First Timothy Lesson 10 Continued

All right. We are still in less than 10. First Timothy. We're in verses 4, 5, and 6. But again, just for context, I always like to read so we get refocused on this. So I'll read 1 Timothy 2, 1 through 7 again. I think it's good to put it back, because we dice it up into little sections and words and things. So I always like to try and put it back in perspective. So 1 Timothy 2, verses 1 through 6.

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that they may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator, also between God and man. the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.

So I think we were down to question eight. Down there, question eight. So this is the one, the words, who gave himself, tells us what about the cross. So this is in verse six, who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.

We talked about, was this a forced sacrifice? No. He willingly gave himself up for us. And we talked about whether, in Mike's notes, from one of the commentators, this was a spontaneous and voluntary sacrifice on his part. Again, I don't think it's spontaneous. I think this is the eternal covenant he knew, and this was going to transpire. He willingly knew, even before there was any of us created, he was going to go to the cross for us and pay for our sins. So I don't think it was spontaneous. It was voluntary. He voluntarily did it, but it was not spontaneous.

Another one where the definition of gave, he gave himself. So, Zodiac, Zodiac has definition of gave, is didomine, to give oneself, deliver oneself, meaning to concentrate, consecrate, or devote oneself, followed by hupere, on behalf of, for, in Galatians 1.4, to give or devote oneself to death for anyone.

See Titus 2.14.

In 1 Timothy 2.6, gave himself a ransom for all. So again, this is to give oneself, to deliver oneself. and this was in the verse, who gave himself as a ransom.

So, Alfred is probably, this is a comment from one of the commentators, Alfred is probably right in saying that to give himself, as Paul expresses it, suggests more than to give his soul. The latter might naturally be limited to the sacrifice of his death. The former connotes the sacrifice of his lifetime, the whole of the humiliation and self-emptying of the incarnation. So you see that he gave himself, which is not just as a person dying for somebody. You know, I think there's what the verse that somebody may even die for somebody.

This is more than just a death of a person. It is a person, a human, Christ Jesus. But this was more encompassing. This was taking all of our sins upon him and then sacrificing himself. So it's a little different than just a sacrifice of a person. There are crucifixions in the Roman Empire. This was a man, Christ Jesus, but it was more than just a man. It was fully God, fully man. Remember, we went through that. He's fully God, fully man. And then he also took all of the sins upon himself. So he gave himself. And God was satisfied. We find that. And how do we know he's satisfied? I always think that. We say that.

The resurrection. If he didn't, you wouldn't have resurrected him. The payment was in full. We know that because God accepted him and raised him. And so I always think of that. He accepted him. Well, how do we know that? Well, he raised him from the grave. The other which I always think is one of those things where we get around Easter, the stoners are all the way. Why do you do that?

People could see he was gone. So we see he was gone. He could have done it a thousand different ways. He opened it up. The payment was accepted. So all of that, how do we know it was accepted? He rose him up and we saw he was gone. He who spoke the world into beings, all he had to do was run away, whatever. Well, I also think he could have just gone through the rock. He could have gone through a tomb. He opened it up for us.

And that was significant. If you know, I think some of the stuff, I remember I think of the Josh McDowell, evidence of the man's verdict. It goes into how big this stone was. And then also, I think Verne got into it too. There were like six guards, the Praetorian or whatever, not Praetorian, but the elite guards that can defend a five foot by five foot square area against anybody. They were at the tomb. So it wasn't like a whole group of people ran up, overtook these six guards or whatever it was, and rolled this massive stone away. It was a demonstration by God. Sorry, rabbit trail.

One of the things I think points out here is the eternal counsels of God, that God had decided not because just as foreknowledge, but he knew what was, when he created man, what was gonna happen. And so there was an agreement by all three persons of the Godhead to solve the sin issue. And the sin issue, we think it's about us, it's not. It's about the Godhead. And so when the Lord Jesus gave himself That was his role, and he had agreed to do that long before Adam was ever created. What it points out, I think, is the fact that the basic core of who God is, He loves us, and He's sacrificial.

