1 Timothy 1:12

But we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully... according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. And I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me, because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief... 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... This charge I commit to you, son Timothy... of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. (1 Timothy 1:8-20)

The gospel is a treasure entrusted to unworthy hands—and God means to put His grace on display through your transformed life.

The Weight of Something Entrusted

Recently I was scrolling through some old photos I had recovered from forgotten hard drives, and my oldest son Ethan asked to see pictures from the day he was born. As we looked, I remembered that day almost nine years ago when I became a dad. There is something weighty about that experience, mixed with a little fear and dread. Having gone through three births, I know the pregnancy is experienced differently by mom and dad. For me, the weight didn't land until I saw the child—our firstborn son.

That same year I also became the pastor of this church, and a month before Ethan's birth, my wife and I signed papers for our first home loan. Those were weighty too, but none of them carried the same heaviness as becoming a father. The funny thing is, we went through weeks of credit checks and background checks to buy a house, but when you go to have a baby, they just ask, "Do you have a car seat?" That's it. A whole life entrusted to you, and all they want to know is whether you have a car seat.

There is a heaviness in stepping into the stewardship of another life. And I think that's similar to what Paul describes in verse 11: "according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust."

God Entrusts Us with Glorious Good News

Notice it is called the glorious gospel of the blessed God. It is something immense, majestic, excellent, splendid—of magnificent value. Yet too often we fail to realize just how great this thing is that has been committed to us.

Years ago I was at a Padres game with my friend David Guzik when he casually told me he had decided to donate one of his kidneys to an anonymous recipient. His sister had done it, and he reasoned that he had two healthy kidneys and could live with one, while someone sick could live because of his gift. He went through the whole process, and at UCLA Medical Center they gave one of his kidneys to a woman on the other side of the country.

What awesome value is in that gift. Most of the time in an organ transplant, the donor dies so the recipient can live. That's connected to the gospel, because Christ died for us so that we could have life. Without His death on the cross, there is no gospel, no salvation, no life. He died to take our diseased, sinful heart and replace it with new life. The King of Kings died so that we could live forever. God incarnate died so we could have salvation, and there is no salvation without the cross. When we see it in those terms, we begin to fathom the weightiness of what has been given to us.

We have been entrusted with the glorious good news of salvation for those who are sick from sin and dying—not just physically, but facing what the Bible calls the second death, eternal separation from God. All of us inherited this fallen condition. Through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin, and it spread to all humanity (Romans 5:12). We see this condition in our sinful actions, which flow from a sinful heart. As Jesus said in Mark 7, out of the heart proceed evil thoughts and evil actions.

But Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again the third day (1 Corinthians 15:1-3). The spiritual heart transplant for spiritually sick sinners has been given to us. And if you are a Christian, you not only have this new life—you now have it to give to others.

A Stewardship We Dare Not Hoard

Imagine: within ten miles of this building there are a half million people. Every day in this world, 152,000 people step from this life into the next. A brother who has been part of our church for years died last night—one of the 152,000 who will die today. If roughly a third of the world says it believes in Jesus, then over 100,000 people today will die without this great gospel. That's 36 million people over ten years—the population of California—stepping into eternity without Christ.

And to my shame, I realized this week that I am far too casual about this valuable thing committed to my trust. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 4 that God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, has shone it into our hearts. We were dead in trespasses and sins, in darkness without hope, just as we sing in Amazing Grace: "I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see." God shone the light of the world, Jesus, upon us. And immediately Paul adds that we have this treasure in earthen vessels. As Jesus said in Matthew 10, "Freely you have received, freely give." May we never be guilty of hoarding this great gospel.

God Enables Us to Be Ambassadors of Glory

Paul continues, "I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry" (verse 12). If you can say that Jesus is Christ and Lord in your life, this is true of you as well.

Before Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives, He told His disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they received the promise of the Father: "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be witnesses of me" (Acts 1:8). That word power shares the same Greek root as the word enabled Paul uses here. You have been empowered for the purpose of being a witness.

This is wonderful, because more often than not I feel completely unable and insufficient in myself to give the good news. And in our culture an interesting fear has crept in. Where Christians in other times feared for their lives, we are scared to death of offending someone or hurting their feelings. I don't know exactly what it is, but it's real, and every one of us wrestles with it. In ourselves we may not have the strength—but Jesus said we would receive power from another source. Paul wrote, "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves... but our sufficiency is of God who has made us able ministers of the new covenant" (2 Corinthians 3:5-6).

An ambassador is an official representative of a kingdom, and we are official representatives of Christ's kingdom. "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God. For he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:20-21). Jesus took our sin like a garment and bore God's wrath against it, and He placed His righteousness like a robe upon us. From an accounting standpoint it makes no sense—there's no fairness in it. But I'm thankful for the unfairness, because I don't deserve it.

God's Grace Toward the Unworthy

You might think Paul, an apostle, was obviously worthy of this calling—but not you. Look at verse 13: "Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent man, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." Elsewhere Paul says he was not worthy to be called an apostle because he persecuted the church.

