In 9:10-19 we see that Saul’s conversion was confirmed through Ananias. Verses 10 and 11 say, “Now there was a certain disciple in Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias! And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said to him, Rise up and go to the lane called Straight, and seek in the house of Judas a man from Tarsus named Saul; for behold, he is praying.” The Lord sent Ananias, one member of His Body, to go to Saul so that Saul might be initiated into the identification with the Body of Christ. This also must have impressed Saul with the importance of the Body of Christ and helped him realize that a saved believer needs the members of the Body of Christ.
In 9:12 the Lord told Ananias that Saul had “seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and laying his hands on him, so that he may receive his sight.” For the blinded Saul to receive sight was for him to be saved in full. It meant a great deal to him, especially for his inner eyes to be opened to see the things of God concerning His mysteries and His economy.
In verses 13 and 14 Ananias said, “Lord, I have heard from many concerning this man, how many evil things he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon Your name.” This indicates that calling upon the Lord’s name in the early days was a sign of the Lord’s followers (1 Cor. 1:2). This kind of calling must have been audible so that others could hear. Thus it became a sign.
In 9:15 and 16 the Lord said to Ananias, “Go, for this man is a chosen vessel to Me, to bear My name before both the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer on behalf of My name.” Because Saul was a chosen vessel to the Lord, he was set apart from his mother’s womb and called by the Lord (Gal. 1:15). The Lord is sovereign and able, according to His choosing in eternity, to make the most fierce among His persecutors a vessel, a leading apostle, to carry out His commission in preaching the gospel and taking the way he had opposed and persecuted. Eventually, the opposing Saul became, in his victorious ministry of the gospel, Christ’s vanquished captive in the triumphant procession celebrating Christ’s victory over all His enemies (2 Cor. 2:14).
Acts 9:17 says, “And Ananias went away and entered into the house; and laying his hands on him, he said, Saul, brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, so that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Saul’s case was a particular one because as the most significant persecutor, he was saved directly by the Lord from heaven while he was on his way to persecute the believers. Hence, he needed, as did the Samaritan believers (8:14-17) and the twelve disciples in Ephesus (19:1-7), a member of the Body of Christ to initiate him into the identification with the Body of Christ by the laying on of hands.
The filling with the Holy Spirit in 9:17 is the outward filling. According to the principle of salvation in God’s New Testament economy, Saul must have received the Holy Spirit of life essentially at the time of his conversion, prior to Ananias’ coming and laying his hands on him. Before Ananias came, he was praying to the Lord (v. 11). This indicates that Saul had believed in the Lord and was calling on Him (Rom. 10:13-14) like those believers whom he had ravaged and was going to arrest. But since he was not saved through any member of the Body of Christ, the Holy Spirit did not fall upon him economically until Ananias came, as the representative of the Body, to identify him with the Body of Christ.
Verses 18 and 19 continue, “And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight and rose up and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened. Now he was with the disciples in Damascus for some days.” The case of Saul, like that of the Ethiopian eunuch, instructs us to pay attention to water baptism, which signifies the believers’ identification with Christ’s death and resurrection (Rom. 6:3-5; Col. 2:12), as well as to Spirit baptism, which signifies the reality of the believers’ union with Christ in life essentially and in power economically. Water baptism is a believer’s affirmation of the reality of Spirit baptism. Both are necessary.