Listen or read the following transcript as D. A. Carson speaks on the topic of Gospel from 1 Timothy 1:1–20
Let us pray.
Now the words of my mouth and the meditation of all of our hearts grant, Lord, that they may be pleasing in your sight. For Christ Jesus’ sake. Amen.
“You have taken on a plumber.” That’s the insight of a friend, Jim Packer, who somewhere says that every pastor theologian is essentially a kind of plumber. His responsibility is to make sure the nourishing water flows in for the good and the life of the entire community and all the rubbish and the excrement and all the garbage flows out.
We’d like to romanticize this business of Bible ministry, of course, and talk joyfully about the former and neglect the latter. Yet the fact remains that across every age of the church’s life, there have not only been opportunities and challenges in the domain of Bible teaching and evangelism and mission, there have also been silly developments and false teachings and people who lust to be number one and divisions over no good reason whatsoever.
In every generation, it has been like that. In the New Testament, in one of the earliest documents written, the epistle to the Galatians, we come across what is sometimes referred to today as the Galatian heresy. These people who had trusted Christ Jesus as their Savior, who recognized him to be the promised Messiah, somehow they thought they could pursue godliness and have a leg up in holiness somehow by a return to law obedience. That somehow got them on an inside track with God and gave them extra spiritual brownie points.
Sooner or later, what it was beginning to call in question was the exclusive sufficiency of what Christ had achieved on the cross. Sometimes it wasn’t anything sophisticated. It was, frankly, “me first-ism.” There is no sign that Diotrephes was a heretic, but the apostle John writes to the church where he throws his weight around and refers to him as “that man who loves to be first.”
Then there’s the kind of problem you face in 2 Corinthians, chapters 10 through 13, where, according to Paul, the leaders in the church are preaching another Jesus. He doesn’t give us a lot of details about what they were holding to, but by reading carefully through his argumentation, it seems as if they had a kind of Jesus of triumphalism, a Jesus who was really keen on people who were strong and who projected well and who spoke fluently about their experiences.
There was not much about the cross and brokenness and contrition and repentance and need, which is why Paul learns in that context to delight when he is weak, because he knows that’s when God’s power is made manifest in him. It’s not that there was some huge propositional error about Jesus. It was just that Christ’s genuine triumphant power had been made everything so that there wasn’t much place left for the cross.
Now here in the chapter before us, again we find the apostle Paul laying on Timothy the urgency, on the one hand, of refuting that which is false and, on the other, proclaiming and rejoicing in that which is good. Even the opening verses anticipate where the argument is going. In some ways, of course, these opening verses are merely typical of a first-century apostolic letter with a “from me to you” greeting.
But Paul always tweaks it a bit and puts in extra words to signal what is going on in his mind as he picks up the pen or as he dictates his letter. “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope …” In other words, he wants to be clear that what he is about to give is not merely the sage advice of a senior saint but the disclosure of an apostle under the command of God. We bow before this authority, or we are in rebellion.
The God who is our center is our Savior. Oh, that theme emerges very powerfully in these next verses, as we’ll see. Christ Jesus himself draws us on toward the hope we have at the end of the age. Now then, “To Timothy, my true son in the faith …” In the following verses, Paul develops his argument in two steps. First, the need for confrontation, and second, the sheer joy of gospel affirmation. Begin with the need for confrontation in verses 3 to 10. The argument develops in three steps.
First, the charge to oppose the false teachers. Verses 3 to 5: “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain persons not to teach false doctrines any longer, or to devote themselves to myths and to endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work, which is by faith. The goal of this command is love which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith.”
Apparently, when Paul was released from prison in Rome after the end of the book of Acts, he and Timothy and Titus at some point traveled east from Rome, including a stop in Crete. The church was built up there. Opposition developed, and Titus was left there to sort it out. Then Paul and Timothy stopped at Ephesus on the way to Macedonia and Greece. They found dangerous false teaching there arising from some leaders who were abandoning the faith.
Two of them are named at the end of this chapter: Hymenaeus and Alexander, who have obviously got a lot of influence in the local church. Timothy was left to sort things out while Paul himself went on to Greece, to Macedonia. Hence, verse 3: “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain persons not to teach false doctrines any longer …” and so forth.
Now what is the shape of this false teaching? Oh, it’s hard to be sure of all the details, and it probably doesn’t matter too much. Here, however, the focus seems to be on focusing on speculative bits and pieces around the edges, what he calls myths and endless genealogies, things that generate controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s truth.”
