Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 30 Oct. 2011,
By Captain Michael Ramsay
11 Here is a trustworthy saying:
If we died with him,
we will also live with him;
12 if we endure,
we will also reign with him.
If we disown him,
he will also disown us;
13 if we are faithless,
he will remain faithful,
for he cannot disown himself.
we will also live with him;
12 if we endure,
we will also reign with him.
If we disown him,
he will also disown us;
13 if we are faithless,
he will remain faithful,
for he cannot disown himself.
Our passage opens up with, “Here is a trustworthy saying.” In preparing for our time today, I kept my ears open and actively looked for some contemporary trustworthy sayings. Here is what I came up with:
q I ran across a ‘True Fortune Cookie.’
o Instead of ‘Lucky Numbers’ on the back it read, ‘You will NOT win the lottery today’
o On the front it read, ‘Look both ways before you cross the street; run like the wind after you cross your mother.’
q I heard these next two on a Regina radio station,
o A homeless man asks, ‘do you have any change?’ Response: ‘Why yes I do, thanks for asking’
o As a tea-totaling Salvationist, I appreciated this next saying from the radio: ‘Alcohol never made anyone’s problems disappear – but neither did milk’
A while ago I picked up this book in Saskatoon: I Did It His Way – A collection of B.C. Religious comic strips by Johnny Hart.[1] In the B.C. comic strip you often have people consulting Wiley’s Dictionary for trustworthy sayings. Here are some of Wiley’s definitions:
Today’s pericope opens up with, “Here is a trustworthy saying.” It then breaks into three verses that we will address today.
Vs. 11: If we died with him, we will also live with him [Christ];
Vs. 12: if we endure, we will also reign with him. [But] If we disown him, he will also disown us;
Vs. 13: if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
These verses are quite likely taken from an early Christian hymn[2] and it is indeed a trustworthy saying and I’m sure you’ll agree quite interesting as we get into the various parts of it a little bit here.
Verse 11: If we died with him, we will also live with him.
Theologian Donald Guthrie tells us,“The tense of the verb translated we died with him (synapothnēskō) indicates that a past event is in view.”[3] Ralph Earle adds,
‘If we died with him’ is in the aorist tense, indicating a crisis (EGT, 4:163). Paul spells this out in Romans 6:3-6. It is only as we die with Christ, by identification with him in his death, that we can have spiritual life in him. ‘We will also live with him’ does not refer to our future resurrection, but to our present life in Christ. The parallel is Romans 6:8, 11. Right here and now we are to count ourselves ‘dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.’ The Pauline formula is ‘You have to die to live’.[4]
Romans 6:5-7:
5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
Romans 6:11-14: 1
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master…
Paul in Romans 6 underscores what he is teaching us in 2 Timothy today: we have a choice. We have a simple choice: we can either choose to sin which leads to death or we can die to sin choosing instead holiness, which leads to life (cf. TSA docs. 6,10,11). There is no middle ground. Moses said on Mount Sinai before his death, Deuteronomy 30:19-20, “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, …” Paul, in this letter to Timothy and the church in Ephesus says, “If we died with him, we will also live with him” (2 Timothy 2:11) for, as we pointed out, with Paul, you have to die to sin to live with Christ. And when you have died to sin and instead live that holy life, what a wonderful life - even as it is full of suffering (cf. 2 Timothy 1-2) – what a wonderful life that life will be. Even as it is full of suffering…
Verse 12: If we endure, we will also reign with him. [But] If we disown him, he will also disown us
As we pointed out last week (2 Timothy 1:12: Learn To Suffer)[5], the Christian life will come with suffering but we must learn to suffer properly, praising the Lord. Paul says that we are to rejoice and even boast in our suffering (Romans 5:3,4 cf. Philippians 2:17; 1 Peter 4:6, 4:13). 1 Thessalonians 5:18 records that we are even to give thanks in all circumstances (cf. Philippians 4:11) and Paul in Philippians 4:4 says, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.’ Trouble will come but “if we endure, we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:11).
