For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day (2 Timothy 1:12)
The Apostle Paul is in prison and Timothy is afraid for him, and he had good reason to be. Scholars agree that this was the apostle’s last letter that he wrote before he was executed. But Paul is writing to comfort his son in the faith. In verse 8 he tells Timothy not to be ashamed of the gospel or of him being a prisoner, and in verse 11 that the reason he is in prison is because he has been preaching the gospel.
Then in verse 12 he packs a whole lot of truth about what it means to be a Christian into one sentence. The first thing he tells him after reminding him that it is for preaching the gospel that he is suffering these things. Is that he is not ashamed. Repeating an earlier statement from Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe: first to the Jew then to the Gentile.” Paul says that even though I am in prison, even if I don’t make it out. Even if I have suffered through many trials and tribulations, because of the gospel, I am not ashamed of it. In Philippians 3:8 Paul says and I’m paraphrasing I count all things as loss, compared to knowing Christ.
Why does he say this? Why does he continue on by saying I’m not ashamed to be in these prisons, in these chains. Because I know the one in whom I’ve believed. Here we come to the crux of the sentence, why Paul is able to say the things he has said in this letter to Timothy. He knows the one in whom he has believed. Who is the one in whom he has believed? It is the Christ, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Risen Savior, Jesus. But to really understand why Paul says he is not ashamed because of the one in whom he has believed. You have to understand how Paul understands Jesus’s role as Savior and Messiah. We remember that Paul was not always called Paul, but was born Saul. Saul was a Pharisee, born of the tribe of Benjamin, someone who had lived his whole life, in observance to the law. At one point he says I was the Pharisee of all Pharisee’s. He thought he understood what the Messiah’s role would be until Jesus came and did everything differently than what he expected. Here was one who came, and proclaimed himself the Son of God, and yet he died. He did not overthrow the Romans, usher in a new and mighty age for Israel. Instead Jesus came and went to the cross, and died a horrible, painful violent death. For Saul the Pharisee, this could not be the Messiah. Then when the apostles began preaching that this same Jesus was resurrected, that he was the Savior of all mankind, the Messiah the Jews has been longing for. He could not accept it, he began to persecute the new faith. He had some put in prison, some executed. That is until he was overcome by a light on the way to Damascus. Once Jesus made a personal introduction to him, his whole life changed.
Once Saul understood Jesus’s role in the plan of salvation, once he understood the grace that God has shown him. He could not stop preaching about it, no matter what happened to him, he could not stop preaching the gospel. The idea that the Messiah prophesied in scriptures, born in Bethlehem, that the Savior who fulfilled all scripture. That this same Jesus who he himself had persecuted those followed. Would die for him? That the Son of God had loved him and gave himself for him. (Galatians 2:20). All of his life became an exercise in knowing this Jesus, proclaiming this Jesus, no matter the cost.
But Paul continues on, not only is he not ashamed because he knows the one in whom he has believed. But he also believes that Jesus is able to keep what he has committed to him until that day. What has he committed to Jesus? His everlasting and eternal soul, the one thing that will endure for all eternity. How can he be sure that Jesus is faithful and can be trusted with this most precious of gifts? Because he looks at the life of the Son of God and sees how he was faithful to his Father’s will.
One of the most polarizing questions since the death of Jesus is who was responsible for his crucifixion. For a long time the Jewish people were persecuted by the Catholic and Protestant churches for being responsible for his death. But the Bible paints a different story, “Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; “(Acts 2:23). In verse 9 of this chapter Paul tells Timothy that this has been the plan since before time began. So then the question of who put Christ on the Cross, is that the Father and Son put him there. The reason that Christ has to go to the cross is that God is holy, and no sin can be in his presence. He has also promised in his word to punish sin and pour out his wrath upon it. But God has also created us to dwell in fellowship with him through all eternity. We cannot keep his law, for all have sinned. We are all sinners. Therefore, we cannot enter into his holy presence, and are under his wrath and judgment. So long as we remain in our sin. God is also bound by his word in that without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sin. (Leviticus 17:11, Hebrews 9:22).
Therefore we need a sacrifice that can bear the punishment of sin, and absorb the wrath that God had promised to pour out on sin. Jesus being the only one ever born who did not sin, could therefore be the sacrifice. Jesus knew the wrath that was about to be poured on him as he prayed in Gethsemane, that is why he asked the Father to take the cup from him. But he knew that if he did not take the cup, that all of us would be doomed forever. Therefore, it was in obedience to his Father’s will, no matter the cost, that put Jesus on the cross. Paul looks at the sacrifice of Jesus, understanding the Old Testament scriptures, the promises God had made about how he was going to punish sin. That is what makes Hell so painful, it is a place made for God to pour out his wrath on the Devil and his angels. It is not a place designed for humanity to dwell. God through Christ already poured out his wrath for our sin. That is why it grieves the Father so much when we reject his offer of forgiveness and grace. Because he knows those that reject him are going to suffer a fate they were never meant to experience.
Paul says he is not ashamed, because he knows him on whom he’s believed, and he is persuaded that he is able to keep what he has committed to him until that day. What is that day? It is the day that all things are put the way they were meant to be. It is the day that those who have believed in the Son will enter into the Kingdom created for them. It is the day that all of the faithful look forward to with anxious expectation. Because we will be with the one who loved us and gave himself for us.
Can you say as Paul did, that I am not ashamed? Can you say as Paul did, that I know the one in whom I’ve believed. Are you persuaded as he was that he is able to keep what you have committed to him, until that day? If this is not your testimony, then you need to a Savior.
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