Acts 26:16

"But arise, and stand upon thy feet: for to this end have. appeared unto thee, to appoint thee. minister and. witness both of the things wherein thou hast seen Me, and of the things wherein. will appear unto thee"Stand upon thy feet" "In Paul's account to Agrippa of what happened on the Damascus road what he stressed was not his conversion (which happened later, Acts 22:16), but his commissioning, the command to stand was. necessary preliminary to the command to go" (Stott pp. 372,373) (Compare with Ezekiel 2:28; Ezekiel 2:1). "For to this end have. appeared unto thee" Jesus appeared to Paul not merely so that he could repent and become. Christian, but also to qualify Paul to be an apostle. One of the qualifications of an apostle was that one had to have seen the resurrected Christ (Acts 1:22; Acts 22:14). "Witness" The apostles were eye and ear witnesses (Acts 10:41). "Of the things wherein. will appear unto thee" "And also of what. will reveal to you" (Nor). "And of those in which. shall yet appear to you" (TCNT). This statement reveals that Paul was. man that Jesus spoke through (Galatians 1:11; 1 Corinthians 14:37) and that Paul was guided into all truth, just as the other apostles were (John 16:13). Carefully observe how God demonstrates His mercy even when Jesus confronts this persecutor of His cause. One of the first things that Paul is told, "You are going to be preaching the very message that you are now persecuting", which infers, "God is not going to destroy you", rather "you are being given. second chance".