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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Timothy 1:15

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This [is] a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

15. This is a faithful saying ] More exactly, Faithful is the saying, ‘gravissima praefandi formula, says Bengel; the first of five occurrences in these epistles, where only it is found, 1Ti 3:1, 1Ti 4:9; 2Ti 2:11; Tit 3:8. With it we may compare Rev 21:5, and our Lord’s ‘Verily, verily I say unto you.’ The special weight of each maxim or practical instruction thus introduced is examined in Appendix, E. See also Introduction, ch. iii. ii. 1 c, p. 30.

faithful ] That is, trustworthy and claiming implicit credit; more than merely ‘true,’ which is the rendering in the P. Bk. Communion Service, ‘This is a true saying and worthy of all men to be received;’ worthy of all acceptation, of every kind and degree, as there is no article with ‘all’; to be received with every mark of regard and welcome, of confidence and affection.

What is the truth thus heralded? ‘Christ Jesus as God in heaven; Christ Jesus come to this earth to save sinners; Christ Jesus come to save me the chief of sinners.’ It is this personal dealing of the Saviour with the single soul, the personal laying hold by the separate soul of the Saviour’s love and pardon, which is so specially precious to St Paul and gives new lustre to the jewel, the simple creed.

of whom I am chief ] am, shewing his abiding sense of his sinfulness, and this at the close of his life, when he could say ‘I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith, &c.’

‘And they who fain would serve Thee best

Are conscious most of wrong within.’

Cf. 1Co 15:9. So in Act 22:4; Act 22:19; Act 26:9, he takes every opportunity of referring with express self-condemnation to his past life.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

This is a faithful saying – Greek, Faithful is the word, or doctrine – ho logos. This verse has somewhat the character of a parenthesis, and seems to have been thrown into the midst of the narrative because the mind of the apostle was full of the subject. He had said that he, a great sinner, had obtained mercy. This naturally led him to think of the purpose for which Christ came into the world – to save sinners – and to think how strikingly that truth had been illustrated in his own case, and how that case had shown that it was worthy the attention of all. The word rendered saying, means in this place doctrine, position, or declaration. The word faithful, means assuredly true; it was that which might be depended on, or on which reliance might be placed. The meaning is, that the doctrine that Christ came to save sinners might be depended on as certainly true; compare 2Ti 2:11; Tit 3:8.

And worthy of all acceptation – Worthy to be embraced or believed by all. This is so, because:

(1) All are sinners and need a Saviour. All, therefore ought to welcome a doctrine which shows them how they may be saved.

(2) Because Christ died for all. If he had died for only a part of the race, and could save only a part, it could not be said with any propriety that the doctrine was worthy of the acceptance of all. If that were so, what had it to do with all? How could all be interested in it or benefited by it If medicine had been provided for only a part of the patients in a hospital, it could not be said that the announcement of such a fact was worthy the attention of all. It would be highly worthy the attention of those for whom it was designed, but there would be a part who would have nothing to do with it; and why should they concern themselves about it? But if it was provided for each one, then each one would have the highest interest in it. So, if salvation has been provided for me, it is a matter claiming my profoundest attention; and the same is true of every human being. If not provided for me, I have nothing to do with it. It does not concern me at all.

See this subject discussed at length in the supplementary note on 2Co 5:14.

(3) The manner in which the provision of salvation has been made in the gospel is such as to make it worthy of universal acceptation. It provides for the complete pardon of sin, and the restoration of the soul to God. This is done in a way that is honorable to God – maintaining his law and his justice; and, at the same time, it is in a way that is honorable to man. He is treated afterward as a friend of God and an heir of life. He is raised up from his degradation, and restored to the favor of his Maker. If man were himself to suggest a way of salvation, he could think of none that would be more honorable to God and to himself; none that would do so much to maintain the law and to elevate him from all that now degrades him. What higher honor can be conferred on man than to have his salvation sought as an object of intense and earnest desire by one so great and glorious as the Son of God?

(4) It is worthy of all acceptance, from the nature of the salvation itself. Heaven is offered, with all its everlasting glories, through the blood of Christ – and is not this worthy of universal acceptation? People would accept of a coronet or crown; a splendid mansion, or a rich estate; a present of jewels and gold, if freely tendered to them – but what trifles are these compared with heaven! If there is anything that is worthy of universal acceptation, it is heaven – for all will be miserable unless they enter there.

That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – The great and unique doctrine of the gospel. He came into the world. He therefore had a previous existence. He came. He had, therefore, an object in coming. It makes his gospel more worthy of acceptation that he had an intention, a plan, a wish, in thus coming into the world. He came when he was under no necessity of coming; he came to save, not to destroy; to reveal mercy, not to denounce judgment; to save sinners – the poor, the lost, the wandering, not to condemn them; he came to restore them to the favor of God, to raise them up from their degradation, and to bring them to heaven.

Of whom I am chief – Greek, first. The word is used to denote eminence – and it means that he occupied the first rank among sinners. There were none who surpassed him. This does not mean that he had been the greatest of sinners in all respects, but that in some respects he had been so great a sinner, that on the whole there were none who had surpassed him. That to which he particularly refers was doubtless the part which he had taken in putting the saints to death; but in connection with this, he felt, undoubtedly, that he had by nature a heart eminently prone to sin; see Rom. 7. Except in the matter of persecuting the saints, the youthful Saul of Tarsus appears to have been eminently moral, and his outward conduct was framed in accordance with the strictest rules of the law; Phi 3:6; Act 26:4-5. After his conversion, he never attempted to extenuate his conduct, or excuse himself. He was always ready, in all circles, and in all places, to admit to its fullest extent the fact that he was a sinner. So deeply convinced was he of the truth of this, that he bore about with him the constant impression that he was eminently unworthy; and hence he does not say merely that he had been a sinner of most aggravated character, but he speaks of it as something that always pertained to him – of whom I am chief. We may remark:

(1)That a true Christian will always be ready to admit that his past life has been evil;

(2)That this will become the abiding and steady conviction of the soul; and,

(3)That an acknowledgment that we are sinners is not inconsistent with evidence of piety, and with high attainments in it. The most eminent Christian has the deepest sense of the depravity of his own heart and of the evil of his past life.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

1Ti 1:15

This is a faithful saying.

The gospel in a sentence

I. The mission of the Son of God is here set forth–He came into the world. This expression would be an extravagance if it referred only to ordinary human parentage. The pre-existence of our Lord in a higher state was unquestionably an accepted axiom among the early Christians, a commonplace of primitive Christian belief; and we, believing in His deity, offer Him our lowly adoration as well as our thanks and love.

II. The purpose of his mission could not be set forth more clearly and concisely than in the words, He came to save sinners. His object was not to become the temporal king of the Jewish people, nor yet to give the light of scientific, or philosophical, or even ethical knowledge to the Gentiles; but to redeem men from the condemnation of the law, and to deliver them from their sins. To reverence Him as a kingly man, or to honour Him as a great teacher only, is but an imperfect acknowledgment of His claims.

III. The exemplification of this purpose, given by Paul, is drawn from his own experience. He says, respecting himself, of sinners, I am chief. The word sinners is the same as occurs in the ninth verse, where it denotes those for whom the law was a necessity, for rebuke and restraint. Whom the law came to condemn, Jesus came to save. When, under the influence of chloroform, some critical operation is performed, and the patient wakes up to find that it is over, a great feeling of thankfulness rises up in his breast at the whisper, thank God it has been successful, for he knows that life is saved; but he would feel still more thankful if he knew what the skilful surgeon does, that there was only a fractional part of an inch in this direction or in that between him and death. Paul knew better than we do what he had been saved from here and hereafter, and his intensity of feeling about sin was an element in his spiritual greatness. May God give us also humbling views of ourselves and adoring thoughts of Him who has saved us! Conclusion: The truth that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, is worthy of all acceptation. It is a faithful saying, worthy of implicit credence, of absolute reliance, for it will not give way though you lean the whole weight of your souls salvation on it. It is worthy of acceptance by all men. And it is worthy of every kind of acceptation; worthy of being embraced by every faculty of mind, and heart, and will. You may understand it as a theological doctrine, but that is not enough; you may love it as a familiar pleasant-sounding phrase, but that is not enough. It deserves the homage of your entire nature. (A. Rowland, LL. B.)

The object of Christs coming into the world

The person of the Saviour is to be considered; and what think ye of Christ? In the text, it is true, He is described by terms especially significant of His mediatorial character and work–He is called Christ,–a title of office, significant of the proper designation of the worlds Redeemer by the Father, to the distinct and essential offices of Prophet, Priest, and King–the Anointed, the Great Teacher; and who teacheth like Him? the anointed High Priest and the great High Priest who hath offered Himself a sacrifice, once for all, in His own body on the tree–and the anointed King in Zion who sits upon His throne, who rules in the midst of the earth–rules for the subjugation of His enemies, and for the protection of His friends! His advent into our world is here announced. He came–but the very language supposes His pre-existence–He necessarily was before He came into the world–yes, pre-existing with the Divine Father from everlasting; for In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He came into our world after He had been promised, in the earlier periods of time, to the patriarchs–and this promise they saw, and this promise they believed, and this promise they embraced, and they died in the faith of the Redeemer that should come. He curse into the world after He had been shadowed forth by the various types and symbols which marked the Mosaic Institute; and at last, when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. Christ Jesus came into the world. And what a world, my friends! Not a world prepared to greet and hail Him as its Lord–not a world prepared to receive and welcome Him, no! a world of rebels, a world of sinners–a fallen world, a guilty, perishing world, a world that was going down to ruin; and to ruin it inevitably would have gone, had it not been for the intervention of this high, this almighty Deliverer! What, then, was His errand in coming into our world? When God becomes incarnate there must be some mighty object to achieve–there must be some great end to accomplish to justify such an interposition. To this inquiry the text furnishes the answer, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. This was the great object. He came to procure salvation for us–He came that He might bestow salvation upon us–the former in order to the latter. Still, however, though our sin is atoned and salvation procured, an unapplied remedy, you know, is of no service. It is not enough that the ransom has been paid; we must be liberated and share the blessings of freedom. If it be true that Christ has come to procure salvation for us, by His meritorious obedience unto death, then is it equally necessary that He should be exalted to bestow it. He saves from the power of sin by the power of grace richly communicated to the heart of the believer–a power that overturns the power of sin! Yes; and sin shall not have dominion over you, says the apostle; for ye are not under the law but under grace. He saves from all the condemnation and defilement of sin, by the cleansing virtues of His blood, by the healing power of His grace. Still, however, the salvation of Jesus Christ is not merely a negative thing–it consists not merely in deliverance from the guilt and positive evils to which, by sin, we are exposed. He walks in the light of Gods countenance, he derives comfort from the great Fountain of all Consolation; now it is that the Word of God is the rule, now it is that the love of God is the principle, now it is that the glory of God is the grand end of all his actions! But then, we have to leave this world–this is not our home; here we have no continuing place of abode; and we want not only saving while we live, but when we die. The salvation of Jesus is commensurate with all our necessities, it is adequate to all our demands, it contains all that our circumstances require; and He who saves us in life will not abandon us in death! Welt do I remember–never, while memory holds her seat, shall I forget–what was spoken to me by the late Mr. Robert Spence, of York. Passing through that city, I had once an opportunity of calling upon that excellent man, who had himself been a preacher of righteousness for more than half a century; and said he, I thought, ere now, that I would have been at the end of my journey–that ere now I should have arrived at my Fathers house; but it has pleased the Heavenly Grace to spare me a little longer, and I feel considerably stronger than I was. But when I came into this room and happened to pass that glass, I caught a sight of myself–I was struck, said the venerable man; I thought what a little, old, infirm creature I had become–a mere remnant of myself; but instantly, continued he, I lifted up my heart to the Lord, and I was favoured with such a manifestation of His grace and love that, though alone–but he was not alone, for God was with him–I said, Well, welcome, old man! welcome, infirmity! welcome, death! and welcome, heaven! Yes; and the religion of Jesus can make him rejoice in the midst of affliction, and welcome infirmity, welcome old age, and welcome death; because death, to the Christian, is but the gate of life. Then, though the body go down to mingle with the clods of the valley, the ransomed spirit wings its etherial flight to the regions of eternal day! The body, too, is to be saved! One said to me lately, Oh, never mind the body! but Jesus Christ remembers the body. He is the Saviour of the body as well as of the soul; and we look for Him in this way we look for Him that He may change our vile bodies and fashion them like to His own glorious body, according to the working of that mighty power whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.

II. What is the light in which mankind ought to regard this saying? First, as a true saying; and then, as worthy of all acceptation. Let it be remarked, then, that those whom it pleased God to employ in order to propagate this saying, in the first instance, always affirmed that it was true. Besides, the God of essential and eternal truth has been pleased to affix His broad seal to this saying. He could not give His seal to a lie. How is this? Why, He enabled those men to perform miracles in order to attest it. How do you prove, inquired another, that what you declare is true? Bring hither yon leper, excluded from all intercourse with his fellow beings, standing afar off, bring him hither to me, and in the name of this Jesus, and to prove that He came into the world to save sinnners, I pronounce the word, and his leprosy shall immediately depart from him! And it was so! The saying again is pronounced and the question is repeated. Bring hither the dead body, says an apostle, you are about to cast it forth into the tomb; but no, bring it hither; I pronounce the word, and that dead body shall start into life! And it was so! There is another way, however, in which the truth of this saying is to be ascertained, and it is, of all others, the most satisfactory and consoling. It is in the way of experiment, bringing this truth to trial, to the test. How is this? Why, here is a man, and I have now present in my minds eye a case which, I suppose, twenty years ago actually occurred–here is a man who in early youth begins to think it would be to his credit to begin to evince independency of mind, to throw off all the fetters of education and early impressions, and to think for himself. He associates with those who speak with great disrespect of this Divine volume, who begin to sneer, or have been in the habit of sneering, at all serious religion and serious Christians: by and by he begins to imbibe their spirit, and to acquaint himself with all the objections urged against revealed religion; by and by he begins also to sneer and laugh at the Bible, he casts off fear and plunges headlong into infidelity; he is then, perhaps, admired as a man of liberal mind, of genius, and of intelligence; and the individual I refer to was a man of fine understanding and cultivated mind; but by and by disease marked him out as its victim, he saw some of his companions in infidelity die; not one of them died comfortably–some of them died most awfully; he began to consider with himself, Whither, after all, am I going? I never disbelieved the Being of a God; but then, although I have always regarded Him as a good and benevolent Being, have I acted as I should, as a creature–as a dependent being, sustained by His power and bounty? Have I always revered and loved and served Him as I ought? This I have not done! What have I done? I go to my natural religion, as it is sometimes called; I study moral virtue, I endeavour to do good, and thus endeavour to recommend myself to this benevolent Being. But in natural religion he finds no relief for a troubled mind, no balm for a guilty conscience. What, thought he, shall I do? I will have recourse once more to the Bible, I shall begin to read it seriously. He did read it, the more he read it the deeper was the impression on his mind, that this is no human fabrication, in this book surely God has spoken: he read, and on every page he saw something of this Saviour and about this salvation. The thought flashed upon his mind, and he exclaimed, Oh, that this were but true! Oh, that I could believe this! I should find relief immediately: here is a system adapted to my condition. Oh, if it were but true, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, make an atonement for sin, and procure salvation for me! Here is a System that suits my case and provides for my necessities! Oh, that it were true! At last he resolved to make the experiment: he read this book, and sincerely prayed to God to teach him what is truth. I believe he read this very text, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Is this the saying, and is this Jesus the Saviour of sinners? Oh, help me, he prayed, to believe this, teach me to believe this, I desire to believe this, I would believe this! Lord, I believe this–help Thou my unbelief! I venture my soul on this Saviour–I cast myself on this atoning sacrifice. What happened? His chains fell off–his heart was free! His load of guilt was removed, his misery was banished; icy and peace and love unspeakable sprang up in his heart, and his soul began to exult, disburthened of its load. Not many days had elapsed before he met one of his old companions, who had grown gray in infidelity. What is this, he inquired, that I hear of you? I hear you have become a Christian! How do you know that there is a word of truth in the whole affair? How do you know that such a being as Jesus ever existed? Know! was the reply, know! I know it by an argument of which you never were the master, I know it by a process to which you are a total stranger, I know it is true that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, for Jesus Christ has saved me! Well, then, but it is not only a true saying and worthy merely of all attention, examination, and observation, commending itself to the approbation of every well-regulated mind, but it is also worthy of all acceptation. It is worthy of acceptation because of its truth; if not true, it could have no just claim upon–it would be unworthy our acceptation. It is worthy of acceptation, again, because it is so vitally interesting. A thing may be true and yet not interesting to me; but here is a saying which is proved to be true, and which is surpassingly interesting to all the children of men. What so worthy the acceptance of the diseased man, as some sovereign specific which shall not only remove the malady but restore to health and vigour his emaciated frame? The saying has been accepted by the great, the wise, and the good, in different countries and ages of the Church; yes, and some of the greatest and wisest of men that ever lived, of learning, too, various and profound, have received this saying–have stedfastly believed its truth and realized its power. And who art thou who art giving thyself credit for having superior lights and superior intellects? But not only is this saying worthy of acceptance, but of all acceptation–of the acceptance of all. If, in the next place, any portion of our race in any part of our world, could be found, who were absolutely and irrevocably excluded from all interest and benefit in this saying, I honestly confess to you, that I see not how such a portion of our race could regard this saying as worthy their acceptation. That is not, that cannot be worthy my acceptance, in which I cannot, by any possibility, have any interest. And not only is this worthy the acceptation of all, but of the highest acceptation of all. As though the apostle had said, This is no ordinary saying; it is a message from the throne–a message of mercy from the throne; oh, hail it, welcome it, receive it as coming from the throne, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners! And having thus realized the truth and power of this saying ourselves, let us do all that we can to circulate it–let us always speak well of this Jesus, and endeavour to recommend the Saviour to all our fellow creatures. (R. Newton, D. D.)

The faithful saying

I. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

1. Jesus Christ was somewhere in existence before He was seen here. He came into the world. Think of a new planet or star just created in our system and shining forth. We should never say, it is come here; we should say this of a planet or star that had travelled into our system from some distant region. And it was from a region distant indeed that Christ came here, from a heavenly one; and the place He held in that region, was the most distant and the highest. He was not an angel in heaven; He was the everlasting God. He came from the very summit, the lofty throne, of heaven to save us.

2. There are lost sinners in our world, whom it was needful for Christ to come into our world to save. Every man that breathes in our world is a sinner. And every sinner everywhere is necessarily a lost sinner. This is the nature of sin, it ruins whomsoever it touches; ruins him fatally and irrecoverably; in Scripture language, it destroys him. And on this property of sin, the ruinous nature of it, is grounded partly the necessity of Christs interposition in our behalf. We say that His coming from His throne to save us, shows the greatness of His love to us, and so it does; but it shows as plainly the greatness of our misery.

3. And when Christ came into the world to save sinners, He came determined to save them. He knew He could do so, otherwise He would not have come. We do not go to the frozen regions of the north to gather there the flowers and fruits of sunny climes. We never think of going into vaults and charnel houses to raise the dead. Nor would our blessed Lord have come into the world for our salvation, had He not felt as He came, that He could work out salvation for us.

II. The description St. Paul gives us here of the truth he states. He calls it a saying, a faithful saying, and one worthy of all acceptation.

1. It is a saying. And who says it? God Himself, Christ Himself. He might have come into our world, and never have told us that He had come here, or why He had come. And it is not God or Christ only, who says this. The prophets declared it before it took place: the glorious company of the apostles said it afterwards; the noble army of martyrs died rather than not say it; the holy Church throughout all the world has in every age acknowledged it; and as for the Church above, it says this oftener, perhaps, than it says anything else, and loves to say it better. Heaven often resounds with this saying and other sayings like it.

2. And this is a faithful saying, a true one. It is not only said, but it ought to be said, for it is true as truth itself. He had what St. John calls a testimony or witness of this truth within himself. He knew it, just as we know at this moment that our hearts are beating, and our pulses going, and that we are living and breathing men. He had experience of the fact. And valuable as are the many outward testimonies we have to the truth of the gospel, and convincing as they are to a sound, unbiassed judgment, they are all nothing in comparison with this

3. This saying too, we are told, is worthy of all acceptation. The words will admit of two interpretations. It is, first, as our com-reunion service renders the passage, Worthy to be received of all men. Few sayings are so. Many things which we hear are worth no mans attention. They are either false or trifling; they are better not listened to. And others have only a limited interest. They may be worthy of one mans notice, but not another mans, for they do not concern him. This saying, however, concerns every man, and concerns him deeply. O how eagerly will some of us listen to some things I the news of the day perhaps, the scandal of our neighbourhood, and the trifling occurrences that fill up the trifling lives of our fellow-men!–things, it may be, in which we have little more interest than the inhabitants of some distant planet; but this saying, to which sometimes we have scarcely an ear to give, involves in it the highest interests of us all. This saying is worthy also of the utmost reception we can give it, the most entire and cordial acceptance. Some things that we hear are worth putting into our memories but not into our hearts; they are dry matters of fact. But here is something worthy of our memories and hearts also; worthy of being attended to, worthy of being remembered, worthy of being thought on and studied, worthy of being delighted in, worthy of being laid hold of by our whole heart and mind–in this sense, worthy of all acceptation. A feeble or cold reception of this saying is no reception at all of it. Where the gospel saves the soul, the heart first opens itself to receive it, and when it is in the heart, the heart feels it to be its treasure and its joy.

III. The view which the apostle takes of himself while contemplating this truth. Of the sinners, he says, whom Christ Jesus came into the world to save, I am chief. (C. Bradley, M. A.)

Worthy of all acceleration

I. It is worthy of all acceptation because it is the full development of the theme with which revelation is charged; it lies not only in the track, but it is the full outcome of all that God has been aiming at in all His providential guidance and government of men, from the first days of the creation to the hour when the Child was born, the Son was given, whom He had from of old promised to the world. From the first chapter of Genesis to the last chapter of the Apocalypse, the main thread in the Scripture is this work, the saving of sinners. And if we study it we shall find that it is the vital core of all the great movements of human society. The Bible opens with the statement that the great burden of mans existence here is sin, and that the great need of mans being is salvation. The inner meaning of it is true for all time, and is the key, I believe the Divine key, to human history. The theme there is sin, wilful, conscious, guilty transgression, revealed as the root of all mans infirmity, degradation, and misery.

II. It is worthy of all acceptation, for it alone explains and justifies the whole course of human history. This life of ours is altogether too sad, too burdensome, too dark a thing to be suffered to live on, if there be no great hope for the future to lighten it. The world is very beautiful and glorious, you may say; it is a happy thing to be born with faculties finely touched like ours into a world like this. Yes, unspeakably beautiful and glorious is this earth of ours, and our life here might well be a paradise of pure delights. But sin poisons all. Despite of all the beauty, all the joy, the great masterpieces of human thought and utterance are in the minor key. Sadness is the dominant tone in all our literature, sorrow is the staple experience of mankind. I say frankly, that if I were compelled to look at life and the world, cut off from all the comfort and hope which streams down upon us through the Christian faith, I should be sorely tempted to the conclusions of the pessimist philosophy, that there has been some terrible blundering in the constitution of the world. But set in the heart of it all Christs mission to save, and the darkness lights up in a moment. This dread experience of sin becomes through grace a stage in an unending progress. This school of our discipline, this house of our bondage, this field of our conflict, is but a stage of development, a step of progress, and all its deepest experiences have relation to blessed and glorious issues in eternity.

III. It is worthy of all acceptation, for it is essential to the dignity and the worth of life. Is life worth the living? Yes, a thousand times yes, if it is the life of a forgiven man in a redeemed world. What man needs is not to forget sin, to make light of it, to shut out the world of spiritual terrors which it unveils. It will not be shut out. What man needs is free loving and righteous forgiveness–forgiveness which is not a weak winking at transgression, or an idle peace, peace where there is no peace, but a forgiveness resting on an atonement which reveals righteousness, magnifies law, and satisfies the deepest convictions of mans righteous conscience on the one hand, and the holy heart of God on the other. This horrible doctrine of the absolute indelibility of transgression has been the cause of untold anguish through all the ages of human history. Sin must fruit in sorrow, and forgiveness cannot annul the act of sin, or obliterate its issues. But there is an infinite difference between the experience of the man who is working out the penalty of sin, with the sense that behind the sorrow there is the vindictive hand of the law-giver, who will exact the uttermost farthing of retribution, and that of the Christian, who knows that behind all that he endures, and is entirely reconciled to enduring, is the eye and the hand of the Almighty Father of his spirit; an eye which watches his struggles and sorrows with the tenderest compassion, a hand which is guiding and ruling all the discipline to blessed and glorious issues in eternity. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation; for through it, where sin abounded grace doth much more abound; that, as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign, through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.

IV. It is worthy of all acceptation, because, while it lends dignity and worth to life, it alone lends hope to immortality. An essential part of the benign work of love is the reconciliation of man with law. Forgiveness is a blessed fact, unspeakably blessed, but chiefly as the means of realizing a still more blessed fact–purification. On that absolutely the well-being and the bliss of the soul rests in eternity. And what is the cry of all the nobler heathen faiths? Deliverance from self. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, because it is charged for man with the promise of eternal life; not eternal existence under these dread and soul-crushing conditions, but eternal life, free, pure, noble, blessed life, finding its spring of perennial joy and fruitfulness in the sunlight of the face of God. The salvation which is by Christ Jesus offers to man not only pardon and peace, but renewing, restoration; a new heart, a new life, a new power, a new supreme attraction, drawing man ever by its sweet but resistless constraints into closest and holiest fellowship with the life of God through eternity. And this is Christianity. (J. B. Brown, B. A.)

The world small for so great a transaction as redemption

It seems a little place, this world of ours, to be the scene of such transcendent transactions. But size, as we measure it, counts for nothing on high; as far as we can see, it is the method of God every where to work from what man calls insignificant centres over vast areas of life. It is emphatically thus in history. England is but a little country, Greece was less, Judea least of all; and yet from these intense radiating centres influences have streamed forth which will be fruitful of high results throughout eternity. The cultivated homes of men are but little oases in the midst of desert and ocean spaces, of vast extent and dreary monotony; fruitless and useless in our weak judgment; though we are now beginning to see that they are essential to the high development of the limited regions which can nourish the noblest forms of life. Who shall tell what is to grow out of the transactions of which this little, but most highly developed and glorious, earth has been the theatre, to the great universe and the kingdom of heaven in eternity? (J. B. Brown, B. A.)

The gospel and its recommendation

I. The gospel. It means good news. Here is a man ill; the word that tells him how he may be cured of his disease is gospel–good news. It claims to be the best news. Such is our text, and that because it tells about three things–

1. It tells of a divinely-appointed Saviour. It tells of Christ Jesus, and there is gospel in the very name. I thank God for that name. I have sometimes ventured to compare it to what we are all familiar with–the sign-board above a shop-door, telling what is to be got there; or the name on the door of a lawyer or physician, telling what men may expect there. A sick man sees the doctors name on his door, and applies to him without hesitation. He says, The man is a physician, a doctor; that is his profession; he is there for the very purpose of receiving and curing the sick and dying, and I have a claim on his services which he cannot, dare not, refuse. And so here is One who has His name, as it were, on His door; His profession, His business described in His very name–Jesus. It tells His occupation–the Saviour. But He is also spoken of as the Christ, that is, the Anointed One. Let us go back to the olden times again. There is one who has been guilty of some sin, which lies heavy on his conscience and heart. He takes the prescribed offering, a lamb, and goes with it to the priest, that that lamb may suffer and die for him, as his sacrifice, his substitute; and when its blood is shed, his sin is atoned for and put away. But the question comes up, Is He a right priest? Has He a Divine commission? Yes; because He is anointed, the holy oil was poured on Him, setting Him apart to the holy office; and as He is an anointed priest, there is no cause to fear. Or take another case: a crime has been committed, and the offender is sent to the king, who alone can give pardon for such an offence. The pardon is given; the man hears it from the kings own lips. But here, too, the doubt arises, Has He a right to give it? Is He commissioned to grant a pardon? Is He the real king? Will the pardon stand? Yes; because the holy anointing oil was poured on Him, which marks Him out as me God-anointed king. And like other great official persons, He carries His credentials with Him.

2. It tells of the mission and work of Christ. By His mission, I mean His being sent, His coming on His great errand of mercy and love. Christ Jesus came into the world. What a word of wonder is this! I have been in one of our Highland cottages, and have had the place pointed out where our Queen has sat. There is a sacredness about the spot that can hardly be told, so that you scarcely wonder that some of our humble Scottish peasants have said, None shall ever sit on that seat again! You can fancy the mingled pride and enthusiasm with which they tell of the condescension of the greatest sovereign in the world visiting their lowly dwellings.

She came into this humble cottage of mine! And yet what was that to this–Christ Jesus came into the world? There is a lazar-house for the reception of lepers in all the stages of their dreadful disease. No man who enters comes out but for burial. One of these good, devoted men, the Moravian Brethren, has his heart filled with compassion for the sufferers, and with the desire to point them to Christ and to heaven; and knowing that he bids a life-long farewell to all outside, he cheerfully enters, and the door closes, shutting him up in a kind of living grave. You say, What a marvel of love and pity! And yet, what are all these as compared with this–Christ Jesus came into the world? And then, in regard to the work which He came into the world to do, notice the words–to save sinners! Most wonderful of all! Strangers, enemies, rebels–these are some of the descriptions that you have in the Word of God of those whom He came to save.

