“And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. ‘But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me’”(Acts 26:15–18).
There are several points of interest in the text above. We could discuss how persecuting the followers of the Messiah is the same as persecuting Jesus Himself. We could talk about how the personal appearance of Jesus qualified Paul as an apostolic witness of the Risen Lord. For the purposes of this article, I want to drill down on an important part of the mission that Jesus gave to Paul -- that of opening the eyes of those to whom he would teach.
The focus here is on spiritual blindness. It’s possible that the apostle may have miraculously healed someone of physical blindness although the Bible doesn’t record anything about it. Paul certainly performed physical miracles. But Jesus is talking here about a blindness that runs deeper than the loss of physical sight. It’s about a blindness that keeps people from seeing their need to be reconciled to God. Spiritual blindness is a tool of the devil (2 Corinthians 4:3-4). He uses it to try to keep people from seeing “...the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ….” Paul would be sharing Jesus’ mission to help open blinded eyes (John 9:39).
Spiritual blindness is treatable. It takes a healthy dose of the gospel. “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law” (Psalm 119:18).
God loves you!
Mike
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