Salvation Pattern (I Timothy 1:12-17)

(Class Notes)

• Divine Enabling (I Timothy 1:12)
  • Paul ALWAYS acknowledged his place in the ministry as the Lord's calling and purpose (Galatians 1:15-16) and his fitting for it as the Lord's work (Colossians 1:28-29)

• Human Failing (I Timothy 1:13)
  • Paul NEVER forgot his utter rebelliousness and unworthiness to receive anything from the Lord (I Corinthians 15:9; Ephesians 3:8):
    • "made havock of the church" (Acts 8:3)
    • "breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord" (Acts 9:1)
    • "how much evil he hath done to Thy saints at Jerusalem" (Acts 9:13)
    • "is not this he that destroyed them which called on this Name in Jerusalem" (Acts 9:21)
    • "and I persecuted this way unto the death" (Acts 22:4)
    • "I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on Thee" (Acts 22:19)
    • "I punished them oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme" (Acts 26:11)

• Exceeding Grace (I Timothy 1:14)
  • The Lord promised to forgive Israel's blasphemy against Him, but NOT against the witness of His Spirit - neither in this age nor in the age to come (Matthew 12:31-32)
  • Paul, like his unbelieving countrymen, was forgiven by the Lord on the cross (Luke 23:34) for his ignorance of unbelief in crucifying his Messiah (Acts 3:14-17)
  • However, they were NOT forgiven for the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:51,60), a man full of the Holy Spirit's witness of faith and power (Acts 6:5,8)
    • Stephen saw the Lord ready to return in judgment - the Lord was standing and NOT sitting (Acts 7:55-56 cf. Psalms 110:1-2,5-6)
    • Stephen's clothes were laid at the feet of Saul (Acts 7:58), who gave his consent for Stephen's death (Acts 8:1)
  • There was NO forgiveness for Paul or any of his unbelieving countrymen UNLESS the Lord introduced a NEW unprophesied age - "this PRESENT evil age" (Galatians 1:4) squeezed in between the ends of the prophesied ages (I Corinthians 10:11)
    • God's outpouring of grace to Israel awaits the future Day of the Lord (Zechariah 12:8-10 cf. Zechariah 14:1-3), which is why Paul refers to himself as "one born out of due time" (I Corinthians 15:8)

• Longsuffering Mercy (I Timothy 1:15-16)
  • Paul was the first in a line of sinners or by rank as "chief of sinners" (I Timothy 1:15) to be saved by God's mercy to sinners "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1-5)
    • Paul was not like Anna the prophetess and Israel's faithful who "looked for redemption in Jerusalem" (Luke 2:38; John 1:45)
    • The Lord stopped Paul on the Damascus road and saved His chief enemy rather than judged him (Acts 9:3-6; Acts 22:6-10)
    • Paul's salvation was a pattern for the rest of the nations including Israel (I Timothy 1:16 cf. Acts 26:13-16) concerning God in His longsuffering, Who is able to deliver His enemies out of the darkness of the Adversary into the light of His Son (Acts 26:17-18; Colossians 1:12-14)

• Eternal Praise (I Timothy 1:17)
  • The Lord, Who dwells in the "light which no man can approach unto" (I Timothy 6:16) - also inhabits the praises of His people (Psalms 22:3)

Study Outline

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