And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,

although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. 1 Timothy 1:12–17

In 1747, a young man by the name of John Newton became the captain of a slave ship. He felt no pangs of conscience at having human beings as cargo, chained below. He described himself as a libertine and an infidel. He wrote, “I was capable of anything, I had not the least fear of God before my eyes, nor the least feeling of conscience.” He lived a wicked and debauched life as a sailor and then as the captain. But in 1748, the ship he was in was in a violent storm, and he found himself praying. He found a Bible, and read Luke 11:3, that God will give the Spirit to those who ask him. He prayed, read the Scriptures, and so began the transformation.

Within a few years he married Mary Catlett, to whom he remained faithful for over forty years till she died in 1790. Within a few years, he was called to the pastorate, and he pastored two churches, one for sixteen years, the other for twenty-seven. It was Newton that wrote the most famous hymn in the English language, “Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind but now I see.”

What Newton became known for as a minister was tenderness. He was known for a kind and gentle manner. He once wrote to a friend and explained the secret of this. “He believes and feels his own weakness and unworthiness, and lives upon the grace and pardoning love of his Lord. That gives him an habitual tenderness and gentleness of spirit.” Newton was a minister of grace.

In other words, like his famous hymn sings, it is when a believer feels how amazing grace is, that he communicates that love, gratitude and gentleness to others. Someone who knows the gospel ends up communicating that gospel love to others. Someone who knows only the law, can only communicate the law’s harshness.

That was true of Newton, but it was true of people in the time of Paul and Timothy. Once Paul has completed telling Timothy of teachers who abuse the law, he ends on a note that references the law’s counterpart, the Gospel. We saw that last week: whereas the law can tell you what is wrong, only the gospel can put it right. The law will show you the way, but the gospel can actually get you there. The law will show you your sickness, but only the gospel can heal you.

Every true New Testament believer that ministers must always be a minister of the gospel, not only of the law. A preacher only of law becomes one who misuses it. A parent only of law is misusing the law. A disciple-maker only of law misuses the law. Christians must be ministers of the gospel.

Paul wants Timothy to know that he is truly a minister of gospel grace, not primarily of legal condemnation. By implication, Timothy is supposed to pick up on this and become a true pastor of gospel grace, of promise, of God’s Spirit. That will fill Timothy with the same patience and tenderness that marks Paul.

The way Paul does this is with his own testimony. Paul’s own story of where and what he was, and what he became, and what he now is, is a story of gospel grace. Paul’s story, because of how radical a change it was, was particularly gripping. So Paul tells it often. He tells it here, he tells it in Galatians 1, in Philippians 3, and twice in the book of Acts when standing trial or being examined, he gives his testimony. Paul’s testimony, like every testimony has three elements, that deal with his past, present, his future. These three elements are crucial for every Christian to remember to maintain their ministry as gospel ministers. If you and I want to be marked by the same kind of tenderness that wins people for Christ, we must imitate these same elements.

I. Ministers of Grace Remember Their Sin

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

Paul is now an apostle, an elder, a preacher, an evangelist. He is now in ministry, but he didn’t put himself there, the Lord Jesus did. He remembers what he was some years before this, was the very opposite of being a minister.

He uses three words of himself here: blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man.

Paul remembers that he used to blaspheme. Now that sounds odd, especially because he says in Philippians 3 that “concerning the righteousness of the law”, he was blameless. He knew the commandment to not take the name of God in vain, so how was he a blasphemer? Well, this word also means slanderer and defamer, which is what he was towards Christians. And before he came to know the Lord Jesus as his lord, I’m sure he said all manner of blasphemous things about Jesus.

He says he was also a persecutor and insolent. He harassed and hounded Christians and was outrageously bold and offensive. He says in Galatians 1:13 “For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.” In his testimony in Jerusalem he said, “persecuted this Way to the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women (Acts 22:4)

When testifying before Agrippa, Paul said, “and many of the saints I shut up in prison,…; and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities. (Acts 26:10-11)

This was Paul’s manner before he became a Christian. He wasn’t just a non-Christian; he was an anti-Christian. He didn’t just reject Christianity; he wanted to eliminate Christianity. In many ways, he was the biggest threat that the early church faced.

