Chapter 1
Introductory principles
The first Roman imprisonment is
recorded for us in Acts 28:16. In that imprisonment Paul was placed under house
arrest for two years, waiting for his trial before Nero. This imprisonment is
mentioned specifically in Philippians 2:23,24 and Philemon 22. During that
first Roman imprisonment Paul wrote the four prison epistles: Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians, Philemon. This was around AD 62. He was then released
for lack of evidence against him and he entered into the final stage of his
active life of freedom. It is at this time that we have very little scripture
on which to go but enough to more or less trace out what is commonly known as
the fourth missionary journey. It began when Paul was acquitted and released in
approximately AD 63. Paul left Rome almost immediately and went east to Asia
Minor, to Macedonia — Philippians 2:24. He went on to Ephesus and on to the
Lycus valley which he had never visited. He had not previously visited there
but he promised to do so in the prison epistles. In the Lycus valley Paul had
the privilege of stopping Gnosticism. In the next year, AD 64, he travelled
west all the way to Spain as he should have done many years before. Romans
15:24,28 tells us that was his intention and he had failed to do so because of
emotional reversionism. The trip was made by sea across the Mediterranean from
Ephesus. He spent two years in Spain. From there he went back to Ephesus. He
left Timothy in Ephesus to take command and become the pastor there. The Ephesian
church was the key church of the ancient world at this time, and by leaving
Timothy there Paul assumed that he was leaving one of his finest pastors in
command. However, it did not turn out that way at all. The Ephesian church was
out of hand and primarily because Timothy did not have the command ability to
take charge. When it came time to select someone for this key spot Paul made a
mistake. The mistake was rectified by Timothy’s own reversion recovery. While
Timothy will become one of the great believers of his age after Paul’s death,
up to that time he was the wimp of all wimps, the failure of all failures, and
this key church was out of hand because the man in command had no command
ability, no leadership ability, no moral courage, no concept of teaching the
Word of God and establishing his authority on that basis. Leaving Timothy in
charge, not realising what would happen, Paul went on to Macedonia where he
wrote two epistles — 1 Timothy in AD 66 because of Timothy’s failure in
Ephesus, and he wrote to Titus in AD 67. Other trouble spots now appeared and
caused Paul to leave Trophimus at Miletus, and to leave Erastus at Corinth. At
this point Paul began to advance into that Balkan area of the world and found a
spot that needed evangelising, and so he wintered there in 67 and 68 AD. At the
close of that winter he was seized and arrested and exported to Rome for his
second imprisonment. This last epistle, 2 Timothy, was written during this
second imprisonment. These are Paul’s last words. Paul was condemned before his
trial, according to 2 Timothy 2:9, so that it was Paul’s forgoing conclusion
that he would not be released this time, that he would die. When he sits down
to write this epistle he knows that he is going to die, that he is going to be executed,
and therefore this epistle becomes the words of a dying man. At this time Paul
is almost alone. His only companion is Luke — 2 Timothy 4:11. All of Paul’s
friends and companions have been involved in the great peel-off. They had been
needed in certain areas. Paul had trained them and now this training is going
to pay off. Timothy has gone to Ephesus — 1 Timothy 1:3; Titus has gone to
Crete — Titus 1:4,5; Trophimus has been left at Miletus — 2 Timothy 4:20;
Erastus has been sent to Corinth — 2 Timothy 4:20; Crescens has gone to Galatia
— 2 Timothy 4:10; Titus has gone to Dalmatia — 2 Timothy 4:10; Tychicus is now
going to Ephesus to replace Timothy so that Timothy can come quickly to Rome —
2 Timothy 4:12. This leaves Paul practically alone. But Paul is never alone
because he has the great inner resources of doctrine. What a person truly is is
what that person is when he is isolated and alone. A brief account of Paul’s
Roman trial is found in 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 14-17. It was during this second
imprisonment, therefore, that Paul wrote to Timothy for the last time — 2
Timothy in AD 68.
In verses 1 & 2 we have a
preface which will bring out several things, one of which is that of all the
members of the royal family there is no greater nobility than that man, the
apostle Paul.
Verse 1 — “Paul” is a Roman surname,
Pauloj. His real name was Saul
Benjamin Tarsus. Tarsus is the city from which he came. He was not of one of
the original Roman families. His given name was Saul, his tribe was the tribe
of Benjamin, he was a Jew. He came from the city of Tarsus, and Tarsus was the
name of the city which they used instead of a family if you were not from one
of the famous old families of original Rome. He is the human author of this
epistle and he is one of the great believers of all time. Pauloj means “little.” In Rome surnames also designated
special honour, and Paul considered it an honour to be little, this was his
grace orientation.
“an apostle of Jesus Christ” — a)postoloj is an appositional nominative and it indicates the
highest-ranking spiritual gift that the royal family has ever known. It was
used originally in the Classical Greek for Athenian admirals designated by the
ruling council to command the fleet in any sweep that it was making. It carried
the connotation of maximum authority. The spiritual gift includes the authority
of absolute dictatorship over all members of the royal family, over all
Christians in any locale at any time. But once the canon of scripture was
completed in AD 96 when John wrote Revelation this particular gift ceased to
exist. There must be a great distinction made between the apostles to Israel
and the apostles to the Church. In Matthew chapter 10 those are apostles to
Israel, having nothing to do with the Church Age. Paul was the twelfth apostle
— 1 Corinthians 15:7-10.
“of Christ Jesus” — the descriptive
genitives of proper nouns have great significance here: Xristoj means “appointed one,” one who has been anointed or
appointed and it refers to Christ as the Messiah, and is an exact equivalent of
the Jewish word “Messiah”; I)hsouj means saviour, the
equivalent of Joshua, it is a reference to the cross and it designates the
battlefield royalty of Jesus Christ. Two types of royalty, then, are mentioned:
Christ, His Jewish royalty, and Jesus, indicating that Paul understands thoroughly
the change in dispensations. When Jesus Christ was seated at the right hand of
the Father He had been rejected by Israel as their legitimate King, but He was
appointed a new kind of royalty by being seated at the right hand of the
Father. This brought to a halt the Age of Israel and now a royal family is
called out for the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul recognises that he is standing at
the beginning of a new dispensation that demands great explanation in every
way.
“by the will of God” — the
preposition dia plus the genitive singular
of qelhma. Qelhma is a strong word for
purpose or design. Paul was appointed to apostleship for the purpose, design
and will of God in eternity past.
“of God” is a descriptive genitive
from qeoj minus the definite article.
The lack of the definite article emphasises the identity of God the Father, the
quality of God is emphasised, the quality of divine essence. This is God’s
plan.
“according to the promise” — the
preposition kata plus the accusative of e)paggelia. This is a reminder that your very life as a
believer on this earth is a life of benefit through promise. You are under
God’s promise forever. You have a promise or a pledge from God by virtue of the
work of Christ on the cross and because you have responded to that work of
Christ by believing in Him.
“of life” — the descriptive genitive
singular of zwh means eternal life. This
eternal life began the moment you believed in Christ. It is also a guarantee
that in eternity past God had you personally in mind and He provided for you a
paragraph SG2, dying grace, paragraph SG3. All of this
was provided in eternity past and awaits your spiritual growth for reality in
time. You can lose this or you can have it, and this is another meaning of the
word “pledge.” God has pledged this to you by reaching super-grace status.
“which is in Christ Jesus” — we have
the principle of union with the Lord Jesus Christ. We have all of the concepts
related here to our perfect relationship with Him. This simply means, once
again, that Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. He is
battlefield royalty. You and I are entered into union with Him and therefore we
become royal family of God forever. We share His life which is eternal life, we
share His destiny, we share His election, we share His righteousness, we share
His priesthood, we share His royalty. We are in union with Christ forever and
nothing can ever separate us from that union with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Translation: “Paul, an apostle of
Christ Jesus through the will [purpose, design] of God, according to the
promise of life [eternal] which is in union with Christ Jesus.”
Verse 2 — “To Timothy.” The dative
of indirect object indicates the original recipient of the last epistle, it
means that this is for Timothy’s benefit as well as for ours that it becomes a
part of scripture. This is therefore the dative of advantage. Timothy has moved
from disadvantage to advantage. He has gone from wimpy reversionism into
dynamic super-grace status, and he has accomplished this in the two years
between the writing of 1 and 2 Timothy.
The profile of Timothy
1. Timothy is the son of an
unbeliever Greek and a believer Jewess — Acts 16:1-3.
2. He was reared by his grandmother
Lois and his mother Eunice — 2 Timothy 1:5. Both were super-grace believers
representing two generations of super-grace believers. Consequently Timothy had
a fantastic spiritual heritage.
3. Timothy was circumcised by the
apostle Paul under unusual circumstances — Acts 16:3.
4. He was ordained to the ministry
in 1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:5.
5. He went to Philippi with the
apostle, along with Luke — Acts 16:12. He remained to supervise the main
Philippian church. Timothy did a great job in Philippi. Those who were there
were very responsive to his teaching ministry. He was himself at the time a
believer advancing.
6. He was left behind a second time
with Silas at Berea — Acts 17:14. Since the Bereans were positive to doctrine,
again for the second time he had a great ministry.
7. Having joined Paul at Athens he
next went to Thessalonica, according to 1 Thessalonians 3:2.
8. From there he was sent to
Corinth, and there he failed. For the first time he came up against negative
believers, he came up against reversionism, and 1 Corinthians 16:10 tells us
that he was a total failure. He was too soft, too weak to handle the
Corinthians. This failure foreshadows his failure at Ephesus. Timothy was not
tough enough with bullies, he lost control of the local church; thus becoming
disillusioned with people he moved into reversionism when he got to Ephesus.
9. He shared Paul’s first roman
imprisonment — Philippians 1:1; 2:19; Colossians 1:1; Philemon 1.
10. Afterwards he started out with
Paul on his fourth missionary journey. He was left behind at Ephesus where he
failed miserably.
“dearly beloved son” — the word a)gaphtoj is an adjective. It does mean “beloved” and it does
mean that he is an object of Paul’s category #1 love. Because of doctrine they
have that mutual respect that developed into a fantastic friendship. He does
not call him a son. The word teknon does not mean son here. It
is used in a technical way. It is the word from which we get the English word
“technical” and the word technical describes this word. It is used in the sense
of a theological student. The dative of possession has no exact equivalent in
English, it is a personal interest particularised to the point of ownership or
supervision. Paul supervised Timothy as his former student. Hence it refers to
permanent authority. Paul will always outrank Timothy as long as he lives. The
point is that Paul is going to live long enough to see Timothy in super-grace.
So it should be translated, “To Timothy, beloved student.” While teknon means a child it means a child under the discipline
of the parent, and it comes to mean a student under the discipline of the
teacher.
“Grace, mercy, peace — Xarij, grace, describes the plan of God in principle.
There is no place for works, for human ability, human ingenuity, for human
function of any kind; “mercy” or e)leoj is simply grace in action; e)irhnh is the result of these two words and it means
prosperity. It should be translated, “Grace, mercy, prosperity.” That is the
normal function of a positive-toward-doctrine believer. He starts out with
grace, grace is then administered to him as he takes in doctrine under the
principle of mercy, and he reaches the point of prosperity in time, paragraph
SG2.
“from God the Father” — the
preposition a)po plus the ablative of qeoj, indicating God the Father as the source of this
blessing; we have a genitive of apposition, pathr,
and it can be translated, therefore, ‘God, even the Father” or “God the
Father.”
“and Christ Jesus our Lord” — Xristoj is an ablative of source, a part of the
prepositional phrase, and it indicates His Jewish royalty. The ablative of
source “Ihsouj, battlefield royalty; “our
Lord” is divine royalty. Every category of royalty is involved.
Notice that there is no reference
here to God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity in this
salutation. This is compatible with the Church Age ministry of God the Holy
Spirit which is to glorify Jesus Christ. He is not here to glorify Himself —
John 7:39; 16:14; 1 Corinthians 6:19,20. In glorifying Christ the Holy Spirit,
therefore, remains in the background providing the power and the ability for
the royal family to glorify Christ — 2 Corinthians 3:3; Ephesians 3;16,17;
Philippians 1:20,21.
Translation: “To Timothy, beloved
student: Grace, mercy, prosperity, from the source of God the Father and Christ
Jesus our Lord.”
Verse 3 — “I thank God” is the
present active indicative of the verb e)xw
which means “I keep having.” The present tense is a static present, it
represents a condition as perpetually existing. This is linear aktionsart. The
active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb. He is filled with the
enjoyment, the capacity for life. Nothing bores him. His circumstances are the
quintessence of adversity but his attitude is one of great interest. The
indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint
of certainty and reality.
The question arises immediately:
What does he keep having? The answer is found in the accusative singular direct
object of the noun xarij. “I keep on having grace.”
There is the secret for capacity for life. And what is the means of having
grace? The next phrase, is the instrumental of means from qeoj plus the definite article. It should be translated
“by means of our God.” The definite article is used as a possessive pronoun. “I
keep on having grace by means of our God.” There is capacity for life. How does
one keep on having grace? By the daily intake of Bible doctrine.
Grace is all that God is free to do
for man on the basis of the work of Christ at the cross. Grace is God’s freedom
and God’s consistency to express His love to mankind without compromising and
jeopardising His divine essence. Consequently grace is God’s plan of behalf of
each one of us, the plan, the policy, the function, the mechanics of divine
modus operandi in relationship to each one of us. Under grace God does all of
the work, all of the providing, and we receive all of the blessing and all of
the benefiting. So by concept grace depends on who and what God is, on who and
what Christ is, on the essence of each member of the Trinity. Grace is God’s
relationship with the believer as well as God’s way of salvation. Grace is all
that God can do for man after salvation throughout all eternity. Grace,
therefore, is the genius of God and doctrine is the manifestation of that
genius. No one can understand grace until he has maximum doctrine in his soul.
The giver of life is the secret to life and the secret to life is grace. The
secret to grace is doctrine. You can’t understand life until you understand
grace, and you can’t understand grace until you have GAPed it daily under the
principle of self-discipline. There is nothing in life that can give you
blessing unless you have doctrine in your soul.
“whom” is the instrumental singular
of the relative pronoun o(j. The antecedent is God.
“Through whom” would be a good translation of the instrumental of o(j.
“I serve” — present active
indicative from latreuw which means to serve with
emphasis on the manner of service, to serve under a system of service. Here it
refers to the serving under the system of grace. Paul served God under the
system of grace — “through whom I am serving.” The active voice: Paul produces
the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative, it represents the
action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality, certainty, and dogmatic
confidence.
“from my forefathers” — the
preposition a)po plus the ablative of progonoj which means ancestors. The ablative is not the
regular case used to express means but it is used when the expression of means
is accompanied by an implication of origin. What does he mean here? Is he
referring to those in his immediate family? No, but he is recognising that in
every generation of history that generation is carried by super-grace
believers. He is in a generation of history, he is a super-grace believer, he
is carrying his own generation. In every generation of Israel there were
super-grace believers. On account of these super-grace believers the power of
doctrine resident in the soul was seen in every generation. Paul is
perpetuating the principle of his forefathers in his own generation. This
refers to his understanding of and his perpetuation of the spiritual heritage.
What makes history grow? The super-grace believer.
Principle
1. Paul does not allude to his own
ancestors and his own family genealogy but he refers to the spiritual heritage
of Israel in the past.
2. This spiritual heritage is the
existence of at least one super-grace believer in every generation.
3. The implication is obvious. Paul
has seen a great improvement in Timothy. He has seen Timothy go from
reversionism to super-grace in two years. Since the first epistle was written
in 66 AD, up to the time of the writing of this one in AD 68, he has seen Timothy
go from zero to one hundred.
4. Having recovered from
reversionism Timothy has moved to the high ground of super-grace which is the
only place he can receive from Paul the baton, the standard, and carry on for
his generation.
5. Paul is counting, therefore, on
student Timothy to perpetuate the spiritual heritage of the royal family for
the next generation.
6. This can only be accomplished
through maximum doctrine resident in the soul through the daily function of
GAP.
7. Paul, therefore, is encouraging
Timothy to press on. Now that he has doctrine he must take in more and more and
more. Note that Paul and Timothy have human family relationship. Paul is not
Timothy’s father and Timothy is not Paul’s son. Paul is challenging to a more
important principle. We have seen the principle that you can’t build your
happiness on your children, and you don’t perpetuate greatness in another
generation through your children. But there is the perpetuation of a spiritual
heritage, doctrine passed from one generation to another.
“with a pure conscience” — this does
not mean that Paul has lived a good life, that Paul has always had clean hands.
As an unbeliever Paul was the worst sinner who ever lived. As a believer Paul
made one of the greatest mistakes that a great believer ever made when he
refused to go to Spain and went back to Jerusalem in emotional reversionism.
Yet he comes to his dying moment “with a pure conscience” — the preposition e)n plus the adjective kaqaroj in the instrumental, plus the noun in the instrumental suneidhsij. Doctrine resident in Paul’s right lobe is
responsible for the purity of his conscience. “I keep on having grace by means
of our God, through whom I am serving with a pure conscience as my ancestors
did [literally, on account of my ancestors].”
“that without ceasing” — the
relative adverb o(j used as a conjunction to
introduce a characteristic or quality of a person, translated “why,” plus the
adverb a)dialeiptoj which means “constantly.”
But here the adjective is used as a predicate accusative and that will change
it a little. It is translated, “this is why I constantly.”
“have” is the present active
indicative of e)xw — “keep having.” We have a
perfective present here, it denotes the continuation of existing results,
namely Paul passing on to Timothy the spiritual heritage of human history. In
every generation believers are challenged to the perpetuation of super-grace so
that in every generation history will have those who hold up history. In every
generation of history there can exist blessing from God based on Bible
doctrine. The active voice: Paul has in his dying moments the memory of
Timothy, a super-grace believer at this stage, one in whom he can pass the
torch to carry for the next generation. The indicative mood is declarative for
the dogmatic reality of the fact that once-wimpy Timothy can now be the Atlas
for the next generation and hold up that generation.
“remembrance” is the accusative
singular direct object from mneia, and it means to have a
memory.
Principle
1. Something has happened to Timothy
in the two years since Paul wrote first Timothy. The wimp is now a super-grace
believer, he has recovered from reversionism.
2. This contributes to Paul’s dying
grace. Now that Timothy has reached super-grace Paul can die peacefully. He
could pass the torch to someone as he departs for heaven. He is therefore dying
with wonderful memories.
3. In every generation of history
super-grace believers carry the torch, they carry that generation of history.
4. Divine blessing is directly
related to the remnant of super-grace believers according to the election of
grace. And that remnant always has one torchbearer.
5. Paul is dying and he sees history
from the divine viewpoint.
6. He rejoices that Timothy will be
the torchbearer. There are other super-grace believers and they will have a
part, but the colour bearer is always the important one. So in dying Paul can
see hope for the next generation.
