Words of Grace – August 21, 2014

The apostle Paul, in his first epistle written to Timothy, is looking back to his former life. Before the Lord Jesus had put him into the ministry, he had been a blasphemer of Christ and a persecutor of the church.

“But I obtained mercy,” he writes, “because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (1:13). What if Paul had not “obtained mercy” from the Lord? Where would he have been if it had not been for the mercy of the Lord?

Paul was not only a sinner but, according to his estimation, the “chief” of sinners. He writes this faithful saying that is worth being accepted:

“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (v.15).

But the foremost sinner “obtained mercy” (v.16). Paul explains that it was “for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern.”

In other words, the Lord planned to use Paul as a public example. If the Lord could save someone like Paul, then he could save anyone.

“I obtained mercy.” Paul says these same words twice in this passage of scripture. How can we obtain this mercy?

“Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).