1 Timothy 1:1-11 1 Timothy 1:1–11ESV

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

Jonathan Edwards: “There is perhaps no part of divinity attended with so much intricacy, and wherein orthodox divines do so much differ as stating the precise agreement and difference between the two dispensations of Moses and Christ.”A – The Law is good IF it is used LAWFULLY or rightly.B – The Believer stands in a new RELATIONSHIP to law than they did prior to trusting Christ.

1 Tim 1:8-10 – Three Observations

1. The Law must be used LAWFULLY – It must be used for what it was intended.

2. [The] law is not made for a righteous person – The primary use of the Law is NOT for the man who has been made righteous with the righteousness of Christ

BUT: [It IS made] for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching,

3. The Believer is NOT “lawless” – Since the Law is NOT made for the righteousness man but for the lawless man – The Believer is NOT lawless, even though he is not “under” the Law.

Titus 2:14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

1 Peter 4:3 For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

Rom. 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

The restoration of God’s OWN holiness to the HEART of the Believer – as it is re-inscribed there by the Holy Spirit in regeneration and energized by the indwelling presence of the Spirit is now the PRINCIPLE under which the Believer lives.

He is not constrained by externals as much as he is now motivated by new internals – He has a new inclination.

He is to use Paul’s words in 2 Cor. 5:14 – Constrained by love

1 John 5:1 “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments.”

The man who has been born again, loves the righteous and holy God he once rebelled against and ran from. He now sees God’s righteousness as lovely, not distasteful. He love righteousness BECAUSE he loves the righteous God who loved him.

But – Sure, I may now LOVE righteousness, but what exactly is my relationship to God’s Law?

And that IS the key word, RELATIONSHIP

The point is, that being born again and justified by His grace and indwelt by His Spirit – we now stand in a totally different relationship to the Law than we once did.

The Law didn’t change – WE DID!

The issue is one of a change of relationship.

THE LAW IS STILL EXACTLY THE SAME FOR THE LAWLESS – 1 Tim. 1:8

THE SHIFT / Gal. 4:1-5 /

Illustration: Trespassing vs. Being a co-owner (or joint-heir)

While parents were alive, I always knew that at any time, I could go to their house – and even if they weren’t home, raid the refrigerator, use the facilities, sack out on the couch, watch the TV and relax.

Now what is also true, is that I cannot do that just anywhere. If I go to stranger’s houses, the very same activities are in fact illegal and punishable by law.

If I become an heir, what did not belong to me now does – what attempting access to would once bring the charge of trespass, is now turned on its head. My relationship to it changed. I now have an entrance to the throne room of God which was once not mine to enter.

Illustration: NYS Driving age. Once I turned 16, the law that said I could not drive at 15, became the law that said I COULD drive. The law didn’t change, I did.

The Law is good IF it is used “lawfully”.

Classically – 3-Fold Purpose of the Law (Louis Berkhof) —

a. CIVIL: “The law serves the purpose of restraining sin and promoting righteousness. Considered from this point of view, the law presupposes sin and is necessary on account of sin. It serves the purpose of God’s common grace in the world at large.”

b. PEDAGOGICAL: “In this capacity the law serves the purpose of bringing man under conviction of sin, and of making him conscious of his inability to meet the demands of the law. In that way the law becomes his tutor to lead him unto Christ, and thus becomes subservient to God’s gracious purpose of redemption.”

c. DIDACTIC (or Normative): “The law is a rule of life for believers, reminding them of their duties and leading them in the way of life and salvation.” (Lutheran controversy)

Actually, while this is generally accepted, and nice and neat – it is nowhere near how the Bible speaks.

The 7-Fold Purpose of the Law

The Bible itself gives us 7 reasons for the Law.

a. EXPOSES SIN / Rom. 3:20b: “since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

Rom. 5:20: “Now the law came in to increase the trespass”

Rom. 7:7 “Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”’”

In this way, it is PURELY DIAGNOSTIC – Like an X-Ray machine.

Like an X-Ray machine for the soul, it can show you the broken bone, but has no power to MEND the broken bone.

b. INSTRUCTS / Ex. 24:12 “The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.”

In this way, the Law serves to help us know what God thinks about things – what He likes & dislikes, proscribes and warns against.

Looking at the 10 Words as ten revelations of our God Himself. Above everything else, it instructs us in a right view of God, self and life.