He'll do anything, not only to He had a problem with the offense of sin, which he had to take care of, and he did. But the fact that he, once he was satisfied, he said, okay, if you'll just believe me, I will save you. I will save anybody who believes me, that I took care of this sin problem. And it's, you know, one of the things we're going to talk about later is why did the Jews miss it? Because they didn't do it by faith. They didn't trust God. Well, and it's misconsuming what he had said about Messiah, that the Messiah was coming.

They wanted the one to get out of the Romans and get, you know, they wanted a political leader. Yeah. And that was, I think, their mistake. You know, it's like when you go back to them, why did they, we want a king. We want a king. Okay, we'll give him to you. Boy, that worked out well. And then, you know, we want a Messiah. This is the way we want it. And so, I mean, they had a lot of problems.

The other, which I think is in the gave part, we can go back to that, the eternal covenant. So can you think of us coming up with a plan like this? Number one, when I think of this, it's kind of rabbit trail again. When I think of it, creation. So God's there and he goes, OK, I'm going to create humans. Great idea.

Well, they're going to fail. So he created something that was going to fail, miserably. And then, well, how do I solve that if I do this? Well, Christ, I'll sacrifice myself. And it was voluntary. He gave himself. It wasn't a requirement. He gave himself. God could have let us die and be done with. But Christ stepped up and said, I'll pay for it. Think about that as the definition of love. Here's God the Father and God the Son talking about it. I'm going to create this race. They're going to turn their back on me, sin, and we've got to take care of this problem. If I'm at that point, scrap that plan. Let's start again. But he didn't. He didn't. He said no. And the Son stepped up and said, I'll pay for it.

So I mean, it's mind boggling. God, you know, who's all powerful, all knowledgeable, is able to go, OK, that's a great plan. I think it's hard. Go ahead. It's hard to comprehend God's thoughts because obviously He doesn't think sequentially the way we do. I mean, He's omniscient. His thoughts are, you know, He didn't have to go through a reasoning process to get there.

But I think it is interesting that right from right from the beginning before creation, he had in mind the cross. That was, you know, that is the focal point of his entire plan and purpose here. And why is that? Because that is how, more and more, I think that that is the preeminent way through which the depth of the love and grace of God is shown, is in the cross. You know, I think he knew Of course he knew full well from the beginning that if he created mankind, we would be a bunch of rebellious sinners. And so he knew that he could express his love towards a bunch of rebels who hate him through the cross.

Yeah, it's remarkable. And I think you hit it. It's to show his love. I think that's one of the principal purposes. Because I think the thing is, if you don't have that, you can see God's love, but what's the greatest demonstration of his love is what he did.

And the stepping into it is that What happens when, okay, Christ comes, dies, and then he offers graciously salvation to us? Then we all, who are believers, we're now in eternity with him. That was the goal. So we ultimately could glorify him and have a people for him that would glorify him throughout all eternity. That was the goal. I was thinking, why did he go through the first half of that, where he created a sinful man? Why didn't he just have to plan two, which is create one? But it showed his love, and that's where I think it's the key. It's to show his love.

We would eternally know his love by what he did for us. That's the reason. That's the ultimate bottom line of all of this. Yeah, Donna. I was thinking back to Hal talking about God's glory that he desires to share his glory. Yep, and to be glorified and both of those happened at the cross Yeah, and and what and then he allowed us to go or share in his glory and will ultimately glorify him throughout all of eternity Yeah, now that God's satisfied Because he's satisfied we come to know the father through the son and Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's the his joy, his piece, you know, but like I said, it's like a weird thing. But I think, you know, why didn't he start this way? Why didn't just create us to be eternal? Never have the same nature.

But I think it's the ultimately is because and you know, it's to show his love at the cross that that was a great issue of that he could do for us was to give us his son or his son to give himself up for us. That's the ultimate. As we know, for all of eternity, that's how we have eternal life, is through Christ, that ultimate sacrifice. I think in answer to what you were just saying, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit all have free wills.

