1 Timothy 1:17 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Timothy 1:17

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Here is a sudden burst of praise in the middle of verses of instruction, a great doxology giving glory to God and the question is why? Some say that it concludes the preceding verses where the apostle Paul has been speaking of his own conversion, and he is so moved that there comes breaking this burst of wonder and praise, and that would be an example for us. Then others suggest that this doxology introduces what follows: the charge committed to Timothy and the commission to preach the gospel, in line with the prophecies given when he was set aside to the ministry. To do anything for the Lord you need a large view of God; you need to be aware of his immensity, his infinity, his power, his love and his kindness, his knowledge and his wisdom. The best solution is to see it as appropriate for both. Both when we think of God's blessings to us, and before we do anything for him, we give him the glory and honour to him. ‘Now unto the king eternal.’ ‘King’ means ruler. Is the Apostle speaking of the trinity, or distinctively of the Father, or is he speaking of Christ? The likelihood is that he is speaking of Christ, because Christ is in all the preceding verses, but equally Christ reveals to us the Father and the whole Godhead, so you can apply the verse to all the Godhead. He is our eternal King. He always will be the sovereign King. He cannot be diminished; he will never change. Applying this to Christ, if we were able to look back into eternity past, into the hidden depths of the everlasting past, Christ was there forever. He was, as it were, slain from before the foundation of the world so great is the love of the Saviour. Going all the way back and all the way into the future he is always the same. When the Scripture tells us that Christ is the only begotten Son, it isn't intended to suggest that he was begotten of the Father at some point in time. It's difficult to take, but he was eternally begotten. It means the members of the Godhead are of each other; they are equally God and their Godhead flows from each other. But you can't express that in mere human language, and the word ‘begotten’ comes into the translations, which somehow stamps into the mind the possible error that he began at some time. No, the Saviour had no beginning, and he will have no end.‘Immortal’, which really means imperishable as far as life is concerned. He is life; he never began to have life. He cannot perish; he cannot deteriorate; he cannot weaken. Your Saviour who answers your prayers and watches over you, and aids you and upholds you and assists you, to whom you look in every grief in every trial, in every situation, can never be diminished or fail in power and glory and insight and love. ‘Invisible.’ Now the Saviour, while incarnate, and in his pre-incarnate theophanies to the patriarchs, his appearances, was not invisible – as the Apostle John says, the Father is seen and visible in the Son (John 1:18). But as God, you cannot see him. His divinity you cannot behold, nor will you ever be able to. ‘O but when I go to heaven, when I'm in glory, will I not see the Father?’ You cannot see the divine aspect of Almighty God. You can see it reflected in full glory in Christ, because Christ became incarnate and entered into human flesh and personality, not only so that he could live a perfect life on our behalf and bear away the punishment of sin on our behalf – he had to do that in a human body, to feel and to suffer as we human beings should suffer for our sin. But he also became incarnate so that he would wear that glorified body eternally, so that there would be a visible aspect to Almighty God for us to behold. When we see the glory of the risen glorified Lord, and all the attributes of God somehow embodied and reflected in him, that will be more than sufficient for us. But you can't see the intrinsic divinity, Godhead itself; that's impossible because the glory of God is so great, and his radiance is so great that mortal beings would be utterly overwhelmed and destroyed.Remember Moses in Exodus 33. He appealed to God to show him his glory, to reveal himself to him, and God put Moses in a cleft of the rock, a fissure, to protect him. That is where Toplady got the imagery for his hymn: ‘Rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee.’ Hidden in Christ, clad in his righteousness, forgiven by him, we can see something of the glory of the Lord. So when God showed himself to Moses, he showed him only – as the King James Version translates it – his back parts, not his face. No man can look upon the face, the full radiance and being, of God and live. And that will be so even in eternity, because the fullness of God and its enjoyment and its pleasure, and its power and effect will be new every morning, as it were, in heaven for all eternity. Every day – but days will be different in heaven, but because we know no other units of time, we use it – in glory you will not look upon the same glory of God. You will get a little more of it, and a little more, and a little more: wonderful, overwhelming. Imagine seeing the most spectacular view and scenery that you've ever seen, and it makes you gasp, and you wonder at its beauty, and you think, I shall never see anything quite like this again. And then the next day you see something just as wonderful, and yes, different. Astonishing! And the next day another scene. How can it be that there can be so many beautiful scenes all with their wonder? This is a feeble human illustration, but glory will be like that as the wonder of the Godhead is eternally unfolded to us. For all the Godhead to come to us would be overwhelming. We would have to be like God ourselves to embrace God in that way, in our comprehension, and in our sight. ‘The only wise God.’ Even the cleverest on earth make tremendous mistakes. Even people who are so knowledgeable and so well-endowed intellectually that they can send people into space: they are not wise. They believe the theory of evolution to begin with. That's what we are as human beings. We can be brilliant in some things, and at the same time foolish in others. The only wise God makes no mistakes. You and I make all the mistakes; in his wisdom he puts them right. He allows us to make mistakes; that's one of the ways he teaches us. He allowed the fall partly because he desired that eternity would be peopled with those who understand that there is no alternative to God, because he wants heaven to be populated by people who really want him and need him, and who understand their dependence upon him. So in his infinite wisdom he allowed the fall, while planning mercy right alongside it. The only wise God: he's got everything is in hand. We must not complain. Give him, extend to him, credit him with all the worth and power and glory in everything. When the devil whispers in your ear, ‘How well you spoke to your neighbour; what a brave witness that was’, dismiss it from your mind instantly, and give the glory to God. He did it, not you. That's the way we live. We depend on him, we look to him, we praise him, and we thank him. ‘Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.’

