1 Timothy on Christology
1.
Creedal confession, 3:16. Let us begin with the fundamentals. St. Paul
wants to come to Timothy. Yet, preparing the younger pastor for a possible
delay, he provides the confessional statement – what should the Church know
about godliness. Before we go into text itself, let’s touch on two words: confession
and mystery.
Confession – Greek homologeon, means speaking
together out loud. This is what the church should say as a statement of faith.
This is what we believe – it should not be changed, adjusted, or improved.
Later confessions: Apostle’s creed, Nicaean creed etc. used the very same form
– a collection of short statements revealing the elements of doctrinal teaching
about God, Christ, Holy Spirit, or Church. We repeat it TOGETHER every Sunday.
The word Mystery
reflects the revelatory aspect of our faith. It is given to us, given from
above. Therefore, we can recite it, we can study it, we can proclaim it. But we
never will come to the full understanding of Who God is, and What exactly
happened on the Cross, in the Tomb, and on Resurrection Sunday morning. Both
Old and New Testament speak of the mystery – not magic, but mystery – something
beyond our understanding (Proverbs 25:2, Psalm 131:1).
Confession
proper:
1. God (!) manifested in the flesh
2. Justified in the Spirit
3. Seen by the angels
4. Preached in/among the nations
5. Believed in the World/Cosmos
6. Taken
up/received in glory.
2. Global
function of the Christ, 2:3-7. Christ is the Savior of the world. All
people are justified and should come to the knowledge of (this) truth. There is
a need to differentiate between General and personal Justification. The
difference is obviously seen in 1 Timothy 4:10 and 1 John 2:1-2. This passage
talks about salvation and justification in a general way – what Jesus
accomplished for the fate of the world on the Cross. Note the distinction of to
be saved and to know. True knowledge follows salvation. Same as
teaching follows baptism – Matthew 28:18-20. These elements of godliness should
not be separated, but knowledge doesn’t HAVE TO precede salvation. That’s why
we baptize infants – to be saved (1 Peter 3:21, AC V:1-2).
3.
Function of Christ on the personal level, 1:12-17. Regarding personal
aspect of Justification, we can see St. Paul’s own example. He describes his
actions toward the Church before his conversion as blasphemy etc. (v. 13). His
resistance was conquered by the grace of our LORD, providing the faith and love
in Christ Jesus. The apostle goes from general to personal – the task for
Messiah is “to save the sinners, of whom I am the foremost” (v. 15). Knowing
that people like Saul (former name of St. Paul) can be saved, gives us example
of God’s patience and encourages us to pray for our “friends” who don’t know
about salvation they can enjoy (v. 16).
