Strengthened by Grace

2 You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. 3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.

Intro: First responders, firemen in particular are trained to use a Self Contained Breathing Apparatus — you’ve seen these — hopefully only in movies. The whole face glass shield which is sealed — and connected to an oxygen tank on their back.

Trainers help firefighters get used to this equipment and learn to rely on it because one day, those firefighters are going to be sent into a smokey place while breathing an whole different kind of air.

The Christian must learn to rely on God’s supply of strength. Otherwise they will cower in the face of potential suffering, or quit the first time smoke fills the room.

I. Be Strengthened

“Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”

The power of this prescription is hidden from us if we, like so many other Christian people, equate grace with forgiveness.

You were forgiven by grace. But grace is not the same as forgiveness. Grace is a much bigger thing than that.

I believe it was John Stott who once defined grace as God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Forgiveness being just one of those riches. And this is relevant to our text because Paul is telling Timothy to be strengthened by grace.

If we tend to think of grace as mostly an eraser, we might wonder how someone is to be strengthened in it. But grace is far more like an engine than an eraser.

In fact let me take a minute just to present a larger picture of grace — some of which you know, some of which you might not know.

It is expensive yet extensive.
Expensive — the grace of God is paid for by the blood of Christ. It is expensive — it could not be acquired by any other means but the cross of Jesus Christ — but counterintuitively, it is also extensive. It is if each drop of Christ’s blood has secured its own ocean of grace.

It is an undeserved prerogative
The word prerogative means an exclusive privilege or right exercised by a person or group of people holding a particular office or hereditary rank. Grace is unmerited favor at God’s expense. We don’t deserve it. We can do nothing to earn it. And yet, we have unlimited access to it. The proper word to describe this idea is birthright. It is a right. But not a right which we have earned. Grace is our birthright. If we are in Christ, unlimited amounts of priceless grace is ours for the asking.

It is both expulsive and propulsive.
By expulsive, I mean it pushes out other things. In an article on Desiring God, John Piper recalls once being asked a trick question. “If you had access to all the latest machinery in a sophisticated science lab, what would be the most effective way to get all the air out of a glass beaker? One ponders the possible ways to suck the air out and create a vacuum. Eventually, the answer is given: fill it with water.”

That article is about an old Scottish theologian named Thomas Chalmers who preached a sermon entitled, “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection” in which he talks about the way that love for God pushes out love for world comfort.

But how, Chalmers asks, can one displace the common human love for comfort? Or, as Piper asks, how does one get the air out of a glass beaker? The most straightforward answer being — fill it with something else. This is what Chalmers meant by the expulsive power of a new affection. And it is grace that can displace our lesser loves with something much grander.

This is what I mean when I say grace is expulsive. But grace is not a merely static substance. It doesn’t only displace lesser loves, it energizes and activates godly living. So in addition to being expulsive, grace is also propulsive. It moves you forward.

Commenting on this aspect of grace, Louis Berkoff states: “…there are clear indications of the fact that it is not a mere passive quality, but also an active force, a power, something that labours.” And he cites various proof texts including 2 Timothy 2:1 and also 1 Corinthians 15:10 in which Paul states: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”

This propulsive power of grace seems to be key to Paul’s charge for Timothy to be strengthened by grace. Timothy has come to a fork in the road. He can choose the road of safety or he can choose the road less traveled — which is the road of Christ.

How can Paul help his friend Timothy? How can he stir him up to faith and good deeds? It is grace that can make him strong.

II. Why You Need Strength

I think we can see quite clearly, that Paul is seeking to stir Timothy up to zealous effort by the next section. Look at verse 3,

Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.

These three occupations have one thing in common — namely, productive discomfort. And this brings us to our second misconception. We must be clear at the outset that Christian life is no walk in the park.

As Jesus said, “if anyone wants to be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” — Matthew 16:24

But Paul has provided three vocations when in theory one would do. So let’s take a moment and consider these in a little more detail.

