The Gospel of Grace | 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Brian hedges | November 30, 2025
Let me invite you to turn in Scripture to the book of 1 Timothy. If you’re using one of the Bibles provided there in the chair in front of you, it’s page 991.
Today we begin our Advent series with a focus on the gospel of grace. And the title of this series, “When Grace Appeared,” is actually taken from another one of these little letters by Paul, Titus 2:11, that says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people.”
Over the next several weeks, we’re going to look at these passages in the pastoral letters—that is, Paul’s letters to Timothy and to Titus—where he gives us these great salvation statements, these great summaries of the most basic doctrine of salvation in Christian theology.
It’s especially true in this text we begin with this morning, 1 Timothy 1:12-17. This is a text that begins with thanksgiving and then kind of morphs into Paul’s personal testimony and his expression of the gospel of grace, and then ends with doxology and praise. And it is a beautiful passage, a wonderful passage, but a very simple passage, a passage that is just packed with what we might call gospel clarity.
You’ll especially see this in verse 15. Verse 15 is a verse that Spurgeon said the whole gospel is in this one single verse. John Stott called it a concise summary of the gospel. And this morning we’re going to see that this is one of the clearest, most succinct, most simple summaries and statements of the gospel found anywhere in Scripture.
As we begin this Advent series, it’s a helpful reminder to us, as Brad has already said, of the most basic, foundational truths of Christianity. This is one reason why I think it’s important for us to celebrate the Christian calendar—and when I say Christian calendar, I don’t mean a wall calendar that has Bible verses and flowers on it. The Christian calendar is the Christian year, which is celebrated with these different feasts or these different holidays that punctuate the year. So Advent is this series of Sundays, the four Sundays leading up to Christmas. It’s the time of year where we anticipate the coming of our Lord. Then Christmas, the celebration of the birth and the incarnation of Jesus Christ. And then, of course, there’s Good Friday, where we celebrate Jesus’ death; and Easter Sunday, where we celebrate the resurrection; Ascension Sunday, where we remember the ascension of Jesus Christ to the right hand of God; Pentecost Sunday, where we remember the descent of the Holy Spirit. All of those Christian holidays are important, and they are important because they remind us of the most basic, foundational truths of the gospel.
So over the next four weeks, we’re going to really focus on some of those truths as we work through these passages in the pastoral letters, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus.
So, let’s begin by reading 1 Timothy 1:12-17. This morning I’m reading this passage from the NIV. These are Paul’s words. He says,
“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
“Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
This is God’s Word.
As I’ve already said, this is one of the most succinct summaries of the gospel that we have anywhere in Scripture. And I want to focus on the gospel this morning and show you three simple truths about this gospel.
1. The Gospel of Grace
2. The Gospel for Sinners
3. The Gospel for All
1. The Gospel of Grace
You see this in the way Paul begins this passage, when he says, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord…” The word “thank” there in the Greek is a cognate of the word “grace” in Greek. So this is kind of a verbal expression of expressing gratitude for grace that has been received. Then in verse 14 he says, “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” So, Paul is thanking God—an expression of gratitude—for the grace that has been abundantly poured out on him in his life.
As I’ve already said, he begins with thanksgiving, but quickly morphs into sharing his testimony. And this is one of several passages in the New Testament where the apostle Paul reflects on his own story of how he came to experience God’s grace in his life. And when you think about the life of Paul, you think about who he was before Christ, and then you think about the grace he received and the fruit of that grace in his life after he met Christ, you begin to see just how abundant this grace is.
Let’s just think about this for a minute, the before and after picture as we see it in the life of Paul. He describes his former life with brutal honesty in verse 13, when he says, “I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man.” This is who Paul was. He was a blasphemer because he denounced Jesus Christ. He did not consider Jesus the Messiah. He hated Christ. He hated everything that Jesus stood for.
