Entrusted With and Empowered By the Gospel

Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus—commonly referred to as the Pastoral Epistles—offer a wealth of insight into the nature and challenges of pastoral ministry, but they also have application for the broader Christian life. In this particular passage, the seasoned apostle offers his young protégé Timothy some strong encouragement and motivational support for the situation in which he finds himself.

Timothy is in a hard place. He’s been called to minister the gospel in Ephesus to a church beset by false teaching, internal struggles, and divisions. He’s been tasked with trying to bring this church back to truthfulness, faithfulness, and flourishing, but he’s not exactly sure how to do that. Like many of us when facing uncertainties in a difficult situation, Timothy needs a couple of things. First, he needs clarity; he needs to know exactly what he’s supposed to be doing. And second, he needs to know that he can do it. That’s what Paul is offering in this part of his letter. Christ had entrusted Paul with his message and now Paul hands that on to Timothy with the encouragement to continue this good work. But Paul knows that Timothy won’t be able to carry out his mission if he relies on himself; it can only happen through a clear sense of what he’s called to do and through total dependence on Jesus Christ. Thus, Paul reminds Timothy that he is both entrusted with the gospel of God and empowered by that very same gospel.

Entrusted with the Gospel

Paul sets forth this first encouragement in verse 15 when he says, “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” The phrase “a trustworthy saying” is used throughout the Pastoral Epistles and is partially a way of Paul giving an aphorism that we are to store away for future use. It’s a way to say, “Pay attention! Remember this. Hold on to this important thing. It’s trustworthy. You can receive it and believe it completely. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.” Paul is likely reflecting the words of Jesus himself from Mark 2, where Jesus says, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Paul’s aphorism is thus in many ways nothing less than a summary of the gospel itself.

Back in verse 11, just one verse before our passage, Paul notes that he has this message “in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.” And just as he has been entrusted with this glorious gospel, he is now giving it over to Timothy, as we see in verse 18: “This charge I entrust to you.” “This charge” is nothing less than the glorious grace of Jesus Christ for sinners. Paul by this command gives clarity to Timothy’s mission. The gospel of Christ is what Timothy needs to be about, no matter what is going on around him or what struggles might be taking place at Ephesus. And the same is true for us. Wherever we may be and whatever may be happening around us, we have been entrusted with the same purpose, the same message: “Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.” Whether we are ministering vocationally or not, the gospel has been entrusted to us because we are followers of Jesus Christ. We are called to embrace that message, to profess it, to proclaim it, and to live it. The saying that was trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance for Timothy is just as trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance by us today.

But what does Paul’s “trustworthy saying” actually mean? Let’s look at its content and break it down into three parts. First, we have the agent of the gospel, Christ Jesus, who came into the world. This shows us Christ’s glorious identity. Jesus is the Messiah of God who has come to save us. But even more, he came into this world. The cosmos cannot contain him. He was before it and is preeminent and transcendent over it. The agent of the gospel is none other than the eternal Son of the Father. And yet he came into this world for us. That’s why, in verse 17, Paul breaks out in praise: “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever.” He’s responding to the gospel of Jesus. Jesus is one with God eternally. The agent of the gospel is none other than the Creator of the world, and his mission—the mission of the gospel—is to save us. Christ’s mission is unambiguous. He has the power to deliver us from all those forces that would challenge us, he has the power to deliver us from our sin and from the powers of the evil one, and to deliver us from the powers of the world. And he has the power to lead us into eternal life, as Paul says in verse 16.

But who receives this blessing? Who is the object of this gospel? Who is the one whom Christ saves? The trustworthy saying tells us: Christ came to save sinners, which shows God’s mercy and grace. Christ does not come to save the righteous, the upright, or the polite, but sinners, those who have fallen short of the glory of God in every way. There is no preferred race, class, or people group; all stand before God unable, unwilling, and unworthy until Christ saves them. Timothy needed to know this. He needed to know with absolute clarity the message he was entrusted with to go into the world and proclaim. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Paul returns him, and us, to the foundation of the faith and the foundation of everything in our lives, our families, our vocations, and our ministries.

But, as we also see in this passage, being entrusted with this gospel message also comes with a warning. If we have a clear calling to proclaim this gospel no matter where we are, if we stray from that message or that calling, we are straying from God’s good and righteous call. That’s why Paul issues a very stern warning at the end of this section. In verse 19 he says, “By rejecting this”—meaning the charge given to Timothy—“some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.” Carrying forward the gospel is a weighty calling on all whom Christ brings into his kingdom and enlists in his service, and Paul here is saying that we’ve got to take this with great seriousness. If you move from the gospel, if you begin to put your trust in other things, you will potentially shipwreck your faith, bring scandal to the church, and destroy that which God has given you to steward. And Paul even names names here—Hymenaeus and Alexander, who apparently brought shame and disaster on themselves through unfaithfulness to the gospel.