The Soldier & Suffering as Second Nature (4)
“Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.”

When we say something is second nature, we mean they are good at it. They take to it like it was their natural environment. Something that is so familiar that it is done without having to think about it. Something you have gotten used to.

As Tertullian put it in his Address to Martyrs:

‘No soldier comes to the war surrounded by luxuries, nor goes into action from a comfortable bedroom, but from the makeshift and narrow tent, where every kind of hardness and severity and unpleasantness is to be found.’

Stott comments:

Similarly, the Christian should not expect an easy time. If he is loyal to the gospel, he is sure to experience opposition and ridicule. He must ‘share in suffering’ with his comrades-in-arms

And then when it says, “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” — I think all it means is that he isn’t looking over into the civilian world, wondering why his life is so much harder than theirs.

Now this text has been misinterpreted to suggest that Christians should not do things that normal people do. But of course this is impossible. A soldier eats, drinks, rests, fellowships with his friends, and so forth. He does many of the same things that the civilian does. The difference lies in the why and the how and the who for.

Take the word comfort for instance. Notice the "fort" in comfort. The Latin root of comfort means to fortify - to make stronger. The original sense of comfort was rest that readies you for war.

The Athlete & The Rejection of Shortcuts (5)

“An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.”

To the solider, Paul adds the athlete. And another aspect of the Christian life emerges. Namely, a rejection of shortcuts. See the text? An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. Why would he not? Why do athletes cheat? How do athletes cheat?

Probably the most famous kind of athlete in Paul’s age was the runner. Which brings to mind a set of stories you’ve probably heard before. I found an article titled: 9 of the most brazen marathon cheats of all time. And how did they cheat? Overwhelmingly, they cheated by skipping part of the course, some got in cars, some rode the subway, in various ways they skipped over part of the race. This would be especially tempting on circuitous courses where you could break free from the course and skip over to the next part.

When we talk about there not being any shortcuts in the Christian life, we mean that one cannot skip over the hard parts. One cannot skip over suffering.

The Farmer & Obscurity (6) — “It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.”

And then in addition to the soldier and the athlete, we have the farmer. Another trade added to the list — and yet another aspect of the Christian life emerges.

John Stott describes the of ‘the strenuous and prosaic toil’ of the farmer. Unlike the soldier and the athlete the farmer’s life is ‘totally devoid of excitement, remote from all glamour of peril and of applause’.

Before we move to the next section, we need to say one more thing. So far, everything we’ve said is negative. But we must not miss the positive. Each one of these vocations ends in glory.

The soldier — parade
The athlete — podium
The farmer — feast

III. How To Be Strengthened

Now so far, Paul has done two things:

He has told Timothy to be strengthened by grace.
He has told Timothy why he needs strength (the three jobs)
Christian life is like soldiering — a kind of second nature embracing of suffering
Christian life is like running a race — no shortcuts allowed
Christian life is like farming — obscurely sowing in tears in order to reap in joy.

We been told why we need strength. We’ve been told where to find it — strength is to be found in the grace of Jesus Christ.

But what Paul has yet to do is to explain how we are to be strengthened by grace.

I think the next section of our text accomplishes this. In verses 7-10,

7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
8 Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

How does one become strengthened by grace? It involves mental self-discipline. See the word think in vs. 7 and the word remember in vs. 8.

7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
8 Remember Jesus Christ…

Quiet the inner quitter:

What separates an endurance athlete from a regular person? Genetics plays relatively small role. What really separates an endurance athlete from a regular person is that the endurance athlete has learned to quiet the inner quitter.

I have seen this in my own life. When I take a walk, I think like a normal person. I look at the scenery, think about various issues going on in my life, so forth. But when I go for a run, the only thought I have is “why are you doing this!?!”