And they willingly do what they're going to do in harmony with each other. So if God is going to create a being like himself, he gives them a free will, which means that they have to choose. They have to choose. And then if they want to be in harmony with the way God is, they have to choose. So Adam doesn't choose. And so he creates a whole race of people that, rather than choosing, are against God.

The initial purpose was to create man after our own image and likeness was spoiled until the man, Christ, shows up. He freely does the will of the Father about the cross, and then he offers the value of his sacrifice to man again, if they will do what? Exercise their will to believe him. And once you do that, as a believer, then you line up perfectly with the way God's will operates, and so you become an inheritor of God's glory.

The only thing about that, just a step right before that, is he knew that before he created it. He did. God knew that. Why didn't he scrap the whole plan right off the bat? I think it has to do with the fact that God is so big that he can give man free will. A lesser God wouldn't do that. Oh, I understand. But it's kind of like, yeah, he gave us free will because he doesn't want us robots. He wants us to love us. Really? Really?

Yeah, I understand that. But it's like, you know, okay, we did that. Look at these guys. Day one, Adam. Right. Right. No, I think I want to. Miles, go ahead. What quick thought, I was going to say, I think it's because God desires to show His love to those who are hostile against Him. He actually wants to love people who hate Him. And that's what I'm going back to. It's to show His love.

We eternally unknow. The reason why we have an eternal life that we can share with Him is because of what Christ did. And we'll eternally know that. That it wasn't just that he forced us to do it. That he gave us his son and we, by our free will, come to know him and have that salvation. But it's the love that we'll know for all of eternity. When we step into eternity, we'll know why. Because it's Christ. Yeah, JD. I agree. I think there's a lot of words that we're using, glory, love, will.

You know, I just followed the reference from 1 Timothy there and ended up in Galatians 1.4, and I've just been simmering on Galatians 1.4 for the last few minutes.

It's interesting here that, you know, Galatians 1.4 says, "...who gave Himself for our sins, so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of God our Father." And then verse 5, "...to whom be the glory." To Donna's point, forevermore. Amen.

So I'm thinking about this, and the first will was what brought the evil age. It was Satan himself. And God set upon himself to rescue men from the decision that an angelic being made to bring in the present evil age. And I thought it was really cool, because the word we're talking about is gave himself for our sins in 1 Timothy there.

But there's a so that, and I think the so that is really super interesting here. It was a rescue mission. You are, your will to choose to believe as a Christian is a rescue mission. It is made available because He chose to rescue us from a decision that was outside of our realm, that we were placed in.

And yes, we were willing to obviously participate in that. We have the flesh. We know that. We know that Adam, as our federal head, made that decision on our behalf, and we would have done the same thing. But there's a rescue mission, and it's according to his will that he did that. And it was, just to Mike's point, according to the will of our God and Father.

So all three of the persons of the Trinity were involved in a rescue mission that is personal to you. to you, individually. And it was, as a result, to rescue you from the present evil age, which is very much the case. We can look at every single news bite right now, we know the present evil age, it's just as evil as it has been. But God's will is a rescue mission.

And I think that that was really neat to kind of think about, because that's why He gave Himself. Not just, I mean, yes, love. Yes, the desire was to love us unconditionally in a way that He, you know, because He created us. But to rescue us, You know, we can't write that into our own story. That has to be something that only God can do, right? And it's amazing.

Well, that ties into actually the next question, the next word, ransom. And, you know, kind of the rabbit trail, we're off trying to figure out God's mind. Yeah, we're a little weak in that area, trying to figure that out. But, you know, again, I think all of these thoughts, you know, it's mind-blowing to come to the point where God gave himself, and now we see as a ransom. And that's where I think that you said the rescue mission.

It's really the ransom is the key word here. tying in what you said, J.D. It's a rescue mission, but it was said, buy us out, to get us paid, pay the price for us being in jail, basically, but an eternal place where we'd be eternally away from him. He paid the ransom to get us out of that condition. So, in verse six, in question nine, what is a ransom? Who gave a ransom for all?