We sometimes see students like that at the seminary. You give them a passage to preach from, and instead of them preaching from the main thrust of the passage, they focus on one little preposition or some little expression they link through a whole lot of logical connections to something else. Pretty soon, they’re spinning a massive structure which you’re supposed to admire. But somehow Jesus gets lost. The passage gets lost.
It’s horrendous when it happens! Let me tell you, we’re quite united in beating that out of students. You don’t want it in Sunday school teachers, and you sure don’t want it in the pulpit, especially if the teacher or preacher is gifted. I don’t mind if some really ungifted person does that. Nobody believes them anyway! The most dangerous people are always the most gifted ones because they can convince an awful lot of us.
Pretty soon, a church is divided between the pro-this theory and the anti-this theory. People promote controversial speculation rather than advancing God’s work, which is by faith. When you work through these three letters (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus), the so-called Pastoral Epistles, the opponents, who may not be exactly the same in every case, nevertheless pick up a lot of condemnation from Paul.
They’re called godless in chapter 4, verse 7. They chatter in chapter 6, verse 20. They’re full of meaningless talk in chapter 1, verse 6. In 2 Timothy 2, they’re foolish and stupid. In Titus 3, they’re guilty of foolish controversies. In 1 Timothy 4, they propound old wives’ tales. The false teachers in 1 Timothy 4 are actually called hypocritical liars with a seared conscience. In 1 Timothy 6, we are told they understand nothing. In 1 Timothy 6 again, they have been rebellious against the truth.
Now this is not PC language. In truth, one has to remember the many passages that urge preachers and teachers to approach people gently and urge them in a better way, watch their own hearts and lives lest they should stumble as well, and yet when mutually contradictory things are being said, it is not a mark of broadmindedness. That says we all have competing insights, don’t we? It all depends on your point of view.
At some point, when what is being taught is flat-out in contradiction to what is taught by God himself, you start having to speak of error. In our tolerant age, that’s not very common, and it gets worse! I’ve been teaching now for a long time at Trinity. If I’ve learned anything after three or four decades of teaching, it’s that students don’t learn everything I teach them. They just don’t. What they learn is what I’m excited about. They learn the things I emphasize.
So if somewhere along the line I start assuming the gospel but I focus on the intricacies of genealogies, if somewhere along the line I start assuming the gospel but I make a huge amount of my precise grasp of how law works, I can split the whole community and I generate a new line of teachers and preachers who are most excited about genealogies and law.
Whether from the pulpit or in whatever phase of ministry in this church, you have to center on what is central. You have to focus on the gospel, or you are never more than about a half generation away from losing it. Right away, then, Paul, in articulating his need to confront what is going on, charges Timothy with the responsibility to oppose the false teachers. Then he gives a further description of these false teachers in verses 6 and 7.
He says they have departed from the central things (this pure heart, good conscience, sincere faith), and they have turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. Never be too impressed by those who are passionately desirous of teaching the Word of God.
James elsewhere says you shouldn’t be too many, knowing that you’ll receive the harsher judgment. It’s one thing to want to promote the gospel of God, to teach it and preach it. It’s another thing to want to be a teacher and preacher of the gospel of God, because then there’s a huge amount of self that’s involved in the whole business. If it’s combined with self-evident ignorance, the damage is huge.
Then we are told in verses 8 to 10 a little more of the content of this particular false teaching. Verse 7. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do know what they are talking about. Then verse 8. “We know that the law is good, if one uses it properly. We also know the law is made not for the righteous but for law breakers and rebels.”
Now that’s interesting. Very commonly in the history of the church, when the church seems to be sliding into some sort of moral confusion or when it is part of a broader cultural slide and standards far from rising up are heading down, our instinctive reaction is to respond with law, rules, “Don’t do it.”
God knows there’s a lot of law in the Bible, and it’s certainly true to say that both the Old Testament and the New Testament can lay down some pretty strong lines. “This is a line you are not supposed to cross. Morally, you are not supposed to cross it!” Yet law never has had the power to transform. It never has! It never will!
The Old Testament does not begin with a whole lot of law. First of all, God creates the law. Then he creates people to obey the law. No, that’s not the way it works. In the first instance, there are people, and before there is a fall, there is a natural reverence of the living God, the Creator of all! The first disobedience, the most profound rebellion, is not first and foremost ticking off all the points of the Ten Commandments I’ve broken. Rather, it’s idolatry. It’s the de-godding of God.
The Serpent comes to the woman and says, “God knows if you eat of this, you will be like God himself, creating your own good and evil.” It is a long time before God gives a detailed law covenant, which has the effect of multiplying the offense, of showing just how bad our hearts are. But as Paul here rightly says, the law was not given in the first instance for good people nor was it given to transform.
