The Promise of Life

In 2 Timothy 1:1, Paul speaks about God’s promise of life that is in Christ Jesus. God promised to save us from all eternity, and he promised in Genesis 3:15 to save us through Jesus Christ, the Seed of the woman. And God alone keeps his promise. Let God be true and all men liars.

Eternal life is found only in Jesus Christ. He gives eternal life to all who believe in him. In 2 Timothy, we find Paul as an old man, in a dungeon, in chains, in Rome. He was waiting to be executed by beheading for preaching the gospel in obedience to the Lord’s command as his apostle. Yet Paul is not ashamed or afraid. He knows that the Lord is with him as he promised, to take him to himself in heaven through his death.

So Paul speaks of God’s promise of life even as death is staring at him. He can do this because he knows Jesus Christ, who, by his death, destroyed our death and brought life and immortality to light. To Paul, to live is Christ and to die is gain. To him, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord forever.

An Apostle of Christ Jesus

Paul introduces himself as “an apostle of Christ Jesus” (v. 1). He is saying that he is authorized and commissioned by Christ himself to preach the gospel so that what the apostle says is what Christ himself says. Paul did not choose himself for this task, nor was he chosen by men, as a pope is chosen. It was not by chance he became an apostle; neither did he inherit this position from his father. Christ himself chose him.

Elsewhere Paul describes himself as “Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (Gal. 1:1). He asked the Corinthian believers, “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not the result of my work in the Lord?” (1 Cor. 1:9). And when the Lord confronted him on the road to Damascus, he asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The Lord replied, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.” Then Christ instructed him, “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do” (Acts 9:5–6). This tells those who confess Christ that he will tell us what we must do, and we will do what he tells us to do, if we are born of God.

In Acts 26, Paul again recounted what the Lord said to him: “Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you” (Acts 26:16). Paul was an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will and command of God the Father. As a result, he must proclaim the gospel as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher.

The will of God, in other words, was the efficient cause of Paul’s ministry. Remember, people also asked Jesus by what authority he was preaching the kingdom of God. The answer was that Jesus himself was the Father’s first apostle. And the authority of Paul was the authority of the Father and the Son.

Thus, to reject the gospel is to reject the Father and the Son. Jesus said, “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me” (Matt. 10:40). When they preach the gospel, the authority of God-sent pastors is also the authority of Christ. God himself gives this authority. Paul wrote, “It was [Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers” (Eph. 4:11). Paul warned the Ephesian elders, “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood” (Acts 20:28).

Through the gospel, then, the apostle was declaring God’s promise of eternal life. This life is found only in Jesus Christ. Faith in anything or in anyone else is worthless, as Peter declared, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

The Gospel Brings Eternal Life

The gospel brings eternal life to those who are, by nature, condemned to eternal death. In Romans 6 Paul wrote, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 6:23).

The righteous Son of God died for the unrighteous to give us eternal life and bring us to God and glory. Jesus declared, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). He also said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).

Our Lord Jesus Christ is the promised Seed of the woman who alone can crush the head of the devil. The Hebrews writer spoke of this: “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Heb. 2:14–15).

Do you fear death? If you are a Christian, you need not fear death because he has given you eternal life. Through faith in Christ, we receive eternal life, the promise of the Father. Paul writes, “But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:16). John tells us, “And this is what he promised us—even eternal life” (1 John 2:25). John also says, “And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11–12).

Paul was writing this brief epistle to Timothy, who was pastoring the church in Ephesus in Asia. It is a very personal letter to his beloved son in the faith (“my dear son,” v. 2). Elsewhere he called him his “true son in the faith” (1 Tim. 1:2) and “my beloved son who is faithful in the Lord” (1 Cor. 4:17).

Timothy came to know Jesus Christ in Paul’s first missionary journey. Let me tell you a secret: Spiritual relationship is eternal. All God’s people belong to God’s holy family forever, enjoying eternal life. The members of God’s family love God and one another with an undying, God-given love.

This family love knows no distance. Paul loved Timothy. He loved him as his father, even though he was in Asia, far away from him. This letter is written by the apostle to Timothy and to each one of us. Its authority is the authority of God and his Son. It is the very word of God, as Peter testified, “Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Pet. 3:15–16).

Behind every preacher who faithfully preaches the word, there is the authority of God and the authority of his Son. We must fear and tremble when they speak from the word of God to us. And Timothy had to understand that God the Father and God the Son in the Spirit was with him as he taught and opposed heresies and the heretics.

Paul earnestly wishes in the Lord grace, mercy, and peace to Timothy and all God’s people (v. 2). Grace from God comes to the undeserving. Paul says, “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 1:14).

