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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadEzekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 1 Timothy 1:14 - 1:14
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Ver. 14. But the grace of our Lord superabounded— ὑðåñåðëåüíáóåí —not merely manifested itself in an act of mercy, and exhibition of undeserved goodness, as in the case of ordinary sinners, but overflowed, in a manner, its wonted channels, and like a mighty flood poured its gifts of love into his bosom. And with the wonderful grace received, the apostle couples the frame of mind awakened by it: with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus—the fruit, certainly, of the grace bestowed, yet, as De Wette justly notes, not indicated here precisely as the fruit, but rather as the concomitants of grace—the subjective side of a work of grace. While he continued a stranger to the grace of Christ, he was also without faith, in unbelief; and so far from being animated by a spirit of love, he pursued a course of blasphemy, persecution, . and outrage. But with grace came also faith and love, because by grace he was brought into living fellowship with Christ, the causal source and nourisher of both. There is a singular pregnancy in the passage, and also a profound Christian feeling pervading it, which leads the apostle to find all his springs in Christ, and in Christ as at once the embodiment of sovereign redeeming mercy, and the grand medium of its communication to the soul. In the strongest possible form he here again utters the confession, “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1Co_15:10; Eph_3:8).