Rather the law was given, we’re told, and it’s a good law for lawbreakers and rebels. That’s where it was given. That’s to whom it was given. But what transforms? It’s the gospel. Somehow a church can make a mistake in this regard too. If the heart of its self-identity is merely the set of rules it obeys, happy to exclude others who don’t follow the same rules, don’t misunderstand me …
I insist again there are lines you must not cross in Scripture. There are laws you must not break, and yet those laws are not the point of the Christian self-identity. They are not that which transforms. They never have been. They never will be. No, over against this, Paul gives us the affirmation of the gospel. Do you see what he goes on to say?
He gives the content of the authorized teaching. He is opposed to that which is contrary to the sound doctrine (end of verse 10) that conforms to the (now our translations vary) blessed gospel of the glorious God or the glorious gospel of our blessed God. The ESV has “the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.” The TNIV has “the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God.”
That’s right. That is to say the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel, the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. All it is broken from that is dangerous. This gospel which he entrusted to me is sound. The word means health producing. It is what produces spiritual health and growth and vitality in the local church. It is the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.
Sometimes as an exercise, I give second-year students the responsibility to outline first in a word, then in a phrase, then in a sentence, then in a paragraph what the gospel is. “Give me a word for the gospel. Give me a phrase. Give me a sentence. Give me a paragraph. What is this gospel, this gospel of the glory of the blessed God?”
I have to tell you sometimes I read some bizarre things. People seem to have a lot of difficulty distinguishing between the gospel and the effects of the gospel. They may say, “Well, the gospel is a life transformed by the power of God so we receive the forgiveness of our sins and eternal life.” That’s not the gospel. That’s the effect of the gospel.
No, no, no. The gospel is the good news of what God has done in Christ Jesus. I suspect the word glory here is actually referring to him. It’s the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, and not infrequently in the New Testament, Jesus is portrayed as the one who displays God’s glory superlatively. Indeed, when Stephen is about to die surrounded by those who are stoning him, he says, “I see God. I see the glory of God, even Jesus.” That’s how it should be rendered (not and Jesus.) “I’ve seen the glory of God, even Jesus at the right hand of the Majesty.”
For God is the gospel. God is the gospel as he manifests himself in Christ who comes to pay the penalty of broken sinners, dying their death, smashing Satan’s stronghold, pouring out his Spirit upon us. This is the good news that needs to be proclaimed. It is bound up with the cross and the resurrection where the glory of God is superlatively displayed. Anything that does not conform to that does not conform to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.
Within that framework, Paul can outline the description of an authorized teacher of this glorious gospel by talking about himself (verses 12 to 17). What characterizes Paul as a teacher of this gospel? Well, verse 12. Self-conscious dependence on Christ. “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has given me strength that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.”
Now when he says, “I acted in ignorance and unbelief,” he does not write those words in order to excuse himself. It means he did not at that time see that the gospel was true and then reject it, but it was still blind unbelief. He did not even see it was true he was that blind, and yet he changed, not because he had a superior IQ or preferential rabbinic training but rather because he was shown mercy.
He is aware that as a minister of the gospel, he is dependent on the grace of that gospel. Moreover, he testifies to the fact that he himself was transformed by it. Verse 13. “The grace of our God was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” He had been characterized by blasphemy, persecution, and violence. Now he is characterized by the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Never trust a good teacher who is not transformed by the gospel he is preaching.
Then he has learned also by his own life to exemplify the gospel of Christ (verses 15 and 16). He generalizes. “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 immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.”
You know, Paul does not here say, “I think quite frankly God chose me because he recognized I have really, really good exegetical background. Once I became an apologist for the church, it would transform things because, you know, I don’t want to boast, but I’ve memorized the whole Old Testament in Hebrew. Once my eyes were opened to how this whole thing works, I really could become a rather superior teacher in the church of God. I’m sure that’s why God chose me.”
Nope. “God chose me,” he said, “at least in part because I was such a violent, persecuting man, and my conversion showed that God can save anybody.” Isn’t that good news? Into all of this there erupts from Paul’s lips the fourth element: spontaneous adoration. Do you see how he ends? “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.”
