Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound

a. In 1918, a notorious Japanese prisoner named Tokichi Ishii was executed in Tokyo. He was hung for a murder he committed. This guy was a serious criminal. He had been to prison more than 20 times. He knew the drill. Nothing frightened him. In fact, he was the kind of guy other prisoners feared. He was so notorious for hatred and violence even within the prison that one time the guards tied him, put a gag in his mouth and hung him from the ceiling with his toes barely touching the ground. He was a hardened, serial criminal – he was the kind of guy most of us would write off as being beyond redemption.

b. There were two people, though, who did not see him as being beyond redemption – two women; two missionaries, in factAs they visited him one day in the prison, they gave him a copy of the New Testament, and Tokichi Ishii soon after trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and was born again. One of his favorite verses was 2 Cor. 6:8-10, which speaks of the suffering of Paul and his companions. He highlighted the phrase which read “as poor, yet making many rich.” This apparently spoke powerfully to him, and in his Bible he wrote the following note: “This certainly does not apply to the evil life I led before I repented. But perhaps in the future, someone in the world may hear that the most desperate villain who ever lived repented of his sins and was saved by the power of Christ, and so may come to repent also. Then it may be that though I am poor myself, I shall be able to make many rich.” He was hung shortly after. He stood on the scaffolding waiting for the executioners to pull the wood out from under him, but he stood there a different man than when he went in.

c. This past week we celebrated Thanksgiving. We gathered with our families and we expressed gratitude to God for numerous things. I wonder how many Christians this past Thursday remembered to thank God for the simple fact that they have been changed? For the simple fact that in grace God reached down and grabbed hold of us and called us out of our sin into a new kind of life.

d. And yet, it would be good if we could be thankful for that, because we live in a world that is increasingly skeptical of the possibility that anyone can truly change. “That’s just how he is” - “she’ll never be any different.” And, the Bible confronts that skepticism with the reality of a God who literally brings life out of death, who is able to reach the most hardened sinner, whose mercy is able to swallow up and drown his sins, and make him new from the inside out.

e. That is the power of grace. The power not merely to save a person from eternal damnation, but to change them into someone fit for heaven. Paul had experienced it. And the passage we have before us this morning is in a sense Paul’s testimony of how the grace of Jesus Christ literally made him a new man.

f. Three points this morning: 1) Paul’s sordid past, 2) Christ’s abundant grace, and 3) God’s matchless glory. Those three relate to each other, and it’s my hope this morning to help you see how.

2. Paul’s sordid past (vv. 12-13a)

a. The apostle Paul opens this section on a note of gratitude. Paul is grateful. He says, “I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord.” Why is Paul grateful? What is it that Paul is thankful for as he writes this letter to Timothy? He tells us: “because he judged me faithful.” Note that word “judged”. This is one – and I don’t say this lightly – this is one place where a lot of translations, in my opinion, get it wrong. It could sound like Jesus looked at Paul, saw a man whom he thought to be faithful, and placed him into service. I think a better translation is that Jesus “considered” Paul faithful, He reckoned him faithful. In other words, Jesus looked at Saul the persecutor, Saul the blasphemer, and then looked beyond that to the kind of man which Jesus would eventually make him. Paul is grateful for the fact that Christ Jesus not only saved him, and forgave him, but made him an apostle, commissioned, “putting me into service”, he says.

b. But there’s a deeper reason why Paul never got over being called to this ministry: his past. Paul goes on to write this: “appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.” What do we know about Paul in his pre-Christian days? His given name was Saul (his name was changed to Paul sometime after his conversion). Saul was a Jew by heritage, a Greek by birth, and a Roman citizen. Saul was a brilliant man. He was a brilliant theologian and a brilliant expositor of the Old Testament scriptures. He was educated in the law and in Judaism by a respected rabbi named Gamaliel. And then, lastly, Saul was a Pharisee – he was a part of that strict Jewish sect of men who were extremely interested in carefully obeying the OT law down to the letter, and making sure everyone else did too.

c. But beyond that, Saul the Pharisee was a persecutor of the church. In Acts 8:3, the first time, I think, that Paul even shows up in the NT: “But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.”

