‘And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise, and enter into the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” '
Saul had been humbled to the ground and now he humbled himself in spirit and asked who it was who was speaking. His reference to ‘Lord' was an expression of humility before divine authority. He wanted ‘the Lord' to identify Himself. How could he be persecuting God when his whole life was given to His service? ‘Lord' was later to become for him a recognised way of acknowledging Jesus, when it would take its full significance as Lord, Creator and Redeemer.
The reply came that ‘He' was Jesus. In a blinding flash Saul was being made to face up with the One against Whom he was venting his anger and hatred, the One in Whom these people he was persecuting believed, and it was in a way that was revealing His divine nature. He had thought Him a charlatan, and now here He was speaking to him from heaven in this blinding glory. It turned his world and his theology upside down. The whole of his opposition to Jesus could only crumble at His feet. The conclusion smote him with irresistible force. Jesus really had risen! Stephen had been right after all when he had spoken of seeing the Lord Jesus in His glory.
It need hardly be pointed out that the last person he would have expected to hear from was Jesus. To him Jesus was just a dead body in a grave. He had not had the slightest conception that he would experience Him as alive. This was no hallucination brought on by pious hope. He was not seeing what he expected to see. It was a contradiction against everything that he had expected. Those who do not want to believe him will desperately weave unsatisfactory explanations about it. They will have to. For otherwise they will have to believe in the physical resurrection from the dead of the Lord Jesus Christ. But they will believe anything rather than that. However, none of their explanations will be based on reality. For the reality was that he knew from then on that he had met the risen Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:8; Galatians 1:16).
The psychological condition of Saul has spawned a whole host of literature. But little of it ties in with what he himself tells us about his experience. He was unaware of any conscience over Stephen. Rather he speaks calmly, if guiltily, about how intractable he had been towards him. He simply lets us know that he had been quite contentedly pursuing his heartfelt belief in Pharisaic teaching until the moment when it was all torn apart by meeting Jesus on the Damascus Road.
We are only given here the briefest description of what the voice said. He was to arise, and enter the city, where he would be told what to do. But in Acts 26:15-18 we are given more of the substance for there he is also told, “But arise, and stand on your feet, for to this end have I appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness both of the things in which you have seen me, and of the things in which I will appear to you, delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light (Isaiah 42:6-7; Isaiah 49:6) and from the power of Satan to God (Zechariah 3; Isaiah 49:24-25; Luke 11:20-22; Colossians 1:13; Mark 3:27), that they may receive remission of sins (Acts 2:38; Acts 5:31; Acts 13:38; Luke 24:47; Mark 1:4) and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me (Acts 20:32; John 17:17; Matthew 5:5; Matthew 22:1-14; Matthew 25:34).” He was being commissioned to fulfil the work of the Servant in Isaiah 49:6, compare Acts 13:47.