Mercy from God comes to the helpless. Again, Paul affirms, “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:15–16).

The peace of God comes to the enemies of God through Christ’s atoning death and reconciliation. So Paul declares, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” (Rom. 5:1, 10).

Grace, mercy, and peace come to us from God our Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. They do not come from anyone else. This statement also tells us that Jesus Christ is God, equal with the Father. Paul and Timothy confessed Jesus Christ as their Lord and their King, as did we, thank God. And we are to obey Jesus Christ, whom we confessed as Lord, above all. Paul says, “If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9). We are saved, and the proof of our salvation is obedience. The basis of our salvation is Jesus Christ—his death, burial, and resurrection.

True, Unhypocritical Faith

In the Greek text, verses 3 through 5 are one sentence in which Paul gives thanks to God for Timothy’s true faith. Paul speaks of his own godly heritage as well as that of Timothy. Paul’s forefathers worshiped the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. The Old Testament saints believed in the promised Messiah. The New Testament speaks of the fulfillment of that promise in Jesus, the son of David, the son of Abraham, the Son of God.

The salvation promised in the Old Testament is salvation in Jesus Christ. Paul and Timothy were blessed with a common faith—faith in the God of glory, the God of Abraham. Paul writes, “[Abraham] is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised” (Rom. 4:12). He declared in Acts 24, “However, I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that agrees with the Law and that is written in the Prophets, and I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man” (Acts 24:14–16). Christianity is not a different religion from the Old Testament faith. (PGM) Rather, it is the full blossoming of the Old Testament faith.

Like Paul and Timothy, I was given a great spiritual heritage. My father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather were believers in Jesus Christ. We were given a great Christian heritage. My children and grandchildren can say the same thing of their forebears. It is a blessing to have such a spiritual heritage, such faith of our fathers.

The best gift we can give to our children and grandchildren is not land, houses, or securities, or a university education. The best gift is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Joshua believed that; so he challenged the people: “If serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” (Josh. 24:15).

What about you? Can you say that you and your household are serving the Lord? In Deuteronomy 32 we read, “When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them, ‘Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess’” (Deut. 32:45–47). And we read in Isaiah’s prophecy, “‘The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,’ declares the LORD. ‘As for me, this is my covenant with them,’ says the LORD. ‘My Spirit, who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths of your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever,’ says the LORD” (Isa. 59:20–21). Peter declared, “The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call” (Acts 2:39). Acts 11:14 also speaks about household salvation.

Paul served God as his forefathers did, in clean conscience, with a clean, not dirty, heart. God will not accept our worship offered with a dirty, guilty conscience. We are to present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, as God’s royal priests.

A good conscience is one that has been washed in the blood of Jesus. John tells us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Jesus taught, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift” (Matt. 5:23–24). Jesus also said, “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins” (Mark 11:25).

Sin, unbelief, arrogance, and disobedience make us dirty. If we come into the church with a dirty conscience, God will not be pleased with us. But, thank God, a dirty conscience can be washed clean by the blood of Jesus. A good conscience is the result of repentance and the obedience of faith.

Prayer

In verse 3 Paul says, “Night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers.” Paul was continually engaged in prayer. As he prayed, he remembered many of his friends near and far, and he prayed for them. I am sure he did not sleep much in the dungeon, but he prayed much. Paul had a large, caring heart. He remembered his son Timothy daily and prayed for his needs. He remembered Timothy’s tears when he parted from him the last time. He remembered his authentic faith in Jesus Christ, which first dwelt in his grandmother and mother.

Paul was a man of prayer. Elsewhere he wrote, “Pray continually” (1 Thess. 5:17). He also instructed, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should” (Eph. 6:18–20).

We know that Paul and Silas were stripped, beaten, and thrust into an innermost cell in Philippi. Their feet were put in stocks. So we read, “After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. Upon receiving such orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks.” But what were they doing in this situation? “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them” (Acts 16:23–25).

Daniel prayed three times a day and was thrown into the lions’ den. Jesus prayed night and day. My parents prayed at 4 am, 12 noon, and 7 pm. They prayed for the salvation of their children with tears. And I pray for all of you day and night several times, expressing the needs of the church to God. What about you? Do you pray regularly for your children and for your brothers and sisters in Christ?

Fellowship

Paul also wrote, “Recalling your tears, I long to see you” (v. 4). He was longing to see his son Timothy one more time before his death. This was his last wish. He was longing for fellowship with other people of God.

