Paul (formerly known as Saul) recounts the story of his conversion three times in the book of Acts in chapters 9, 22 & 26. In the first two accounts the Bible associates the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the removal of sins with baptism.
17 So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; (Acts 9:17-18 ESV)
12 “And one Ananias, a devout man according to the law, well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, 13 came to me, and standing by me said to me, ‘Brother Saul, receive your sight.’ And at that very hour I received my sight and saw him. 14 And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; 15 for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’ (Acts 22:12-16 ESV)
Harmonizing Saul’s conversion accounts
As with the differing accounts in the Gospels, the conversion stories of Saul (Paul) in Acts 9, 22, and 26 highlight various details, some of which are emphasized more in certain passages than in others. Rather than seeing these variations as contradictions, it’s important to harmonize them and understand how they fit together.
Ananias states that he was sent to restore Saul’s sight and fill him with the Holy Spirit. However, the phrasing doesn’t demand that both events—restoring sight and receiving the Holy Spirit—occur simultaneously. A cursory reading of Acts 9:17 might lead one to assume that the healing of Saul’s sight and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit happened at the same time. However, when we harmonize the accounts in Acts 9 and 22, it seems likely that Ananias first restored Saul’s sight, with the reception of the Holy Spirit and the washing away of sins occurring at baptism, as emphasized in Acts 22:16.
Confirming the message
What reason is there to think so? One of the main purposes of miracles in the New Testament was to confirm the authority of the messenger and the authenticity of the message (Mark 16:20). When someone performed a genuine miracle, it lent credibility to the message they brought. Since God healed Saul’s blindness through Ananias, Saul had every reason to trust and pay attention to what Ananias had to say.
Did Ananias speak his words in Acts 22:14-16 after the “scales” fell from Saul’s eyes (in Acts 9:18), but before his immersion? While the two accounts emphasize different aspects of Saul’s conversion, we can reasonably harmonize them into a single narrative that reflects a plausible chronological order of events. However, it’s important to recognize that we infer this sequence from the text and Scripture does not explicitly state it. If we were to merge the two conversion accounts in this way, it might look something like this:
So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight.
[And he said, ‘The God of our fathers appointed you to know his will, to see the Righteous One and to hear a voice from his mouth; for you will be a witness for him to everyone of what you have seen and heard. And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’]1
Then he rose and was baptized
Saul was still in his sins after praying and fasting for three days
Even though Saul had seen Jesus on the road to Damascus and had been praying and fasting for three days (Act 9:9, 11), he was still in his sins. Ananias told him to be immersed and in so doing his sins would be washed away (Act 22:16). Here again we see the removal of sins connected with immersion. It was during Saul’s immersion that the Holy Spirit washed away his sins. We have several clear cut statements in Scripture related to the indwelling of the Spirit and the removal of our sins.
First, only saved people have the Spirit (Rom 8:9). The Spirit saves us when He indwells us and not before. Second, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit happens simultaneously with the forgiveness of sins. Peter said that immersion in water is for the forgiveness of sins. It is related to the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). Third, we see a direct statement in Acts 22:16 that during immersion Saul’s sins would be washed away. sins.
Deniers have an insurmountable theological obstacle
Those who wish to deny that baptism is directly connected to salvation have a very thorny theological problem to deal with. Peter specifically said immersion is related to the forgiveness of sins. Ananias confirmed Peter’s statement when he told Saul that immersion would remove his sins.
The water did not wash away Saul’s sins; the Holy Spirit did. He did that when He came to live inside Saul. Like the purification washings of the Old Testament, the baptismal waters illustrated what the Spirit was doing to Saul’s heart. The Spirit is the purifying agent in our conversion. The timing of this purification is during immersion in water.
Saul received the “washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Tit. 3:5-7). He was cleansed “by the washing of water with the word” (Eph. 5:26). Saul was “born again” “of the water and the Spirit” (John 3:3, 5).
The Spirit indwells during immersion
Based on passages we have studied so far, we cannot consistently assume that God would remove one’s sins separate from the Spirit indwelling them. The passages teach that this all happens during immersion.
Ananias also told Saul to call on the name of the Lord as he was being baptized. What does this mean? More on that in the next post.