A message in favor of religious tradition
by Michael Fischer
And all good Baptists hear that title, raise their deflector shields and think, "Hold it right there! If it’s not from the Bible, we don’t want to hear about it from the pulpit!" Relax, I won’t lead you astray. Turn in your Bibles to I Timothy 1:15:
"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief."
There are four passages of Scripture that Paul describes as "faithful sayings." This is the first one. I hope to do a message on each of them, if the Lord permits.
There are three parts to this verse: the preface to the saying, the saying itself, and Paul’s comment on the saying. This will be the first time I have ever preached a traditional three-point message, so who knows what will happen?
1 – the preface to the saying
"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation"
What Paul is telling us here is that the saying is unattributed – we don’t know who first said it.
- Paul didn’t take credit for saying it
- He didn’t credit anyone else
It must have been a current saying in the church at that time. We have current sayings in our own church, like, "What would Jesus do?" or, "If it’s new, it’s not true, and if it’s true, it’s not new." We don’t really know where these sayings came from. They aren’t in the Bible. But they do reflect Biblical truth as we understand it. They are our religious tradition.
So in Paul’s time, this "faithful saying" was religious tradition. Paul is setting his seal of apostolic approval on the saying with his preface to it.
- Faithful saying – this is true, this is in accord with God’s Word
- Worthy of all acceptation – we should all accept it, agree with it, believe it
So, for us, it isn’t religious tradition; it’s part of God’s Word. (Everybody can relax.)
2 – the saying
"Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." That’s what we call a foundational truth of our faith. Let’s take a moment to consider each section of that statement.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
- An angel didn’t come to save sinners
- A prophet didn’t come to save sinners
- Mary didn’t come to save sinners, no matter who says otherwise
- The apostles didn’t come to save sinners
- A preacher didn’t come to save sinners. We’ve got an assortment of full-time and part-time preachers in this little church. Do you think any of us answered the call to preach so we could be the savior of sinners’ souls?
- All the angels, prophets, apostles and preachers together could not save one solitary sinner. Only God could do that.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
- He didn’t stay in Heaven. He didn’t do his saving work by clicking on His Redemption Remote.
- He didn’t keep His distance from people, in spite of their often-wretched backgrounds
- He had to become one of us and get his hands dirty with us, or someone might complain that He has no right to be our judge because He doesn’t understand our situation. Oh, he understands, all right. During the course of His life on Earth, Satan threw at Him every temptation that is common to men. Pride, greed, power, revenge, compromise, fear of man, rage, laziness, lying, selfishness, disobedience, ambition, drunkenness, drugs, beautiful women… did I miss any? He faced them all. And He didn’t yield to one of them.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
- Not to rebuke and condemn sinners. There are plenty of people doing that already. In His time, the Pharisees were doing a good job of rebuking and condemning sinners. He didn’t have to leave Heaven to get that work done.
- Not to excuse and whitewash sinners. There are plenty of people doing that, too. In His time, the Pharisees were doing a good job of excusing their own sins. He didn’t have to leave Heaven to get that work done, either.
- He came to do something only He could do, and to do it here on earth, because this was the only place He could do it.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
- He didn’t come for the righteous (there aren’t any)
- He came to save people who needed saving
- He came for all of us. Whether that does us any good depends on whether we believe Him or not.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
That’s what the Bible says. That’s why He came. If you ask worldly people why Jesus came, they have lots of interesting ideas. Too bad they’re all wrong. I’m sure you’ve heard a few of these:
- Did He come to be a great teacher? The world has had plenty of great teachers over the years, and their disciples usually wind up fighting other great teachers’ disciples. If all Jesus did was teach great things, then His mission on earth was an abysmal failure, because even we, who call ourselves His followers, don’t live the way He said we should live.
- Did He come to be a lawgiver? The Israelites had a lawgiver, Moses, and they couldn’t keep the laws he gave them; we sure don’t need any more laws on top of those!
- Did He come to make bad people good? For example, how many of you have seen a movie called The Robe, or read the novel? It’s supposed to be a Christian novel, but I found it disappointing. The protagonist gets saved, his life changes, and he goes around doing good to everyone – there’s almost no mention of sin, repentance, or people’s need for a Savior. The meaning of Christ’s death & resurrection are completely glossed over. As one man has put it, "Jesus didn’t come to make bad people good; He came to make dead people live."
- Did He come to be a good man who would expound on God’s moral law to us? He never claimed to be that; He claimed to be the Son of God. If He wasn’t who He said he was, then He had no right to say the things He said. And if He is who He said He was, then we don’t dare overlook that central claim of Godhood to focus on his being a good man. He was good, all right, but that’s not why He came. You’ll never understand the Gospel or benefit from it if you focus on His goodness instead of on His Godness.
- Did He come to show us a way to Heaven, or another way to Heaven, or a new way to Heaven? He came to show us the way to Heaven, the only way to Heaven. And that wasn’t a new way. The way to Heaven had been promised way back in Genesis. Enoch and Noah hoped for that way. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob hoped for that way. Moses and Joshua hoped for that way. David and Solomon hoped for that way. Isaiah, Jeremiah and Daniel hoped for that way. And what is Biblical hope? A confident expectation. And what is that way that they all hoped for? Five words: "Jesus died in my place." That’s why Jesus said, "I have not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it." Jesus Christ was the answer to the question asked by Godly men for four thousand years. And he’s still the answer today for us.