3. It tells of the objects of His care and love. I have spoken of these, in the general, as sinners. We now get a step further forward–sinners of whom I am chief, or first.

II. Having spoken of the gospel itself, I ask your attention now to its recommendation: This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation.

1. It is true. The great drawback about many things that are very attractive is that they are not true. You have met with some entertaining volume. It interests you deeply, and lays thorough hold of your heart. You would rather lose a meal, or an afternoons play, or an hours sleep, than lay aside your book. And as you finish the reading of it, with the tear in your eye, and your young heart beating quick, you say, That is a fine story, a wonderful story. I have seldom read anything like it. Ay, but do you know it is not true; it is just made up; it is all unreal. Sometimes you have pleasant dreams; you are happy as can be; you have gained some object on which your hearts have long been set; but you suddenly wake up, and it is but an empty dream. Friends who have come home from India have told us, that when passing through the desert, they have seen the mirage, with its grassy slopes and graceful trees casting their shadow on the lake beside which they seem to be growing, most beautiful to the eye; but it is only a vision, and in a moment vanishes out of sight. But I have this to say in favour of the wondrous gospel story, that it is true. I wonder if you ever got the length of doubting it? There is an old man who is often to be found in his humble cottage, with his large family Bible spread out before him, always open at the 14th chapter of John. A youth, who is a frequent visitor, coming in to ask for him, says, I wonder why you are so often reading these words, when you know them all by heart; I should be for reading what I did not know. Well, master, is the old mans reply, you are right enough, I dare say; but it seems to do me good to get a look at the real words; it helps an old mans faith, for when I see them, I say, There they be, and I cannot doubt them. You see the thought of a mansion in heaven for an old sinner like me, and my Lord going before to prepare it, and coming back to take me to it–why, it is all so wonderful, that if I could not get a look at the words sometimes, I am afraid I should be just doubting again.

2. It is trustworthy. Paul tells here that he has tried it, he has made the experiment, and can now recommend it from personal experience. I fear to trust myself on such a slender support, and gaze with dismay upon the abyss below. I look for another way, but there is none. At length I hear a voice from the other side saying, The plank bears; I have tried it; I have crossed it; it will bear you; plant your foot firmly on it, and you will get safely across. I look across, and see a man larger and heavier than myself; and when I see him, I pluck up heart, plant my foot on the plank, and cross in safety; and once I am over, I too can testify, The plank bears; I can say, It is trustworthy; I can give others the benefit of my experience: It has saved me, and now I can recommend it to you.

3. It is all-important. It is worthy of all acceptation, and therefore of all attention. It is no trifling matter.

4. It is welcome-worthy. It is spoken of here as being worthy of all acceptation. Oh, that dreary gospel, I think I hear some one saying, I suppose we must needs have to do with it, or we cannot be saved. It is very much like a medicine. I am ill, I must take it, or I shall not recover, but it is bitter and repulsive. Not so, says Paul; this gospel is worthy of all welcome. I might compare it to those letters from beloved friends, which the arrival of the mail from some distant country brings to us. (J. H. Wilson, M. A.)

For whom is the gospel meant

I. Even a superficial glance at our Lords mission suffices to show that His work was for the sinful.

1. For the descent of the Son of God into this world as a Saviour implied that men needed to be delivered from a great evil by a Divine hand. You would never have seen a Saviour if there had not been a fall. Edens withering was a necessary preface to Gethsemanes groaning.

2. If we give a glance at the covenant under which our Lord came, we soon perceive that its bearing is towards guilty men. If there had been no sins and iniquities, and no unrighteousness, then there had been no need of the covenant of grace, of which Christ is the messenger and the ambassador.

3. Whenever we hear the mission of Christ spoken of it is described as one of mercy and of grace. In the redemption which is in Christ Jesus it is always the mercy of God that is extolled–according to His mercy He saved us.

4. The fact is, when we begin to study the gospel of the grace of God we see that it turns its face always towards sin, even as a physician looks towards disease, or as charity looks towards distress.

5. The gospel representations of itself usually look sinner-ward. The great king who makes a feast finds not a guest to sit at the table among those who were naturally expected to come, but from the highways and hedges men are compelled to come in.

6. And ye know that the gospel has always found its greatest trophies amongst the most sinful: it enlists its best soldiers not only from amongst the guilty, but from amongst the most guilty.

II. The more closely we look the more clear this fact becomes, for the work of salvation was certainly not performed for any one of us who are saved on account of any goodness in us.

1. All the gifts which Jesus Christ came to give, or at least most of them, imply that there is sin. What is His first gift but pardon? How can He pardon a man who has not transgressed?

2. Our Lord Jesus Christ came girded also with Divine power. He says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. To what end was He girded with Divine power unless it be because sin had taken all power and strength from man?

3. I will not omit to say that the great deeds of our Lord, if you look at them carefully, all bear upon sinners. Jesus lives; it is that He may seek and save that which is lost. Jesus dies; it is that He may make a propitiation for the sins of guilty men. Jesus rises; He rises again for our justification, and, as I have shown, we should not want justification unless we had been naturally guilty. Jesus ascends on high, and He receives gifts for men; but note that special word, Yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God may dwell among them.

4. And all the gifts and blessings that Jesus Christ has brought to us derive much of their radiance from their bearing upon sinners. It is in Christ Jesus that we are elect, and to my mind the glory of electing love lies in this, that it pitched upon such undeserving objects.

III. Now it is evident that it is our wisdom to accept the situation.

IV. This doctrine has a great sanctifying influence.

1. Its first operation in that direction is this: when the Holy Spirit brings the truth of free pardon home to a man it completely changes his thoughts concerning God. What, says he, has God freely forgiven me all my offences for Christs sake? And does He love me notwithstanding all my sin?

2. Moreover, this grand truth does more than turn a man, it in spires, melts, enlivens, and inflames him. This is a truth which stirs the deeps of the heart, and fills the man with lively emotions.

3. Besides, this truth when it enters the heart deals a deadly blow at the mans self-conceit.

4. Moreover, where this truth is received there is sure to spring up in the soul a sense of gratitude.

5. And I think you will all see that free forgiveness to sinners is very conducive towards one part of a true character, namely, readiness to forgive others. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

A faithful saying

I. Here is a wonderful saying. It was but thirty years since the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ had been preached, yet these words had become a saying, a blessed proverb. It summed up briefly and yet fully the source and purpose of the gospel–its height and depth, its length and breadth. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Look into it. No such wonderful saying was ever heard in the world before or since. The Jew was willing to believe that the God of Israel could admit into His high presence the holy men to whom He had entrusted some great enterprise, and who had proved themselves worthy of such an exceeding honour. Abraham, Moses, Elijah–for such men God might come in all the majesty of His splendour and commune with them. The Greeks believed that for the gifted and the great, for splendid heroes who had wrought prodigies of valour on the battle-fields or in the games, the gods might stoop to give some token of their favour and protection. That was familiar enough. But that God should care so much for men who had slighted Him, and forgotten Him, and insulted Him, and rebelled against Him! That God should care for coarse, low, ignorant people, whom it was a disgrace to notice, and who were incapable of any goodness! This was ridiculous, worse than merely incredible. To the Greeks such an idea was a folly, to the Jews it was an offence. Yet still more wonderful was the saying–that God, the God of Glory, should come down as a man, should become one of us and one with us, taking upon Himself not only our nature, but our curse–the awful load of the worlds sin; and that He should bear for us all shame and agony!

II. Experience has proved it a faithful saying. The early disciples passed from one to another, setting their seal to its truth, until it came to be supported by a host of witnesses. And since St. Paul wrote that, the great cloud of witnesses has ever been growing. There is nothing in the world to-day that has such testimonies to commend it as this gospel of our salvation. I call up the memory of saintly men and women in my own little native town, dear old souls, many of them poor, but with such purity in their faces, such love in their hearts, such peace in their lives. With others life was a hot and fevered unrest, but about these there was an atmosphere of holy calm. What was it that made them so bright, so happy, so hopeful, that kings might well have envied them? They are ready with the reason–It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Go to-day whither you will, north or south, east or west, and find the homes that are happiest, the lives that are sweetest, the souls that are sunniest, the hearts and hands that are most eager and most earnest in helping others–you shall find it amongst those who set their seal to this as true–It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Come yet again and stand by the deathbed; that rends the veil from all pretences. I see the face pinched and pale with sickness, yet is it lit up with a brightness as if the eyes did look within the veil. Fear is gone, and all is peace. Bend and listen as the lips are parted for their last utterance. It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. My brother, this gospel is no fancy of fanatics; no delusion of the dark ages. Nothing in this world comes to us so hallowed and so commended. Can I find another Christ Jesus? Can I find another salvation which comes with such evidence of its faithfulness as this? Surely it is worth my accepting. I will take for my own that Saviour who has come into the world to save sinners. If this is a faithful saying, then are there three things that do greatly concern us every one.

1. If Jesus Christ has come into the world to save us, then we must be in great danger. Whatever is the use of trying to save a man if he is not in any peril!

2. If this be a faithful saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, then surely none but Jesus Christ can save me. My struggles and resolutions cannot avail, or Christ need not have come.

3. If this be a faithful saying that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, then He has come to save me. If He has come to save sinners He means people who have sinned–real sinners–not good people who call themselves sinners be cause it sounds humble. The desperate cases are those which my Lord ever seeks first of all. Luther tells us, once upon a time the devil said to him, Master Luther, thou art a great sinner, and thou wilt be damned. Stop, stop, I said, one thing at a time. I am a great sinner, it is true–though thou hast no right to say so. I confess it. What next? Therefore thou shalt be damned, quoth he. That is not good reasoning, said I It is true that I am a great sinner–but it is written, Christ Jesus came to save sinners: therefore I shall be saved! Now go thy way. So did I cut off the devil with his own sword, and he went away sorrowing, because he could not cast me down by calling me a sinner. (M. G. Pearse.)

Christs power to save

I seem to see Saul rising on that road to Damascus, brushing the dust from his cloak, and wiping the perspiration from his excited brow, and then swinging out his hands towards all ages as he cries, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. In my church in Brooklyn, at the close of the service one day, a man came from the back part of the house and sat down near the pulpit. I saw him waiting, so I came down at the close of the service, and asked him if he would not go in amongst those making inquiry for their souls. He said, No, sir; you cannot do me any good. I came from the Far West, but you cannot do me any good. The gospel is not for me–I am a victim of strong drink. He said, I wont tell you my name; you know it. I rose to be one of the first men of my State. I have a beautiful wife and beautiful children, but am bringing them all to ruin. I thought if I came here I could be saved; but find I cant. Yesterday I was coming down on the Hudson River train. There was a man sitting beside me with a flask of strong drink. He asked me if I would have some of it. I said No; but, oh, how I wanted it! The arid tongue of the liquor seemed thrusting itself from the side of the cork, and I felt I must fly from that presence. I went to the platform of the train and thought I would jump off; but we were going at the rate of forty miles an hour, and I came back. That thirst is on me, and you cannot do me any good. I said, You do not know the grace of God. Come in here, and we will pray for you. We prayed for him, and I then went to the drug store, and said to the doctor, Can you give this man anything to help him to destroy that thirst? Well, the physician put up a bottle to help him. I said, Give him a little more, and he put up another bottle. I then said to the man, Put your trust in God, and when this paroxysm comes on take your medicine. He passed away from me into Boston, and was gone from me some weeks, when I got a letter enclosing the small amount of money I had paid for the medicine, and saying, Thank God, Mr. Talmage, I have got cured, and the fear of the thirst is put off, and I have not taken any of the medicine. I am preaching every night on righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, in one of our large halls, and I send you two papers to show how the Lord is blessing me. I have heard from him since, and the Lord has seen him through, and will see him through. Oh, the grace of God! Try! Try it! (T. De Witt Talmage.)

The mission of Christ to the worst

All the great hereditary and historical religions of mankind, both of the East and the West, are religions designed for morally respect able people, for men who, in their own opinion, are good and deserving persons, or are earning merit and future bliss by trying to become so. That was and is the essence of Bhuddism, of Brahminism, of Laoutsaism, of Islam, and of the natural, philosophical religions of Europe and America. They are the religions of men who are going about, like the Jews of the first century–the Jews of corrupted Judaism, to establish their own righteousness and title to immortal life, or to Nirvana. The genuine Christianity, taught by the Lord Jesus, the Christ of God, the one genuine message of the Eternal Creator to the human race, is the one and only religion proposed to, and pressed upon, the wicked. It is sent forth over all the world, as salvation for the lost, as complete and immediate salvation. (E. White.)

The sinners door

When I began my ministry in Dundee, I had the privilege of meeting many of those who were blessed under the preaching of the sainted Murray MCheyne, I was told of one case of conversion which is rather peculiar. The person was much troubled, his mind was filled with gloomy darkness, and he had no peace nor rest. One day, as MCheyne was preaching to Christians, not to those outside of Christs fold, the man got peace. After the service he went round to the vestry to see the minister, who did not need to inquire if the visitor had got peace, it shone in his face; so he simply asked, How did you get it? He answered, All the time Ive been trying to enter in at the saints door, but while you were speaking I saw my mistake, and entered in at the sinners door. It is the only way; you need not come to God as a saint, or a pretty good sort of a person, but simply as a sinner, wanting and needing salvation. (W. Riddell.)

A gospel text

Mr. William White, one of the London City Missionaries, relates the following interesting fact: Some years ago, through the kindness of the late Joseph Sturge, Esq., of Birmingham, a large grant of copies of The British Workman was made to the London City Mission, a portion of which was allotted for my district. Some time after distributing my share of that grant in my district, I visited a man who was very ill. After some conversation, I said, Well, my friend, the best news that any one can ever bring you is contained in this text from the Bible, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. His face was immediately lit up with a smile, and raising himself in the bed, he pointed to the patched window and said, Oh, sir, I know that already. Look there: thats a piece of the paper you once gave me. My wife tore it up, and mended the window with just that piece of it that has that text on it. And since Ive laid here, day after day, Ive read it over and over till Ive got it off by heart. The City Missionary adds: I believe the Holy Spirit made that text on the patched window a blessing to the mans soul. Of whom I am chief.–

The chief sinners objects of the choicest mercy

I. The salvation of sinners was the main design of Christs coming into the world.

II. God often makes the chiefest sinners objects of His choicest mercy. For the last, that God doth so, observe–

1. God hath formerly made invitations to such. See what a black generation they were (Isa 50:1-11.) by the scroll of their sins. They were rebels, and rebels against Him that had nursed them: I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me (Isa 1:2). He comes to charge them laden with iniquity (verse 4). They had been incorrigible under judgments. “Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye will revolt more and more” (Isa 1:5).

2. God hath given examples of it in Scripture. Manasseh is an eminent example of this doctrine. His story (2Ch 23:1-21.) represents him as a black devil, if all the aggravations of his sins be considered.

(1) It was against knowledge. He had a pious education under a religious father. An education usually leaves some tinctures and impressions of religion.

(2) His place and station: a king. Sins of kings are like their robes, more scarlet and crimson than the sins of a peasant. Their example usually, infects their subjects.

(3) Restoration of idolatry.

(4) Affronting God to His very face. He sets up his idols, as it were, to nose God, and built altars in the house of the Lord, and in the two courts of His temple, whereof God had said He would have His name there for ever (verses 4, 5, 7).

(5) Murder. Perhaps of his children, which he caused to pass through the fire as an offering to his idol (verse 6); it may be it was only for purification. Moreover, Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he filled Jerusalem with blood from one end to the other (2Ki 21:16).

(6) Covenant with the devil. He used enchantments and witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit (2Ki 21:6).

(7) His other mens sins. He did not only lead the people by his example, but compelled them by his commands: So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen God had rooted out (2Ch 23:9), to make room for them. Hereby he contracted the guilt of the whole nation upon himself.

(8) Obstinacy against admonitions: God spake to him and his people, but they would not hearken, or alter their course (2Ki 21:10).

(9) Continuance in it. He ascended the throne young, at twelve years old (verse 1). It is uncertain how long he continued in this sin.

3. It was Christs employment in the world to court and gain such kind of creatures. The first thing He did, while in the manger, was to snatch some of the devils prophets out of his service, and take them into His own (Mat 2:1), some of the Magi, who were astrologers and idolaters. To call sinners to repentance, was the errand of His coming. And He usually delighted to choose such that had not the least pretence to merit (Mar 2:17): Matthew, a publican; Zaccheus, an extortioner, store of that generation of men and harlots, and very little company besides. He chose His attendants out of the devils rabble; and He was more Jesus, a Saviour, among this sort of trash, than among all other sorts of people, for all His design was to get clients out of hell itself. What was that woman that He must needs go out of His way to convert? A harlot (Joh 4:18), an idolater; for the Samaritans had a mixed worship, a linsey-woolsey religion, and, upon that account, were hateful to the Jews. What was that Canaanitish woman who had so powerful a faith infused? One sprung of a cursed stock, hateful to God, rooted out of the pleasant land, a dog, not a child; she comes a dog, but returns a child.

4. The commission Christ gave to His apostles was to this purpose. He bids them proclaim the promise free to all: Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature (Mar 16:15). All the world; every creature. He put no difference between men in this respect, though you meet with them in the likeness of beasts and devils, never so wicked, never so abominable. This commission is set out by the parable of a king commanding his servants to fetch the maimed, halt, and blind, with their wounds, sores, and infirmities about them (Luk 14:21; Luk 14:23).

5. The practice of the Spirit after Christs ascension to lay hold of such persons.

(1) Some out of the worst families in the world; one out of Herods (Act 13:1), Now there were in the Church that was at Antioch certain prophets and teachers, as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. It is likely to this intent the Holy Ghost takes particular notice of the place of Manaens education, when the families where the rest named with him were bred up are not mentioned. Some rude and rough stones were taken out of Neros palace. Yet some of this monsters servants became saints (Php 4:22): All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesars household. To hear of saints in Neros family is as great a prodigy as to hear of saints in hell.

(2) Some of the worst vices. The Ephesians were as bad as any, such that Paul calls darkness itself (Eph 5:8). Great idolaters. The temple of Diana, adored and resorted to by all Asia and the whole world, was in that city (Act 19:27). Take a view of another corporation, of Corinth, of as filthy persons as ever you heard of, such were some of you (1Co 6:11). Well, then, how many flinty rocks has God dissolved into a stream of tears I Great sins are made preparations by God to some mens conversion; not in their own nature (that is impossible), but by the wise disposal of God, which Mr. Burgess illustrates thus: as a child whose coat is but a little dirty has it not presently washed; but when he comes to fall over head and ears in the mire, it is taken off, and washed immediately. So when a wicked man falls into some grievous sin, which his conscience frowns upon him and lashes him for, he looks out for a shelter, which in all his peaceable wickedness he never did.

III. Why God chooses the greatest sinners, and lets His elect run on so far in sin before He turns them.

1. There is a passive disposition in the greatest sinners, more than in moral or superstitious men, to see their need; because they have not any self-righteousness to boast of. This self-righteous temper is like an external heat got into a body, which produceth an hectic fever, and is not easily perceived till it be incurable; and naturally it is a harder matter to part with self-righteousness than to part with gross sins, for that is more deeply rooted upon the stock of self-love, a principle which departs not from us without our very nature; it hath more arguments to plead for it, it hath a natural conscience, a patron of it; whereas a great sinner stands speechless at reproofs, and a faithful monitor has a good second and correspondent of natural conscience within a mans own breast. Just as travellers that have loitered away their time in an alehouse, being sensible how the darkness of the night creeps upon them, spur on, and outstrip those that were many miles on their way, and get to their stage before them; so these publicans and harlots, which were at a great distance from heaven, arrived there before those, who like the young man, were not far off from it. As metals of the noblest substance are hardest to be polished, so men of the most generous, natural, and moral endowments are with more difficulty argued into a state of Christianity than those of more drossy conversations.

2. To show the insufficiency of nature to such a work as conversion is, that men may not fall down and idolize their own wit and power. Two things are certain in nature:

(1) Natural inclinations never change, but by some superior virtue. A loadstone will not cease to draw iron while that attractive quality remains in it. The wolf can never love the lamb, nor the lamb the wolf; nothing but must act suitably to its nature; water cannot but moisten, fire cannot but burn; so likewise the corrupt nature of man, being possessed with an invincible contrariety and enmity to God, will never suffer him to comply with God. And the inclinations of a sinner to sin being more strengthened by the frequency of sinful acts, have as great a power over him, and as natural to him, as any qualities are to natural agents; and being stronger than any sympathies in the world, cannot by a mans own power, or the power of any other nature equal to it, be turned into a contrary channel.

(2) Nothing can act beyond its own principle and nature. Nothing in the world can raise itself to a higher rank of being than that which nature hath placed it in. A spark cannot make itself a star, though it mount a little up to heaven; nor a plant endue itself with sense, nor a beast adorn itself with reason, nor a man make himself an angel. It is Christs conclusion, How can you, being evil, speak good things? (Mat 12:33-34). Not so much as the buds and blossoms of words, much less the fruit of actions. They can no more change their natures than a viper can cashier his poison. Now, though this I have said be true, yet there is nothing man does more affect in the world than a self-sufficiency and an independency upon any other power but his own. This temper is as much riveted in his nature as any other false principle whatsoever; for man does derive it from his first parents, as the prime legacy bequeathed to his nature. If a putrefied rotten carcase should be brought to life, it could never be thought that it inspired itself with that active principle. God lets men run on so far in sin, that they do unman themselves, that he may proclaim to all the world that we are unable to do anything of ourselves at first towards our recovery without a superior principle. The evidence of which will appear if we consider–

1. Mans subjection under sin. He is sold under sin (Rom 7:14), and brought into captivity to the law of sin (verse 23); law of sin, that sin seems to have a legal authority over him; and man is not only a slave to one sin, but divers(Tit 1:3), serving divers lusts.

2. Mans affection to them. Pie doth not only serve them, but he serves them, and every one of them, with delight and pleasure (Tit 3:3). They were all pleasures as well as lusts, friends as well as lords. Will any man leave his voluptuousness, and such sins that please and flatter his flesh? No piece of dirty muddy clay can form itself into a neat and handsome vessel; no plain piece of timber can fit itself for the building, much less a crooked one; nor a man that is born blind give himself eyes.

IV. Gods regard for His own glory.

1. The glory of His patience. We wonder, when we see a notorious sinner, how God can let His thunders still lie by Him, and His sword rust in His sheath. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim; for I am God, and not man (Hos 11:9). If a man did inherit all the meekness of all the angels and all the men that ever were in the world, he could not be able to bear with patience the extravagances and injuries done in the world the space of one day; for none but a God, i.e., one infinitely longsuffering, can bear with them. Not a sin passed in the world before the coming of Christ in the flesh but was a commendatory letter of Gods forbearance, To declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God (Rom 3:25). And not a sin passed before the coming of Christ into the soul but gives the same testimony, and bears the same record. Howbeit, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him (verse 16). This was Christs end in letting him run so far, that He might show forth not a few mites, grains, or ounces of patience, but all longsuffering, longsuffering without measure, or weight, by wholesale; and this as a pattern to all ages of the world; , for a type: a type is but a shadow in respect of the substance. To show that all the ages of the world should not waste that patience, whereof He had then manifested but a pattern. A pattern, we know, is less than the whole piece of cloth from whence it is cut; and as an essay is but a short taste of a mans skill, and doth not discover all his art, as the first miracle Christ wrought, of turning water into wine, as a sample of what power He had, was less than those miracles which succeeded; and the first miracle God wrought in Egypt, in turning Aarons rod into a serpent, was but a sample of His power which would produce greater wonders; so this patience to Paul was but a little essay of His meekness, a little patience cut off from the whole piece, which should always be dealing out to some sinners or other, and would never be cut wholly out till the world had left being. This sample or pattern was but of the extent of a few years; for Paul was but young, the Scripture terms him a young man (Act 7:58), about thirty-six years of age, yet he calls it all longsuffering. Ah, Paul! some since have experienced more of this patience; in some it has reached not only to thirty, but forty, fifty, or sixty years.

2. Grace. It is partly for the admiration of this grace that God intends the day of judgment. It is a strange place: When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day (2Th 1:10). It is the glory of a man to pass by an offence (Pro 19:11), i.e. it is a manifestation of a property which is an honour to him to be known to have. If it be thus an honour to pass by an offence simply, then the greater the offence is, and the more the offences are which he passeth by, the greater must the glory needs be, because it is a manifestation of such a quality in greater strength and vigour. So it must argue a more exceeding grace in God to remit many and great sins in man, than to forgive only some few and lesser offences.

(1) Fulness of His grace. He shews hereby that there is more grace in Him than there can be sin in us or the whole world. That grace should rise in its tide higher than sin, and bear it down before it, just as the rolling tide of the sea riseth higher than the streams of the river, and beats them back with all their mud and filth. It was mercy in God to create us; it is abundant mercy to make any new creatures, after they had forfeited their happiness (1Pe 1:3).

(2) Freeness of grace. None can entertain an imagination that Christ should be a debtor to sin, unless in vengeance, much less a debtor to the worst of sinners. But if Christ should only take persons of moral and natural excellencies, men might suspect that Christ were some way or other engaged to them, and that the gift of salvation were limited to the endowments of nature, and the good exercise and use of a mans own will. Therefore it is frequently Gods method in Scripture, just before the offer of pardon, to sum up the sinners debts, with their aggravations; to convince them of their insolvency to satisfy so large a score, and also to manifest the freeness and vastness of His grace (Isa 43:22-24). It is so free, that the mercy we abuse, the Name we have profaned, the Name of which we have deserved wrath, opens its mouth with pleas for us (Eze 36:21). Not for their sakes. It should be wholly free; for He repeats their profaning of His name four times. This name He would sanctify, i.e., glorify. How? In cleansing them from their filthiness (verse 25). His name, while it pleads for them, mentions their demerits, that grace might appear to be grace indeed, and triumph in its own freeness.

(3) Extent of His grace. The mercy of God is called His riches, and exceeding riches of grace. He pardons iniquities for His names sake; and who can spell all the letters of His name, and turn over all the leaves in the book of mercy? Who shall say to His grace, as He does to the sea, Hitherto shalt thou go, and no further? His exchequer is never empty; Keeps mercy for thousands (Exo 34:7), in a readiness to deal it upon thousand millions of sins as well as millions of persons. He hath a cleansing virtue and a pardoning grace for all iniquities and transgressions (Jer 33:8).

(4) Compassion of His grace. The formal nature of mercy is tenderness, and the natural effect of it is relief. The more miserable the object, the more compassionate human mercy is, and the more forward to assist. Now that mercy which in man is a quality in God is a nature. How would the infinite tenderness of His nature be discovered, if there were no objects to draw it forth? Now the greater the disease, the greater is that compassion discovered to be wherewith God is so fully stored.

(5) Sincerity anal pleasure of His grace. Ordinary pardon proceeds from His delight in mercy; Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage. He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy (Mic 7:18). If He were not sincere, He would never change the heart of an enemy, and shew kindness to him in the very act of enmity; for the first act of grace upon us is quite against our wills. It is so much His delight, that it is called by the very name of His glory; The glory of the Lord shall follow thee (Isa 58:8): i.e. the mercy of the Lord shall follow them at the very heels. Christ does not care for staying where He has not opportunities to do great cures, suitable to the vastness of His power (Mar 6:5).

3. Power. The Scriptures make conversion a most wonderful work, and resemble it to creation, and the resurrection of Christ from the dead, etc. What vast power must that be that can change a black cloud into a glorious sun? This and more doth God do in conversion. He doth not only take smooth pieces of the softest matter, but the ruggedest timber full of knots, to plane and show both His strength and art upon.

4. Wisdom. A new creature is a curious piece of Divine art, fashioned by Gods wisdom to set for the praise of the framer, as a poem is, by a mans reason and fancy, to publish the wit and parts of the composer. It is a great skill of an artificer, with a mixture of a few sands and ashes, by his breath to blow up such a clear and diaphanous body as glass, and frame several vessels of it for several uses. It is not barely his breath that does it, for other men have breath as well as he; but it is breath managed by art. And is it not a marvellous skill in God to make a miry soul so pure and crystalline on a sudden, to endue an irrational creature with a Divine nature, and by a powerful word to frame so beautiful a model as a new creature is! The more intricate and knotty any business is, the more eminent is a mans ability in effecting it. This wisdom appears–

(1) In the subjects He chooseth. We will go no further than the example in our text. Our apostle seems to be a man full of heat and zeal. I say, to turn these affections and excellencies to run in a heavenly channel, and to guide this natural passion and heat for the service and advancement of that interest which before he endeavoured to destroy, and for the propagation of that gospel which before he persecuted, is an effect of a wonderful wisdom; as it is a riders skill to order the mettle of a headstrong horse for his own use to carry him on his journey.

(2) This wisdom appears in the time. As mans wisdom consists as well in timing his actions as contriving the models of them, so doth Gods. He lays hold of the fittest opportunities to bring His wonderful providences upon the stage. His timing of His grace was excellent in the conversion of Paul.