Application

Christ is the ruler in our lives. Who doesn't know that, but who keeps to it consistently and constantly? I have a great decision to take; I have come to a great crossroads in my life. Shall I go this way in my career, in studies, in where I live, in family or in marriage? Remember Christ is King: I must seek his guidance. Many people belittle guidance of Christians today. They make foolish jibes about the old-fashioned way of seeking the guidance of the Lord in everything in all the decisions of life, and they say foolish things like, ‘Does that apply to which brand of toothpaste you use?’ They cannot see the obvious: there is a difference between the crossroads of life, the major decisions, and the little things and the practical things. In everything that concerns our life and our commitments we pray to the Lord, and we seek his guiding hand. He helps us and guides us as we prayerfully weigh the objectives in our own thinking and honesty before him, and in the providences that surround the decision.

Cynics say today, ‘If there is a God, why doesn't he show himself? If I saw him I would believe in him. Why doesn't he show himself?’ Even in heaven you will not be capable of seeing God directly, it would overwhelm you utterly. You must see Christ who is the image of God, and that will be wonderful enough in the very atmosphere and surroundings of heaven to your wonderfully exalted eyes. But on earth as sinful men and women, you would be destroyed in the tiniest fraction of a second. So the unbeliever – and we sympathetically try to help him – doesn't know what he is saying. ‘Why’, they say, ‘all this business of faith?’ You have to see him with the eye of faith, because if you saw him with the physical eye, you would be no more.

The appearance of this doxology reminds us of other sentiments uttered by the apostle Paul in the midst of a flow of instruction and it suggests to us that in his life he had the constant practice of turning aside to praise. If you think of things that God has done for you and you are moved, turn it into praise; thank him, look to him, think of his attributes and his wonderful faithfulness and kindness and power always be praising him. Do you sometimes have an impulse to praise God? Then don't treat it lightly. Respond to it; it's very likely that it is of the Spirit. I was just about to do something else, and I had this impulse just to pause and to praise God. I must not push that aside. That is what the Apostle does. Stop and worship; reflect for a moment; see his greatness and glory. That will be almost the backbone of your Christian life and steadfastness.

You cannot face your Sunday School class properly without praying for a large view of your God and his power and his goodness. Then you will have faith to pray for the youngsters to whom you speak. You don't do anything for the Lord in order to think well of yourself or to take the credit; you give him all the glory. That is why we should be so unhappy about the trend even among Bible believing Christians to make too much of the preachers, to make some of them into great celebrities, to speak about them and their personalities and distinctive ways. That doesn't match this example of the apostle.

Questions

In Revelation 13:8 we read: ‘And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.’ The first meaning of those words is that even in eternity past, forever and forever, the glorious Son of God equal with the Father knew that he would come to earth and suffer and die to bear away the sins of his people. Even before the world was created, even before man fell, it was the determination of the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It means more than simply that his death was foreordained (which it was), or that he could see it from afar and chose willingly to ransom his people. In a very mysterious sense he was slain before the foundation of the world, because he knew exactly what it would cost him, and even though he was not literally to feel it until he assumed human flesh, nevertheless as God, knowing all things, he knew exactly what it would cost him. All the attributes of God and the attributes of Christ, his power and his love, go right back into the everlasting past. Modern translations can't quite take this, so they adjust the translation. They don't follow the Greek word order and say to themselves this is not about Christ being slain from before the foundation of the world; it is about our names being written (or not written) in the Book of Life from before the foundation of the world. They rearrange the words; they don't follow the Greek word order and what is plainly intended. It is a very deep and a very precious thought. The Saviour wasn't surprised when they nailed him to Calvary's cross; he wasn't astonished at the pain of hanging of hanging there, bleeding from his wounds and dying. He wasn't stunned and shocked when God the Father put upon him the guilt of the sins of his people and punished him instead of them. He didn't gasp in amazement. Of course he felt it so deeply, but he already knew what it would be like with the understanding of God.

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Introduction

1 Timothy 1:17 Commentary and Bible Study