Question: What does “He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13) mean?
Answer: In this Epistle we find many bearing the name Christian, who have only a lifeless profession.
The true Christian is seen as dead and risen with Christ—Christ is his life (Col. 3:1-4).
In 2 Tim. 2:11, 12 the believers are encouraged to suffer with Christ. “For if we have died with Christ, we shall also live with Him. If we suffer we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us.” Those who deny the person of Christ as the eternal Son of God, He will deny them.
Peter denied that he knew the Lord, and did not confess Him. He failed, but his faith did not fail, he was still a believer (See Luke 22:31, 32, 61, 62). Jesus' intercession for him was, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” “If we believe not” means: If we are unfaithful, “yet He abideth faithful. He cannot deny Himself.”
Our failures are met by the advocacy of Christ. His promise to His own is unfailing. “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish,”—they are part of Himself.
Question: Rom. 6:23. “The wages of sin is death.” Is this physical or spiritual death?
Answer: God said to Adam, “In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Mortality entered then. “After this the judgment.” Heb. 9:27. The whole man is involved; death came by sin; sin must be judged.
“Death we have earned—it is the wages of sin; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is not merely that eternal life is the gift of God, but the gift of God is nothing less than eternal life. Death is purposely looked at in its simple character of death. No doubt it is judgment of sin in this world, and implies, unless redemption comes in, the judgment which comes after. It is the present effect of judgment on sin, and the divine officer and witness of sin, to conduct us to judgment—according to wrath revealed from heaven, but here it is the end of life which fruitless sin worked. It does lead to judgment—judgment of works done while living. God gives eternal life.”
Question: Please explain what “appearing” is referred to in 2 Tim. 4:8. (“All them also that love His appearing”).
Answer: It is when the Lord comes with His saints (1 Thess. 3:13, 4:14; 2 Thess. 1:7, 10).
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13. The “blessed hope” is His coming for us. The “glorious appearing” is His coming with us.