“of thee” is the preposition peri plus the genitive of the personal pronoun su — “concerning you.” This is a personal pronoun, it
refers to Timothy as the one who will carry the colours.
“in my prayers” is e)n plus the locative plural of dehsij. Paul has a lot of time to pray and he has the
privilege of passing on the colours to Timothy, and he is doing this in prayer.
“night and day” — the genitive
singular of nuc, and then h(mera. Paul prays when it is still light in the dungeon
and when it is dark he is still praying.
Translation: “I keep on having grace
by means of our God, through whom I am serving with a pure conscience as my
ancestors did. This is why I constantly possess a memory concerning you in my
prayers day and night.”
Verse
4 — “Greatly desiring” is the present active participle from the compound verb e)pipoqew. E)pi means over and above; poqew means to desire. This means to long for someone’s
presence, to have true category #3 love. It means to have capacity for love and
capacity for life and to have an object for those in a true friend. The present
tense is a descriptive present, it portrays the action of the verb in the
process of occurrence. The active voice: Paul, incarcerated in Rome, produces
the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. Paul is dying and he
has great capacity for life, and one more time he wants to see his very dear
friend Timothy. We could translated this, “Having a great desire to see.”
“to see thee” — the aorist active
infinitive of o(raw. The aorist tense is a
gnomic aorist in which a generally accepted fact is regarded as so certain that
it is described by the aorist just as thought it was actually in occurrence at
the moment. This is an idiom which is translated by the English present tense.
The active voice: Paul produces the action. The infinitive is the infinitive of
purpose. It is Paul’s purpose as well as his desire to once again see Timothy
before he dies. Plus the accusative singular direct object from the personal
pronoun su, referring to Timothy.
“being mindful” — incorrect. It is
the perfect middle participle of the verb mimnhskw which means to remember. The perfect tense of existing state
emphasises the fact that Timothy’s reversion recovery has resulted in Paul’s
pleasant memories of him. The middle voice is the dynamic middle, it emphasises
the part taken by the subject in the action of the verb. This is the causal
participle so it is translated, “because I have remembered.”
“thy tears” — the objective genitive
plural from dakruwn which refers to Timothy’s
tremendous response to 1 Timothy. He didn’t get angry, he didn’t shake his
fists at Paul, as it were, he didn’t condemn Paul. He realised how correct Paul
was and he had a tremendous emotional response from his objectivity.
“that” is the conjunction i(na used as a final clause to denote a goal, and
objective, a purpose.
“I may be filled” — the aorist
passive subjunctive of the verb plhrow. The aorist tense is a
culminative aorist, it views Paul’s great happiness in its entirety but regards
it from the standpoint of existing results. Paul in prison has +H and one of
the results is that Timothy’s recovery causes him to express this +H. He possesses
something and it has great results. He can now be very stimulated and express
his happiness with regard to Timothy. The passive voice: Paul receives the
action of the verb, being filled with happiness at his memory of Timothy. The
subjunctive mood is not a potential subjunctive but used to denote the purpose
clause and the fulfilment of the purpose.
“with joy” — the objective genitive
singular from xara, meaning inner happiness,
+H as a part of Paul’s super-grace package.
Translation: “Longing to see you,
because I have remembered your tears, in order that I might have been filled
with happiness.”
Principles
1. Thanks to the grace and plan of
God the human race will perpetuate itself physically.
2. God has guaranteed that the human
race will exist throughout human history, all the way to the conclusion of the
angelic conflict. So there will always be people for another generation.
3. This is a dogmatic fact dependent
upon the sovereignty of God.
No two generations are alike.
Today’s generation is not like the last one. What makes the difference? There
are always a few super-grace believers who carry a generation. The greater the
number of super-grace believers the greater the blessing for that generation.
The super-grace believers hold up that generation historically. Doctrine in the
souls of a few people carry a generation.
The perpetuation of spiritual
heritage is dependent upon man’s response to grace in the area of his own
non-meritorious volition. Spiritual heritage is perpetuated from the foundation
of regeneration. Mankind must be born again to qualify for the perpetuation of
spiritual heritage. In other words, it is not physical birth that perpetuates,
it is spiritual birth. The number of super-grace believers in any generation
determines the trend of that generation. The secret is Bible doctrine in the
soul.
Principle
1. Thanks to the grace and plan of
God the human race will perpetuate itself physically.
2. God has guaranteed that the human
race will exist throughout human history and all of the way to the conclusion
of the angelic conflict.
3. This dogmatic principle of the
perpetuation of history and the perpetuation of the human race is a matter of
the sovereignty of God.
4. The perpetuation of the spiritual
heritage is dependent not on the sovereignty of God but on man’s response to
God’s grace, and always in an area of non-meritorious volition.
5. Spiritual heritage is perpetuated
from the foundation of regeneration. Mankind must be born again to qualify for
perpetuation of spiritual heritage. Salvation means qualification, it doesn’t
mean you have arrived.
6. The key, then, to perpetuation is
found in positive volition toward Bible doctrine, the daily function of GAP
leading to the super-grace life.
7. Paul is no longer ashamed of
Timothy because while Timothy has been a wimp, a failure, he has now recovered
from reversionism and has moved on to super-grace.
8. Neither is Paul ashamed of
Timothy’s mother, nor Timothy’s grandmother who represent one of the most
unusual situations recorded in the Bible — a three-generation family and each
one is in the spiritual heritage as well. Timothy is a third generation super-grace
believer.
Verse 5 — “When I call to
remembrance” is an idiom. It includes the aorist active participle of the verb lambanw which means to receive. There is also the
accusative singular direct object from the noun u(pomnhsij which means memory or remembrance — “When I receive remembrance.” This
actually comes down to be an idiom which means “When I remember [or recall].”
The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb
in its entirety. Paul is recalling Timothy’s reversion, his reversion recovery,
his arrival at super-grace status. He recalls that his mother went through the
same thing. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb through the
pleasant function of his memory centre during his dying moments. He has no regrets,
he has perfect memory thanks to the fact that Timothy has recovered from
reversionism. Timothy did it by his own consistent positive volition toward
doctrine and Paul has a wonderful memory. The participle is temporal: “When I
remember.”
“the unfeigned faith” — whatever
“unfeigned” is in the old English it is hiding a compound adjective in the
objective genitive singular, a)nupokritoj, [a, negative; u(po,
under; krithj, a mask] literally not
under a mask. It means not speaking from under a mask. It means to be an actor.
The idea came from Greek drama. An actor was a synonym in the Greek world for
hypocrite. In fact the Greek word for an actor was u(pokrithj from which we get the English word hypocrite. Here, with an a in front of it, it means non-hypocritical. But in
modern English it means real or genuine. The word “faith” is the objective
genitive singular from the noun pistij meaning what is believed —
doctrine. It should be translated, “the real [genuine] doctrine.” This is a
reference to Bible doctrine, but it is also Bible doctrine located in a
specific place…
“that is in thee” — the preposition e)n plus the locative singular of the personal pronoun su — “in you.”
So fare we have, “When I recall the
genuine doctrine in you.” This is genuine doctrine in contrast to false
doctrine, in contrast to evil. Here is a dying man and his pleasant memory is
that once more Timothy has maximum doctrine in his soul and has recovered from
his terrible case of reversionism. He has now joined the ranks of the next
generation who will be the spiritual Atlases and will carry historically the
generation coming up.
“which” — the nominative singular
from the qualitative relative pronoun o(stij. It emphasises the high quality of the doctrine inside of Timothy.
Timothy has GAPed it to super-grace, he has recovered from reversionism. This
is also an indefinite relative pronoun in contrast to a definite relative
pronoun o(j. The indefinite pronoun
plus its qualitative aspect it means we simply do not know what specific
doctrine he had inside of him that made him a super-grace believer because the
principle is being emphasised rather than the detailed content. Therefore the
qualitative relative pronoun tells us that inside of Timothy at this moment is
a maximum amount of doctrine that has put him in the super-grace bracket —
“which resident doctrine.”
“dwelt” is the aorist active
indicative from the compound Greek verb e)noikew [e)n, inside : oikew, to dwell or to live]. It means to indwell, to
inhabit, or to be resident. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a
present reality with the certitude of a past event. This Greek idiom is a
device for emphasis. In fact, Bible doctrine in the soul resulting in
super-grace is a very dramatic principle. The active voice: doctrine produces
the action. The indicative mood is declarative, representing the verbal action
from the viewpoint of historical reality.
“first” — prwton is used in its obvious temporal sense. The same
doctrine which made Timothy a super-grace believer first resided in his
grandmother Lois.
“in thy grandmother Lois” — e)n plus the locative of mammh
which means grandmother, plus Lwij which means “agreeable.”
Here is a woman who many years ago had believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not
only had she believed but she had persisted in the function of GAP after her
salvation. She reached the high ground of the super-grace life. Many
grandmothers have been the basis for the perpetuation of a great spiritual
heritage.
“and thy mother Eunice” — E)unikh, which means “great victory.” Eunice was taught
doctrine from early childhood.
“and I am persuaded” — a
transitional de without any contrast
intended, translated “now,” plus the perfect passive indicative of the verb peiqw. It is interesting that grandmother Lois trained
daughter Eunice so that grandmother Lois had no regrets. But she had the
monstrous privilege of watching her daughter make a total ass of herself, do
everything wrong, go in the wrong direction. There was nothing she could do,
her daughter was now an adult. We have the perfect passive indicative of peiqw. This is the intensive perfect for a completed
action with results going on and on. The passive voice: Paul receives
confidence [the perfect tense means to have confidence]. The indicative mood is
declarative contemplating the action from the standpoint of dogmatic reality —
“now I am confident.” Peiqw means to obey in the
present or the aorist. Sometimes it means to believe, but in the perfect it
always means to have confidence.
“that in thee also” — should be,
“that it [doctrine] is also in you.” We have the adjunctive kai, “also,” plus the preposition e)n, plus the locative of the personal pronoun su; plus the present active indicative of e)imi.
Paul is not ashamed of Timothy or
his wonderful spiritual heritage. The best thing parents can leave their
children is Bible doctrine but to be effective this doctrine must be resident
in the soul of the individual believer.
Translation: “When I recall the real
doctrine in you, which doctrine first resided in your grandmother Lois, and
your mother Eunice; then I am confident that it [the doctrine] is also in you.”
This verse is a double illustration
of Proverbs 22:6 — “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is
old he will not depart from it.” This is not when he is a teenage, that is when
he will. All teenagers go off at some point. But that isn’t the promise. “When
he is old,” old in the sense of mature.
Principles
The grandmother, Lois, became a
super-grace believer and had the privilege of passing the baton or handing the
colours over to her daughter. Here is a woman who is the antithesis of the
women’s liberation mob. Here is a woman who carried her generation.
1. Having trained her daughter in
doctrine after salvation, what happened? In her early twenties Eunice reacted
to her doctrinal training. She rejected what she had been taught.
2. The result: She made a bad
marriage to a Greek whose name is never recorded in the Bible — Acts 16:1.
3. In reversionism Eunice married an
unbeliever.
4. Obviously the unknown Greek was
not her right man, says the adversative particle de
which sets up a contrast in Acts 16:1 between the fact that she was a believer
and he was an unbeliever.
5. However, the bad marriage in two
benefits. God turns cursing into blessing where a person leaves reversionism
and goes to super-grace. a) She recovered from reversionism and became a
super-grace believer; b) She had a son whom she called Timothy, which means “he
who honours God.” She name him Timothy because she knew Proverbs 22:6. She
dedicated herself to training that child.
This also bring in another
principle. No matter how a child fails, if that child ever gets a hold of
doctrine and goes with doctrine that child will never fail. There is no such
thing as a child who cannot be recovered but they have to learn themselves. You
cannot force doctrine on a child.
6. She followed the colours to the
high ground of super-grace and established a command post of doctrine resident
in her soul.
7. She had a son.
8. Her how was to perpetuate not a
natural but a spiritual heritage. She was smart, she name her son Timothy
because she was going to emphasise spiritual heritage.
9. She had to name him Timothy for
she had dedicated herself to the principle that only through doctrine resident
in the soul can there ever be happiness in this life.
10. So grandmother Lois had the
privilege of seeing the fulfilment of Proverbs 22:6, for when Eunice was old
she did not depart from her spiritual heritage but she received from her mother
Lois and she carried the colours for her generation.
Illustration
Eunice trained Timothy in doctrine,
Timothy was saved and advanced in a remarkable way until Paul left him at
Ephesus where he failed. Like his mother before him he failed. But his mother,
like her mother, claimed Proverbs 22:6. Timothy was already hurting but the
shock of the first epistle came at a time when he was hurting the most. The
discipline awakened him and he began to think and assimilate, and he recovered.
He moved out of reversionism to the high ground, and when he was old he did not
depart from that spiritual heritage of maximum doctrine resident in the soul.
1. Here is one of the most beautiful
patterns of grace that helps to explain a great concept of history. Three
generations related physically — grandmother, mother and son.
2. But a thousand times more
important than the genes passed down was the spiritual heritage which carried
human history for three generations.
3. We have three generations
following the colours, three generations going from saving grace to living
grace to super-grace to dying grace to surpassing grace. Three generations in
the same family.
4. Parents who have been faithful in
teaching doctrine to their children, training them in the function of GAP,
getting them under the right pastor when they are tender, should never be
discouraged when their children appear to turn out bad.
5. When their children begin to
resist doctrine, become reversionistic, yield to the influence of evil, become
apostate and blasphemous, if parents are believers with maximum doctrine they
are believers with capacity and will never ever let their children ruin their
life. They have to go right on living.
The doctrine of historical interpretation
It has to be remembered that
interpretation of history is a very tricky principle and it has led many people
down the path to evil and the influence of evil in reversionism. For example,
historical interpretation generally depends on human viewpoint.
1. Jesus Christ controls history. a)
Direct control through His divine essence. That means that Jesus Christ as God
never loses control of anything. b) Indirect control through the laws of divine
establishment. Jesus Christ set up a system of laws to perpetuate the human
race and to allow freedom in every generation for believing in Christ, and
freedom to express positive volition in the function of GAP. c) Permissive
control permitting human volition to function in this phase of the angelic
conflict. In other words, the angelic conflict must go on and this is why Jesus
Christ permits evil to continue in the world. That is why evil and human good
were rejected at the cross.
2. The Bible is the key to
historical interpretation. Historical interpretation related to God, the unseen
world of angels, and the visible world of mankind can only be put together
properly through understanding Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine is the basis for
the correct interpretation of history. To see history objectively one must possess
the divine viewpoint. Through history is a series of facts about the human race
but these facts can never be properly correlated unless one understands such
simple doctrines as the old sin nature, power lust, materialism lust, and
things of this sort. To correlate and interpret the facts of history Bible
doctrine must be resident in the soul. This limits the unbeliever’s
perspicacity in this field of his understanding, especially if he is out of the
laws of divine establishment.
To correctly interpret history one
must understand evil, reversionism, apostasy, and be able to distinguish them
from sin. Sin never kept a great man from being great; sin never kept anyone
from doing anything. Sin never ruined a man’s ministry. But what ruins many a
pastor’s ministry is evil and reversionism. Sin is not an issue because Christ
destroyed it as an issue on the cross. He was judged for our sins. That is why
we simply name our sins and we are forgiven immediately. In other words,
carnality should never be a hindrance to anything, but evil is a hindrance to
everything.
To correctly interpret history one
also must understand the doctrine of dispensations, the Church Age, the royal
family of God. While many historians recognise, for example, simple facts like
Rome as the centre of gravity in history, human genius is limited by ignorance
of Bible doctrine and divine viewpoint.
5. Each generation of history is
sustained by super-grace believers. What holds up every generation of history?
The super-grace believer is the spiritual Atlas of his generation. He is
responsible for blessing by association and prosperity by association. He is
himself blessed of God and those associated with him are blessed by the
association. The super-grace believer is the salt of the land.
6. And super-grace depends upon one
category of the human race: pastor-teacher. There is no super-grace without
pastor-teachers teaching the Word of God.
Verse 6 — “Wherefore” is dia plus the accusative feminine singular from the
relative pronoun o(j, and also the accusative
singular, the object of the preposition dia,
of a)itia which means “cause.”
Literally this would be translated “Because of which cause.” In other words, dia plus the accusative is translated “because.” Then
the object of dia is a)itia, meaning cause. There is also a relative pronoun
translated “which.” This is an idiom meaning “For which reason.” Because of the
spiritual heritage principle in history, because every generation depends upon
its own spiritual heritage and draws from its spiritual heritage and is blessed
or cursed by spiritual heritage — super-grace believers or lack of them.
Because of the spiritual heritage of doctrine in the soul carrying that
generation we are now ready to understand something about the axle. There must
be someone who communicates doctrine. In his generation the apostle Paul was
the axle.
“I put thee in remembrance” — the
present active indicative from the compound verb a)namimnhskw. A)na means again and again; mimnhskw means to remember. To
remember again and again means to be reminded. Literally, “I remind you.” We
also have the accusative singular direct object of the personal pronoun su. he is still talking to Timothy, he is passing the
guidon, the regimental colours. This is a descriptive or pictorial present
tense, it depicts the event in the process of occurrence. He is in the process
of reminding Timothy. The whole of 2 Timothy is instructions to the next person
who will carry the colours, instructions to the super-grace believer who will
lead super-grace believers in the next generation. Paul produces the action of
the verb, he is, as it were, passing the regimental colours on to Timothy. The
indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint
of reality.
“that thou stir up” — present active
infinitive from a triple compound verb, a)nazwpurew. A)na means again and again; zwh means life; pur means fire. It means to put life back in the fire
or, as we would say, to fire up, to rekindle. It doesn’t mean to stir up. The
present tense is an iterative present, it describes what recurs at successive
intervals. Timothy has gone through a period of reversionism and by his
subsequent recovery he now needs to fire up and start using the gift again. The
active voice: Timothy must produce the action of the verb and can do it in only
one way, by studying and teaching. The infinitive is the infinitive of purpose.
This must be his purpose. Every generation historically depends upon the
communicators of doctrine in that generation.
“the gift of God” — the accusative
singular definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun, calling attention to
the fact that Timothy has the gift of pastor-teacher, plus the accusative
singular direct object of the noun xarisma which means a spiritual gift
in the Bible. Today it has been given an entirely different meaning in the
English. It really means to be a communicator of doctrine, and the doctrine
changes the life. It is translated “gift” but if we transliterated it we might
even see it a little better” “that charisma.” “Of God” is an ablative of source
from qeoj. The ablative always gives
the connotation of original source. God is the original source of Timothy’s
spiritual gift. This means that you cannot elect people to becoming pastors. It
is a sovereign decision of God the Holy Spirit.
Three things about Timothy’s life:
a) He was a plodder; b) Then he was a failure in the status of reversionism; c)
He came out of it and went to super-grace. Being a pastor-teacher he is now
commanded to fire up his gift.
