{"id":8505,"date":"2022-02-27T00:00:49","date_gmt":"2022-02-26T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=8505"},"modified":"2022-02-28T16:57:54","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T06:57:54","slug":"the-grace-of-christ-for-sin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2022\/02\/27\/the-grace-of-christ-for-sin\/","title":{"rendered":"The Grace of Christ for Sin"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Timothy 1:14-15\u00a014<\/sup>and the grace of our Lord was overflowingly abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. 15<\/sup>Trustworthy is the saying and \u00a0deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am worst.<\/em><\/p>\n

Verse 14 continues the thought of verse 13 and how Paul’s life was changed because of the grace of Christ. Paul likely coins a word by adding the prefix “super” (hyper)<\/em> to “abundant” (epleonasen).<\/em>\u00a0The grace of Christ is beyond our imagination and description. It is so overwhelming that it brings forgiveness to the worst of sinners, like Paul. Jesus Christ is the source of faith and love and the one who receives our faith and love. When we receive God’s grace through Christ, our response should be faith and love. We can love only because of God’s grace towards us first. Our faith is a response to God’s offer of salvation. Grace, faith, and love are dependent upon one another and related to each other. Timothy needed to approach the problems in Ephesus with love. Paul reminds him and the Ephesians that love is grown through the faith in Christ and as a response to God’s grace.<\/p>\n

Paul gives several “trustworthy sayings” in the Pastoral Epistles (3:1; 4:9; 2 Tim 2:11; and Titus 3:8). These sayings are important and should be noted. They have a credal sense to them as something the early Christians believed and should remember. What makes these sayings trustworthy is that they come from God and relate to the gospel of Christ. This first saying deserves\u00a0full acceptance<\/em>. This saying is what Timothy could use to counter the false teachings infiltrating the church.<\/p>\n

The saying itself is a simple summary of the gospel: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.<\/em> The incarnate Son of God because flesh in order to make salvation possible for all people (John 1:9; Galatians 4:4; Romans 8:3-4).\u00a0Christ Jesus came\u00a0into the world<\/i> is inclusive of his birth, life, death, and resurrection. Paul does not break this down into the individual parts of Jesus’ life but keeps it all together. Each aspect of his life was instrumental in our salvation. The name\u00a0Jesus<\/em> means “Savior” (Matthew 1:21) and summarized his mission and purpose for coming into the world. All people are\u00a0sinners\u00a0<\/em>(hamart<\/em>\u014dlous<\/em>) and in need of God’s grace (Romans 3:23).<\/p>\n

Paul makes this trustworthy saying personal and applies it to his life by acknowledging that he was the\u00a0worst\u00a0<\/em>(pr<\/em>\u014dtos<\/em>, literally “first”). This word adds intensity to Paul’s need of the grace of Christ. Paul had to humble himself to make this confession. It is noteworthy that Paul uses the present tense\u00a0I am<\/em> (eimi eg<\/em>\u014d<\/em>), suggesting that he saw himself this way even as a mature believer. Needing the grace and mercy of Christ never ends. There is no life outside of Christ. This does not mean that Paul continued to live in sin or be mastered by it. Rather, this reveals his humility and how he lived with a sense of forgiveness. This type of humility is the open door to mercy and forgiveness. Paul did not gloss over sin or take it lightly, and neither should we. We must always\u00a0come to God in humility and dependence upon his forgiveness that comes only through Christ who gave himself for us. The journey we must take is from unbelief (verse 13) to confession of sin. The result will be eternal life (verse 16).<\/p>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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1 Timothy 1:14-15\u00a014and the grace of our Lord was overflowingly abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. 15Trustworthy is the saying and \u00a0deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am worst. Verse 14 continues the thought of verse 13 and how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8505"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8517,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8505\/revisions\/8517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}