Acts 26:19

Wherefore, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision: both to them of Damascus first, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judaea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.

I was not disobedient ... This has the effect of saying: O king, you could not expect me to have violated a voice from heaven.

Damascus first, and at Jerusalem ... Paul's words here are not exactly clear; because, as was evident in our studies of Romans, Paul's use of the word "first" does not always denote a chronological order, but has the meaning of "the first thing I want to mention." See my Commentary on Romans, p. 14. In view of this, one may only smile at the radical critics who, evidently not being in on this little characteristic of Paul's, come up with shouts of "contradiction." MacGreggor, while admitting the unusual construction of the Greek (a typically Pauline touch), nevertheless gives the typically knee-jerk response of the radical critic, affirming a contradiction of Galatians 1:22,[27] in which place Paul said that when Galatians was written he was still unknown by face to the churches of Judaea.

It is therefore certain, then, that Paul did not use the word "first" here in any chronological sense at all. Incidentally, this little Pauline trait of so using the word "first" reminds one of that tiny "M" on the Morgan dollar, certifying absolutely the name of the designer. This verse here confirms absolutely the Pauline authorship of this address, removing one of the crutches of liberalism which likes to suppose that Luke composed this speech and put it in Paul's mouth. Never! In a thousand years, Luke would never have come up with a wild-card "first" like that of Paul here and elsewhere in his epistles.

Gentiles should repent and turn to God ... This is exactly the statement of God's redemptive plan for believers, as given in Acts 3:19; and here, as there, it means "repent and be baptized." See under Acts 3:19. As William Barclay observed (discussing what believers should do), "The first demand was the demand for repentance ... the second demand was the demand for baptism."[28]; Acts 2:38; 3:19; and here, are all confirmations of this.

Doing works worthy of repentance ... Such a plank as this in the platform of God's will would have a special pertinence to Agrippa and Bernice. As Root said, "The dissolute Agrippa needed to be told, `Live as men who have repented should' (Goodspeed)."[29]

[27] G. H. C. MacGreggor, op. cit., p. 328.

[28] William Barclay, Turning to God (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1964), pp. 47,50.

[29] Orrin Root, Acts (Cincinnati, Ohio: Standard Publishing Company, 1966), p. 190.