1 Timothy: Jesus Is The Savior Of The Worst of Sinners
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1 Timothy: Jesus is the Savior of the Worst of Sinners
1 Timothy 1:12-17 (ESV)
12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service,
13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief,
14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
17 To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Happy New Year, BCI! We can all praise God for 2021! Although it was a challenging year for us, with COVID still a lingering threat and with some difficult challenges here and there, overall, God has given us some victories enough to give us confidence for 2022. The more than sufficient God in the past years will remain sufficient this new year. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever!
As I begin our sermon this morning, I think it is worth asking us these questions, "How would your life look like today if you did not know Jesus Christ as your Savior?” or ”how did Jesus Christ change your life?”
With the new year ahead of us, it would benefit us greatly if we begin on some solid footing. I believe it is significant for us to be reminded again and again how significant and meaningful was the work of Jesus Christ in our lives. As you know, every first Sunday of the new year, we do this candlelight service for two particular reasons:
To remind us of the light we have received in Jesus Christ. He will be our guide and help for this new year (John 8:12).
To encourage us to keep shining for Him in this dark and dangerous world (Matthew 5:16).
And so, I am grateful that we are studying the Book of 1 Timothy this morning where we can see Jesus as the Savior of worst sinners. This topic is perfect for helping remind us how blessed we are to have Jesus and compel us to keep living for Him.
1 Timothy is the beginning of Paul's Pastoral Letters. There are three books in the New Testament within this category – 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus. When the apostle Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, he was the interim pastor of the church in Ephesus, and he had to confront some false teachers whose teachings were contradicting the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, this letter was meant primarily to help the young pastor navigate through some of the problems caused by these false teachers and some other issues within the Ephesian church.
For the writing of this letter, many Bible scholars believe that Paul wrote 1Timothy after he was released from his imprisonment in Rome. When we studied the Prison Letters, Paul's imprisonment was about 61-63 AD. After his release, when he was again free to visit the churches he planted, He wrote Timothy this first letter in Greece around 64-66 AD.
Now, for our primary text, which declares Jesus as the Savior of worst sinners, I would like to highlight three main parts in Paul's personal encounter with Jesus Christ:
I PAUL ACKNOWLEDGED THAT HE WAS A GREAT SINNER (v. 13)
v. 13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief
As I have explained earlier, Timothy was plagued with some false teachings within the church, so Paul wrote him to help him address this problem. Beginning verse 3 of chapter 1, you will find Paul helping Timothy identify who these false teachers were and how they were contradicting the Gospel. Now, in our main text, he illustrates from his own experience the power of the Gospel and the absurdity of human legalism and rules in producing genuine change and godliness in life.
So coming to verse 12, Paul begins by giving thanks to Jesus Christ for His enabling grace. The emphasis is not on what Saul of Tarsus did for the Lord but what the Lord did for Him. Time and again, when we listen to some believers give testimonies of their conversion experience, most often, the emphasis is who they were and what they have done instead of what Jesus has done for them. Whenever we are given this opportunity, we have to follow Paul's example of making sure Jesus gets the credit and not us.
Let me skip the second part of verse 12, and I'll go back to it on my third point. For this first point, I would like to emphasize Paul's descriptions of who he was before his encounter with Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-19). He summarized who he was by giving us three descriptions:
Blasphemer – He spoke evil against Jesus Christ and His followers.
Persecutor – He sought to put Christians in prison or death because he felt that this new religion was a threat and an enemy to Judaism.
Insolent opponent – He became violent and committed despicable acts against the believers.
When you examine these descriptions, undoubtedly, Paul saw himself as the worst sinner. But just in case we missed this perception, we would find him state it clearly in verse 15 – "The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost."
When Paul wrote this verse, he wanted people to pay attention to his statement by starting with these words, "The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance." Some commentators say that whenever Paul uses these words, he wants people to also commit to memory what he said. Here, he gave us the ultimate purpose of why Jesus came to the world – to save sinners. Then he added these words, "of whom I am the foremost." If you read this phrase in the New King James Version, the reading would be, "of whom I am chief." The reference of being the worst sinner is essential to Paul because it magnified the extent of the debts he had to pay to be forgiven by God.
The Lord conveyed this truth clearly after Simon Peter complained about a woman he thought wasted money because she anointed Jesus with expensive perfume.
Luke 7:40-43 (NKJV)
40 And Jesus answered and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." So he said, "Teacher, say it."
41 "There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.
42 And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?"
43 Simon answered and said, "I suppose the one whom he forgave more." And He said to him, "You have rightly judged."
What's the lesson here again – "Those who owed more and were forgiven more; they are the ones who often will love Jesus more."
II PAUL APPRECIATED THAT CHRIST IS A GRACIOUS SAVIOR (vv. 14-16)
And the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life.
