According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. 1 Timothy 1:11
I heard a story about a man who went into a church one Sunday morning while the minister was delivering his sermon. The stranger sat down and listened as the minister preached on and on and on. After he had been listening for well over an hour, the stranger turned to the man beside him and asked, ‘How long has he been preaching?’ The man replied, ‘About thirty eight years, I believe.’ To which the stranger responded, ‘I might as well stay, he has to finish pretty soon.’ We like to poke fun at long-winded preachers, especially when they are on a boring topic. But there is one topic that should never be boring to a Christian: the glorious Gospel of the blessed God.
Our text appears almost as an afterthought in a chapter in which the apostle Paul speaks about heretical doctrine and sinful lives. Suddenly, he bursts forth with this lovely expression about the Gospel. You can almost hear the excitement in the old apostle, as he speaks of the wonderful message that delivered him from a life of murderous devotion to a dead religion and converted him into a caring and passionate follower of his loving Saviour. Two things stand out to make this message special for Paul, and for us: how glorious the message is and the delivery of the message into our trust.
One reason why the Gospel message is so glorious is its source: the blessed God. The very God against Whom we have sinned has delivered this message of forgiveness and deliverance to us. The One Who knows every fault and flaw in our beings has loved us so much that He sent His precious Son to redeem us (John 3:16). Our rebellion and our wretched condition justified nothing but the wrath of God, and yet that wrath was carried away by Another. The Bible that contains this glorious message has been given to us, freely available for us to read and explore for ourselves. As we think about the Gospel and the fact that we have come into the eternal good of its message, we must declare it glorious!
When Saul of Tarsus made his journey from Jerusalem to Damascus, he was carrying letters from the high priest to authorize his campaign of terror against the Christians. But when he left Damascus, he was carrying the glorious Gospel by which he had been saved and by which he saw thousands of souls brought into the kingdom of God. For the rest of his life, Paul was faithful to the trust that God had given him. We have also been given that trust, although not for the same programme that God had for Paul. To some of us is given the responsibility of preaching the gospel, but to all of us is given the responsibility of supporting the Gospel in a variety of ways. But more than just a responsibility, it is a wonderful privilege.
Just the mention of the Gospel caused Paul to become excited about it. Does it have that effect on us? – Jim MacIntosh