(a) In respect of Himself. There could not be a fitter time to glorify His grace than when Paul was almost got to the length of his chain; almost to the sin against the Holy Ghost. Christ suffered him to run to the brink of hell before He laid hold upon him.

(b) In respect of others. Behold the nature of this lion changed, just as he was going to fasten upon his prey. And was it not a fit time, when the devil hoped to rout the Christians by him, when the high priests assured themselves success from this mans passionate zeal, when the Church travailed with throws of fear of him?

(3) This wisdom appears to keep up the credit of Christs death. The great excellence of Christs sacrifice, wherein it transcends the sacrifices under the law, is because it perfectly makes an atonement for all sins; it first satisfies God, and then calms the conscience, which they could not do (Heb 10:1-2), for there was a conscience of sin after their sacrifices. Not a light, but a great transgression. Now, if Christs death be not satisfactory for great debts, Christ must be too weak to perform what God intended by Him, and so infinite wisdom was frustrate of its intention, which cannot, nor ought not, to be imagined. Now, therefore, God takes the greatest sinners, to show–

(a) First, the value of this sacrifice. If God should only entertain men of a lighter guilt, Christs death would be suspected to be too low a ransom for monstrous enormities.

(b) The virtue of this sacrifice. He is a priest for ever (Heb 7:17); and therefore the virtue as well as the value of His sacrifice remains for ever: He hath obtained an eternal redemption (Heb 9:12), i.e., a redemption of an eternal efficacy. And those who were stung all over, as well as those who are bitten but in one part, may, by a believing look upon Him, draw virtue from Him as diffusive as their sin. Now the new conversion of men of extraordinary guilt proclaims to the world, that the fountain of His blood is inexhaustible; that the virtue of it is not spent and drained, though so much hath been drawn out of it for these five thousand years and upwards, for the cleansing of sins past before His coming, and sins since His death.

(4) For the fruitfulness of this grace in the converts themselves. The most rugged souls prove most eminent in grace upon their conversion, as the most orient diamonds in India, which are naturally more rough, are most sparkling when cut and smoothed.

V. The fruits of converting grace, etc.

1. A sense of the sovereignty of grace in conversion, will first increase thankfulness. Converts only are fit to shew forth the praises of Christ (1Pe 2:9). But suppose a man had been all his lifetime like a mole under ground, and had never seen so much as the light of a candle, and had a view of that weak light at a distance, how would he admire it, when he compares it with his former darkness? But if he should be brought further, to behold the moon with her train of stars, his amazement would increase with the light. But let this person behold the sun, be touched with its warm beams, and enjoy the pleasure of seeing those rarities which the sun discovers, he will bless himself, adore it, and embrace that person who led him to enjoy such a benefit. And the blackness of that darkness he sat in before, will endear the present splendour to him, swell up such a spring-tide of astonishment, as that there shall be no more spirit in him. God lets men sit long in the shadow of death, and run to the utmost of sin, before He stops them, that their danger may enhance their deliverance.

2. Love and affection. The fire of grace cannot be stifled, but will break out in glory to God. God permits a mans sin to abound, that His love after pardon may abound too (Luk 7:47).

3. Service and obedience. Such will endeavour to redeem the time, because their former days have been so evil, and recover those advantages of service which they lost by a course of sin. They will labour that the largeness of their sin may be answered by an extension of their zeal.

4. Humility and self-emptiness. As no apostle was so God-magnifying, so none was so self-vilifying as Paul. Though he was the greatest apostle, yet he accounts himself less than the least of all saints (Eph 3:8).

5. Bewailing of sin, and self-abhorrence for it.

6. Faith and dependence.

(1) At present, in the instant of the first act of faith. Great sins make us appear in the court of jurisdiction, with a naked faith, when we have nothing to merit it, but much to deserve the contrary (Rom 4:5). The more ungodly, the more elevated is that faith which lays hold on God.

(2) In following occasions. Pardoning such great sins, and converting such great sinners, is the best credential letter Christ brings with Him from heaven. Men naturally would scarce believe for His own sake, but for His works sake they would, because they are more led by sense than faith. For every great conversion is as a sea-mark to guide others into a safe harbour. As when a physician comes into a house where many are sick, and cures one that is desperate, it is an encouragement to the rest to rely upon his skill. If men believe not in Christ after the sight of such standing miracles, it is an aggravation of their impenitence, as much as any miracle Christ wrought upon the earth was of the Jews obstinacy, and does put as black a dye upon it Ye, when you had seen it, repented not afterward, that you might believe Him (Mat 21:32). Further, such conversions evidence that Gods commands are practicable, that His yoke is not burdensome.

1. First, the doctrine manifests the power of the gospel. God gains a reputation to the gospel and the power of Christianity, that can in a moment change persons from beasts to men, from serpents to saints.

2. Groundlessness of despair. Despair not of others, when thou dost reflect upon thy own crimes, and considerest that God never dealt with a baser heart in the world than thine was. Comfort of this subject: If God has made thee of a great sinner the object of His mercy, thou mayest be assured of–

(1) Continuance of His love. He pardoned thee when thou hadst an enemy, will He leave thee now thou art His friend?

(2) Supplies of His grace. Thou hadst a rich present of His grace sent thee when thou couldst not pray for it, and will He not much more give thee whatsoever is needful when thou tallest upon Him? A wise builder does not begin a work when he is not able to finish it. God considered, before He began with thee, what charge thou wouldst stand him in, both of merit in Christ and grace in thee; so that the grace He hath given thee is not only a mercy to thee, but an obligation on Himself since His credit is engaged to complete it.

(3) Strength against corruptions. Can molehills stand against him who has levelled mountains? Can a few clouds withstand the melting force of the sun, which has dissolved those black mists that overspread the face of the heavens? No more can the remainders of thy corruption bear head against His power, which has thrown down the great hills of the sins of thy natural condition, and has dissolved the thick fogs of thy unregeneraey.

1. To those that God hath dealt so with.

(1) Glorify God for His grace.

(2) Admiration is all the glory you can give to God for His grace, seeing you can add nothing to His essential glory.

2. Often call to mind thy former sin. It hath been the custom of the saints of God formerly. When Matthew reckons up the twelve apostles (Mat 10:3) whereof he was one, he remembers his former state, Matthew the publican; but none of the other evangelists call him so in that enumeration.

(1) It makes us more humble. Thoughts of pride cannot lodge in us, when the remembrance of our rags, bolts, and fetters is frequently renewed.

(2) It will make us thankful. Sense of misery heightens our obligation to mercy. Men at sea are most thankful for deliverance when they consider the danger of the foregoing storm. A long night makes a clear morning more welcome.

(3) It will make thee more active in the exercise of that grace which is contrary to thy former sin.

(4) It will be a preservative against falling into the same sin again. The second branch of exhortation is to those that are in a doubting con dition. The main objection such make is the greatness of sin. Oh, there was never such a great sinner in the world as I am! But–

1. Art thou indeed the greatest sinner? I can hardly believe it. Didst thou ever sin after the rate that Paul did? or wert thou ever possessed with such a fury?

2. Suppose thou art the greatest, is thy staying from Christ the way to make all thy sins less? Art thou so rich as to pay this great debt out of thy own revenue? or hast thou any hopes of another surety?

3. Are thy sins the greatest? Is not the staying from Christ a making them greater? Does not God command thee to come to Christ? and is not thy delay a greater act of disobedience than the complaint of thy sinfulness can be of humility?

4. Were thy sins less than they are, thou mightest not so easily believe in Christ, as now thou mayest. Great sins and a bad heart felt and bewailed, is rather an advantage; as hunger is an incentive to a man to seek for meat. If men had clean hearts, it is like they would dispose of them otherwise, and rather think Christ should come to them. Mens poverty should rather make them more importunate than more modest. If, therefore, thou art afraid of drowning under these mighty floods which roll upon thee, methinks thou shouldst do as men ready to perish in the waters, catch hold of that which is next them, though it be the dearest friend they have; and there is none nearer to thee than Christ, nor any such a friend; catch hold therefore of Him.

5. The greatness of thy sin is a ground for a plea. Turn thy sins into arguments, as David doth, for it is great (Psa 25:11). If thy disease were not so great, Christs glory would not be so illustrious. Pardon of such sins enhanceth the mercy and skill of thy Saviour. Plead therefore–

1. The infiniteness of Gods mercy. It is strange if thy debts should be so great, that the exchequer of the King of kings cannot discharge them. Hast Thou not said that Thou art He that blots out transgressions for Thy own sake? (Isa 43:25); that Thou dost blot out iniquities like a thick cloud? (Isa 44:22). Is there any cloud so thick as to master the melting power of the sun; and shall ever a cloud of sin be so thick as to master the power of Thy mercy? Has not Thy mercy as much strength and eloquence to plead for me, as Thy justice has to declaim against me? Is Thy justice better armed with reason than Thy kindness with compassions? Have Thy compassions no eloquence? Oh, who can resist their pleasing rhetoric?

2. Christs, and Gods intent in His coming, was to discharge great sins. He was called Jesus, a Saviour, because He was to save His people from their sins. And do you think some of His peoples sins were not as great as any mens sins in the world?

3. Christs death was a satisfaction for the greatest sins, for God could not accept any satisfaction, but what was infinite. One sacrifice for sins for ever, etc. (Heb 10:12); not one sin, but sins; not little sins, but sins without exception. Let thy objections be what they will, Christ shall be my advocate to answer for me.

4. Christ is able to take away great sins. Did He ever let any one that came to Him with a great infirmity, go back without a cure, and dishonour Himself so much, as that it should be said, it was a distemper too great far the power of Jesus to remedy? And why should there be any sin that He cannot pardon? But, may the soul say, I do not question His power, but His will. Therefore–

5. Christs nature leads Him to show mercy to the greatest sinners.

6. Christ was exalted by God upon this very account (Heb 7:25).

7. Christ is entrusted by God to give out His grace to great sinners. Christ is Gods Lord-almoner, for the dispensing redemption, and the riches of His grace.

Fourthly, the caution which this subject suggests.

1. Think not thy sins are pardoned because they are not so great as those God has pardoned in others. A few small sands may sink a ship as well as a great rock. Thy sins may be pardoned though as great as others, but then you must have equal qualifications with them. They had great sins, so hast thou; but have you as great a hatred and loathing of sin as they had?

2. Let not this doctrine encourage any person to go on in sin.

God never intended mercy as a sanctuary to protect sin.

1. It is disingenuous to do so. Great love requires great duties, not great sins. Freeness of grace should make us increase holiness in a more cheerful manner.

2. It is foolish so to do. Would any man be so simple as to set his house on fire because he has a great river running by his door, from whence he may have water to quench it; or wound himself, because there is an excellent plaster which has cured several?

3. It is dangerous to do so. If thou losest the present time, thou art in danger to lose eternity. There are many in hell never sinned at such a presumptuous rate. He is merciful to the penitent, but He will not be unfaithful to His threatenings. (S. Charnock.)

The pattern convert; or, the chief sinner saved

I. This pattern convert had been the chief of sinners.

1. He had displayed invincible zeal in opposing the gospel. He believed in the Jewish religion, and he hated and persecuted the cause of Christ. He executed his mission in right earnest. He ever felt that no arm but the Almighty arm could have reached and delivered him from this terrible depth of ruin.

2. He had been an excessively proud man. Saul of Tarsus possessed a haughty spirit. His unconquerable love to the law arose from the pride and arrogance of his unregenerate heart.

3. His mental power, too, aided him in his work. He was a scholar of no ordinary character, blended with natural energy and grasp of intellect.

II. The salvation of this pattern convert illustrates the mediatorial strength of Christ. The chief of sinners has been saved.

1. The salvation of Paul is an evidence of the sufficiency of the atonement.

2. The salvation of Paul is a proof of the efficacy of victorious grace.

3. The salvation of Paul proves the worth of intercession. Who first arrested the man on his way to Damascus? Christ–He pleaded with the persecutor and conquered him by love.

4. The salvation of Paul exhibits Divine patience. That in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering –patience.

III. This pattern convert proclaims the Saviour in the gospel as worthy of all acceptation. Why?

1. Because He is the revelation of the highest intelligence to mans reason. He is the manifold wisdom of God–God manifest in the flesh. Reason could trace out the handiwork of God in every star that glitters in the heavens, but in Christ it sees God in human form. No such revelation of God was ever made before the incarnation as the one which we possess. Sir Isaac Newton revealed the great law that binds atom to atom, and all to its mighty centre; and angels have made glorious revelations; but in Christ we see God interested in, and saving His enemies.

2. He is the only antidote for sin.

3. He alone reveals the hope of immortality. Christ meets the highest aspirations of our nature by His resurrection and ascension; He has drawn aside the veil of futurity and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.

4. This revelation is based in truth. Other books contain pretended revelations, but they have no foundation in truth. The Koran, to wit: the gospel however is a faithful, a true saying. Prophecy, miracle and history, as well as its own almighty efficacy, prove that it is true. (J. H. Hill.)

The chief of sinners

It was a characteristic of the religion of Paul, that it was eminently personal and practical. The idea, therefore, to which we direct your attention is this: That true religion, and great experience in it, cause the believer to regard himself peculiarly a sinner. We have several considerations to prove this.

I. The view which a believer has of his own heart is more minute, and more extensive also, than any view he can take of anothers. He cannot draw upon anothers memory as he can upon his own. His quickened recollections furnish him with many a dark chapter, as his mind roves back upon forgotten years; and there is a vividness and freshness in the recollection of what a sinner he has been, which throws over his own experience an aspect of peculiarity, he can number his own sins as he cannot anothers. He can recollect the smallness of temptation, and the tender, and touching, and terrible motives which would have restrained him from his sins if he would only have felt them. Conscience, with an eye of fire, will look into his soul, and the aggravations of sin, which arose from a thousand circumstances of his condition and Gods forbearance toward him, will seem to invest his sinfulness with a criminality and an abomination beyond anything that he will dare to attribute to other people.

II. Very much in proportion to the extent of a believers gracious attainments is pure conscience brought into exercise. We mean by this pure con science an exercise of that faculty as such, in its own nature and for its own ends, not mingled with other affections. And one great difference betwixt the convictions of a believer and the convictions of an unbeliever consists simply in this; the different impressions they have of the mere wrong of sin. A believer sees that wrong as an unbeliever does not. In sin itself he sees an evil which an unbeliever does not.

III. The rule of conscience is not a thing well understood by an unconverted sinner in his ordinary frame of mind. The deceptions of sin have been flung over it. But when the Holy Spirit justly convicted him, he saw sin in him self that he never saw before, and hope died within him. He discovered what Gods law meant and where it applied. Law reigns; and now, better and better under stood, sharper than any two-edged sword, a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart; it is no wonder that every just conception of Gods law should tend to make the grace-enlightened believer conceive of himself as the chief of sinners. He sees that that code of spiritual purity has strange applications to his erring soul. His very spirit cannot hide from it for a single moment. It pursues the soul every where.

IV. The religious attempts of a believer constitute another consideration. They have been many, and he is fully conscious that they have sometimes been sincere and earnest; but oh! how often have they been baffled! What vain purposes! How little his strength! How many sinful desires! He utters the deep-toned cry, Chief of sinners! Chief of sinners!

V. Throughout all the successful attainments of grace, a believer is invariably becoming better acquainted with God. The knowledge he has of the Divine character constitutes one of the most efficacious aids and impressive influences. The better he knows God the better he knows himself; and while his knowledge of God increases both his reverence and his attachment, his knowledge of himself fills him with humiliation and shame. Sin appears worse and worse to him as he knows God better.

VI. A Christian, especially amid his attainments in grace, is a creature of no little reflection. His knowledge increases, especially his knowledge of himself; and amid reflections and increasing knowledge in Divine things, again and again he is surprised and disappointed in a most painful and humiliating manner. Sometimes he is astounded, and disheartened, and driven to prayer by a wave of despondency that rolls over his soul. His reflection discovers sin as he did not expect, discovers it wherein he had little suspicion of its existence. He finds the imperfection of his repentance, that his very repentance (according to the graphic description of the apostle) needs to be repented of.

VII. That process of sanctification carried on in a believers heart by the omnipotent power of the Holy Spirit is very much carried on through the influence of two spiritual operations first, the discovery of sin, and second, faith in the Redeemer of sinners to procure pardon and justification unto life eternal. There is the combined influence of compulsion and attraction; of violence and persuasion. The believer is driven off from himself at the same moment he is drawn toward God. But this process and these affections are some times interrupted. His soul wanders from God. And that it should ever wander seems to him one of the strangest anomalies in the universe! The conclusions from this subject are worthy of remembrance.

1. Never despair. There is mercy for the chief of sinners.

2. Never seek hope, consolation, or any comfort or encouragement to your soul by diminished ideas of sin.

3. Never judge of your Christian condition by the smallness of your humiliating convictions. Rather judge of it by the magnitude of them.

4. Never allow pride to have any place in your religion. Self-complacency all rests on ignorance and deception.

5. Never imagine that a deep sense of sin and all the humiliating ideas that grow out of it, are things of unhappiness and gloom. Quite the contrary. They are matters of peace and joy to a believer. (J. S. Spencer, D. D.)

The chief of sinners

I. I have to try and hunt out the chief of sinners. Now who are they? They come under various characters, and may be classified in different lists.

1. We will begin with those who directly oppose themselves to God and to His Christ. These are chief among sinners. Paul did join their ranks.

2. And here I ought to put down those who hold views derogatory of the Deity and the person of Christ.

3. Another group of princes and peers in the realm of evil may be described as those who attack Christs people, and who seek to pervert them from the right way.

4. There is another group whom you will all allow to be of the chief of sinners–those who have sinned foully in the worlds esteem; violating the instincts of nature, and outraging the common sense of morality and decency.

5. And surely I may find another class of the chief of sinners among those who have become not only adepts themselves, but the tutors to others in the school of evil.

6. In this section we include those who have had much light, and yet have sinned against it; who have been taught better, who have had a knowledge of the way of truth, and yet have turned aside to crooked paths.

7. There are those, too, who sit under an earnest ministry, and yet go on in sin–they surely belong to the class of chief sinners.

8. Drawing the bow at a venture, there is another class I would single out, those who are gifted from their childhood with a tender conscience.

9. Yet again; if you have had warning in sickness, and especially if on your sick bed you have vowed unto the Lord that you would turn to Him, then you that are covenant-breakers, you that violate vows made to the Most High, you must also be put among the first and foremost of transgressors.

II. Why those who are proverbially the chief of sinners are very frequently saved.

1. One reason is to illustrate Divine sovereignty.

2. Another reason is, that He may show His great power. Oh! how hell is made angry when some great champion falls! When their Goliaths are brought down, how the Philistines take to their heels! How heaven rings with songs when some chief of sinners becomes a trophy of the Divine power!

3. And next, how it shows His grace!

4. Again; great sinners are very frequently called by God for the purpose of attracting others.

5. And then, the saving of the chief of sinners is useful, because, when they are saved they generally make the most fiery zealots against sin. Have we not a proverb that The burnt child dreads the fire? I noticed my host, on one preaching excursion, particularly anxious about my candle. Now, as everybody ought to know how careful I am, I was a little surprised, and I put the question to him why he should be so wonderfully particular. I had my house burnt down once, sir, said he. That explained it all. No man so much afraid of fire as he, and they who have been in sin, and know the mischief of it, protest against it the most loudly. They can speak experimentally. Oh! what revenge there seems to be in the apostles heart against his sin!

6. And then, again, they always make the most zealous saints. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The chief of sinners

I. Why, then, did St. Paul call himself the chief of sinners? It is a startling designation, and the more you think of it the more startling you will feel it to be. It is a mere truism to say that the success of a religion depends to a large extent upon the personal veracity and goodness of its founders. Now, St. Paul was practically the founder of Christianity over a large area of the heathen world. It was he who had told them almost everything they knew of Christ. It was his version of Christs teaching, his view of the meaning and scope of His work, with which they were most, if not exclusively familiar. And he frequently declared that he himself was the style of man a Christian ought to be. Be ye followers of me, he said, as I also am of Christ. How, then, were they to understand him when he asserted himself to be the chief of sinners? It can hardly be denied that had such a confession escaped from the lips of any but a Christian apostle it would have produced a very perplexing, if not a thoroughly suspicious impression. Would any of the great heathen philosophers, or any one who aspired to found a religion, have ventured to terminate his career by an assertion of his own incomparable sinfulness? And if he had, would it not have discredited his mission or been considered too absurd to be serious? But it was not so with St. Pauls confession. It gave no uneasiness to his most sensitive converts, no occasion for reproach to his most implacable foes. Does not this prove that Christianity had a way of dealing with sin peculiar to itself, and produced a type of character absolutely unique? But assuming that St. Paul used the words seriously, i.e., without any intentional exaggeration, what did he really mean? We are very apt to entertain defective and partial conceptions of sin. Many virtually restrict it to those modes of its expression which they themselves have experienced. They are troubled by some particular evil which natural inclination, or continued indulgence, has invested with special power. It may be the lust of avarice, or an envious and angry passion, or an unholy and impure desire. But whatever it may be, it is the sin which engages the attention and alarms the conscience of the man whets it attacks;. and if he be a Christian it is the sin which he struggles against, and whose very touch fills him with a self-reproach almost too heavy to be borne. It is very natural that any one in this condition should come to conceive of sin as almost identified with his peculiar temptation. It is the sin he thinks about when any reference is made to the subject. And it is entire deliverance from its defilement that constitutes his highest idea of happiness. Was it, then, because St. Paul was pressed by some special thorn of this kind that he called himself the chief of sinners? We can hardly think so, if we remember the language and style of his Epistles. There is scarcely a sin which he does not mention and tell us something about. He points out wherein the enormity of certain transgressions consists. He shows us the disposition and temper out of which others are likely to spring, and how to resist or baffle their attacks. He draws up exhaustive catalogues of offences, for the purpose of reminding us that not one of them, however much it might be tolerated in heathen society, is consistent with citizenship in the kingdom of God. But if the apostle was not likely to exaggerate in this particular way, was it not possible he might do so in another? There are not a few who know the many shapes which evil may assume, but who know them theoretically, rather than practically. The world they know is a world of respectability, and perhaps of high moral principle. But they do not know the outer circles of our social life, the broad zone of lawlessness that surrounds the region of decency. And you feel accordingly that the conceptions of evil which such people have are necessarily defective. They may be filled with an intense conviction of the guilt of the sins they know, but their knowledge does not go far. And their self-accusations, when they are expressed, strike you, for this reason, as being unreal. They have an air of extravagance, unperceived by those who utter them, but quite discernible by anybody else. Was St. Paul, then, a person of this sort? Was it ignorance of life, or of human nature, that made him place himself first in the catalogue of sinners? It can hardly have been this, either, for he lived at a time when the world was at its worst, and very few men of his day had seen so much of it as he. He had known the chief priests and rabbis of Jerusalem, and the philosophers of the Grecian schools. He had traversed the rougher districts of heathendom, where passion gave itself vent in coarse and brutal fashion. He had beat about the slums of the largest cities, and lain in the common prisons with the scum and offscouring of the earth. You may depend upon it that the man who had written the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, and had lived in Rome two years during the reign of Nero, a reign when all kinds of devilry literally ran riot–knew perfectly well what he was about when he declared himself the chief of sinners. The truth is that St. Paul had a very rare and exceptional insight into his own heart, and also into the nature of sin. There was no part of him allowed to be at rest, no reserve of energy which lay idle, and which might have developed, had it roused itself up, an unsuspected weakness or liability to excess. The whole force of the man went into his work. He was always on the stretch, always expending every particle of strength in following after the one aim of his efforts. Hence he felt himself all through. Every weak place betrayed its weakness. Every temptation to swerve from his path pierced him like an arrow. Every sluggish or selfish impulse acted like a drag upon his eager limbs. The very ardour of his devotion, the keenness of his pursuit, made the least hindrance an unspeakable pain. But not only so, he saw it with an eye that penetrated farther into its depths than that of any other has done. He detected the fearful possibilities of ruin that lie wrapped in its every germ. He knew the pervasive power that enables it to infect the whole nature of a man, if it once be suffered to escape from restraint. He knew how terrible were the passions that once strove in his own heart, and still slumbered there. And above all his bright vision of the holiness of God, his sublime conception of Christs purity threw a white light that beat upon his sin and exposed its every line, and feature, and movement. He saw it so distinctly and plainly that other mens sins were hazy and vague, and dwelt in the region of comparative shadow.

II. Why St. Paul appended this remark about himself to the statement in the verse. The drift of the passage leads us to believe that he meant it to confirm the faithfulness of the saying. It was equivalent to putting his subscription at the foot of it, as one who endorsed it or attested its truth. In proof of the assertion that Christ Jesus had come into the world to save sinners, he appealed to his own case as specially to the point. There was no room for despair when he had found mercy. It would not do much to recommend the skill of a physician that you declared he had healed you of a most virulent disease, if it turned out, after all, that your ailment had existed chiefly in your own imagination, and been little more than a touch of hypochondria. I should say that the most desperate man is he who is neither careless, nor a profligate, nor a formalist, but one who, earnest and correct in conduct, is conscientiously attached to a false or defective creed, and bent enthusiastically on pushing its claims. Such a one, sustained by the proud consciousness of always having done what he considered his duty, and therefore troubled by no compunctions of conscience, free from every impure or unseemly indulgence, convinced that he is right in his opinions, and so far enamoured of their excellence, or filled with contempt for their rivals, that he finds the greatest satisfaction in urging them upon the world, is not likely to be easily turned from the course he pursues. The fact is he cannot conceive any reason for a change. So there is no opening by which you can approach him. Was not St. Paul very much such a character as this? Christ proved able to accomplish what, humanly speaking, seemed impossible. He saved the man who of all men in the world seemed the least likely, and the most difficult, to be saved. And St. Paul never could look back to his conversion but with feelings of the most reverent awe and adoring thankfulness.

III. The statement itself–that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Sinners were the object of His mission, and sinners without any distinction. Now, what He has promised is not merely to rescue us from some future danger, indeed has nothing to do with the future directly at all. Christ saves us from sin, he says, here and now, and my ease substantiates the statement. And if you should ask how this can be, since he has just told us, not simply that he was the chief of sinners before his conversion, but is so still, the answer is, that Christ does not save us by any magical or mechanical process. He does not entirely sever us from the past and its transgressions, though He does secure that they shall not involve us in the destruction which is their natural result. He leaves us to fight a hard battle with the root of sin that still survives in our nature. Having robbed it of its power of irreparable mischief, He enlists us in completing its extinction. He spoils it of its old fascination. He exposes its emptiness and folly. He counteracts its force by revealing attractions that lift us above the sphere of its influence. And our present actual superiority to its rule is won through the gradual emancipation and strengthening of our character. Surely it is a much more crushing defeat to what has brought such misery upon us that it should be despised and baffled by its former victims. St. Paul, then, could say that he was the chief of sinners, and yet appeal to himself as an illustration of Christs power to save. Indeed, his very confession was itself an evidence of his redemption. It revealed a humility that implied the overthrow of pride and self-complacency, the very qualities in which the strength of sin resides. You are saved from its final triumph. Only see that you keep hold of the promise of mercy and of grace to help us in Jesus Christ. Let no onset of sin drive you from Him, no fresh development of its resources tempt you to distrust Him. You can only fight and overcome as you fall back on His word, and grasp the hope which it reveals. (C. Moinet, M. A.)

Fourth Sunday after Trinity

I. How are we to understand this language of the apostle respecting himself? You will, I hope, at once dismiss from your minds any thought that the apostle was exhibiting to his son Timothy what some would call a graceful humility. We ought to assure ourselves that no humility can be graceful, because none can be gracious, which has not its foundation in truth. Of all qualities, this is the one which it is most monstrous to counterfeit. He would speak of himself as he would of another man, honestly and simply. If it was the fact that he had laboured more abundantly than all the apostles, he did not shrink from announcing it. Neither must we say that St. Paul was led to give himself this title because he had a sudden and keen remembrance of his life when he was a persecutor of the faith. But he could not think himself–we know from the words which he uses when describing his previous history that he did not think himself–worse than other persecutors merely because he was more zealous than they were. He was certainly not the chief of sinners because be acted out a wrong conviction more vigorously than others did. Nor must we forget that the words, literally taken, do not warrant us in supposing that St. Paul referred wholly or chiefly to the past. If he says, I am first, or chief, Timothy must have understood that he was not charging himself with the crimes of other days, but was expressing what was in his mind at the time he wrote. The law proved its justice by affixing to each palpable outrage and overt act its meet recompense of reward. St. Paul had been a zealot in enforcing the law; he had never brought himself within the range of one, even the mildest, of its formal censures. But by the law, he says elsewhere, comes the knowledge of sin. It prohibits offences; it awakens a man to perceive that there is in him a disposition to commit these offences. Here then St. Paul found himself first. Yes, in a most awful sense, alone. He had no means of ascertaining how far other men had separated themselves from the righteous, loving mind of God. The law said, Thou hast done it. And by degrees he found that the law was only echoing without what a Living Voice was saying to him within. The Spirit of God convinced him of sin. And since the more he knew of the attraction of the Divine magnet, the more he knew the strength of the inclination there was in him to wander from it, the more he attributed any right direction of his spirit to its influence–he could say, with no affectation, with the inmost sincerity, Of sinners I am first. More of this love has been shown to me than to any I know; my resistance therefore has been greater than that of others. If the light has overpowered me, there has been a struggle with it, there is a struggle with it, which I dare not say is equally mighty and desperate in them. If this was the warrant for this mode of speech, you will not wonder that he should have used it with even more emphasis in the later days of his earthly pilgrimage, than in the earlier. You will think, perhaps, that St. Pauls large and intimate acquaintance with the moral abuses and corruptions that sprang up in the members of the different Churches which he had planted, may have diverted his mind from this contemplation, and may have proved that there was a wickedness about him which had never penetrated within him. But you must not fancy that he thought more gently of himself as he became acquainted with the party-spirit and sensuality of the Corinthians, or when he found the Galatians regarding him whom they had once loved with such a violent affection, as their enemy because he told them the truth. I rather suppose that he detected in himself all the evils which caused him such bitter pain in them, that he understood their heresies and carnality and suspicions by the seeds of the like which he found in his own heart; that he never condemned them without passing sentence upon tendencies which might at any moment start to life in him. I apprehend that in this way the more he did this–the more he understood his relation to his flock as their minister and priest–the more he perceived that he was the first among sinners. By such processes, he was, I conceive, trained to a real, not a mock humility.

