Ezekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 2 Timothy 1:9 - 1:9

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

Ezekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 2 Timothy 1:9 - 1:9


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Ver. 9. The apostle now proceeds to give a brief but graphic description of this manifested power of God in the matter of salvation: Who saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose, and the grace which was given us [grace that which was given = the grace which was given] in Christ Jesus before eternal times. The passage as a whole, including what follows in 2Ti_1:10, has a close resemblance to Tit_3:4-6, only with the introduction here of certain phases of the work of God, which bear directly on the mighty power and energy displayed in its execution. The purpose of the apostle in so distinctly referring to God’s more peculiar work naturally led to this; since it was designed to brace and fortify the mind of Timothy to that life of vigorous action and hardy endurance which was in accordance with the gospel scheme, and would be a fitting reflection of it. In saying that God saved us and called us, it is plainly God the Father that he more specifically refers to, as with Him, in Scripture, salvation as a whole, and in particular the calling of believers, is commonly associated. The calling, in this aspect of it, is all one with being brought into a state of salvation. And the work itself, with this individual application of it, is ascribed, as to its origin, simply and exclusively to the sovereign goodness and electing love of God, projecting themselves into the future before it could properly be said there was either a past or a future: the fountainhead of all was His own ( ἰäßáí ) purpose and grace, and that not waiting to be evoked by the events and circumstances of human life, but given in Christ Jesus before eternal times. How carefully is the doctrine of God’s saving grace here guarded from dependence on anything external or creaturely! It is traced up to the infinite depths of the Father’s loving-kindness, not merely as regards the general idea and principal lineaments of the plan, but also in respect to the glorious gift it secures for the individual believer. The grace was given us by Him—given before eternal times; for, as even De Wette puts it, “what God determines in eternity, is as good as done in time.” And given in Christ, who, as sponsor for His own in the everlasting covenant, could then also receive for them what the Father in His good pleasure gave: so that, as regards those who shall ultimately share in the blessings of the covenant, all from the first is well ordered and sure. Much the same thought as to the primal and thoroughly independent character of God’s purpose of grace is presented in Tit_1:2, only connected with a promise instead of a purpose.