Verse 6b — “by the putting on of my
hands.” We have the preposition dia plus the genitive of e)piqesij. Dia plus the genitive means through; e)piqesij means the laying on, and then we have the
possessive genitive plural xeir for hands — “through the
laying on of my hands.”
Note that only Paul was involved in
the laying on of hands. It only took one person who had the gift to perform
this ceremony and recognise it in someone else. So the laying on of the hands
is the ceremony of identification. The apostle was not only recognising the
fact that Timothy had the gift of pastor-teacher but he identified himself with
him. When Paul laid his hands on Timothy he didn’t know at that time that in a
future time in this epistle he would also pass on to him the colours, which
means that the next generation is going to have a super-grace leader and that
super-grace believers will exist in the next generation to carry that
generation of history. In anticipation of the next verse he also indicates the
importance of both the authority and the function of the gift which had been
neutralised in Timothy’s immediate past by his reversionism, the fear that came
from his reversionism. A pastor can never be afraid of people, he must never be
afraid of anyone, he must never be afraid of anyone under all conditions.
Translation: “For which reason I
remind you to rekindle [fire up] that gift from God, which is in you,
recognised through the laying on of my hands.”
Verse 7 — this verse is to those who
have the gift of communication, those who are going to be the hub of the wheel,
those who are going to be the source for all super-grace believers in any
generation. All super-grace believers are like spokes in a wheel, and the
source of their super-grace is the faithful teaching of some pastor. No
believer ever grows up unless he gets under the ministry of his own
pastor-teacher.
“For” is the post positive
conjunctive particle gar used here as an explanatory
conjunction. It delineates the conditions under which the gift of
pastor-teacher must function. It explains how a pastor remains normal.
“God” is o( qeoj — “the God.” God the Father, author of the divine plan, is the source
the pastor’s authority without which no man could ever stay in the ministry.
The only reason a person does stay in the ministry is because of who and what
God is. The issue is relationship with God. The pastor is directly responsible
to and answerable to God for the function of his gift.
“hath not given” — the aorist active
indicative of didomi plus the strong negative o)uk. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a
present reality with the certitude of a past event. It is used for a state
which has just been realised by the reader. A pastor can neither cater to
people nor be afraid of people. The gift of pastor-teacher demands moral
courage above and beyond the ordinary courage and integrity of life. No pastor
can protect a congregation and be a coward. The active voice plus the negative
indicates the fact that God has made no provision for cowards in the ministry.
The indicative mood is declarative for historical and dogmatic reality. There
is no place in the ministry for cowards.
“us” — dative plural indirect object
from the personal pronoun e)gw. It is in the plural
because there is more than one legitimate pastor in any given generation. The
active voice plus the negative indicates that God has made no provision for
cowards in the ministry. The indicative mood is declarative for dogmatic
reality.
“the spirit of fear” — the word
“spirit” is the direct object of pneuma. Pneuma means something besides spirit. It means breath,
sometimes to the human spirit, sometimes to the Holy Spirit, sometimes to life
in general. Here it means the life or the state of mind. Then we have a
descriptive genitive from the noun deilia which means “cowardice” —
“a life of cowardice.”
“but” — the adversative conjunction a)lla sets up a contrast between the negative cowardice
and the positive power; “of power” — a descriptive genitive singular from the
noun dunamij which means inner power.
The inherent or inner power here refers to Bible doctrine. The primary reason
for the pastor possessing so much authority is doctrine — teaching doctrine,
learning doctrine. Above all else a man who is in the pastorate must be a man
of doctrine, it must be #1 priority in his life.
“and love” refers to another inner
power. It is a)gaph which means a relaxed
mental attitude which comes from the filling of the Holy Spirit. It means a
relaxed mental attitude toward people. Cf Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:22. Power +
love = doctrine + the filling of the Spirit. The positive side of this verse,
therefore, describes the balance of residency in the soul. The filling of the
Holy Spirit plus maximum doctrine in the soul [balance of residency] results
from great self-discipline which is mistranslated here “soundness of mind.”
“and of a sound mind” — descriptive
genitive from a compound noun, swfronismoj. It means self-control or
self-discipline, not sound mind alone. The meaning of a word is determined by
its usage and this word is used in the sense of self-discipline.
Translation: “For the God has not
given to us [pastors] a state of mind of cowardice; but of power [maximum
doctrine in the soul], and of love [filling of the Spirit], and of
self-discipline.”
Suddenly the message changes from
the self-discipline of the function of GAP to the greatest subject in the Word
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In verses 8-11 we have the principle of
not being ashamed of Christ.
Verse 8 — the relationship between
category #1 and category #3 love. “Be not thou therefore ashamed” — the
inferential enclitic particle o)un, correctly translated
“therefore.” It is introduced as an inference from what precedes. We have an
aorist passive subjunctive from e)paisxunomai
which means
to be ashamed. With the accusative it means to be ashamed of something. The
aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in
its entirety. With the negative mh it indicates “not ashamed
of Jesus Christ” who went to the cross and was judged for our sins, who handed
us the regimental colours of doctrine in departing from this life, who was
raised the third day, who ascended and was seated at the right hand of the
Father, at which point He received His battlefield royalty; and therefore this
explains why we are royal family — union with Him, we are the royal family
resulting from His battlefield royalty. So it gathers up into one entirety the
attitude of any super-grace believer toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever He
is contemplated, whenever He comes into the memory centre of the soul, there is
no shame there of any kind. There is no being ashamed when you have maximum
doctrine in the soul. Why is Paul not ashamed of Christ? Because in His soul he
has maximum doctrine. If he didn’t have that doctrine he would be, that is a
part of the angelic conflict. A very short time ago Timothy was ashamed of
Christ because he was in reversionism. This is the natural thinking of the
reversionist. The passive voice here: the subject Timothy receives the action
of the verb. As a reversionist he was ashamed, but with the negative and
recovering from reversionism he is not ashamed. The subjunctive mood indicates
the potentialities of this which no longer exist. “Therefore do not be
ashamed.” In view of Timothy’s reversion recovery, in view of the fact that
Timothy has now become a super-grace believer, in view of the point of doctrine
that super-grace believers are spiritual Atlases carrying their generation of history,
in view of the fact that Timothy is a third-generation super-grace believer
now, he must never again be ashamed of the Lord, nor of his friend Paul.
“of
the testimony of our Lord” — this includes the accusative singular direct
object from marturion which does not mean martyr,
it means evidence given in court. If you understand “Call the next witness” as
a technical courtroom word, then witness is all right, but it is someone who
gives a witness or a deposition. The marturion is a person who speaks, he
communicates information about a case now under trial in court. The one who
speaks or the marturion is the pastor communicating
doctrine. The congregation listens and judges, and accepts or rejects. Do not
be ashamed of the evidence. “Of our Lord” is the descriptive genitive of kurioj, referring to the Lord Jesus Christ — “of our Lord”
or “with reference to our Lord.” In other words, don’t be ashamed of doctrinal
teaching. So this in a sense is a prohibition related to the numerous doctrines
that are taught concerning our Lord. The prohibition implies that during his
time of reversionism Timothy was ashamed of Christ, and now all of this has
changed. So in affect Paul is saying, Never get back into reversionism again,
never neglect doctrine. When you neglect the evidence then you become ashamed
of the person. So the prohibition emphasises the fact that Timothy must refrain
from any future apostasy because he has a job to do now that he is back in
super-grace, he is to hold up the next generation.
“nor of me his prisoner” — Paul has
been severely criticised and he is now ostracised by Roman society. Pseudo love
would shy away from Paul. No one ever takes a step forward without having the
step challenged. The subtlety of the challenges may not be recognised.
“but” is the adversative conjunction
a)lla, it sets up the contrast.
How do you meet the challenge?
“be thou partaker” — aorist active
imperative from sugkakopaqew, composed of the
preposition sun which means “with,” the
adjective kakoj for evil, and paqew is from the verb pasxw
to suffer. It means to suffer evil with [Paul] — “to join with me in suffering
evil.” If you are going to hold up the world in your generation you are going
to suffer from the world. The word throws at you the worst pressure possible —
evil. Paul is pressurised by evil. When you advance up that hill to super-grace
you are going to face evil. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist in which
the action of the verb is contemplated as beginning. It means “begin to join
me, now is the time.” It denotes the entrance into a status of expressing
category #3 love toward Paul, category #1 love toward the Lord, and facing the
same pressure that all super-grace believers face. Evil is the great enemy of
the super-grace believer. The active voice: Timothy will produce the action of
the verb through being under the pressure from evil. The imperative mood is a
command.
“of the afflictions” is not found in
the original manuscript.
“of the gospel” is a dative singular
of reference — e)uaggelion means “with reference to
the gospel.” Evil is not only opposed to the gospel but any manifestation of
grace in history. The greatest historical manifestation of grace is the gospel
and one’s attitude toward the gospel is one’s attitude toward grace. But remember
that Satan and all of the fallen angels and all unbelievers have an attitude
toward the gospel, and the attitude represents some facet of evil.
“according to the power of God” —
the preposition kata plus the accusative
singular of dunamij which means inherent power,
it is used for the omnipotence of God. The gospel is the manifestation of God’s
perfect power. God offers everyone something free. Satan in his gross pride is
opposed to such genius. Evil is the accumulation of Satanic arrogance, arrogance
is angels and man which reject the gospel, reject what God has provided free.
Since the gospel is doctrine obviously it will be opposed by evil. We also have
the possessive genitive of qeoj minus the definite article.
The absence of the definite article calls attention to the high and perfect
quality of God.
Translation: “Therefore do not be
ashamed of the evidence with reference to our Lord, nor me his prisoner; but
join with me in suffering evil with reference to the gospel according to the
power of God.”
Verse 9 — this verse is to make us
realise that not only were we saved by grace but we are to live by grace. And
not only are we living by grace but we are to grow in grace, and that means in
the knowledge of our Lord and saviour. So the orientation to grace begins in
this verse.
There is an immediate question. What
is the super-grace believer? James 4:6 tell us that God gives not “more grace,”
as it is stated in the KJV, but meizona
xarin which
is actually two accusatives. One is the accusative singular direct object from
a comparative adjective called megaj.
Megaj means
great. The comparative meizona means greater. With it is
the object of the verb didomi, and with it is the
accusative singular direct object of the noun xarij.
This should be translated “greater grace.” Since grace in itself is an absolute
the only thing that is greater than grace is super-grace. The only way you can
glorify God is for God to take blessings which were designed for you in
eternity past and give them to you in time. We God can bless you in time in the
devil’s world, then God is glorified. He provides these for the super-grace
believer. The super-grace believer is not the believer who has done something
but he is the one who consistently takes in doctrine until he has his cup
running over. He has doctrine and God fills his cup with blessings. These
blessings are designed totally apart from the Satanic system.
` It all starts with a great principle
found here: “Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling.” Not only
were we saved but we were saved for a purpose which is called here “a holy
calling.”
“Who hath saved us” — descriptive
genitive singular from the definite article, which is an articular participle,
plus the aorist active participle of swzw which refers here to
eternal salvation. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it refers to a
momentary action when the individual believes in Jesus Christ. The constative
aorist gathers into one entirety the action of the verb, which took place here in
less than one second. In one instant of time you believed in Jesus Christ. The
active voice: God does the saving. We also have an accusative plural direct
object from the person pronoun e)gw which refers here to
Timothy and to Paul… “and called us.” So we have “The one having saved us,” and
next it is going to say, “the one having called us.” So we anticipate this
personal pronoun e)gw twice. “The one” is the
definite article referring to God. E)gw is the word “us” and it
refers to a specific kind of believer. All believers are saved and all
believers are called, but in this context Paul is a super-grace believer and
Timothy is a super-grace believer and therefore a certain kind of believer is
involved. All grace orientation begins with salvation. No one ever reaches
super-grace without a thorough understanding of soteriology.
“The one having saved us” is a
circumstantial aorist participle. He saved us in the moment of time we
believed. In that particular moment the constative aorist says that He provided
salvation. We believed; He saved us. He also called us, but “called” will go
back to eternity past. In eternity past God knew that we would believe in time,
and therefore He provided for us a tremendous blessing.
There are three basic principles
that we must understand: redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation. These
are the three directional principles of soteriology. Each one goes in a
different direction and each one summarises a part of the work of Jesus Christ
on the cross.
We will summarise the word “redemption”
by saying it means to purchase from a slave market. All of the Greek words have
a simple basic connotation. They all point out the fact that the person is
shackled in a slave market. Only slaves are in the slave market. And someone
comes along and purchases his freedom. That is what redemption means, to buy
someone from slave market and then to free them. So by way of definition,
redemption is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross which is directed
toward sin.
When Christ was on the cross His
saving work went in three directions: toward God, toward man, toward sin.
Redemption covers the principle of sin. The point is that the human race was
born with a sin nature. We aren’t sinners because we sin, that is merely a
result. We are sinners because when we were born into this world we had an old
sin nature. We are in the slave market of sin because we were born with this
old sin nature, we acquired it from our first parents. We are also born with
the imputation of Adam’s sin, we are born with an old sin nature. So while we
are physically alive at birth we are also at the same time spiritually dead, we
are in the slave market. We are slaves to the old sin nature. No one with an
old sin nature can help someone else get out of the slave market. The only way
to get out is to have someone who is free buy their freedom. That someone is
Christ.
First of all, the virgin birth
brought Him into the world minus the old sin nature, minus the imputation of
Adam’s sin. Therefore, by living a perfect life He was qualified to go to the
cross and to bear the sins of the world. The purchase price for freedom is to
take the sins of everyone who ever lived and have them all poured out upon
Christ on the cross, and there He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.
That is called redemption, they way that we are purchased.
The fact that Christ bore the sins
of everyone who ever lived doesn’t mean that they are out of the slave market.
They have to walk through the gate, and they walk through the gate by faith in
Jesus Christ. Redemption, then, is the work of Christ on the cross toward sin.
Redemption is the saving act of Christ by which He purchases our freedom from
the slave market of sin, and the coin of the realm is called the blood of
Christ. Jesus Christ, then, is the only qualified redeemer. The qualification
begins with the virgin birth of Christ, His impeccability, and His humanity
therefore is qualified. Romans 5:19 tells us that Christ was also willing to
redeem us; Philippians 2:8,9. The blood of Christ is the ransom money —
Ephesians 1:7.
The doctrine of reconciliation is
the work of Christ from the cross toward man. It merely recognises the fact
that there is a great barrier between man and God. The barrier is made up of
sin — “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” The penalty of sin
is death, spiritual death — Romans 6:23. The barrier contains also the problem
of physical birth, we are born physically alive but at the same time is
spiritually dead.
And this barrier includes some other
problems. There is the problem of relative righteousness. Man at his best is
minus righteousness (-R); God is (+R), and -R cannot have fellowship with +R.
There is the problem of the character of God. God has perfect character, man
does not. How can man have a relationship when he doesn’t have eternal life.
Then there is the problem of position in Adam.
There is no way to get past this
barrier. That is what religion tries to do. Religion tries to build up a system
of works so you can climb over the wall, of to build up a system of works that
digs you under the wall, or find a crack in the wall where you can help God!
So, once again, the great issue is
grace. The one who has saved us is strictly the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the
one who has removed every item in the barrier. The problem of sin was solved on
the cross — doctrines of unlimited atonement, redemption. The penalty of sin
was paid — doctrine of expiation. Physical birth — the cross provides for the
basis for spiritual birth. The problem of relative righteousness is solved by
the imputation of divine righteousness to the person who believes in Christ —
imputation and justification. The problem of the character of God is solved by
propitiation. Position in Adam is solved by position in Christ. And now between
God and man there is no barrier, the barrier is removed by the cross and man,
therefore, can simply step over the line by believing in Jesus Christ.
This work of Christ on the cross is
said to be manward, Christ has reconciled man to God on the cross.
The third factor is propitiation,
and propitiation is Godward. The problem is, how can a loving God give eternal
life to man who is a sinner. The only way this can be accomplished is by some
to go to the cross who has an equivalent righteousness to the Father. That
someone is Jesus Christ, who in His deity and in His humanity is perfect. The
justice of God says the wages of sin is death so Christ pays that penalty on
the cross. That is spiritual death. Therefore the sins of the world are poured
out upon Christ on the cross and judged. So the righteousness of Christ on the
cross satisfies the righteousness of the Father. Bearing our sins satisfies the
justice of the Father. The wages of sin was paid on the cross — Romans 5:8.
That is spiritual death, taking our place. Now love and eternal life are free
to come through the grace pipe to man, but only by way of the cross. God the
Father is propitiated, He is free to express His love to the believer, He is
free to give the believer eternal life and not compromise His righteousness and
His justice. That is propitiation. Righteousness and justice are not
compromised in giving eternal life to any member of the human race who will
believe in Jesus Christ.
We have three different principles
here, all of them are tied up in the phrase “the one having saved us.”
“and called us” — the continuative
use of the conjunction kai, plus the aorist active
participle from the verb kalew, the ordinary Greek word
which means to call. It also has a technical meaning, it means to call for the
participation in the privileges and the benefits of something. The privileges
and the benefits here refer to grace, and so it is a call related to the
privileges and the benefits of grace. It is translated, “and called us” or “and
elected us.” We have the aorist tense in this verb always meaning an
invitation, that is, and invitation here to privilege and blessing. God wants
us to have the best of everything in life, and nothing short of the best will
do. He designed our life in eternity past with that in mind. So we have another
advance in the sense that this verb connotes the entire doctrine of election is
designed to remind us that since we are believers in Jesus Christ God has a
purpose for our life. That purpose is blessing. We are invited to enter a plan,
to enjoy its benefits, its privileges, and the way it functions under grace. Kalew: The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist tense which
states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. The present
reality is the fact that salvation means sharing the election of Jesus Christ
and being members of the royal family of God forever. There is another factor
which is emphasised and it has to do with election. We have an invitation to
enter into the plan of God and to enjoy its privileges and benefits. The
invitation also has an alternative, not mentioned here, is divine discipline in
time. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb in
eternity past when He planned election as a part of operation grace. This is
what is called a telic participle, it denotes the purpose of God the Father in
the royal family of God. The action of the aorist participle precedes the
action of the main verb and the main verb in this verse will be “not being
ashamed.” Inasmuch as we have been called we have been elected, we are not to
be ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ, the key to our election, the key to the
invitation into a plan of blessing and benefit.
“with an holy calling” — this really
means a holy election. We have the locative singular from the adjective a(gioj. It is a counterpart to the word “saint.” Every
believer is a saint by virtue of being in the plan, and therefore there is an
adjective attached to each one of us, we are all called holy. The word “holy”
actually refers to being set apart in the plan of God. Once you believe in
Jesus Christ you are holy, you are set apart into the plan of God. That is what
the locative of sphere is all about. With this adjective we have the noun
translated “calling.” It is the locative of sphere from the noun klhsij. Klhsij has two meanings in this particular verse.
