The Centrality of the Gospel in the Local Church - Part 1

In this section, Paul is reviewing with Timothy what the gospel really is and how it smoothly blends doctrine and behavior, law and gospel. We must see that the gospel is not only a way of thinking, but a way of living that always involves both doctrine and duty, belief and behavior.

The late Tim Keller reminds us that “The gospel is not just the ABCs but the A to Z of the Christian life. It is inaccurate to think the gospel is what saves non-Christians, and then Christians mature by trying hard to live according to biblical principles. It is more accurate to say that we are saved by believing the gospel, and then we are transformed in every part of our minds, hearts, and lives by believing the gospel more and more deeply as life goes on (see Rom 12:1-2; Phil 1:6; 3:13-14).

Keller went on to say, “All problems, personal or social come from a failure to use the gospel in a radical way, to get "in line with the truth of the gospel. The essential nature of problems in the church and sinful patterns in our individual lives ultimately stem from a failure to think through the deep implications of the gospel and to grasp and believe the gospel through and through. Put positively, the gospel transforms our hearts and our thinking and changes our approaches to absolutely everything. When the gospel is expounded and applied in its fullness in any church, that church will look unique. People will find in it an attractive, electrifying balance of moral conviction and compassion.”

Professor D. A. Carson writes: “The gospel is regularly presented not only as truth to be received and believed, but the very power of God to transform (see 1 Cor 2; 1 Thess 2:4; [Rom 1:16-17]).

One of the most urgently needed things today is a careful treatment of how the gospel, biblically and richly understood, ought to shape everything we do in the local church, all our ethics, all our priorities.

1. We Must Guard the Gospel - 1:3-11

In commenting on the phrase "the truth of the gospel" in Galatians 2:5, Martin Luther says the gospel is for us "the principal article of all Christian doctrine ... Most necessary it is, therefore, that we should know this article well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually.”

The message Paul sent to Timothy is in military type language to help Timothy and his people see the seriousness of the problem (1Tim.1:3). Charge means “to give strict orders from a superior officer.”

A. Keeping Everything in Step with the Truth of the Gospel –

1Timothy 1:10c-11, “… and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.”

One pastor, in commenting on the gospel of the glory of God, writes, “Paul makes it unmistakably clear that the true teacher really knows the gospel and steadfastly refuses to tamper with it. The essence of the gospel never changes. It is God's free and gracious gift in Jesus Christ of forgiveness and salvation. It is "the glorious gospel of the blessed God," as committed to Paul's trust (1Tim.1:11). To stay with this gospel, year in and year out, is to be assured that the honeymoon of serving Christ will never be over!”

You Bible students will recall that Paul’s charge to Timothy wasn’t the first time he had been compelled to deal with the absolute imperativeness of keeping in step or in line with the gospel. He had publicly confronted the Apostle Peter and other key leaders for their not keeping in step with the gospel. We read in Galatians 2:14, “But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?” 

“When you finally hear and believe the drumbeat of the gospel, the rhythm of your step changes. It gets in tune with the gospel. There is a life in step with the gospel, and there is a life out of step with the gospel. You don't attain the benefits of the gospel by doing a little moral clean-up job on your life. You attain forgiveness and joy and peace and power through daily reliance upon Jesus Christ who loved you and gave himself for you. But that faith, when it is genuine, creates a rhythm of life that is in step with the truth of the gospel” (John Piper).

Now back to our text in 1 Timothy. Note that Paul's first instruction to the young pastor Timothy was essentially this: Guard the gospel! Make sure the believers stay in step with the gospel.

When we consider all the challenges surrounding the church at Ephesus, located in a city filled with paganism, rampant immorality and idolatry, and the cultural pressures attending such a wicked environment, it may seem surprising to learn that Paul's first concern was to tell Timothy to address anything and everything that pulls people away from the gospel.

Why would Paul be so emphatic about guarding the gospel? Because the truth is that if we lose the gospel, we lose everything. We may think other things are more urgent or more in need of addressing in the church - things like political situations, church leadership, immorality in the church, missions, materialism, or caring for one another. All these issues are important, and Paul would get to them eventually, but he began by telling Timothy to guard the gospel. And we guard the gospel by the way we use God's Word. And in respect to the problem Pastor Timothy must confront at Ephesus, it concerned God’s law.

B. The Product of the Gospel – 1:5:

 “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith,” (NKJV). Paul is saying that the goal or aim of the charge which he has just given Timothy is to produce not just orthodoxy or sound doctrine, but love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith. These things always follow when the gospel of the grace of God is preached.

Love doubtless includes love to God, to one's fellow believers, and to the world in general. It must spring out of a pure heart. If one's inner life is unclean, then true Christian love can scarcely flow from it. This love must also be the by-product of a good conscience, that is, a conscience void of offense toward God and man. Finally, this love must be the outcome of sincere (literally, “unhypocritical”) faith, that is, faith that does not wear a mask.