When we are saved, God sheds his love abroad in our hearts in abundance by the Holy Spirit. This love prays for others, especially for the people of God. This love communicates by letters, by phone calls, by email. This love prays for the people of God. This love gives, this love sacrifices, and this love seeks fellowship with God’s people. So we read of the early disciples, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42).

If we do not love God’s people, we are not saved. Christ builds his church, wherein each one is connected to everyone else. When we believe in Christ, our loneliness comes to an end. There are some people who always want to get away to some other place and get lost. I feel sorry for such people. The most important thing in this world is to be part of a church that preaches the gospel.

So when we believe in Christ, God dwells in us, and we live in fellowship with God and his children in Christ’s holy church. We look forward to the Sabbath day worship and rest. We are filled with the joy of the Lord when we see our brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers and children. It is truly heaven on earth.

In the New Testament church, they kissed one another in greeting. Men kissed men, women kissed women and children, expressing the love of Christ to one another. So Paul writes, “Greet one another with a holy kiss” (Rom. 16:16). Peter says the same thing: “Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you who are in Christ” (1 Pet. 5:14). All people of God are one.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:24–25).

Paul could not go to see Timothy because he was in chains. So he was longing and praying for Timothy to come to him. Paul remembered Timothy’s tears. To cry is human; we are not stones. Jesus himself cried: “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears” (Heb. 5:7). My parents cried when I left them to come here to minister.

In fact, Paul cried many times. He told the Ephesian elders, “So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears” (Acts 20:31). We shall stop crying only when we are with God forever. Paul writes, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (1 Thess. 4:16–17). John tells us, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

So Paul was saying, “Timothy, please come to see me before my death, that I may be filled with joy. I thank God for your authentic faith in Jesus Christ, which first dwelt in your grandmother and your mother, and I am fully convinced that it dwells in you—authentic faith, unhypocritical faith, true faith.”

What a blessing this apostolic certification of his faith was for Timothy. Paul was saying, “Timothy, my son, do not fear. You are a child of God. You have been saved forever. You possess eternal life in Christ. God’s Holy Spirit dwells in you. You are not alone. Death cannot destroy me or you. Jesus has destroyed our death and has given us life immortal. We are winners in Jesus. The biggest loser is the devil and all who are under his control, all those who will not believe in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Suffering, death, sorrow, and tears will last a little while longer. Then Christ will come to usher in glory, fullness of life, and indescribable joy. Sin shall be no more. Death shall be no more. Tears too shall be no more. There shall be a new heaven and a new earth where God will dwell with his people. That is true life indeed.

The last chapter of the Bible speaks three times of the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all the blessed saints who died in the Lord: “Behold, I am coming soon! Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy in this book”; “Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done”; “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Yes, I am coming soon.’” And the church says, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus” (Rev. 22:7, 12, 20). Only at that time will we be filled with the joy of the Lord in full measure. Then and only then will we experience what Jesus spoke about: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). It shall be “joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

Application

In light of this passage, let us consider the following questions:

1. Do you possess now and forever eternal life? The Bible says, “Make your calling and election sure” (see 2 Pet. 1:10; 2 Cor. 13:5).
2. Have you trusted in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation? In him alone is found life and salvation, grace, faith, and love. Everything we need is in Jesus Christ. He is the embodiment of our salvation.
3. Can your pastor certify that saving faith dwells in you?
4. Can you say, “To me to live is Christ and to die is gain”?
5. Can you confess with Paul, “Jesus Christ is my Lord, whom I obey”?
6. Do you pray always, day and night, for the church, for your children, and for yourself?
7. Can you truly say, “I am not afraid of death, because Christ has destroyed my death when he was crucified, buried, and risen again”?
8. Do you pray for the salvation of your children? Do you teach them from infancy the Holy Scriptures which are mighty to make them wise unto salvation through faith in Christ (2 Tim. 3:15)? Consider the words of John Calvin: “[Timothy] was reared in his infancy in such a way he could suck in godliness along with his mother’s milk.”¹ That is what happened to me. Professor John Murray speaks about my experience in his article on regeneration: “In many other cases, however, there has been no such critical or explosive experience at any particular time, and so many of the most intelligent Christians never remember a time when they can say that they were then without God and without hope in him. They were not only regenerated in infancy, but nurtured in the bosom of Christian instruction, so that simple faith in Jesus dates back as far as memory can penetrate.” ²

May God help us to understand, believe, and obey this word, that we may be blessed now and forevermore.

¹ John Calvin, The Epistles to Timothy, Titus and Philemon (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979), 292.

² John Murray, Collected Writings of John Murray, vol. 2: Systematic Theology(Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1977) 201.