It means a station of life. It also means technically election, which is our
station in life. So we can translate, “and having elected us to a holy station
of life,” i.e. into the royal family of God.
The doctrine of election
1. The etymology. The Hebrew word
from Isaiah is bachir. It is found in
Isaiah 42:1, one of the key principles in understanding the doctrine of
election. If you understand election you can understand predestination. There
are three nouns in the Greek that are directly and correctly translated
election in the New Testament. The first is e)klektoj. This is where we get the English word “election.” It is found in
Matthew 24:22,24,31 where it is used for super-grace believers in the
Tribulation. It is used for all believers in Romans 8:33; Colossians 3:12; 1
Timothy 5:21; 1 Peter 1:2, and other passages. There is a noun which also
occurs once, suneklektoj, meaning there are others
in the plan with us — 1 Peter 5:13. The third noun which is directly translated
“election” is e)klogh — e)k
means out from; logh is from logoj, the word: “out from the word,” and it emphasises
the doctrine of election as related to toe doctrine of decrees. It is found in
Romans 11:5,7.28; 1 Thessalonians 1:4. In addition, there is the noun which is
usually translated “calling” but often is technically used for election — klhsij. It is derived from the verb kalew meaning to call or to be invited into a plan for
benefit.
2. Definition. There are several
principles:
a) Election is that
doctrine which relates the believer to the plan of God from eternity past. God
knew in eternity past that you would believe in Christ and He did something
about it long before you existed.
b) Therefore election is
a part of the divine decrees.
c) God had omniscience,
always has omniscience, and there never was and never will be in history any
person who was unknown to God in eternity past. There never was a time when He
did not know you personally and every decision you would ever make from your
free will. He knew every person who would believe in Christ, He knew every
person who would not. For those He knew would believe in Christ he made plans
for them. Every blessing was designed for you in eternity past.
d) These plans are
called decrees. They include provision, blessing, honour for believers in time
and believers in eternity. Therefore election is defined as the plan of God for
the believer predesigned in eternity past, fulfilled in time and in the eternal
future. That is election.
The key to understanding the
doctrine of election is related to the fact that Jesus Christ was elected in
eternity past — Isaiah 42:1. God the Father anticipated everything that Christ
would need for the first advent and provided it then. God the Father can do no
less for you, you are in union with Christ, you share His election.
The election of the believer in the
Church Age is different from the election of the Old testament saints because
we are royal family. The Old Testament believers were family of God, they were
regenerated, they were born again when they believed in Christ. But once Christ
was seated at the right hand of the Father and was appointed battlefield
royalty, at that moment He was minus a royal family. So the Age of Israel came
to a halt and the age of the Church began in order to call out a royal family
of God. We are royal family of God, that is why the baptism of the Spirit
occurs only in this dispensation, and that is the mechanics by which we share
His election and become royal family forever.
3. The election of Jesus Christ —
Isaiah 42:1; 1 Peter 2:4,6. While man rejected Christ during His first advent
He is elected and He is important to God. Christ is described as elected and
held in honour. Therefore the election principle from eternity past not only
sustains Christ but He is said to be the elected one, He is also said to be the
one who is held in honour. This means that if you are in union with Christ that
God can hold you in no less honour. In the doctrine of election God doesn’t
hold us in honour, He holds Jesus Christ in honour — just one person. There are
millions of believers now and because Christ is held in honour, and because God
the Holy Spirit entered us into union with Christ at the point of salvation, we
are held in the same honour as Christ. That is election.
So
it is inevitable, therefore, that members of the royal family of God share this
election through union with Christ. This is the subject of Ephesians 1:3-6.
Essentially, election is being in union with Christ and sharing everything that
Christ is. This is Christianity, not religion.
4. Election is the basis for Church
Age royalty. At the moment of salvation God the Holy Spirit is responsible for
five out of the thirty-six things which are accomplished. The first is
regeneration. God the Holy Spirit is the agent in making us born again. The
second is the baptism of the Spirit. God the Holy Spirit enters us into union
with Christ. The third is indwelling whereby God the Holy Spirit comes to
indwell our bodies. The fourth is sealing whereby we are sealed to the day of
redemption, the day of our resurrection bodies. That means we have eternal
security. The fifth is the presentation to each one of us of a spiritual gift.
All of these are accomplished by the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation.
So the baptism of the Spirit is the
basis for election, for entrance into the royal status of the family of God.
Therefore, 1 Corinthians 12:13 connected with 1 Thessalonians 1:4 tells us the
whole story. 1 Cor. tells us the mechanics.
Through resurrection, ascension,
session, Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father. He became
battlefield royalty but without a royal family. The royal family is in the
process of formation, you are a part of that royal family. Mechanics: baptism
of the Holy Spirit which never occurred before the Church Age and will never
occur after the Rapture of the Church.
The principle: Under positional
sanctification we both share His election and His royalty.
5. The election of the royal family
of God [Church Age believer]. Union with Christ through the baptism of the
Spirit means that we share the election of Christ, we share the royalty of
Christ. Therefore, every Church Age believer is designated “called, saint,
elected” — all interchangeable. Ephesians 1:4.
The principle of this election is
found in Romans 8:28-32. This is election related to every member of the royal
family of God.
6. The objective of election in time
is to encourage the believer to attain the tactical victory of the super-grace
life. Ephesians 4:1. Every time there is something about our station in life
there is also something about our election.
7. The Jewish believers also present
problem. Today there are many Jews who have not accepted Christ and the
question comes up: Has Israel lost out? In saying no to that answer election is
discussed in Romans 11:1-7.
8. Election is used for super-grace
believers of the Tribulation — Matthew 24:21ff, “...because of the elect.” This
tells us that those who are under the plan of election who fulfil it in time
always reach super-grace. And when they do they become a basis of blessing to
all who are in their periphery. In other words, it is the believer in
super-grace fulfilling the principle of election who is the spiritual Atlas in
any generation of history.
“not according to our works” — just
as salvation is not according to works our election, the plan of God for each
one of us, is not works either. It is not what we do, it is what he did, and He
did it in eternity past. We have “not,” the strong negative o)uk, plus the preposition kata,
plus the accusative plural of e)rgon, plus the possessive
genitive plural from the personal pronoun e)gw.
This refers to all believers in this dispensation. The plan, operation grace,
excludes all human good, all legalism. There is no place in the plan of God for
human ability, human merit, human planning, human good of any kind.
“our works” — “our” is a possessive
genitive plural.
This anticipates the noun proqesij which means the plan purpose of God for each
believer. In this plan all human thinking, all human merit is totally excluded.
This is the word translated “purpose” — predetermined plan, prefabricated plan.
We have, again, the preposition kata and the object is proqesij.
“his own” — the adjective i)dioj which means privacy, private possession: “but
according to his own privately possessed, predetermined plan.” God has a
predetermined plan for each believer. As you grow in grace and as you take in
doctrine this plan unfolds in terms of blessing, in terms of being able to cope
with any disaster or any situation in life.
“and grace” — the ascensive use of kai should be translated “even.” That means that
whatever comes up after “predetermined plan” it has a synonym. That synonym is
the word xarij, the accusative singular
object of the preposition. The preposition kata
has two objects: proqesij, the predetermined plan,
and xarij which should be translated
“even grace” — “but according to his own predetermined plan, even grace.” Grace
is a simple title for the plan of God. Grace is not only the principle of the
plan of God but the title, the concept, the mechanics.
The doctrine of grace
1. Grace is all that God is free to
do for man on the basis of the work of Christ on the cross. Grace is God’s
freedom and consistency to express His love to mankind without jeopardising the
rest of His essence. Grace is all that God can do for man from salvation to
eternity totally apart from man’s merit, man’s ability, man’s talent, man’s
planning, man’s concepts. Grace, then, in one word is the absolute genius of
God, and doctrine is the manifestation of that genius. The great enemy of grace
is legalism, man’s intrusion into the plan of God with his works, with his
thinking, with his ability, with his plans, with his schemes, and with his
talents. The believer must learn to sort out the difference between grace and
legalism.
2. Grace and the new contract for
the Church. The Church is the royal family of God and is not under the Old
Testament contracts of which there are several. We have a new covenant, not an
old covenant.
The glorification of Christ by
resurrection, ascension and session is the strategic victory in the angelic
conflict. This dramatic victory interrupts the Jewish Age in order that the
royal family of God might be formed to commemorate that victory. The royal
family is formed by the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age. The new
covenant or the new contract to the Church is related to Bible doctrine in the
field of sanctification. Grace found a way to take man, created inferior to
angels, and make him superior. This is accomplished in the three phases of
sanctification. The first of these is called positional sanctification. The
greatest thing that God the Father can do for any one of us is to make a
believer in Jesus Christ exactly like His Son, Jesus Christ. This is
accomplished through positional truth at the point of salvation. God the Holy
Spirit takes each believer and enters him into union with Christ. Positional
sanctification is the beginning of God’s great plan whereby we are going to be
made exactly like His Son.
Positionally we are in union with
His Son. This provides for royalty plus the fact that each member of the royal
family is positionally higher than angels. This is grace, we do not earn it or
deserve it. In addition the royal family possesses the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit. This is the royal escutcheon, the sign of our royalty.
Experiential sanctification is the
second paragraph of the new covenant to the Church. This, again, is strictly
grace provision. God in His grace has provided numerous things for our tactical
victory: the principle of living grace by which the believer remains alive in
the devil’s world; the provision of a pastor-teacher — something that every
believer has, either by tape recorder or face to face; local churches; the
canon of scripture; the provision of a grace system for perception of doctrine.
Experiential sanctification is the attainment of spiritual maturity, the
perpetuation of super-grace status through constant positive volition toward
Bible doctrine. This tactical victory compliments the strategic victory of
Jesus Christ and therefore makes it possible for each one of us in the devil’s
world to glorify God.
Ultimate sanctification is the third
paragraph in the new covenant to the Church, it deals with eternity. The royal
family of God receives a resurrection body exactly like that of Jesus Christ
and becomes physically superior to angels forever. This occurs when the royal
family is completed — the Rapture of the Church.
3. There are five stages of grace,
five stages involved in God’s plan.
The first is saving grace. Every
believer has tasted the grace of God at least once — Hebrews 6:4; 1 Peter 2:3.
The tasting of grace is called the point of salvation at which we receive 36
irrevocable grace items which cannot be cancelled or destroyed. Because of
propitiation every believer comes under the maximum love of God — 1 John 2:2.
Maximum love frees God to pour out maximum grace. But grace can only benefit
where there is capacity for grace. This is based on the amount of doctrine
resident in the believer’s soul. The believer is saved by grace which is all
the Trinity has done to accomplish salvation. The Father planned it, the Son
executed it, the Holy Spirit reveals it. Next
is the principle of living grace which has already been noted — all that God is
free to do for the believer to keep him alive in the devil’s world in phase
two.
The third stage of grace is
super-grace and/or spiritual maturity in time. In 1 Timothy 1:14 the
super-grace believer is described as having an abundant life. Super-grace is
the adult stage of life on this earth for the believer, the ultimate in
spiritual growth in time and the basis for the normal function of the royal
priesthood. It is also the point at which production becomes effective for the
Lord. Super-grace is the sphere of life in which the royal family reaps what
God sows in eternity past, therefore the fulfilment of Romans 8:28. Super-grace
is described by James 4:6 — “He gives greater [super] grace.” Ephesians 1:6 —
God pursues us with grace.
The fourth stage is dying grace.
This is for the super-grace believer only. The person who is negative toward
doctrine goes out under the sin unto death. The worst experience that a
believer can have is the sin unto death. The super-grace believer has the
antithesis, he makes the transition from time to eternity through great
blessing. Dying becomes a greater blessing than anything in his life. Dying
grace, then, is the experience of physical death under special grace provision
whereby death becomes a tremendous blessing. The principle of dying grace links
the super-grace believer of time with the surpassing grace believer of
eternity. Therefore dying grace is the extension of the whole grace principle.
We can’t earn or deserve great blessing in dying, it comes to those who are in
super-grace, it comes through doctrine but it comes through a principle we can
neither earn nor deserve. Cf. Philippians 1:20,21.
4. The modus vivendi of grace. It
becomes obvious that grace is a means to many things. Grace is a means of
growth — 2 Peter 3:18, we are commanded to grow in grace. Grace is the basis
for stability — Hebrews 13:9; 1 Peter 5:12; Hebrews 12:28. Grace is the basis
for production — 1 Corinthians 15:10; 2 Corinthians 6:1.
5. The failure to utilise grace.
Reversionism is basically the way of describing failure to utilise grace. It is
described briefly in two passages — Galatians 5:4, drifting off course from
grace; Hebrews 12:15.
6. The principle of grace in
suffering. There is no disaster, no difficulty, no tragedy, no heartache in
this life too great for the super-grace believer — 2 Corinthians 12:7-10.
7. The principle of axioms of grace.
a) God is perfect, His
plan is perfect.
b) A perfect plan can
only originate and function from a perfect source — perfect God.
c) If mankind can do
anything meritorious in the plan of God it is no longer perfect. Man is
imperfect, therefore if he contributes anything to the plan of God the plan of
God is neutralised by his contribution, not advanced.
d) A plan is no stronger
than its weakest link. There are no weak links in grace.
e) Grace excludes all
human merit and ability, all human good and legalism, all self-righteousness
and arrogance.
f) Legalism is the enemy
of grace. There is no place for legalism in the plan of God.
g) All legalism and
human good is associated with the principle of arrogance or pride, and
arrogance is also the great enemy of grace.
8. Four areas in which arrogance
rejects grace.
a) The pride of the
believer who rejects the doctrine of eternal security. He thinks that his sins
are greater than the grace of God.
b) Pride of the believer
who succumbs to the pressure of adversity. He thinks that his sufferings and
his adversities are greater than the plan of God — 2 Corinthians 12:7.
c) The pride of the
reversionist. He assumes that his form of reversionism is greater than
super-grace blessing. He assumes that the pseudo blessings that Satan provides
are greater than anything that God could provide, and therefore until he is
very close to death or under intense discipline he never gives doctrine a
thought.
d) The pride of pseudo
spirituality. This believer thinks that his system of energy of the flesh
spirituality is greater than the true function of God the Holy Spirit in the
life. In his arrogance he becomes a holy roller, becomes involved in observing
certain taboos, in various categories of legalism.
“which was given us” — accusative
singular of the definite article used as a relative pronoun, and it refers to
grace, plus the aorist passive participle of the verb didomi. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views
grace in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results,
namely the believer becoming the beneficiary of grace in time. The passive
voice: the believer receives the action of the verb. The participle is
circumstantial. We also have the dative plural of advantage from the personal
pronoun e)gw referring to Paul the human
writer, Timothy the recipient, and all super-grace believers. It is translated,
“which has been given us.”
“in Christ Jesus” — e)n plus the locative of I)hsouj and Xristoj.
“before the world began” — the
preposition pro plus the genitive plural of
xronoj, plus a genitive plural
from a)iwn — “before the times of the
ages [dispensations].” This is an idiom which means before human history began.
Translation: “The one having saved
us, and having elected the royal family into the holy station of life, not
according to our works, but according to his own predetermined plan, even
grace, which has been given to us in Christ Jesus before human history.”
Verse 10 — “But is now made
manifest” is a Greek phrase beginning with an aorist passive participle from
the verb fanerow. It is correctly translated
to be manifest, to be visible, to become known, or to be revealed. We will use
the verb to reveal here. “But at the present time grace has been revealed” is
the concept for grace is the subject of this particular passage. The
culminative aorist tense of the verb views the first advent in its entirety but
regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results, namely the strategic
victory which gives us a special meaning and definition to our own lives. The
passive voice: the predetermined plan of God, even grace, receives the action
of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. With this we have a post
positive conjunctive particle de used as a conjunction of contrast. The
contrast emphasised is the fact that the plan of God was prepared in eternity
past as a part of the divine decrees but revealed in time by the first advent
of Christ. In other words, the whole key to the divine decrees is that in
eternity past God the Son agreed to become man and to come into the world. The
entire detailed plan for the first advent, including all provision for the Son
in hypostatic union, was made in eternity past. This sets up a parallel because
at a point of time you received Christ as saviour and yet the provision for
you, as for the Son, was made in eternity past. All of this is brought together
by the culminative aorist of fanerow which means to be revealed.
We also have an adverb of time here, nun, which means now or at the
present time. When this is all put together it should read: “But at the present
time grace has been revealed.” The revelation of God’s grace is based upon the
pattern of Jesus Christ at the first advent.
“by the appearing” — the preposition
dia plus the genitive of e)pifaneia, correctly translated “through the appearance.”
This is a reference to the first advent of Jesus Christ which both resolves the
angelic conflict, as per Hebrews 1, and provides eternal salvation for mankind,
as per Hebrews 10:5-14. Grace or the plan of God is revealed in a very specific
way through the first advent of the Lord Jesus Christ.
“of our saviour” — this definitely
refers to the first advent rather than to some of the previous appearances or
appearances after the first advent. It helps us to tell us which of the four
categories of appearances of Christ is involved here — Theophany, first advent,
Christophany, or second advent. This category is easy to identify here because
we have the descriptive genitive singular of the noun swthr which describes the primary objective of the Lord
Jesus Christ in the first advent — getting to the cross and providing a
complete salvation: redemption toward sin; propitiation toward God;
reconciliation toward man. The word “our” is a possessive genitive plural from
the personal pronoun e)gw indicating the fact that
people are saved in every generation, including the one in which Paul wrote.
“Jesus Christ” — the Greek says
“Christ Jesus,” the genitive of apposition Xristoj. The reason that “Christ” comes before “Jesus” is because the passage
is dealing with appearances, is dealing with chronology, and Xristoj comes before I)hsouj because in the order of the royal of Jesus Christ He is Jewish royalty
before He is battlefield royalty. The order of His royalty — category #1,
divine royalty, title: Son of God; royal family: God the Father, God the Holy
Spirit. Category #2, Jewish royalty, title: Son of David; royal family, the
entire family of David, including his contemporaries, step brothers and step
sisters. Category #3, battlefield royalty, title, King of kings and Lord of
lords; royal family, the Church. This is all chronological. Xtistoj is used because it is equivalent to Messiah and
indicates that Jesus Christ is the one anointed King, as David was before Him.
The word for divine royalty is kurioj, “Lord,” which doesn’t occur
in the passage. I)hsouj actually refers to the
battlefield royalty, the cross and the subsequent events which resulted in
battlefield royalty.
He came to defeat Satan by the
cross, resurrection, ascension and session where He was appointed battlefield
royalty. He came to provide eternal salvation. So out of the four categories of
appearances of Christ this passage refers to category #2 which is the field of
the first advent.
