DUNCAN/Savior of the world

Please turn to 1 Timothy 4:9-10. In this passage, Paul is giving a word of encouragement to Timothy regarding ministry. In fact, he points Timothy to "faithful sayings" which were divine truths inspired by God eventually written down in the New Testament that Christians knew all over the Mediterranean world. Specifically, he says, “It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers." In other words, Paul is saying, "Timothy, do you want to be encouraged? Do you want to have hope in this ministry? Let me take you to the glorious theological truth of God's Word and encourage you by it." Thus, this passage can be divided into three parts. First, Paul addresses our hope in the Christian life. Then, he addresses the only way of salvation for all humanity. Finally, Paul addresses the importance of saving faith in God.  

I. Our Hope in the Christian Life. 

In verse 10, Paul says, “we have fixed our hope on the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers." This is a classic example of how theology is important for the practical living of the Christian life. When you feel hopeless, you turn to the theology that God has given to us in His Word. This is yet another reason why Paul will have said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:6-8 that he needed to be nourished in sound doctrine because when the pressures and trials of life come, God says the great encouragements that He gives come from His promises in the theology of His Word. Paul is pressing Timothy to ask himself the question, "What motivates me to get up in the morning and minister to a congregation that Paul once pastored, and which is now riddled by deceitful teaching and which is persecuted by the world?” Paul gives him the answer by saying, “Timothy, this is what keeps you going. Your hope is firmly on God Himself, and therefore nothing in this life can take that hope away, but nothing short of Him can give you that hope." 

There are times in our lives when we find ourselves looking for our hope in something else other than God, and very often it is our prayer that God would help us to get that other thing in which we desire to ultimately place our hope. When we pray, "Lord, help me to have the circumstance in which I will find my ultimate hope apart from You," God will answer “no” to that prayer of his children because God does not want us to have our ultimate hope in something else other than Him. If we view God as the great means to give us some other hope which is certain and secure, we will never have a certain and a secure hope. God is not the instrument to get us to another hope which is not Him. God is our hope in the Christian life. Therefore, Paul is saying to this young minister, “Timothy, you are able to toil and exert yourself because your confidence is in the living God. The one life-sustaining hope we have is God Himself. And there is no opposition in the world that can thwart Him."

II. The Only Way of Salvation for All Humanity.  

In verse 10, Paul also says that this living God is "the Savior of all men." Paul is saying to Timothy, “The grand Christian hope in God realizes that He is the only Savior for all humanity, and that He will save a multitude from every tribe and tongue, and people and nation.” He is fixing Timothy's hope and ours on who God is. Paul does not mean that every human is or will be saved. He is not teaching universalism when he says that God is the Savior of all men. Nor is Paul saying that God offers salvation to all men, but that only some are saved because only they exercise faith. Instead, I would suggest to you that every time that Paul or any other New Testament writer says that God is the Savior of all men, three things are being asserted simultaneously. First, Paul is saying to Timothy, “When you preach the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ, you are telling humans the only way of salvation. The only way humans will ever know what it means to be saved is if they know the living God, whom you proclaim.” Secondly, Paul is saying that God is not only the Savior of the Jews, but He is the Savior of the Gentiles from every tribe, and tongue, and people and nation. Thirdly, he is emphasizing that there is a worldwide scope to the plan of God's redemption. In the New Testament when it is emphasized that God is the Savior of all men, and that Christ is the Savior of the world, what is being emphasized is that there is a worldwide scope to God's redeeming plan. Everything else in life has to be organized around this truth because there is nothing more important than knowing that He is the one true God and the only hope of salvation for all humanity.   

III. The Importance of Saving Faith in God. 

At the end of verse 10, Paul says that the living God is the Savior of all men, “especially of believers.” He is pointing us to the importance of saving faith in God. What is Paul saying in this verse? He is saying that God's great and gracious salvation is received only by faith, only by those who believe. Paul is saying that there can be no experience of God as our Savior except through faith in Him, His promises, and in His Son, Jesus Christ. It is not enough to go through the motions, to belong to a church, or to attend services. We experience God as our Savior by faith. So Paul is giving Timothy hope for his ministry, and he is giving us hope for the difficulties of life because that hope is found in the living God only by those who trust in the living God. Paul is saying to the believer, “If you trust in the living God, then no matter what you are facing today, you have every reason to be full of hope.” And Paul is saying to the unbeliever, “If you do not trust in God, then no matter how good everything else is in your life, you have no reason to hope. Because the only reason to hope in this world is found in the living God, who is the only Savior of humanity.” May God grant that we would not walk through this world with misplaced hope but that we would come to Jesus Christ and find hope.