1 Timothy 6:15 – Under the Runoff of Christ's Favor

13 I urge you in the sight of God who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus who witnessed the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 that you keep this commandment without spot, blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ’s appearing, 15 which He will manifest in His own time, He who is the blessed…

"Respect," writes Tolstoy in Anna Karenina, "was invented to cover the place where love should be."

The juxtaposition, I believe, is similar to the one Paul is setting up for Timothy as 1 Timothy 6:15 continues. Pontius Pilate, to whom Paul alluded to in verse 13, could grant respect. He could dribble out faultless this over Jesus along with mercy until, at C.S. Lewis points out in The Screwtape Letters, it became risky. His is a suspension of judgment, a, "I haven't found anything wrong with this Guy… yet."

On the other side of the balance, the real verdict on Christ and on Christ's is embedded in verse 15. Blessed. Not only want lasting consequences fall on Him, but His Father calls him blessed. Heaven STILL rings with His actions on that Friday, with the victory of His Resurrection that Sunday.

The Resurrection, stupendous validation of His Father's favor that it was according to all known human principles, was just the beginning.  Remember, Paul declares to Timothy that Christ is presently being blessed.

Raised as the first of a new race, He is the firstborn of many brethren (Romans 8:29, 1 Corinthians 15:20) including us, Christian. With Him, we wait in this blessed position, blessed indeed, for His Heavenly Father, now OUR Heavenly Father, to make mutual enemies our footstool (Psalm 110:1.)

In fact, we wait for Satan to be crushed underneath their feet (Romans 16:20.) Waiting for the other shoe to drop as we begin to understand the biblically blessed position of the Christian takes on a whole new meaning. We are, by grace, blessed to wear the other shoe, and it will drop on Satan as the accuser of the brethren and the source of all that would separate us from God's everlasting best.

Each day until then is not survived. As Todd Agnew celebrates in the song of the same name, it's lapse brings us nearer home and all the blessings that come with that position. Knowing that, the respect of men, even men as powerful, isn't enough.



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