True Salvation a Necessary Fact

1Timothy 2:3 – 6 informs us "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."

Here we have a most interesting passage of writing in the Bible. If one reasonably and thoughtfully considers these words then one is forced into very profound conclusions whatever they may be. When Pontius Pilate met this Saviour he distanced himself from the consequences of knowing who Jesus was. He declared Jesus innocent of blasphemy by equating Himself with God and yet did not submit to Him, but walked away from the trial and so allowed the Christ to be crucified. The Apostle Paul on the other hand, when Christ threw him from his horse and on enquiry heard these words “… I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest”, immediately submitted to Him, calling Him Lord and enquiring as to how best he should serve him.

The passage we now examine was written by that very Paul. There are three things that immediately come to mind when looking at this scripture; a great assumption, a great inference and a great statement of fact. Firstly the great assumption we have is that this Bible speaks with authority. The moment one does not acknowledge that there is only one mediator, one way by which any man or woman or child may know God, then these words lose all their meaning and the Bible is not God’s Word, but rather a god’s word amongst many other words of other gods in the world. Secondly the great inference is that Jesus Christ is the God-man who is the only Saviour of the world. Some would say that these words are not clearly saying that, but if one looks at how the Apostle has put these words together he speaks just like the Lord Jesus does in the gospels, i.e. he puts Jesus Christ on an equal footing with God. It was this very claim that gave the Jews reason to put him to death. Pilate’s judgement was that he was ‘not guilty’. In the passage we are looking at the Apostle puts us in the same position and he is asking us to make a judgement even though it might make us feel uncomfortable. Thirdly and lastly we have this wonderful statement that “God our Saviour”, the “man Jesus Christ”, “gave himself a ransom for all”. Some say he was just a perfect man, but a perfect man could only die for himself he could never also pay “a ransom for all”, but here we read that the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ not only is perfect but also pays a ransom for all. To add to this we also read that he mediates with God on our behalf.

Now the Apostle knows that all are not automatically saved because of this – he encourages those who read these words to “come unto the knowledge of the truth”. So it is that we need to heed the great advice considering the assumption, the inference and the great statement and in faith ask this Saviour “What shall I do Lord?”.