He was a blasphemer. He was also a persecutor because he opposed the people of Christ. He persecuted the church of God. And he was even a violent man because he used force in his persecution. He even consented to the death of Stephen, the first martyr of the church, and he was going about seeking out these Christians, kind of hunting out the little house churches and enclaves of Christians, and seeking to find them and then persecute them and jail them. That was how much he hated Christianity.
You might just think of this in a contemporary parallel. You might think of a blasphemer today, maybe a militant atheist who mocks the name of Jesus—think of a Sam Harris or a Richard Dawkins. Think of a persecutor, like a government agent in a communist country who is shutting down house churches and imprisoning Christians. Think of a violent person, an extremist who believes that they are serving God by killing Christians. Wrap all of those characters into one, and what you have is Saul of Tarsus.
This is not exactly a candidate for a church planter or for a missionary. This is not someone that anyone would have considered as an ambassador for the name of Jesus Christ. But that’s who Paul was before he met Christ.
But then God’s grace came to him when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. Paul describes this in terms of abundant, overflowing grace, “grace that is poured out on me abundantly,” he says in verse 14.
It’s a very rich image that evokes the idea of a mighty, overflowing river. This grace doesn’t come to us in little drops and trickles; it is an overflowing grace. It’s lavish, undeserved, unlimited grace. It’s the grace we sang about this morning, when we said,
“What love could remember, no wrongs we have done;
Omniscient, all-knowing, He counts not their sum.
Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore,
Our sins, they are many, His mercy is more.”
And Paul says, “The grace that I received, the mercy that I received as the foremost of sinners, was given to me so that I would be a pattern for those who would follow.”
That was the before picture in Paul’s life. You see the after in verse 14, when he says that this grace that was poured on him abundantly came along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. In those two words, faith and love, Paul is giving us the two most important evidences of genuine salvation and of a life and a heart that has been changed. Faith—that is simple, unconditional, unqualified trust in Jesus—and love: wholehearted, unreserved love for people.
Paul said, “God’s mercy and grace so abundantly overflowed in my life, was poured out in my life to such a degree” that what once was distrust and blasphemy of Jesus, the Son of God became faith in him, and what once was violence and persecution for the people of God became love for them. It was a complete change, a complete reorientation of his life, because he received grace. All of this Paul is telling us to remind us that the gospel is the good news of God’s grace.
Another great example of someone who received grace is John Bunyan, that great author of The Pilgrim’s Progress; he’s most famous for that book. But you know he also wrote a spiritual autobiography that was called Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. Of course, the title of that book was taken from this passage.
It’s really the story of every Christian, isn’t it? Every Christian could call their autobiography Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, because this is what we experience when we come to Jesus Christ; not judgment for our sins, but grace and mercy that far outweighs and covers and overshadows all the sins that we committed before Christ.
So it invites a certain kind of response in our lives as we just think about this gracious God and the gospel through which we are saved. Let me give you three ways to kind of bring this home in application, three ways that you can live in the gospel of grace this week.
(1) Number one: rest in God’s grace, not in your works. All of us are trusting in something. What are you trusting in? Trust not in your performance, not in your morality, not in your works, not in your religious activity, not in self-improvement, not in any of those things, not in law keeping. You don’t trust in those things. You trust in God’s grace.
Now, I know that all of those things have a certain place in our lives. We’re certainly not to be intentional law-breakers. But your efforts to keep the law are not the basis of salvation. So you don’t trust or rest in your works; you rest in God’s grace.
(2) Number two: reflect on your own story of grace. Like Paul, every Christian has a before and an after. Maybe something you can do this week is just take time to reflect and ask yourself, “Who was I before Jesus found me? Who was I? And what has changed in my life since I have come to Jesus Christ?” You might even consider writing your own spiritual autobiography. I don’t mean a whole book, but maybe write down in two or three paragraphs or two or three pages how you first came to know Jesus Christ and experience his grace in your life. It’s a very helpful spiritual exercise.