3 – Paul’s comment on the saying
"Of whom I am chief." The NIV says, "of whom I am the worst."
This isn’t part of the faithful saying.
- If you look at the other "faithful sayings" in the New Testament, they are straightforward statements of doctrine, not personal statements
- Paul elaborates on that statement in the same personal vein
Why did he think he was the worst? He tells us why –
- He persecuted the church of God
- He made havoc of the church
- He threw Christians in prison for their faith
- He consented and agreed to the death of Stephen, which was not only ungodly, but was also an illegal act – when Stephen was tried for blasphemy, a verdict was never returned, and a sentence was never passed. Stephen was lynched by a religious mob, and Saul of Tarsus nodded in approval.
Also notice, he didn’t say, "of whom I was chief." In spite of his amazing testimony after his conversion, and in spite of the fact that his sins were forgiven by the blood of Christ, he still thought of himself as the worst sinner who ever lived.
Was Paul the worst sinner who ever lived?
No. He couldn’t be. Paul wasn’t the worst sinner who ever lived, because I am.
Okay, Mike, you’ve got your nerve. Holy Scripture says Paul was the worst. Where do I get off, saying I’m worse than Paul was? I’ve got my reasons:
- At least, Paul believed in God. I said there was no God – I called myself an atheist.
- Paul thought he was serving God. I mocked at the idea of serving God, and those who served Him
- Paul acted in ignorance. I had the Bible in my home if I’d wanted to read it – I had no excuse
- We don’t read of any significant sins after Paul’s conversion. I’ve pulled some real doozies since I turned to Christ
Don’t answer this out loud, but consider it: Do you think you’re the worse sinner who ever lived?
The entire point and purpose of this message is: because this faithful saying is worthy of all acceptation, I would like all of you to adopt it into your own lives, and Paul’s comment on it as well. I would like you all to become convinced that you, each of you, individually, are the worst of sinners.
Why? Is there any great value in believing this?
I don’t think so, but there is a great danger in believing the opposite.
What I mean is this:
If you don’t believe that you are the worst of sinners, that means there is another sinner out there, somewhere, maybe in this room, who is a worse sinner than you are.
That means there’s someone whom you think you’re better than.
That means there’s someone whom you might be looking down on.
And what’s that called? That’s pride. That is the satanic opposite of how we ought to live.
The way we ought to live is, "Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand." (I Peter 5:6a)
A man who is humble does not look down on anyone.
A man who is humble does not think he is better than anyone else is.
A man who is humble puts himself at the bottom of any comparison between one man and another.
Is that because we really are worse than everyone else is?
That’s not the issue. That’s not even worth discussing.
Godly humility puts a man at the bottom of any comparison because –
- Compared to Jesus, there’s not a one of us who has anything to brag about.
- Compared to Jesus, there’s not a one of us who has anything to feel good about.
- Compared to Jesus, we are all the vilest sinners who ever lived.
There are no degrees of goodness or badness when Christ is our yardstick. That’s like quibbling over a quarter of an inch when you’re measuring the distance between galaxies.
There are those who will quibble over that quarter-inch; there are those who can’t rest at night until they’re sure who they’re better than and who they’re worse than. What does Scripture say about people like that? Don’t go there with them. Or, to put it precisely, "We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves, and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise." (2 Corinthians 10:12) And if they are not wise, what are they? Foolish.
But what if the other person we’re comparing ourselves to is Adolf Hitler? Or the Emperor Nero? Or maybe one of the Popes who carried on the Inquisition? Surely we’re better than they were? They were monsters, by any definition.
- But in God’s eyes, sin is sin.
- In God’s eyes, the horrors they committed against humanity are no less offensive to God than the "little white lie" you told last week.
- In God’s eyes, if the blood of Christ did not cover your sins, that "little white lie" would be reason enough to send you to the same Hell that Hitler and Nero and the Popes went to.
That’s not the way we like to think. We like to derive comfort from thinking, "Yes, I’m a sinner, but I’m not as bad as [fill in the blank]." How do you fill in the blank? But that is how God sees us. That’s why it took the cross to pay for what we’ve done. That’s why Christ Jesus came into the world: to save sinners.
This sounds like a very negative thought. But actually, it’s very liberating. As soon as you stop looking for someone who’s worse than you, you also give up looking up at anyone, because you know we’re all on the same level – rock bottom.
- That takes care of inferiority complexes.
- That takes care of the stress of competing with others.
- That takes care of the danger of comparing ourselves with others
- That takes care of the sin of judging others, "for thou that judgest art guilty of the same things."
- That takes care of the only sin Jesus showed open contempt for – self-righteousness
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
If any of you wants to argue that I’m not chief, because you are, I won’t fight you for it. But I will pray with you, because I know where you’re at. I don’t know like Jesus knows. And I don’t need to know what you’ve done. But, as one chief to another, can we seek God’s mercy and favor together?