Grace to Sinners

Grace has three facets. 1 Timothy 1.14, 15

The Pastoral Epistles: 1 Timothy 1

Pray 116.1, 2.
I love the LORD, because He has heard
My voice and my supplications.
Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.

Read and meditate on 1 Timothy 1.14, 15.

Reflect.
1. How did Paul describe himself? What did he mean by that?

2. How did the grace of God affect Paul? 

Meditate.
Paul celebrates the grace of God, which he understood very well from experience. I wonder if we understand it as well as Paul did?

We can think of grace as having three aspects. First, grace is a disposition in God, whereby He looks favorably on us. Second, grace is an act of communication by which God informs us of that disposition. This He does by His Word, as it breaks through the scales that cover our eyes and shows us the love of God in Christ Jesus. Finally, grace is divine power that transforms us from the inside-out. We do not truly know grace unless we know it in all three of these aspects.

Paul knew grace this way. Jesus had met him with overwhelming love on that Damascus road, calling him to stop resisting His prodding, and to get about the business of obedience. At his baptism, grace gave birth to faith, as scales fell from his eyes, signifying Paul’s emergence into a new life and a new calling. Finally, grace empowered Paul, in love for God and lost sinners, to begin his work immediately, as he preached Jesus in the city of Damascus (cf. Acts 9.1-25). 

Paul knew grace, and he knew that he did not deserve any of all the grace Christ had shown him. Grace has power to save – and not just to justify, but to sanctify us, making us more like Jesus and empowering us to serve Him in our own callings. Not even Paul’s continuing sinfulness – note the present tense verb and the emphatic construction: εἰμι ἐγώ, eimi ego: I am, I myself– could quench the power of grace to enable him for his calling. Grace transformed the chief of sinners; surely it can do as much for us.

By the grace of God, Christ has come into the world to save sinners like Paul, and like you and me (v. 15). Either we know the grace of our Lord as His love, effectively communicated and powerful to save and transform, or we merely talk about grace. Grace is working in our lives when, in spite of our continuing sinfulness, we know the love of Christ, and are moved to obey and serve Him as Paul did. When we know grace like Paul did, the people to whom we are sent each day will see that grace working in us as witnesses for Christ.

Reflect.
1. How do you experience the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ?

2. Even though we are sinners, grace can move us to obedience in serving Christ. How does that work?

3. Being sinful – or weak, or ill-prepared, or afraid – is no excuse for not serving the Lord in our Personal Mission Field. Explain.

There was no reason for Christ the Lord to come, except to save sinners. Eliminate diseases, eliminate wounds, and there is no call for medicine. If a great doctor has come down from heaven, a great invalid must have been lying very sick throughout the whole wide world. This invalid is the whole human race. Augustine (354-430), Sermons 175.1

Pray Psalm 116.1-9.
Why do you love the Lord? How does knowing He loves you make you want to serve Him today?

Sing Psalm 116.1-9.
Psalm 116.1-9 (Mit Freuden Zart: All Praise to God Who Reigns Above)
I love the Lord because He hears my cries and pleas for mercy.
Because He bends to me His ears, my prayers shall ever thus be.
The snares of death encompassed me; hell’s grip could not unloosened be;
distress and anguish pressed me.

I called to God, “O Lord, I pray, my soul redeem with favor!”
The Lord is gracious in His way, and righteous is our Savior.
His mercy to the simple flies; He lifted me up to the skies –
I rest in Him forever!

Full well the Lord has dealt with me; my soul from death He delivered.
My weeping eyes, my stumbling feet, He has redeemed forever.
Forever I before His face shall walk with those who know His grace,
and dwell with them forever.

T. M. Moore

Whatever our calling in life, we are sent to bring the joy of Christ to the people around us. Our book, Joy to Your World!, can show you how to fill your Personal Mission Field with more of the Presence, promise, and power of Christ and His Kingdom. Order your copy, as a supplement to our study of 1 Timothy, by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All psalms for singing adapted from The Ailbe Psalter. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006).All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).