Then, live in the fruit of grace, faith and love. This is the greatest evidence that we have experienced God’s grace in our lives. And this maybe will be helpful for some of you if you became a Christian as a very young person. Maybe you don’t have a sordid past of sexual immorality or drug addiction or the party life or living for the world. Maybe that’s not your experience. So you think about who you were before Christ, and that may be kind of vague to you. But what should be clear is who you are after Christ and that the evidences of salvation in your life are these two things: faith in Christ—that you really trust in him, that you love him, that you want to serve him, that you believe in him, and that you are resting in Christ and not in yourself—and then love for God’s people. Those are the evidences that there has been a work of grace in our lives.
The gospel of grace; this is how we’re saved.
2. The Gospel for Sinners
This is not only the gospel of grace, but it is the gospel for sinners. Of course that’s implied when we say it is grace, but I want you to see just how much Paul focuses our attention on this central truth, that this gospel is for sinners. You see it in verse 15, where Paul gives us one of his trustworthy sayings. There are actually five of these trustworthy sayings found in the pastoral letters. We’re going to consider some of those in this series.
It’s possible, the scholars tell us, that these sayings may have been portions of early creeds or early Christian hymns. But whatever the case, these are accepted truths, trustworthy, faithful truths that Paul now states to Timothy and to Titus, with his apostolic authority, reminding us that these things are central to the gospel and to Christian teaching.
So the first one of these faithful sayings you have in verse 15. “Here is a trustworthy [or faithful] saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.”
Let’s just think about that short and yet very full gospel summary for a few minutes. Let me ask three questions here.
(1) First of all, what is the gospel? And you see it in that central sentence: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
I mean, in that one sentence, the whole heart of Advent and Christmas is captured in just a few words. “Christ Jesus came into the world.” That implies his preexistence. He came into the world. He's not a creature. He is the eternal Son of God who had existed eternally with the Father before the worlds were ever created! And yet he came into the world. He came into our world, the world of darkness, the world of brokenness, the world of sin, the world of suffering. And he came in all of the frailty of human nature, as he became incarnate among us, born as this little babe in Bethlehem and then spending his thirty-three years experiencing the full gamut of human experience, tempted in every point as we are yet without sin, Jesus, who experienced exhaustion and tiredness, hunger and thirst, the full spectrum of human emotions—he experienced it all—suffering and pain—all of it. And he did it because he came into the world to save sinners.
Here is the purpose of the incarnation: salvation. Christ’s incarnation was for our redemption.
We say this, don’t we, in the Nicene Creed? “For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven.” This is why he came! This is right at the heart of the gospel. The heart of the gospel is this story of God, who became flesh and dwelt among us so that he could save us from our sins. This is what the gospel is. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
These words echo, of course, the very words of Jesus himself, Jesus who said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
Jesus said, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him” (John 3:17). Jesus said, “I have come into the world as light so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness” (John 12:46).
He came into the world to bring the light of salvation to us, not to condemn the world but to save the world. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
(2) Who is this gospel for? Second question. It is for sinners. It’s for sinners. And notice that this is stated without any further qualification. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” and Paul says, “I am the worst of the lot.” Notice he doesn’t just say, “I was the worst,” he says, “I am the worst,” because Paul continues, even as a redeemed man, to have the consciousness of his sins.
I don’t think this was false humility on Paul’s part. I think it was, rather, the reflection of someone who, the more he came to understand the depth of God’s mercy and grace in Christ, the more he saw his own sins and his need for that grace.
John Stott (I think rightly) says that this is the language of every sinner whose conscience has been awakened and disturbed by the Holy Spirit. Every single one of us should feel as Paul felt, for the primary reason that we know our own sins more than we know anyone else’s. You don’t know anyone else’s heart. You can look at their behavior, you can hear their words, but you don’t know what goes on in their heart. But you know your own heart to some degree, and if you know your own heart and you’ve been honest with your own heart, you will be able to say with Paul, “I’m the worst sinner that I know.”
But that is not a reason for us to be discouraged, because the qualification for salvation, according to this verse, is to be a sinner. Jesus himself said, “I came not to call the righteous, but the sinners to repentance.” So we should find great encouragement in this.