d. That’s why Paul admits very candidly, “I was a persecutor of the church.” What’s a persecutor? I found this definition of a persecutor this past week as I studied this text. A persecutor is “a person who participates in the systemic hunting down of an adherent of a particular religion to inflict pain or death upon them”.[1] Think of ISIS soldiers going door to door in the Middle East and demanding that every person in every household either deny the faith, leave immediately, or be killed. Paul wasn’t quite to that point, but neither was he that far off. This man had a reputation. Jewish Christians knew who Saul of Tarsus was. Jewish Christians lived in fear of Saul of Tarsus. But not only this – he was a blasphemer, he confesses, someone who says untrue and unspeakable things against God, and he was also an “insolent opponent” – Paul’s arrogance was unmatched. And it is out of this that God saves Paul.

e. And not only this. Not only does God save us out of our sins and sordid pasts, although if that were all God had done for us that would be more than enough and we would be eternally grateful. But no, God goes a step further. God calls us into service – into His service, of all things, and he strengthens us for that service. “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me” – who has given me new abilities I didn’t have before. Abilities and skill for what purpose? “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, putting me into service…” Paul never got over being called to this work. He would later say in 2 Tim. 4:17, “But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it” (ESV). It was an incredible privilege, an extremely high honor, and all the more so considering Paul’s sordid past.

f. Notice with me now Christ’s abundant grace.

3. Christ’s abundant grace (vv. 13b-16)

a. That Paul should have been taken from where he was, as the church's sworn enemy, and be forgiven and raised to the position he now has, was something Paul never got over. And you can almost hear his continued amazement at this in this paragraph. Verse 13b, “But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” Paul is describing in different words something that actually happened to him in the book of Acts.

b. Paul certainly wasn’t searching for Jesus when we was on his way to Damascus that day. None of us have searched for Jesus – not really. Jesus searches for us. Jesus comes and seeks us out, the way he sought out the woman at Samaria and Nicodemus and Matthew the tax collector. “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Paul is stunned and probably in shock, and says, “Who are you Lord?” This is what Jesus says: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do” (Acts 9:6). Paul was blind for three days and couldn’t eat or drink. That’s how dramatic and traumatic this was for him. Ananias comes and prays and lays hands on him and he regains his sight. He’s baptized, he immediately begins to preach Jesus, and is later renamed Paul to reflect the transformation that has happened in his life. He has a new identity. Of course he still had some growing to do, as we all do. Paul didn’t become a perfect man. But Jesus did make Him a new man.

c. Ill. About 15 years ago, I went with some college friends to Niagara Falls. We flew to Buffalo, NY and then rented a car and drove across the border to Canada. Maybe you’ve been to Niagara Falls and stood there by the railing and watched the sheer amount of water cascading over the edge into the abyss below. If you’ve never been there, I’m sure you’ve seen it in pictures or movies and you know what I’m talking about. There are literally billions of gallons of water that go over those falls each year. It’s never-ending. There’s an endless supply of water, and it never slows down, it never lets up.[2]

d. Picture that in your mind, and now return with me to verse 14: “the grace of our Lord overflowed for me.” Paul chooses that word “overflowed” because he wants to emphasize that the grace of Jesus Christ not only covered his sins and forgave them, but actually swallowed them up[3] and drowned them. I’ve never been on the little boat that takes you to the base of Niagara Falls. But I have known people who have. I wouldn’t have thought that little boat ride would be a thrill ride, but in a sense it is, because they say that the closer you come to the base of the falls, the more terrifying it is. The force of that waterfall is, I’m sure, enough to crush and kill and overwhelm anything that has the misfortune of coming under the force of that water at the bottom of the falls. Such is the grace of God and our sin! If you have trusted Christ, there is a Niagara Falls of grace that not only is continually flowing into your life, but also is strong enough to overwhelm and drown your sin.

e. Church, listen to me carefully: There is no sin in your life or in anyone else’s life that is so great that the grace of Jesus Christ cannot cover it, overwhelm it, overpower it, and overcome it. There is no sinner so far gone that the grace of Jesus Christ cannot find them and overwhelm them. We say things like, “Well, he’s so hardheaded he’ll never repent.” Or “she’s so far gone she’ll never come home.” How silly of us, right? As if we could evaluate a lost person’s odds of getting right with God! Everyone, including you and I, is so hard-hearted that if it depended on us, no one would be saved. Scripture is clear from cover to cover that at no point, and for no reason, and in no way, does our salvation ever depend on anything we can do. Not even our faith is a work that we perform to make ourselves right with God.