Theophany refers to the appearances
of our Lord in many ways in the Old Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ appeared
primarily in Theophany as Malak Adonai,
“Angel of Jehovah.” A Theophany is any appearance of Christ before the first
advent and must be distinguished from Christophany which is an appearance of
Christ in resurrection body after the first advent.
“who hath abolished” — the aorist
active participle of katargew which means to cancel, to
render useless or powerless, to abrogate, to abolish, to wipe out, to make
ineffective, to release from the association of one thing from another. With it
is the Greek affirmative particle men plus the correlative use of
de, which means on the one
hand and on the other. The aorist active participle is an aorist which is a
little different from the constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the
verb in its entirety, it is a reference to the doctrine of expiation in which
Jesus Christ released mankind from association with spiritual death. We were
born in association with spiritual death because we were born possessing an old
sin nature and the imputation of Adam’s sin. We are released from association
with death the moment we believe in Jesus Christ.
“death” is the accusative singular
direct object from the noun qanatoj, referring to spiritual
death.
Next we have the particle de which means “and on the other hand.”
“hath brought to light” — the aorist
active participle from fwtizw which means to illuminate”
: “he has illuminated.” This is a culminative aorist tense, it views the
illumination of eternal life and immortality in its entirety but it emphasises
it from the viewpoint of existing results. Life and immortality are illuminated
by the death and resurrection of Christ. The active voice: Christ produced the
action of the verb by illuminating eternal life and immortality. Eternal life
is revealed by the cross; immortality was revealed by resurrection. So the
death and resurrection of Christ are put together here.
“life” — the accusative singular
direct object from the noun zwh, used here for eternal life
— 1 John 5:11,12 helps to explain this: “The deposition is this, that God has
given to us eternal life and this life resides in his Son. He who has the Son
has life; he who has not the Son of God does not have life.” Cf John 1:4; 14:6;
20:31. Eternal life was always there but we couldn’t see it. The cross
illuminated it.
“and immortality” — accusative
direct object from the noun a)fqarsia — not spoil, corrupt. When
the negative is added it means incorruptible: “not corruptible” or
“immortality” as translated. This immortality is explained in terms of
resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:33. Immortality means a believer in a
resurrection body.
“through the gospel” — dia plus the genitive of e)uaggelion which means gospel or good news.
The gospel is the means of
communicating the work of Christ on the cross, plus His resurrection, ascension
and session. The gospel communicates the strategic victory of the angelic
conflict as well as the way of salvation for mankind. As a result of the first
advent and as a result of breaking the back of Satan at the cross we now have
the angelic conflict shifting gears, and this is the most intense phase of the
angelic conflict.
Translation: “But at the present
time grace has been revealed through the appearance of our saviour Christ
Jesus, who on the one hand released us from association with spiritual death,
and on the other hand has illuminated eternal life and immortality through the
gospel.”
This brings us to the fact that if
all of the objectives, including the one implied by illumination, are to be
accomplished there must be communication for illumination. No communication, no
illumination.
Principles
1. The strategic victory of Jesus
Christ brings the Jewish dispensation to a sudden halt.
2. With Christ seated at the right
hand of the Father He was appointed battlefield royalty (the great unseen
conflict, the angelic conflict).
3. In this category of royalty Christ
has the title of King of kings and Lord of lords but he does not have a royal
family. In all other categories He has a royal family.
4. Therefore because He has not
royal family the dispensation of Israel is halted and the Church Age begins to
call out and form a royal family for battlefield royalty of Christ.
5. The interruption of the Jewish
Age to form the royal family of God demands the communication of doctrine to
that same royal family or Church Age believer.
6, Therefore three categories emerge
from the completed canon of scripture. Category #1, the communicator. The
pastor teacher who is responsible for teaching Bible doctrine to the royal
family of God during the Church Age. There are no prophets in this dispensation
after the completion of the canon of scripture, the pastor is the communicator.
Category #2, the reversionistic believer. This category is negative toward
doctrine. Inasmuch as the great issue of this dispensation is attitude toward
doctrine it is not surprising that all categories who resist Bible doctrine are
found under this one principle of reversionism. Category #3, the super-grace
believer. He is positive toward doctrine on a consistent basis.
7. All three categories demand the
transfer of Bible doctrine from the page of the Bible to the soul of the
believer.
8. This can only be accomplished by
authorised communicators.
9. Authorised communication is based
upon the possession of the pertinent communication gift.
Verse 11 — “Whereunto” is the
preposition e)ij plus the accusative
singular from the relative pronoun o(j. This should be translated
“For which purpose.” For the purpose of communicating doctrine, for the purpose
of tactical victory complementing the strategic victory of Christ, for the
purpose of spiritual growth, for the purpose of fulfilling the very purpose for
which all of us remain in this life, there must be communicators.
“I am appointed” — aorist passive
indicative of the verb tiqhmi. The aorist tense here can
be translated like a perfect, “I have been appointed.” The constative aorist
refers to a momentary action, the moment in which Paul believed in Christ God
the Holy Spirit assigned to him the communication gifts of apostleship and
pastor. The passive voice: Paul received the action of the verb in a moment of
time at his salvation. The indicative mood is declarative representing the
verbal action from the viewpoint of dogmatic reality.
“a preacher” — there is no such
thing as a preacher. The word here is the accusative singular direct object from
the noun khruc which is the word for a
herald, the communicator for a king. A pastor-teacher is a herald, a
communicator for the King. The King is Jesus Christ. Khruc means the one who communicates for royalty.
The official communicators of Bible
doctrine are divided into two categories corresponding with the two phases of
the Church Age — the pre-canon period of the Church and the post-canon period.
The pre-canon period was from 30-97 AD; the post-canon period is from 96 AD to
the Rapture, whenever it occurs. In the pre-canon period there were apostles
and pastor-teachers, in the post-canon period there are only pastor-teachers.
“and a teacher” — predicate
nominative from didaskaloj. This word has quite a
significant meaning. It carries a tremendous amount of weight, much more than
appears on the surface. It actually means a communicator to a group of people.
It means the communicator has authority and the group has none in the system of
communication. The pastor must have complete authority as well as the proper
spiritual gift and didaskaloj means a communicator in a
public assembly. The public assembly is the meaning of the local church. In
keeping with the principle of privacy the believer assembles with other
believers. The believer also has a name. The pastor is called didaskaloj and there is both and noun and a verb for the
believer. The noun is maqhthj, mistranslated “disciple.”
It means one who learns doctrine under discipline. The objective of the
pastor’s teaching under authority is that the believer might grow in grace,
that he might have a tremendous amount of doctrine in the soul producing the
ECS and leading to the super-grace life. This is the concept of didaskaloj.
“of the Gentiles” — this does not
occur in the original text.
Translation: “For which purpose I
have been appointed a herald, being both an apostle and a teacher.”
The principle of deposit analogies
1. The analogy to evangelism. In the
ancient world they had a system of banking similar to what we have today. There
were two types. One was related to the heathen temples. All heathen temples
were places where you could deposit money and the priests also acted as bank
tellers. In the second system, great merchant systems of the ancient world also
acted as bankers and you could carry a letter of credit from Rome to almost any
part of the empire and receive cash. In this way commerce was carried on within
the confines of the Roman empire. Therefore the word “deposit” was quite a
prominent word and was used very extensively.
Our first deposit is found in an
analogy to evangelism. It is found in Acts 17:2,3. The deposit of doctrine this
time is the gospel. The analogy is used for anyone who evangelises on a
personal basis — sometimes, and perhaps mistakenly, called witnessing. The word
“witness” as used in the scripture really refers to the principle of testifying
in a courtroom and presenting truth. Therefore it is used more for the function
of the pastor-teacher in the scriptures than for any other particular function.
Consequently witnessing is really a misnomer. It should be personal evangelism,
mass evangelism; but whatever type of evangelism is actually being used there
is the sense in which the true concept of evangelism is to make a deposit of
the gospel in the soul of another person or persons gathered together. When you
make a deposit of the gospel it is God the Holy Spirit who actually does the
work of making that gospel reality and bringing about the decision.
2. The next analogy is directed
toward both salvation and eternal security — 2 Timothy 1:12, “ … to preserve my
deposit against that day.” Faith in Christ at salvation is the deposit. When we
respond to the deposit of the gospel in our souls in a positive way we believe
in Christ. Believing in Christ becomes the second deposit. This faith deposit
is a total dependence upon the essence of God regarding salvation. Hence, the
principle of eternal security emerges from this.
The approach to eternal security,
then, comes into view and there are ten legitimate approaches found in the
scripture:
a) The positional
approach of Romans 8:38,39. At the moment of salvation we enter into union with
Christ, and we never get out.
b) The logical approach
of Romans 8:32. This means that when you approach the cross you have the fact
that God has provided the most at this point, and when you believe in Christ
and become saved you have received at that point the most. The question arises,
what more can God provide for you? The answer is much more than the most —
Romans 5. That “much more than the most” includes eternal security.
c) The metaphorical
approach called the anthropomorphism of God’s hand — John 10:28; Psalm 37:24.
d) The reversionistic
approach — 2 Timothy 2:12,13. “If we are unfaithful [reversionistic, under the
influence of evil] he remains faithful ...”
e) The family approach —
John 1:12; Galatians 3:26. At the moment we believe in Christ we enter into the
family of God. We are born into God’s family and once we are born into a family
there is nothing we can do about it, we are there forever. The analogy is
carried over into the spiritual realm.
f) The inheritance
approach — 1 Peter 1:4,5. We have an inheritance which includes the fact that
we are secure forever.
g) The divine essence
approach — 2 Peter 3:9, which describes the Lord as not willing that any should
perish but that all should come to a change of mind. Repentance is used to
describe that. This passages emphasises the sovereignty of God in eternal security.
Jude 24 emphasises the omnipotence of God in eternal security, He has the power
to keep us saved forever.
h) The body approach — 1
Corinthians 12. All of us are pictured as members of a body. Christ is the head
and we are the members. The differentiation of the members is based upon the
concept of spiritual gifts. In Colossians 1:18 compared to 1 Corinthians 12:21
one of the great principles that is made is that the head, Jesus Christ, cannot
say to any member of the body, I don’t need you. No matter how insignificant
any member of the body may be there can never be such a statement from our
Lord.
i) The royal family
approach — 2 Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30. This is the sealing of the
Holy Spirit. The purpose of the sealing of the Holy Spirit at salvation is to
guarantee eternal security.
j) The Greek tense
approach, using the imperfect tense of swzw
in Ephesians 2:8,9. The corrected and more expanded translation should read:
“For by grace you have been saved in the past, with the result that you keep on
being saved forever through faith...”
3. The third deposit is actually
related to the analogy to the function of GAP — Matthew 13:24, “… he deposited
another parable with them, saying...” In other words, Jesus Christ in teaching
the disciples was actually making a deposit. The same thing is found in 1
Timothy 1:18; 6:20; 2 Timothy 1:14. The guarding of this deposit includes the
continuation of the function of GAP or the perpetuation of the super-grace
status in phase two. The guarding of this deposit means the avoidance of reversionism
and the influence of evil. In the mechanics of GAP every positive believer,
therefore, has his own right pastor who communicates doctrine to him. As this
doctrine is communicated it is deposited, and the believer’s guardianship of
the deposit means perpetuation of GAP.
4. The training of other pastors — 2
Timothy 2:1,2. Both the recognition of the gift of pastor-teacher and the
preparation for using the gift are related to the function of GAP under the
strict academic discipline of the local church.
5. The faith-rest technique during
any type of adversity — 1 Peter 4:19. There are some principles involved in
this analogy that are very important. For example, there is no suffering for
the believer in eternity — Revelation 21:4.
a) The devil’s world is
unfair to the believer.
b) While the
reversionistic believer is sometimes blessed by the devil as the ruler of this
world this is a point of disgrace and failure. It is disgraceful to be blessed
by Satan as a believer.
c) To be blessed by the
devil is to be under maximum influence of evil in the soul.
d) This is pseudo
maturity and the devil’s answer to super-grace.
e) The believer’s soul
is the battleground for the angelic conflict.
f) Consequently the ore
positive a believer is toward doctrine the more pressure from Satan.
g) This means that the
super-grace believer sometimes endures maximum pressure from cosmos diabolicus.
h) This requires maximum
use of the deposit of doctrine in the soul.
i) The faith-rest
technique transfers doctrine from the soul to the adversities of life.
j) In the maximum use of
the faith-rest technique believers in undeserved suffering [i.e. according to
the will of God] must deposit their souls with the Lord Jesus Christ who is a
faithful creator, who has provided living grace, super-grace, dying grace, and
surpassing grace.
k) By depositing the
soul with the Lord in time of maximum suffering and pressure the super-grace
believer glorifies God in the production of divine good.
l) This divine good so
produced under suffering will receive maximum reward in eternity.
m) Here, then, is the
application of doctrine under pressure, that maximum use of the faith-rest
technique which provides blessing in living, blessing in dying, blessing
forever.
n) This is a specific
application to that principle enucleated in the following verses: Psalm 55:22 —
“Cast what has been given to you [pressure, adversity, difficulty, trial, etc.]
on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never allow the righteous
[super-grace believer under pressure] to be shaken.” 1 Peter 5:5-7; 4:19.
Verse 12 — our first deposit in
context, the deposit of salvation. “For the which cause” is the preposition dia plus the accusative singular of a)itia, plus the accusative singular of the relative
pronoun o(j — “For the which cause.”
This is literally, “Because of which cause” but it comes to be a Greek idiom
meaning “For this reason.”
“I also suffer” — the adjunctive use
of the conjunction kai plus the present active
indicative of the verb pasxw. The present tense is a
descriptive present, it indicates what is now going on. Paul is suffering
through Nero and the Roman empire through his incarceration. The active voice
is the causative active voice in which the subject, Paul, is related to the action
through an intermediary means. This is equivalent to the hiphil stem in the
Hebrew. This idiom is a device of intelligent expression and is a form common
to most languages. It often arises from the use of an intransitive verb in a
transitive sense. The indicative mood is declarative from the viewpoint of
reality. It should be translated, “Also for this reason I am caused to suffer
these things.”
“these things” — accusative plural
from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj. This is the accusative
direct object and it calls special attention to and emphasises the fact that
Paul is a herald of the King of kings as noted in the previous verse. The
accusative case refers to the various types of suffering associated with his incarceration.
These sufferings, however, do not hinder the blessings of dying grace, nor in
any way do they detract from Paul’s paragraph SG2. Both the
spiritual and temporal blessings of Paul’s surpassing grace, as well as his
super-grace, are not in any way jeopardised.
The doctrine of suffering
1. The general causes for suffering
in life — believers and unbelievers.
a) Loss of health,
wealth, property, money, loved ones, or anything that you value.
b) Suffering from
people. This includes gossip, ostracism, persecution, violence, crime, warfare.
c) Privation — hunger,
thirst, cold, heat, storm, earthquake and other natural disasters, accidents in
any variety.
d) Suffering from the
administration of law — mostly to criminals.
e) Mental suffering —
from sins, pride, arrogance, jealousy, hatred, bitterness, guilt reaction,
neurosis or psychosis, worry, anxiety, fear, etc.
f) Suffering from
rejection of authority. This includes rejection of authority in love. When the
woman rejects the authority of a man she suffers. Failure in adulthood because
of rejection of authority in childhood. Being fired from a job because of
rejection of authority.
g) Suffering from
reversionism resulting in reaping what you sow.
2. Basic categories of suffering. a)
In time; b) In eternity. For time, we now begin to break up into the categories
of the human race. The human race is divided into two categories by John 3:36,
believers in Jesus Christ and rejecters of Jesus Christ. The unbeliever suffers
in time for rejection of the laws of divine establishment. He suffers through
reversionism and other factors of self-induced misery. The believer also
suffers in time. In eternity the unbeliever suffers forever the most intense of
all sufferings, the lake of fire forever — Revelation 20:12-15. There will be
no suffering for the believer in eternity — Revelation 21:4.
3. The premise for Christian
suffering.
a) All suffering is
designed for blessing — 1 Peter 1:7,8; 4:14.
b) The exception is
divine discipline — Hebrews 12:6, for carnality and for reversionism.
c) The exception is
removed — 1 Corinthians 11:31 — for carnality: rebound; for reversionism:
recovery through the consistent function of GAP.
d) Cursing is therefore
turned to blessing — Romans 8:28. So the premise: All suffering is designed for
blessing. The exception is divine discipline. Exception removed: the result is
cursing turned to blessing.
4. The categories of Christian
suffering. There are two types of Christian suffering: a) Disciplinary
suffering, called deserved; b) Suffering for blessing, called undeserved.
A. There are ten categories of
deserved [disciplinary] suffering:
a) Suffering from divine
discipline [deserved] — Hebrews 12:6. This is the only way God can express His
love to the carnal or reversionistic believer. For carnality — Psalm 38; for
reversionism — Ecclesiastes. Psalm 38 was written by David after operation
Bathsheba. He was a super-grace believer and he stayed a super-grace believer.
What he did with Bathsheba was carnality, not reversionism. So he suffered a
lot of discipline. In Psalm 38 he got around to rebounding which is how he
broke out of carnality. This is a perfect illustration of divine discipline to
a super-grace believer for his carnality. Suffering for reversionism is under a
different system. There is warning discipline, sharp pains to let you know that
something is not right. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” If that
doesn’t work there is intense discipline. Then if that doesn’t work there is
dying discipline — a horrible death. The entire book of Ecclesiastes is a
perfect illustration of this type of discipline.
b) Suffering by
association. One has to be carnal, one has to be reversionistic, or both has to
be reversionistic, or both have to be carnal. This is a principle found in 1
Corinthians 12:26; Romans 14:7, illustrated by 1 Samuel 21.
c) Suffering caused by
having the wrong priorities — again two illustrations: Ecclesiastes and Song of
Solomon.
d) Suffering from guilt
complex. This is isolated from other mental attitude sins which also cause
suffering because a guilt complex is compounded suffering that you bring on
yourself by reacting to your own failures — 1 Timothy 1:5,6,19,20; 3:9; 4:1,2;
Titus 1:15.
e) Suffering through
national discipline. Five cycles — Leviticus 26. Illustrations — Isaiah 33, 59;
book of Hosea.
f) Suffering from
rejecting the principle of right man, right woman. This is the type of
suffering that can continue for the rest of one’s life because he has married
the wrong person. It can be suffering for blessing or suffering for cursing:
doctrine or carnality and reversionism. Ezekiel 16,23; Jeremiah 12:7; 15:7-12,
17,18.
g) Suffering from
failure to isolate sin [chain sinning] — Hebrews 12:15.
h) Suffering from
temporary loss of grace norms [when you get into legalism] — Jeremiah 2:24,25.
i) Suffering from
historical disaster, war and revolution are two illustrations.
j) Suffering from
reversionism — Psalm 77.
