Christ Our Savior

The nature of man and his final destiny

In the beginning, God. God was there before the beginning. Eternally glorious.  Perfect. Breathtakingly good. In the beginning, God spoke, and made out of nothing everything (Gen 1.1). And it was very good (Gen 1.31). Perfect. In the beginning, God made man in His image, male and female, immortal souls, like Him not in His infinite perfections but rather as sentient, self-aware beings with the capacity to reflect (and reflect on) those perfections, to relate to God, to enjoy and celebrate His goodness, in Paradise, forever (Gen 1.27).

But man broke it. Not God. We chose something other, something less than God (Gen 3.6-8, Rom 1.21-23). Not God. We rebelled. We chose what we want, chose to do what we want, not God and what He wants (Rom 3.23). And we broke it. We broke what He made. Brokenness. Rampant, cascading. Tragic, horrific (Rom 1.28-32). We broke our relationship with God. And the consequences were catastrophic. With that fateful choice, death entered our world (Rom 5.12). Brokenness. Not good. Physical death - sickness, disease, bodies sooner or later breaking down until they die. The immortal gone mortal. Not good. And spiritual death - our spirits dead to Him and destined now to exist forever separated from Him and His goodness (Rom 6.23). Not good. There is none who does good, broken and bent from birth, bent on doing what I want instead of what God wants (Rom 3.10-12). This is what the Bible calls sin. Conceived in iniquity, we are. Born to transgress, unable to not sin. Our long night of rebellion against our breathtakingly good Creator. And all of creation broke right along with us. Paradise lost. The consequences of our rebellion. Not God —> not good.

This brokenness has continued, unabated, to this day, all of creation wearing out and wearing down (Rom 8.20-22). Our severed relationship with our Creator introduced brokenness into every facet of life on this planet, into all other relationships - how I relate to self, to others, to the world around me. Selfishness, fear, guilt, greed, hate, animosity, injustice, racism, exploitation (Gal 5.19-21). Evil. Not good. We don’t take care of ourselves or one another or the world around us - and a world full of evil hollas right back at us. Dealing out brokenness with indiscriminate abandon. No one is excepted.  No one is immune. Not God. Not good. We may not get to choose which particular version of brokenness comes our way, but when it comes to God, we don’t. We don’t come to God. We all go away, go astray, from birth, no lessons needed (Is 53.6).  Neither caught nor taught. We all choose to go our own independent way, born to sin like sparks fly upward (Job 5.7). We all fall short. And the penalty is death. Again, a spiritual death penalty. Forever separated from God and His goodness. That is my destiny (albeit not that for which I was designed). There is no escaping it - I must die. Unless - I could somehow find a substitute…

The plan and purpose of the atonement

But God. God had a plan. A plan to make a way back, back to Him. A plan to crush this rebellion (Gen 3.15). My sinful rebellion separated me from Him, incurred His wrath and deserved to be punished. But God, from the beginning, began to show us the blueprint for the way back. He gave us pictures of mercy, how He would one day remove sin and make it possible for us to be restored to a right relationship with Him. He had a plan to pay for our sin. Goodness restored.

The penalty of sin is death, and so the way to pay for sin is with blood. A blood sacrifice to atone for, or cover, sin. This is because life is in the blood. And because life is in the blood, without the shedding of blood (death) there is no removal or forgiveness of sin. What we see in Scripture is that right from the get-go, God began giving pictures of this truth. He killed animals, shedding their blood - the first recorded deaths - and using their skins to cover the nakedness and shame of the first couple (Gen 3.21). He sent a ram as a sacrifice in place of Abraham’s son (Gen 22.13). We see the Passover, where the shed blood of an unblemished spotless lamb caused God’s destroying angel to pass over the houses of His people (Ex 12.21-23), and which became an annual rite for God’s people as the Lord incorporated this into the entire complex Levitical system of sacrifices (Lev 9.6-7, 16.29-34). Lambs and calves and goats and bulls and birds - all pictures (albeit imperfect) of the blood which needed to be shed to pay for and cover and cleanse our sin (Heb 9.18-22). Atonement.