The testimony given at the proper time. Any definitions before I go to my favorite definitions? I'm going to be known. Merriam-Webster should give me a stipend or something. A thought for a ransom? Just your own words before I get to the ultimate source, Merriam-Webster. Nobody knows what a ransom is, huh? We're just afraid of what Merriam-Webster is. Pay the price to get them free.

I mean, it's what it is. Yes. So Miriam writes that ransom is a noun, a consideration paid or demanded for the release of someone or something from captivity. So that's pretty good. Then the other, the act of ransoming. using the word in the definition, can't do that.

So the verb part, and this was interesting in Merriam-Webster, I'm kind of amazed sometimes. I wonder if this is just because it's old and when they actually believe more in God and that. To deliver especially from sin or its penalty. That's in the Merriam-Webster.

To free from captivity or punishment by paying a price. I think those are all in It is what the biblical meaning of ransom, to deliver especially from its sin or its penalty, to free from captivity or punishment by paying a price. Mike had this in his notes, the word ransom is anti-lutron, made up of anti and lutron. The latter was the common word used for ransom of a slave or prisoner, and anti was a preposition signifying substitution. The quote from Moulton and Milligan in Vocabulary of the Greek Testament is saying, by far the commonest meaning of anti is the simple instead of. The anti-Lutron is the payment given instead of the slave or prisoner, that is, in substitution for a slave or prisoner. The person holding the slave or prisoner is satisfied with the payment as a substitute for the slave he owns or the prisoner he holds. Yeah. I almost inserted another question there. I've got several more.

Who decided Who decided that a ransom needed to be paid? What was it that if I sinned, I'm gonna need to be ransomed? Who made up that scenario? And I think my own answer is it's God's righteousness. His righteousness not only will save us, but it'll condemn us too, and there's no leeway there. His wrath has to be satisfied, I think, right? His righteous wrath against sin has to be satisfied, because there's a misinterpretation of this that Satan was getting paid off. I mean, that's a big error. That's a big error. But I mean, we tend to think of, well, the person demanding ransom is the, you know, is the captor sort of thing, you know, and that's, in a sense, we are enslaved to Satan before salvation, but that's not the idea here. Right. You know, I think getting back almost, I don't know if answering your question, Ransom, how did you set this up? I think this was, think about this.

What was it before Christ? What did the Jews do? What did the Jews do for the sins? And the sacrifice. God set this system up from day one, you know, with Cain and Abel. And you had to pay, you know, it was for your sins. There was a payment. This was the process that they established. Well, so I think this is in keeping with this process of payment for sins. This is all through the Old Testament. This again, kind of Galatians 3, the law pointed to Christ and when Christ was fulfilled. So I think the process was set up from day one.

The word anti-lutron there that you're talking about, I don't know how the, you know, the Septuagint translated the word redemption in the Old Testament, but that's a common word, is that you could, in the place of something that was, you know, in place of a blood sacrifice, you could redeem that sacrifice, purchase it back by a price, and I assume this is a similar Actually, Zodiaty has the definition, a ransom, a price of redemption.

Exactly. An inheritance. We get an inheritance. But the ransom part is the payment. That's the payment part. There had to be. So from this verse... Sorry, my other question. So he gave himself as ransom for all the testimony given at the proper time. From this verse, what does it imply about us?

As believers or just men? Men. We're debtors. Were we a free people? No, absolutely not. That's the point. We weren't a free people. Prior to, you know, from the minute we're born, we're not a free people. Prior to salvation through Christ, we were prisoners or slaves to our sinful nature. Yeah. We were slaves day, minute, second one, when we were created. We were prisoners. We were slaves to our sinful nature.

So, are we as believers still slaves to sin? As believers, are we slaves to sin? No. Well, if you're ransomed from something, if there's been a debt that's been paid, there's two questions that come to a believer. What are you free from? And what are you free to?