f. In grace God pursues the sinner, even when they aren’t looking for Him. In grace God calls the sinner, even though they weren’t calling for Him. In grace God redeems and saves the sinner. You say, “Pastor Dustin, that’s true, but a person still has to repent and believe the gospel.” And I say, absolutely. But who do you think must give them the ability to do those things in the first place? It can’t be that we have the innate ability to do that ourselves, because Scripture says that we’re dead – not just sick, not merely weak, but dead. That’s why in verse 14 Paul writes, “the grace of God overflowed for me, with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” Faith and love are what God requires of us, and yet Paul is saying that his faith and his love didn’t spring from his own heart; they were part of the gift of grace that overflowed for Him from Calvary. Faith and love are what God requires of us, and faith and love are what God gives to us.

g. Ill1. When Shannon and I first got married, I remember one time we were going through a drive-thru, and we were figuring out what to order and I already knew I wanted a #2 combo with fries and a Coke. Shannon, though, was a little more cautious when it came time for her to order. She said, “I’ll have a cheeseburger with ketchup only and a cherry coke.” And I said, “Don’t you want fries?” She said – and I’ll never forget it, we still laugh about it – she said, “Oh no, they give you so many fries and it’s not worth the money.” “So…you’re just going to have the burger, no fries?” “No, silly”, she said. “I’ll just eat some of yours.” I said, “I beg your pardon, but I plan on eating my fries. Why would you think I wouldn’t want all my fries?” And she said, “Why would you not want to share your fries with your wife?”

h. Now, wou and I are one with the Lord Jesus Christ, and everything He has is ours. Listen to the French reformer John Calvin as he helps us understand what Paul is saying here: “Nothing which he suffered and did for the salvation of the human race is of the least benefit to us...so long as we are without Christ and separated from him...[and so] the Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ effectually binds us to Himself."[4] And if this true, this means that everything that is Christ’s becomes ours, because we are one with Him. And unlike me with my fries, Jesus is not begrudging toward us. He generously gives us all that is His – not only His righteousness, but His Spirit, too, which produces in us faith and love.

i. If there is any love, any goodness, any faith in our hearts, it is not because we are good people; it is because we are united with Jesus Christ, in whom is all grace, including faith and love, and through our union with Him He imparts those things to us, He shares them with us.[5] We contribute nothing to our salvation – whether before our salvation or after our salvation. It is all God. If it weren’t, it wouldn’t be grace.

j. Verse 15, sandwiched right in the middle of this paragraph, brings us to the very heart of Paul’s message of grace. Paul writes, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance” – he’s referencing something that had apparently become almost a confession of faith in the early church, something that was repeated often, maybe in their public worship. He says it is “trustworthy”, meaning it has been tested and tried over the course of time and in various trials and has been found reliable and sure and certain.[6] He says it’s deserving of full acceptance, meaning it’s something you can believe and ought to believe heartily, it’s truth you can stake your life one. It’s a “trustworthy staying”. And what is that trustworthy saying? “That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners [literally it says, sinners to save], among whom I am the foremost.”

k. If you have a pen or a pencil, underline verse 15. It’s one of the verses worth committing to memory. It gets us to the heart of the gospel. The gospel is not a message of works. I sat across from a young man who had grown up in a gospel-preaching Baptist church. And when I asked him if he could explain the gospel to me, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “live right.” That would not be a message of hope, that would not be good news! The gospel is the good news that you and I cannot “live right”, we are not capable of pleasing God, there is nothing good in us, we cannot work our way up to Him. The gospel is the message that God Himself has come down to us, Jesus Christ has come to save sinners. We can’t please God on our own, and so Jesus has come pleased God on our behalf, in our stead, in our place, and if we trust in Him God will make us one with Him so that our sin becomes His and His righteousness becomes ours. That is the gospel. Very simply? Christ came to save sinners. Raise your hand if you’re a sinner? Good, Christ came for you. Believe it, rejoice in it, make it yours, live it out.

