Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1 Tim. 1:15)

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Thomas Bilney: ‘O most sweet and comfortable sentence to my soul’. Bilney felt what he described as ‘a marvellous comfort and quietness, insomuch as my bruised bones leaped for joy.’ About 1524 he conveyed its message to Hugh Latimer.

  1. This is a saying to take to heart.
    • there are five faithful (NIV and ESV have ‘trustworthy’) sayings in the Pastoral Epistles – 1 Timothy 1:15; 3:1; 4:9-10; 2 Timothy 2:11; Titus 3:8. Literally, it is ‘faithful is the word’. Jesus would do something similar e.g. in John 3:3 (‘Truly truly’).
  2. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
    1. He came from heaven. Phil.2:5-7; John 1:14; 6:50-51; 16:28.
    2. His mission was to save sinners. He did inform, teach, reform, and inspire, but essentially His task was to save – Matt.1:21; 9:13; Luke 19:10; John 3:17.
      Sinners Jesus will receive:
      Tell this word of grace to all.

    John Chrysostom who died in A.D. 407: ‘What then was it that was thought incredible? That those who were enemies, and sinners, neither justified by the law, nor by works, should immediately through faith alone be advanced to the highest favour.’

  3. He saved Paul, what about you?
    • 1 Tim.1:13, 15. See 1 Cor.15:9; Eph.3:8.
    • not ‘I was the chief of sinners or the foremost of sinners or the worst of sinners’, but ‘I am the chief of sinners’. See Rom.7:24-25.