Paul puts himself forward as exhibit A of God’s grace and mercy, and he does so to encourage every single one of us. He says, “For this very reason I was shown mercy, that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience.”
There’s a wonderful story that comes from the English Reformation and a man who is known as Little Bilney. Little Bilney. His name is Thomas Bilney, but he was evidently a very, very short man. I like to think of him as the Zacchaeus of the Reformers. He was a very short man, short of stature, “Little Bilney,” and he was a scholar at Cambridge in the 1520s. He started reading Erasmus’ Greek New Testament. Of course this was shortly after the printing press was invented and people hadn’t had the Greek New Testament, but here is Little Bilney. He’s studying these words; he’s doing so with some consciousness of his own sin and guilt. He came to 1 Timothy 1:15, and he read these words: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief,” and in his own words this is what happened. He said,
“This one sentence did so exhilarate my heart, being before wounded with the guilt of my sins and almost in despair, that even immediately I seemed unto myself inwardly to feel a marvelous comfort and quietness, insomuch that my bruised bones leaped for joy.”
He became a great preacher of the English Reformation, leading others to faith in Jesus Christ, until he was arrested, imprisoned, and burned at the stake for that faith in 1531.
But what saved him was this one sentence, believing the gospel in this one sentence, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” That’s what caused his bruised and broken heart to leap for joy.
It can do that for you as well. If you have never experienced salvation in Jesus Christ, take heart in this gospel that is for sinners.
You might say, “Well, I think my sins are too bad.” Your sins aren’t any worse than Paul’s. Paul says, “I’m the worst of sinners.” You might say, “My sins are too many.” It doesn’t matter! It doesn’t quantify what the sins should be. You might say, “I just don’t think I’m a good enough person.” Great! That means you’re a good candidate for salvation. Don’t look to yourself; instead, look to Christ. This is good news for sinners.
(3) How, then, should we respond to it? You see it in verses 16 and 17. Paul says,
“For that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him [there’s the first response: believe in him, trust in him] and receive eternal life.”
And that then leads right into verse 17, the great doxology of praise in this passage.
“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
Our response to this gospel of grace that is for sinners should be one of trusting and resting in the gospel, believing in Christ and receiving him as our own, which then overflows in a heart of praise, as we praise this King, the eternal, immortal, invisible, the only true God. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. What else can we say when we consider a gospel like this?
So friends, let this gospel humble you, let this gospel give you hope, let this gospel lead you to worship.
Let it humble you as you recognize that your condition apart from Christ is so desperate that there would be absolutely no hope of saving yourself. But let it give you hope as you recognize that there is no sinner who is outside the scope of God’s mercy and grace. The gospel is for sinners. And having received that gospel, let it drive you to glory in Christ.
3. The Gospel for All
This is a gospel of grace, it is a gospel of sinners, and finally, number three, it is the gospel for all. It’s the gospel for all.
Look again at this very powerful phrase in verse 15: “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance.” Or, as some translations put it, “This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance.”
That phrase, “all acceptance” or “full acceptance,” can be taken in one of two ways. It could mean that this message is so trustworthy that it should be fully accepted; that is, accepted with all of our hearts. Or it could mean that this gospel is so trustworthy that it should be accepted by all people. So, worthy of all acceptance; acceptance from all people.
I think probably both are implied, and I think both are true. But I want to focus on the second meaning of that, because it’s actually important in the history of the Christian church. A gospel that is worthy of all acceptance—that is, a gospel that is for all, that is for everyone.
I just want to give you one more story from church history. This comes from the eighteenth century, with a pair of Baptist figures in England. These two figures are William Carey and his pastor, Andrew Fuller. William Carey was a man who was dreaming about taking the gospel to the world. He had around his house maps of the world, and his one ambition was to take the gospel to places where Jesus Christ had never been named, had never been heard of. He wanted to do that, and he had a burden to do that.