And he did it for that reason. So we're going to get there. But he didn't just pay a debt just to settle a debt. He did it for something and to something. And those will be interesting questions to answer as well. Well, yeah, I'll get there. So we're not slaves to sin because we've been paid. We've been ransomed out of the slavery to sin. So the bigger question is, are we still slaves? Yes, we are. Even the wheel involved there? Now, well, in salvation it is, the free will. The only thing we have a will for is to decide who Christ is and what he did for us. But are we still slaves? Because we're bought out of slavery.

No. From one to another which is willing and the other was not. The other was That was willing as well, actually. But no, we were bond servants to an entirely different regime. See, I thought we were brought out of slavery, so we're not slaves anymore. Well, no, we're not.

Romans 6.22, having been freed from sin and enslaved to God. A little earlier than that, Romans 6, 17 through 19.

But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed. And having been freed from sin, the ransom paid, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. So I just want to make a point where, you know, we got the ransom.

We're free slaves. Now, we're free. We can go anywhere. We can do anything. Now, and JD, that's what when you said that it's from something to something. We're still slaves, but we're now slaves of righteousness. And I like the end part, resulting in sanctification. Boy, what a difference in slavery. And what a comfort it is to have a gracious master, right? Oh, yeah.

We are creatures. We can't control the universe. We can't deal with this present evil age as much as we vote and much as what we do and how we behave. We can't control this present evil age. So to be saved to serving a master like the Lord Jesus and triune God, that is far more comforting than having just been set free from something. Well, that's what we're bringing up. You're slaves of sin. What was the end result of that one? Not good. Now we're slaves of righteousness. What better position can we be in? No better. No better. Slaves of righteousness resulting in sanctification. Setting apart. He's setting us apart for himself.

You know, and all the kind of the rabbit trail we did to glorify himself, to, you know, be a possession for him for all eternity. So. When the idea of the two masters is introduced right at the end of Romans five, sin reigns to death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life. Those are the two, the two masters that can be served. And then he describes how we're dead to the one and alive to the other. Yep. Is that that yoke? Yeah.

Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart. That's really good. That's the master you want to be under. I think if you wake up in the morning and you're like, I've got to get out there and serve God. that that's not the nature of His being the master, it is a light yoke. He takes it.

My grace is sufficient for you. In your weakness, there is my strength. It's a totally different kind of service. I think a lot of believers don't understand that. They think it's about law. I've got to get out there and serve the Lord. I've got to do the thing. Get it done. quick, constant, and make sure everybody sees it. If you're doing that, it's a whole wrong motive there. But it's very real.

I mean, we've probably all been in circumstances like that. Well, I think it's also when you're a new believer, that's what you do. I think as you grow in the grace and knowledge of him, I think you're more apt to be... It's like, I think even The Hungry Heart this morning, and I'm starting to remember yesterday, it's about, you know, it's about kind of the relationship. It's the intimacy with him. That is what's the key. It's not trying to create the works and the fruits and all that. It's intimacy. That's what he wants, is an intimate relationship with you.

That the object of your heart is Christ. And if that's true, then the manifestation of him will come through, and that's for all service, work, and everything else will be out of a motive of loving him. So I think it's maybe today's or yesterday's. The object of our heart is Christ. Nothing can make up for a lack of personal acquaintance with the Lord Jesus. Intimacy with himself is certainly the secret of true devotedness. Yeah.

So I think that's doing lots of works and things. He doesn't want that. He wants us in relationship to him. One of Tim's friends gave him this book. It's a little older now. It's called Do Hard Things. Anyone familiar with that title? It was written by a couple of teenage Christians, and it's all about how we've got to do hard things for God.

I told him, we'll go ahead and read it, and we'll discuss it. I asked him this morning. He's almost done it now. I said, so did they talk anywhere in there at all about our being identified as Christ or crucified as Christ? He said, no. He said, they didn't even talk about the gospel. He said, there's an appendix one is a kind of a footnote on what the gospel is. And I said, well, have you gotten there yet? He said, no. I said, well, let me know when you get there. We'll see if they can have that straight. But you know, it's like, it's part of their home schooling curriculum.

