Salvation Summaries

OVERVIEW OF 1 TIMOTHY

While the book of 1 Timothy shares similarities with Titus (written by Paul to a pastor of a church, includes qualifications for an elder, contains instructions on the importance of teaching sound doctrine to all of those in the church to help them live godly lives), it clearly emphasizes the danger that false teachers can have on others, including Timothy. Following the teachings of false teachers can cause people to violate their consciences, wander from their faith, and even “shipwreck” their faith too.  For these reasons, Paul exhorts Timothy to stop these false teachers, avoid fruitless discussions with them, and teach sound doctrine, which is the foundation for a godly life.

After reading about the damage false teachers can have on others, it made me wonder about some of the false teachings we hear today from society, and even in some liberal churches. Evolution is fact while creation is a myth, abortion is simply a choice, homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle, and marriage should not be limited to one man and one woman, are a few that came to mind.

Can today’s false teachings harm the lives of those who believe them? Can they cause them to question their faith, or even reject the Christian faith?  Of course they can…I’ve seen it in the lives of some of my relatives.

That is why we also must heed Paul’s warning to Timothy. We must “cling” to the truths found in Scripture if we really want to know and follow what is true, if we want to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord, and if we want to avoid unnecessary sorrows and regrets in our own life.

SALVATION

1 Timothy contains a handful of salvation-related verses that can help us answer important questions, such as: Does God want you to be saved? Why did Jesus come to earthy anyway? Can you tell if someone is a new Christian?  Can your salvation save others?  And, Can you lose your faith?  In this blog, I’ll answer the first three questions.

Does God want you to be saved?

I would guess that most people may not know how to answer this question because they may not have heard, or been taught, what “saved” means.  Saved, or salvation, is not a difficult concept, so if I can understand it, you can too.

Being saved simply means that you have been “saved” from the penalty of your sins.  The penalty is spiritual death, or separation from God.  You cannot “save” yourself from your sins; only Christ can do this, for He is the only one qualified to do so.  In short, you are saved when you repent and place your faith in the One who can save you. So, now that you understand the basic idea of salvation, let’s answer the question at hand.

Does God, the creator of heaven and earth, want you – not your friends or relatives or neighbors – but you, to be saved?  According to 1 Timothy 3:4, the answer is “yes.”

• 1 Timothy 2:3-4 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,  4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  1 Timothy 1:15 “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…” (NAS)

The Bible is clear that it is God’s desire for all people to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of Him.  In addition, Paul adds that Jesus came into the world for that specific purpose – to save people who sin (which includes everyone).

“But I’m not good enough,” you may say. Or, “I’ve done too many bad things for God to save me.” That doesn’t matter.  Part of the Good News of the Bible is that God saves people without regard to which sins they’ve committed, or how many sins they’ve committed.

The apostle Paul, who wrote a good part of the New Testament, was a “blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor” (1 Timothy 1:13), yet God saved him.  If He saved Paul, or better yet, if He saved me, then He can save you too.

Why did Jesus come to earth anyway?

Those who believe that heaven is a reward for people who do more good things than bad things may want to stop and think through the implications of this view.

If there is a heaven for “good” people, then there must be a God, for only He could have created heaven.  If God created heaven, then it is reasonable to conclude that He created hell too, for if God truly exists, then the Bible must be true (for it claims to be His “word”) and the Bible clearly speaks of hell.  If there is a God who created both heaven and hell, then it is reasonable to conclude that the Bible’s story of Jesus must also be true, for Jesus was God’s one and only solution to save people from hell.  If all of these “if, then” statements are true, which should find this solution presented in the Bible, which we do:

• 1 Timothy 1:15   15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners– of whom I am the worst. (NIV)

• 1 Timothy 2:5-6  5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,  6 who gave himself as a ransom for all men– the testimony given in its proper time. (NIV)

These verses show that Jesus came to earth for a reason, and that reason was to save sinners.  Since this is true, we can learn two things from it.

• Salvation is related to our sinfulness.  While it’s correct that doing bad things may well be sinful, we need to understand that sin goes beyond doing what we consider to be bad.  Sin is both violating God’s laws (doing what is wrong), AND not doing what you know to be right.  It is not only impossible to not sin, the Bible says we inherited sinfulness; it’s in our nature, and we can’t change or correct this.  Blame it on Adam and Eve if you want (which, technically, we can do), but this won’t change anything.

• Sinning is something we all normally do, but that doesn’t make it acceptable; rather, being a sinner must be bad, or have bad consequences, for Jesus came to save people who sin.  Save them from what?  Eternal separation from God.  This means that when we die, we won’t go to heaven where God is, but instead go to hell, where He is not.  It also means that while on earth, God won’t be involved in our lives.

The good news from the second verse is that Jesus came to rescue us from our problem of sinfulness, for Christ, who was perfect, “gave himself as a ransom for all men.”

What does ransom mean?  According to one dictionary, ransom is the release of property or a person in return for payment of a demanded price.  Jesus is the One who releases from being a slave to sin and the death that results from this.  He did this by payment of a demanded price, which was His sinless life (His life, for ours). Jesus gave up His own sinless life to free us from a lifestyle of sinfulness and spiritual death, or eternal separation from God.

This payment does not take place automatically though.  To be redeemed, God requires a person to repent of their sinfulness and place their faith in (a better way to understand this is to surrender control of one’s life to) Jesus. When a person does this, they become redeemed and are thus saved.

Can you tell if someone is a new Christian?

Here’s another question with an answer that may surprise you.

As we learned in the book of Titus (see my prior blog entries on this book), it is possible to know whether another person is a Christian, since Paul requires an elder to know this (though he does not say how an elder can know it).  In 1 Timothy 3:6, Paul takes this issue one step further by showing us that you can tell whether another person is a new Christian (or in his words, a ” new convert”).

• 1 Timothy 3:4-6   4 He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity  5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?);  6 and not a new convert, lest he become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. 

Why do we need to know whether a person is a new Christian or a mature one?  A Christian leader who is immature spiritually (thus a new Christian) may be susceptible to becoming prideful, and thus fall into sin.  To reduce the risk of this taking place, Paul wants a Christian leader to have been a Christian for a while, and thus grown in his or her faith (which takes prayer and bible study).

CONCLUSION

It is God’s desire for all people to be saved.  All includes you.

All people sin; it’s in our nature.  The consequence of sin is separation from God, both while we live here on this earth, and when we die (thus, we would be sent to hell).  Sin is something we can’t remove on our own effort, for it is a spiritual thing that we inherited from Adam and Eve.

To save us from our sins, Jesus had to be a ransom for us. That is why He came to earth.

It is possible to know if another person is a Christian, and also if they are a new or spiritually immature one.

In my next blog entry, I’ll use 1 Timothy to answer these two questions: Can your salvation save others? And, Can you lose your faith?