June 13

Reading the Bible Won’t Save You, Unless God Opens Your Eyes

And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; ~ Acts 9:18

You can quote Scripture, study theology, and go to church every week, but until God removes the veil, you’ll never see the truth that leads to salvation, Jesus Christ.

Nobody sees the truth on their own, but when you read the Bible, you should ask God to reveal His truth to you. The Holy Spirit is the one who opens your eyes, gives you understanding, and leads you to saving faith by showing you the true meaning of the Scriptures. Just like Saul on the road to Damascus, we’re blind until God opens our eyes. He was religious, zealous, and convinced he was honoring God, but he was completely wrong. He had Scripture, tradition, authority, and passion, and still, he didn’t know the truth. Then came the light. Then came the voice. And in that moment, everything he thought was right collapsed under the weight of actual truth, Jesus Christ.

Acts 9 gives us more than just a historical account. It reveals a pattern: God is the one who opens eyes. Saul was struck blind, not by accident, but to show him what he truly was, spiritually blind. Even after the light, even after the voice of Jesus Himself, Saul still couldn’t see until God sent Ananias and caused the scales to fall from his eyes. That wasn’t just a physical healing. It was a divine act of mercy. He didn’t come around. He didn’t figure it out. God opened his eyes.

The Bible makes this clear. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, we’re told that “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.” That’s the default condition of the human heart, blind. And no one escapes that blindness unless God intervenes. But 2 Corinthians 3:16 gives the hope: “Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.” When someone genuinely turns to Jesus, God removes the veil. That’s not poetic metaphor, that’s reality.

This is exactly what happened to Lydia in Acts 16:14. She listened to Paul preach, but it was the Lord who opened her heart to understand the message. That’s what must happen for anyone to be saved. We don’t pry open spiritual eyes through debate, emotion, or human effort. It’s the Spirit of God who reveals the Son of God through the Word of God.

If you or someone you know is finally seeing the truth, don’t mistake that for human discovery. Truth isn’t something we invent, evolve into, or arrive at by effort. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). So when someone sees the truth, they’re not seeing a theory or a new perspective, they’re seeing a person. They’re seeing Jesus Christ.

That kind of clarity doesn’t come from within, it comes from above. And if you haven’t seen it yet, pray. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes. Cry out to God for those you love who are still blind. Because until He opens their eyes, they will never see. But when He does, just like Saul, everything changes. The persecutor becomes a preacher. The blind see. The lost are found. And all the glory belongs to God. Remember religion blinds, Jesus opens eyes.

Read / Listen

1 Kings 11:1-12:19
Acts 9:1-25
Psalm 131:1-3
Proverbs 17:4-5

New Testament: Acts 9:1-25

Summary:
The Conversion of Saul
Saul Proclaims Jesus in Synagogues
Saul Escapes from Damascus

But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. ~ Acts 9:13-15

We have a lot happening in today’s reading. We meet Ananias who knew the Lord well. How do we know he knew the Lord well? Because Ananias is obedient regardless of knowing that Saul was a violent persecutor of the followers of Jesus. It is through reading and studying the Bible that we will become more obedient, knowing that God does not always ask us to do things that sound right to us, but things that may seem risky to us.

So Ananias departed … ~ Acts 9:17

… Then he rose and was baptized; ~ Acts 9:18

Saul immediately rose and was baptized. In our study yesterday the same thing took place with Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch showing us that baptism is very important to in our road to salvation through Jesus Christ. Baptism is the ceremony in which a Christian is immersed in water before the church to publically symbolize their belief in Christ. The water is a symbol of sin being washed away.

John Gill said, “And this also may suggest to us, that only enlightened persons are the proper objects of this ordinance; such as have the scales of darkness, ignorance, and unbelief removed from them, and have a spiritual sight and sense of divine things: hence the ancients used to call baptism by the name of φωτισμος, “illumination”, and baptized persons “enlightened” ones.”

It is only through obedience that we can come to know Jesus Christ. By knowing the bible you can know His will, be obedient and never hear the words “depart from me I never knew you” Matthew 7:21-23.

And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” ~ Acts 9:20

Saul immediately went to the synagogues where he knew they did not believe in Jesus and proclaimed Jesus is the Son of God. Wow, total boldness by the power of the Holy Spirit. Knowing Jesus makes you want to share Him with everyone. That is one way to know you are saved.

When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, ~ Acts 9:23

The same thing happened to Jesus when he witnessed to the religious self-seeking people in the synagogue who planned to kill him. Serving and knowing Jesus in this life will not be easy, but it is exciting and worth it since this life on earth is short compared to eternity.

Saul Struck to the Earth on His Way to Damascus

Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. And falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ~ Acts 9:3-5

But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ. ~ Acts 9:22

proving that this is very Christ; by joining and knitting passages of Scripture in the Old Testament together, by producing and citing express testimonies from thence, and by comparing the prophecies and the characters of the Messiah in them, with Jesus of Nazareth, he proved to a demonstration that he must be the Messiah. ~ John Gill