But these were indeed imperfect pictures, because the blood of animals cannot hope to atone for the sins of humans (Heb 10.4). There would need to be a better sacrifice (Heb 9.23) - human blood - and innocent blood at that. But God - He had a plan. He Himself would rescue us, save us - become our Deliverer, to deliver us from His righteous wrath revealed and poured out against our sin.  He would come to earth, become human, and sacrifice Himself for the sins of the whole world, for those who in fact had become His enemies, all us rebels. In the fullness of time, at just the right time in history, God sent His Son, the Lamb of God, as a once-and-for-all sacrifice, to die in our place on a cruel Roman cross and forever cover over our sins (Jn 1.29). The Atonement. God’s Son - Jesus - was born of a virgin in Bethlehem of Judea, conceived not in iniquity but absolute purity by the Holy Spirit (Mt 1.20). Perfect. Sinless. Born not to sin but to die (Mt 20.28). For you and for me. For the sins of the world (1Jn 3.5).

Not only did God give us multiple pictures of this, but through His prophets He also gave scores of advance messages as to the details of this incredible plan (Is 7.14, Is 53.5 et al). And then He did it. God did it. He made the way back by atoning for (covering) our sins with the blood of Jesus. Jesus is God’s appointed Messiah, Savior, the One Who saves us from the wrath to come, by His substitutionary death on the cross (Lk 19.10). He alone is the Way to find forgiveness for our sins and to be restored to a right relationship with our heavenly Father (Jn 14.6). Goodness restored.

The means and results of justification

How then does one lay hold of all this? How do you and I enter in to a restored right relationship with God, when - as we have just seen - Scripture makes it abundantly clear that God is the One Who did (and does) the heavy lifting?  Yes, He is the One Who did all the work. What is there left for you and me to do? Jesus said, it is finished (Jn 19.30). Is there anything for us to do? Some great feat of strength perhaps? Some noble deed? Some ritual, some sacrament? What is it we must do in order to make us right with God, for us to be justified in God’s eyes? Is there anything we must do or even could do to somehow further atone for our sins? Was Christ’s death insufficient or lacking in any way? May it never be. Jesus paid for, made purification for all our sins (Heb 1.3). There is nothing you or I can add to the atonement. Not one thing we need do to earn this salvation, this gift. For that it is - a free gift (Eph 2.8-9). Ours is to simply believe (Rom 4.5). We receive God’s forgiveness, we appropriate Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice on our behalf by faith (Rom 3.28). We are justified by faith, God makes us right with Him, when we choose to believe/trust that God did it all in Christ, that Jesus did in fact die and pay the penalty for every one of our sins on the cross.

Faith is the same as trust. The object of our faith is that in which we trust, for whatever outcome we desire. Usually, instinctively, we trust in our own efforts. It is second nature. If we desire to excel in a sport, we trust that our practice will make perfect. If we desire to get a good grade, we trust in our efforts to study. In the case of heaven, as we have already seen, however, our best efforts will not cut it (Tit 3.5). This is why we need to decisively transfer our trust from our own efforts, from our own works, to the work of Jesus Christ, to what He did on the Cross. This is how we become justified in God’s eyes - not by our own works, but by faith (2Tim 1.9). Trust in Jesus.

This was the message God gave to His people from the earliest times. The just live by faith (Hab 2.4). Abraham believed God, he trusted in God and His Word and His Way, and God credited it to him as righteousness (Gen 15.6, Rom 4.9). That was how Abraham was made right with God - God credited sinful Abraham with righteousness not for his own efforts, but when he put his faith, his trust in God. Faith is the way that all those who have gone before us gained approval with God (Heb 11.1-2). They trusted in Him - to deliver, to perform miracles, to provide, and to ultimately provide a Savior.

