We know that Paul was originally a stout defender of Judaism. He inherited the tradition from his fathers and was excessively zealous for religion, trying his best to persecute and ravage the church of God. One day, while he was on his way to Damascus to bind all those who called on the name of the Lord, the Lord met him and spoke to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” He said, “Who are You, Lord?” The Lord answered, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:1-5). This was the gospel that Paul heard and the vision that he saw. This “Jesus” was no longer individual; rather, He was corporate. He included Stephen, and all those who believed in Him. They were a part of Him. Whoever persecuted Stephen persecuted Him. To persecute the Christians was to persecute Jesus.
This Jesus is the Jehovah who created the heavens and the earth. He is the Triune God. One day, He became flesh. He lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years as a man. Ultimately He went to the cross to die for our sins. He terminated the old man, the flesh, Satan, and the world. Then He was buried, entered into Hades, passed through death, was resurrected from the dead, and became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. Today, this Jesus is joined as one with Peter, James, John, Stephen, and thousands of those who believe in Him. He has become a great, universal Jesus. Hence, the gospel that Paul heard from the first day was a gospel concerning the mystery in God’s economy. This gospel became his vision.
Later, the Lord told him, “Rise up and enter into the city, and it shall be told you what you must do” (Acts 9:6). This is the second part of the gospel that Paul heard: This Jesus who was revealed to him had a mysterious Body, which was composed of many members. Now the Lord would not tell him directly what he should do; rather, He sent a member of His Body, Ananias, to initiate him into the union with this Body. Although Paul could not see anything physically at that time, he was clear within. Formerly he was leading others; now he was led by others. Ananias laid his hands on him so that he might see. Ananias then baptized Paul and charged him to call on the name of the Lord that he might wash away his sins. This was the vision that Paul saw: Jesus, Ananias, and the words which they spoke. Moreover, this vision included the way that he walked the rest of his life, as recorded in Acts 26:17b-18: “To whom [the people of Israel and the Gentiles] I [the Lord] send you, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” From that day on, what Paul preached and worked was fully controlled by the vision he saw; he never deviated from it. This is why he could testify before the king saying, “Wherefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19).
The inheritance we have obtained is not a heavenly mansion, or any creature in the universe, but the very Triune God Himself. Not only has He become our life, He is even our possession. He is the inheritance which we have received, just like a portion of the good land that was allotted to each Israelite in the Old Testament. When we were saved, we received the Triune God to be our Savior. This is the first part of our inheritance. The second part is the Triune God as our life. Since we have received this inheritance today, we should do our best to enjoy it. Paul said in Philippians 3:13-14: “But one thing—forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” The prize here is the inheritance. Our enjoying of the inheritance is our gaining of the prize. Today, we all have been saved and regenerated. As long as we are running the course before us by the salvation and life we have received, and properly enjoy the inheritance given to us by God, we will be able to enter into the kingdom to partake of a greater and richer inheritance when the Lord comes. Otherwise, we will lose our prize and will have no part in the coming kingdom; we will be punished and cast into the outer darkness.
When I was raised up by the Lord to give up my job to serve the Lord full time, many came to discourage me. The first ones were my in-laws. They entreated me saying that it was all right for me to believe in Jesus or even to preach, but why did I have to give up my profession? At that time I had a very good job. They wanted me to seriously reconsider. Then when my schoolmates heard that I was going to be a poor preacher, they thought that I was crazy. All of them came to rebuke me for being so foolish as to choose a way that men despised. In spite of all of these, the vision within me was very clear. I knew that I had received the inheritance of God and that I could not forsake this inheritance. From that day on, by the Lord’s grace and mercy, I have been enjoying this inheritance every day.