Commentary - Acts 26:19-23

Bird's-eye view

In this passage, the Apostle Paul is bringing his defense before King Agrippa to a sharp and powerful conclusion. This is not the pleading of a cornered criminal; it is the bold testimony of an ambassador in chains. Having recounted his dramatic conversion on the Damascus road, Paul now pivots to the central claim of his entire ministry: his message is nothing more and nothing less than the fulfillment of Israel's entire redemptive history. He insists on three things. First, his life is one of radical obedience to the vision God gave him. Second, the content of his preaching is a simple, twofold call to repent and demonstrate that repentance with a changed life. Third, and most climactically, this message is not some novel invention but is the very thing Moses and the prophets were talking about all along, namely, a suffering and resurrected Messiah who would be a light to both Jews and Gentiles. Paul is effectively putting the Old Testament on the witness stand to testify on his behalf, arguing that his gospel is the ultimate Jewish orthodoxy.

This is apologetics of the highest order. Paul is not just defending himself; he is prosecuting his case for the truth of the gospel. He stands before earthly royalty, a representative of the true King, and declares that the central events of history, the suffering and resurrection of Jesus, were foreordained and foretold. His entire ministry, from Damascus to Jerusalem to the Gentile world, has been a consistent proclamation of this one, biblically-grounded reality. The charges against him are therefore absurd; to condemn him is to condemn the very Scriptures the Jews claim to revere.

Outline

Context In Acts

Acts 26 contains Paul's final and most eloquent defense speech recorded in the book. He has been a prisoner for two years, having been shuttled between various Roman authorities, Felix and then Festus. King Agrippa II, along with his sister Bernice, are visiting the new governor Festus in Caesarea, and Festus, perplexed by the religious nature of the charges against Paul, brings him out as a matter of curiosity for the king. Agrippa is a Jewish king, an expert in the customs and controversies of the Jews, making him a uniquely qualified audience for Paul's testimony. Paul seizes the opportunity, not primarily to secure his own release, but to preach the gospel. He has already recounted his bona fides as a zealous Pharisee and detailed his dramatic encounter with the risen Christ. The verses here are the summation of his argument, where he connects his personal commission from heaven to the grand sweep of biblical prophecy. This speech is the high-water mark of Paul's witness to the powerful and elite, setting the stage for his journey to Rome to bear witness before Caesar himself.

Key Issues

The Inescapable Christ

When a man has a genuine encounter with the risen Christ, it rearranges everything. It is not an add-on, not a new hobby or a religious affiliation. It is a glorious disruption, a heavenly vision that redefines the trajectory of one's entire life. Paul, standing before Agrippa, is a case study in this reality. He is not disobedient to the vision because, in a very real sense, he cannot be. The vision has captured him. The glory of Christ has laid a necessity upon him, and woe to him if he does not preach the gospel. His defense here is not so much "I chose to do this" as it is "This was done to me, and my only reasonable response is obedience."

And the substance of this obedience is to preach a message that is profoundly simple and profoundly biblical. It is a call to turn around, and a call to live like you have turned around. And the foundation for this message is not his personal experience, as dramatic as it was, but the ancient Scriptures. Paul's argument is that the gospel is not an innovation; it is a fulfillment. The whole Old Testament was groaning and travailing, pregnant with the promise of a suffering servant who would die and a conquering king who would rise. Jesus of Nazareth is the baby. To reject this message is to reject the whole prophetic testimony. Paul is essentially telling Agrippa, "You are an expert in the Scriptures; you should know this. I am just connecting the dots for you."

Verse by Verse Commentary

19 “So, King Agrippa, I did not prove disobedient to the heavenly vision,

Paul begins his conclusion by grounding his entire life's work in this one pivotal event. The "heavenly vision" was his encounter with the glorified Jesus on the Damascus road. Note the authority here. This was not a subjective feeling or a good idea he had. It was an objective, heaven-sent commission. For Paul, obedience was not an option to be weighed; it was a necessity laid upon him by the King of heaven. His life was no longer his own. He was a man under orders. To have disobeyed would have been an act of high treason against the one who had shown him such astonishing mercy. This is the mainspring of all true Christian service. We do not serve God to get something from Him; we serve Him because of who He is and what He has done. He has appeared to us in His word, and we cannot be disobedient to such a glorious vision.

20 but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, practicing deeds appropriate to repentance.