1 – God is God alone and must be recognized as such

2 – God is not to be reduced to an image, to anything tangible. It preserves His transcendence. Something desperately needed in our day too.

3 – God is not to be taken lightly – even in the use of His name

4 – God is to be worshipped (Calvin – Harmony of the Law – The object of this Commandment is that believers should exercise themselves in the worship of God; for we know how prone men are to fall into indifference, unless they have some props to lean on or some stimulants to arouse them in maintaining their care and zeal for religion.)

5 – Man is to be respected as created in God’s image – first with parents, and then with other authorities.

6 – Life is sacred before God. As created in His image, humankind, all members of the race are to be treated with dignity. None are to be simply disregarded, and in something like the case of abortion, as disposable.

7 – Sexual purity is required to love man.

8 – Man’s property is not to be violated.

9 – Man is not to sinned against even in the use of law.

10 – Contentment with God’s provision.

c. HUMBLES / Lev. 16:31 “It is to be a Sabbath of solemn rest for you, that you may humble your souls; it is a permanent statute.” (NAS95)

We need rest. We were created that way. And to ignore proper rest is to live apart from faith. It is outside the order He has created us to live in.

It reminds us that we are under His authority – not autocrats. In all places and at all times, He is the ultimate authority. And He need not give us reasons for His ordering of things. We are to trust that He is wisest and most loving and that He orders all things in life in accordance with His wisdom and love.

d. DECLARATIVE / Deut. 4:6-8 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?

When we set ourselves properly under His authority to guide our lives and choices, we live out the Gospel in a most tangible way to those who observe us, even if they do not recognize it as such.

e. IDENTIFICATION / Same as Above – It shows we’re God’s people. We listen to Him, cherish His words, and live by His precepts.

f. PROPHETIC / Col. 2:16-17 “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”

g. PROTECTIVE / Gal. 3:19 “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.”

In this capacity, it is mainly protective against two things: The Wrath of God / Natural Consequences of our sins.

Also – Ga 3:24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.

MUCH MORE – I want to suggest to you that due to our change in relationship to the Law, the Law may be used “lawfully” (in respect to him or herself) by the Believer in the following three ways.

The Law as PRECEPT – serves as a reminder of:

1. The Canceled Debt / Col. 2:8-14

Col. 2 – Due to the fact that the decrees against us have been removed out of the way (i.e. Nailed to His cross) THEREFORE we are no longer to be judged concerning Sabbath days etc. – BECAUSE – they were shadows of that which was to come (i.e. Christ) and now that the substance is here – we no longer occupy ourselves with the shadows.

When the Believer is confronted with the Law of God, his first response ought to be to look at it as “having received double” – for his sins against God.

An infinite debt PAID IN FULL!

When we consider the 10 Words (as well as other places) we have His payment placarded before us.

This is what Jesus fulfilled for us in His obedience.

And this is what Jesus paid the penalty for for our every infraction.

2. Christ’s Imputed Righteousness / Rom. 3:21-26 “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

Not only has my infinite debt been canceled – this is what has been deposited into my account!

I am righteous with the righteousness of Christ Himself!

2 Cor. 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Rom. 5:19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. What Christ has done which is imputed to me.

He deals with me as though Christ’s own righteousness were mine!

What an unspeakable comfort!

3. The Glorious Promise / 1 John 3:1-3 “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”

We will wake in His likeness

Those words: Thou shalt & Thou shalt not – are promises!

We can rightfully read them this way:

This is my promise, when I am done with you dear child you will –

love me with all your heart mind soul and strength and never have some other god before me.

I will preserve you from falling prey to any idols

You will not bear my name vainly – it will not be an empty thing to say you are God’s. To bear the name – Christian.

You will rest in the perfect rest of Christ’s completed work for ever.

You will honor your mother and father.

You will not murder any more.

You’ll never commit adultery again.

You will never steal.

You will never bear false witness against your brother or covert your neighbor’s wife or anything else he has.

Quotes:

Luther: we say that the law is good and profitable, but in his own proper use: which is, first to bridle civil transgressions, and then to reveal and to increase spiritual transgressions. Wherefore the law is also a light, which sheweth and revealeth, not the grace of God, not righteousness and life; but sin, death, the wrath and judgment of God. For, as in the mount Sinai the thundering, lightning, the thick and dark cloud, the hill smoking and flaming, and all that terrible shew did not rejoice not quicken the children of Israel, but terrified and astonished them, and shewed how unable they were, with all their purity and holiness, to abide the presence of God speaking to them out of the cloud: even so the law, when it is in his true sense, doth nothing else but reveal sin, engender wrath, accuse and terrify men, so that it bringeth them to the very brink of desperation. This is the proper use of the law, and here it hath an end, and it ought to go no further. Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 302.