Maybe you feel unworthy. You say, "You don't know what I've done, the horrible things in my past." Paul speaks up to say he was a blasphemer and persecutor, yet by God's grace he became what he was. "I am what I am by the grace of God" (1 Corinthians 15). Maybe you identify more with the list in verses 9 and 10—the lawless, ungodly, sinners, the profane—than with the word saint. If so, here is the point: God's entrusting and enabling are according to the riches of His mercy and grace in spite of our sin.

You are and never will be worthy. That's why it's called grace—unmerited, undeserved favor. Paul says, "And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus" (verse 14). Mercifully, He does not give me what I deserve—the wrath poured out on Jesus at the cross. Graciously, He gives me salvation and enabling power that I don't deserve. He's gone beyond not punishing me and heaped abundant grace upon me.

God Is the Savior of Sinners

Why would God do this? "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" (verse 15). God is rich toward sinners because He is the Savior of sinners.

Grasp this: Savior is not merely His title or what He does—it is His nature and identity. That's why His name is Jesus, "Jehovah is salvation." Because that's who He is, He can't help but save people, and He does it really well. We understand finding identity in what we do—within three minutes of meeting, one man will ask another, "So what do you do?" and the answer comes back, "I am a contractor," "I am a police officer." But with Jesus it's amplified: His very nature is salvation.

This is the purpose statement of Jesus. John 3:17 says, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world." He had every right to condemn sinful people, but He didn't come to condemn. Mark 10 says He came "to give His life a ransom for many." Luke 19:10 says He came "to seek and save that which was lost." Maybe you're here for the first time, wondering why—you're here because Jesus came to seek and save you. In John 10 He says, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

Some might say, "I have a bone to pick with Paul—I'm a worse sinner than he was." You can argue that with him in heaven if you like. But notice the transformation: before this, Paul was an arrogant, boastful, insolent Pharisee. God's law, properly applied, takes a proud Pharisee and turns him into a humble saint and useful servant. You cannot be a useful servant of Jesus until you realize who you are in relationship to God. When Isaiah saw God for who He was, he cried, "I am undone"—and then he could be used.

You Are God's Masterpiece of Grace

Why does God give such mercy? "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" (verse 16). Paul, the chief of sinners, received mercy so that those who would later believe could see in him the patient, long-suffering, preserving grace of Jesus.

This is point five: You are God's masterpiece of grace for sinners in need of the same. He set us up to show off His mercy. Others will look at your life and ask, "How could God ever save someone like you?" Maybe you have family members who say exactly that. God wants to set you up as a spectacle of His grace. That's why Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven."

In 2014, a French couple investigating a leaky roof discovered a sealed-off section of their attic containing a large canvas painting in good condition. Art authorities deduced it was likely a lost work of the Italian master Caravaggio, worth $136 million. It now hangs in a museum in Milan. Masterpieces like that don't belong in leaky attics—they belong on display. When you see the work of a master sculptor, you don't admire the marble; you marvel at the master's handiwork.

That's what God wants from your life—that people would look and see the amazing work of the Master, that your good works would point to your Father in heaven and glorify Him, not you. "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Paul's Doxology and the Charge Handed Down

Overwhelmed by this revelation, Paul breaks into a doxology—a formal praise believed to be one of the earliest in the church: "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen" (verse 17). The Master Artisan has taken your broken, tattered life and made it into something beautiful to display in His house for eternity, showing the glory of the immortal, invisible, only wise God.

Then Paul finishes: "This charge I commit to you, son Timothy... that by them you may wage the good warfare" (verse 18). The charge he gave at the beginning of the section—to teach no other doctrine—he now hands off. Paul knew his time was short, so he passes it to Timothy, who would pass it to someone else. For 2,000 years this has continued, and now the handoff has come to us. Therefore fight the good fight, wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience.

But know that some have rejected the call and suffered shipwreck. Paul names them: "of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme." That is an apostolic whooping. We don't know exactly who they were, though there were two men named Alexander in Ephesus—a coppersmith and a Jewish leader. One had likely come up within the church and was causing problems.

What does it mean to deliver them to Satan? The only parallel is 1 Corinthians 5:5, where one who sins continually and will not repent is delivered "to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." That's church discipline. God wants you on display in His house to show forth His glory—but if your carnality and sin tarnish that glory, Paul says such a person should be sent out, in hope that their flesh would be destroyed and their spirit saved in the day of Christ Jesus. May none of us be like Hymenaeus and Alexander.

Closing Prayer

Lord God, I thank You for Your word. It is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, able to save and to transform. Cause Your word to be alive in our hearts, that we would not hold it back but share it with others. You have given us a spiritual heart transplant and made us alive for eternity, yet there are friends, coworkers, family members, and neighbors still under the curse of sin, still with the diseased heart. Stir our hearts to freely give forth the gospel of grace, not ashamed of it, knowing it is Your power unto salvation to everyone who believes.

If this is news to you today—that Jesus died for your sins so you could receive new life for eternity—and you would like to receive His forgiving grace, pray with me: Dear Jesus, I know I need You in my life. I know I've broken Your commandments. I have sinned, but I thank You that You came to save sinners. I pray that You would come into my life, save and forgive me, and help me to follow You by faith. In Jesus' name, amen.