²²”So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, stating nothing but what the Prophets and Moses said was going to take place; ²³that the Christ was to suffer, and that by reason of His resurrection from the dead He would be the first to proclaim light both to the Jewish people and to the Gentiles.”

No question about it, Paul claims divine authority. It doesn’t matter who is in the audience; he intends his message for everyone present. He avows his fidelity to the Hebrew Scriptures (referring to “the Prophets and Moses”). In this, he is not unique, for Jesus had interpreted the Scripture similarly to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus:

And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. (Luke 24:25–27)

Stephen, the first Christian martyr, proclaimed along the same lines:

“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.” (Acts 7:51–53)

The apostle Paul’s understanding of the Scripture puts him in good company, though not with those present at his trial. But he does not waver because he knows it is the truth. He adds, with emphasis, the pivotal truth of the resurrection. Everything he says depends on that. His assignment from God is to preach a crucified and resurrected Christ. If Jesus had not come back to life, Paul’s ministry would be completely false; he would be a heretic worthy of stoning. But proclaim it he must, for he was an eyewitness of the risen Christ. And he was commissioned by God to take the message not just to the Jews, but also the Gentiles.

What incensed the Jews most is that Paul was treating them as equal to the Gentiles, both in need of the same message. This undercut Jewish exceptionalism in their minds, and they would not stand for that. But the news that brings the light of God’s grace to all people must be received equally, for all are in the dark. The apostle John put it this way: “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men” (John 1:4).

Lord, thank You for shining the light of Jesus into my life. I believe in Him.