II. The words, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, sound to us like a commonplace which we heard in the nursery. There was some strange hostility between his mind and the mind of a righteous Being, his Creator. Could they be reconciled? There was some bondage upon his will. Could it be set free? This experience, this demand, is met by the broad announcement: One is come from that righteous Being with whom thou art at war, expressly to make peace. One is come to save sinners out of their sins. He might doubt long and ask earnestly whether news so good could be true. He must have a real emancipation, real peace with God. The claim of every one calling himself a Deliverer and Reconciler must endure the severest of all tests. Was He able to do that which none else had been able to do? Could He accomplish what the law and sacrifices, that he held to be most Divine, had not accomplished? No one could settle them for him. An archangel could not force him to accept the gospel merely on his authority. The poorest man might bring it with such evidence to his conscience that he could not but say, It is true. And when he had said this, the repetition of the truth to which he had given his adhesion could never become a fiat or a stale one. Was this all? Was there no brighter light coming to him every moment from that heaven into which he believed the Son of God had ascended? no clearer and deeper insight into the effects of His coming to our world than had been vouchsafed here at first? Surely there was. It is contained in the plural, sinners. His experience had been personal. He had known sin in himself. He had known deliverance in himself. But that sin consisted in separation from his fellows as well as from God. That deliverance consisted in reunion to his fellows as well as to God. Jesus Christ had saved him; but He had not come into the world to save him. There was not a man who had not the same needs as he had; there was not a man who had not the same Helper as he had. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)

Sin

Let us begin by thinking what St. Paul could possibly mean by calling himself the chief of sinners. We know very well that he did not mean, that, either before his conversion or since, his life had been anything but most decorous and respectable. Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God unto this day. And, in writing to friends, he could describe himself in those early years before his conversion, as touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless. It is equally certain that he did not mean that his life had ever been careless, and thoughtless, and worldly. He speaks of himself in one of his Epistles as profiting, that is, making progress, in the Jews religion above many my equals, that is, my cotemporaries. He had also been a very religious man; religious after a wrong pattern of religion, it is true, but still thoroughly and ardently religious after the common type and pattern of the day. And yet this man of blameless life and strict religion, writing quietly in advancing years to a favourite friend and pupil, can speak of himself as the chief of sinners. What can he mean by such language? One thing is already quite clear. St. Paul must have thought of sin in a way very different from that in which most of us are in the habit of thinking of it. To us, the chief of sinners would be a man of utterly profligate and vicious life, who had broken the commandments of God in the most reckless and high-handed way. And so little does our notion of the chief of sinners agree with what we know about St. Paul, that, when he calls himself so, while we admire his humility, we barely give him credit for sincerity. He can scarcely have meant it, we think. But I am sure we shall make a great mistake, if we resolve that I am chief of our text into a passing pang of pain, shot into his mind by the sudden recollection of those old days, when, as the historian says, he made havoc of the Church, and breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. None of us would dream of denying the fact of our sinfulness. That we are sinners we all confess. But the confession is often a very hollow one; means very little; means often only this–that we know we are not perfect, but we believe we are not worse than most people, and are a good deal better than some, and may reasonably expect to do well enough at the last. That St. Paul should speak of himself as the chief of sinners, seems to persons, who are thinking thus of sin and meaning no more than this by their confession of sinfulness, only an outrageous extravagance of language–a temporary fit of morbid self-reproach. We may be quite sure of this, that so long as we go on comparing ourselves with other people, and judging other people, we shall never come to any real sense of sin, or to any true penitence for it, or to any heartfelt desire for its forgiveness. Such comparison of ourselves with others is utterly false and misleading. Neither must we rest satisfied with judging ourselves by any external standard or rule of life, whether it be the law of God, or the law and custom and fashion of the society of which we are members. We may be models of propriety; exemplary in every department of conduct and life. And yet that may be true of us, which Jesus said was true of the religious world of His own day: This people honoureth Me with their lips; but their heart is far from Me. For indeed, this terrible matter of sin goes far deeper than outward conduct. Outward conduct may reveal the depths of sin within, may reveal them to the man himself, as well as to the world around. But no outward conduct is a measure of sin. Judged by outward conduct one would have said of St. Paul, that he was as near perfection as a man could be. At this point of our inquiry we must try to get nearer, if we can, to St. Pauls experience. The recollection of those old persecuting days was lying very heavily on his conscience, when he wrote the words of our text; not heavily in the sense of making his forgiveness doubtful, but heavily in the sense of revealing the possibilities of sin within. When he came to himself in the moment of his conversion, the fact that he had been a persecutor of the disciples of Christ, fancying all the while that he was doing Gods service, must have made the first rude breach in the self-righteousness of Saul the Pharisee. Time and thought would only enlarge that breach and make it more practicable. If he had deceived himself so grossly once, fancying that to be right and virtuous which was so manifestly wrong and wicked, why not again? It is often such a rude shock as this to vanity and self-confidence that marks an epoch in a mans spiritual life, awakening, and ultimately transforming him. In this way it is that men may, and often do, rise by stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things. We must learn humility. We must learn the bitter lesson of self-distrust. No true progress is possible until this lesson has been learned. Along with this experience–perhaps as part of it–there went another. It was part of the sorrow and humiliation of Sauls conversion, that it revealed to him the painful fact, that his life and work had been set hitherto in a wrong direction; that he must break with his past, and begin all over again; that he had not only missed the mark, but had been aiming at a wrong one. Steadily did he set himself, nobly and courageously, to retrieve the past; to undo what he had done, and to do the very opposite. And again and again that old past rose up against him, to make the new course more difficult. In this way, I fancy–or in some such way as this (for who are we, that we should dare to gauge the experience of a Paul?)–he seems to have come to those deeper views of sin, with which his letters are pervaded. Our English word sin suggests little or nothing of itself to us; but the Greek equivalent, certainly, and, I think, the Hebrew also, have their meaning printed broadly and legibly upon them. To sin in those languages, is to miss the mark; to fall short of the mark; to go wide of the mark; to fail; to come short of the true standard. Now the moment we lay hold of this, as the deepest meaning and real essence of sin, that moment self-righteousness becomes impossible to us. There may be those here, who cannot bring the sense of sin home to their consciences with any keenness, so long as sin is regarded merely as transgression of law; so innocent and blameless have their lives been. But let them think of sin in this deeper, truer aspect, as missing the mark, failing to be that, which it is in us to be, and which God by His Spirit and His Providence is calling us to be, and who can hold out against the conviction, that he is in very truth a sinner, and a very grievous sinner, if not the very chief of sinners? And this sense of sin will become deeper, and this confession of sin will become more penitent and genuine, in proportion as we pass out of our natural darkness into the light of God, and begin to discern more clearly what our true standard is, and what our gifts and capacities are: what it is in us to be, and what God is seeking to make of us. The greater the gifts and capacities and endowments, the more keen will be the sense of failure and shortcoming. Such reflections as these, honestly pursued, cannot fail, to use St. Pauls expressive phrase, to conclude us all under sin; to bring the weight and pressure of a genuine sense of sin to bear upon us all. Now, however painful this may be, it is unquestionably the first step in the right direction. We cannot become what God would make us until we are made deeply and sincerely conscious of sin and infirmity, of unworthiness and unprofitableness. But we must not leave the subject so. St. Paul could never leave it so. His own personal confession of sin, deep and contrite as it is, is set in the midst of a burst of triumphant hope. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Yes–sinners of whom I am chief; but then Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and, therefore, to save me. (D. J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 15. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners] This is one of the most glorious truths in the book of God; the most important that ever reached the human ear, or can be entertained by the heart of man. All men are sinners; and as such condemned, justly condemned, to eternal death. Christ Jesus became incarnate, suffered, and died to redeem them; and, by his grace and Spirit, saves them from their sins. This saying or doctrine he calls, first, a faithful or true saying; , it is a doctrine that may be credited, without the slightest doubt or hesitation; God himself has spoken it; and the death of Christ and the mission of the Holy Ghost, sealing pardon on the souls of all who believe, have confirmed and established the truth.

Secondly, it is worthy of all acceptation; as all need it, it is worthy of being received by all. It is designed for the whole human race, for all that are sinners is applicable to all, because all are sinners; and may be received by all, being put within every man’s reach, and brought to every man’s ear and bosom, either by the letter of the word, or, where that revelation is not yet come, by the power of the Divine Spirit, the true light from Christ that lightens every man that cometh into the world. From this also it is evident that the death of Christ, and all its eternally saving effects, were designed for every man.

Of whom I am chief] . Confounding Paul the apostle, in the fulness of his faith and love, with Saul of Tarsus, in his ignorance, unbelief, and persecuting rage, we are in the habit of saying: “This is a hyperbolical expression, arguing the height of the apostle’s modesty and humility and must not be taken according to the letter.” I see it not in this light; I take it not with abatement; it is strictly and literally true: take the whole of the apostle’s conduct, previously to his conversion, into consideration, and was there a greater sinner converted to God from the incarnation to his own time? Not one; he was the chief; and, keeping his blasphemy, persecution, and contumely in view, he asserts: Of all that the Lord Jesus came into the world to save, and of all that he had saved to that time, I am chief. And who, however humble now, and however flagitious before, could have contested the points with him? He was what he has said, and as he has said it. And it is very probable that the apostle refers to those in whom the grace and mercy of God were, at the first promulgation of the Gospel, manifested: and comparing himself with all these he could with propriety say, , of whom I am the first; the first who, from a blasphemer, persecutor (and might we not add murderer? see the part he took in the martyrdom of Stephen,) became a preacher of that Gospel which I had persecuted. And hence, keeping this idea strictly in view, he immediately adds: Howbeit, for this cause I obtained mercy; that in me FIRST, , Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern TO THEM which should HEREAFTER, believe on him to life everlasting. And this great display of the pardoning mercy of God, granted in so singular a manner, at the very first promulgation of the Gospel, was most proper to be produced as a pattern for the encouragement of all penitent sinners to the end of time. If Jesus Christ, with whom there can be no respect of persons, saved Saul of Tarsus, no sinner need despair.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

This is a faithful saying; the following saying, which is the great proposition of the gospel, is a saying that is in itself true, and wherein God hath declared his truth.

And worthy of all acceptation; and worthy to be with all thankfulness received, believed, and accepted.

That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; that Jesus Christ, being sent of the Father, in the fulness of time, was incarnate, lived, and died in the world; not only to set sinners an example of a better life, nor only to make God placable towards men, that if they would they might be saved; but to purchase a certain salvation for sinners, satisfying Divine justice, and meriting all grace necessary to bring them to salvation, to carry the lost sheep home upon his shoulders; yea, though they had been great wanderers, .

Of whom I am chief; and I was as great a one as any other, yea, the chief. Paul, though converted, had his former sin of persecution before his eyes. Persecutors are some of the chief sinners. Some will have the relative of whom to refer to the saving mentioned: of which sinners brought to salvation I am the great president, having been so great a sinner as I have been and yet received to mercy.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

15. faithfulworthy of credit,because “God” who says it “is faithful” to Hisword (1Co 1:9; 1Th 5:24;2Th 3:3; Rev 21:5;Rev 22:6). This seems to havebecome an axiomatic saying among Christians the phrase,”faithful saying,” is peculiar to the Pastoral Epistles(1Ti 2:11; 1Ti 4:9;Tit 3:8). Translate as Greek,“Faithful is the saying.”

allall possible; full;to be received by all, and with all the faculties of the soul, mind,and heart. Paul, unlike the false teachers (1Ti1:7), understands what he is saying, and whereof he affirms;and by his simplicity of style and subject, setting forth the grandfundamental truth of salvation through Christ, confutes the falseteachers’ abstruse and unpractical speculations (1Co 1:18-28;Tit 2:1).

acceptationreception(as of a boon) into the heart, as well as the understanding, with allgladness; this is faith acting on the Gospel offer, and welcoming andappropriating it (Ac 2:41).

Christas promised.

Jesusas manifested[BENGEL].

came into the worldwhichwas full of sin (Joh 1:29;Rom 5:12; 1Jn 2:2).This implies His pre-existence. Joh1:9, Greek, “the true Light that, coming into theworld, lighteth every man.”

to save sinnersevennotable sinners like Saul of Tarsus. His instance was without a rivalsince the ascension, in point of the greatness of the sin and thegreatness of the mercy: that the consenter to Stephen, theproto-martyr’s death, should be the successor of the same!

I amnot merely, “Iwas chief” (1Co 15:9;Eph 3:8; compare Lu18:13). To each believer his own sins must always appear, as longas he lives, greater than those of others, which he never can know ashe can know his own.

chiefthe same Greekas in 1Ti 1:16, “first,”which alludes to this fifteenthverse, Translate in both verses, “foremost.” Well mighthe infer where there was mercy for him, there is mercy for allwho will come to Christ (Mat 18:11;Luk 19:10).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,…. This is said, lest it should be thought strange, or scarcely credible, that so great a sinner should be saved; as well as to give a summary of the glorious Gospel the apostle was intrusted with; and in opposition to fables, endless genealogies, and vain jangling, and contentions about the law. The doctrine of Christ’s coming into the world, and of salvation by him, as it is the sum and substance of the Gospel, so it is a “faithful saying”; in which the faithfulness of God is displayed to himself, and the perfections of his nature, his holiness, justice, love, grace, and mercy; to his law, which is magnified, and made honourable; to his word of promise hereby fulfilled; and to his Son in carrying him through the work: and the faithfulness of Christ is discovered herein, both to his Father with whom, and to his friends for whom, he engaged to obtain salvation; and the faithfulness of ministers is shown in preaching it, and of other saints in professing it, and abiding by it: it is a true saying, and not to be disputed or doubted of, but to be believed most firmly; it is certain that God the Father sent his Son into the world for this purpose; and Christ himself assures us, that he came for this end; his carriage to sinners, and his actions, testified the same; his works and miracles confirm it; and the numberless instances of sinners saved by him evince the truth of it: and it is “worthy of all acceptation”; or to be received by all sorts of persons, learned, or unlearned, rich or poor, greater or lesser sinners; and to be received in all ways, and in the best manner, as the word of God, and not man; with heartiness and readiness, and with love, joy, and gladness, and with meekness, faith, and fear, and by all means; for it is entirely true, absolutely necessary, and suitable to the case of all, and is to be highly valued and esteemed by those who do approve and accept of it. It is the Christian Cabala, or the evangelical tradition, delivered by the Father to Christ, by him to his apostles, and by them to the saints, by whom it is cordially received. The apostle seems to allude to the Cabala of the Jews, their oral law, which they say m was delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai, and by him to Joshua; and by Joshua to the elders; and by the elders to the prophets; and so from one to another to his times: but here he suggests, that if they would have a Cabala, here is one, that is firm, and true, and certain, and worthy to be received, whereas the Jewish one was precarious, yea, false and untrue. Indeed, sometimes the words of the prophets are so called by them; so that passage in Joe 2:13 is called , “Cabala” n, some thing delivered and received; upon which one of their commentators o has these words,

“whatever a prophet commands the Israelites, makes known unto them, or exhorts them to, is a Cabala.”

And if a prophetic command or admonition, then surely: such an evangelical doctrine, as follows, is entitled to this character,

that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; Christ came into the world, being sent by his Father, but not against his will, but with his free consent: he came voluntarily in the fulness of time into this sinful world, where he was ill treated; and this was not by local motion, or change of place, but by assumption of nature; and the end of it was, that he might be the Saviour of lost sinners, as all men are, both by Adam’s sin, and their own transgressions; though he came not to save all, for then all would be saved, whereas they are not; and if he came to save them, he must have then so far lost his end; but he came to save sinners, of all sorts, even notorious sinners, the worst and chief of sinners: and the apostle instances in himself,

of whom I am chief; or “first”; not that he was the first in time; Adam was the first man that sinned, though Eve was before him in the transgression: it is a most stupid notion, that some gave into from this passage, as if the soul of Adam passed from one body to another, till it came to Paul, and therefore he calls himself the first of sinners: but his meaning is, that he was the first in quality, or the greatest and chiefest of sinners, not only of those that are saved, but of all men, Jews or Gentiles; and this he said not hyperbolically, nor out of modesty, but from a real sense or apprehension he had of himself, and his sins, which were made exceeding sinful to him; or he was the chief of sinners, and exceeded all others in his way of sinning, in blaspheming the name of Christ, and persecuting his saints, otherwise his conversation was externally moral, and in his own, and in the opinion of others, blameless: he was no fornicator, adulterer, thief, extortioner, c. but in the above things he went beyond all others, and was a ringleader in them and the remembrance of these sins abode with him, and kept him humble all his days; he was always ready to acknowledge them, and express his vileness and unworthiness on account of them: hence he here says, not “of whom I was”, but “of whom I am chief”. Now such sinners, and all sorts of sinners, Christ came to save from all their sins, original and actual; from the law, its curse and condemnation; from the bondage of Satan, the evil of the world, and wrath to come, and from every enemy; and that, by his obedience, sufferings, and death, by fulfilling the law, bearing its penalty, offering himself a sacrifice for sin, thereby finishing it, making reconciliation for it, and bringing in an everlasting righteousness: and a great Saviour he is, and an only one; a full, suitable, able, and willing Saviour; a Saviour of the soul, as well as of the body, and of both with an everlasting salvation.

m Pirke Abot, c. 1. sect. 1. n Misn. Taanith, c. 2. sect. 1. o Jarchi Misn. Taanith, c. 2. sect. 1.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Faithful is the saying ( ). Five times in the Pastorals (1Tim 1:15; 1Tim 3:1; 1Tim 4:9; Titus 3:8; 2Tim 2:11). It will pay to note carefully , , . Same use of (trustworthy) applied to in Titus 1:9; Rev 21:5; Rev 22:6. Here and probably in 2Ti 2:11 a definite saying seems to be referred to, possibly a quotation () of a current saying quite like the Johannine type of teaching. This very phrase (Christ coming into the world) occurs in John 9:37; John 11:27; John 16:28; John 18:37. Paul, of course, had no access to the Johannine writings, but such “sayings” were current among the disciples. There is no formal quotation, but “the whole phrase implies a knowledge of Synoptic and Johannine language” (Lock) as in Luke 5:32; John 12:47.

Acceptation (). Genitive case with (worthy of). Late word (Polybius, Diod., Jos.) in N.T. only here and 4:9.

Chief (). Not (I was), but (I am). “It is not easy to think of any one but St. Paul as penning these words” (White). In 1Co 15:9 he had called himself “the least of the apostles” ( ). In Eph 3:8 he refers to himself as “the less than the least of all saints” ( ). On occasion Paul would defend himself as on a par with the twelve apostles (Ga 2:6-10) and superior to the Judaizers (2Cor 11:5; 2Cor 12:11). It is not mock humility here, but sincere appreciation of the sins of his life (cf. Ro 7:24) as a persecutor of the church of God (Ga 1:13), of men and even women (Acts 22:4; Acts 26:11). He had sad memories of those days.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

This is a faithful saying [ ] . Better, faithful is the saying. A favorite phrase in these Epistles. o P. See 1Ti 3:1; 1Ti 4:9; 2Ti 2:11; Tit 3:8.

Worthy of all acceptation [ ] . The phrase only here and ch. 4 9. Apodoch Past o o LXX Comp. Act 2:41, ajpodexamenoi ton logon received his word. Pashv all or every describes the reception of which the saying is worthy as complete and excluding all doubt.

Came into the world [ ] . The phrase is unique in the Pastorals, and does not appear in Paul. It is Johannine. See Jas 1:9; Jas 3:19; Jas 21:27; Jas 12:46.

To save sinners [ ] . The thought is Pauline, but not the phrase. See Luk 9:56; Luk 19:10.

Chief [] . Or foremost. Comp. 1Co 14:9, and Eph 3:8. This expression is an advance on those.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “This is a faithful saying,” (pistis ho logos) “Faithful is the (saying) word.” This refers to the revelation of grace through Jesus Christ, Tit 1:9; Rev 21:5.

2) “And worthy of all acceptation,” (kai pases apodoches aksios) “And worthy of acceptance of all.” The total revelation of saving grace was meritorious of the admiration and approbation or becoming approval of all men; 1Ti 2:3-4.

3) “That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; (hoti christos iesous elthen eis ton kosmon hamartolous sosai) “That Christ Jesus came into the universe to save or deliver mark-missers (sinners).” Those, all persons, who had come short of holiness in character and deed, Luk 5:32, Rom 3:23.

4) “Of whom I am chief.” (hon prostos eimi ego) “Of whom I am (first in rank) or chief.” Each person must face God and His holiness alone and give account to Him for his sins. Paul was a “first rank” (chief) of sinners, a murderer, yet the grace of God pardoned him, redeemed him, and restored him to usefulness to God. That grace is still available to all men who seek its benefits, Isa 55:6-7; Mat 11:28; Joh 6:37.

ACCEPTING THE GIFT

Well I remember my futile attempts to begin the Christian life. One Sunday morning I made up my mind to be a Christian, and never doubted that I knew what to do. I must leave off this evil thing, I thought -and already evil things had place in my life — I must do this good thing, I must read my Bible more, and pray more, and repent, and weep if possible. That evidently was the proper way. So I began. On Sunday I prospered well, and on Monday and Tuesday, I almost succeeded, but on Wednesday and Thursday I made some serious slips, and gave it up in despair on Friday and Saturday. But that was the less matter, for I began again the next Sunday. In my self-confidence I thought I knew where I had gone wrong, and that I could guard against the danger. So I read my Bible more diligently, and prayed with increasing devotion, prayed until sometimes I fell asleep on my knees beside the bed. I watched more carefully and imagined I repented more deeply. Often I wept and hid the tears.

Then came the wonderful Sunday afternoon when the new minister was to give his first address to the Sunday School. He said many things, no doubt, but I can only remember one sentence, and that was the living word for me: “All ye have to do to be saved is to take God’s gift, and say, ‘Thank You.’ ” Here was a new and great light. Hitherto I had been trying to get God to take my gift, and trying to make it great enough to be worthy of His acceptance; and lo: It was I who had to take, and it was His to give. Simply and quietly that Sunday afternoon my heart turned to God, and I took the gift for which I have been trying to say “Thank You ‘ “ever since. I have not yet learned to say it well, but I keep on trying to say it better, and some day, by infinite grace, I believe I shall have learned to say it perfectly.

–W. Y. Fullerton

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

15 It is a faithful saying After having defended his ministry from slander and unjust accusations, not satisfied with this, he turns to his own advantage what might have been brought against him by his adversaries as a reproach. He shews that it was profitable to the Church that he had been such a person as he actually was before he was called to the apostleship, because Christ, by giving him as a pledge, invited all sinners to the sure hope of obtaining pardon. For when he, who had been a fierce and savage beast, was changed into a Pastor, Christ gave a remarkable display of his grace, from which all might be led to entertain a firm belief that no sinner; how heinous and aggravated so ever might have been his transgressions, had the gate of salvation shut against him.

That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners He first brings forward this general statement, and adorns it with a preface, as he is wont to do in matters of vast importance. In the doctrine of religion, indeed, the main point is, to come to Christ, that, being lost in ourselves, we may obtain salvation from him. Let this preface be to our ears like the sound of a trumpet to proclaim the praises of the grace of Christ, in order that we may believe it with a stronger faith. Let it be to us as a seal to impress on our hearts a firm belief of the forgiveness of sins, which otherwise with difficulty finds entrance into the hearts of men.

A faithful saying What was the reason why Paul aroused attention by these words, but because men are always disputing with themselves (23) about their salvation? For, although God the Father a thousand times offer to us salvation, and although Christ himself preach about his own office, yet we do not on that account cease to tremble, or at least to debate with ourselves if it be actually so. Wherefore, whenever any doubt shall arise in our mind about the forgiveness of sins, let us learn to repel it courageously with this shield, that it is an undoubted truth, and deserves to be received without controversy.

To save sinners. The word sinners is emphatic; for they who acknowledge that it is the office of Christ to save, have difficulty in admitting this thought, that such a salvation belongs to “sinners.” Our mind is always impelled to look at our worthiness; and as soon as our unworthiness is seen, our confidence sinks. Accordingly, the more any one is oppressed by his sins, let him the more courageously betake himself to Christ, relying on this doctrine, that he came to bring salvation not to the righteous, but to “sinners.” It deserves attention, also, that Paul draws an argument from the general office of Christ, in order that what he had lately testified about his own person might not appear to be on account of its novelty.

Of whom, I am the first Beware of thinking that the Apostle, under a presence of modesty, spoke falsely, (24) for he intended to make a confession not less true than humble, and drawn from the very bottom of his heart.

But some will ask, “Why does he, who only erred through ignorance of sound doctrine, and whose whole life, in even other respect, was blameless before men, pronounce himself to be the chief of sinners?” I reply, these words inform us how heinous and dreadful a crime unbelief is before God, especially when it is attended by obstinacy and a rage for persecution. (Phi 3:6.) With men, indeed, it is easy to extenuate, under the presence of heedless zeal, all that Paul has acknowledged about himself; but God values more highly the obedience of faith than to reckon unbelief, accompanied by obstinacy, to be a small crime. (25)

We ought carefully to observe this passage, which teaches us, that a man who, before the world, is not only innocent, but eminent for distinguished virtues, and most praiseworthy for his life, yet because he is opposed to the doctrine of the gospel, and on account of the obstinacy of his unbelief, is reckoned one of the most heinous sinners; for hence we may easily conclude of what value before God are all the pompous displays of hypocrites, while they obstinately resist Christ.

(23) “ Sinon d’autant que les honames disputent tousjours, et sont en doute en eux — mesmes touehant leur salut.” — “But because men are always disputing, and are in doubt in themselves about their salvation.”

(24) “ Il se faut bien donner garde de cuider que l’Apostre ait ainsi parle par une faeon de nmodestie, et non pas qu’il se pensast en son coeur.” — “We must guard against thinking that the Apostle spoke thus under a presence of modesty, and that he did not think so in his heart.”

(25) “If we consider what is the chief service that God demands and accepts, we shall know what is meant by saying that humility is the greatest sacrifice that he approves. (1Sa 15:22.) And that is the reason why it is said that faith may be regarded as the mother of all the virtues; it is the foundation and source of them; and, but for this, all the virtues that are visible, and that are highly valued by men, have no solid value; they are so many vices which God condemns. After we have loudly praised a man, and placed him in the rank of angels, he shall be rejected by God, with all his fine reputation, unless he have that obedience of faith. Thus it will be in vain for men to say, ‘I did not intend it, that was my opinion;’ for, not withstanding their good intention and their reputation, they must be condemned before God as rebels. This would, at first sight, seem hard to digest. And why? For we see how men always endeavor to escape from the hand of God, and resort to many indirect means. And when can they find this palliation, ‘I intended to do what was right, and why not accept my good intention?’ When that can be alleged, we think that it is enough, but such palliations will be of no avail before God.” — Fr. Ser.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(15) This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation.This striking formula in the New Testament, found only in the Pastoral Epistles, here and in 1Ti. 3:1; 1Ti. 4:9; 2Ti. 2:11; Tit. 3:8; and the somewhat similar expression, these sayings [words] are faithful and true, Rev. 21:5; Rev. 22:6, were formulas expressing weighty and memorable truths, well known and often repeated by the brotherhood of Christians in the first ages of the faith. They were, no doubt, rehearsed constantly in the assemblies, till they became well-known watchwords in the various churches scattered over the Mediterranean-washed provinces of the Roman empire; and in these sayings we see, perhaps, the germs of the great creeds of Christianity. [1Ti. 3:1, perhaps, as usually understood, hardly falls under this category of watchwords of the faith, unless St. Chrysostoms interpretation of the text be followed, which refers the faithful saying to the solemn truths which immediately preceded it in 1 Timothy 2]

That Christ Jesus came into the world.This is an unmistakable allusion to the pre-existence of Christ. He came into the world, leaving the glory which he had with the Father before the world was (see Joh. 16:28; Joh. 17:5; Eph. 1:3-4). And the purpose for which he came into the world is stated distinctly in the next sentence.