l. But many people tragically misunderstand this message to their own destruction. Many churches and pastors misunderstand this message and instead communicate the message that the most important thing we can do is not believe in Christ but instead live good lives. Novelist Ferrol Sams writes about growing up in the South and how he found this to be the case. Al Mohler summarizes what Ferrol Sams said: “As he explained, the child who is “raised right” pleases his parents and other adults by adhering to moral conventions and social etiquette. A young person who is “raised right” emerges as an adult who obeys the laws, respects his neighbors, gives at least lip service to religious expectations, and stays away from scandal. The point is clear — this is what parents expect, the culture affirms, and many churches celebrate. But our communities are filled with people who have been “raised right” but are headed for hell.”[7] Perhaps even some of us in the room this morning would pay lip service to the gospel, but deep down you believe that salvation really does amount to basically living right – obeying the law, coming to church, respecting your neighbors, giving lip service to God. You are trusting in your works, friends, and that will lead you straight to hell just as sure as anything else.

m. Which leads me to wonder, when you read the word “sinner” in verse 15, when you hear the phrase, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” who do you think of? Our tendency is to here the word “sinner” and think of someone other than ourselves – someone out there, not in here. The Bible does not indulge us in that delusion, friends, because Paul wrote these words with himself in mind. We know that because right after he says “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”, he writes “among whom I am the foremost!” And Paul didn’t say “among whom I was the foremost”. He wrote in the present tense, “among whom I am the foremost.”[8] I like what one author wrote. It’s simple, beautiful, to the point, and most important, it’s absolutely positively true. “Paul is a sample of the kind of sinners that Jesus came to save”.[9] The word “example” describes a sketch, a picture drawn to relieve us of despair, and it’s point is that if Paul can be saved, anybody can be saved. If you’re willing to come to Christ, hands down, in surrender, with humility, you’ll find his arms open with love, and you’ll find that his power to save is abundant, sufficient to cleanse even the worst sinner.

n. And in fact, the older Paul got and the more closely He walked with Jesus, it seems He became even more aware of his sinfulness.[10] In 1Cor. 15:9, written around 53 AD, he said “I am the least of all the apostles.” Just under 10 years later, around 62 AD, Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:8, “I am the least of all the saints.” And then, in 1Tim. 1:15, nearing the end of his life, his consciousness of his own sinfulness has only increased so that he can call himself with all sincerity the chief sinner. That’s really pretty typical. The closer you get to Jesus and the more faithfully you walk with Him, the more aware of your own sinfulness you will become.[11] But that’s okay, because as you’re awareness of our sin grows, so will your appreciate of Christ’s grace, so that by the end of your life you might be able to say with complete sincerity, “Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, among whom I am the foremost.” It’s not that no one has ever sinned worse than the apostle Paul. I think there have been many who have. It’s that as Paul grew closer to Christ, He grew in humility. He could see the depth of his sin as the light of Christ’s purity and grace shone on it so brightly. I like what one author wrote about this verse: “Why is it that great Christians so often emphasize their personal sinfulness? It’s not that their sins are bigger; it’s that their vision is better.”[12]

o. The fact that you and I can hear the word “sinners” and think not of ourselves, but of other people, indicates that we really don’t think of ourselves as sinners – at least not the bad kind. But friends, if you don’t think of yourself as a sinner, then grace is not for you. Honestly, as a pastor, self-righteousness among Christians worries me more than just about anything else. Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” Jesus was speaking those words to a group of men who thought other people were sinners, not themselves.

p. Friends, please don’t shy away from the reality of your own sin and guilt. I plead with you this morning to own it. Confess it to God.

q. Because, you see, the reason Paul understood grace so deeply and appreciated it so much was that he understood the depth of his own sin. It wasn’t the depth of other people’s sin that convinced him of his need of grace and made it so precious to him. No, forgiveness means more when you realize the full weight of the sins you’ve been forgiven of, not those of others.

