The bearing of that which the apostle had just inculcated was of deep meaning and great value, but by no means obvious. Hence it would appear he adds, “Apprehend what I say; for the Lord shall give thee understanding in all things” (ver. 7). Such is the true text, not “the things which” (5) in detail, as the Text Rec., but “what” (5) as a whole. This makes all the more pertinent the assurance, not prayer merely, which follows, “And the Lord shall give thee understanding in all things,” as large in its range as minute in its ramifications. On this he can count who has an unction from the Holy One; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.
“Remember Jesus Christ raised out of the dead, of David's seed, according to my gospel, in which I suffer unto bonds as an evil-doer: but the word of God is not bound. For this cause I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain salvation, that [is] in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. Faithful [is] the word: for if we died together with [Him], we shall also live together; if we endure, we shall also reign together; if we shall deny [Him], He also will deny us; if we are unfaithful, He abideth faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” (ver. 8-13.)
The apostle in these verses recalls to the person of Christ, the touch-stone, and substance of the truth, but His person according to Paul's gospel bound up indissolubly with His work. “Remember Jesus Christ, of David's seed, raised out of the dead according to my gospel.” Christ is at once the object and the fulfillment of the promises; but He is incalculably more. He is raised from among the dead, the Beginning, the First-born of the new creation. He is as thus risen the head of an entirely new system. From first to last this is the teaching of Paul. He affirms of Jesus, the Son of God, that He was born of David's seed according to the flesh, but that He was marked out Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by resurrection of dead men, as in the beginning of the Epistle to the Romans.
But here is there not a practical rather than a dogmatic aim before the Spirit of God? Even as Messiah, the Lord Jesus must be risen from the dead. If any one was entitled to earthly honor and glory, it was the Son of David; but, according to Paul's gospel, He passes through death into resurrection. Such is the only mold of blessing, the world and man being as they are. No statement can be stronger. As Head of the church there would be no wonder; but for the Seed of David, it is surprising, yet most true. For the church itself has no existence, save on the ground of His being the Risen Head, and in heavenly places. In heaven only could the Head be, in order to give a heavenly character to those who are united to Him by the Holy Ghost on earth. But Paul's gospel insists on the great fact of resurrection from among the dead—even for the Messiah. And this alone is true of Him, in that character now He is risen, but not reigning. Much less is the Christian reigning as yet. On the contrary, after that gospel the apostle says, “I suffer hardship unto bonds, as a malefactor.” Things in the world are wholly out of course. Nothing is settled in order according to God, though His providence governs, and every soul is called to be subject to the powers that be. They may reign, and we are commanded to honor the king, habitually, as indeed to honor all men passingly; but we are called to forego all thought of honor now for ourselves. We are called to the communion of Christ: it is our proper honor to share in our measure what the apostle suffered so largely. All thought of present ease, of establishment here below, of a constitution settled and stable in the sight of men, violates the truth before us, as indeed every other presentation of it to the saint now, or to the church as a whole. He that had most of true honor as a Christian in the gospel, declares that he suffers as a malefactor unto bonds.
In plain contrast with this, we read of the Corinthian saints reigning without the apostle, who speaks there also of God's setting forth “us the apostles,” last of all, as men doomed to death. Christ knew the death of the cross as none ever did or could; and Paul was yet to know death, as His faithful martyr. All for him was true. With the Corinthians alas! how much was false. They had slipped in heart from sharing His rejection. Indeed as yet they had scarcely known it. They had received Christ for eternal life and redemption; they knew nothing as yet of dying daily.
So here the apostle solemnly anticipates the danger, for Christians generally, of settling down here below. This is incomparably more serious. Levity of thought and feeling, the power of nature, the activity of the flesh, may be sad in young saints; but immeasurably worse is it, when old saints depart from the high and heavenly standard they have learned. Such was the danger now, and the apostle is here awakening Timothy to his own anxiety about it. We see the evil in a gross form when the Christian body acquired power and honor, and earthly glory, in the days of Constantine and his successors; but the mischief was at work extensively, it would appear from this epistle, at the time the apostle was writing. The power of the resurrection from among the dead meets the evil for all that have ears to hear. It is wholly past as a living thing for those who accept earthly grandeur as a right estate for the Christian now. He who is most right before God, must be content to suffer most before men, as the apostle was seen doing unto bonds.
But suffering wrongfully, even unto bonds as a malefactor, did not hinder blessing. “The word of God is not bound.” On the contrary, such circumstances attract fresh notice. A class wholly new have their attention drawn to the revelation of God. The name of the Lord comes before magistrates, officials of the law, soldiers, seamen, governors, and perhaps even crowned heads. It may be the world's shame that so it should be, but rejection is the path of the Christian, the true glory of the church, till Jesus reigns. The preacher himself may be a prisoner; “but the word of God is not bound.”
“Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they also may obtain salvation, that [is] in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.” Here was a most dauntless heart, and the eye undimmed, by present sorrow, for it was single, and his whole body full of light. If Christ loved the elect—Christ who suffered for their sins, Paul could use language boldly, yet truly, for He shared His love, though it was Christ's alone to “bear our sins in His own body on the tree.” No man, no saint, no apostle, shares that atoning work; yet it is not presumption for the feeblest saint to suffer with Him, any more than to hope for glorification with Him. If we are children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together, But the apostle goes farther here; “I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they also may obtain salvation that [is] in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.” How few would venture to say these words as their own souls' experience from that day to this! Nevertheless we may earnestly desire it in our measure; but it supposes in the believer not merely a good conscience, and a heart burning in love, but himself thoroughly self-judged, and Christ dwelling in his heart by faith. The apostle openly declares it to Timothy; and surely it was meant to act powerfully on his fellow-laborer's soul, as also on ours. It is not that the salvation of the elect is uncertain: the Lord Jesus will surely guard that according to all His gracious power, and the unfailing counsels of God. But as another apostle says, If the righteous is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and sinner appear? It is indeed with difficulty that the elect are saved, though saved they assuredly will be; but as it needs all the resources of divine grace, so it calls for all the love of Christ in laborious service, and, what is also most effective, it hails the endurance of all things for their sake.
Nor is this all that the apostle has to urge on this theme. “Faithful is the word; for if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we endure, we shall also reign together.” He does not add as to this word worthy of all acceptation “; for it is a saying for saints rather than for sinners as such; but the saying, beyond a doubt, is faithful; for “if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him.” There is no Christian who died not with Christ: It is the very truth which every baptized soul confesses in his baptism, even were he dumb. And it is lack of faith, not lack of speech, which makes it untrue of any.
Accordingly the apostle is urging, not what is beyond almost any to say, lest it might be presumptuous and vain, but what all that are true must join as the confession of grace and truth from the starting point. It is the hypothetical clause, which is decisive, yet no Christians ought to shrink, or can truly shrink, from it; for Christ it was Who, having suffered all, gave all freely. And “if we died with Him,” which is indisputable for the believer now, “we shall also live with Him.” It is of the bright and blessed future he here assures us, though it is equally true that we live now because He lives, or, as it is vat elsewhere, Christ lives in us. But here the living with Him remains before us as a hope. Here, and now, we are to bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus; by and by it will be nothing but living with Him. So, “if we endure, we shall also reign together.” Here need be no question, it is suffering now, not yet reigning with Him. The reading in some ancient authorities of Rev. 5 or 20 (that the saints reign now) is unequivocal error. It is wrong morally as well as dogmatically. We shall reign with Christ; but even He sits on the Father's throne as yet. He waits to receive His own throne; and so do we much more. Were our hearts right, we should not wish to reign without Him; as we should have a sounder faith, if we held, that He is not reigning yet, but gone to receive a kingdom, and to return. He will come in His kingdom, which He has not yet received. Till then we are called to endure, not to reign; when He shall appear, we shall appear with Him; when He reigns, so shall we with Him. But there is solemn caution, as well as sure expectation of glory. “If we shall deny Him, He also will deny us; if we are faithless, He Abideth faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.” There was danger in a day of declension particularly, of departure not only from this or that divine principle but from Himself, and this permanently. Nor does the apostle bolster up the saints in that most dangerous of delusions, that there is no danger. For dangers abound on all sides; and we ought to know that grievous times were to come in the last times. Denying the Lord, so far from being impossible for a servant of His, is exactly what scripture shows us to have been the fact in one most honored, who had thought that for him, of all men, it was impossible; yet was he on the eve of it. No doubt this was but a passing act, however shameful and deplorable, however repeated then, and with aggravation; yet the all-overcoming, all-forgiving, grace of Christ rose above and effaced it, turning it even to never-to-be-forgotten profit, and fruitful blessing. But where it is a course of life, as here, (“if we shall,” not merely if we should as an act), the consequence is, as it ought to be, the necessary vindication on God's part of His injured majesty: “He also will deny us.” God would cease to be God, if He acquiesced in the dishonor of His Son. The believer bows and believes, adores and serves. The unbeliever, and the denier if possible yet more, may insult now, but they must ere long honor Him in judgment, “that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father.” There is a closing sentence of great weight, “if we are unfaithful, He abideth faithful;” and this for the most convincing and glorious of reasons, “for He cannot deny Himself.” It may at first hearing seem to take from the ease and flow of the sentence to read “for,” as we ought on good and ancient authority. But on reflection it really adds not a little, to its force because it is not a mere independent addition to confirm the foregoing: the ground or proof of His abiding fidelity lies in the blessed fact of His unchanging truth.