To save sinners.There are no details given respecting this salvation. The sinners here mentioned is a broad, inclusive term. It includes, besides Jews, the outcasts of the Gentiles without hope and without Godall the lost, irrespective of race or time. In the Lords own blessed words: The Son of Man was come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luk. 19:10).

Of whom I am chief.The intense humility of the strange, beautiful character of the Gentile Apostle prompted this bitter expression. St. Paul, it has been well said, knew his own sins by experience, and every other mans per speculationem. In another place a similar feeling leads him to style himself as less than the least of all saints (Eph. 3:8). He had been in time past so bitter an enemy of the Lord that no preaching of the disciples was effectual to work his conversion. In his case, to overcome his intense hatred of the Name, it needed a special appearance of the Risen One.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

15. Faithful saying A full trustworthy proposition. This is one of the phrases peculiar to the pastoral epistles. See 1Ti 3:1; 1Ti 4:9; 2Ti 2:2; 2Ti 2:11; Tit 1:9; Tit 3:8.

All acceptation Acceptation entire, and by all. This comprehensive and glorious saying lies in the apostle’s train of thought; for he had found it faithful and true in his own experience.

Save sinners So that it is our sins that give us a claim upon this Saviour. If we are no sinners, then for us Christ is no Saviour.

I am chief Literally, I am , first; not, of course, in the order of time, but of eminence. Dr. Clarke seems to think it necessary to maintain that Paul was literally and accurately the greatest sinner that ever lived. But compare the similar hyperboles at 1Co 15:9, and Eph 3:8. Yet we coincide with Flatt (quoted by Huther) in noting the want of the Greek article before the word , and translating it not the first, or the chief; but a chief, a first, one of the first. We agree with Huther that Paul’s words need no softening; and we may add, no hardening either. No one can doubt that the article would have increased the emphasis, and the due import of its omission must be acknowledged.

Note the present tense: not was, but am chief. For though forgiven, saved, apostled, he is still that same Saul; he is the man who sinned; the past can never be undone. Even though saved, he is forever a saved sinner.

Yet in what sense could the dying Wesley affirm:

“I the chief of sinners am,

But Jesus died for me?”

Not certainly as a literal fact, but as a profound assumption before God. He renounced all claims, and freely and fully consented to be saved at God’s estimate, even if it be as the greatest of sinners, by Christ’s atonement.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

He Describes What The True Gospel Is, And How It Had Even Reached The Chief Of Sinners ( 1Ti 1:15 ).

In 1Ti 1:15 Paul cites a phrase which had no doubt become common in the churches, possibly one that he had been responsible for establishing, and that was that ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’. Such phrases would naturally be formulated from the earliest days as the church had to establish the basic tenets of its faith, and had to remember them, and declare them in public, and they are discernible from the very beginning. See, for example, Rom 1:3-4; 1Co 15:3-4.

Note, as we have seen, how this clear definition of the Gospel is set in comparison with the purpose of the Law (1Ti 1:8-10), which is also for sinners. The Law speaks to men in God’s Name, and even reveals something of Him, but it is Christ Jesus Who came to save.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

‘The saying is faithful, and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.’

‘The saying (or word) is faithful (pistos ho logos).’ That is, it comes from a faithful God through faithful men and is worthy of all trust. This solemn phrase, standing in its baldness, is a typical Pauline construction. ‘The word is faithful’ compares with the equally bald ‘God is faithful’ in 1Co 1:9; 1Co 10:13, and note ‘God is faithful’ and ‘the Lord is faithful’ in 2Co 1:18; 2Th 3:3. It stresses that the word has come from the God Who is faithful. It is also found in 1Ti 3:1; 1Ti 4:9 (along with ‘and worthy of all acceptance’); 2Ti 2:11; Tit 3:8, each time introducing an important truth. Compare also Rev 22:6.

‘Worthy of all acceptance’ (compare 1Ti 4:9) is a phrase common in the papyri. It adds further weight to what Paul is saying. It is declaring that it is a deep truth and must be accepted as such. And the deep truth is that ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’

‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’ This was something stated right from the beginning (Mat 1:21), and was the foundation stone of the church. Although simple, it is packed full of theology. The Messiah Jesus had come into the world as its Saviour, coming from God the Saviour (1Ti 1:1; 1Ti 4:10), in order to save sinners. The fact that He had ‘come into the world’ indicates the source from which He came (compare Joh 9:37; Joh 11:27; Joh 16:28; Joh 18:37). He came from God the Saviour. The fact that He came to ‘save (deliver, make whole) sinners’ makes clear His central purpose. It was true that He had come to reveal love and to teach, but above all it was to save sinners (hamartowlous, those who were not obedient to God’s Law). In other words God was fulfilling the saving purpose that He had had from the beginning, and He was doing it in His Messiah Jesus.

There may also be intended to be a stress on the fact that He came into the world to do it. It was not done from afar. Salvation was not accomplished through a number of intermediaries. Nor was it simply offered from above. It was accomplished by His coming into the world as it is, in all its earthliness, with the saving activity being accomplished by Him on earth.

‘Of whom I am chief (prowtos – ‘first, most prominent, chief’).’ And as Paul spoke of ‘sinners’ he knew that there was one who was lower than all sinners, and that was himself. Even at this present time (‘I am’) he was aware of what a sinner he was. He had stood out as a sinner from the first. Had the Devil been choosing sinners for his team, Paul would have been the first to be selected. For he had persecuted the Lord Himself and had sought to stamp out His infant church (Act 9:4-5). He was not declaring this out of false humility but out of a deep sense of unworthiness, and of gratitude, and as an encouragement to others. He knew what he had been and in making his ratings he knew in his heart that no one came lower than himself. He was ‘less than the least of all saints’ (Eph 3:8), and yet as such, and this was something which continually left him dumbfounded, he had been given the graciously offered opportunity and enablement to ‘proclaim among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ’ (Eph 3:8). The persecutor had been given the opportunity to become the proclaimer. Note the ‘I am’. He knew that without Christ His case would still have been hopeless. We can safely say that no one but Paul could have written these words.

‘Christ Jesus.’ An order found regularly in Paul (over 36 times outside the Pastorals and 14 times in the Pastorals), and only elsewhere in Act 19:4 where it is in words of Paul; and in Heb 3:1, and 1Pe 5:10; 1Pe 5:14.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

1Ti 1:15. Of whom I am chief. As distance diminishes objects to the sight, and nearness magnifies them, so to holy men their own faults appear greater than those of others; and truth is not injured by expressions which humility suggests, because they speak their real sentiments.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1Ti 1:15 . . . .] With this formula, which is peculiar to the Pastoral Epistles (found besides here in 1Ti 3:1 , 1Ti 4:9 ; 2Ti 2:11 ; Tit 3:8 ; only in Rev. is there a similar formula: , Rev 21:5 , Rev 22:6 ), the apostle introduces the general thought whose truth he had himself experienced.

] This addition is also in 1Ti 4:9 ; the word occurs nowhere else in the N. T. (comp. , 1Ti 2:3 , 1Ti 5:4 ). As Raphelius has shown by many proofs from Polybius, it is synonymous in later Greek with : the verb (“ receive believing ”) is used in the same sense in Act 2:41 . The adjective describes the of which the word is worthy, as one complete and excluding all doubt.

. . ] This expression, found especially in John, may be explained from the saying of Christ: , Joh 16:28 , having here a physical, not an ethical meaning: “the earthly world.”

stands here in a general sense, and is not with Stolz to be limited to the opponents of Christianity, nor with Michaelis to the heathen. As little can the idea of be limited in the one direction or the other. After this general thought, that the aim of Christ’s coming is none other than the of sinners, the apostle returns to his own case, adding, in consciousness of his guilt (1Ti 1:13 ): , “ of whom I am first .” Paul says this, conscious of his former determined hostility to Christ when he was a . . . (1Ti 1:13 ), and considering himself at the same time as standing at the head of sinners. It is inaccurate to translate without qualification by “the foremost” (in opposition to Wiesinger and others). Even in Mar 12:28-29 , is the commandment which stands at the head of all, is first in the list, and is the one following. In order to qualify the thought, Flatt wishes to translate by “one of the foremost,” which he thinks he can justify by the absence of the article. Wegscheider, again, wishes not to refer to , but to supply or ; and similarly Mack explains by “of which saved sinners.” All these expositions are, however, to be rejected as pieces of ingenuity. The thought needs no qualification at least not for any one who can sympathize with the apostle’s strong feeling. The apostle does not overstep the bounds of humility in what he says in 1Co 15:9 and Eph 3:8 ; neither does he overstep them here.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 2226
CHRIST CAME TO SAVE SINNERS

1Ti 1:15. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

IT is said of the Athenians that they spent their time in nothing else but in telling or hearing some new thing. This, to say the least, was a very unprofitable way of employing their precious hours: for of the reports that are most industriously circulated, many are false, many doubtful, many frivolous; and of those that are true and important, the far greater part do not properly concern us. But there is one report that has spread far and wide, in which we are all deeply interested; the particulars of which, together with the general character of the report itself, it is our intention to lay before you.

The report itself

In general the report is, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. But because of its singular importance, it will be proper that we enter into particulars, and tell you distinctly,

Who Jesus Christ was

[He was a man in every respect like ourselves, sin only excepted. But he was God also: he was the only-begotten Son of God, God of God, light of light, very God of very God. To declare fully who he was, is beyond the power of any finite being: since none knoweth the Son but the Father [Note: Mat 11:27.]: yet we know infallibly from Scripture that he was the eternal [Note: Mic 5:2. with Joh 17:5.], immutable Jehovah [Note: Heb 13:8.], God manifest in the flesh [Note: 1Ti 3:16.], God over all, blessed for ever [Note: Rom 9:5.].]

How he came into the world

[He was born like other men; but he was not begotten in the way of ordinary generation. He was formed by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of a pure virgin, that he might partake of our nature without inheriting our corruption [Note: Luk 1:35.]. He was born under circumstances of peculiar meanness: his life also was spent in poverty and disgrace: and his death was the most cruel and ignominious that could be inflicted on him. But he foreknew from the beginning all that he should suffer, and yet voluntarily took upon him our nature, that he might both do and suffer all that was appointed of the Father.]

For what end he came into the world

[Never was there such an errand before, or since. His own creatures had ruined themselves; and he came to save them. Though it was his law that they transgressed, and his authority that they despised, and his yoke that they cast off; yea, though he was the one great object of their contempt and abhorrence, he came to save them. Though he knew that they would murder him as soon as ever he should put himself into their power, yet he came to save them; to save the vilest of them, not excepting those who unrighteously condemned him, or insultingly mocked him, or cruelly pierced him with the nails and spear. When there was no alternative but either that they must perish, or he come down from heaven to suffer in their stead, down he came upon the wings of love, and saved them from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for them [Note: Gal 3:13.]. He suffered that they might go free; and died, that they might live for ever.]

That this is not a cunningly-devised fable, will appear, if we consider what is said in the text respecting,

II.

The character of this report

St. Paul, who had examined it thoroughly, declares that it is,

Worthy of credit

[So strange a report as this ought on no account to be believed, unless it can be proved beyond a possibility of doubt. Credulity in a concern that so deeply involves the honour of God and the welfare of all the human race, would be criminal in the highest degree. But we need be under no apprehensions respecting the truth of this report. It is a faithful saying: it is attested by the accomplishment of prophecies the most numerous, the most minute, the most opposite and irreconcileable; of prophecies, which no human wisdom could hare devised, no human power could accomplish. It has been credited by thousands who were at first most adverse to it: it has always appeared with more convincing evidence in proportion as it has been scrutinized and examined: and multitudes have propagated it at the peril of their lives, and sealed the truth of it with their blood. There is no species of evidence wanting to confirm it: so that it is impossible to doubt of its truth, if only we inquire into it with diligence and candour.]

Worthy of acceptation

[There are many reports that are true, which yet are unworthy of any serious concern. But this is so universally interesting, and withal so precious, that it is worthy to be received by all mankind with the liveliest joy and exultation. If it be considered only as affecting the present happiness of men, there is no other report deserving of the smallest attention in comparison of this. None but God can tell, how many myriads of souls it has delivered from the deepest distress and anguish, and filled with peace and joy unspeakable. In truth, there is no solid comfort upon earth but what arises from the belief of these joyful tidings. But if we extend our views to the eternal felicity which the crediting of this report has occasioned; if we look at the myriads of saints that are already around the throne of God, and consider what numbers are continually adding to them from this lower world, and what an innumerable host there will be at the last day, that will have been rescued from hell, and exalted to glory solely through their crediting of this report, surely we shall say it is worthy of all acceptation, worthy, not merely to be credited, but to be entertained in our hearts with the devoutest gratitude and thanksgiving.]

We shall conclude with recommending this saying to the attention of,
1.

Those who have lived in a wilful course of sin

[You cannot but have some secret apprehension that your end will be according to your ways, How acceptable then ought these tidings to be to you! Do not despise them. Do not aggravate your eternal condemnation by rejecting them; neither put them from you, as though they were too good to be true: for Christ came to save even the very chief of sinners; and you, if you will believe on him, shall experience his salvation.]

Those who have been more exemplary in their lives

Do not imagine that you are able to save yourselves: if you have not been such profligate sinners as others, still you are sinners, and must be saved by Jesus Christ, or not at all. You are but too apt to overlook all that Christ has done and suffered for you, under an idea that your moral and religious duties will conciliate the Divine favour: and hence it too often happens, that, while publicans and harlots enter into his kingdom, persons of your description exclude themselves from it. But know, that there is salvation in no other: Christ is, and must be, your only refuge, and your only hope [Note: Act 4:12.].]

Those who have already received it into their hearts

[Doubtless this report has already been a source of joy and consolation to you. But you cannot even conceive how rich a source of blessings it will be, if only you continue to reflect upon it. In it are contained all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge [Note: Col 2:3.]: it has a height, and depth, and length, and breadth, that no finite being can comprehend [Note: Eph 3:18-19.], and that through eternal ages will afford incessant and increasing cause for wonder and adoration. Let this report then be your meditation day and night, and while we, as Gods ambassadors, endeavour to propagate it with our lips, do you endeavour to recommend and confirm it by your lives.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

15 This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

Ver. 15. This is a faithful saying ] Worthy to be credited and embraced, as it was by Bilney the martyr, who by this promise was much comforted in a great conflict. So was Ursine byJoh 10:29Joh 10:29 . Another by Isa 57:15 . And another by Isa 26:3 , saying that God hath graciously made it fully good to his soul.

Of whom I am chief ] Primus, quo nullus prior, as Gerson expounds it; Imo quo nullus peior, as Augustine, more worse than the worst. The true penitentiary doth not elevate but aggravate his sins against himself, is ever full in the mouth this way, as Dan 9:5 . Paul veils all his top sails, we see, and sits down in the dust; vilifying and nullifying himself to the utmost.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

15 .] faithful (worthy of credit: , , Thdrt. Cf. Rev 21:5 , : similarly Rev 22:6 [or, one belonging to those who are of the ]. The formula is peculiar to the pastoral Epistles, and characteristic I believe of their later age, when certain sayings had taken their place as Christian axioms, and were thus designated) is the saying, and worthy of all (all possible, i.e. universal) reception (see reff. Polyb., and Wetst. and Kypke, h. l. A word which, with its adjective (ch. 1Ti 2:3 ; 1Ti 5:4 ), is confined to these Epistles. We have the verb, , Act 2:41 ), that Christ Jesus came into the world (an expression otherwise found only in St. John. But in the two reff. in Matt. and Luke, we have the ) to save sinners (to be taken in the most general sense, not limited in any way), of whom (sinners; not, as Wegscheider, or : the aim and extent of the Lord’s mercy intensifies the feeling of his own especial unworthiness) I am (not, ‘ was ’) chief (not, ‘one of the chief,’ as Flatt, nor does refer to time , which would not be the fact (see below): the expression is one of the deepest humility: , says Thdrt.: and indeed it is so, cf. Php 3:6 ; 1Co 15:9 ; Act 23:1 ; Act 24:16 ; but deep humility ever does so: it is but another form of , Luk 18:13 ; other men’s crimes seem to sink into nothing in comparison, and a man’s own to be the chief and only ones in his sight):

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1Ti 1:15-17 . The dealings of Christ with me, of course, are not unique. My experience is the same in kind, though not in degree, as that of all saved sinners. Christ’s longsuffering will never undergo a more severe test than it did in my case, so that no sinner need ever despair. Let us giorify God therefor.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

1Ti 1:15 . : The complete phrase, recurs in 1Ti 4:9 ; and in 1Ti 3:1 , 2Ti 2:11 , Tit 3:8 .

The only other places in the N.T. in which is applied to in the sense of that can be relied on are Tit 1:9 , ; Rev 21:5 ; Rev 22:6 , .

In Tit 1:9 the cannot mean an isolated saying, but rather the totality of the revelation given in Christ. Of the other five places in which the phrase occurs there are not more than two in which it is possible to say with confidence that a definite saying is referred to, i.e. , here, and perhaps 2Ti 2:11 . In the other passages, the expression seems to be a brief parenthetical formula, affirmative of the truth of the general doctrine with which the writer happens to be dealing. See notes in each place.

: Field ( Notes on Trans. N.T . p. 203) shows by many examples from Diodorus Siculus and Diog. Laert. that this phrase was a common one in later Greek. He would render by approbation or admiration . See also Moulton and Milligan, Expositor , vii., vi. 185. occurs 1Ti 2:3 ; 1Ti 5:4 ; in Luke and Acts.

Other examples in the Pastorals of the use of (= summus ) with abstract nouns (besides ch. 1Ti 4:9 ) are 1Ti 2:2 ; 1Ti 2:11 ; 1Ti 3:4 ; 1Ti 5:2 ; 1Ti 6:1 , 2Ti 4:2 , Tit 2:10 ; Tit 2:15 ; Tit 3:2 .

. . : This is quite evidently a saying in which the apostolic church summed up its practical belief in the Incarnation. , as used of Christ, is an expression of the Johannine theology; see reff. It is the converse of another Johannine expression, ( or ) : Joh 3:17 ; Joh 10:36 ; Joh 17:18 , 1Jn 4:9 . is used in the same association, Heb 10:5 . is used of sin, Rom 5:12 ; . . of false prophets in 1Jn 4:1 , 2Jn 1:7 .

When we say that this is a Johannine expression, we do not mean that the writer of this epistle was influenced by the Johannine literature . But until it has been proved that John the son of Zebedee did not write the Gospel which bears his name, and that the discourses contained in it are wholly unhistorical, we are entitled, indeed compelled, to assume that what we may for convenience call Johannine theology, and the familiar expression of it, was known wherever John preached.

With cf. Luk 19:10 , . For the notion expressed in cf. Mat 1:21 ; Mat 9:13 ; see also Joh 12:47 , ; Joh 1:29 , ; and 1Jn 2:2 .

The pre-existence of Christ, as well as His resistless power to save, is of course assumed in this noble summary of the gospel.

: In the experiences of personal religion each individual man is alone with God. He sees nought but the Holy One and his own sinful self ( cf. Luk 18:13 , ). And the more familiar a man becomes with the meeting of God face to face the less likely is he to be deceived as to the gulf which parts him, limited, finite, defective, from the Infinite and Perfect. It is not easy to think of anyone but St. Paul as penning these words; although his expressions of self-depreciation elsewhere (1Co 15:9 , Eph 3:8 ) are quite differently worded. In each case the form in which they are couched arises naturally out of the context. The sincerity of St. Paul’s humility is proved by the fact that he had no mock modesty; when the occasion compelled it, he could appraise himself; e.g. , Act 23:1 ; Act 24:16 , 2Co 11:5 ; 2Co 12:11 , Gal 2:6 .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

1 Timothy

THE GOSPEL IN SMALL

1Ti 1:15 .

Condensation is a difficult art. There are few things drier and more unsatisfactory than small books on great subjects, abbreviated statements of large systems. Error lurks in summaries, and yet here the whole fulness of God’s communication to men is gathered into a sentence; tiny as a diamond, and flashing like it. My text is the one precious drop of essence, distilled from gardens full of fragrant flowers. There is an old legend of a magic tent, which could be expanded to shelter an army, and contracted to cover a single man. That great Gospel which fills the Bible and overflows on the shelves of crowded libraries is here, without harm to its power, folded up into one saying, which the simplest can understand sufficiently to partake of the salvation which it offers.

There are five of these ‘faithful sayings’ in the letters of Paul, usually called ‘the pastoral epistles.’ It seems to have been a manner with him, at that time of his life, to underscore anything which he felt to be especially important by attaching to it this label. They are all, with one exception, references to the largest truths of the Gospel. I turn to this one, the first of them now, for the sake of gathering some lessons from it.

I. Note, then, first, here the Gospel in a nutshell.

‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’ Now, every word there is weighty, and might be, not beaten out, but opened out into volumes. Mark who it is that comes–the solemn double name of that great Lord, ‘Christ Jesus.’ The former tells of His divine appointment and preparation, inasmuch as the Spirit of the Lord God is upon Him, anointing Him to proclaim good tidings to the poor, and to open the prison doors to all the captives, and asserts that it is He to whom prophets and ritual witnessed, and for whose coming prophets and kings looked wearily through the ages, and died rejoicing even to see afar off the glimmer of His day. The name of Jesus tells of the child born in Bethlehem, who knows the experience of our lives by His own, and not only bends over our griefs with the pity and omniscience of a God, but with the experience and sympathy of a man.

‘Christ Jesus came.’ Then He was before He came. His own will impelled His feet, and brought Him to earth.

‘Christ Jesus came to save.’ Then there is disease, for saving is healing; and there is danger, for saving is making secure.

‘Christ Jesus came to save sinners’–the universal condition, co-extensive with the ‘world’ into which, and for which, He came. And so the essence of the Gospel, as it lay in Paul’s mind, and had been verified in his experience, was this–that a divine person had left a life of glory, and in wonderful fashion had taken upon Himself manhood in order to deliver men from the universal danger and disease. That is the Gospel which Paul believed, and which he commends to us as ‘a faithful saying.’

Well, then, if that be so, there are two or three things very important for us to lay to heart. The first is the universality of sin. That is the thing in which we are all alike, dear friends. That is the one thing about which any man is safe in his estimate of another. We differ profoundly. The members of this congregation, gathered accidentally together, and perhaps never to be all together again, may be at the antipodes of culture, of condition, of circumstances, of modes of life; but, just as really below all the diversities there lies the common possession of the one human heart, so really and universally below all diversities there lies the black drop in the heart, and ‘we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’ It is that truth which I want to lay on your hearts as the first condition to understanding anything about the power, the meaning, the blessedness of the Gospel which we say we believe.

And what does Paul mean by this universal indictment? If you take the vivid autobiographical sketch in the midst of which it is embedded, you will understand. He goes on to say, ‘of whom I am chief.’ It was the same man that said, without supposing that he was contradicting this utterance at all, ‘touching the righteousness which is in the law’ I was ‘blameless.’ And yet, ‘I am chief.’ So all true men who have ever shown us their heart, in telling their Christian faith, have repeated Paul’s statement; from Augustine in his wonderful Confessions , to John Bunyan in his Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners . And then prosaic men have said, ‘What profligates they must have been, or what exaggerators they are now!’ No. Sewer gas of the worst sort has no smell; and the most poisonous exhalations are only perceptible by their effects. What made Paul think himself the chief of sinners was not that he had broken the commandments, for he might have said, and in effect did say, ‘All these have I kept from my youth up,’ but that, through all the respectability and morality of his early life there ran this streak–an alienation of heart, in the pride of self-confidence, from God, and an ignorance of his own wretchedness and need. Ah! brethren, I do not need to exaggerate, nor to talk about ‘splendid vices,’ in the untrue language of one of the old saints, but this I seek to press on you: that the deep, universal sin does not lie in the indulgence of passions, or the breach of moralities, but it lies here–’thou hast left Me, the fountain of living water.’ That is what I charge on myself, and on every one of you, and I beseech you to recognise the existence of this sinfulness beneath all the surface of reputable and pure lives. Beautiful they may be; God forbid that I should deny it: beautiful with many a strenuous effort after goodness, and charming in many respects, but yet vitiated by this, ‘The God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, thou hast not glorified.’ That is enough to make a man brush away all the respectabilities and proprieties and graces, and look at the black reality beneath, and wail out ‘of whom I am chief.’

But, further, Paul’s condensed summary of the Gospel implies the fatal character of this universal sin. ‘He comes to save,’ says he. Now what answers to ‘save’ is either disease or danger. The word is employed in the original in antithesis to both conditions. To save is to heal and to make safe. And I need not remind you, I suppose, of how truly the alienation from God, and the substitution for Him of self or of creature, is the sickness of the whole man. But the end of sickness uncured is death. We ‘have no healing medicine,’ and the ‘wound is incurable’ by the skill of any earthly chirurgeon. The notion of sickness passes, therefore, at once into that of danger: for unhealed sickness can only end in death. Oh! that my words could have the waking power that would startle some of my complacent hearers into the recognition of the bare facts of their lives and character, and of the position in which they stand on a slippery inclined plane that goes straight down into darkness!

You do not hear much about the danger of sin from some modern pulpits. God forbid that it should be the staple of any; but God forbid that it should be excluded from any! Whilst fear is a low motive, self-preservation is not a low one; and it is to that that I now appeal. Brethren, the danger of every sin is, first, its rapid growth; second, its power of separating from God; third, the certainty of a future–ay! and present –retribution.

To me, the proof of the fatal effect of sin is what God had to do in order to stop it. Do you think that it would be a small, superficial cut which could be stanched by nothing else but the pierced hand of Jesus Christ? Measure the intensity of danger by the cost of deliverance, and judge how grave are the wounds for the healing of which stripes had to be laid on Him. Ah! if you and I had not been in danger of death, Jesus Christ would not have died. And if it be true that the Son of God laid aside His glory, and came into the world and died on the Cross for men, out of the very greatness of the gift, and the marvellousness of the mercy, there comes solemn teaching as to the intensity of the misery and the reality and awfulness of the retribution from which we were delivered by such a death. Sin, the universal condition, brings with it no slight disease and no small danger.

Further, we may gather from this condensed summary where the true heart and essence of the Christian revelation is. You will never understand it until you are contented to take the point of view which the New Testament takes, and give all weight and gravity to the fact of man’s transgression and the consequences thereof. We shall never know what the power and the glory of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ is until we recognise that, first and foremost, it is the mighty means by which man’s ruin is repaired, man’s downrush is stopped, sin is forgiven and capable of being cleansed. Only when we think of the Gospel of Jesus Christ as being, first and foremost, the redemption of the world by the great act of incarnation and sacrifice, do we come to be in a position in any measure to estimate its superlative worth.

And, for my part, I believe that almost all the mistakes and errors and evaporations of Christianity into a mere dead nothing which have characterised the various ages of the Church come mainly from this, that men fail to see how deep and how fatal are the wounds of sin, and so fail to apprehend the Gospel as being mainly and primarily a system of redemption. There are many other most beautiful aspects about it, much else in it, that is lovely and of good report, and fitted to draw men’s hearts and admiration; but all is rooted in this, the life and death of Jesus Christ, the sacrifice by whom we are forgiven, and in whom we are healed. And if you strike that out, you have a dead nothing left–an eviscerated Gospel.

I believe that we all need to be reminded of that to-day, as we always do, but mainly to-day, when we hear from so many lips estimates, favourable or unfavourable to Christianity and its mission in the world, which leave out of sight, or minimise into undue insignificance, or shove into a backward place, its essential characteristic, that it is the power of God through Christ, His Son Incarnate, dying and rising again for the salvation of individual souls from the penalty, the guilt, the habit, and the love of their sins, and only secondarily is it a morality, a philosophy, a social lever. I take for mine the quaint saying of one of the old Puritans, ‘When so many brethren are preaching to the times, it may be allowed one poor brother to preach for eternity.’

‘This is a faithful saying, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.’

II. Now, secondly, note the reliableness of this condensed Gospel.

When a man in the middle of some slight plank, thrown across a stream, tests it with a stamp of his foot, and calls to his comrades, ‘It is quite firm,’ there is reason for their venturing upon it too. That is exactly what Paul is doing here. How does he know that it is ‘a faithful saying’? Because he has proved it in his own experience, and found that in his case the salvation which Jesus Christ was said to effect has been effected. Now there are many other grounds of certitude besides this, but, after all, it is worth men’s while to consider how many millions there have been from the beginning who would be ready to join chorus with the Apostle here, and to say, ‘One thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see.’ My experience cannot be your certitude; but if you and I are suffering from precisely the same disease, and I have tested a cure, my experiences should have some weight with you. And so, brethren, I point you to all the thousands who are ready to say, ‘This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him.’ Are there any who give counter-evidence; that say, ‘We have tried it. It is all a sham and imagination. We have asked this Christ of yours to forgive us, and He has not. We have asked Him to cleanse us, and He has not. We have tried Him, and He is an impostor, and we will have no more to do with Him.’ There are people, alas! who have gone back to their wallowing in the mire, but it was not because Christ had failed in His promises, but because they did not care to have them fulfilled any more. Jesus Christ does not promise that His salvation shall work against the will of men who submit themselves to it.