When we put our trust in Jesus, in His finished work on the cross, God credits Christ’s sacrifice to our account, and our sins are paid for. Every last one of them. God puts us in Christ. He takes all of our sins, and covers them with the blood of Jesus. They are forgiven, buried in the deepest sea, removed from us as far as the east is from the west (Ps 103.12). There is not even a reminder of them (Heb 10.17). And thus we are pronounced NOT GUILTY. He declares us righteous - He credits the righteousness of Christ to us (Rom 4.5). Totally clean in God’s sight. In His eyes, we have done everything right (Heb 10.14). Which of course is the entry requirement for heaven - but now we pass the test. Through faith in Christ. This is a free gift which we in no way deserve, can do nothing to earn. What we deserve is justice. But instead we get grace. God’s riches at Christ’s expense. And this gift, this eternally right relationship with God, is forever - it will never be taken away (Rom 8.38-39).

My personal experience of Christ as Savior

I grew up in a home where these truths were unknown. My family never went to church. There was no talk of God or heaven or Jesus in our house (except in epithets). No talk of sin, no talk of grace or forgiveness. There may have been a Bible. But Sunday morning was a time to sleep in, or, depending on the season, hit the slopes or head over to Buffalo to watch the Bills. Ours were the values which made America great - liberty, hard work, rugged individualism - this meant freedom to choose your own path, and whatever path you’re on, you just do your best to reach your goal. Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps. Success. And success came to be defined in strictly temporal terms. Good education, good job, good house, good spouse, good kids - and of course hopefully at least a good amount of attendant happiness tied in to all that. All good - presumably. But not God. God was left out. A great unknown - or an afterthought, at best. Irrelevant. I was an agnostic - if I even understood what that meant. I didn’t say there was no God, I just didn’t believe in anything, nor did I feel the need to. Just me.

When I went off to study engineering at Virginia Tech, I met some guys who said they had a personal relationship with God. This was a completely foreign concept to me. They took the time to explain the message of the Bible to me - again, foreign concept. They invited me to consider the truth claims of Scripture. As I looked into the reliability of the Bible, the reality of fulfilled prophecy and the empty tomb, I gradually became convinced that it was true - in my head. But my heart lagged behind. I imagined that life with God would be rather dull and dreary, not at all attended by happiness. I figured God would make my life miserable, make me marry an ugly wife and ship me off to Africa or some place as a missionary, eat bugs the rest of my life. Not good at all.

These guys also invited me to some meetings on campus. I was seeing and spending time with people who had a happiness, a joy and a peace about them that I knew I didn’t have. They didn’t need alcohol or sex or any of the other things the unbelieving world looks to in the vain attempt to fill the God-shaped hole in our heart.  Once my mind and my heart were in full agreement that I did need to deliberately trust in Jesus for myself, I asked Him to forgive my sins and give me eternal life. Which He did, just as He promises in His Word.

I didn’t sprout wings or a halo or hear a chorus of angels singing halleluia. But overnight, things were different. I knew I was going to heaven. I knew I was forgiven - AND I knew this One Who had forgiven me. He was now MY Father in heaven. He had brought me into His forever family. That WAS good! When I prayed and read His Word, it all made sense. It all connected, because I was now connected to Him. And I had this inexplicable connection to all these other believers in Christ - they were really family. Brothers and sisters in Christ. Lots of good!

It wasn’t long before the entire trajectory of my life changed. It was no longer just me, all about me. In the end, it was about God, and learning to make it all about Him. It was about knowing Him through His Son, Jesus. Knowing Him better, how good He really is - AND helping others come to know Him, just as I had. Spreading the message of forgiveness through Christ. Do you know Him, I wonder? Have you trusted in Christ our Savior as YOUR Savior, for the forgiveness of your sins?

(Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, The Lockman Foundation, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995)

1Timothy 6:18-19 - Wait, Our Goal IS To Get Rich?

”...[Instruct them] to be working good, to being rich in beautiful works, to being generous, sharing...laying up to themselves a beautiful foundation unto the [time] being about to, in order that they should take hold of the indeed life.”