This is good news but there is another side to that coin and that side is contained in the second part of this very verse in 2 Timothy, “If we disown him, he will also disown us” (2 Timothy 2:11). This is apostasy and we all understand what is apostasy, right? In The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Walter Bauder writes, of apostasy [5a] :
1 Timothy 4:1 describes "falling away from the faith" in the last days in terms of falling into false, heretical beliefs. …people who have come to believe, who have received the gospel "with joy" (Luke 8:13). But under the pressure of persecution and tribulation arising because of the faith, they break off the relationship with God into which they have entered. According to Hebrews 3:12, apostasy consists in an unbelieving and self-willed movement away from God (in contrast to Hebrews 3:14), which must be prevented at all costs. aphistēmi thus connotes in the passages just mentioned the serious situation of becoming separated from the living God after a previous turning towards him, by falling away from the faith. It is a movement of unbelief and sin… (cf. the par. to Luke 8:13 in Matthew 13:21; Mark 4:17; . . .).
Apostasy is a complete turning away from God after one was apparently with Him and after one was certainly with a community of believers. Apostasy is referred to many times in the Bible (cf. for ex. Hebrews 2:1-3; 3:12-14; 4:1,11; 10:23; 13:9; Colossians 1:22,23; 2:6-8; 2 Timothy 1:13; 1 John 2:4-6)[6] and in short what it means for the apostate is, in the words of Jesus, that if one is ashamed of Jesus, then the “Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory” (Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; cf. also Psalms 31:1-3; 71:1-2; 143:1).
In other words still, if we play on Christ’s team which will ultimately be awarded the Eternal Cup, if we play on Christ’s team for a while, but then demand a trade before the final game is played then yes, Christ has won the victory and yes, his team will experience that victory but no, if we have refused to play on that team then we will not experience that victory with him when that trophy is handed out. I think of Marion Hossa, in hockey. One season he played for the Pittsburg Penguins. They lost in the Stanley Cup final to the Detroit Red Wings. For the next year, he requested a trade to the Detroit Red Wings and that year the Red Wings and Hossa lost in the finals to his former teammates on the Pittsburg Penguins. If he had stayed with the Penguins he would have won the cup that year. Instead he was on the losing team two years running. Now Hossa did eventually win the cup the next year with yet another team (Chicago). But - If we do not continue to play for Christ’s team we will not experience the joy of celebrating that ultimate victory with Him that he has already won.
To reiterate what we said about the first verse of this trustworthy saying we are looking at today, quoting Moses in Deuteronomy, “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, …” This brings us to our third point.
Verse 13: if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
This seems to contradict what we and Paul just said, doesn’t it? The previous verse in this trustworthy saying says, “If we disown him, he will also disown us;” but this very next verse says, “if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” So, how does this work? If we disown him – now one can only disown what one previously owned – if, once we own our relationship to him, we then disown him, he will disown us. Like one of The Salvation Army’s most controversial doctrines, Doctrine 9 states: Continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ. If we disown him then he will disown us but if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself. So how does this work? How is it that he will disown us if we disown him but if we are faithless, he cannot disown himself so he will remain faithful? This seems to be a neat little paradox.
I see it thusly: A major theme of this letter to Timothy is an encouragement to join Paul in suffering for the gospel so that we can all enjoy the blessings of life with Christ both now and forever: Let it be so![7] The first verse of this hymn that we are looking at today– “If we died with him, we will also live with him” – is an encouragement to be holy, not to sin anymore; we are now dead to sin so we can be alive in Christ. The second verse, “if we disown him, he will also disown us,” tells us quite clearly that if we reject this offer to be alive in Christ – even after having grown up in the church – if we reject this offer of eternal life, then he will accept our rejection and we will not experience that eternal life. This is serious news that can cause some people to panic, and worry, and wonder if they can easily and simply lose their salvation. We have all heard stories about people growing up in particularly legalistic traditions who panic over every mistake they make as if in making a mistake they somehow lose their right to be called children of God. That fear is a terrible place to be in. The final line of our saying here is to lay that fear to rest. Paul is saying yes, if we deny Christ, he will deny us (2 Timothy 2:12; cf. TSA doc. 9) but he is also letting us know that we cannot accidentally trip up and lose our salvation. One sinful mistake on our part will not negate the holiness of God and the salvation that He has already provided for us. Prominent theologian James D.G. Dunn, referring to the apparent differences in these two verses, puts it this way: “The point is presumably that the two lines serve different purposes: the first to warn the casual and to stiffen the resolve of the frightened, the second to comfort the broken and to give renewed hope to the despairing.”[8]
So this is important then for us as Christians, as believers, as followers of the Truth and as of followers of the one true God. We can have comfort, like Paul tells us in Verse 13 that even if we mess up God is still faithful; so don’t worry about it because it is only if, Verse 12, we completely disown Christ that he will disown us; so then we should be encouraged for as we endure all that the enemy and this world throws at us for our faith in Christ, as we endure all that we suffer for the Kingdom and for our faith in Christ, as we suffer with Christ then we will most certainly reign with him not only forever at some future time but also for now because, Verse 11, if we have died to sin, if we died with him, then we will most certainly live and reign with him both for now and for evermore.