But it is not only because of that consentient chorus of many voices–the testimony of which wise men will not reject–that the word is ‘a faithful saying.’ This is no place or time to enter upon anything like a condensation of the Christian evidence; but, in lieu of everything else, I point to one proof. There is no fact in the history of the world better attested, and the unbelief of which is more unreasonable, than the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. And if Christ rose from the dead–and you cannot understand the history of the world unless He did, nor the existence of the Church either–if Jesus Christ rose from the dead, it seems to me that almost all the rest follows of necessity: the influx of the supernatural, the unique character of His career, the correspondence of the end with the beginning, the broad seal of the divine confirmation stamped upon His claims to be the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world. All these things seem to me to come necessarily from that fact. And I say, given the consentient witness of nineteen centuries, given the existence of the Church, given the effects of Christianity in the world, given that upon which they repose–the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead–the conclusion is sound, ‘This is a faithful saying . . . that He came into the world to save sinners.’

Men talk, nowadays, very often as if the progress of science and new views as to the evolution of creatures or of mankind had effected the certitude of the Gospel. It does not seem to me that they have in the smallest degree. ‘The foundation of God standeth sure,’ whatever may become of some of the superstructures which men have built upon it. They may very probably be blown away. So much the better if we get the rock to build upon once more. A great deal is going, but not the Gospel. Do not let us be afraid, or suppose that it will suffer. Do not let us dread every new speculation as if it was going to finish Christianity, but recognise this–that the fact of man’s sin and, blessed be God! the fact of man’s redemption stands untouched by them all; and to-day, as of old, Jesus Christ is, and is firmly manifested to be, the world’s Saviour. Whatsoever refuge may be swept away by any storms, ‘Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried corner-stone, a sure foundation: He that believeth shall not be confounded.’

III. Lastly, notice the consequent wisdom and duty of acceptance.

‘Worthy of all acceptation,’ says Paul. Yes, of course, if it is reliable. That word of the Lord which is ‘sure, making wise the simple,’ deserves to be received. Now this phrase, ‘all acceptation,’ may mean either of two things: it may either mean worthy of being welcomed by all men, or by the whole of each man.

This Gospel deserves to be welcomed by every man, for it is fitted for every man, since it deals with the primary human characteristic of transgression. Brethren! we need different kinds of intellectual nutriment, according to education and culture. We need different kinds of treatment, according to condition and circumstance. The morality of one age is not the morality of another. Much, even of right and wrong, is local and temporary; but black man and white, savage and civilised, philosopher and fool, king and clown, all need the same air to breathe, the same water to drink, the same sun for light and warmth, and all need the same Christ for redemption from the same sin, for safety from the same danger, for snatching from the same death. This Gospel is a Gospel for the world, and for every man in it. Have you taken it for yours? If it is ‘worthy of all acceptation,’ it is worthy of your acceptation. If you have not, you are treating Him and it with indignity, as if it was a worthless letter left in the post-office for you, which you knew was there, but which you did not think valuable enough to take the trouble to go for. The gift lies at your side. It is less than truth to say that it is ‘ worthy of being accepted.’ Oh! it is infinitely more than that.

It is, also, ‘worthy of all acceptation’ in the sense of worthy of being accepted into all a man’s nature, because it will fit it all and bless it all. Some of us give it a half welcome. We take it into our heads, and then we put a partition between them and our hearts, and keep our religion on the other side, so that it does not influence us at all. It is worthy of being received by the understanding, to which it will bring truth absolute; of being received by the will, to which it will bring the freedom of submission; of being received by the conscience, to which it will bring quickening; of being received by the affections, to which it will bring pure and perfect love. For hope, it will bring a certainty to gaze upon; for passions, a curb; for effort, a spur and a power; for desires, satisfaction; for the whole man, healing and light.

Brother! take it. And, if you do, begin where it begins, with your sins; and be contented to be saved as a sinner in danger and sickness, who can neither defend nor heal yourself. And thus coming, you will test the rope and find it hold; you will take the medicine and know that it cures; and, by your own experience, you will be able to say, ‘This is a faithful saying, Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

1 Timothy

THE CHIEF OF SINNERS

1Ti 1:15 .

The less teachers of religion talk about themselves the better; and yet there is a kind of personal reference, far removed from egotism and offensiveness. Few such men have ever spoken more of themselves than Paul did, and yet none have been truer to his motto: ‘We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus.’ For the scope of almost all his personal references is the depreciation of self, and the magnifying of the wonderful mercy which drew him to Jesus Christ. Whenever he speaks of his conversion it is with deep emotion and with burning cheeks. Here, for instance, he adduces himself as the typical example of God’s long-suffering. If he were saved none need despair.

I take it that this saying of the Apostle’s, ‘Of whom I am chief,’ paradoxical and exaggerated as it seems to many men, is in spirit that which all who know themselves ought to re-echo; and without which there is little strength in Christian life.

I. And so I ask you to note, first, what this man thinks of himself.

‘Of whom I am chief.’ Now, if we set what we know of the character of Saul of Tarsus before he was a Christian by the side of that of many who have won a bad supremacy in wickedness, the words seem entirely strange and exaggerated. But, as I have often had to say, the principle of the Apostle’s estimate is to be found in his belief that, not the outward manifestation of evil in specific acts of immorality, or flagrant breaches of commandment, but the inward principle from which the deeds flowed, is the measure of a man’s criminality, and that, according to the uniform teaching of Scripture, the very root of sin, and that which is common to all the things that the world’s conscience and ordinary morality designate as wrong, is to be found here, that self has become the centre, the aim, and the law instead of God. ‘This is the condemnation,’ said Paul’s Master– not that men have done so-and-so and so-and-so, but–’that light is come into the world, and men love darkness.’ That is the root of evil. ‘When the Comforter is come,’ said Paul’s Master, ‘He will convince the world of sin.’ Because they have broken the commandments? Because they have been lustful, ambitious, passionate, murderous, profligate, and so on? No! ‘Because they believe not in Me.’

The common root of all sin is alienation of heart and will from God. And it is by the root, and not by the black clusters of poisonous berries that have come from it, that men are to be judged. Here is the mother-tincture. You may colour it in different ways, and you may flavour it with different essences, and you will get a whole pharmacopoeia of poisons out of it. But the mother-poison of them all is this, that men turn away from the light, which is God; and for you and me is God in Christ.

So this man, looking back from the to-day of his present devotion and love to the yesterdays of his hostility, avails himself indeed of the palliation, ‘I did it ignorantly, in unbelief,’ but yet is smitten with the consciousness that whilst as touching the righteousness that is of the law he was blameless, his attitude to that incarnate love was such as now, he thinks, stamps him as the worst of men.

Brethren, there is the standard by which we have to try ourselves. If we get down below the mere surface of acts, and think, not of what we do, but of what we are, we shall then, at any rate, have in our hands the means by which we can truly estimate ourselves.

But what have we to say about that word ‘chief’? Is not that exaggeration? Well, yes and no. For every man ought to know the weak and evil places of his own heart better than he does those of any besides. And if he does so know them, he will understand that the ordinary classification of sin, according to the apparent blackness of the deed, is very superficial and misleading. Obviously, the worst of acts need not be done by the worst of men, and it does not at all follow that the man who does the awful deed stands out from his fellows in the same bad pre-eminence in which his deed stands out from theirs.

Take a concrete case. Go into the slums of Manchester, and take some of the people there, battered almost out of the semblance of humanity, and all crusted over and leprous with foul-smelling evils that you and I never come within a thousand miles of thinking it possible that we should do. Did you ever think that it is quite possible that the worst harlot, thief, drunkard, profligate in your back streets may be more innocent in their profligacy than you are in your respectability; and that we may even come to this paradox, that the worse the act, as a rule, the less guilty the doer? It is not such a paradox as it looks, because, on the one hand, the presence of temptation, and, on the other hand, the absence of light, make all the difference. And these people, who could not have been anything else, are innocent in degradation as compared with you, with all your education and culture, and opportunities of going straight, and knowledge of Christ and His love. The little transgressions that you do are far greater than the gross ones that they do. ‘But for the grace of God, there goes John Bradford,’ said the old preacher, when he saw a man going to the scaffold. And you and I, if we know ourselves, will not think that we have an instance of exaggeration, but only of the object nearest seeming the largest, when Paul said ‘Of whom I am chief.’

Only go and look for your sin in the way they look for Guy Fawkes at the House of Commons before the session. Take a dark lantern, and go down into the cellars. And If you do not find something there that will take all the conceit out of you, it must be because you are very short-sighted, or phenomenally self-complacent.

What does it matter though there be vineyards on the slopes of Vesuvius, and bright houses nestling at its base, and beauty lying all around like the dream of a god, if, when a man cranes his neck over the top of the crater, he sees that that cone, so graceful on the outside, is seething with fire and sulphur? Let us look down into the crater of our own hearts, and what we see there may well make us feel as Paul did when he said, ‘Of whom I am chief.’

Now, such an estimate is perfectly consistent with a clear recognition of any good that may be in the character and manifest in life. For the same Paul who says, ‘Of whom I am chief,’ says, in the almost contemporaneous letter sent to the same person, ‘I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith’; and he is the same man who asserted, ‘In nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.’ The true Christian estimate of one’s own evil and sin does not in the least interfere with the recognition of what God strengthens one to do, or of the progress which, by God’s grace, may have been made in holiness and righteousness. The two things may lie side by side with perfect harmony, and ought to do so, in every Christian heart.

But notice one more point. The Apostle does not say ‘I was ,’ but ‘I am chief.’ What! A man who could say, in another connection, ‘If any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature; old things are passed away’–the man who could say, in another connection, ‘I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God’–does he also say, ‘I am chief’? Is he speaking about his present? Are old sins bound round a man’s neck for evermore? If they be, what is the meaning of the Gospel that Jesus Christ redeems us from our sins? Well, he means this. No lapse of time, nor any gift of divine pardon, nor any subsequent advancement in holiness and righteousness, can alter the fact that I, the very same I that am now rejoicing in God’s salvation, am the man that did all these things; and, in a very profound sense, they remain mine through all eternity. I may be a forgiven sinner, and a cleansed sinner, and a sanctified sinner, but I am a sinner–not I was . The imperishable connection between a man and his past, which may be so tragical, and, thank God, may be so blessed, even in the case of remembered and confessed sin, is solemnly hinted at in the words before us. We carry with us ever the fact of past transgression, and no forgiveness, nor any future ‘perfecting of holiness in the fear’ and by the grace ‘of the Lord’ can alter that fact. Therefore, let us beware lest we bring upon our souls any more of the stains which, though they be in a blessed and sufficient sense blotted out, do yet leave the marks where they have fallen for ever.

II. Note how this man comes to such an estimate of himself.

He did not think so deeply and penitently of his past at the beginning of his career, true and deep as his repentance, and valid and genuine as his conversion were. But as he advanced in the love of Jesus Christ, his former active hostility became more monstrous to him, and the higher he rose, the clearer was his vision of the depth from which he had struggled; for growth in Christian holiness deepens the conviction of prior imperfection.

If God has forgiven my sin the more need for me to remember it. ‘Thou shalt be ashamed and confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of thy transgressions, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done.’ If you, my brother, have any real and genuine hold of God’s pardoning mercy, it will bow you down the more completely on your knees in the recognition of your own sin. The man who, as soon as the pressure of guilt and danger which is laid upon him seems to him to be lifted off, springs up like some elastic figure of indiarubber, and goes on his way in jaunty forgetfulness of his past evil, needs to ask himself whether he has ever passed from death unto life. Not to remember the old sin is to be blind. The surest sign that we are pardoned is the depth of our habitual penitence. Try yourselves, you Christian people who are so sure of your forgiveness, try yourselves by that test, and if you find that you are thinking less of your past evil, be doubtful whether you have ever entered into the genuine possession of the forgiving mercy of your God.

And then, still further, this penitent retrospect is the direct result of advancement in Christian characteristics. We are drawn to begin some study or enterprise by the illusion that there is but a little way to go. ‘Alps upon alps arise’ when once we have climbed a short distance up the hill, and it has become as difficult to go back as to go forward.

So it is in the Christian life–the sign of growing perfection is the growing consciousness of imperfection. A spot upon a clean palm is more conspicuous than a diffuse griminess over all the hand. One stain upon a white robe spoils it which would not be noticed upon one less lustrously clean. And so the more we grow towards God in Christ, and the more we appropriate and make our own His righteousness, the more we shall be conscious of our deficiencies, and the less we shall be prepared to assert virtues for ourselves.

Thus it comes to pass that conscience is least sensitive when it is most needed, and most swift to act when it has least to do. So it comes to pass, too, that no man’s acquittal of himself can be accepted as sufficient; and that he is a fool in self-knowledge who says, ‘I am not conscious of guilt, therefore I am innocent.’ ‘I know nothing against myself, yet am I not hereby justified: but He that judgeth me is the Lord.’ The more you become like Christ the more you will find out your unlikeness to Him.

III. Lastly, note what this judgment of himself did for this man.

I said in the beginning of my remarks that it seemed to me that without the reproduction of this estimate of ourselves there would be little strong Christian life in us. It seems to me that that continual remembrance which Paul carried with him of what he had been, and of Christ’s marvellous love in drawing him to Himself, was the very spring of all that was noble and conspicuously Christian in his career. And I venture to say, in two or three words, what I think you and I will never have unless we have this lowly self-estimate.

Without it there will be no intensity of cleaving to Jesus Christ. If you do not know that you are ill, you will not take the medicine. If you do not believe that the house is on fire, you will not mind the escape. The life-buoy lies unnoticed on the shelf above the berth as long as the sea is calm and everything goes well. Unless you have been down into the depths of your own heart, and seen the evil that is there, you will not care for the redeeming Christ, nor will you grasp Him as a man does who knows that there is nothing between him and ruin except that strong hand. We must be driven to the Saviour as well as drawn to Him if there is to be any reality or tightness in the clutch with which we hold Him. And if you do not hold Him with a firm clutch you do not hold Him at all.

Further, without this lowly estimate there will be no fervour of grateful love. That is the reason why so much both of orthodox and heterodox religion amongst us to-day is such a tepid thing as it is. It is because men have never felt either that they need a Redeemer, or that Jesus Christ has redeemed them. I believe that there is only one power that will strike the rock of a human heart, and make the water of grateful devotion flow out, and that is the belief in Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of mankind, and as my Saviour. Unless that be your faith, which it will not be except you have this conviction of my text in its spirit and essence, there will not be in your hearts the love which will glow there, an all-transforming power.

And is there anything in the world more obnoxious, more insipid, than lukewarm religion? If, with marks of quotation, I might use the coarse, strong expression of John Milton–’It gives a vomit to God Himself.’ ‘Because thou art neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.’

And without it there will be little pity of, and love for, our fellows. Unless we feel the common evil, and estimate by the intensity of its working in ourselves how sad are its ravages in others, our charity to men will be as tepid as our love to God. Did you ever notice that, historically, the widest benevolence to men goes along with what some people call the ‘narrowest’ theology? People tell us, for instance, to mark the contrast between the theology which is usually called evangelical and the wide benevolence usually accompanying it, and ask how the two things agree. The ‘wide’ benevolence comes directly from the ‘narrow’ theology. He that knows the plague of his own heart, and how Christ has redeemed him, will go, with the pity of Christ in his heart, to help to redeem others.

So, dear friends, ‘If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves.’ ‘If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

saying. App-121. This is the first of five “faithful sayings” in the Pastoral Epistles. Compare 1Ti 3:1; 1Ti 4:9. 2Ti 2:11, Tit 3:8, Compare Rev 21:5; Rev 22:6.

acceptation. Greek. apodoche. Only here and 1Ti 4:9. world. App-129.

chief. Greek. protos. Here “foremost”, i.e. first in position.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

15.] faithful (worthy of credit: , , Thdrt. Cf. Rev 21:5, : similarly Rev 22:6 [or, one belonging to those who are of the ]. The formula is peculiar to the pastoral Epistles, and characteristic I believe of their later age, when certain sayings had taken their place as Christian axioms, and were thus designated) is the saying, and worthy of all (all possible, i.e. universal) reception (see reff. Polyb., and Wetst. and Kypke, h. l. A word which, with its adjective (ch. 1Ti 2:3; 1Ti 5:4), is confined to these Epistles. We have the verb, , Act 2:41), that Christ Jesus came into the world (an expression otherwise found only in St. John. But in the two reff. in Matt. and Luke, we have the ) to save sinners (to be taken in the most general sense, not limited in any way), of whom (sinners; not, as Wegscheider, or : the aim and extent of the Lords mercy intensifies the feeling of his own especial unworthiness) I am (not, was) chief (not, one of the chief, as Flatt,-nor does refer to time, which would not be the fact (see below): the expression is one of the deepest humility: , says Thdrt.: and indeed it is so, cf. Php 3:6; 1Co 15:9; Act 23:1; Act 24:16; but deep humility ever does so: it is but another form of , Luk 18:13; other mens crimes seem to sink into nothing in comparison, and a mans own to be the chief and only ones in his sight):

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Ti 1:15. , faithful) A very solemn form of preface. Paul knows what he says, and whereof he affirms (1Ti 1:7), and refutes the false teachers by the very simplicity of his language, treating, but with great beauty, of common topics, so much the rather, as others affected to treat of those which are more abstruse. So also Tit 2:1.-, all) Even faith is a kind of acceptation. This statement deserves all acceptation by all the faculties of the whole soul: (from , Luk 8:13), is when I am thankful, and speak of a thing as a good deed (a boon conferred on me): comp. the correlative, , acceptable, ch. 1Ti 2:3.- ) Christ, viz. as promised: Jesus, as manifested. Franckius, in Homil. on this passage, shows that in this sense the name Christ here is put first, and Jesus after it; comp. 2Ti 1:9, note.-, world) which was full of sin, Joh 1:29; Rom 5:12; 1Jn 2:2.–, sinners) great and notable sinners. He saves also those whose sins have been not so aggravated; but it is much more remarkable that He saves so great sinners. It can scarcely happen, but that they who themselves have tasted the grace of God, should taste its universality, and, in like manner, from it entertain favour towards all men. Paul draws the conclusion from his own individual case to all men.-, first) This is repeated with great force in the following verse [a force which is lost by the Engl. Vers., chief]. The example of Paul is incomparable, whether we consider sin or mercy. [There had been then no such example from the ascension of the Lord.-V. g.]

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Ti 1:15

Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;-To believe and confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, who came into the world to save sinners, is a faithful and true saying, and is worthy of being confessed by all.

of whom I am chief:-Paul speaks of himself as the chief of sinners before God. He had been in captivity, and is showing that the grace of God is sufficient to save the worst of sinners who would accept it in faith and love. He held himself as a sample of mercy as the chief of sinners. He was the chief of sinners not because he had been guilty of conscious, willful sin, but because he had been more active and fierce in his determination to destroy the church of God, believing that by so doing he was rendering service to God.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

world kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield “Mat 4:8”).

save (See Scofield “Rom 1:16”).

sinners Grace (in salvation). 2Ti 1:14; 2Ti 1:15; 2Ti 1:9; Rom 3:24 (See Scofield “Joh 1:17”)

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

A Faithful Saying

Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.1Ti 1:15.

1. In these words we have the first of a short series of five faithful sayings, or current Christian commonplaces, incidentally adduced by the Apostle Paul in the course of his letters to his helpers in the gospelTimothy and Titusi.e. in what we commonly call his Pastoral Epistles. They are a remarkable series of five words, and their appearance on the face of these New Testament writings is almost as remarkable as their contents.

Consider what the phenomenon is that is brought before us in these faithful sayings. Here is the Apostle writing to his assistants in the proclamation of the gospel, little more than a third of a century, say, after the crucifixion of his Lordscarcely thirty-three years after he had himself entered upon the great ministry that had been committed to him of preaching to the Gentiles the words of this life. Yet he is already able to remind them of the blessed contents of the gospel message in words that are the product of Christian experience in the hearts of the community. For just what these faithful sayings are, is a body of utterances in which the essence of the gospel has been crystallized by those who have tasted and seen its preciousness. Obviously the days when this gospel was brought as a novelty to their attention are past. The Church has been founded, and in it throbs the pulse of a vigorous life. The gospel has been embraced and lived, it has been trusted and not found wanting; and the souls that have found its blessedness have had time to frame its precious truths into formulasformulas, not merely that have passed from mouth to mouth, and been enshrined in memory after memory until they have become proverbs in the Christian community, formulas, rather, which have embedded themselves in the hearts of the whole congregation, have been beaten there into shape, as the deeper emotions of redeemed souls have played round them, and have emerged again suffused with the feelings which they have awakened and satisfied, and moulded into that balanced and rhythmic form which is the hall-mark of utterances that really come out of the living and throbbing hearts of the people.

2. The particular one of these sayings which has been chosen as the text is a great assertionan assertion which, if it be truly a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, is well adapted to become even in this late and, it would fain believe itself, more instructed age, the watchword of the Christian Church and of every Christian heart. On the face of it, it simply announces the purpose, or, we may perhaps say, the philosophy, of the incarnation: Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. But it announces the purpose of the incarnation in a manner that at once attracts attention. The very language in which it is expressed is startling, meeting us here in the midst of one of St. Pauls letters. For this is not Pauline phraseology that stands before us here; as, indeed, it does not profess to befor does not St. Paul tell us that he is not speaking in his own person, but is adducing one of the jewels of the Churchs faith? At all events, it is the language of St. John that here confronts us, and whoever first cast the Churchs heart-conviction into this compressed sentence had assuredly learned in St. Johns school. For to St. John alone belongs this phrase as applied to Christ: He came into the world. It is St. John alone who preserves the Masters declarations: I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. It is he alone who, adopting, as is his wont, the very phraseology of his Master to express his own thought, tells us in his prologue that the true Lightthat lighteth every manwas coming into the world, but though He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, yet the world knew Him not.

Let us consider, first, the way in which the Apostle commends the great saying to usit is (1) faithful, and (2) worthy of all acceptation. Next, let us look at the saying itself. And, then, let us see how St. Paul adds his own fervent Amen to it: of whom I am chief.

The Apostles Commendation of the Saying

Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation.

1. It is faithful.It is faithful because men have proved it so in their experience, and because it agrees with sense and reason.

(1) When a man in the middle of some slight plank thrown across a stream tests it with a stamp of his foot, and calls to his comrades, It is quite firm, then they may venture upon it too. That is exactly what St. Paul is doing here. How does he know that faithful is the saying? Because he has proved it in his own experience, and found that in his case the salvation which Jesus Christ was said to effect has been effected. Now there are many other grounds of certitude besides this, but, after all, it is worth mens while to consider how many millions there have been from the beginning who would be ready to join chorus with the Apostle here, and to say, One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see. My experience cannot be your certitude; but if you and I are suffering from precisely the same disease, and I have tested a cure, my experience should have some weight with you. And so, we point to all the thousands who are ready to say, This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him.

Go to-day whither you will, north or south, east or west, and find the homes that are happiest, the lives that are sweetest, the souls that are sunniest, the hearts that are most helpful and most eager in helping others, you shall find all this among those who set their seal to this as trueIt is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Go to-day amongst the roughest and the vilest, the drunken and the brutal, the coarsest and the most depraved. What can uplift them? Bring education, good houses, pure water, good food and enough of itby all means get these things, it is a duty to demand them. But none of them, nor all of them put together, can cast out devils, or loose the chains of sin. Here in the West End of London, amidst stately architecture and splendid luxury, there is a show of vice more crowded and more hopeless than anything in the East End. Have education, or art, or any of these agencies wrought the cure of humanity anywhere? They have their place, and a lofty and noble place it is; but the maladies of humanity are beyond their power to heal. But we can show thousands and tens of thousands who will tell us: I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, injurious. Ask them what has made them so different, and they will tell you, It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.1 [Note: M. G. Pearse.]

On New Years Day, 1894, seeing a favourable opportunity to have a serious and pertinent talk with Keamapsithyo (Philip), the first Indian who had shown any really marked interest in Christianity, I walked out with him some distance from the village, and sat down on the bank of a stream. After a long conversation, I told him that, although his knowledge was exceedingly rudimentary, chiefly owing to my inadequate command of his language, and consequent inability to put the truths of the gospel clearly before him, yet he had been able to comprehend sufficiently to warrant him in deciding there and then to abandon heathenism once and for all, and follow Christ as his Chief. He replied that it was as I had said, only that I had not seemed to understand how sinful his past life had been; he knew that, to follow Christ, he would have to give up that life of sin, but, as it had such a hold upon him, he felt that he could not; furthermore, his sins had been so many that he felt sure the Christ about whom he had been taught could not possibly go so far as to forgive him. He added that, of course, in my case it was different, because I was a good man, as all the Indians knew, and doubtless Christ had been quite pleased to receive me, seeing that I had never committed such and such sins. In his own case, however, it must be otherwise. I went over with him in detail the particular sins which he had instanced, and assured him that many of them I had myself committed innumerable times; that others, although not committed in act, I had committed in intention; and that he knew, according to the theories of his own people, as well as from the teaching of Christ Himself, that the sin of the will was as much a sin as the deed itself. I tried to convince him that I was really in no way a better man than himself, in spite of his opinion of me and that of his people, who had only judged me superficially, yet Christ had accepted me, and therefore would accept him. I showed him that I still had the same temptations as he had, only the difference was that my will was to do good and abstain from evil; that this was not a natural, but a changed will, given me by God; and although I certainly did things of which I did not approve yet it grieved me when I did, and that I was continually striving to overcome these failings. I then expounded the doctrine that, in such a case, will-power would be given to overcome evil in proportion as the desire to overcome was strong. I pointed out that, by his own confession, he desired to lead a good life, and that, as I had already made it clear, his past guilt could be atoned for. Although he would continue to stumble for long after taking this step, I explained how he would be given strength to subdue his natural weakness; how, as his knowledge increased, and his experience ripened, and his desire tended unswervingly in the right direction, so he would in time come to realize the happiness of doing right, and discover that strength to do it would be imparted to him. After this, without giving any decision one way or another, he broke off the conversation and left me.

It was not until four years and a half afterwards that I learnt the immediate result of our talk. He was preaching to his countrymen, and in the course of his address stated distinctly and unhesitatingly that it was on that day that he definitely resolved sincerely to endeavour to carry out what I had advised. He remarked that it was only the perception that suddenly dawned on him of the similarity of my own condition with his that encouraged him to make the effort.1 [Note: W. B. Grubb, An Unknown People in an Unknown Land, 225.]

(2) But it is not only because of that consentient chorus of many voicesthe testimony of which wise men will not rejectthat the word is a faithful saying. There is no fact in the history of the world better attested, and the unbelief of which is more unreasonable, than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And if Christ rose from the deadand you cannot understand the history of the world unless He did, nor the existence of the Church eitherif Jesus Christ rose from the dead, almost all the rest follows of necessity: the influx of the supernatural, the unique character of His career, the correspondence of the end with the beginning, the broad seal of the Divine confirmation stamped upon His claims to be the Son of God and the Redeemer of the world. All these things come necessarily from the fact. And given the consentient witness of nineteen centuries, given the existence of the Church, given the effects of Christianity in the world, given that upon which they reposethe resurrection of Jesus Christ from the deadthe conclusion is sound: This is a faithful saying, that He came into the world to save sinners.

If the lowest form of energy, however it may be transformed or degraded, be still conserved in some shape and place, can any one believe that the Author of Life in this world was extinguished on a Roman cross? The certainty of Jesus Resurrection does not rest in the last issue on His isolated appearances during the forty days; it rests on His Life for thirty-three years. His Life was beyond the reach of death; it was Ageless Life. Jesus Life impressed His generation as unparalleled and inexplicable, a Life with inscrutable motives and incalculable principles. What was its explanation according to any known standard? Jesus was accustomed frankly to admit that it had none; that it was an enigma from the earthly standpoint. But He pleaded that it was supreme and reasonable from the Heavenly standpoint. It was foreign here; it was natural elsewhere. He did the works He had seen His Father do, He said the words He had received of His Father, He fulfilled the will of His Father. There was a sphere where His Life was the rule, where His dialect was the language of the country and His was the habit of living. His unlikeness to this world implies His likeness to another world. One evening you find among the reeds of your lake an unknown bird, whose broad breast and powerful pinions are not meant for this inland scene. It is resting midway between the two oceans, and by tomorrow will have gone. Does not that bird prove the ocean it left, does it not prove the ocean whither it has flown? Jesus, knowing that he was come from God and went to God, is the Revelation and Confirmation of Ageless Life.1 [Note: J. Watson, The Mind of the Master, 82.]

2. It is worthy of all acceptation.This phrase, all acceptation, may mean either of two things: it may mean worthy of being welcomed either by all men, or by the whole of each man.

(1) This gospel deserves to be welcomed by every man, for it is fitted for every man, since it deals with the primary human characteristic of transgression. We need different kinds of intellectual nutriment, according to education and culture. We need different kinds of treatment, according to condition and circumstance. The morality of one age is not the morality of another. Much, even of right and wrong, is local and temporary; but black man and white, savage and civilized, philosopher and fool, king and clown, all need the same air to breathe, the same water to drink, the same sun for light and warmth, and all need the same Christ for redemption from the same sin, for safety from the same danger, for snatching from the same death. This gospel is a gospel for the world, and for every man in it.

Jesus Christ did not die for a few of us. He tasted death for every man. He did not in His great heart think of this little nationality, or that. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. Yonder Man does not think of little pieces or of parts of things; when He thinks He thinks entireties, when He loves, He loves entireties. No fraction could ever satisfy His infinite love.1 [Note: Joseph Parker.]