(looks like we need to take these two verses together, since they are pretty inseparable)

-As we are fixing our hope on the God Who richly supplies us will all good things, which we gratefully enjoy with gratitude, our Source AND our Destination, we pass it on.  We are not Dead Sea people, everything flowing in and nothing flowing out.  We are not termini - we are conduits.  All the good and beautiful things which God does for us and has given to us - we are His means of passing those on to those around us.  To our neighbors and to the nations.

-And yes, our goal is to get rich - but not that way.  The account we’re looking to grow doesn’t exist at some bank or brokerage.  It is a heavenly account, one which stores up these beautiful works - but it is not some sealed vault.  We are not saving them for a rainy day - no, these get credited to our account when we give them away.  Yes, I know that’s counter-intuitive, isn’t it?  What account grows as we actually give away that which we are trying to accumulate?  Nevertheless, this is the economy of heaven.  Give it away - and you get to keep it.  Forever.  Isn’t that precisely what Jesus taught?  Give it away, give it all away, give your life away - and you’ll get to keep it forever.  Give away these beautiful works, slather them on extra thick, cup overflowing and running over.  Give away so many of these beautiful works to those around you that you spoil them rotten.

-It is the abundance mentality.  Generous and ready to share.  What’s mine is yours.  Sharing.  One of the lessons of earliest youth - whatever God has entrusted to me is meant to be shared.  In this game, the real life game of life, we win not by getting more than the other poor chap next to me, but by sharing.  Again, it is counter-intuitive.  But we are thinking of a world which is not of this world.  A kingdom where things operate differently.  Where me-first doesn’t fly - it doesn’t even exist.  Yet this is our destiny.  This is life indeed, life as it was always meant to be.  Not living for me, trying to make myself rich with the perishable baubles and trinkets of this fallen temporal frame.  No, we are all the time laying a foundation, building a portfolio which will survive not just into the future but beyond the future.  Life indeed.  The Indeed Life, Paul calls is.  Life eternal.  That which we were always meant to live.  Entrance into golden streets of that glorious realm is not gained by scrimping and saving up for me-myself-and-I.  Give it away.  Whatever I have - I hold with an open hand.  Ready to share.  Ready to meet needs.  That’s the heavenly way.  The way to the heavenlies. 

1Timothy 6:17 - The Double-dip Downer

”To the rich [ones] in the now age be commanding not to being conceited nor to have hoped upon uncertainty of riches but rather upon God the [One] providing to us all things richly unto enjoyment.”

-What gives me hope for the future?  Where is my hope?  Wealth?  Material prosperity, while affording the ability to afford greater quantities of temporal enjoyment (as it were), brings with it two native downsides.  A double-dip downer.  Two pitfalls, if you will.  Conceit, and misplaced hope.

-This word for conceit in the Greek refers to a mind which has been exalted to a height above were it should be.  Self-exalted, really.  I am more important, I am better somehow, I am more deserving (whether because I managed to acquire said wealth or because I simply now possess more than the poor chap next to me).  It elevates the ego, to where I am thinking more of myself than I ought.  I can lose sight of reality, who/what I really am apart from the grace of God.  Because God Himself shows no partiality.  Not an ounce.  Wealth does not commend me to Him, neither does it offend Him.  It can be useful, and it can be destructive, but with the Lord mostly it is a non-starter.  He doesn’t care how much wealth I have - He cares about what I do with all however much He has entrusted to me, whether much or a mite.  But this is precisely what I am prone to forget when my proverbial cup doth runneth over.  I forget who I really am.  When I am in a place of having no physical needs (or fewer of them), and feeling less needy, I forget my need for Him.  And I forget Him.  Not always, of course.  But the danger exists, lurking in the shadows, tucked away somewhere in my fat, bloated wallet.  The destruction of my soul lurks, frequenting that dark back alley right around the corner of Wall St and Madison Ave.

