Acts 26:15
““I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.”
What does Acts 26:15 mean?
Paul is recounting the moment on the Damascus Road when he encountered the risen Jesus and his entire life changed direction. He had been zealously hunting down Christians, convinced he was serving God, when a blinding light stopped him in his tracks. When he asked who was speaking to him, Jesus revealed himself and made a stunning claim: that by persecuting Christians, Paul was actually persecuting Jesus himself. This speaks to something deeply true about how Jesus identifies with his followers, even in their suffering. The people Paul was hunting weren't just individuals with their own beliefs—they were part of Christ's body. What happened to them mattered to him. For Paul in that moment, it meant recognizing that his whole understanding of God's will had been backwards, and he had to completely reimagine who he was and what he believed.