According to the Promise of Life - Tuesday with (2nd) Timothy #1

Back by popular demand (and by popular, I mean no one in  particular at all) I present: Tuesday with Timothy. As we did with 1 Timothy, we will work our way through the book of  Second Timothy, a section at a time, every Tuesday (and by "every" I mean generally on most Tuesday's, unless something happens and I get behind) looking for encouragement to preserve in the ministry of the Word.

2 Timothy 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,

Paul wrote the second epistle to Timothy while imprisoned in Rome, and soon to be put to death, making this his last epistle. Timothy was with the church at Ephesus, and Paul wanted him to come quickly (2 Timothy 4:9). We can take this letter as Paul's dying counsel to the young pastor. 

Paul begins with his office - an apostle of Jesus Christ, by God’s will. Paul was not elected into the office. No one voted Paul in as an apostle. God called Paul unto salvation and God made Paul an apostle and He did so according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus. Those who are opposed to God's sovereign grace in salvation will say that God's election makes men robots and make them cold toward the salvation of sinners. Who could dare make the claim Paul was either? Paul was the most zealous of all preachers and missionaries, and yet he knew that God not only called him unto salvation (Ephesians 1:4-5) but that God had called him in to the apostleship, by his sovereign decree (Acts 9:15). Knowing God called Paul unto salvation and unto the ministry did not make Paul a fatalist, but set a fire under him to greater service and zeal for souls. 

God promised eternal life to all who put their hope and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. The promise of life is for those who have a real, vital, union with Jesus.  Union with Christ, wrote Louis Berkhof, is the “intimate, vital, and spiritual union between Christ and His people, in virtue of which He is the source of their life and strength, of their blessedness and salvation.”  Paul served His Lord, receiving the promise of life and preaching the promise of life.