B. There are ten categories of
suffering for blessing [undeserved suffering].
a) We often suffer to
glorify God in the angelic conflict. There are other types of suffering for
blessing that are related to it. Job; Luke 15:20,21; 1 Peter 1:12; 3:17. This
is a noble and honourable type of pressure. b)
Suffering to learn self-discipline — Hebrews 5:8. Our Lord Jesus Christ put
Himself under discipline — Philippians 2:8.
c) Suffering to
demonstrate the sufficiency of grace —2 Corinthians 12:1-10.
d) Suffering to
eliminate the occupational hazard of pride and arrogance, and to relate it to
the sufficiency of grace. You can never become an arrogant person without
suffering horribly. If the purpose of the suffering is to eliminate arrogance
it is suffering for blessing — 2 Corinthians 11:24-33; 12:1-10.
e) Suffering to develop
faith-rest technique — enough faith to function in the faith-rest technique.
You must have pressure for any kind of development.
B. There are ten categories of
suffering for blessing [undeserved suffering].
a) We often suffer to glorify
God in the angelic conflict. There are other types of suffering for blessing
that are related to it. Job; Luke 15:20,21; 1 Peter 1:12; 3:17. This is a noble
and honourable type of pressure.
b)
Suffering to learn self-discipline — Hebrews 5:8. Our Lord Jesus Christ put
Himself under discipline — Philippians 2:8.
c) Suffering to
demonstrate the sufficiency of grace —2 Corinthians 12:1-10.
d) Suffering to
eliminate the occupational hazard of pride and arrogance, and to relate it to
the sufficiency of grace. You can never become an arrogant person without
suffering horribly. If the purpose of the suffering is to eliminate arrogance
it is suffering for blessing — 2 Corinthians 11:24-33; 12:1-10.
e) Suffering to develop
faith-rest technique — enough faith to function in the faith-rest technique.
You must have pressure for any kind of development. The trigger mechanism by
which you apply doctrine in your soul to experience is faith, faith-rest; and
it has to be developed, it has to be strong — 1 Peter 1:7,8.
f) Suffering to
accelerate the construction of the edification complex of the soul and to enter
into the super-grace status — James 1:1-6.
g) Suffering as a means
of witnessing for Christ — 2 Corinthians chapters 3 & 4.
h) Sometimes suffering
is very specialised. You suffer a special type of suffering ahead of someone
else, using doctrine all the way, in order to be able to help some weaker
believer when they go through the same thing. This is a specialised type of
suffering in which God uses some stronger believers to encourage weaker
believers — 2 Corinthians 1:3-5.
i) Suffering to learn
the value of Bible doctrine. This is for the silly person who won’t come to
doctrine until he has tried everything else and then says nothing else works so
he might as well try doctrine. Psalm 119:67,68,71.
j) Suffering for the
advance and impact of doctrine — 2 Timothy 1:12-14.
5. The concept of family suffering.
a) Scripture for family
suffering: Exodus 20:4-6; Deuteronomy 5:8-10.
b) The four-generation
curse is specifically enumerated in two other passages — Exodus 34:3-7; Numbers
14:8 — where a curse in one generation goes down to the next, and the next, and
the next.
c) There is an entire
chapter on the mechanics of this curse — Proverbs 30:11-17.
d) The law of
culpability — Proverbs 24:16. You are never included in the discipline of the
next generation unless you become culpable under the same principle.
e) The problem of
children. This includes two basic principles: 1. Fairness toward children —
Deuteronomy 21:15-17; 2. If bona fide discipline in the home fails, and
occasionally it does, then the Bible says that when those children step out of
line as teenagers they should be executed — Deuteronomy 21:18-22.
f) Doctrine breaks the
four-generation curse. This is a combination of four verses: Psalm 100:5;
Deuteronomy 7:9; 6:6-13; 11:18-21, in that order.
g) The children’s
gimmick — Jeremiah 31:15; Number 14:31. This is where the parents suffer
because they use their children as an excuse. They used their children as an
excuse not to enter the land even though God promised them to enter the land.
People today use their children as an excuse not to come to Bible class. That
means family suffering. Whenever you use your children as an excuse not to do
something that is commanded by the Word you are going to produce suffering in
your life.
i) The triumph of
children with doctrine. It is possible that every category of suffering
enumerated in the first six points can be eliminated by children moving to
super-grace before they become adults. This was the case in Lamentations
3:21-31.
6. The concept of economic
suffering. When there is freedom in the economy ad runs its normal course of
supply and demand of free enterprise you are going to have periodic depression.
The doctrine is that depression is an enema that eliminates the unfit people in
a nation. A nation is weakened by not destroying what is weak from time to
time. A house gets dirty if you don’t clean it; a nation gets weak if certain
types of natural disaster, like economic depression, do not come along and
eliminate the weak. It has nothing to do with race or any other factor, it has
to do with the law that if you do not have a periodic depression then your
nation will eventually be so weak that it will destroy itself. Welfare is a
weakener of a nation.
a) Inflation is a part
of the fourth cycle of discipline — Leviticus 26:26.
b) Since depression
should be a periodic thing the importance of solvency in a depression is the
subject of Genesis 41.
c) Depression also
strengthens spiritually for it acts as a test for the faith-rest technique —
Genesis 12:10; 1 Peter 1:7,8.
d) Doctrine resident in
the soul is the answer to depression rather than money in the pocket — 2
Chronicles 20:9.
e) Divine viewpoint is
necessary to survive economic disaster — Psalm 33:17-20.
f) Depression is a part
of divine discipline both to the nation and the individual reversionist under
the influence of evil — Psalm 105:16; Jeremiah 11:22.
g) False teaching in
time of depression intensifies that depression — Jeremiah 14:13-16,18.
h) God protects the
super-grace believer in depression — Job 5:20; Romans 8:35.
i) Bible doctrine
resident in the soul is the solution to depression. Consequently, advance to
super-grace restores the economy — Isaiah 37:30,31.
7. God can only demonstrate His love
to the believers through suffering in time — 1 Peter 4:14,16. Whatever
suffering is going to come to you it will only occur in phase two, time. Phase
three, eternity, is minus suffering.
a) There is no suffering
for believers in eternity — Revelation 21:4.
b) Furthermore, there is
no suffering too great for the plan of God. The plan of God can meet any
suffering in life.
c) Divine provision for
suffering is greater than any pressure of life.
d) Super-grace is the
status in which to experience this principle. You are fully prepared for
suffering in super-grace; you are not prepared for suffering until super-grace.
e) The super-grace believer
is qualified through doctrine resident in the soul to weather any storm of
life.
8. The unique sufferings of the Lord
Jesus Christ on the cross — Isaiah 53. Since Jesus Christ reached super-grace
at a very early age obviously all of the suffering that he had was suffering
for blessing. He was perfect, born minus the old sin nature, minus the
imputation of Adam’s sin. He lived a life of perfection — doctrine of
impeccability. All of the suffering that came to Him was undeserved, for
blessing. But the intensification of suffering when He reached the cross was
absolutely unique. Christ is unique; His sufferings are unique.
Verse 12 — “Therefore” is laken in the Hebrew. It is the
combination of a preposition and an adverb used to demand a conclusion,
correctly translated “therefore.” This is an inferential conjunction.
“will I divide” — the piel imperfect
of chalak. This is a distribution of
spoils in the piel stem, it is a distribution of spoils after victory. Out of
the unique suffering of Christ comes the victory of the angelic conflict.
Therefore unique suffering turns to our blessing. He suffered in an intensity
we will never understand, no one ever had such suffering as Christ had on the
cross. It is impossible for anyone to have the suffering that occurred with
regard to Jesus Christ on the cross. Every blessing you will ever have in time
or eternity comes out of that suffering. Literally we have, “Therefore I will
distribute.” This is a distribution of the spoils of victory.
“to him” — to Jesus Christ the
victor.
“with the great” is correctly
translated “because of the many,” referring to those who will believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ and those who have in the past believed in Christ. “Therefore
I will distribute the spoils to Christ because of the many believers.” The
spoils or plunder are described in Ephesians 4:8-12. The strategic victory of
Jesus Christ on the cross, followed by His resurrection, ascension and session,
the honour to Him at the right hand of the Father, His battlefield royalty,
means that there is a distribution of plunder. For Israel it meant transfer
from the heart of the earth or Hades to the third heaven; from Paradise or
Abraham’s bosom to the third heaven — Matthew 27:52,53. That was the
distribution of spoils to Israel. The distribution of spoils to the royal
family of God and/or the Church are phenomenal.
“he shall divide the spoil” — again,
the piel imperfect of chalak — “with
the strong,” which is not quite correct, there is no preposition. There is a
masculine plural adjective atsum, a
reference to the royal family specifically but super-grace believers. We have
therefore an order of distribution. God the Father distributes it to Christ,
Christ distributes it to super-grace believers. All of this comes because of
the suffering of our Lord on the cross.
“because he hath poured out his soul
to death” — this is a reference to physical death this time. After He died
spiritually (three hours) He then died physically. In His physical death He
said something which becomes the secret to the distribution of plunder. His
last exhale was one breath, the length of one sentence. That one sentence is
the heritage of doctrine passed on to the royal family in every generation.
From this maximum suffering on the cross, which is also unique suffering, He
now passes on to us a spiritual heritage. So that in dying physically He spoke,
and what He said is very important. Prior to this He said that salvation was
completed, “Finished.” Once He said that there is no more unique suffering, it
is over. From that point on it was strictly a matter of dying grace all the
way.
We have in the Gospels a record of
the various aspects of Christ dying physically. Each one of the Gospel writers
developed a different aspect. In Matthew 27:50 we have Matthew emphasising one
aspect, whereas Mark emphasises another. He emphasises the sound, that Jesus
uttered a sentence and made a loud sound in doing so. Jesus, having shouted
again with a loud voice sent away His breath [dismissed His spirit]. The thing
that impressed Matthew was the loudness of His voice, He could be heard all
over Golgotha. In Mark 15:37 we have the same subject covered but with a
different emphasis. The thing that impressed Mark was the fact that He had
perfect breath control in His last sentence, “And Jesus, having exhaled with a
loud voice, expired.” This means He was in no pain. When you are in pain you do
not have control of your breath, you automatically will gasp or groan. But
Jesus Christ had perfect breath control. So Marks’ record is very important
because it indicated no pain. He had just gone through the most unusual
suffering that will ever occur in history. Then, when you get to Luke 23:46,
you get for the first time the content of His last sentence in dying
physically: “And having enunciated with a loud voice, Jesus said, ‘Father into
you hands I deposit my spirit,’ and, having said this, he expired.” But it
doesn’t give the whole message, it merely gives a hint as to what was actually
said. So we actually have in the first three gospel writers enough that we can
put together so that we can get the content of what was said. We know what was
said from Psalm 31:5 which Jesus was quoting — “Into your hands I deposit my
spirit, for you have delivered me, O Jehovah, God of doctrine.” Two words are
important: deliverance and doctrine. They go together. It is the whole story,
it is our spiritual heritage. It is the source of receiving our share of the
plunder of the great victory of Christ on the cross.
Is. 53:12 — “prior to this He was
identified with offerings for sin [His spiritual, death]; because He Himself
carried the sin of many, and about the offerings for sin the whole thing was
caused to fall upon Him.”
There is an emphasis in the 11th
verse and a reemphasis in the 12th verse that in the spiritual death of Christ
on the cross He suffered in an unusual and an intense way. In His physical
death there was no suffering at all. The line of demarcation: “It is finished.”
Translation of verse 12: “Therefore
I [God the Father] will distribute the spoil [the plunder of victory] to him
[Christ] because of many believers, then he [Christ] will distribute that spoil
to the great ones [super-grace believers], because he [Christ] has poured out
his soul to death [physical]; prior to this [physical death] he was identified
with the offerings for sin; because he himself bore the sin of the many [on the
cross], and about the offerings for sin the whole thing was caused to fall upon
him.”
There is no way we can ever
completely enter in to what it means for the Lord to suffer in that way because
none of us will ever suffer that way. The only thing that will come close is
the unbeliever living forever in the lake of fire, and even that is not as
intense as what our Lord went through during those three hours of darkness on
the cross.
Verse 12 — “For the which cause” is
the preposition dia plus the accusative
singular of a(itia, plus the relative pronoun o(j. It is an idiom which means “For this reason.”
“I also suffer” — the adjunctive use
of kai plus the present active
indicative of pasxw. The present tense is a
descriptive present, it indicates what is now going on. Paul is suffering
pressure from the Roman empire through his incarceration. The active voice is a
causative active voice in which the subject, Paul, is related to the action
through an intermediary means. The declarative indicative mood represents the
verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. This is what is actually going on.
“these things” — the accusative
plural from the immediate demonstrative pronoun o(utoj which calls special attention to and emphasises the fact that Paul is a
herald of the King of kings, both an apostle and a communicator of Bible
doctrine. The accusative case refers to the various categories of suffering
associated with being incarcerated in the Roman dungeon. “Also for this reason
I am caused to suffer these things.”
“nevertheless” — the adversative use
of the conjunction a)lla. It sets up a contrast
between Paul’s suffering and the wonderful blessings he possesses
simultaneously. In other words, you can have great suffering and adversity and
at the same time have great happiness. So that suffering and adversity is a
circumstance that does not dictate to you on your mental attitude or any other
problems. When you have maximum doctrine in the soul your mental attitude is
not a slave to your circumstances.
“I am not ashamed” — present middle
indicative from the compound e)paiskunomai which means having a
direction for your shamedness. It puts shame in a direction. We have with it
the negative o)uk. Paul is not ashamed in his
suffering. He has too much capacity for love, he is too occupied with Christ,
he has too many wonderful memories, too many things going for him, to let any
kind of adversity be disturbing.
“for I know” — the perfect o)ida used as a present tense for doctrine residing in
the soul. O)ida indicates the way in which
all of us come to love Jesus Christ. You cannot love someone unless you know
that person. Paul loves Jesus Christ because he knows Jesus Christ. This is
inherent knowledge. The more the believer knows about doctrine (the written
Word) the greater his capacity to love Jesus Christ. Maximum doctrine in the
soul means maximum category #1 love or occupation with Christ.
“whom” — locative singular from the
relative pronoun o(j. This is the locative of
sphere, translated “in whom.”
“I have believed” — perfect active
indicative of the verb pisteuw.
Pisteuw is
a little more than simply believing in Christ here. It means that, of course,
but it also emphasises the results of believing in Christ for salvation. The
perfect tense here is a dramatic perfect which is the rhetorical use of the
intensive perfect which emphasises the action as being completed in the past.
You believed in a second and the results go on forever — eternal life. The
active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb, the point of salvation or
when he believed in Christ. Paul believed in Christ with the result that he
continued to be saved forever. The indicative mood is declarative, it indicates
dogmatic assertion, dogmatic reality for salvation and eternal security.
The next phrase goes on to express
confidence: “and am persuaded” — perfect active indicative from peiqw. Peiqw in the present tense means
to obey and to keep obeying. In the aorist tense it means also to believe. But
here in the perfect tense it means to possess or have confidence. Again, it is
a dramatic perfect and indicates that you have confidence in the past from
doctrine in your soul with the result that you keep on possessing confidence
from that same doctrine in your soul. The passive voice: the subject is Paul in
prison, he receives the action of the verb through the daily function of GAP,
the intake of doctrine, and he is now utilising that tremendous amount of
doctrine resident in his soul. He exudes confidence, he has the inner resources
of grace to the maximum. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of
the believer’s confidence in the super-grace status. The passive voice, by the
way, with the implied intermediary agent of biblical doctrine resident in the
soul, should be translated: “I have received confidence through resident
doctrine.”
“that he is able” — the conjunction o(ti used simply to indicate the content of that
confidence, plus the present active indicative of the verb e)imi which has a static present, it represents a
condition which is perpetually existing — eternal security. The active voice:
God produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a
dogmatic assertion of eternal security. Then we have a predicate nominative, dunatoj — “he keeps on being able.” Dunatoj refers to the omnipotence of God.
“to keep” — aorist active
infinitive of the verb fulassw which means to guard. This
is a culminative aorist, it views the action of the verb in its entirety but
emphasises the results. It views that one second in which he believed in Christ
and it views it from the viewpoint of its existing results. The active voice:
God does the guarding. The infinitive is the infinitive of actual result. The
omnipotence of God guards your salvation forever, you can’t lose it.
“that which I have committed”
— there is not even a verb here, instead we have the noun paraqhkh which means deposit. We have the possessive
genitive singular from the personal pronoun e)gw,
translated “my” — “to guard my deposit.”
“against that day” — the
preposition e)ij plus the accusative
singular of e)keinoj the distant demonstrative.
The last judgment of the lake of fire is distant, the believer will never ever
get to see it. This is the great white throne judgment.
Translation: “Also for this
reason I am caused to suffer these things: but I am not ashamed: for I know in
whom I have believed, and I have received confidence [through doctrine resident
in the soul] that he keeps on being able to guard my deposit against that day
[of judgment].”
Verses 13 & 14, the deposit of
doctrine in the soul. Again, it explains why Paul is not ashamed.
Verse 13 — “Hold fast” is not a
correct translation. We have the present active imperative of the verb e)xw which means to have, to possess. Here it is
correctly translated “Keep on having.” The present tense is a retroactive
progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past and continues into
the present time. This is why it is often called the present tense of duration.
The active voice: Timothy is commanded to continue producing the action of the
verb. The imperative mood is a command to not only stick with the principle of
recovery but to continue to take in Bible doctrine.
“the form” — the accusative singular
direct object from the noun u(potupwsij
which does
not mean a form. It does mean an example, a standard, an outline, a
delineation, a pattern, a formula, or a category. Several of the meanings are
pertinent to this particular context. Remember that Timothy has arrived at the
high ground of super-grace and must now hold that position. He does so by
fulfilling this command of constantly having in his soul an outline of sound
doctrine, the standard of sound doctrine, the delineation of sound doctrine.
This boils down to keeping on having a categorical outline.
“of sound words” — present active
participle from the verb u(giainw which means to be healthy
or to be sound. Arndt and Gingrich, page 840, says that this is used
figuratively in the pastoral epistles with reference to Christian teaching.
Thus, in accordance with the prevailing usage Christian teaching is designated
as “correct doctrine.” We also have a descriptive genitive plural from the noun
logoj, and the plural of logoj means doctrines. All together we have this: “Keep
on having a categorical outline of correct doctrines.” The participle is used
as an adjective and is correctly translated “correct doctrines.”
“which” is the genitive plural from
the relative pronoun o(j, it has as its antecedent
“correct doctrines” — “which correct doctrines.”
“thou hast heard” — a constative
aorist active indicative from the verb a)kouw.