(2) It is also worthy of all acceptation in the sense of worthy of being accepted into all a mans nature, because it will fit it all and bless it all. Some of us give it a half welcome. We take it into our head, and then we put a partition between it and our heart, and keep our religion on the other side, so that it does not influence us at all. It is worthy of being received by the understanding, to which it will bring truth absolute; of being received by the will, to which it will bring the freedom of submission; of being received by the conscience, to which it will bring quickening; of being received by the affections, to which it will bring pure and perfect love. For hope, it will bring a certainty to gaze upon; for passions, a curb; for effort, a spur and a power; for desires, satisfaction; for the whole man, healing and light.

Charles Kingsley, a few hours before his ordination, wrote: Oh! my soul, my body, my intellect, my very love, I dedicate you all to God! And not mine only to be an example and an instrument of holiness before the Lord for ever, to dwell in His courts, to purge His temple, to feed His sheep, to carry the lambs and bear them to that foster-mother whose love never fails, whose eye never sleeps, the Bride of God, the Church of Christ.2 [Note: Charles Kingsley: His Letters and Memories of His Life, i. 51.]

The Saying

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

1. To understand this great saying we must first of all look closely at the words.

(1) Christ Jesus was a formula with a special significance for Jews. The first name carried the mind away to the long-promised hope of Israel, of whom psalmist sang and prophet dreamed, the cherished expectation of the faithful. Christ is Messiah, the Anointed. Their kings in the days of national glory were Messiahs anointed with holy oil and set apart to their lofty office. In course of time the name came to be applied specially and exclusively to the expected Prince who should redeem His people from their troubles. As the nations calamities multiplied and they sank in adversity this hope was maintained with an almost fierce energy; and the Messiah became to the Jew in some respects what el-Mahdy is to the Moslem and el-Hady to the Druze, the Leader or Guide who should deliver them and reduce their oppressors to bondage. Jesus, Saviour, was also a name of happy augury. It is Joshua, the name borne by the mighty warrior who led Israel through victory to possession of the promised land. It was an auspicious combination of names. Paul and Timothy rejoice together in the realization of the nations hope. Messiah has come: the Saviour has appeared. But in the spirit of enlargement begotten by this new-found joy they give a more generous interpretation of the Messianic functions. He is not a Prince of deliverance to one people alone: His mission is to sinners. Not the children of Jacob in lonely gladness shall He restore to the land of their fathers. This Joshua shall lead His Israel from every kindred and people to an inheritance that is incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away.

(2) Christ Jesus came into the world. This implies that Christ was before He came into the world. Perhaps, indeed, the expression in itself, apart from all similar phrases, torn from the substance and isolated from the analogy of Scripture, would not bind us down to attach this sense to it. But we must interpret it as what it isa general expression of the revelation of God which centres in Christ; we must look at it in the light of other statements plainly kindred to it. Christ came into the world. He came from the bosom of the Father, where He had from eternity been, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. In giving us Him, God gave us of His own very selfof His own very substance, His own very life, His own very character, His own very love. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. And Christ, that Son, came; He came from God; He was God; He came from the bosom of the Father to shew us the Father. He came from out the Infinite fully to meet and satisfy the cry of the creature after God. He came, in whom dwelt the fulness of the Godhead bodily, to draw us into a loving communion and transforming sympathy with God, through revealing God to us as just and holy, but also as tender and compassionate, gracious and forgiving.

How did life originate upon this planet? The grass, trees, flowers, birds, animals, whence came they? What was the origin of the first mysterious seeds which held within themselves these various forms of life and beauty? Lord Kelvin believes that meteoric stones are seed-bearing agents, and that it is not improbable that these aerolites first brought to us the seeds of vitality and loveliness from distant worlds. It may be so. The law of the cosmos may be that living worlds vitalize dead worlds. So the Son of God descended from the celestial universe that He might bring into this realm of death and despair all those glorious truths, influences, and hopes which are making the desolate sphere to blossom as the rose and to shake like Lebanon.1 [Note: W. L. Watkinson, The Ashes of Roses, 18.]

(3) Christ Jesus came into the world. In the Johannean phraseology which we have herethough certainly not in the Johannean phraseology onlythe term the world does not express a purely local idea, but is suffused with a deep ethical significance. When we read accordingly of Christ Jesus coming into the world, we are not reading of a mere change of place on the part of our Lordof a mere descent on His part from heaven to earth, as we may say. We are reading of the light coming into the darkness; the world is the sphere of darkness and shame and sin. It is, in a word, the great ethical contrast that is intended to be brought prominently before us, and in this lies the whole point of the incarnation as conceived by St. John, and as embodied in this passage. Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, came into the world, into the realm of evil and the kingdom of sin. In the present passage this idea is enhanced by the sharp collocation with it of the term sinners. For, in the original, the word sinners stands next to the word world, with the effect of throwing the strongest possible emphasis on the ethical connotation. This is the faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that the Apostle commends to usthat Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. For what else, indeed, could He have come into the world, the sphere of evil, except to save sinners?

What could such an one as Christ have to do in coming to such a place as the world? The incongruity of the thing requires accounting for. It is much as if we saw a fellow-Christian in some compromising position. We might meet with him here, there and elsewhere, and no remark be aroused. But by some chance swing of the shutter as we pass by we see him standing in the midst of a drinking-saloon; we see him emerge from the door of a well-known gambling hell, or of some dreadful abode of shame. At once the need of an explanation rises within our puzzled minds, and the whole stress of the situation turns on the explanation. What was his purpose there? we anxiously inquire. So it is with Christ Jesus coming into the world; and so we feel in proportion as we realize the ethical contrariety suggested by the term. Thus it comes about that the primary emphasis of the passage is felt to rest on the account it gives of the situation it brings before uson its explanation of how it happens that Christ Jesus could and did come into the world.1 [Note: B. B. Warfield, The Power of God unto Salvation, 35.]

2. What, then, was the purpose of Christs coming, and how did He fulfil it?

(1) Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. We despair of finding an English phraseology which will reproduce with exactitude the nice distribution of the stress. Suffice it to say that the strong emphasis falls on the fact that it was specifically to save sinners that Christ Jesus came, and that the way for this strength of emphasis is prepared by the use of phraseology which implies that there was no other conceivable end that He could have had in view in coming into such a place as the world except to deal with sinners, of whom the world consists. He might indeed have come to judge the world; and in contrast with that the emphasis falls on the word to save. But He could not conceivably, being what He was, the Holy One and the Just, have come to such a place as the world isthe seat of shame and evilsave to deal with sinners. The essence of the whole declaration, therefore, is found in the joyful cry that it was specifically to save sinners that Christ Jesus came into this world of evil.

If we do not read the mind and purpose of Christ with this key in our hand, we shall read it wrongly, superficially, and upside down; we shall never get into its deeper places, but be walking only in the outside chambers. He came to reveal sin, to condemn it, to emphasize Gods eternal hatred of it, to make it hideous and loathsome in His all-revealing light; He came to bring deliverance from it, and forgiveness by offering a propitiation, and Himself bearing the curse of it. He came to fight against sin and subdue it, and ransom those who had been held fast in its deadly bondage. For this end was He born, for this He died, and for this consummation He employs His risen and exalted power for ever. It is the Alpha and Omega of the gospel message, and, whatever else Jesus was and did, we must begin and end there if we would understand the rest.

Christ often explained the purpose of His coming in other words. He had come, He said, to show the Father and to do the Fathers will. He had come to be the Light of the world and to give men life more abundantly. He had come to be the servant of all, and to set men an example that they should follow His steps. He had come to give deliverance to the captives, and to heal the bruised and broken heart. He had fifty gracious, merciful, saving ends in view, but they were all included in the one supreme purpose to save sinners from their sins, to scatter the darkness and heal the blindness which sin had made, to remove the alienation from God which sin had produced, to heal the hatreds, enmities, and moral diseases which were the offspring of sin, to redeem men from the sorrows, heart-burnings, and fears which sin brought, and to shed abroad in all hearts the love which sin kills. Man has only one enemy in Christs thought, though he often thinks he has a legion. Sin is the enemy, and Christs long warfare in living and dying was against that. He came into the world to save sinners.1 [Note: J. G. Greenhough, The Mind of Christ in St. Paul, 30.]

It is only by saving us from sin that Christ saves us from ignorance and from misery. There is a high and true sense, valid here too, in the saying that faith precedes reason: that it is only he that is in Christ Jesus who can know God and acquire any effective insight into spiritual truth. And equally in that other maxim that the regeneration of the individual is the condition of the regeneration of society: that it is only he that is in Christ Jesus who can have added to him even these lesser benefits. Apart from the central salvation from sin, knowledge can but puff up, and society at best is a whited sepulchre, full of dead mens bones. And it is only by His prime work of saving from sinthat sin which is the root of all ignorance and of all our bitterness alikethat He makes the tree good that its fruits may be good also.2 [Note: B. B. Warfield, The Power of God unto Salvation, 46.]

From the palace of His glory,

From the radiance and the rest,

Came the Son of God to seek me,

Bear me home upon His breast.

There from that eternal brightness

Did His thoughts flow forth to me

He in His great love would have me

Ever there with Him to be.

Far away, undone, forsaken,

Not for Him my heart was sore;

But for need and bitter hunger

Christ desired I nevermore.

Could it be that in the glory,

Ere of Him I had a thought,

He was yearning oer the lost one,

Whom His precious Blood had bought?

That it was His need that brought Him

Down to the accursed tree,

Deeper than His deep compassion,

Wondrous thought! His need of me.

Trembling, I had hoped for mercy,

Some low place within His door

But the crown, the throne, the mansion,

He made ready long before.

And in dim and distant ages,

In those courts so bright and fair,

Ere I was, was He rejoicing,

All He won with me to share.1 [Note: F. Bevan, Hymns of Ter Steegen, 133.]

(2) Jesus came to save sinners! But from what? Was it from the consequences of our sins? Or was it from sin itself? Here we encounter one of the most prevalent misconceptions of the atonement. The doctrine is sometimes presented as if our Lord was punished in order that we might be let off, and as if the sufferings of the Just for the unjust were undergone so that the guilty might escape the reward of their misdeeds. According to this theory, salvation is regarded as an escape from penalty, a deliverance from the result of wrong-doing, a rescue from loss and ruin. No wonder that men have revolted from such a doctrine, stated, as it often has been, in a form that contradicts the moral instincts of our nature. We must pay our debts, says Mr. Bernard Shaw; and the conscience of the modern world approves his dictum, and cannot tolerate the notion of a decree which, professing to be Divine, cancels moral obligations, and sets the wrongdoer free from the outcome of his sin. Moreover, while the nobler souls are in protest against such a representation, the meaner souls have at times been ready to take shelter under it, and to say to themselves that, since through the gospel they can escape the consequences of their sins, they need not be specially careful to avoid transgression. Let us continue to sin, that grace may abound! So spake the deceitful heart of men in the age of the Apostles, and the evil whisper is re-echoed to-day by the Enemy of our souls.

The protest of the worlds conscience is entirely justifiable. Yet it is just at this point that we must be particularly careful, and try to disentangle the truth from the falsehood in the popular misinterpretation. The truth is this: Sin, in one of its aspects, is its own punishment. It separates us from God, producing a sense of estrangement and alienation, and making us imagine that we are outcast from His Presence. It obscures the fact of our fellowship with Him, and destroys the freedom of our mutual intercourse. This is part of the essential curse of sin, the inevitable outcome which God has attached to all wrong-doing. And when, by faith in Jesus, we receive pardon for our sins, we are at the same time released from part also of their penalty. When we come to ourselves, when we realize how we have offended, when we resolve to return to the Father with a confession on our lips, He is ever ready to welcome us back, and to renew in us the sense of our filial relationship to Him which has been established in Christ Jesus. And day by day, through fresh acts of penitence for our shortcomings, we are continually being saved from that result of our sin which consists in a separation of ourselves from the love of our Heavenly Father.

Salvation is not forgiveness of sin: it is not the remission of a penalty: it is not a safety. No, it is the blessed and holy purpose of Gods love accomplished in the poor fallen creatures restoration to the Divine image. And to this end is the news of Gods love in this great work declared to men, that they hearing it may have confidence in Him who hath thus loved them, and so open their hearts to let in His Spirit.1 [Note: Thomas Erskine of Linlathen.]

Harriet Martineau speaking of her early religious difficulties says: To the best of my recollection, I always feared sin and remorse extremely, and punishment not at all; but, on the contrary, desired punishment or any thing else that would give me the one good that I pined for in vain,ease of conscience. The doctrine of forgiveness on repentance never availed me much, because forgiveness for the past was nothing without safety in the future; and my sins were not curable, I felt, by any single remission of their consequences,if such remission were possible. If I prayed and wept, and might hope that I was pardoned at night, it was small comfort, because I knew I should be in a state of remorse again before the next noon. I do not remember the time when the forgiveness clause in the Lords Prayer was not a perplexity and a stumbling-block to me. I did not care about being let off from penalty. I wanted to be at ease in conscience; and that could only be by growing good, whereas I hated and despised myself every day.2 [Note: Harriet Martineaus Autobiography, i. 40.]

III

St. Pauls Amen

Of whom I am chief.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, says the Apostle, and then he adds the wordswhich sound strange coming from the lips of such a manof whom I am chief. It was his way of confirming the faithful saying, his Amen to all it meant.

1. Why did St. Paul estimate himself thus?

(1) Was it false humility? The Emperor Augustus, alarmed at his own prosperity, and fearing that happiness so unmixed as his might create jealousy, attired himself once a year as a beggar, and sat asking alms in a crowded part of the city. It is with similar feelings of voluntary humility, and as if apologizing for their exceptional comfort, that some persons profess themselves miserable sinners, although surrounded with everything that can make life easy and pleasant to them. There is in the human heart an obstinate superstition that God grudges us happiness, and that if we are happy we should at least wear sackcloth and ashes before Him. And, possibly, it may be fancied that St. Pauls words ought not to be pushed as if he really meant he was the worst of men, and that all he intended was a decent humility. But if we can suppose that St. Paul thought there was some virtue in calling himself the chief of sinners, while he was in fact convinced he was much better than others, we have yet to learn both the nature of humility and the character of St. Paul. Humility must be founded on truth; an affectation of humility is silly and offensive. To call ourselves the chief of sinners with a feeling of self-complacency in our humility is a mark of a nature neither sincere nor simple. And for a man of so clear a spiritual understanding as St. Paul to make this confession untruly would have gone far to make it true.

A man knelt at the altar and prayed.

O God, he said, I am all evil, without and within. My soul is black with the colour of my sin, and my shoulders are bowed down with the weight of it. God of all mercies, be merciful to me, the chief of sinners.

As he went out he met a friend.

Where have you been? asked the friend.

I have been at the altar, said the man, confessing my sins.

Speaking of sins, said the friend, there is a fault that I have often noticed in you.

And he told him of his fault.

Liar! said the man, and smote him on the mouth.1 [Note: Laura Richards, The Golden Windows.]

(2) Was it, then, ignorance of life, or of human nature, that led St. Paul so to speak of himself? That was hardly possible. He lived when the world was at its worst. He had travelled and seen much. He had mixed with all sorts and conditions of men. He had known the chief priests and rabbis of Jerusalem, and the philosophers of heathendom; he was acquainted with the slums of cities, and with the manners of coarse and brutal people; he had lived in Rome when Nero was Emperor. Therefore we must conclude that he knew what he was saying when he described himself as the chief of sinners.

A Greek fortune-teller was once reading Socratess hands and face to discern his true character and to advertise the people of Athens of his real deserts. And as he went on he startled the whole assembly by pronouncing Socrates to be the most incontinent and libidinous man in all the city; the greatest extortioner and thief; and even worse things than all that. And when the enraged crowd were about to fall upon the soothsayer and tear him to pieces for saying such things about their greatest saint, Socrates himself came forward and restrained their anger and confessed openly and said, Ye men of Athens, let this truth-speaking man alone, and do him no harm. He has said nothing amiss about me. For there is no man among you all who is by nature more disposed to all these evil things than I am. And with that he quieted and taught and solemnized the whole city.2 [Note: Alexander Whyte, The Apostle Paul.]

(3) It is a commonplace of religion that in proportion as a man is himself good, he is quick and severe in dealing with his own unrighteousness, and charitable towards other men; admitting all conceivable apology for them, hoping all things, believing all things, in their exculpation, but condemning himself without a hearing. And this fact, in the first place, must be taken into account in explaining St. Pauls words. His own sins were his immediate concern, on them the weight of Gods law had first manifested itself in his conscience; and in connexion with them, and not with the sins of other men, had Gods holiness first revealed to him its reality, its penetrative truth, its power, its relation to human life. And it is so universally. For he who sees God, sees sin also. And though we know it cannot be true that each Christian is the chief of sinners, yet each Christian is again and again convincedand not in moody hours, in which everything is seen distorted, but in his hours of clearest vision and most inspiring purposethat no one can possibly be quite so bad as himself.

In the Christian life the sign of growing perfection is the growing consciousness of imperfection. A spot upon a clean palm is more conspicuous than a diffuse griminess over all the hand. One stain upon a white robe spoils it which would not be noticed upon one less lustrously clean. And so the more we grow towards God in Christ, and the more we appropriate and make our own His righteousness, the more we shall be conscious of our deficiencies, and the less we shall be prepared to assert virtues for ourselves.1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]

We cannot attain this virtue of humility except by true knowledge of ourselves, knowing our misery and frailty and sins; wherefore we ought always to abide low and humble. But to abide wholly in such knowledge of ones self would not be good, because the soul would fall into weariness and confusion; and from confusion it would fall into despair; so the devil would like nothing better than to make us fall into confusion, to drive us afterward to despair. We ought then to abide in the knowledge of the goodness of God in Himself, perceiving that He has created us in His image and likeness, and re-created us in grace by the blood of His only-begotten Son, the sweet incarnate Lord; and reflecting how continually the goodness of God works in us. But see, that to abide entirely in this knowledge of God would not be good, because the soul would fall into presumption and pride. So it befits us to have one mixed with the otherthat is, to abide in the holy knowledge of the goodness of God, and also in the knowledge of ourselves: and so shall we be humble, patient, and gentle.2 [Note: St. Catherine of Siena.]

Mr. North on several occasions was at pains to explain the position he then occupied. Dont think, he said, that I am intruding into the office of the holy ministry. I am not an authorized preacher, but Ill tell you what I am; I am a man who has been at the brink of the bottomless pit and has looked in, and as I see many of you going down to that pit, I am here to hollo you back, and warn you of your danger. I am here, also, as the chief of sinners, saved by grace, to tell you that the grace which has saved me can surely save you.1 [Note: K. Moody Stuart, Brownlow North, 62.]

(4) St. Paul is not therefore boasting of his sin. He is, on the contrary, glorying in his salvation. If Christ came just to save sinners, he says, in effect, Why that means me; for that is what I am. There is a sense, then, no doubt, in which he can be said to be glad that he can claim to be a sinner. Not because he delights in wickedness, but because that claim places him within the reach of the mission of Him who Himself declared that He came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

Methought, said Rabbi Duncan on one occasion, I heard the song of one to whom much had been forgiven, and who therefore loved much. But it was the song of the chief of sinners, of one to whom most had been forgiven, and who therefore loved most. I would know, O God, he went on, what soul that is. O God!he pleaded, let that soul be mine.2 [Note: A. Smellie, In the Secret Place, 145.]

2. The Apostle does not say I was, but I am chief. What! A man who could say, in another connexion, if any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature; old things are passed awaythe man who could say, in another connexion, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of Goddoes he also say, I am chief? Is he speaking about his present? Are old sins bound round a mans neck for evermore? If they are, what is the meaning of the gospel that Jesus Christ redeems us from our sins? Well, he means this: No lapse of time, nor any gift of Divine pardon, nor any subsequent advancement in holiness and righteousness, can alter the fact that I, the very same I that am now rejoicing in Gods salvation, am the man that did all these things; and, in a very profound sense, they remain mine through all eternity. I may be a forgiven sinner, and a cleansed sinner, and a sanctified sinner, but I am a sinnernot I was. The imperishable connexion between a man and his past, which may be so tragical, and, thank God, may be so blessed, even in the case of remembered and confessed sin, is solemnly hinted at in the words before us. We carry with us ever the fact of past transgression, and no forgiveness, nor any future perfecting of holiness in the fear and by the grace of the Lord can alter that fact. Therefore, let us beware lest we bring upon our souls any more of the stains which, though they be in a blessed and sufficient sense blotted out, yet leave for ever the marks where they have fallen.

That good man, Stead, that Waugh put upon his kind little extravagant eulogy of me, refers properly, not to me, but to father. He was a good man, I am not, never was, and, I fear, never will be. I often feel as if I were far worse than any of the other convicts. They had not such a home as ours, such a father and such a mother.1 [Note: W. T. Stead, in My Father, 141.]

Also I ask, but ever from the praying

Shrinks my soul backward, eager and afraid,

Point me the sum and shame of my betraying,

Show me, O Love, Thy wounds which I have made!

Yes, Thou forgivest, but with all forgiving

Canst not renew mine innocence again:

Make Thou, O Christ, a dying of my living,

Purge from the sin but never from the pain!

So shall all speech of now and of to-morrow,

All He hath shown me or shall show me yet,

Spring from an infinite and tender sorrow,

Burst from a burning passion of regret:

Standing afar I summon you anigh Him,

Yes, to the multitudes I call and say,

This is my King! I preach and I deny Him,

Christ! whom I crucify anew to-day.2 [Note: F. W. H. Myers, Saint Paul.]

A Faithful Saying

Literature

Banks (L. A.), Paul and his Friends, 327.

Calthrop (G.), The Future Life, 209.

Curnock (N.), The Comfortable Words of the Holy Communion, 93.

Dods (M.), Christ and Man, 176.

Drury (T. W.), The Prison-Ministry of St. Paul, 193.

Ealand (F.), The Spirit of Life, 26.

Ellicott (C. J.), Sermons at Gloucester, 36.

Ewing (W.), Cedar and Palm, 120.

Flint (R.), Sermons and Addresses, 176.

Greenhough (J. G.), The Mind of Christ in St. Paul, 27.

Hare (A. W.), The Alton Sermons, 124.

Jenkins (E. E.), Life and Christ, 195.

Knight (H. T.), The Cross, the Font, and the Altar, 20.

Liddon (H. P.), Advent in St. Pauls, 233.

Maclaren (A.), Expositions: Philippians, etc., 316.

Maclaren (A.), Pauls Prayers, 192.

Maggs (J. T. L.), The Spiritual Experience of St. Paul, 125.

Murray (A.), Aids to Devotion, 13.

Murray (A.), Humility, 59.

Price (A. C.), Fifty Sermons, 1:57; 7:193.

Roberts (W. P.), Reasonable Service, 91, 104.

Thorne (H.), Notable Sayings of the Great Teacher, 227.

Warfield (B. B.), The Power of God unto Salvation, 29.

Watkinson (W. L.), The Ashes of Roses, 15.

Wilson (J. M.), Rochdale Sermons, 10.

Christian World Pulpit, xlviii. 127 (T. L. Cuyler); lxxi. 284 (I. J. Roberton); lxxviii. 259 (D. Lucas).

Churchmans Pulpit: General Advent Season, i. 205 (H. P. Liddon); Sermons to the Young, xvi. 223 (E. Garbett).

Clergymans Magazine, 3rd Ser., viii. 276 (G. Proctor); 3rd Ser., xiii. 222.

Homiletic Review, lii. 66 (C. Q. Wright); lxii. 140 (L. M. Watt).

Preachers Magazine, xi. 354 (M. G. Pearse); xii. 20 (J. T. L. Maggs).

Presbyterian, Sept. 19, 1912 (J. Mellis).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

a faithful: 1Ti 1:19, 1Ti 3:1, 1Ti 4:9, 2Ti 2:11, Tit 3:8, Rev 21:5, Rev 22:6

worthy: Joh 1:12, Joh 3:16, Joh 3:17, Joh 3:36, Act 11:1, Act 11:18, 1Jo 5:11

that: Mat 1:21, Mat 9:13, Mat 18:11, Mat 20:28, Mar 2:17, Luk 5:32, Luk 19:10, Joh 1:29, Joh 12:47, Act 3:26, Rom 3:24-26, Rom 5:6, Rom 5:8-10, Heb 7:25, 1Jo 3:5, 1Jo 3:8, 1Jo 4:9, 1Jo 4:10, Rev 5:9

of whom: 1Ti 1:13, Job 42:6, Eze 16:63, Eze 36:31, Eze 36:32, 1Co 15:9, Eph 3:8

Reciprocal: 2Sa 6:22 – in mine Job 36:9 – their Job 40:4 – Behold Psa 34:2 – the humble Psa 40:10 – salvation Psa 66:16 – Come Pro 2:1 – if Pro 4:10 – my Pro 25:25 – so Ecc 12:10 – acceptable words Isa 55:7 – for Mat 12:32 – whosoever Luk 7:37 – which Luk 7:41 – the one Luk 9:56 – the Son Luk 15:1 – General Luk 18:13 – a sinner Luk 23:43 – To day Joh 6:33 – cometh Joh 8:11 – go Joh 10:10 – I am Joh 11:27 – which Joh 12:27 – but Joh 16:27 – and have Rom 1:1 – separated Rom 3:25 – remission 1Co 15:10 – by Eph 3:7 – according Col 1:5 – the word Tit 1:9 – fast Tit 2:14 – gave Heb 2:3 – so 1Jo 1:9 – he is 1Jo 3:23 – his commandment 1Jo 5:13 – believe Rev 19:9 – These

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE FAITHFUL SAYING

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

1Ti 1:15

Why should the words Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners be a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation?

I. Because the saying is clearly made up of the words of the Lord Himself.On two different occasions our Lord referred to the purposes of His coming into the world, and that in terms which completely bear out the words of this saying.

II. Because of the light which it throws on the character of God.The temptation to cherish hard thoughts of God is very old, and it is also very modern. I knew thee, that thou art an austere man. This is the language which millions of hearts have secretly held in converse with the infinitely loving Creator. The saying of the text, when it is once received by faith, is a faithful exponent of the truth about God, and worthy of our acceptation.

III. Because it reminds us of the greatness of the work of Christ.Never can a moral being say, under any circumstances, It is good for me that I have sinned. Physical evil, pain, want, disease, may be made to lead to moral goodmoral evil or sin, never. This sin is rebellion of the will against God. If our Lord Jesus had left this master-evil untouched, He would not have saved men, in the proper sense of that expression. The salvation I of man is a different thing from an improved condition of society. Our Lord came to save men by doing three things for the human will. He gave it freedom; He gave it a new and true direction; He gave it strength. He has pardoned believing sinners: He has put them by His grace on the true road which man should follow, and He has given them strength to follow it.

Rev. Canon Liddon.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

THE SAYING AND ITS MEANING

If in other matters truth is what one needs, in matters of religion it is the supreme necessity. There are no useful mistakes in religion, no happy errors, no falsehoods that help any one to be better.

I. The biggest truth in the world.Is it true that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners? If it is, it is the biggest of all truths.

(a) St. Paul, living in the light, beautified by the light, walking with God, inspired, illuminated by Him, says, Brethren, I have tried this truth, I have tested it with the weight of my life, ventured all on it, put it to every test; and I come to you and tell you it is a faithful saying, something that will bear your weight, and answer your hopes, and never disappoint your confidence.

(b) It fits in with all that we might expect of God. We have a taste for truth; the sheep hear the voice, and can tell the difference between what is Divine and human. Everything good in us must have had its origin in something better in God, and something answering more nobly to our pity and our compassion, and our delight in saving, and our trouble when we look upon distress; something answering, but more nobly, to all of these must be in the heart of Him that made us.

II. This gospel is worthy of all acceptation.There is an innumerable multitude who think, and think they believe this statementthink they do, and would be shocked if they were classed amongst sceptics or unbelieversbut who immediately turn aside and think of something eighteen hundred years agoa fact of history unimportant to them. Now St. Paul, who had seen a good deal of life, says that this gospel is worth all mens acceptance: that the richest should take it in order to increase his wealth, and the poorest in order to dissipate all his poverty; that the troubled should take it as the cure of every care, and the untroubled should take it as the preservative of all delights; that the guilty should take it as the gleam of hope that will restore them to peace, and the innocent as that which will preserve their integrity. It is worthy of all mens acceptance: and some accept it, binding it to their heart, making that fact the main starting-point of the plans and purposes of their life; responding to it, adoring Christ, opening the gate to let Him in, helping Him in His effort to save them.

(THIRD OUTLINE)

INCARNATION AND ATONEMENT

It is of the deepest moment, especially in these anxious days, that our faith in the Incarnation should be distinct and unwavering.

I. We must unhesitatingly believe that our Lord and God did enter into our nature along its wonted pathway, and subject to all its limitations, but, so entering, remained, nevertheless, from the first moment onward of the human life He vouchsafed to live, very and eternal God, His outward glory laid aside but His attributes unchanged. The life of Jesus was thus, to use the expression of a great Christian thinker, always God-human. This is the faith handed down to us unchanged and unchangeable through ages of controversy.