-The other pitfall which can accompany material prosperity is misplaced hope.  And in the end, hope is about joy.  That on which I set my hope is what I have decided will make me happy and ultimately satisfied.  I am willing to wait for it - but hopefully not too long.  Hope deferred makes the heart sick.  But hope realized is totally what makes my heart happy.  So the question then becomes, what is promising to make me happy?  Fame and fortune?  Truly, are not they not fleeting at best?  They are fickle masters - and they will never satisfy.  They will never provide lasting happiness.  Riches allow me greater access to the stuff of this world, to those things which are nicer.  And we begin to think, I enjoy this.  And gosh-darn-it, I deserve this.  Happiness and high-mindedness.  I could get used to this - and we do.  We feel less needy - and we like it that way.  We don’t want to feel needy - not in our flesh.  No one likes to feel needy - UNLESS that neediness is a direct re-direct to the Source.  THE Source.  God - the One Who richly supplies with all things to enjoy.  Beginning (and ending) with Himself.  All these things we think we want, all these things we think we need in order to make us happy - He is the Source.  They come from the Source, and (should) point us back to the Source.  Which of course points out that He is both the Source and the Destination.  We come back to Him in gratitude, certainly.  But also in dependence.  And in perspective.  When I am keeping in mind that God is the Source, it keeps my mind at the proper height.  Keeps me in my place.  It levels the playing field.  We’re all what we are by the grace of God, and whatever we have He has freely given to us to be enjoyed with grateful - and humble - hearts.  But wait - there’s more.  Next verse...

1Timothy 6:16 - Death gone, darkness gone.

”...the [One] only having immortality, light inhabiting unapproachable, Who no man saw nor is able to see, to Whom [be] honor and eternal power, amen.”

-Immortality.  It is the lifelong wish of every soul, isn’t it?  The quest for immortality.  The fountain of youth.  And as we age, as our own mortality encroaches, the relentless creep of death, we long for the days of our youth.  When our vigor and our faculties were at their zenith.  But oh, to be able to bottle that, a precious elixir which would somehow release us from the cold grip of death.  That would be divine.  But no, there is only One Who is truly divine, Who has immortality.  Just One.  Just One over Whom death has no power - because truly, what is death but the absence of life?  The power of life - to give life and to destroy life (truly destroy it forever) - as well as to RE-store it - that is the purview of blessed and only Sovereign God, the King of the universe.  He is the Author of life, the one and only Life-Giver - and the life He gives through Jesus is life forever.  Death - gone.  But this Living Water is sourced from just one place.  Him.

-And you can just walk up to Him and get some.  Well, sort of.  It’s not like stopping by the nearest Dollar General, or walking over to the neighbor to get a cup of sugar.  He doesn’t live next door per se.  He inhabits what Paul describes as inapproachable light.  Now let’s think about that - what would make light inapproachable?  This would have to be light so bright, so blazingly blindingly bright that we couldn’t stand to look at it, much less come close to it.  It would blind us for sure - or worse.  Isn’t this what God has told us about Himself?  God is light.  Think of how He appears to His people - a burning bush, a pillar of fire, flashes of lightning (with attendant thunder), luminous glory which no man can look at and live (not the front side at least) - we ARE talking about a source of light (THE Source) so bright and hot and blazingly intense as to consume any and all who would come near.  Isn’t that just what the Scriptures say?  Our God is an all-consuming fire.  So technically we can’t just walk up to Him.  You can’t see Him or look at Him, even if you knew where to look.  At least not this side of glory.  For one day His blazing inapproachable light will actually replace the need for the sun itself.  The people walking in darkness will see a Great Light, incomparable, inapproachable, yet sublimely-so through Jesus.  Through Jesus, and with the eyes of faith, we actually can see and approach, right now, right on up to His throne of grace.  And then in that day, we will see Him as He truly is, this One Who alone possesses (and is worthy of) all honor and eternal power.  Darkness gone.  Death gone.  Life forever.  With Him.  From Him and through Him and for Him.  Let it be so!