It means not simply to listen as in a casual manner but to listen under the
principle of academic discipline. The aorist tense is a constative and it
contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: Timothy
has produced the action of the verb by GAPing it on a daily basis. The
indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint
of reality. The reality is that Timothy has recovered through the daily intake
of Bible doctrine. He has recovered from his reversionism and the influence of
evil which was noted in the first epistle. The verb therefore connotes a very
strict academic discipline which belongs to the function of GAP.
“of me” — the preposition para plus the ablative singular from the personal
pronoun e)gw — “from the immediate
source of me.” The ultimate source of all doctrine is God, the immediate source
is the one who communicates the doctrine.
The grace provision for learning doctrine
1. The formation and the
preservation of the canon of scripture. This includes the mechanics of
inspiration as well as God’s faithfulness in keeping and protecting the written
canon. The Bible has always be subject to many attacks and yet the Bible today
is the best seller throughout the world. The 20th century has an intact canon
of scripture preserved in the original languages so that the meaning of any
passage is as perspicuous today as it was in the day of the autograph. This is
the principle of grace. We have more information today about the original languages
of scripture, more papyri uncovered, more MSS, which tell us exactly what the
autographs said. So that today we are in a better position to know exactly what
the original said than ever before in history.
2. The divine authorisation of the
local church. The local church is a classroom for learning doctrine, the place
of assembly of all believers in a specific geographical location, and it is a
classroom which is under very strict discipline.
3. A right pastor. The spiritual
gift of pastor-teacher provides both the ability and the authority to
communicate doctrine via monologue.
4. The royal priesthood of the
believer. In this dispensation there exists a universal and royal priesthood
among believers. The purpose of this priesthood is for privacy of reception of
doctrine. This prevents the intrusion of some legalist with his own ideas
telling you how to live your life. To have the privilege of growing up
spiritually you must have privacy. The royal priesthood is a grace gift that
has many privileges — to ensure privacy, to avoid bullying, to give a chance to
learn doctrine when you enter the congregation for instruction. Every royal
priest must construct his own altar which is Bible doctrine resident in the
soul.
5. The ministry of God the Holy
Spirit. The aristocracy of the believer’s priesthood is related to this
ministry. The Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation enters the body of every
believer, He enters every believer into union with Christ — “I in you and you
in me.” The Holy Spirit not only is indwelling the body of the believer for
protection in the angelic conflict but He controls the soul of the believer
under conditions of the filling of the Spirit. This is God’s grace provision
for learning doctrine and for having the ability for fulfilling the objectives
and to enjoy the blessings that God has for us. For the first time in history,
and throughout the entire Church Age, the believer’s body is indwelt by the
Holy Spirit. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the royal escutcheon of the
Church Age. The sealing of the Spirit is the security of the royal family. He
makes every believer a royal ambassador. In addition, the filling of the Spirit
provides the means by which we learn doctrine.
The doctrine of refreshment
1. Definition. While refreshment in
the English language generally connotes food and beverage it has a much greater
connotation in the Bible. It means to restore to strength of a soul, to revive
the divine viewpoint in the function of a soul, and to do so apart from the
pastor’s function of Bible teaching. In other words, to restore the soul of an
individual, provide stimulation and blessing for the soul of the individual,
without teaching them doctrine. It also means to supply what is necessary for
spiritual blessing in time of adversity or disaster. Primarily there is one
verb that brings out the subject, the Greek verb a)nayuxw [a)na means again and again; yuxw means the soul]. Put together it means to breathe
again and again or to revive the soul. Your life should be a source of revival
to individual souls in your periphery.
2. We see the ministry of
refreshment in many areas. The alleviation of Saul’s psychosis. Saul apparently
had a temporary psychotic condition which erupted from time to time in his life
when there was any kind of pressure. 1 Samuel 16 23 — eventually someone came
into his life who was able to be of some help. This, by the way, is permissive
control of history allowing the function of demon influence in the life of
reversionistic Saul. Saul became refreshed and well because the music that
David played reached Saul’s soul and brought his soul back to reality,
temporarily alleviating the psychotic condition that he had. Refreshment came
to his soul which alleviated the suffering and caused him to calm down. Refreshment,
then, is used for soul recovery from an adverse condition whether it is
reversionism, psychosis, neurosis, the influence of evil, or some other form of
apostasy. Always, refreshment connotes soul recovery and soul blessing.
3. In Proverbs we have a tristitch
of doctrinal refreshment — Proverbs 25:13. Line one from the Hebrew gives us
the illustration — “Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest.” The time of
harvest is a time when the workers get very hot at their work. Water boys were
often sent to some place where there was still snow. By the time it was down it
had melted but was then cold water. The snow here is melted snow that is still
cool and refreshing. They would bring it down in containers and the workmen
would stop their work and take a drink of this refreshing water. Therefore this
is to be the illustration for the next two lines.
The second line is “faithful
messenger to those who send for him.” The pastor or any communicator of
doctrine is regarded in this analogy as a water boy.
The final phrase says, “he refreshes
the soul of his masters.” The water boy worked for everyone else. The principle
is that the refreshment that comes to the believer comes from the one who is
faithful in communication. The refreshment in the Bible, of course, is always
connected with the soul. Hence, this is an analogy between a water boy during
the harvest who brings the cold water down to the workers and the communicator
of doctrine providing spiritual refreshment for the souls of the hearers. The
teacher of doctrine is the key to the ministry of refreshment. And you ability
to take in doctrine has everything to do as to whether you ever reach the point
of refreshment. The point of total refreshment is a super-grace believer. This
is a part of that paragraph, blessing by association.
4. The rejection of refreshment
means national discipline — Isaiah 28:8-14. “Times of refreshing” are the only
thing that can save a nation as far gone as the northern kingdom was in this
passage — a revival of doctrine in the soul of believers.
5. Response to the Word of God is
called refreshment — Romans 15:32. Paul wants to come and teach them doctrines
they do not have. But he also says he wants to be refreshed by them. Paul is
going to teach them but many of them are going to be a refreshment to Paul —
because there is a rapport in category #3 love, their is a refreshment, many of
his friends are there, people he truly loves, people who stimulate his soul.
Cf. 2 Corinthians 7:13, the ministry of Titus to the Corinthians. A Bible
conference can be a mutual refreshment if the communicator of doctrine teaches
the Word and those who are his friends become a source of blessing while he is
there.
6. The super-grace believer has a
ministry of refreshment. This is a part of blessing by association. There are
at least three illustrations of this in the New Testaments. a) Certain
Corinthians believers — 1 Corinthians 16:17,18; b) The super-grace believer
Philemon — Philemon 7, 20; c) 2 Timothy 1:16, the house of Onesiphorous.
“in faith” — the preposition e)n plus the instrumental of pistij, which means “by doctrine.” But we must put in
something else. This is previously-learned doctrine. There is no definite
article in front of the word “faith.” The word pistij
means doctrine more than it means faith in the new Testament, it means what is
believed and/or doctrine. The absence of the definite article calls attention
to the quality of that doctrine. The quality is tops because it is in your soul
where it is useable. It takes doctrine to learn doctrine. Basic doctrine must
reside in the soul before advanced doctrine enters the human spirit and the
frame of reference.
“and love” — the connective kai plus the instrumental singular of a)gaph, so it should be “by means of love.” It doesn’t
mean to love doctrine and it doesn’t mean to love each other, it is a synonym
here for the filling of the Spirit. Romans 5:5 says that this love is shed
abroad in our right lobes by means of the filling of the Spirit. Cf. Galatians
5:22; 1 Corinthians 13 are really talking about the filling of the Spirit and
the relaxed mental attitude which results.
“which is” is not found in the
original. However the instrumental singular of the definite article is used
here as a relative pronoun and it provides the same concept. So we can get the
word “which” out of the definite article, and putting in the word “is” is
legitimate in translation.
“in Christ Jesus” — e)n plus the locative of Xristoj and I)hsouj. Royalty related to Israel
and royalty related to the Church is all here “in union with Christ Jesus.”
Translation: “Keep on having a categorical outline of
correct doctrines, which [doctrines] you have heard from me, by previously
learned doctrines, and love [filling of the Spirit] which is in Christ Jesus.”
Genesis 3:1-6
The tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil
A. Man in the innocence of the
garden had four categories of trees — Genesis 2:9, category #1, “...every tree
that is desirable to the sight.” This is designed for man’s soulish pleasure.
Man observed this category and was stimulated in his soul. These trees reminded
man of his status of innocence provided by God’s grace. Innocence represents
reaping what God sows and the stimulation of the soul by this category of trees
was a reminder of the stimulation to man’s soul by the daily provision of
doctrine which was taught by Jesus Christ every evening in the garden. Doctrine
resident in the soul gave Adam capacity for life and appreciation for the trees
of the garden in that capacity. In other words, category #1 took care of the
fact that man had a soul and he had a house for the soul, namely the body.
Category #2 is food for the body. Categories 3 & 4 for volition, man’s
positive and negative poles. The volition of man’s soul is the purpose for
which he was created, to resolve the angelic conflict.
Principles: Before the fall man had a relationship with
God. It was not eternal life, it simply is called relationship based upon
creation. He had three categories which he was told to utilise:
Category #1 for the soul; to eat
from trees which provided food for the body; then, right in the middle of the
garden there were two trees: one was for positive volition called the tree of
lives (pl), and it meant that every day he had to have capacity for life. The
only way that he could appreciate God’s plan — which was grace and excluded
anything which was not grace — he had to have capacity for lives. He lived day
in and day out, therefore it is plural. This is not eternal life, man was not
given eternal life in the garden. Man ate of this tree, man was positive toward
this tree, and this gave him the capacity to appreciate who and what God was
(one of two ways, the other was the Bible class held every day in the garden).
Also for negative, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This was
forbidden. Why? Because when you have a relationship with God there are two
things you don’t need: a) You don’t need works; b) You don’t need evil. Evil is
what you think and works is how you put your thinking into operation.
Category #2, good for food. This is
designed to satisfy and stimulate the human body. Again, in innocence man reaps
what God sows. Adam did not earn or deserve the food provided. The stimulation
to the taste buds was a reminder of God’s perfect grace. This category
sustained the body as the house for the human soul.
Category #3, the tree of lives in
the middle of the garden.
a) This was the tree of
positive volition toward the plan of God.
b) This tree was only
available as long as man remained in innocence or positive toward the grace
plan of God.
c) The tree was no good
to man in status spiritual death. Why? Because in spiritual death man has no
capacity to appreciate God. And it is in the plural because this capacity had
to be renewed every day. It has to do with capacity for life, not eternal life.
d) This tree was
provided for man as the ruler of the world. If man is going to rule the world
under God he must have capacity to appreciate God, he has to have capacity for
life, for love, for happiness, for perfect environment. These capacities are
not something you work up by yourself, these are God-given in grace; and the
tree of lives was so designed with that in mind.
e) This tree was God’s
grace provision for man who was created to resolve the angelic conflict.
f) Man was created with
free will in order to resolve Satan’s appeal of his judgment of the lake of
fire — Matthew 25:41.
g) The tree of life was
provided to be associated with man’s positive volition in innocence to
perpetuate grace blessing and man’s rulership of the world.
h) The tree of life was
associated with perfect environment and life in the garden plus the
perpetuation of that life under positive volition toward God’s original grace
provision for man — Genesis 2:9; 3:22. The unbeliever never does appreciate
these things because he is spiritually dead. What is spiritual death? It is the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And with good and evil you do not know
God, you do not appreciate God, you are dead to God. After the fall man is born
a do-gooder, born evil, born with the knowledge of good and evil. And that is
Satan’s plan, Satan’s project.
i) When man sinned he
was driven from the garden and cut off from the tree of life — Genesis 3:24.
The next time we see the tree of life is in eternity. Why? It isn’t needed
until then. It is instant capacity for life.
k) If man in spiritual
death had eaten from the tree of life his volition would no longer be the means
of resolving the angelic conflict. Under spiritual death he could not even use
the tree of life, it has no meaning to him at all. You cannot appreciate God
under spiritual death, and spiritual death is eating from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.
l) The purpose in
creation of man could not be perpetuated after the fall of man.
m) But the purpose of
creation is perpetuated after the fall by cutting off the tree of life. The
tree of life is removed but the tree of knowledge of good and evil goes on into
history, and it goes on and on in reversionism and being under the influence of
evil.
n) The tree of life is
now the cross of Christ after the fall. That is the equivalent to appreciating
God. What the tree of lives did in the garden doctrine does today for the
believer. So it is the cross that provides redemption toward sin,
reconciliation toward man, and propitiation toward God. Here is the beginning
of appreciation for God.
o) And man’s
non-meritorious positive volition and/or faith in Christ is still the means of
resolving the angelic conflict — Ephesians 2:8,9.
p) By remaining in the
garden after spiritual death man would be perpetuated under the domination of
Satan which would have doomed him to perpetual slavery under spiritual death.
In other words, if he had stayed in the garden then he would have stayed under
slavery because Satan was now the ruler of the world. To keep man in the garden
when Satan rules the world puts man in perpetual slavery. There is no way to
get out of you stay in the garden. So man had to be thrown out of the garden to
get back on the garden the new way — he must be born again.
q) Furthermore, the tree
of life in the garden could not provide the solution to man’s fall and/or
spiritual death.
r) The tree of life does
not provide redemption, reconciliation and propitiation.
s) Therefore the fall of
man provides a new tree of life and perpetuates the solving of the angelic
conflict.
t) The salvation work of
Christ on the cross is the new tree of life which perpetuates the angelic
conflict into human history after the fall.
u) So the tree of life
was put out of man’s reach in the garden so that the cross of Christ can come
into focus for man’s eternal salvation.
v) By expulsion from the
garden after the fall the cross becomes and remains the issue of salvation —
John 3:36.
The tree of the knowledge of good
and evil.
a) This the tree related
to man’s negative volition.
b) This tree perfectly
portrays man’s relationship to God in the garden as grace, grace, and more
grace.
c) In the garden man was
the ruler of the world. Man’s rulership of the world depended on his
relationship to God and God’s sustaining grace.
d) This tree represents
the entire policy of Satan as the ruler of the world: human good and human
evil. The knowledge of good and evil is not the difference between good and
evil, there is no difference! Good and evil are the same.
e) This tree was
forbidden because it represents everything that hinders man’s relationship with
God. Human good hinders man’s relationship with God and so does evil.
f) In innocence man did
not have to know good and evil to have a relationship with God.
g) Man’s relationship in
the garden was grace. Grace excludes both good and evil.
h) Along with the tree
of life the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was located in the middle of
the garden.
i) This dramatises the
importance of man’s positive and negative volition toward God’s plan
represented by the tree of life and Satan’s plan represented by the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.
B. Hence the importance of the
divine prohibition — Genesis 2:16,17.
a) Note that spiritual
death is not only no grace relationship with God but includes cognisance of
systems of human good and evil.
b) Human good and evil
is the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world.
c) The presence of this
tree in the garden is a part of the angelic conflict.
d) God has to present
Satan’s plan as a choice for man’s free will. So God’s plan is there: tree of
lives; Satan’s plan is there: tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As long
as man ate from the tree of lives he was choosing God’s plan, but one day he
ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and chose Satan’s plan,
immediately making Satan the ruler of the world.
e) But God also in grace
prohibited the eating of that tree. He warned against it.
f) For that tree is the
sum total of Satan’s genius.
g) That tree is the way
Satan has been running the world since the fall.
h) Therefore the tree of
lives is provided for man’s eating under grace.
i) But the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil is prohibited.
j) The two tree
represent the issue of man’s volition in history.
k) One tree is grace
blessing, the other tree is cursing from the evil genius of Satan.
l) Disobedience to God
regarding the tree of the knowledge of good and evil meant not only spiritual
death but coming under the rulership of that creature genius, Satan.
m) The summary of
Satan’s rulership policy is, therefore, human good and evil.
n) When you understand
good and evil you understand the genius of Satan’s policy as the ruler of this
world and how it differs from the superior genius of God’s policy of grace.
o) There are two periods
of human history where man rules the world under a grace policy from God: the
garden and the Millennium.
p) Both are
characterised by perfect environment and both periods terminated with man in
revolt against that perfect policy.
q) The first revolution
was the fall of man, the second is the Gog revolution at the end of the
Millennium.
r) In both cases the
revolution occurred because some segment of the human race did not understand
Satan’s policy of human good and evil but accepted it instead of grace.
s) For the unbeliever
Satan’s policy of human good and evil can only produce spiritual death in time
and the second death in the eternal lake of fire.
t) For the believer
Satan’s policy of human good and evil can only produce reversionism with
resultant loss of grace blessing in time and loss of surpassing grace blessing
and rewards in eternity.
u) God has invented a
protection against human good and evil: Bible doctrine. The protection in the
garden was the tree of lives. The protection since the fall is Bible doctrine.
v) Bible doctrine
resident in the soul insulates the believer against evil as well as provides
the blessings of grace.
C. In the original temptation of the
woman Satan used the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by relating it to
pride or arrogance — the pride and arrogance of the woman. Genesis 3:1-6.
Satan, in approaching the woman, wanted to keep the issue on evil. Satan
understood a principle: It is not the man, it is the message. If Satan had
appeared to the woman in all of his beauty she would have followed him
anywhere. Satan follows certain rules in the angelic conflict, and one of them
is that if you are going to get someone away from God — man had a relationship
with God through creation — you must stick with the message. The message is
good and evil. That is his policy, his message. He has to win her soul. It is
not the communicator, it is the communication.
Eating is a non-meritorious function
but when you hook it up with Satan’s plan non-meritorious function becomes
violation of God’s plan, God’s will; and the act of disobedience was the first
sin. In innocence mankind needed to know doctrine for orientation to grace but
not human good and evil to orient to Satan’s plan.
D. Therefore three principles must
be perceived to understand the policy of Satan: the doctrine of pride, the
doctrine of evil, and the doctrine of human good.
The doctrine of human good
a) Human good is dead to
the plan of God and the policy of God — Genesis 2:17 where the forbidden tree
is called the knowledge of goods and evil. Hebrews 6:1 — “… repentance from
dead works.” You must change your mind about dead works because dead works or
human good is the plan of Satan, it is dead to the plan of God. Spiritual
death, therefore, includes all the evil that the unbeliever thinks and all of
the human good that the unbeliever does, and all the evil and human good that
the reversionistic believer accomplishes — thinking or doing.
b) Human good is linked
with arrogance to produce boasting — Ephesians 2:9; Romans 4:2. Human good
always stimulates arrogance.
c) Human good is never
acceptable to God — Isaiah 64:6. This is why the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil was forbidden.
d) However, distinction
should be made between Satanic human good and morality which is called good.