I think it's the Wild Brothers. Well, there's, there's maybe no, this is, this is by Harris, twin twin brothers by the last name of Harris. But anyway. Well, there's a lot of that for these kids these days. And as parents, we're trying to, well, as parents impacted by the identification truths, we have to not censor, but allow our kids to critically think through it so that they can understand the difference. Because it's everywhere. Yeah. Oh yeah, this book has like 20 different acknowledgments from famous Christian authors and pastors and stuff in the front. They're like, this is wonderful. I almost climbed Long's Peak just after reading the intro. Almost. I said almost. I broke my ankle, Mike. I'm just kidding. I mean, just go to any Christian bookstore.

What is it? Works, works, works, works, works, works, works, works. They don't get it. And that's not what he wants. He wants a relationship. He wants intimacy. That's why, again, John 17, that's the intimate part. He wants to share his glory with dynamo sand. He wants a relationship. He wants the object of our heart to be Christ. That's what he wants.

I have a quick quote from Myles that we read on Monday night. It says that, God's will for the Christian is expressed in the word being, which in turn will result in effective doing. Well, that's it. I mean, that is summarizing what we're saying. A relationship with Him, that's what He wants in this morning's Hungry Heart. The object of your heart is Christ. Well, what flows from that? God's more concerned about the preaching than what He preaches.

Well, 2 Corinthians 3.18, we get into it really in depth, but the word being transformed, the being part is your role to trust Him and allow Him to transform you to the purpose that He has for you. And that's what He's up to. That are in that middle voice, I think, in that that we participate in it and. In that verse, it's a middle voice that he's acting on us, but we respond in check us right now.

Yeah. Yeah, I can pull I can I can do it right now. Yeah. Your being is such a critical part to what—he rescued you so that you could be transformed. And that is an intimacy like you were talking about. Yeah. No, that's the purpose. It's not the works. The works flow from the relationship. It's not the works create us or form us or anything like that. It's the relationship that forms us. And as we are conformed to Christ, the manifestation of Christ is evident in us, and that's where the work is going to be free. Well, a lot of rabbit trails today, I'm sorry. We'll just have two more questions next week, and I think I've now, JD, I'm now over you. I think I have five or six on this one lesson, I think, so. I helped you with that, I apologize.

No, no. These were really good conversations. Yeah, it's good. There's so much in these verses. That's what's so amazing, you know, when you really get into these verses. That's why I keep kind of going over it. One through seven is just packed with just amazing thoughts.

And so, yeah, I don't want to short it in any way, shape, or form. All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for these truths and just these thoughts that you have provided in your word and just the intimacy that we have with you.

And you desire that, and that's what you want. You're not looking for works or fruits or anything. First and foremost, you want that relationship between us and you and your son. And what a thought that is, that you desire, you just want us to have that intimate relationship with you. And when we realize that's the God of the universe that is asking that request, that is incredibly humbling. And we just thank you that you have set up the system as we've gone through it today.

Amazing that you decided even before any of us were created that we would fail. and we would sin, and we'd turn our back on you, and create a race of people who were sinful. And yet, from the beginning of time, you, the Holy Spirit, and Christ all decided that there would be payment through Christ coming to earth, fully man, fully God, and dying upon a cross, a hideous death, and taking all of the sins of all of us, past, present and future, upon himself. And ultimately, Father, we're excited that you accepted that payment and you resurrected the Lord Jesus. And then that wasn't the end, because if that was it, we're still sinful. But then you offered salvation. through faith in your son.

And by that, we have an eternal relationship with you that we will, as Joanne has face-to-face, ultimately, we will all have that relationship face-to-face with you for an eternity, sharing your love and sharing your glory as expressed in John 17. You want to share your glory with us. You share your love with us. And we'll be able to just rest in that for an eternity as we step into eternity. Father, we just thank you again for this time, and again, just your Word. We thank you for all these things. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.