Here Paul summarizes the content and scope of his preaching. The scope was universal: starting where he was converted in Damascus, then to the heart of Judaism in Jerusalem and Judea, and then exploding out to the Gentile world. This follows the pattern Jesus laid out in Acts 1:8. The content was a straightforward, two-part message. First, repent and turn to God. This is a single action described from two angles. Repentance is the turning from sin, and turning to God is the positive embrace of the one you were rebelling against. It is a fundamental reorientation of the entire person. Second, they were to be "practicing deeds appropriate to repentance." This is crucial. Paul is not a preacher of cheap grace. True, saving repentance will inevitably, necessarily, produce a changed life. These "deeds" are not the root of salvation, but they are the fruit. They are the evidence. If a man says he has repented but his life is no different, his repentance was a sham. Faith without works is dead, and so is repentance without works.

21 For this reason some Jews seized me in the temple and were trying to put me to death.

Paul connects the persecution he endures directly to the message he preaches. Why did they try to kill him? Not because he was a political revolutionary or a social nuisance. They seized him "for this reason," for the reason just stated. It was his message of repentance and faith in Jesus, offered freely to Jews and Gentiles alike on the same terms, that so infuriated the Judaizers. It bypassed their whole system of ethnic privilege and works-righteousness. By taking the gospel to the Gentiles, Paul was declaring that the wall of separation had been demolished in Christ. This was an assault on their pride, and their response was murderous rage. It is a perennial truth that the gospel of grace, when truly preached, will offend the self-righteous.

22 Therefore, having obtained help from God to this day, I stand here bearing witness both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place;

Paul attributes his survival not to his own cleverness or the intricacies of Roman law, but to the direct help from God. He is still standing, still testifying, because God has upheld him. And his witness is egalitarian; he preaches the same message to the "small and great," from the peasant on the street to King Agrippa on his throne. The gospel is for everyone. Then comes the cornerstone of his defense: his message is not original. He is stating "nothing but" what was already there in the Old Testament Scriptures. He is not an innovator; he is an exegete. He is simply unfolding what Moses in the Pentateuch and all the subsequent prophets had foretold. This is a massive claim. He is arguing that the Christian gospel is the true, intended meaning of the entire Hebrew Bible.

23 that the Christ was to suffer, and that as first of the resurrection from the dead, He was going to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”

What exactly did Moses and the prophets say would happen? Paul summarizes the core of their testimony in three points. First, that the Christ, the Messiah, was to suffer. This was the great stumbling block for the Jews. They were looking for a conquering political king, and they got a crucified Savior. But Paul insists that the suffering of the Messiah is woven throughout the Old Testament, most clearly in places like Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22. Second, that He would be the first of the resurrection from the dead. He is the firstfruits, the prototype, the trailblazer of the new creation. Others had been resuscitated, like Lazarus, only to die again. Christ was resurrected to an entirely new order of life, never to die again, guaranteeing the future resurrection of all who are in Him. Third, this resurrected Christ would proclaim light, not just to the Jews, but to the Gentiles as well. The salvation accomplished was to break the banks of Israel and flood the entire world with the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. The Messiah was always intended to be a light to the nations (Isaiah 49:6). Paul's controversial Gentile mission was not his idea; it was God's plan from the beginning.

Application

Paul's defense before Agrippa is a model for our own witness. First, our lives must be characterized by obedience to what God has revealed. God has given us a heavenly vision in the pages of Scripture. We are not at liberty to edit it, to soften its demands, or to be embarrassed by its claims. We are men and women under authority, and our task is to be faithful.

Second, our message must be centered on the non-negotiable core of the gospel. We must call people to repent, to turn from their sin and self-reliance and to turn to God through Christ. And we must make it clear that this is no mere intellectual assent. True repentance will always be accompanied by the fruit of a transformed life. We must not offer a costless grace that leaves sinners comfortable in their sin. The grace of God is a transforming, life-altering power.

Finally, our confidence must be grounded not in our own experiences or clever arguments, but in the authoritative Word of God. Paul's confidence was that he was saying nothing other than what the Bible had been saying all along. We must be people of the Book. We must know how the whole story fits together, how Moses and the Prophets all point to the suffering and glory of Jesus. When we stand on the solid ground of Scripture, we can bear witness with boldness to small and great alike, knowing that we have obtained help from God, and that the light of the gospel is destined to reach the ends of the earth.