Despite the greatness of Paul's sins, he expressed his appreciation for the grace he received from the Lord Jesus Christ. The false teachers in the church insisted that to be saved, faith should be strengthened by obedience to the Mosaic laws. To get to God, believers should live strictly under the law. And so, Paul repeatedly countered this teaching by talking about how he got saved:
"But I received mercy" (v. 13)
"The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus." (v. 14)
"But I received mercy for this reason" (v. 16)
There are three words used interchangeably here – mercy, grace, and love. The best way to differentiate these three words would be in the way God bestowed favors to Paul and all the believers in Christ:
Mercy – God favored us by withholding the punishment of sins that we deserve.
Grace – God lavishly favored us even when we did not deserve them.
Love – God favored us because we are special to Him
In addition to these words, I would like us to go back to verse 14 because Paul used the word "overflowed" concerning the grace he received from Jesus Christ. The specific Greek word used is hyperepleonasen, which is only used here in the New Testament. This verb means "to be present in great" or "to superabound." The false teachers were saying they needed the law to receive favor from God. Paul was saying it’s God’s superabounding grace that brought favor from God. This superabounding grace came through Jesus alone.
For Paul, who knew he was a terrible sinner before salvation, he recognized that it would take God's superabounding grace to forgive him. This grace overwhelmed Him that it radically changed his life. Do you also feel the same way?
Tim Keller says, "Every other religion says, "Here's advice on how to do what you need to do to connect to God." Christianity is the other way around. Comes down and says, "I'm God, come to find you." Another way to put it is that the gospel doesn't come through Jesus Christ. The gospel is Jesus Christ.” This is God’s superabounding grace for us.
I know some might say, "I was not really that bad before coming to know Jesus Christ." The problem is that we often see our righteousness or righteousness because we compare ourselves to other people. We compare ourselves to murderers, rapists or any other people who are worse than us. But the truth of the matter is that in terms of salvation, the standard is not the righteousness of other people but God's perfect holiness. If ever we find ourselves making this false sense of self-righteousness, here's a great verse to remember. Let me read it in The Living Bible translation:
Isaiah 64:6 (TLB)
6 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we put on our prized robes of righteousness, we find they are but filthy rags.
Indeed, all the righteousness we had before salvation doesn't count because they were all filthy rags compared to God's holiness. This infection of sin was cured all by the righteousness of God alone in us. We need to always remember the beauty of this truth in our lives. We don’t need to work for God’s favor. Thank God because you and I have found this superabounding grace in Christ Jesus, just like Paul! Our challenge is to always live in light of this kind of grace. If His grace was more than enough to save us from sin itself, how much more will He give us this superabounding grace to live in 2022?
III PAUL ACCEPTED THE CALL TO BE IN GOD'S SERVICE (v.12)
"I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service,"
To complete our picture of Paul's experience, we should never end in his salvation. Why? If we end the story there, we will become the end goal of Christ's redemptive work. It should always lead to Christ receiving the appropriate response from the one who received so much mercy and grace.
The response part is found in verse 12 You might be wondering why I have to put this verse as my last point when Paul mentions it right at the beginning of the paragraph. I am fully aware of that, but I wanted to establish an explanation for Paul's calling into the ministry. For Paul, the entire salvation experience was also his call to the service of God. The statement of being strengthened, being judged faithful, and being appointed to His service happened on the day He was saved.
If you are doubtful about what I said, consider the entire context of this passage again. The superabounding mercy, grace, and love are enough reasons for him to shift the direction of his life. This truth is evident when you revisit Acts 9:21-22. Everyone was confounded with the transformation of Paul
Acts 9:21-22 (ESV)
21 And all who heard him were amazed and said, "Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?"
22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.
I believe we should not miss the logical sequence from Paul's experience - From being a terrible sinner, he experienced Christ's superabounding grace, which ultimately led to his faithful service. Is this example true with your life as well? The reality is that if the grace of God would fail to motivate us to serve Him, no amount of asking or recruiting will compel us to serve Him.
Charles Wesley wrote a hymn, “And Can It Be”. There’s a line there that I hope will be the song of our hearts too.
“My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.”
To close this theme of Jesus as the Savior of worst sinners, Paul ends this passage in verse 17, saying, "To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." Without a doubt, there is only one person who deserves all the honor and glory for eternity; His name is Jesus Christ!
Here are three practical applications for us:
If you are here this morning and you have not surrendered your heart to Jesus Christ, let me assure you, He also wants you to experience the same grace that Paul received.
For all of us who already know Him, may we always find His goodness and grace enough reasons for us to remain faithful to Him!
May we all begin this new year, 2022, committing ourselves once again to serving Him, and may His grace continue to abound in our lives this year!
-Rev. Jerusalem Ona