1Timothy 6:15 - Two Times: All In Good Time, My Pretties...

”...which in its own appointed time He will show, the [One] blessed and only Sovereign, the [One] King of kings and Lord of lords...”

-Jesus Christ is Lord, yes, and He is coming back.  He said so Himself, repeatedly (Matthew 24.27, 24.46, 25.31; Mark 8.38; Luke 12.43, 18.8; John 14.3, 14.18, 14.28)!  Paul talked about it a ton (cf 2Timothy 1.10, 4.1, 8; Titus 2.13).  He is coming back!  There are myriad ways this return is understood, so many interpretations of the various Scriptures, prophecies, mentions of our Savior coming back for His church - His bride - not to mention to inaugurate and consummate His righteous rule, the kingdom of God, on earth.  So many questions - questions of when, questions of how, what will it look like, what will be the events leading up to His return (if any).  And with all these questions, there are suggestions.  Positions staked out.  Differing interpretations and conjectures about all these things - sincere Christ-followers who disagree and even divide from one another over all these questions.  And at the end of the day, not one of these questions (or answers) are necessary in order for a person to be saved, to make it to heaven.  They are not salvific in the least.  They do not change the message of the Gospel one bit.  Jesus Christ died for your sins - make sure you are trusting in Him.  Oh, and He rose from the dead, and He is coming back.  Some day soon.  Soon-ish.  That’s what we know for sure.  This much is fairly clear.  Not much disagreement on these points, not among true evangelical Christ-followers.  He IS coming back!  To the praise of His glory!

-When is He coming back?  When will He appear?  That is the question.  That’s what we all want to know.  This is precisely what the disciples were asking at the Ascension?  Lord, when are You coming back?  When are you going to restore the kingdom of Israel?  And Jesus’ answer to them was pretty much the same thing that Paul says here: It is not for you to know (Acts 1.6-8).  In fact, no one knows (Matthew 24.36)!  Not even Jesus, apparently.  The timing is all up to the One Who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King eternal, King of kings and Lord of Lords.  He's the One and only One Who is in charge of ALL this stuff.  He is the One Who has determined all these times.  And this is a kairos time as opposed to a chronos time, so we are dealing not really with a clock time but rather a divinely appointed time of opportunity.  Which means we are really talking about two times here - the proper time, and the meantime.  Jesus will return at the Proper Time, THE appointed time, just in time and on time, just the right time - a time which the almighty all-knowing Sovereign Father Himself has determined, which you DO NOT know, and with which you do not need to excessively concern yourselves.  But in the Meantime - concern yourselves with this.  In the meantime, be My witnesses.  My Holy-Spirit empowered martyrs!  In the meantime, keep the commandment.  Love the Lord.  Run the race, with your eyes fixed on Jesus, and the finish line will get here soon enough... All in good time, my pretties, all in good time.  God’s good time, the proper time... And His timing is perfect!  

1Timothy 6:14 - The One Thing

”...[I am commanding] you to keep the commandment spotless [and] blameless until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ...”

-A serious charge, a sober command to keep the command, the commandment.  Just one, you ask?  We’re technically looking at at least two, since this is also a command.  Not to mention, Paul has just dropped a busload of commands in these last few verses alone - flee all those bad things, pursue these good things, fight the good fight, take hold of eternal life.  Obviously, Paul’s vision is that of a unified whole.  Our is not a massive hodgepodge of disparate commands, a jumbled assortment of divine imperatives.  Nope - it all actually does boil down to one command.  Just one.  Love the Lord with all your heart.  One Lord, one love, one heart.  It all goes back to Him.  It’s all about Him.  We were created and designed to bear His image, to be like Him, to show off His breathtaking goodness, to celebrate that and to increase the celebration of His goodness to the ends of the earth.  In all that we do, whatever we do, we do this one thing - we love Him.  We glorify Him by loving Him fully and unreservedly.  We show off His goodness by enjoying and spreading the knowledge of His goodness.