False teachings could never produce these things which Paul lists, and certainly they are never the outcome of fables and endless genealogies! It is the teaching of the gospel of the grace of God that produces a pure heart, a good conscience, a sincere faith, and that therefore results in love.

C. The Improper Use of God’s Law – 1Tim. 1:7-8,

“desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully,” 

In this text Paul shows us how not to use God's law - how not to use His Word. We'll consider two ways not to use God's law, and then we'll think about the consequences that come when we use God's law in these unbiblical ways.

1. We must not add to the law's demands. In 1:4 Paul talked about the myths and genealogies taught by the false teachers. These false teachers were taking extrabiblical writings that included stories and myths about different Old Testament figures, and they were using these writings to add to God's Word. When we get to chapter 4, we'll see that they were teaching that you shouldn't get married and that you should abstain from various foods (4:3). In essence they were putting rules and regulations on God's people that are not in God's Word.

The presence of these false teachers was no surprise to Paul. When he made his tearful farewell speech to the Ephesian elders, he warned them about this eventuality: “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them” (Acts 20:29–30). Notice Paul’s concern was that false teachers would draw the people of God away from the gospel truth.

The contemporary church faces the same danger. The myths and endless genealogies of the present day are extrabiblical texts which are treated as Scripture. Many cult writings, like the Book of Mormon, fall into this category. So does the Apocrypha (if it is regarded as sacred Scripture), for these ancient texts were rejected by the Jews as not belonging to the Word of God. Another example is the so-called Gospel of Thomas which the Jesus Seminar and other heretical groups have tried to make famous. The Gospel of Thomas was compiled in Egypt sometime between AD 150 and AD 350. It claims to contain 120 “secret words of the living Jesus,” but although a few of its teachings echo the biblical Gospels, the rest are all myths.

Another myth is any attempt to find hidden knowledge in the Bible. A notorious example here is The Bible Code, which rearranges the letters of Genesis and claims to decipher them in order to predict world events. According to the author, events such as the Gulf War and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin were predicted by “the Bible code.” Similarly, Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code purports to provide secret knowledge about Jesus, but this knowledge is based on an unreliable hodgepodge of discredited “gospels” and historical speculations.

Many evangelical discussions about the end times also fall into this category. Even if they are not myths or genealogies, they are at least endless! Some people seem to run for their handbooks of Bible prophecy every time something happens in the Middle East, or the nearness of Jesus’ return because of the appearance of four blood moons, or how the vulture’s in Israel are multiplying exponentially in order for there to be enough to eat the carcasses of the dead after the Battle of Armageddon, etc., etc.!

2. We must not think the law saves. These false teachers in Ephesus, along with others in the first century, were teaching that obedience to the law, even some extrabiblical laws, could help someone earn the favor of God. This kind of teaching has been going on since the first century, and it persists into the twenty-first century. Of course, false teachers won't usually come out and say that you need to earn your salvation, and sometimes they may even think they are promoting a more righteous standard for God's people. However, any time we try to add to God's gracious work in the gospel we pervert it. The idea is that by doing certain works - following certain rules or obeying certain laws - you can earn God's favor. This runs counter to the biblical gospel.

When the law is used in the wrong way, the results can be disastrous. Paul said that a wrong use of God's law was producing arrogance and ignorance among those who teach. In verse 7 we learn that these teachers were making "confident assertions" (ESV) about things they didn't even understand. There is a dangerous combination here: arrogance and ignorance. Moreover, as a result of their teaching, they were producing confusion and deception among those who hear. The "empty speculations" (v. 4) and "fruitless discussion" (v. 6) ultimately lead to deception because people begin to think there are additional rules beyond God's law, and by doing them they can be saved or gain a more favorable status with God.

D. The Proper Use of the Law - 1Tim. 1:8b-9,

“But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person …”

We are told that the reason the false teachers in Ephesus were unbalanced had something to do with God’s law. Their desire to be “teachers of the law” (1 Tim. 1:7) suggests that they claimed the right to interpret the law of Moses from the Old Testament. The false teachers wanted to be law teachers. Because these type of people are still in the church today, every true child in the faith should have a true understanding of the place and purpose of law in their lives.

Paul was opposed to the self-appointed teachers of the law in Ephesus, but not to the law itself. So he quickly went on to say, “Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully” (1 Tim. 1:8; cf. Rom. 7:12). There is an obvious wordplay here, which the New English Bible renders as follows: “We all know that the law is an excellent thing, provided we treat it as law.”