Let us pray.
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[1] Johnny Hart, I Did It His Way – A collection of B.C. Religious comic strips by Johnny Hart. (Ed. Ariel Faulkner; Nashville: Thomas Nelson: 2009)
[2] Most commentators agree but cf. R.C.H Lenski, Interpretation of 2 Timothy, (Interpretation of Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, Philemon: Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Publishing House, 1964), 792.
[3] Donald Guthrie, Pastoral Epistles: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1990 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 14), S. 162
[4] Ralph Earle, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:2 Timothy/Exposition of 2 Timothy/V. Suffering and Glory (2:8-13), Book Version: 4.0.2
[5] Captain Michael Ramsay, 2 Timothy 1:12: Learn To Suffer. Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army 23 October 2011. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/10/2-timothy-112-learn-to-suffer.html
[5a] Walter Bauder, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology,1:607-608. I. Howard Marshall, piptō, to fall (Romans 11:11, 22; 1 Corinthians 10:12; Hebrews 4:11); parapiptō, to fall away, transgress (Hebrews 6:6), pararrheō, to drift away (Hebrews 2:1); and skandalizō/skandalon, to stumble, offend (John 6:61; 16:1) are also expressions connected to the concept of apostasy (Kept by the Power of God, 217, note 4).
[5a] Walter Bauder, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology,1:607-608. I. Howard Marshall, piptō, to fall (Romans 11:11, 22; 1 Corinthians 10:12; Hebrews 4:11); parapiptō, to fall away, transgress (Hebrews 6:6), pararrheō, to drift away (Hebrews 2:1); and skandalizō/skandalon, to stumble, offend (John 6:61; 16:1) are also expressions connected to the concept of apostasy (Kept by the Power of God, 217, note 4).
[6] See Hebrews 2:1-3; 3:12-14; 4:1,11; 10:23; 13:9; Colossians 1:22,23; 2:6-8; 2 Timothy 1:13; 1 John 2:4-6; Re. the possibility of apostasy, see John 15:1-6; Acts 8:12-24; Romans 6:12-18; 8:12-17; Galatians 5:1-4; 6:7-9; 1 Corinthians 9:25-10:12; 1 Timothy 1:18-20; 5:8; 2 Timothy 2:16-18; Hebrews 3:6,11-14; 4:9,11; 6:4-8; 10:26-31; 2 Peter 1:8-11; 2:20-22; For general verses on falling away: Romans 16:17; Galatians 1:6-9; Colossians 1:22,23; 2:7,8; 1 Thessalonians 5:14; 2 Thessalonians 2:15; 3:6,14,15; 1 Timothy 1:3-6; 4:1,6,7; 6:20,21; 2 Timothy 1:13; 4:1-5; Titus 1:13,14; 2:1; 3:9-11; Hebrews 2:1; 3:14; 10:23; 13:9; James 5:19,20; 1 John 2:4-6; 2 John 9-11; 2 Thessalonians 2:8; 1 Timothy 6:10; Matthew 15:9,13; 1 John 2:19.
[7] Walter W. Wessel and George W. Knight III, “2 Timothy Introduction” in NIV Study Bible (ed. Kenneth Barker; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 1882
[7] Walter W. Wessel and George W. Knight III, “2 Timothy Introduction” in NIV Study Bible (ed. Kenneth Barker; Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002), 1882
[8] James D.G. Dunn, The 1st and 2nd Letter to Timothy and the Letter to Titus, (NIB XI: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 2000), 844.
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