Paul’s vision on the road to Damascus is one of the most dramatic conversion accounts in Scripture. It is recorded in Acts 9, and retold by Paul in Acts 22 and Acts 26. Saul, as he was then called, was on his way to persecute Christians when suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. Acts 9:4-5 says, “Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?’ And he said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’ Then the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.’”
Blinded by the light, Saul had to be led by hand into Damascus, where he remained three days without sight or food. Meanwhile, the Lord appeared to a disciple named Ananias, commanding him to go to Saul. Ananias was hesitant, but God assured him, saying, “He is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15).
Ananias obeyed, laid hands on Saul, and he received his sight, was filled with the Holy Spirit, and was baptized (Acts 9:17-18). From that moment forward, Saul became Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.
This vision not only marked Paul’s conversion, but it revealed the direct authority of Jesus Christ in calling and commissioning him. Paul later affirmed this in Galatians 1:12: “For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.”
Paul’s encounter with the risen Lord shows that no one is beyond the reach of God’s grace, and that true conversion begins when we see Jesus as Lord and respond in humble obedience.