For the Sake of the Elect

April 4

Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. This is a faithful saying: for if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. II Timothy 2:10-13

Jesus has done it all. Jesus has paid it all. Jesus has given it all. There is nothing that remains for errant man to do to obtain salvation than to receive what the Lord Jesus Christ holds out to him.

In his letter to Timothy, Paul affirms that he is willing to suffer all things for the privilege of taking the gospel of the Lord of Salvation to the pagan world. Paul, the most prolific writer of the Bible, served the Kingdom of Christ and His purposes at great personal cost. It was not without great sacrifice that Paul carried the gospel to the lost.

Paul, a man whose credentials were impeccable among his peers was reduced to being a prisoner in a Roman dungeon, chained to his guard, all for the reason that he placed the “knowledge of Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” I Corinthians 2:2, above all the accolades he had ever received, above his own safety, above his own life.

How could Paul, how can any man, give up prestige and honor, suffer even unto death, because of faith in Jesus? Paul answers that question in the introductory passage. It is because he knew in the depth of his being that if he were willing to die for the Lord, he would live eternally with the Lord.

Paul knew that the only thing that could rob him of the “unspeakable gift” (II Corinthians 9:15) of salvation would be his own act of denying Christ. Because Jesus is faithful, a person is secure in Him for time and eternity. If we are faithless in our walk with Him, He will still hold out His priceless, free gift to us.

Because He cannot deny Himself, He will not deny us. Only if we “deny Him before men will He deny us before the Father,” Matthew 10:33. May we never be so foolish or so fearful or so fraudulent in our dealing with ourselves to reject the perfect gift our Great God and Savior (see Titus 2:13) has purchased for us at such great price to Himself.