It is really one’s mind that must dealt with in matters of endurance. You have to quiet the inner quitter. If endurance is the aim, then it is the mind that needs, most of all, to be strengthened by grace.

And so Paul gives Timothy things to think about. One of them explicit and primary — Remember Jesus Christ. And others more implicit and secondary. Let me deal with them, not in textual order, but in order of importance.

1. Think of those who depend on your endurance

Look at vs. 10, “Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.”

One of the ways we quiet the inner quitter is to think of those who depend on our endurance. “I endure everything for the sake of the elect.”

Remember how this little letter began? We just looked at it last week.

1 Timothy 1:3, “I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day.”

It is probably no accident that Paul is remembering Timothy while in prison. By reading all of his prison letters, I propose the following. He had developed various mental tricks to get his mind off quitting. One involved thinking of those whom he is suffering for.

And before we get off vs. 10, we see another strategy for quieting the inner quitter. And it too involves the mind.

1. Think of eternal glory gained by earthly endurance.

Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

This way of thinking is built into the three illustrations Paul provided to Timothy.

The soldier is working for ultimate victory and commendation from his commanding officer.

The athlete is running to receive a crown.

The farmer is working toward the great day of harvest.

Paul is always working with the eternal aim in mind. We see this in his recounting of Oneisphorus’ faithfulness in chapter 1. “May the Lord reward him on that day.”

And it carries all the way through to the end of the letter. In 4:7-8 he says,

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

So far we have two lines of thinking that quiet the inner quitter and strengthen one in grace. Firstly, to think of those who depend on our endurance. Secondly, to think of the eternal glory that is gained by earthly endurance. And as we have seen in all of the texts we’ve examined, these two thoughts work quite well together.

Heaven will be a place of corporate victory where all who shared in suffering as good soldiers join King Jesus in triumphal procession as we count all the enemies made his footstool.

Heaven will be a kind of collective finish line. Where all who ran the race congratulate one another even as they praise the one who ordered and powered their steps.

Heaven will be a kind of communal feast. Where all who sowed the word dine together on the harvest of God.

One way to quiet the inner quitter is to think on these things. And the God of peace will be with us.

Now these are glorious lines of thinking. But the main idea is even greater. Not because the two I have already commended are small, but because the one I’m about to commend is just so big.

Look back at vs. 8 — specifically the first three words:

Remember Jesus Christ

In the book The Savior of the World, BB Warfield writes,

Amid all the surrounding temptations, all the encompassing dangers, Paul bids Timothy to bear in mind, as the sufficing source of abounding strength, the great central doctrine,—or rather, let us say, the great central fact—of his preaching, of his faith, of his life. And he enunciates this great fact, in these words: Jesus Christ raised from the dead, of the seed of David.

And this phrase, “raised from the dead, of the seed of David…” is meant to draw Timothy’s mind to very specific realities of Jesus Christ.

Modern pastors attempt to comfort a chronically anxious people with a gentle and lowly Jesus. But that is not the tact taken by Paul.

Again from Warfield,

Paul bids Timothy in the midst of all the besetting perplexities and dangers which encompassed him to strengthen his heart by bearing constantly in remembrance, not Jesus Christ simpliciter, but Jesus Christ conceived specifically as the Lord of the Universe, who has been dead, but now lives again and abides for ever in the power of an endless life; as the royal seed of David ascended in triumph to His eternal throne.

In verse 9 Paul says that while he is bound in chains, the word is not bound. Why not? The word is not restricted in any way because Jesus Christ, the living word, reigns.

This central reality has dominated the hearts and minds of countless men and women who endured to the end. And it was always intended to be our primary source of strength. For as Jesus gave his marching orders to the disciples to walk straight in the line of fire and take aim at the principalities and powers of this present darkness, he gave them one promise in particular.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (Matthew 28:18)

Go therefore into all the nations — share in suffering as a good soldier.
Run the race to win the prize.
Those who sow in tears will reap in joy.

And all God’s people said!