II. The divine purpose of our Lords coming into the world was to save sinners.The great Nicene Creed reiterates the same declaration. For us men and for our salvation, the eternal Son laid aside His glory and came down from heaven. It was for us and for our salvation He came down, and was incarnate; for us and for our salvation that He was born as we are born, sufferedalbeit in a greater and more transcendent intensityas we suffer, died as we die.

The more we dwell on the purposethe salvation of mankindthe firmer will be our hold on the truth and reality of the Incarnation.

Bishop Ellicott.

Illustration

We are at last reverting to the primary belief of the early Christian Church that God is among us, blessing and visiting the children of men. Not a God outside the world, or as for ages has been the prevailing conception of God since the days of Augustine, transcendently above it, but a God within the world, immanent and abiding. To the early writers of Christianity the Incarnation was not a new principle in the development of the world. Firmly believing in the immanence of God in the world which He had vouchsafed to create, and equally believing in Christ, not merely speculatively, but in deepest and most heartfelt reality as very and eternal God, to them it seemed no strange thing that the indwelling God should at length reveal Himself to the world and even enter it under the conditions, and in consonance with the laws of human existence and development.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Saul’s Conversion: A Pattern and a Prophecy

1Ti 1:15-16; with Act 9:1-43

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

We marvel, therefore, that what God wrought in Saul’s conversion on the Damascus road is as vital a part of prophecy, as what He wrote by Paul in the Epistles.

As we enter upon this message we ask your attention to a most striking Scripture. Let us weigh the words:

“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

“Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting” (1Ti 1:15-16).

Paul’s conversion was a model, a pattern to them who should hereafter believe. Certainly his conversion was not a pattern to the Gentiles, or even to the Jews, saved during this age of grace. We may have a wonderful change when we find the Saviour, but none of us have had the things accompanying our salvation, that befell Saul.

If, with wisdom and positive Scripture, we can truly show that Saul’s conversion on the Damascus road is a sample, or pattern, of the future conversion of his own people Israel, then we will feel that we have not overstated the scope of meaning which we believe the Spirit is stressing in 1Ti 1:15, 1Ti 1:16. Let us give this interesting study our careful thought.

I. SAUL WAS A CHIEF OF SINNERS-SO IS ISRAEL

In what sense was Saul the chief of sinners? He was not the chief of sinners morally. He could truthfully boast of his righteousness according to the Law-therein he was blameless. Israel, nationally, is known for superiority over the Gentiles in the realms of the obscene, and of the baser lustings of the flesh.

Wherein was Saul so great a sinner? His sin lay in his blasphemy against Christ, and in his persecutions against the Church. What of Israel?

When Isaiah spoke of his sin, he cried, “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” When Paul spoke of Israel, he said, “Thou that makest thy boast of the Law, through breaking the Law dishonourest thou God? For the Name of God, is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you.”

Israel has been scattered among the nations, and has been dispersed among all countries; wheresoever they have gone they have profaned the Name of the Lord. God will have pity for His Name, and will sanctify it. He will gather the Children of Israel back from every land whither they have gone, and will bring them into their own land. Then will He sprinkle clean water upon them and they shall be clean; He will give them a new heart, and put a right spirit within them: then, will they learn not to blaspheme.

II. SAUL WAS SAVED BY THE SHINING OF GREAT LIGHT-ISRAEL WILL THUS BE SAVED

The light that shone upon Saul was supernatural; it was a light that demonstrated that Christ was living. Accompanying the light, was the voice of the risen and seated Lord.

When Israel is saved, there will be a marvelous effulgence of glory, shining upon her. The Spirit speaks by Isaiah this way:

“So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.

“And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord.

“As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed’s seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever” (Isa 59:19-21).

When Christ comes the second time He will come in the glory of His Father, and of the holy angels. His coming will be like the lightning that shineth from one end of the heaven even unto the other. Then, His people will see His glory. The Redeemer will come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob.

III. SAUL HEARD AND SAW JESUS CHRIST-SO WILL ISRAEL

1. The first query that came to Saul from Jesus was, “Why persecutest thou Me?” These words were spoken from the sky, and fell upon Saul as he was filled with astonishment. Will Israel suddenly awaken to the fact that she has despised and hated the Christ of God?

The Prophet Zechariah wrote of the days of Israel’s national salvation, thus:

“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn” (Zec 12:10).

Think of it-Israel is yet to look on the face of the One whom she gave over to die. She shall see the One she pierced. The Book of Revelation, chapter 1, Rev 1:7, says, “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him.”

Bless God, the Lord will come, and His people shall see Him, and seeing Him, they shall mourn for Him, Israel shall both hear His voice, and see His face, even as Saul saw and heard.

IV. SAUL CALLED JESUS, LORD,-ISRAEL WILL ALSO NAME CHRIST AS LORD

We have now come to the gist of the whole Damascus road scene-its culminating glory. Saul had rejected Jesus, because he knew Him only as “Jesus.” The bitterest offense that Jesus ever gave against the Jews’ religion, was when He announced Himself God, making Himself equal with God. The climax of the sins of the Christians against Judaism, was their continued assertion, and bold declaration that Jesus was both Lord and Christ.

The name Lord summed up all that the Godhead implied. It was a word that could be applied only to Deity. Israel’s conception was: “The Lord our God is one Lord.” Israel held that God would never give to another, the name of Lord.

Christ accepted that title, and the early saints asserted it. Christ came in the Name of the Lord, He also came bearing the Name, Lord. This was the core of the confession of faith that marked the early Church. They were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus, because they confessed that Jesus was Lord, the same as the Father was Lord, and the Spirit was Lord.

Peter was not slow to say at Pentecost, “Therefore let all the House of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye crucified, both Lord and Christ.”

It was of this that Christ spoke when He said unto the Pharisees, “What think ye of Christ, whose Son is He?” They said, “The son of David.” Christ then asked the question that for ever closed their mouths, “How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord?” “If David then call Him Lord, how is He his son?”

Now we come to the other side of the task, which we set for ourselves in today’s discourse. Will Israel at Christ’s Second Coming confess Christ as Lord? If they do, their change of heart and of mind will be as miraculous as was that of Saul’s. Israel is blinded unto this day to the fact of the Deity of Jesus. Will they ever acclaim Him as Lord and Christ? Will they ever acknowledge Him as God?

V. SAUL KICKED AGAINST THE PRICKS-SO WILL ISRAEL

The shining face of Stephen, the relatives of Saul who were in Christ before him, the mighty works of the Lord through the Christians,-all of these played a great part in the conversion of Saul. Even during the time that Saul fought the Lord, there was a growing conviction that prodded his soul-he felt that he was wrong in fighting God, yet, he pressed on his way of fury with even renewed vigor.

We now want to ask-Has there been, and will there be certain goads to prick Israel? Will these goads open up to Israel the stubbornness of her heart against Christ Jesus, the Son of God?

The Holy Spirit in Rom 11:1-36 speaks on this wise: “Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway. I say then, Have they stumbled, that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.”

Here, then is a goad that pricks the Jews. They cannot but be moved with the fact that the Gentiles are being blessed in Christ. The One whom the Jews crucified, and the One whom the Jews now deny, is the God of the Gentiles. The Jews are also learning that the Gentiles believe all things that are written in the Prophets. They have seen the hand of God favoring the Christians. They have beheld the joy and the song that moves the lives of the truly regenerated. National Israel is more and more moved to jealousy by these things. They are prodding deeper and deeper into their consciences.

However, the goads that prick, will prod the deeper, as the Church is taken out and up to be with the Lord, and as the miracles, and wonders, and signs of the day of Jacob’s trouble are multiplied. Saul of Tarsus had a Stephen to proclaim in fiery faith and miraculous power the story of the Christ of God. Saul was overwhelmed by the testimony of Stephen.

Israel will have a similar testimony in the last days. God will send His two witnesses who will prophesy for forty-two months. These two will work miracles.

All of this will have a deepening effect on Israel. It will fill them with fear. It will prick their hearts like goads prick the oxen.

There is no doubt but that there will be many stirring events which will cause Israel to turn her face toward the Lord-all of these things will prepare her heart for the Advent of Christ; they will make her ready to receive the Lord when He comes.

Behold thy God, O Israel,

No God there is, but He,

No Lord, no Saviour, and no God

To whom to bend the knee;

He is Jehovah Jireh,

And Jehovah Shallum, too,

He is Jehovah Shammah,

And Jehovah Tsidkenu.

Behold thy God, O Israel,

He is the First and Last,

Thy God in coming ages, and

Thy God in ages past;

He is thine only Alpha,

Only Omega He,

A just God and a Saviour,

He calls, Look unto Me.

VI. A GREAT CHANGE CAME INTO THE LIFE OF SAUL: A GREAT CHANGE WILL COME TO ISRAEL AT CHRIST’S RETURN

The expression which the Lord used in emphasizing the fact that Saul was saved, was, “Behold, he prayeth.” The populace at Damascus themselves bore witness, when they heard Saul speaking in the synagogues, “Is not this he that destroyed them that called on this Name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?”

No one will hesitate to acclaim the great change that was wrought in Saul of Tarsus by his conversion. But, what of Israel? Yes, Israel shall be changed. Hear the words of God, recorded in Ezekiel:

“For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.

“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

“A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

“And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Eze 36:24-27).

In those days God will write His Law in the hearts of His people. She who persecuted, will pray. Hear God through Zechariah, “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.” In that day the Lord will come. His feet will stand upon the mount of Olives, The saints will come with Him. The Lord will be King of the whole earth. Then, “in that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord.”

VII. SAUL SAVED WAS SENT TO THE GENTILES-ISRAEL SAVED WILL BE SENT TO THE GENTILES

When salvation came to Saul, he cried, “What wilt Thou have me to do,” Lord? The Lord replied, “Go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.” When the Lord gave Ananias instruction on this line, He said, of Saul, “For he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My Name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the Children of Israel.”

We now come to the vital part of this message-Israel in the day of her salvation and restoration is destined, Saul-like, to be God’s vessel to bear His Name before the Gentiles and kings.

It will be a great day when a multitude of redeemed Jews preach the Glad Tidings. When a great host of national Israel, saved as Saul was saved, go forth as Saul went forth: go forth, as Sauls, innumerably multiplied, to preach to the Gentiles. When God’s “judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.”

In the day of Israel’s national forgiveness, the Lord will sing a song unto her: “A vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.” What else will the Lord do for His chosen people? “He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.” In that day they of Assyria who were ready to perish, and the outcasts of the land of Egypt will come to worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

In that day the Lord will say unto Israel, “Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen.” “Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.”

Hear the Lord! “It is a light thing that Thou shouldest be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give Thee for a Light to the Gentiles, that Thou mayest be My Salvation unto the ends of the earth.”

O Israel, thou shalt arise and shine, when thy Light is come and when the glory of the Lord hath risen upon thee. Then shall “the Gentiles come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” Men shall bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles; and, the nation or the kingdom that will not serve thee, shall perish.

In that day “the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory.” And “thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.”

Israel shall yet declare God’s glory among the Gentiles. All flesh shall “come to worship before Me, saith the Lord.”

God will yet send the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. The Holy Spirit in Pentecostal power will rest on Israel. Her old men shall dream dreams, her young men shall see visions. Upon her handmaids and servants will God pour forth His Spirit and they shall prophesy. Then it shall come to pass that “whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Let us, as we close our message, not forget the meaning of Jonah recommissioned. The Lord said unto Jonah the second time, “Arise, go unto Nineveh.” Then, Nineveh repented. So shall Israel, who was unfaithful to her first call, be sent again, and in her, all nations shall indeed be blessed. God will perform the truth He spoke to Abraham, and swore to the fathers of old.

Whether we hear of forbear, God has spoken and He will perform, as saith Zephaniah.

“Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and 1 will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.

“At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the Lord” (Zep 3:19-20).

It will surely come to pass that every one that is left of the nations of the earth will go up to Jerusalem from year to year to worship the Lord.

Turn thou to God, O Israel,

And stretch thy curtains forth;

Lengthen thy cords, strengthen thy stakes,

Turn homeward from the North;

Thine habitations shall be filled,

As Jews from ev’ry land

Turn back their faces toward their homes,

And toward their fatherland.

No more shalt thou be put to shame,

No more confounded be,

Thou shalt forget thy shame of youth,

From sorrows be set free;

Jehovah, thy Redeemer, shall

Be called the King of earth,

Thou shalt believe the Holy One,

The One who gave thee birth.

In wrath a while He hid His face,

A moment He forsook;

He now returns with mercies, large,

O turn to Him and look:

Sing thou, O barren, cry aloud,

Break forth with joyful song,

Thou shalt bear children unto God,

A people great and strong.

The mountains may depart from Him,

The hills may be removed;

But Israel, His loved, His own,

Shall never more be moved.

O thou, afflicted, tempest tossed,

Thy path with sorrows fraught;

With sins all gone, with lives made clean,

What change thy God hath wrought.

Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water

1Ti 1:15. Faithful saying. The first word is defined “that can be relied on” by Thayer; it means that it is true. Of course if a saying is true, it is worthy of all acceptation. The saying Paul has in mind is that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. It could not be untrue, for He made the same declaration himself (Mat 18:11; Luk 19:10). Chief is from PROTOS, which means “principal” in the sense of being outstanding and noted. This again refers to his former activities against the cause of Christ.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Ti 1:15. This is a faithful saying. Better, Faithful is the saying. The formula of citation is peculiar to the Pastoral Epistles, and in them occurs frequently (1Ti 3:1; 1Ti 4:9; 2Ti 2:11; Tit 3:8). It obviously indicates a stage of Christian thought in which certain truths had passed in a half proverbial form into common use and were received as axioms. Who first uttered them, and how they came to be so received, we do not know. What seems probable is that they were first spoken by prophets or teachers in the Church, approved themselves to its judgment, testing what it heard and holding fast that which was good, and then became the basis of catechetical teaching for children and converts. St. Paul clearly cites them as already known to Timothy.

Came into the world to save sinners. Here, for the first time, we find St. Paul using the phrase which was afterwards so characteristic of St. Johns Gospel (Joh 1:9, Joh 3:19, Joh 6:14, Joh 11:27). It implies with him, as with St. John, a belief in the mystery of the Incarnation, and it defines the purpose of that Incarnation as being to save all who came under the category of sinners (Rom 5:8).

Of whom I am chief. Every word is emphatic. I more than any other, am as speaking not of a past state only, but of the present

first not in order of time, but as chief in degree. Compare the cry of the publican in the parable, God be merciful to me the sinner, Luk 18:13. Such is ever the cry of the conscience, when, ceasing to compare itself with others, it sees itself as in the sight of God.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe here, 1. What an humble apprehension this great apostle had of himself, though then the greatest of saints in the esteem of others, yet the chiefest of sinners in his own account: for he doth not say, I was the chief of sinners, but I am so; notwithstanding his repentance and remission, still he reflects upon his former unregenerate state and sinful condition.

Learn hence, That when sin is mercifully pardoned, and cast behind God’s back, the penitent sinner will and ought to set it continually before his own face, to keep him humble, sensible of, and thankful for, the rich grace of God dispensed to him, and received by him: Sinners of whom I am chief.

Observe, 2. A most comfortable revelation made by the gospel concerning the redemption and salvation of a lost world by our Lord Jesus Christ. He came into the world to save sinners.

Where note, That the promised Messiah is come into the world; that Jesus Christ is that promised Messiah: therefore he was before he came, his divine nature pre-existing from all eternity; and in the fulness of time he assumed the human nature into an union with his Godhead.

Note farther, That the design of his coming was to save sinners; therefore if man had not sinned, Christ had not come into the world: what need of a mediator, had there been no breach? No need of a physcian, had there been no disease.

Farther, it was not absolutely necessary that Christ should come into the world to save sinners; but supposing God’s purpose of saving sinners by way of a price or satisfaction, Christ’s coming into the world was indispensably necessary; for no mere creature could lay down a price satisfactory for the salvation of lost man.

Observe, 3. The truth and certainty, together with the worth and excellency, of the gospel revelation: This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation; for what is the gospel but a revelation of pardon to condemned malefactors, a declaration of peace to proclaimed enemies, a proclamation of liberty to enslaved captives, an offer of cure to diseased persons? Oh! with what fervent zeal should this acceptable doctrine be preached by us, and embraced by our people; That Jesus Christ is come into the world to save sinners!

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

1Ti 1:15-16. This is a faithful saying A saying not only certainly true, but infinitely momentous, as the same expression evidently signifies 1Ti 4:9; 2Ti 2:11; Tit 3:8; and worthy of all acceptation As infallibly true, it is worthy of all credit, and as infinitely important, worthy of being considered, received, and embraced, with all the powers of our souls; that Christ The Messiah promised; Jesus The Saviour exhibited; came into the world to save sinners All sinners without exception, who are willing to be saved in the way of repentance toward God, and faith in him and his gospel. Of whom I am chief The apostle did not mean that he was absolutely the greatest of all sinners, but the greatest of those who sinned through ignorance, as is plain from 1Ti 1:13. And he spake in this manner concerning himself, to show the deep sense he had of his sin in reviling Christ, and persecuting his disciples, and that he judged charitably of the sins of other men, and of their extenuations. Howbeit, for this cause Among others which were also important; I obtained mercy, that in me first Or, in me the chief of sinners, as the clause may be rendered; Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering Might exhibit an example thereof to the view of the whole world; for a pattern to them For the direction and encouragement of those who should afterward believe on him Even to the remotest ages of time; that is, to teach and encourage them to expect the like mercy upon their believing in him, to the obtaining of eternal life. And it must be acknowledged, that no example could be more proper to encourage the greatest sinners in every age to repent, than the pardon which Christ granted to one who had so furiously persecuted his church.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Verse 15

I am chief. This is evidently not to be understood in a literal sense. He means thus to acknowledge the greatness of his guilt, which otherwise his expressions in 1 Timothy 1:13 might perhaps have been supposed to deny.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

CHAPTER 8

Among the many things happening for the new millennium is one that recently caught my interest. It is the year of Jubilee. The Roman Catholic Church is going all out for one of their traditional holy events – the year of Jubilee. The Pope has declared 2000 as the year of pilgrimage.

We know of the year of Jubilee in the Old Testament. The Roman Church also celebrates a year of Jubilee. They feel that it began prior to Boniface VIII but his celebration in 1300 is the first officially recorded. Boniface set it to be a celebration every one hundred years, but due to the fact that many would die with never a chance to see a celebration it was decided that every thirty-three years would be good. Finally it was settled at every twenty-five years.

It is my understanding that there are four doors one in each of four basilicas. The Pope opens the door of St. Peter’s while other delegates open the other three doors at the same time.

The doors have been walled up with brick and mortar for the past twenty-five years. Prior to the ceremony of the opening masons loosen the mortar so that the doors are easily broken down. The Pope on Christmas Eve will strike the door three times with a silver hammer. The third stroke brings the door down.

The bricks, mortar and scraps are quickly gathered by guests as holy relics. Then the Pope walks through. The symbolism supposedly is that Adam and Eve were barred from the garden, and this breaking of the door symbolizes restoration and forgiveness of all past sin.

On the Christmas Eve following, the doors are again walled back up.

There are websites committed to this event. There are travel agencies offering special packages to Rome. There are special events planned all over the world. They have planned events in major cities and are calling it the “Biggest party in the world” and have set up a website for the party and its advertising.

A quote concerning the party is of interest. “”All the world sing praise” is a people’s event with a special emphasis on children whose purpose is to assist the Christian celebration of the Millennium. It can be celebrated in a variety of ways; the idea is however that we try to do something together across the World at the same time to celebrate Jesus birthday worthily. . . . “

Note “to celebrate Jesus Birthday worthily. . . . ” This BIGGEST PARTY IN THE WORLD is going to be on January 1, 2000 – thought they set it up to be the 25th of December at one time.

This December 24, the Pope will declare the beginning of the Year of Jubilee, and four special Holy Doors will be opened in Rome with the most important being in St. Peter’s Basilica. People from all over the world an expected 30 million or more will make a pilgrimage to Rome during 2000 seeking forgiveness of all past sins by walking through the doorways, which are opened only during Jubilee years. Many will travel thousands of miles, sacrificing time and money, in an effort to obtain eternal life. For these seekers, Rome is the place to be in 2000.

The Jubilee occurs every 25 years, but the dawn of a new millennium is bringing much more attention to this particular Year of Jubilee and will bring a greater number of pilgrims.

So much trouble to travel so far! These folks will spend millions to seek salvation, while Paul only had to go to Damascus, indeed, these celebrants only have to go to their knees before God to find their free salvation – their salvation which requires no travel, which requires no doors to open, which requires no Pope to set a year of jubilee.

And we Christian’s of the born again type ought not be too smug looking down our noses at the Roman pilgrimage – many in our following are suggesting these days that we can’t really understand God fully till we have walked where Jesus walked. Many ads make this trip sound like a pilgrimage – indeed, they use the term in ads – they talk as if there is spiritual gain to be received by a trip to the Holy Land.

1Ti 1:15-17 “This [is] a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. 16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. 17 Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, [be] honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

1Ti 1:15 This [is] a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

Paul says what I am about to say is a faithful saying and it is worthy of acceptance. HUMMMM! Do you think he is contrasting this statement with the teaching of the other guys we’ve been talking about – you remember – the guys that hold forth falsehood as truth – Paul says THIS IS VALID – THIS HAS VALUE ENOUGH TO ACCEPT! As opposed to some other teaching I know of.

This guy isn’t nice in his bluntness to the false teachers! Does that give you any ideas in how you should be? On the internet boards when someone stands boldly for the truth of Scripture there is always someone that will reprimand them for being unloving, yet Paul was blunt and to the point as we ought to be in our confrontation of those that put forth falsehood as truth.

George Whitefield in a message entitled The Method of Grace said the following of preachers. “As god can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give them faithful, sincere, and upright ministers, so the greatest curse that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm, and unskillful guides.” He continues “As it was formerly, so it is now; there are many that corrupt the Word of God and deal deceitfully with it.”

Even in Whitefield’s day he could see that there was falsehood being set forth as truth and so it is today. The believer MUST be on their guard constantly.

Kent mentions “The formula, “faithful is the word,” occurs five times in the New Testament, all of them in the Pastoral Epistles (1Ti 1:15; 1Ti 3:1; 1Ti 4:9; 2Ti 2:11; Tit 3:8). A similar expression, “these words are faithful and true,” occurs twice (Rev 21:5; Rev 22:6). Apparently during the latter half of the first century, this formula was quite generally used to emphasize important truths. Here the reference almost certainly is to the statement of Jesus, uttered on several occasions (Mat 9:13; Luk 19:10). Such truths as these probably were often repeated in the Christian assemblies, and were thus well known.” THE PASTORAL EPISTLES; Homer A. Kent, Jr., Th.D.; Moody Press; Chicago; 1958; p 92. (Mat 9:13 “But go ye and learn what [that] meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Luk 19:10 “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”)

“Acceptation” according to the dictionary means “the generally understood meaning of a word” 1995 Zane Publishing, Inc. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary 1994 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Paul says these things I’m relating are worth acceptance – as is – nothing added.

I have read that this phrase actually stands alone in the original construction of the passage. This would draw complete attention to the coming statements.

The term world has a wide meaning. It can mean the earth proper, or it can mean the universe. Either way it is true in this case, but it might bring a slightly different perspective to your mind. Christ came into the world – as in contrast FROM HEAVEN. We all know this to be true, but have you considered that Christ left the solid comforts of heavens glory to accomplish His work among men?

He gave up a throne in glory for the hardships of living. He went from not needing sleep to having to get up in the morning, from needing nothing to needing everything, from being totally free to being dependent on others.

The term Paul chose to call himself in this text is of interest. It does have the idea of chief, but there is another shade of meaning that is significant within the context. Not only can this word be translated chief, but normally it is translated first. Thayer mentions “first in time or place . . . in any succession of things or persons … first in rank”

The context pictures Paul as the first – the example of all to come. Now, we know that there were others that were saved prior to Paul, but the Holy Spirit via Paul sets Paul as the prime example of all to come.

Paul uses the sequence “Christ Jesus” – he uses this sequence twenty five times in the Pastoral Epistles compared to eight usages as Jesus Christ.

He came into the world – a simple statement which has deep ramifications. He came into – He came from somewhere – PRE-EXISTENCE IS THE ONLY POSSIBLE CONCLUSION! There is also the thought that He came for a specific purpose and that He came of His own accord.

Christ came into the world to save sinners. The question always seems to come up, just how many of the sinners did He come to save. Did He just come to save the elect sinners, or did he come to save ALL sinners?

Indulge me for a moment while I consider the concept of unlimited atonement.

Joh 3:16 Loved the world – whosoever. There seems to be no restrictions in this passage. (1Jn 2:2)

Some suggest that some reject His salvation, so He couldn’t have died for them. On the contrary, He died for every single one. If a person rejects Christ then they reject the salvation that has already been provided for them.

Christ paid all costs for all mankind’s redemption! Man rejects or accepts what Christ did. This is termed in theology UNLIMITED ATONEMENT. Did Christ atone for only the elect, or did Christ atone for all mankind? Others hold that He atoned only for the elect.

This leads to the ARMENIAN Vs CALVINISM debate. The Armenians held that Christ atoned for all, while the Calvinists believed that Christ atoned for only the elect.

Where you land on this discussion well may depend on your understanding of Christ’s work on the cross and salvation itself. Is it total provision for the sin of the world or is it not?

Remember, just because you believe in an unlimited atonement it doesn’t make you an Armenian. It just means you can’t be a five-point Calvinist.

Paul mentions that he was the chief sinner. He knew what he was before Christ. Many in our own day realize well who and what they were before Christ. Others don’t really realize what they were. They have not really come to terms with what they were and now what they are.

This most likely comes from some of the easy believism that is being preached today. It is essential to believe in Who Christ was, and to believe in what He did, but it is also necessary for the person to understand who they are and why what Christ did is important.

An Independent Baptist pastor on an internet board I visit has come to the realization that he must get the people lost before he can lead them to the Lord. He has begun to use the law to show them that they are sinners. I tried to help him understand that you can show them from the New Testament that they are sinners, but he insists that you must use the law – HUMMMMMM! Well, anyway the point is that when the person realizes they are lost and on their way to hell then you can begin to talk to them of the gift of God.

I would like to read a comment from someone on this thought.

Hiebert mentions “The fact is that it is always the characteristic of a true saint to feel himself a real sinner. The air in a room seems to be clear, but when it is penetrated by the sunlight it is seen to be full of dust and other impurities; and so as men draw nearer to God, and are penetrated by the light of God (1Jn 1:5 – “God is light. . . . “), they see more clearly their own infirmities, and begin to feel for sin something of the hatred which God feels for it.” (First Timothy; D. Edmond Hiebert; Moody Press; Chicago; 1957; p 43.)

John Owen said once, “He that hath slight thoughts of sin never had great thoughts of God.'” (First Timothy; D. Edmond Hiebert; Moody Press; Chicago; 1957; p 7)

Reread and stop for a moment and think about that one.

Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson

1:15 {13} This [is] a {i} faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

(13) He turns the reproach of the adversaries upon their own head, showing that this singular example of the goodness of God, contributes greatly to the benefit of the whole Church.

(i) Worthy to be believed.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Seven times in the Pastorals Paul evidently alluded to statements that had become proverbial in the early church. They may have been parts of early Christian hymns or catechisms (manuals for the training of new Christians; cf. 1Ti 2:5-6; 1Ti 3:16; 2Ti 1:9-10; 2Ti 2:8-13; Tit 2:11-14; Tit 3:3-7). [Note: For a brief discussion of these liturgical passages that outline the essentials of salvation, see Bailey, pp. 349-54; or for a more detailed explanation, see Philip H. Towner, The Goal of Our Instruction, pp. 75-119.] They may be restatements of what Jesus said about Himself (cf. Mat 9:13; Mar 2:17; Luk 5:32; Luk 19:10; Joh 12:46-47; Joh 16:28; Joh 18:37). [Note: Knight, p. 102.] Paul probably alluded to one of these classic statements here, as seems likely from his use of the introductory, "It is a trustworthy statement." Here the great truth affirmed is that the purpose of Christ’s incarnation was the salvation of sinners.

"The repeated formula is always attached to a maxim (relating either to doctrine or practice) on which full reliance can be placed." [Note: Earle, p. 355.]

Was Paul really the worst sinner of all time (cf. 1Co 15:9; Eph 3:8)? Obviously many people have lived longer in a more depraved condition than Paul did. He became a Christian relatively early in his adult life. Perhaps the apostle meant that he was the "foremost" sinner in the sense that his sin of aggressively tearing down the work that God was building up was the worst kind of sin. It was much worse than simply ignoring God and going one’s own way.

Note, too, that Paul still regarded himself as a sinner, though a forgiven one: ". . . I am foremost." [Note: See Robert L. Saucy, "’Sinners’ Who Are Forgiven or ’Saints’ Who Sin?" Biblitheca Sacra 152:608 (October-December 1995):400-12.]

"The fact is that it is always the characteristic of a true saint to feel himself a real sinner. The air in a room seems to be clear, but when it is penetrated by the sunlight it is seen to be full of dust and other impurities: and so as men draw nearer to God, and are penetrated by the light of God (1 John i. 5), they see more clearly their own infirmities, and begin to feel for sin something of the hatred which God feels for it." [Note: Ernest F. Brown, The Pastoral Epistles, p. 10.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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