Act_22:14-15. - Chosen To Be An Apostle; Not Chosen To Salvation!

8. Acts 22:14-15. - Chosen To Be An Apostle; Not Chosen To Salvation!

“And he said, the God of our Fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth. (14) “For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.” - Acts 22:14-15. As we examine this we find that we must go back to Acts 21:1-40 and take the entire context to see what the situation was. In Acts 21:15 we find out that Paul had gone to Jerusalem against the will of the disciples. In Jerusalem we find that he had gone into the temple and the mob came, along with the Roman soldiers, and took him out of the temple. Paul was then called upon to give his testimony. We pick up the story in Acts 21:38 as they were trying to find out who Paul was:

“Art not thou that Egyptian, which before these days madest an uproar, and leddest out into the wilderness four thousand men that were murderers? (38) But Paul said, I am a man which am a Jew of Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city: and, I beseech thee, suffer me to speak unto the people.” - Acts 21:38-39

Then he continues with his testimony of what had happened.  Actually, this is just rehearsal of the conversation of the Apostle Paul found in the 9th chapter of Acts.  Here in Acts 22:1-30, he gives his testimony of how God had dealt with Ananias in sending him to Paul.

“And one Ananias, a devoted man according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, (12) Came unto me, and stood, and said unto me, Brother Saul, receive thy sight. And the same hour I looked upon him. (13) And he said, the God of our fathers hath chosen thee…” - Acts 22:12-14 a.

Notice carefully, the Bible does not say “chosen thee to salvation.”  This agrees, again, with Acts 9:15 :

“…He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel.” That is what he was chosen for. It does not say anything about “chosen to be saved.” “…chosen…that thou shouldest know his will.” That is what Paul is chosen to do as the Scriptures clearly state:

“…and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth, For thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard.” - Acts 22:14 b,15. As we said, this is only a repeat of Paul's testimony before the people in Jerusalem, rehearsing what actually took place in Acts 9:1-43. Again, Acts 9:15-16 clearly state:

“But the Lord said unto him, go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel (not for salvation) unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. (15) For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.” (16) This is what he was chosen for. As we have said before, he continually had to defend his apostleship. In almost all of his epistles he begins with, “Paul, an apostle of Christ,” because that apostleship was not accepted by some of the other disciples and many other men.