r. Along those lines, I imagine that the hours and days after Paul met Jesus on the road to Damascus were some of the hardest days of his life. We can imagine him crying bitter tears as he realizes the full weight of what he has done to Christ's saints and ultimately to Christ Himself. The words, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” must have played over and over again in his mind. I imagine that Paul experienced deem, deep remorse over the harm He had inflicted on others, but most of all, over the knowledge that all along He had actually been doing to that to Christ. And yet, those bitter tears must have at some point turned into tears of deep joy and gratitude, as guilt turned into relief and relief became gratitude and joy as the reality of grace began to set in.

s. And on top of all of that, if that we’re not enough, now called into the ministry! You can almost hear his amazement as he writes “I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful!” Me! Not only forgiven and cleansed and set free, but the foremost sinner has called by Christ to be the chief apostle! He never got over God’s mercy toward Him despite His sin, and my prayer is that we would never get over God’s mercy toward us despite our sin. In fact, Paul figured that one of the reasons Christ had done this for him was so that others might look at Paul and say, “If that man can be saved, despite what he’s done, maybe there’s hope for me too.” Verse 16 says, “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.”

4. God’s matchless glory (v. 17)

a. This verse is what is called a doxology, a hymn of praise to God. If you’ve understood anything about what Paul has been saying so far, it makes perfect sense that Paul would spontaneously break out in the worship of God, the author of the salvation Paul has been bragging about. His purpose in these verses has not been to draw attention to himself. His purpose has been to magnify the grace and mercy of God to so great a sinner as himself. He does not desire to take credit for the change that has happened in his life. He takes great delight in giving credit where credit is due.

b. This is some of the most exalted language about God in all of the Bible. Read it with me, and notice with me the breathtaking majesty of our God. “Now to the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” Savor these words. Immortal. Invisible. The only God. Honor and glory be to Him forevermore. The apostle Paul packs a ton of rich theology in this one short verse. You could preach an entire sermon series on this verse. There are actually four assertions Paul makes here about the nature of God. But for now, just notice with me two of those. And I pray this might not be an academic exercise but that our souls might feast on all that God is.

i. First, God is called “the King of the ages.” We’re probably more aware of the bad examples of kings than we are good ones. Think of the tyrant King George, or the Queen Mary (“Bloody Mary”) as she was called because she persecuted the Reformers. In our day, we’re more likely to think of a dictator when we think of a king, and that’s understandable.

ii. When we think of God, we have to get all of that out of our minds. God is everything a king is supposed to be – majestic, just, righteous, fair, kind, good. Paul is saying that the God who came to us in the human person of Jesus Christ is also gloriously and powerful beyond our wildest imagination. As king, God has all authority and He has the power to make His wishes reality. He is the “King of the ages,” meaning he rules sovereignly over this age, and he will rule over the ages to come with justice and goodness. As earthly kings come and go, God raises them up and brings them down, but through it all He remains on His throne from age to age. He is the “King of the ages.”

iii. As King of the ages, God is also immortal. We are mortal, made of the dust of the earth, and because of that our bodies are subject to decay and disease and death. When my great uncle Jack was just around 60 years old, he was diagnosed with what was then called Lou Gehrig’s disease (now it is known as ALS). It’s a terrifying neurological illness that gradually robs you of your ability to move, walk, speak, eat and eventually if robs you of your ability to breathe. A horrible reminder that we are immortal. Cancer, dementia, Parkinson’s and million other illnesses remind us that we will not live forever. And we long for that, we desperately desire to avoid death, because we were never made to die. It’s not true that death is a natural and normal part of life. When you talk with a grieving person, don’t say that. It isn’t true. Death is anything but normal, and that’s why it terrifies us. We were made for immortality, but we forfeited it through our sin. God does not suffer from weakness, He is not subject to disease or decay or death. Yes, Jesus Christ died on the cross, and that is why He came, but He had to take on a human body and a human nature to be able to do that. God alone is truly immortal.

iv. And yet immortality is more than just living forever. Immortality also means eternal life in the true sense of the word.[13] And Paul is saying here that is actually what God has done for us in Christ. Verse 15 said “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” and part of what it means to save sinners is not just to forgive their sins, but to give them life! The immortal Son of God took on a mortal body and a mortal human nature, so that mortal men and women might in fact be immortal. Those who reject Christ’s offer of salvation, the Bible doesn’t speak of immortality and life for them, but death, eternal death and suffering away from the presence of the God of life. And so we share with them, and plead with them and persuade them to trust in Christ because of what’s at stake. But Those of us who have trusted in Christ will experience this immortality – eternal life! Resurrection! We will not be eternal – that’s something that’s true only of God. But life will be ours. And so we read in 2Tim. 1:10 that our Savior Jesus Christ “abolished death and brought life and immortality to life through the gospel.”