From his perspective, he was the chief, the first, the number one transgressor. Surely there were people worse than Saul. But not from his own perspective. From the perspective of someone who is growing in holiness, nothing seems worse or more heinous than your own wrongs.

Now notice how he sees his sin. He sees it for what it was. He doesn’t call it mistakes, or “things I’m not proud of”. He calls it by the terms that it was. In fact, he thinks of it as first and worst of sinners. But having said that, he does not wallow in guilt and self-loathing. He doesn’t say, “I’m forever tainted, polluted. I have blood on my hands, Christian blood, so I should never show my face in a Christian church again.”

No, the balance is that he remembers his sin, but that way of life is in his past. He can even see the difference between what he knows and believes now, with what he knew and believed then. He says, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

Not that anyone deserves mercy, but ignorance and blindness are mitigating factors. Jesus prayed on the cross: Luke 23:34 “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” When Peter indicts the Jewish people in Acts 3:17, he says, “Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers.”

Sins from one’s former life are to be regretted and hated and shunned. But one correct perspective is that as you look back you now see what you couldn’t see then. Now they look regrettable and evil; back then they didn’t. Now you have knowledge, then you didn’t. Now you believe and see, then you didn’t. That doesn’t mean you are not responsible for those sins, but it does keep them in perspective. They were committed when in darkness.

Ministers of grace never forget that they sinned, and sometimes, sinned greatly.

Now you can remember this in two wrong ways. One way is to remember it too little. To forget that is to risk becoming self-righteous. It is to risk thinking that because you are now different, that somehow someone else committed those sins.

The other error is to remember it too much. You always bring it up to yourself, either keeping yourself in perpetual penance or guilt mode, or perhaps becoming so used to it that it becomes a kind of boast, of how bad you were, and how wicked you once were. If you’re not careful, your deceitful heart will even become nostalgic about your sin. We are not to remember it too little or too much. Instead, we call it what God calls it, and remember it is in the past tense.

But ministers of grace never remain in the mode of remembering they are great sinners.

II. Ministers of Grace Remember Their Salvation

but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

However, for this reason I obtained mercy

Twice (v13 and v16) Paul describes his salvation with the words “I obtained mercy”. God did not treat me as He should have. God did not give me what I deserved. I should have received the penalty for blasphemy, insolence, persecution of the church. Indeed, Jesus told Paul on the road to Damascus that he was actually persecuting Jesus. What should happen to someone who hacks and slashes at the Lord Jesus?

But instead of being incinerated in a fiery display of God’s anger, Paul obtained mercy. Verse 14 takes that phrase and paints it on a bigger, more glorious canvas.

And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

Mercy is not giving us what we do deserve. But grace is giving us what we don’t deserve. Verse 14 says that the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant. This translates a Greek word used only here, which means something that overflows, an overabundance of something. God’s grace to Paul was a cup filled so full that it was spilling over.

With the grace came love and faith, all in Christ Jesus.

Paul was a sinner, but now he is a saved sinner, a forgiven sinner, a sinner who has been favoured, picked up, rescued, cleaned up. That leads Paul to quote a faithful saying, which probably refers to some very early statements of faith, very early creeds. This faithful saying should be accepted by everyone, he says. And the saying is profoundly simple, but simply profound: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

That’s why he came. For people like Paul. For people like me. For people like you. Jesus Himself said, “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

The first thing to remember is that you were and have been a sinner. But if you are a believer, you include the word saved. Saved sinner. God lavished kindness on you and you are not what you were.

And when you think of the two titles, “sinner” and “saved”, which is the one that now truly identifies you? Which is the one that truly defines you? Paul would say, “I was those things, and I am chief of sinners but now I have obtained mercy, now I have had grace lavished on me. Now I’m forgiven.”

Now Jesus once explained how forgiven people act, as opposed to unforgiven people.

Luke 7:36–47

Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat.

And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil,

and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.

Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”

And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” So he said, “Teacher, say it.”

“There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.

And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”

Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.”

Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.

You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in.

You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil.

Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

Because the woman first knew she was a sinner, and then knew she had been saved, she was filled with humility, and gratitude and love for others. But the Pharisee had not felt his sin, and so had not felt forgiveness, and so had felt no love for Christ.

