Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:12-17
From Last Lesson: This is what happened one time when Moses was atop Mount Sinai in intimate conversation with God:
Right in the middle of something Moses was saying, God interrupted: “Get back down there to those crazy people.” Moses went down to find the Israelites in compromising positions. Before an idol (a golden calf), a meal had turned into an orgy. God said to Moses, “They’ve had it now. It’s all over for these Israelites.” However, Moses, who didn’t want to be the last Israelite on earth, said to God, “OK, if you want to wipe out all the descendants of your great servants like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and you want all that energy you used in getting us out of Egypt to be wasted, go ahead. But, God, don’t you think you should change your mind on this one?” (Paraphrased, see Exodus 32:1, 7-14). And, behold, Moses changed God’s mind. It doesn’t appear that there was any love involved as far as the writer was concerned; it appears more evident that Moses was some great persuader, even of God Almighty!
Paul knew something more than this though for he had been well schooled in that Old Testament way of thinking about God. Paul surely wouldn’t have claimed to understand it all, but the one thing he decided about was how this opportunity to be a minister of the good news of Jesus Christ had come to him: “
“Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:13-14).
In Paul’s pain, he penned a great confession of faith. Having committed great wrongs in his life and suffered imprisonment and beating for his faith, Paul knew the meaning of God’s grace and mercy. To this young man who would follow in Paul’s footsteps as a preacher of the gospel, Paul wrote:
“This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life” (1 Timothy 1:15-16).
Paul wants to be an example of what happens when one, even the foremost sinner, happens into the grace of God. Paul believed that if God could love him and use him, in spite of his overpowering sin, it could happen to anybody.
This is the good news. God’s grace reaches all of us, you, me, and everybody else. We know this to be true, not because of how well things go for us, how saintly we are, or how few sins are on our list, but because we know in our hearts how mercifully God has dealt with us. Our acts of rebellion have never broken the reality of God’s stubborn love for us. Therefore, our failures cannot keep us either from the caring presence of God or from faithful service to those in need of the gospel and the Lord whom it proclaims. We cannot escape our responsibility to witness to God’s faithfulness because of our unworthiness. Dearest readers, because of God’s mercy, forgiveness is a reality, and we go forth, in a spirit of praise, to tell others of a God who has never forsaken us and who, even now, strengthens us day by day.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 