v. Lastly, Paul says that God is invisible. This God who is immortal cannot be seen through the eyes of mortal men and women. The verse of one of the great hymn of the faith says “Holy, holy, holy, though the darkness hide thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see.” The God of the Bible is a God that hides Himself and the full display of His glory, for our protection. In Exod. 33:20 the Lord said to Moses, “You cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” It would be too much for us. Think of the prophet Isaiah who is given at least a veiled vision of the Lord in all His glory in the temple. The angels were flying around his throne, and even the angels were covering their eyes as they sung “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa. 6:3). Isaiah’s reaction was terror and emotional devastation: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:5).

vi. And yet the stunning message of the gospel is that this invisible God has become visible. The Son of God taking on a human nature and a human body, veiling His glory, that the very face of God might be seen and touched. The apostle John knew very well that God in all His glory cannot be seen by our mortal eyes, and so he wrote “No one has ever seen God.” And yet John insists that this God has become human in the person of Jesus Christ went on to write this: “the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known!” The message of the gospel is that we cannot work our way to God, and so God has come to us. And so we in ministering to others, we don’t wait for them to come to us. We go to them where they are, because Christ came to us where we are.

c. And so it’s no surprise that Paul goes on to say that this God, this immortal and invisible eternal King is worthy of our worship. To this God, who is also the only God, Paul writes “be glory and honor forever and ever. Amen.” God, the immortal, invisible, eternal King of the ages has become flesh in the person of Jesus Christ specifically to save sinners like you and I – that is the gospel. And that, friends, is why we now ought to strive to live lives of holiness before God. So we pray, we read our Bible, we serve, we go to church, we use our gifts, we worship, we sit under the preaching of the Word, we go home, we love and serve our families, we go to work and are the best employees we can be, we’re

d. Church, I desperately want you to understand this. Some of you in the room this morning – I don’t know who you are, but you do – some of you in the room this morning are caught up in a performance mentality with God. You have an ingrained thought and behavior pattern where you think that God is pleased with you on your good days, unhappy with you on your bad days, and ready to disown you on your worst days. You share your faith, you fight lust, you pray and read your Bible and at the end of the day you’re fairly satisfied that God is happy with you. But on the days when you are not successful with those things, you’re plagued by a general sense that something’s not right, that you’ve lost His approval. It’s a lie. It breaks God’s heart. And it’s killing you. You can’t live that way forever. You’ll never be able to sustain a life of Christian service and obedience if that’s how you look at God.

e. And so my prayer for you this morning is that the Holy Spirit might reveal God to you as He is revealed in Christ, and that you might see that He is good, that He is gracious, that He is already pleased with you if you’ve trusted in Christ, that you might be filled with joy and gratitude and relief, as Paul was, and then that you might be motivated out of that joy and gratitude, to live a life that pleases God – not in order to gain His approval, but because you already have it. Will you stand with me as we pray?

[1] Brannan, R. (Ed.). (2020). Lexham Research Lexicon of the Greek New Testament. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

[2] Ibid., p. 44.

[3] John Calvin’s Commentaries on 1Tim. 1:14.

[4] John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion. Henry Beveridge, trans. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2008), p. 348.

[5] William Hendriksen, Exposition of the Pastoral Epistles. New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1976), p. 75.

[6] Ibid., p. 76.

[7] https://albertmohler.com/2018/01/12/moralism-not-gospel-many-christians-think/ (accessed February 3, 2018).

[8] Hughes & Chapell, p. 45.

[9] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (1 Ti 1:16). Nashville, TN: Broadman Press.

[10] Robert J. Morgan, Preacher’s Sourcebook of Creative Sermon Illustrations (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2007), p. 457.

[11] Hughes & Chapell, p. 45.

[12] Paul V. Harrison, The Classical Study Bible (WORDsearch, 2014), on 1Tim. 1:15.

[13] ISBE, p. 1459.

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