What is the proper way to use the law? Reformation Christians have taught that there are three proper uses of biblical law. One is the spiritual use of the law to reveal sin. As Martin Luther wrote in his Lectures on Galatians, the law shows sinners their sin “so that by the recognition of sin they may be humbled, frightened, and worn down, and so may long for grace.”

A second use of the law is its civil use to restrain wrongdoers. This is how the law is useful for society; it keeps criminals in their place. John Calvin added “a third and principal use” of the law, namely, to teach us God’s will for our lives. This is how Christians use the law. As we meditate on the law, we are “aroused to obedience. . . and drawn back from the slippery path of transgression.”

In 1 Timothy 1:9-10, Paul listed fourteen kinds of people who were condemned by the Law. This is one of several such lists in the New Testament (see Mark 7:20-23; Rom 1:18-32; Gal 5:19-21). The lawful use of the Law is to expose, restrain, and convict the lawless. The Law cannot save lost sinners (Gal 2:21; Gal 3:21-29); it can only reveal their need for a Savior. When a sinner believes on Jesus Christ, he is freed from the curse of the Law (Gal 3:10-14); and the righteous demands of the Law are met by the indwelling Holy Spirit as a believer yields to God (Rom 8:1-4).

Paul centered particularly on five of the Ten Commandments:

No. 5 - “Honor thy father and thy mother” - “murderers of the fathers and mothers.”

No. 6 - “Thou shalt not kill [murder]” - “murderers of fathers and mothers … manslayers.”

No. 7 - “Thou shalt not commit adultery” - “whoremongers [fornicators] … them that defile themselves with mankind [sodomites].”

No. 8 - “Thou shalt not steal” - “men-stealers [kidnappers].”

No. 9 - “Thou shalt not bear false witness” - “liars . . . perjured persons.”

It is the “glorious Gospel” that saves lost sinners. Paul had experienced the power of the Gospel (Rom 1:16), and he had been entrusted with the ministry of the Gospel (1Thess. 2:4). Law and Gospel go together, for the Law without the Gospel is diagnosis without remedy; but the Gospel without Law is only the Good News of salvation for people who don’t believe they need it because they have never heard the bad news of judgment. The Law is not Gospel, but the Gospel is not lawless (Rom 3:20-31).

If one does much study about the law of God and the Christian life, commentaries are almost unanimous in reading 1 Timothy 1:3–11 as belittling law and exalting faith and grace. Commentators expound on Paul’s attitude to law versus gospel.

But Paul has just affirmed that “the law is good” (1:8). And in Romans, he asserts that “the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (7:12), and “spiritual” (7:14). In fact, Paul “establishes” the law (Roms 3:31), and in it he “delights” (Romans 7:16, 22).

In sum, the child of God is never to attempt obedience with self-resources: that would be a self-glorifying, flesh-driven, merit-attempting, grace-rejecting, faith-negating obedience to divine law - the legalism Paul so often denounced. Instead, the “obedience of faith” (Rom. 1:5; 16:26) that God empowers is a God-glorifying, Spirit-driven, merit-rejecting, grace-accepting, faith-exercising endeavor. So, Christian life, in its entirety, is a function of divine grace, designed to bring glory to God: the Father’s choice of men and women to become a holy people in Christ (justification), their empowerment by the Spirit to live lives that are Christlike (sanctification), and, one day, consummation of their transformation into the image of Jesus Christ (glorification).

What should you do with the law – you who are justified by faith alone apart from works of the law? Read and mediate on it to know Christ better and to treasure him more. Christ and the Father are one (John 10:30; 14:9). So to know the God of the Old Testament is to know Christ. The more you see his glory and treasure his worth, the more you will be changed into his likeness (2 Corinthians 3:17-18), and love the way he loved – which is the fulfilling of the law (Romans 13:10). Read it and meditate on it to know more deeply than you have ever known, the justice and mercy of God in Christ, your righteousness and your life.

Paul would say, the gospel must be central in all the church and the Christian does. In 1:11, he says all things are to be “in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.” The old Baptist pastor, John Gill, sums up the glory of the gospel found in the “blessed” or “happy” God, as he writes, “The gospel enables us to discover the glory of God. In it we come to know his wisdom, grace, and love in the salvation of men. Its doctrines of peace and pardon, righteousness and salvation by Jesus Christ, are glorious ones; and so are its promises, being great and precious, all yea and amen in Christ, absolute, unconditional, unchangeable, and irreversible; its ordinances also are glorious ones, being good-natured and pleasant, and not grievous and burdensome to believers. The gospel is glorious in its effects, being the power of God unto salvation, the means of enlightening the blind, of quickening the dead, of delivering men from bondage and servitude, of turning men from sin and Satan to God, and of refreshing and comforting distressed minds, and of reviving the spirits of drooping saints, of establishing and strengthening them, and nourishing them up to eternal life.”

Stay gospel-centered in all areas of your life!