KICK AGAINST THE GOADS?May 29, 2019
READING TIME: 1-2 MINUTES
“Dave, what does ‘kicking against the goads’ mean in Acts 26:14?”
This verse said that it was hard for Paul to kick against the goads. Goads were pointed sticks used to guide a working animal; it’s an idiom for stubborn resistance.
Paul was “kicking these goads” while he was an unbeliever. This likely refers to Paul’s persecution of Christians and the gospel they believed and proclaimed which had become hard for him. Why was this the case? It’s likely because the Creator created man to respond to truth, not to reject truth as Paul did. Resisting the truth presupposes that one understands it; an unbeliever’s thinking is not so distorted or depraved that the preached message is incomprehensible—especially if the convincing ministry of the Holy Spirit to the world is considered (see John 16:8-11).
We see in the book of Acts that Saul/Paul did cease to resist, therefore opening himself to receive the gospel message that promises eternal salvation to those who believe in Jesus Christ for it. The argument to stop resisting implies that the unregenerate Saul had “free will.” Jesus’s words can (and should) be seen as an appeal to Saul’s free will.
Also, by the phrase “it is hard for you to kick against the goads,” it’s clear that God had already been working in Paul’s life to lovingly draw him to Himself. In the same way that agricultural workers used goads to move the animal in the direction they wanted them to go, God persuades unbelievers, softening their will, without forcing them to believe.
SOURCES USED
Meisinger, George E. “The Issue of One’s Ability to Believe: Total Depravity/ Inability.” Chafer Theological Seminary Journal Volume 11.1 (2005): 65-96.
Valdés, Alberto S. “The Acts of the Apostles.”The Grace New Testament Commentary. Ed. Robert N. Wilkin. Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2010. 606. Print.