Luther’s Commentary on Galatians, Chapter Three

Now the foolishness of man’s heart is so great, that when the law hath its office and terrified his conscience, he cloth not only not lay hold upon the doctrine of grace, but seeketh to himself more laws to satisfy and quiet his conscience. “If I live,” saith he, “I will amend my life. I will do this and that.” Here except thou do quite the contrary: that is, except thou send Moses away, with his law, and in these terrors lay hold upon Christ, who died for thy sins, there is no salvation for thee.

Luther’s Commentary on Galatians, Chapter Two

These things are easily said: but blessed is he which knoweth how to lay sure hold on them in distress of conscience, that is, which can say when sin overweighteth him, and the law accuseth and terrifieth him: What is this to me, O law, that thou accusest me, and sayest that I have committed many sins? Indeed I grant that I have committed many sins, yea and yet still do commit sins daily without number. This toucheth me nothing: I am now dead and cannot hear thee. Therefore thou talkest to me in vain, for I am dead unto thee. But if thou wilt needs dispute with me as touching my sins, get thee to my flesh and members my servants: teach them, exercise and crucify them, but trouble not me, not Conscience, I say, which am a lady and a queen, and have nothing to do with thee: for I am dead to thee, and now I live to Christ, with whom I am under another law, to wit the law of grace, which ruleth over sin and the law. By what means? By faith in Christ, as Paul declareth hereafter.

Luther’s Commentary on Galatians, Chapter Two

This sentence of Paul: “through the law I am dead to the law,” is full of consolation. Which if it may enter into a man in due season, and take sure hold in his heart with good understanding, it may so work, that it will make him able to stand against all dangers of death, and all terrors of conscience and sin, although they assail him, accuse him, and would drive him to desperation never so much. True it is, that every man is tempted: if not in his life, yet at his death. There, when the law accuseth him and sheweth unto him his sins, his conscience by and by saith: Thou hast sinned. If then thou take good hold of that which Paul here teacheth, thou wilt answer: I grant I have sinned. Then will God punish thee. Nay, he will not do so. Why, doth not the law of God so say? I have nothing to do with that law. Why so? Because I have another law which striketh this law dumb, that is to say, liberty. What liberty is that? The liberty of Christ, for by Christ I am utterly freed from the law. Therefore that law which is and remaineth a law to the wicked, is to me liberty, and bindeth that law which would condemn me; and by this means that law which would bind me and hold me captive, is now fast bound itself, and holden captive by grace and liberty, which is now my law; which saith to that accusing law: Thou shalt not hold this man bound and captive, or make him guilty, for he is mine; but I will hold thee captive, and bind thy hands that thou shalt not hurt him, for he liveth now unto Christ, and is dead unto thee.

Bunyan: “Wherefore whenever thou who believest in Jesus, dost hear the law in its thundering and lightning fits, as if it would burn up heaven and earth; then say thou, I am freed from this law, these thunderings have nothing to do with my soul; nay even this law, while it thus thunders and roareth, it doth both allow and approve of my righteousness. I know that Hagar would sometimes be domineering and high, even in Sarah’s house and against her; but this she is not to be suffered to do, nay though Sarah herself be barren; wherefore serve it also as Sarah served her, and expel her out from thy house. My meaning is, when this law with its thundering threatenings doth attempt to lay hold on thy conscience, shut it out with a promise of grace; cry, the inn is took up already, the Lord Jesus is here entertained, and here is no room for the law. Indeed if it will be content with being my informer, and so lovingly leave off to judge me; I will be content, it shall be in my sight, I will also delight therein; but otherwise, I being now made upright without it, and that too with that righteousness, which this law speaks well of and approveth; I am not, will not, cannot, dare not make it my saviour and judge, nor suffer it to set up its government in my conscience; for by so doing I fall from grace, and Christ Jesus doth profit me nothing (Gal 5:1–5). _{John Bunyan, The Trinity and a Christian (alternate Title: The Law and a Christian), vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2006), 388.}