Andrew Fuller, his pastor, shared that burden, but they were faced with opposition from the Baptist churches in which they ministered, because they were in that part of England (and I guess in that period in church history) where Calvinism had kind of gone to seed and it had become hyper-Calvinism. So when William Carey presented to these elders his desire to take the gospel where Christ had never been named, one of the elders said something to the effect of, “God can save his elect without your help.” They didn’t want to send a missionary.
But Andrew Fuller had a burden to do it, and Andrew Fuller essentially said to William Carey, “If you will go down into the pit of gospel need, I’ll hold the rope for you, and I’ll support you.” And Andrew Fuller wrote a whole book to defend what you and I maybe take for granted today, to defend the free offer of the gospel to everyone. That book was called The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation, and he took it from this verse.
And really what Andrew Fuller did in that book is he just piled verse upon verse upon verse to show that the gospel is to be preached and proclaimed to everyone, and that everyone who hears the gospel has an obligation to believe it and should be invited and encouraged and is even commanded to believe it; that the gospel, the free offer of the gospel, goes to everyone. It’s not just gospel that goes to the elect, as if we know who the elect are. But every person who hears the gospel is invited to respond to that gospel.
Of course, if you know the story, William Carey became the father of modern missions as he went to India, took the gospel there, spent the rest of his life in India seeking to bring people to Christ, and did so with great success, although with great hardship. And Andrew Fuller founded the Baptist Missionary Society, which was the first society of modern missions. So was born what we might call the era of modern missions that we have known over the past couple of hundred years.
But it all started with this deep conviction that “this is a trustworthy saying, worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
Friends, let’s not take this for granted. This is the gospel for all. It’s the gospel for everyone. And therefore it means that it is the gospel for you. You sometimes, perhaps, wonder about these mysterious doctrines of election and predestination. Let me tell you, don’t start by wondering whether you’re elect or not. Instead, hear that this is a gospel for sinners, and if you see yourself as a sinner, the gospel is for you. If you believe the gospel, it will show that you are elect from the foundation of the world. The gospel is for you.
But the gospel is for everyone. That means that it must be shared with all. This is a gospel that’s not just for church people, not just for the morally clean. It’s for all peoples in the world, and it’s for every person in the world. Therefore we should share this gospel with others.
That, of course, should be one of the great burdens that we carry in our hearts and our lives: to consider it our privilege, our responsibility to share this good news with others. That may mean that we get out of comfort zones—it usually will—that we initiate conversations. It may mean crossing the street, or it may mean crossing an ocean. But somehow it is our responsibility and our joy to share this good news with others, because it is a gospel for all.
The gospel is good news. It’s a gospel of grace. It’s a gospel for sinners. And it’s a gospel for all.
As we begin this Advent season, let’s ask ourselves this morning, first of all, have we received this gospel of grace ourselves? Are we resting in this good news? Do we see ourselves, as Paul did, as the chief of sinners; and having received it, will we worship this great God who has saved us, and will we share this good news with others? Let’s pray together.
Father, we thank you this morning for the good news of the gospel. We thank you that we can come before you, not claiming any works that we have done, but instead claiming the obedience, the righteousness, and the sufficient, sacrificial, atoning death of Jesus Christ. Lord, it’s really our only hope.
So this morning as we come to the table we come with that hope in our hearts. We’re not looking to ourselves, but we’re looking to Christ and what he has done for us. Lord, we need this message to rest in our hearts in such a way that it brings the fruit of faith and love. So we ask for that, Lord. May this be more than words that we hear, but may it be a message that we receive in our heart of hearts, as we consider your abundant grace to us. May we respond this morning with renewed faith and trust in Jesus Christ and with renewed love for people who need that same gospel. Lord, give us opportunity, grace, and courage to share that good news with others.
As we come to the Lord’s table this morning, would you meet with us by your Spirit? Lord, help us come humbly, recognizing that we are absolutely dependent on what Christ has done for us. But help us come with hope and with joy as we think about this good news and the significance of Jesus’ death and resurrection on our behalf. So Lord, meet with us now in these few moments as we continue in worship. We pray this in Jesus’ name and for his sake, amen.
Brian G. Hedges