There are three types of good: divine good, human good, morality or
establishment good. Divine good: production of the filling of the Spirit and
Bible doctrine; human good: the whole principle of Satan’s policy; morality or
establishment good — Romans 13:1-7.
e) Human good will not
save mankind — Ephesians 2:8,9; Titus 3:5; 2 Timothy 1:9.
f) The judgment of human
good. There are three ways in which human good is judged: i) Human good was not
judged at the cross; ii) The judgment of the believer’s human good does take
place after the Rapture at the judgment seat of Christ — Romans 5:10; 1 Corinthians
3:11-16; 2 Corinthians 5:10; iii. The judgment of the unbeliever’s human good
occurs at the last judgment, the great white throne — Revelation 20:12-15.
Verse 14 — “That good thing which
was committed.” Here are six words to translate three in the Greek: thn kalhn
paraqhkhn.
There is no verb here and it simply means “That beneficial deposit.” Thn is an accusative singular direct object from the
definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasise the importance of
doctrine resident in the soul. Remember that the definite article is often used
for a pronoun; here for the demonstrative pronoun because the demonstrative
pronoun emphasises doctrine resident in the soul. Then we have the accusative
singular direct object from the adjective kaloj. Kaloj as an adjective has a number of similar meanings: noble, honourable,
beneficial are the primary meanings. Here we have beneficial as the correct
meaning in this passage. Plus the accusative singular direct object from the
noun paraqhkh which means deposit. This
is the Bible doctrine by which Timothy has recovered from reversionism and then
moved on to the high ground of super-grace. The benefit resides in the fact
that Timothy now has how own paragraph SG2.
Next comes the verb, the aorist
active imperative from fulassw which means to guard. The
culminative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but
emphasises the existing results. The entirety contemplated here is the daily
function of GAP that causes both reversion recovery and entrance into the super-grace
life. The existing results which are emphasised is the maintenance of the
super-grace status. The active voice: Timothy through the daily function of GAP
produces the action of the verb — maintenance of super-grace. The imperative
mood is the mood of command. It should be translated: “Guard that beneficial
deposit.”
“by the Holy Ghost” — dia plus the genitive of pneuma
plus the adjective a(gioj: “through the Holy Spirit.”
“which dwelleth” — the articular
present active participle e)noikew. The definite article used
here is for a relative pronoun whose antecedent is the Holy Spirit. It is
translated, therefore, “who.” The present tense is a static present
representing a condition which perpetually exists, namely the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit. The active voice: the Holy Spirit produces the action by
indwelling the body of every believer. The participle is circumstantial for the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
“in us” — e)n plus the locative plural of e)gw which means all believers.
Translation: “Guard that beneficial
deposit [maximum doctrine in the soul] through the Holy Spirit who dwells in
us.”
Principle
1. The second deposit in this context
is Bible doctrine resident in the soul. The first deposit was faith in Christ
for salvation.
2. This is maximum resident doctrine
compatible with reaching spiritual maturity — super-grace.
3. Once there the command to guard
actually refers to maintenance of the super-grace status. We are to maintain
the status of maturity, we are to hold the high ground. This is the principle
of Philippians 3:12-21.
4. This anticipates the rest of the
chapter in which the reversionist is ashamed of that second deposit. The
reversionist is always ashamed of Bible doctrine; he rejects doctrine, he is
ashamed of doctrine, and any thought which is based on doctrine or any divine
viewpoint of life. The super-grace believer is never ashamed of divine
viewpoint, never hesitant to bring out divine viewpoint.
5. Being ashamed of the second
deposit of doctrine in the soul results in being ashamed of the first deposit,
faith in Christ. People who are negative toward doctrine are ashamed of Christ.
If you are ashamed of the written Word you are ashamed of the living Word.
6. First the believer is ashamed of
doctrine, which he rejects, then he becomes ashamed of Christ.
7. It is fitting that the chapter
should end with a super-grace believer who was not ashamed of the second
deposit, therefore he became a pleasant memory under the concept of auld langsyne.
Verse 15 — the reversionist who is
ashamed and is not a blessing to anyone else by association. This is the one
who doesn’t make it.
“This” is an accusative singular neuter
from another demonstrative pronoun, o(utoj which emphasises a
designated object in the immediate context. This is what is called the near
demonstrative. There is something in the immediate context that needs a lot of
emphasis. In one word it is doctrine, in two words it is doctrine inside, in a phrase
it is doctrine resident in the soul — through the daily function of GAP. This
emphasises the principle that reversionism at that time, as well as in our day,
always comes from rejection of that doctrine — getting our priorities confused,
losing our scale of values. The word “this” when used in the accusative
obviously must have a verb first, and it comes up next.
“thou knowest” — the perfect o)ida used as a present tense for doctrine in the right
lobe. In this case it should be translated, “You know this fact.” Timothy knows
this; Paul knows this. So it is something that Timothy has discovered since
reversion recovery and something that Paul knew all the time.
“that” — the conjunction o(ti is used after verbs of cognisance. O)ida is a verb of cognisance.
“all they which are in Asia” — the
content of cognisance. This includes a nominative masculine plural from paj, which means an awful lot of believers. There is
also a nominative masculine plural from the definite article, used this time
again as a relative pronoun specifying a category of believers, namely
reversionists under the influence of evil — “all who.” Then we have a
descriptive genitive plural pronoun o(j, referring to believers in
the Roman province of Asia. Plus the implied present active indicative of e)imi, plus a prepositional phrase, correctly translated
“in Asia.” and referring to the seven churches of Revelation chapters two and
three.
So far we have: “You know this fact
that all they who are in the Roman province of Asia.” The capital of the Roman
province of Asia is Ephesus where Timothy is the pastor, and this is the key
church at this time in church history.
“be turned away” — the aorist
passive indicative of the compound verb a)postrefw [a)po = from; strefw = to turn]. It means to turn away from, to
repudiate, to revolt. So we have the fact that they have revolted. Reversionism
is always a form of revolution, spiritual revolution. The aorist tense is a
constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The
aorist tense here covers the various stages of reversionism which causes these
believers to repudiate Paul. The passive voice is the voice for the implied
intermediate agent of reversionism. It means through reversionism they have
turned away from me. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality
of a maximum number of reversionists now residing in the Roman province of
Asia.
“of whom” — the ablative plural of
separation from the relative pronoun o(j, translated “among whom.”
“are” — present active indicative of
e)imi. This is an idiom which is
better rendered “especially” or “namely.”
“Phygellus and Hermogenes” —
[“Fugitive” and “Great Public Speaker”]. These names have no significance as
far as these two people are concerned. They were given the names at birth. They
are actually both reversionists.
Translation: “You are aware of this,
that all they who are in [the Roman province of] Asia have turned away from me
[through reversionism]; especially Phygellus and Hermogenes.”
Verse 16 — we have a reference to
God the Father under the title of kurioj, translated “Lord,” and it
always refers to deity, more frequently used of Jesus Christ. God the Father is
the author of the divine plan and the source of grace and mercy, and therefore kurioj is sometimes used of Him. This is equivalent of the
Hebrew “Jehovah,” pronounced by the Jews, “Adonai.” It can be used for any
member of the Godhead.
“give” — the aorist active optative
of didomi, the normal verb for
giving. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality with
the certitude of a past event. This is a Greek idiom and it is a device for
emphasis used here for a result which is on the point of being accomplished.
The active voice: only God, and in this case God the Father, can produce the
action of the verb. Paul would not intrude on the sovereignty of God but simply
state the application of doctrine which says this: Those who are associated
with Paul or are intimately associated with a grace believer share their
blessing. This is blessing by association and/or the doctrine of refreshment.
The optative mood: this is the mood by which Paul does not dictate to God. In
the optative mood you cannot dictate, you merely express a wish or desire. We
translate this, “The Lord may give.” But in this case it is that type of
optative that expresses total and strong contingency and therefore it is
stated, “The Lord give.”
“mercy” is the accusative singular
of the noun e)leoj, and it is grace in action.
To differentiate between the principle of grace and the action of grace we have
two words: grace and mercy. The absence of the definite article here emphasises
the qualitative aspect of the noun, and since mercy is grace in action it is
the highest possible quality.
“unto the house of Onesiphorus” —
this is a dative of indirect object and a dative of advantage from the noun o)ikoj. O)ikoj can mean a house or a household, it also
means a family. It refers here to the members of the family of Onesiphorus, for
Onesiphorus is definitely dead. The dative of the indirect object indicates the
one in whose interest the act of mercy is performed. Onesiphorus during his
lifetime was a source of blessing to all who knew him. Now that he is dead,
what happens to the members of his family? They continue to be blessed after
his death. Any time a person dies under dying grace he leaves behind a grace
obligation from the Lord to continue to bless the members of his family who are
still alive in the devil’s world.
We also have here a genitive
singular of relationship from the proper noun O)nhsiforuj, meaning benefit-bringing or profit-bearing. He is used as one of the
great illustrations of the ministry of refreshment. His family is still alive
in Ephesus, we know this from 2 Timothy 4:19. “The Lord give mercy to the
family of Onesiphorus.”
The principle of blessing
1. Not only does God provide
blessing for the super-grace believer under paragraph SG2 but He
also provides an overflow of blessing to those associated with a super-grace
believer in time and after his death.
2. The family of Onesiphorus still
lives in Ephesus.
3. Paul recognises both their
bereavement and anticipates their future blessings because they were associated
with such a great believer.
4. Every super-grace believer is
great, and spiritual greatness is numbered in any generation by the exact
number of super-grace believers in that generation.
5. Not only does the super-grace
believer carry his own generation in history but he both receives blessing from
God and through association provides blessing from God for those who are in his
intimate periphery.
6. Therefore a review of the
blessings of the super-grace believer. In other words, the categories of
paragraph SG2:
Category #1, spiritual blessings:
occupation with the person of Jesus Christ which is the ultimate objective,
receiving God’s very own happiness, capacity for love, capacity for life,
capacity for blessing, capacity for happiness, and the ability to face every
suffering and pressure of life.
Category #2, temporal blessings:
wealth, success in any type of endeavour, promotion, prosperity [social,
sexual, technical, and professional], temporal prosperity; establishment
prosperity which includes freedom, protection from crime, blessing in battle,
prosperity in the midst of depression and economic disaster; leadership
dynamics.
Category #3, blessing by
association.
Category #4, historical blessing.
The super-grace believer holds up his generation historically. This is the
spiritual heritage type blessing.
Category #5, dying blessing. The
super-grace believer has great blessing in dying. The next step is surpassing
grace, blessing and reward forever above and beyond anything that the peons in
heaven possess.
“for” — the conjunction o(ti is “because,” used in a causative sense.
“he oft refreshed me” — this
includes an adverb meaning frequently, pollakij, plus the aorist active indicative from the compound verb a)nayuxw [a)na = again and again; yuxw = to breathe, to revive], hence to breathe again
and again means to cheer up or to refresh. The aorist tense is a dramatic
aorist, it states a present reality (refreshment) with the certitude of a past
event — the intake of doctrine, the daily function of GAP. Here it states what
has been accomplished and therefore it also could double as a culminative
aorist viewing the super-grace Onesiphorus in his entirety but regarding him
from the standpoint of existing results: he was a refreshment to Paul, he was a
refreshment to Timothy, he was a refreshment to many. The active voice:
Onesiphorus in super-grace status produces the action of the verb. The
indicative mood is the reality of super-grace overflowing from Onesiphorus to
Paul. Plus the accusative singular direct object from the personal pronoun e)gw, referring to Paul during his second Roman
imprisonment — “because many times he has refreshed me.”
“and was not ashamed” — a part of
the ministry of refreshment is true love. True love is not ashamed. Here we
have the aorist passive indicative of e)paisxunomai [e)pi = toward; a)iskumomai = to be ashamed]. The verb is stated in the form of
a negative reality by the use of o)uk.
O)uk
eliminates ashamedness totally, which indicates that Onesiphorus had great
capacity for love. The constative aorist gathers into one entirety the attitude
of Onesiphorus and the various acts of refreshment. The passive voice is with
the implied direct agent, which means that by means of doctrine resident in his
soul and resultant capacity for category #3 love Onesiphorus did not receive
shame when he came to Rome with regard to Paul. The indicative mood is
declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality and
certainty.
“of my chains” — this is the
accusative singular direct object from the noun a)lusij, and it is a synonym for being in jail. With it is a possessive
pronoun, the possessive genitive of e)gw, and it is correctly
translated “and he was not ashamed of my chains.” Not only did Onesiphorus have
great capacity for love in all three categories but he expressed that capacity
in the direction of the Lord, in the direction of his family and friends, and
especially in connection with this greatest of all people who ever lived. While
he is dead and gone to heaven the memory of him lingers on with many people.
Verse 17 — “But” is the adversative
conjunction a)lla. Here it is used as a
confirmatory or emphatic conjunction and is given the emphatic force of “In
fact.”
“when he was in Rome” — the aorist
middle participle of ginomai. The constative aorist
contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, the whole
time that Onesiphorus was in Rome he always made it a point to see Paul. The
middle voice is the intensive middle or dynamic middle which emphasises the
part taken by the subject in the action of the verb. The participle is temporal
with the preposition e)n plus the locative, and
therefore it is translated “In fact when he happened to be in Rome.” The action
of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, which comes up
next.
He sought me out very diligently” —
this includes an adverb, spoudaiwj, and it means diligently or
eagerly. With it we have the aorist active indicative of the verb zhtew which means to seek. The ingressive aorist contemplates
the action of the verb at its beginning. In other words, he did not know where
to find Paul but he kept searching until he did. Once he discovered he was in
jail he went to see him even though he was endangering his life and eventually
lost his life because he did this. The active voice: Onesiphorus produces the
action of the verb because he is truly a man.
“and found me” — this is a
culminative aorist in contrast to the ingressive aorist. The indicative mood is
for reality. It should be translated, “and he discovered [or located] me.”
Translation: “In fact when he
happened to be in Rome, eagerly he began to search for me, and he finally
located me.”
In the course of this display of
category #3 love Onesiphorus was seized and brought before a Roman tribunal
where he refused to renounce Jesus Christ and he himself was quickly executed.
The obvious conclusion is that Onesiphorus did not return to Ephesus but died
in the function of the ministry of refreshment.
The doctrine of refreshment
1. While refreshment in the English
language generally connotes food and beverage it has a much greater connotation
in the Word of God. It means to restore the strength of the soul, to revive the
divine viewpoint function of the soul through fellowship, through social life,
and the interchange of doctrine. It means to supply what is necessary for
spiritual blessing in time of adversity or disaster.
2. The alleviation of Saul’s
psychosis is classified as the ministry of refreshment. The refresher was David
making his first great spiritual advance. 1 Samuel 16:23. Refreshment is used
here for soul recovery from adverse conditions, whether reversionism, neurosis,
psychopathic behaviour, or psychosis. Always, refreshment connotes a soul
recovery.
3. A tristitch of doctrinal
refreshment. A parabolic tristitch is one in which the first line gives an
illustration for the second and third lines. Proverbs 25:13 — “Lie the cold of
snow in the time of harvest.” This is ice-cold water brought down from high up
in the mountains in order to quench the thirst of the men who were working in
the harvest. They are refreshed when they drink the water after drinking and
becoming very warm — “he refreshes the souls of his masters.” Note that the
refreshment in the Bible, again, is always connected with the soul. Therefore
this is a harvest analogy between the water boy during the harvest, bringing
the water to the workers, and the communicator of doctrine bringing doctrine to
those who are positive. Bible doctrine, then, is like cold water in a hot
period; it refreshes. The teaching of doctrine is the key, then, to the
ministry of refreshment.
4. The rejection of refreshment
means national discipline — Isaiah 28:8-14. The only way in which the nation
can recover is the ministry of refreshment, the communication of doctrine to
the soul.
5. Response to the Word of God is
called refreshment — Romans 15:32. This means a Bible conference in Rome. Paul
wanted to come and give them doctrine and then be refreshed by social life with
them. This means mutual refreshment. The same concept is found in the ministry
of Titus to the Corinthians. Their response to his teaching is called
refreshment — 2 Corinthians 7:13.
6. Super-grace believers all have a
ministry of refreshment. This is a part of the super-grace package. For
example, certain Corinthians believers — 1 Corinthians 16:17,18; Philemon 7.
Verse 18 — we have the desire of the
apostle Paul with regard to Onesiphorus, a desire that actually becomes a
reality. “The Lord grant unto him” — the subject again is o( kurioj referring to God the Father as the author of the
divine plan. With it is the aorist active optative of the verb didomi which means to give. The aorist tense is a
culminative aorist it views the super-grace status of Onesiphorus in its
entirety but it emphasises it from the viewpoint of existing results. In
eternity Onesiphorus not only has left behind a super-grace refreshment that
will mean blessing for those of his own loved ones who are still alive but it
means that he will be highly decorated in eternity. He has a paragraph SG3.
The active voice: only God can produce the action of the verb, only God can
reward, only God can bless. Notice that this simply states the application of
the doctrine which certifies that anyone who is a super-grace believer and has
exercised the ministry of refreshment is obviously going to have both dying
grace and surpassing grace forever. The optative mood: this is the mood by
which Paul cannot and does not dictate to God. This is a voluntative optative
expressing the wish of Paul. This wish of Paul happens to be correct doctrine.
We also have a dative singular indirect object from the intensive pronoun a)utoj emphasising the identity the person, Onesiphorus.
he is a super-grace believer, he did hold the high ground until he departed
from this life. He did have a ministry of refreshment even in his dying
moments. He does have great blessings and great decorations in heaven.
“that he may find” — the aorist
active infinitive of e(uriskw meaning here to discover,
because no one in this life knows how phenomenal are the rewards for the
super-grace believer. The aorist active infinitive here repeats the last verb
of the previous verse. In other words, in the previous verse Onesiphorus found
Paul in prison. Now he is no longer on the earth, he is in heaven, and there he
will e(uriskw his own paragraph SG3.
So this is a culminative aorist, it views both the super-grace status and the
ministry of refreshment in its entirety but emphasises its existing results.
Onesiphorus is going to be highly decorated in heaven. The aorist infinitive
denotes what is eventual or particular in contrast to the present infinitive
which denotes process. The active voice: Onesiphorus in eternity produces the
action. The infinitive is an actual result.
“mercy of the lord” — e)leoj which is grace in action. Once in heaven grace in
action will be an actual reality. Mercy here refers to the paragraph SG3
belonging to him. We also have para plus the ablative of kurioj — the ultimate source is the Lord. It should be
“mercy from the Lord.”
“in that day” is a reference to the
judgment seat of Christ.
“and in how many things” should be
“in fact on how many occasions [at Ephesus] he ministered” — the aorist active
indicative of diakonew. Every super-grace believer
has a ministry. The constative aorist gathers the ministry of refreshment of
Onesiphorus into its entirety. The active voice: Onesiphorus produced the
action of the verb.
“unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest
very well” — literally, “you know better than I do.”
Translation: “The Lord give to him
to discover mercy from the Lord on that day: in fact, how many occasions at
Ephesus he ministered [a service of refreshment] to me, you [Timothy] know it
better than I do.”