When Paul appeared before Felix, the Roman governor of Judea, the Jewish case against the Apostle was presented by an orator called Tertullus. In response, Paul defended himself against various accusations and proceeded to present his outlook on life, as a Christian. He made three main points, which are relevant in every generation. These points (recorded in Acts 24:14-16) sum up the attitudes, the beliefs and the way of life which should characterise every human being. They not only form a significant part of the account of a major event in Paul’s life; they not only provide information about a particular incident in the history of the early Christian Church; they provide helpful instruction for us on how we should live out our lives in this world.
His first point was: “After the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets”. Tertullus had spoken accusingly of Paul as “a ringleader of the sect (the Greek word used here is the one which is translated above as heresy) of the Nazarenes”. Paul set the record straight: however his accusers might describe his position, he was worshipping the true God, the God of his forefathers – of, in particular, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – and he was doing so in the full light of the law and the prophets, the Old Testament Scriptures. These Scriptures had spoken of the Messiah who was to come; the Messiah had indeed come, and it was now Paul’s lifework to proclaim, in the light of these Scriptures, the coming of Christ and the great work of salvation that He had accomplished.
At a later stage in the judicial process he told Agrippa that he was “saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come: that Christ should suffer, and that He should be the first that should rise from the dead, and should show light unto the people, and to the Gentiles” (Acts 26:22,23). In other words, he was just expounding the Scriptures, which the Jews believed to be a revelation from God. Accordingly they should therefore not have resisted his teaching; they should have submitted to it, for it was the truth, and it had God’s authority behind it.
When Paul submitted to the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he
asked, “What wilt Thou have me to do?” He was acknowledging the right of the Lord Jesus to direct him in every aspect of his life. And this suggests another question which we might imagine Paul asking: What wilt Thou have me to believe? The question is implied by Paul’s entire submission of his understanding to the same authority
Previously he had received, as authoritative truth, the whole of the Old Testament – but only theoretically – for he was refusing to recognise the fulfilment, in Jesus of Nazareth, of the types and the prophecies. Now Jesus revealed Himself, in a unique way, to Paul and gave him a flood of light on the Old Testament, so that he looked at it from a completely new perspective. He saw Christ and His finished work in these Scriptures with a clarity of understanding that perhaps no one has ever since enjoyed. It was in this light he now worshipped the God of his fathers and carried out his calling to spread the good news of a full and free salvation, through Jesus of Nazareth, whom he had come to recognise so clearly as the Messiah promised in the Old Testament.
The question, What wilt Thou have me to believe? should be ours also. We should be as willing as Paul to receive an answer from the Scriptures – not only from the law and the prophets, now that the New Testament has been written, but also from the writings of the apostles. If we so submit to Scripture, we will seek to worship the true God, the living God, in the light of that revelation. And there we will find the answers to the most significant questions that human beings have ever asked, such as: What is the significance of life? What lies beyond death? How can I be prepared for the world beyond? Paul submitted to these answers, which centre on Christ as the crucified and risen Saviour; indeed he embraced them gladly. Tertullus, however, at least at that point in time, was rejecting them. But these answers from God’s revelation provide us, even in this generation which so much glories in its rejection of the authority of Scripture, with the only sure guide through life and the only safe directions for a blessed eternity.
The second point was: he had “hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust”. We live in a world of much trouble and disappointment, and Paul himself experienced a great deal of these; at that point in time he was suffering an unjust curtailment of his freedom, a severe affliction. So if there was nothing for him to look forward to beyond this life, this world could not offer an encouraging prospect.
Paul could indeed look forward to a state of blessedness beyond death, which he describes as “far better” (Phil 1:23). But his hope extended even further; he looked on to a time when the effects of death itself would be
finally reversed, and his soul and body would be reunited for ever. It was a hope which the Jews themselves held, for it was to be found in their Scriptures. Job gave remarkable expression to that hope: “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25,26). He was looking beyond death – when his skin and the rest of his body would begin to decompose – to a time when he would stand again on the earth, in a restored body, and see God his Redeemer.
Job could thus express himself because the resurrection had been revealed to him, and what support such a thought must have given him in a time of utter desolation! He had lost all his children, and his servants and vast herds of animals; he was now suffering in body, and his three friends were firmly but wrongly insisting that he must be guilty of serious sin. Yet, however terrible his circumstances, there was hope in the thought of the resurrection.
But Paul could express himself even more confidently than Job, because he knew about the resurrection of Christ; he declared: “Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first-fruits of them that slept” (1 Cor 15:20). If Christ has risen from the grave – and indeed He has; it is a literal fact – then all who are united to Him by a living faith will rise also. Figuratively speaking, believers who have passed from this world are only asleep and they will therefore awaken – come alive again – at the resurrection. That was how Paul comforted mourning believers in Thessalonica: “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him” (1 Th 4:13).
There is strong hope here for believers today also; if they are cast down through manifold temptations and in the midst of repeated troubles and sorrows, let them by faith look on to the complete, unending blessedness of soul and body that will begin for them on the day of the resurrection. But the fact that there will be a resurrection of the unjust also is a loud call to them to seek grace without delay, while they are still on this side of death. Matthew Henry’s words are relevant for all: “In all our religion we ought to have an eye to the other world and to serve God in all instances with a confidence in Him that there will be a resurrection of the dead, doing all in preparation for that, and expecting a recompense in that”.
Paul’s third point was: “Herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men”. Here was a consistently holy man; he had respect for all God’s commandments, in both tables of the law – both those which have directly to do with God and those which,
in the first place, control our relationships with our fellow human beings. Paul was no antinomian; he did not live as if the law had lost its authority over him now that he was a believer and all his sins were forgiven. No, he took pains to keep God’s commandments and to keep his conscience clear. Because of his love to God and His Son Jesus Christ, he loved the law; he remembered that Jesus had said, “If ye love Me, keep My commandments” (Jn 14:15). Paul understood that the law is “holy and just and good” (Rom 7:12), that it was good for him to keep it and damaging for his soul to break it. So he took pains; he exerted himself
But what about the sins of his past? He was still painfully conscious that he had been “a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious” (1 Tim 1:13). But the blood of Jesus Christ had been sprinkled on his conscience; making a comparison with the Old Testament sacrifices, he could say, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb 9:14). Paul was conscious of his imperfections and his duty to exert himself to keep from sin, but he was now serving the living God, the God of his fathers – not only as an apostle preaching the gospel but in his daily life showing his sincere respect for the God who made him and saved him by His grace. Thus he could, along with Timothy, say, “Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation [or, have conducted ourselves] in the world” (2 Cor 1:12).
This serving of God was no longer something merely outward; it was also inward; it affected his thinking, his attitudes and motivation. To use the biblical expression, he was a man who feared God – in other words, a man who had a holy respect for God and for His commandments. It is this heart religion that has so often missing today, even when people make a profession of religion and attend public worship regularly. Yet without heart religion there can be no true worship of God, no real respect for Him who claims our whole heart.
It was a man like Paul, who was so conscientious in keeping a clear conscience, that could make ungodly Felix tremble “as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgement to come” (Acts 24:2). Paul had God’s clear authority behind him as he spoke, which could not have been the case unless his own life had been consistent. How great is the need for professing Christians today to seek grace to keep themselves “unspotted from the world” (James 1:27)! A further quotation from Matthew Henry may sum up this whole matter: “The consideration of the future state should engage us to be universally conscientious in our present state”.