regeneration. It is not a cooperative venture where God does His part and we do ours. It is a sovereign act of divine power, like a resurrection from the grave. When God speaks His creative word into the heart of a sinner, life happens. And that life immediately begins to act like what it is.

So when we read that Saul "immediately" began to proclaim Jesus, we are not just getting a chronological detail. We are getting a theological statement about the nature of saving grace. It is a potent, active, and irrepressible force. The new man in Christ has a new nature, and that nature is to confess the Lord who bought him. There is no holding it back. The same power that knocked Saul to the ground now propels him into the synagogues. This is the pattern for all true conversion. While the outward circumstances may differ, the internal reality is the same: a dead heart made alive, a blind man made to see, and a silent tongue loosed to praise.

Commentary

Acts 9:19b-20

Now for several days he was with the disciples who were at Damascus, and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.”

After receiving his sight and being baptized, the first thing Saul does is join the very people he came to arrest. This is the first evidence of his new heart. Persecutors do not seek out the fellowship of their intended victims. But a new brother in Christ naturally seeks out his new family. This fellowship is not incidental; it is the soil in which his newfound faith is strengthened. He eats, he regains his strength, and he is with the disciples. This is what the church is for.

Then comes the word "immediately." There is no hesitation. The same zeal that drove him to persecute the church now drives him to proclaim its Head. And where does he go? Straight into the enemy's camp, the synagogues. This was the seat of Jewish religious life and the very place from which he had received his letters of authorization to destroy the faith. He goes back to the source of his authority to renounce it and to proclaim a higher authority. His message is concise and explosive: "He is the Son of God." This is not a title to be trifled with. For the Jews, this was blasphemy of the highest order, the very charge for which they had crucified Jesus. Saul is picking up the central, non-negotiable claim of the gospel and declaring it without apology. This is not Saul the diplomat; this is Saul the herald.

Acts 9:21

And all those hearing him continued to be astounded, and were saying, “Is this not the one who in Jerusalem destroyed those that called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?”

The reaction is one of utter bewilderment. Luke uses a strong word, they were astounded, thrown into confusion. Their response is entirely logical. They knew who Saul was. His reputation had preceded him. He was the Gestapo agent from Jerusalem, the enforcer for the Sanhedrin. They knew why he had come to Damascus. His purpose was not theological debate, but arrest and extradition. And now this same man is standing in their synagogue, making the very proclamation he came to stamp out. The whiplash is severe.

Their question is rhetorical. "Is this not the one...?" Of course it is. There is no other explanation. This serves to highlight the supernatural nature of what has happened. No one could fake this. No one could orchestrate such a public and radical reversal. The astonishment of the crowd is a testimony to the power of God. They are not just amazed at Saul's theological shift; they are reeling from the sheer impossibility of it. God often works in such a way as to leave no room for naturalistic explanations. He delights in taking the most unlikely vessel and making it a chosen instrument for His glory, precisely so that all who see it will be astounded.

Acts 9:22

But Saul kept increasing in strength and confounding the Jews who lived at Damascus by proving that this One is the Christ.

Saul is not deterred by their amazement. In fact, he doubles down. He "kept increasing in strength." This is not physical strength, but spiritual and intellectual power. The grace of God that saved him now sustains and empowers him. The more he preaches, the stronger he gets. This is the economy of the kingdom. Spiritual gifts grow through use, not through disuse.

And what does he do with this increasing strength? He confounds the Jews. The word means to throw into confusion, to stir up. He is not just presenting an alternative viewpoint; he is systematically dismantling their entire theological framework. His method is crucial: "proving that this One is the Christ." The Greek word for "proving" is a compound word that means to place together, to compare. Saul is taking the Old Testament Scriptures, the very texts his opponents revered, and laying them alongside the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. He is demonstrating, through rigorous biblical exegesis, that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the Messianic prophecies. This is not an appeal to emotion or personal experience, though his experience was dramatic. It is an appeal to the authoritative Word of God. He is showing them from their own book that their rejection of Jesus was a rejection of their own God and their own hope. This is biblical apologetics in its purest form, and it left them confounded, without a coherent response.

Key Words

Proclaim (kēryssō)

The Greek word kēryssō means to act as a herald, to proclaim, or to preach. It carries the idea of an official announcement from a king. Saul is not sharing his personal religious feelings; he is heralding the enthronement of King Jesus. This is an authoritative declaration of a public fact.

Son of God (huios tou theou)

While the Jews could refer to Israel or the king as a "son of God" in a representative sense, in the context of the New Testament, and especially on the lips of the apostles, this phrase refers to the unique, eternal, and divine Sonship of Jesus Christ. It is a direct claim to deity, asserting that Jesus shares the very nature of God. This was the central point of contention between Jesus and the Jewish leaders, and Saul now makes it the central point of his preaching.

Proving (symbibazō)

This word means to bring together, to join, or to knit together. In an intellectual context, it means to demonstrate or prove by putting evidence together. Saul was taking the prophetic Scriptures and the facts of Jesus' life and "knitting them together" to form an unassailable argument. It highlights that Christian faith is not a leap in the dark but is grounded in evidence and logical demonstration from God's revealed Word.

Application

First, we must see here the untamable power of the gospel. There is no one beyond the reach of God's sovereign grace. We are tempted to write people off, to label them as "too far gone." Saul of Tarsus is God's permanent rebuke to all such faithless calculations. The church's most virulent enemy became its most effective apostle. We should therefore pray with boldness for the salvation of even the most hardened opponents of the faith, knowing that God is able to do what He did for Saul.

Second, true conversion has immediate and public consequences. A faith that does not result in fellowship with the saints and a witness to the world is a questionable faith. Saul did not retreat to a monastery to contemplate his experience for three years. He immediately joined the disciples and immediately went to the synagogues. Our faith must be a public faith, a spoken faith. It must show up in our church attendance and in our conversations with unbelievers.

Finally, our witness must be grounded in the Word of God. Saul did not simply recount his vision on the Damascus road. He went to the Scriptures and proved that Jesus is the Christ. Our evangelism and apologetics must be likewise saturated with Scripture. We must be able to show people from the Bible who Jesus is and what He has done. Personal testimony has its place, but it is the Word of God that has the power to confound the wise and bring sinners to salvation. We are to be like Saul, increasing in strength as we handle the sword of the Spirit, proving to a confused world that Jesus is, in fact, the Christ, the Son of God.