-And we do this without spot or blame.  We endeavor to do this in such a way that inasmuch as our Savior has clothed us in His white robes of righteousness that there is not even one spot of dirt, not even a single stain anywhere to be seen.  Not even a single thing which anyone could say against us - apart from our devotion to our Savior.  It’s like Daniel - the only thing his would-be detractors could find against him was in relation to his relationship with God [Daniel 6.5].  Spotless.  Blameless.  But not perfection, this.  We are not talking about some rosy-eyed delusion of being perfect in everything we do or say.  Chasing some phantom of religious performance which is nothing more than an exhausting pipedream.  Nope.  Nobody is perfect.  Not this side of heaven.  But we can do two things as we pursue the One Thing - we can always (according to His power which mightily works within us) strive to do it right, and when we mess up (not if, but when), we can own it and make it right.  A walk of honesty and humility.  We’re not better than anyone else, we’re not perfect - but our Savior is, and by golly and by His grace and power we wanna be like Him.  We’re gonna give it our all.  Bar set high, aiming high, running to win, the best race we know how.  And when we fall, when we try and don’t succeed, we will try try again.  Until He comes again.  Until He appears (He is coming back!).  Until the end, in other words.  We will finish.  Finish!  Finish the race!  We will keep on running to win...

-But Jesus IS coming back as Lord - next verse...!

1Timothy 6:13 - The Supreme Life-Giver and the Beautiful Life-Liver

”I am commanding [you] in the face of the God the [One] giving life to all things, and of Jesus Christ the [One] witnessing upon Pontius Pilate the beautiful confession...”

-Paul is about to leave Timothy with a sober charge, and extremely serious command.  He couldn’t be more serious about it.  And so he invokes the presence of two witnesses.  In the face of God and Jesus.  They are watching.  They see the whole thing.  The very fact that these two are witness to the giving of this command, and will also be watching its implementation, should be sobering enough.  But what Paul reminds us about who they are, summarizes their palmarès for us, their notable achievements and qualifications as expert witnesses - this ratchets up the seriousness with which Timothy (and we) should respond to this command a hundred-fold.

-God is the One giving life to all things.  Including me and you and Timothy.  He is the Source, the Source of life.  Formed out of dust and breathed into each one of us the breath of life.  The breath of life.  My every next breath comes from Him.  My very last breath will come from Him, until He takes me home.  The Giver of life - all things owe their very existence to Him.  All of us are indebted to Him - He has given us life.  This life we live, these breaths we breathe - they are gifts.  Time is indeed life measured out to us.  We owe God a debt of gratitude - but more than that.  This life, this precious gift, ought to be stewarded.  Taken care of.  These are the Care Instructions that came in the box.  There are very specific instructions for how to take proper care of our life, that which our Life-Giver has made and given to us.  He has explicit ideas about how He wants us to steward the life He has given to us - and He is watching.  In the face of God.  The Supreme Life-Giver.  He is one of the ones who is watching.  But there is Another...

-Jesus Christ.  Jesus of Nazareth - the One Who stood before Pontius Pilate and of Whom Pilate declared, “What evil has He done?  I find no guilt in this man.”  Repeatedly (Matthew 27.23, Luke 23.4, 14, 22, John 18.38, 19.4).  In Him there was found no sin.  Not even a hint.  Not one stain or blemish.  His was a beautiful confession, an exemplary witness, a life well-lived, to the max.  He was tempted in all things, yet without sin (Hebrews 4.15).  Never once slipped up.  Never once missed the mark.  Our bestest big Brother.  He did it.  Whatever it is that God is asking us to do (or not do), Jesus did it.  He went before us, a shining example, the Author and Perfector of our faith - and the One Who now lives inside us to carry us through whatever it is we are facing (cf Hebrews 2.18).  The Beautiful Life-Liver.  He is also watching us now - He sees.  He knows what we know, knows that we know what is right.  He has finished His race - and now He is helping us finish as well (cf Hebrews 12.1-2)!

-On to the command itself.  Next verse...!