There are many ways to disbelieve the trustworthy saying, and many ways to fail to give it full acceptance. Sometimes we begin to forget that we are sinners, just as much in need of this message as the people to whom we are ministering or counseling. Sometimes we begin to think that the gospel is just for baby Christians, that we have graduated to something else, some message beyond or above the gospel that is the real power. There is no such thing. There are many good things in God’s world, but the gospel of Jesus Christ is primary for all of our ministry and mission. Sometimes we forget that it’s Jesus who saves. Sometimes we begin to take to ourselves the role of savior and forget that he is the only One. Or sometimes we reject the gospel entirely, seeking new strength in rituals or in the spirit of the age and moving away from the simplicity of the gospel of Jesus into false hopes. But we can’t do that. We need to be clear eyed. We need to have clarity about the gospel. Whatever the Lord calls us to do, whether that is to the pulpit or the counseling room or the Sunday school classroom or teaching in a Christian school, or working in some other profession, we have to know what the first and most important thing is and cling onto it no matter what. Only when we accept and embrace this glorious entrustment from God can we begin to move forward to carry it out.

But God doesn’t leave us alone in this. He not only gives us this gospel; he also empowers us to live it out and proclaim it. How?

Empowered By the Gospel

Paul’s further encouragement to Timothy gives us the answer. He has said that Jesus came into the world to save sinners—and “sinners who have been saved” is true of all of us who are in Christ, which is why we can live this out. Paul tells Timothy that, in carrying out his calling, he must hold to this truth with good faith and a good conscience. In other words, the gospel we have experienced and been entrusted with is itself what empowers us to live out our mission. And to illustrate this, Paul draws on his own life. He is an example of the gospel at work, of how it can transform and empower. Throughout this text, Paul uses his own conversion and life story as an enacted parable to show Timothy what it looks like when Jesus Christ saves a sinner and calls him to service.

In verse 15, Paul refers to himself as the foremost of sinners, and then explains, “But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who believe in him for eternal life.” Why did he need such perfect patience from Christ? Because, as we are told in verse 13, “formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.” We see that there is a massive dissimilarity here between how Paul has acted toward Jesus and how Jesus acted toward Paul. Paul was opposed to Jesus in every way possible. He denied that Jesus was the Messiah. Instead, he thought Jesus was a blasphemer, a false prophet accursed by God. And he expressed that in persecuting the church of Jesus Christ, seeking them out, seeking their death. Remember, too, that Paul was the one who held the cloaks for those who stoned Stephen to death in Acts 7. Then, on his way to Damascus to find more Christians to bring to supposed justice, Paul was stopped in his tracks by the Lord with a blinding light. Jesus reminded him of what was actually at stake here when he said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Paul was not just challenging the Christian faith or the people of the Christian church. He was actually persecuting Jesus Christ himself.

And Jesus, rather than giving Paul what he deserved—what we all deserve: to be separated, to be rejected by God—calls Paul into his service. Although Paul was an insolent opponent, a proud enemy, an arrogant adversary against Jesus, Jesus acted toward him in mercy. There is a stark contrast between Paul’s acts of hatred, rejection, and destruction toward Jesus, and Jesus’s loving and merciful acts toward Paul: “The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with faith and love that are in Jesus” (v. 14). When Paul was an enemy, Christ not only died for him, but called Paul to himself and brought him from darkness into light. Paul was one of the sinners whom Jesus saved. Paul received mercy. And not only was he saved, but he also received strength from Christ Jesus his Lord and was appointed as a faithful servant (v. 12). Jesus completely turned Paul around from hating him, from opposing him, from killing his people, into a servant beloved of God. The Lord, in his perfect patience, saved the foremost of sinners by his grace and love, and continued to empower Paul’s ministry to the end of the apostle’s life.

Paul faced many challenges in his missionary journeys—traveling around the Mediterranean region he suffered hardships, beatings, shipwrecks, hatred, misunderstandings, and betrayals. Challenges upon challenges. What gave him strength to go through all this? Nothing but his understanding that he was loved by Jesus and that he was entrusted with Jesus’ message. The one who had been the chief of sinners was now forgiven. All of his suffering was worth it because of what Christ had done for him. And that is true for us as well. The power of the gospel transforms and empowers the enemies of God into his beloved servants whom the Father showers with abundant grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you know that you have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God but Christ has gotten hold of you, the Father has for you abounding grace and mercy that will empower you despite all the struggles you face whether in seminary or beyond into whatever the Lord might call you to do.