Read through the letters of Paul, and mark with a red pen every place where right in the middle of one of his arguments, Paul bursts out in doxology. It’s stunning! It happens often. He is talking about money somehow, then he is talking about eternal things, and then suddenly he is praising the eternal God. He is talking about the cross, and then suddenly he says, “It’s the cross of Jesus, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
There is a kind of orthodoxy that is faithful but that is not characterized by spontaneous, contrite, irrepressible praise. That’s not Paul. If this gospel is God-centered, it’s not God-centered merely at a theoretical level. It’s God-centered in such a way that it calls forth our adoration of him who alone is eternal. God is the gospel. This is the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.
Then Paul ends with this charge to be an authorized teacher. Verses 18 to 20: “Timothy, my son, I am giving you this command in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by recalling them, you may fight the battle well, holding onto faith and a good conscience.” He has mentioned that earlier, of course. Earlier on he has talked about those who have rejected the importance of a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith (verse 5). Now he lays it on them again.
Let me reflect with you for a moment on this good conscience. What is a good conscience? Well, in the New Testament, there are two elements to it. It’s not only having a clear conscience. That is, not being self-consciously aware of areas in my life where I am self-consciously putting myself over against God. It means that where I’m aware of sin, I go back to him and confess it before the Lord and claim once more the blood of Christ Jesus, which covers us and purifies us from all sin.
Yes, it is that, but it is more than that. Paul has a fascinating discussion in 1 Corinthians 8 where he distinguishes between those who are weak and those who are strong in conscience. The weak in conscience are those who have a whole lot of rules the Bible doesn’t really teach. In other words, they don’t know their Bibles very well, but they protect themselves by adding a whole lot of little rules in. Then they try to match their conduct to those rules.
Paul says, “Well, yes, as long as you think those things really are the Word of God, it is important for you to be careful not to violate your conscience. It is important to act in line with your conscience. If you start working against your conscience, your conscience becomes hard. Eventually, you start defying God Almighty in a principle sort of way. So don’t run against your conscience.”
But he still says those people have a weak conscience, an ill-trained conscience, an ignorant conscience. Those who have a strong conscience are those whose sense of right and wrong, whose inner moral compass, is lined up as closely as can be imagined with the Word of God itself. Then not wanting to violate your conscience becomes equivalent increasingly to not violating God’s most Holy Word. Then you have a strong conscience.
Now all the rest of these epistles (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus) can be read in the light of these exhortations where Paul not only encourages Timothy to fight this good fight, yes; to refute the others, yes; to affirm the gospel, yes, but to do it with the right sort of tone, beseeching people with gentleness and winsomeness and perseveringly and all the rest because he wants them (Timothy and Titus) to serve with faith and a good conscience. The alternative is the kind of shipwreck Hymenaeus and Alexander have tumbled into.
Now brothers and sisters in Christ, I’m sure there are some of you here who are saying, “Well, this is a nice sermon for a Sunday morning, but for an installation of a pastor?” I mean, why didn’t I give the church a charge of all the things you really ought to do and the things you really must not do and then turn to Josh Moody, a friend of longstanding from days in Cambridge, and say to him, “Dr. Moody, I solemnly charge you with the following 15 things”?
I have to confess to you, I have sometimes spoken like that at pastoral installations, because the Bible does lay quite a lot of things on local churches and on pastors. But underlying all of them, more important than any one of them, is guard the gospel. Love it. You, the believers in this place; you, the senior pastor, cherish the gospel. Make much of the cross.
I guarantee that in the months and years ahead, there will be times of tension between the elders and the congregation, maybe between the senior pastor and the elders, between elders and deacons, between elders and elders, between one section of the church that wants it to be more conservative culturally and another section that wants it to be less conservative culturally. On and on and on.
For some of you, that will become your identifying rallying point. May God have mercy on your soul. Make much of the gospel. Don’t slink and slide into peripheral matters as if they’re the life and death things. Eschew self-promotion. Watch out for merely polarizing debates. Be passionate about promoting the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. Let us pray.
We confess, Sovereign God, how our vision is so frequently clipped and trimmed by the urgencies of a passing hour. Return us again and again to your most Holy Word and to him who is the Word incarnate, the very glory of God, to his cross and resurrection, to the anticipation of his return.
Grant that in the mind and heart of Pastor Moody and of the other staff and of the elders and of brothers and sisters in Christ throughout this congregation, the good news, the gospel of the glory of the blessed God might be their lodestar again and again in decisions and priorities and budgets and relationships, in their homes, with their spouses, with their children, with outsiders, in the counseling room, in deliberations that are complex and difficult.
Grant that there may be a constant query raised by the entire congregation, “What is God-honoring? What brings glory to God? What strengthens the gospel, this gospel of the glory of our blessed God?” For Jesus’ sake, amen.