Forgiven people forgive and want others to find forgiveness. People who know they have experienced grace give others grace and want others to find grace. Maybe this is why angels are not chosen to be preachers and disciplers. The angels of God have never sinned, and so have never experienced failure nor forgiveness. No guilt and no relief. No sense of the struggle or the victory, and so no empathy, no compassion on sinners.

But the one who has sinned may always walk with Jacob’s limp, remembering that he fought God in his life, and lost. He who has felt the healing of grace wants to apply it to others. Timothy, no matter how young you were when you were saved, never forget, you are a saved sinner, an undeserving recipient of grace, looking for other undeserving recipients of grace.

III. Ministers of Grace Remember They Are a Sign

However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Paul says that his salvation was not merely for his own sake. Instead, Paul’s salvation was to be a pattern for future generations of believers. Paul was a prototype, a sketch, a pattern that would show people something. What would it show? How patient and longsuffering God is. If you think you are too far gone, that you have sinned past the point of forgiveness, done too much against God, then Paul stands as a pattern that says, there is still mercy available for you. Paul persecuted Jesus, Paul was an enemy of God’s church. You might say every sniper rifle in Heaven was aimed at his head, waiting for the command to shoot. But it was Paul, the terrible persecutor of the church, that not only was saved, but became the great promotor of the church, planting churches, bringing upon himself the same persecution he had done on others.

And as others heard his story, they remarked, “Isn’t this Paul, the one who hounded and arrested Christians? Now he has become one? Now he is evangelising? What grace is this? What a miracle! What a turnaround! What a triumph for the gospel!”

Paul is forever a sign: God can change anyone. God can save anyone. If you are evangelising someone who looks like he will never be saved: God can save anyone. If you wonder if there is mercy for you: God can save anyone.

Not only does Paul’s life function as a sign, but every believer in grace serves as a sign to a watching world. Our transformed lives say, something got a hold of us. Something turned us around. We don’t do what you all do anymore, but we would be doing it, unless something had changed in us. We are not faking it, or pretending. We are signs to you that God is alive, God is at work, God intervenes in people’s lives and changes them.

Ministers of grace say, “My life is forensic evidence that grace intervenes, and if you desire mercy and grace from God, He will grant it.” Not only does He grant mercy for your sin, but He turns your life around, and gives you usefulness in life.

And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry,

Now compare the hope and glory of being a gospel of grace minister compared to modern critical race theory or woke theory. In woke theology, if you, or your gender, or your race, or your sexual orientation sinned against others in the past, then you need to stop talking, seek perpetual forgiveness, acknowledge your systemic power you’ve wielded against others, own your privilege, check your privilege, and then admit you are incapacitated. You are part of systemic racism, systemic sexism or bigotry, and you can only be quiet and try not to do any more damage.

Imagine if wokeness was alive in Paul’s day. It would apply like this: “Paul, you were an oppressor of Christians. You used your power and privilege to harm and damage many people. You can’t just say sorry and claim you’ve found mercy and grace. You cannot teach anyone about humility and pride because you are blind to your power and if you deny it, it just shows your fragility. Now Paul, sit down, stop teaching, do more listening, and see how you can make amends for the harm you’ve caused.” In racial theory, there is no grace, no forgiveness, no signs of what God can do. Critical theory, based as it is on Marxism is all law, and no grace. All works, no grace.

In Christianity, there is true salvation from sin, and therefore living testimonies of what God’s grace does in our lives.

Never underestimate the power of testimony. Never underestimate how your story of transformation will be a signpost to someone who thinks there is no hope, or no solution, or no way out, or no release from bondage.

In Paul’s writings, whenever he has just completed a section on the beauty and glory of grace, he usually breaks out into a doxology of praise. He does that here again:

17Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Ministers of grace live on and live in the sense of amazing unworthiness, and amazing kindness. They remember their sin. But they rejoice mostly in their salvation, undeserved and unearned. And then they know that they continue to live as a sign to others, that this grace exists, this grace works, this grace transforms.

When John Newton had been used by God for all those years, he died at the age of eighty-two. Before he died, he wrote his own epitaph to be placed on his tombstone. It read: “JOHN NEWTON. Clerk. Once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was by the rich mercy of our LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST preserved, restored, pardoned and appointed to preach the faith he had long laboured to destroy.”