There are many ways that the gospel empowers us. Students here at Covenant Seminary will dig into some of those in their classes on practical ministry. But the chief truth we must cling to is our forgiveness in Christ. One of the reasons many of us struggle in ministry and throughout life is that we still think we are unacceptable to God, that our sins will pile up around us and bear us down to hell. It’s true that we do still sin. We do still fall short of the glory of God. There’s no denying that. And yet, God is so merciful. The sin that hobbles our ministries and our lives is forgiven by God. Our flesh and Satan might be telling us that we’re not holy enough, we don’t love Christ enough, we don’t have enough faith, we’re envious, we’re covetous, we have doubts. We know we are indeed the foremost of sinners, and when our professors or our pastors or our congregations find out, they’ll kick us out. They won’t love us. They won’t listen to us. That’s what the enemy tells us all the time.

But it is not true. Christ came to save sinners, not for them to hide their sins or constantly be crushed by them. All that we have done, all that hobbles our ministries, is cleansed by the blood of Christ. Martin Luther was a man who struggled deeply with his own sin. In a letter on spiritual counsel, he wrote,

When we are tempted, when the devil throws our sins up to us and declares that we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: “I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means! For I know One who suffered and made a satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there shall I also be.”¹

When we are tempted to see only our sin, we must turn from it to Jesus, who saves us from our sin and leads us in a life that is empowered by him, honoring to him, and moving forward in grace. We know our own sin better than anyone else. We know its depths. We know our inconstancy. But that only empowers us to see that we are no better than anyone else. We are merely beggars going to others to show them where bread is. We cannot be haughty or self-aggrandizing in our ministries. We are not the Savior. We are broken sinners saved by grace, living out this life to his glory. And that gives us hope in ministry. It’s not about us or our power or our ability. It’s about Jesus Christ, the one who can give us all that we need. He will strengthen us. And we respond just as Paul does: thanking the one who gives us strength through his mercy and grace, and praising him and giving him all honor and glory. The King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only wise God—that is the one we serve and the one who will lead us and empower us no matter where we go or what ministry he calls us to.

Links in the Great Chain of Faithful Gospel Servants

In many ways, the gospel we are entrusted with is like a great chain. It was given from Jesus to the apostles and from the apostles to the evangelists and from the evangelists to the generations of those who follow them. And Christ’s faithful servants have continued handing it down generation after generation. They were entrusted with the gospel, and they were empowered by it. And you and I are part of that chain now. That’s what our faculty and staff at Covenant Seminary and our local pastors in our churches are trying to do: entrust you with the gospel and equip you and empower you. It was given to us and now it’s being given to you, and you will give it to someone else. Our call, then, just as it was for Timothy, is to fight the good fight of faith, to wage the good warfare (v. 18). There’s a lot wrong in the world, in the church, and in people’s lives, and we’re being called by God’s grace to go battle the evil one, to shine light into dark places, to repair marriages, to love sinners, to counsel those who are struggling, to comfort the weak and suffering. But none of us do those things on our own or in our own power—but by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

One of the great links in this gospel chain is Covenant Seminary’s own first president, Dr. Robert G. Rayburn, the man for whom our chapel is named. Before coming to Covenant, Dr. Rayburn was a chaplain in the 187th Airborne Regiment that served during the Korean War. In 1956, the same year that the Seminary was founded, he wrote a small book called Fight the Good Fight, which is a reflection upon what he learned about the Christian life as a military chaplain on the battlefields of Korea. He offered that book as an encouragement to all who would come after him to take up that good fight of faith. In one section of it, he says,

There is victory for you, my friend, no matter how bitter may have been the defeats of the past. The victory begins with the realization that the flesh of man is just as undependable after he becomes a Christian as it was before he was saved. No man can count on his flesh for anything except a longing for sin. Then, in a purposeful and faithful use of the spiritual weapons that God has supplied through his Son Jesus Christ, and through the personal ministry of the Holy Spirit, the victory is realized.²

These weapons are ours for the taking. We are called into spiritual warfare no matter where we go, and our weapons are not those of the world, as Paul notes; rather, they are the gospel of Jesus Christ and the reliance on his Spirit. With those, he will give us the victory, we will be empowered to move forward and serve God. The fact that Christ has come into the world to save sinners leads to our confidence in this battle. He has saved us from the power of the world, from the flesh, and from the evil one who struggles against us. He has disarmed their charges against us by forgiving us our sins, and has led us into a new life that we might serve him no matter where he takes us. We fight not with the weapons of the world, but with faith and a good conscience; not with a sword or unrighteous dealings, but with the Word of God wielded in love and faith granted by the Spirit. This gospel we’ve been entrusted with is our inheritance, our message, and our strength wherever the Lord may choose to lead us. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Amen.

Endnotes

[1] Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel, trans. and ed. Theodore G. Tappert (1960; repr. Vancouver, BC: Regent College Publishing, 2003), 85.

[2] Robert G. Rayburn, Fight the Good Fight (Lookout Mountain, TN: Covenant College Press, 1956), 59–60.

Note: This article first appeared in the spring 2026 edition of Covenant magazine. Get your copy or subscribe to Covenant here.