Acts 26:19

Fourth and Concluding Division of the ‘Apologia' of PaulAfter the Appearance of the Crucified to him, he at once obeyed His Voice, and went about everywhere to proclaim His Message, not merely to JewsFor this reason the Jews sought his Life; but he kept on, helped with unearthly Help, unto that very day, telling out to all, that the Words of the old Hebrew Prophets respecting a Suffering Messiah had been fulfilled in the Crucified Jesus of Nazareth, 19-23.

Acts 26:19. Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. In other words, being convinced by such a Divine intimation that my old life was the life of one fighting against the will and purpose of the God of my fathers, I at once obeyed the solemn commands of Him who deigned to appear to me that day outside Damascus.

Commentators well call attention here to Paul's emphatic testimony respecting the freedom of the human will. This was clearly taught in the old Hebrew Scriptures in such grave and momentous passages as, ‘See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;.... But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear' (Deuteronomy 30:15-17); and here Paul, in his declaration that he was not disobedient to the heavenly will, intimates that it would have been possible for him to refrain from obeying that will and to resist it. The words of the famous proverb quoted by the glorified Lord, imply the same truth. The ox may, if he please, kick against the goad, though the result of such an opposition would have been simply pain and suffering to the animal. Divine grace, we must remember, is never irresistible; it is an awful thought that a time may come in the life of every man and woman, when the last promptings of the Spirit of the Lord may be quenched.