The Thankfulness and Conversion of Paul

Jim Butler1 Timothy 1:12–14

Paul's digression in 1 Timothy 1:12–14 contains a compressed account of his own conversion that he offers not as autobiography for its own sake but as living proof of the gospel he preaches. The sermon works through three elements: Paul's thankfulness to Christ who enabled and appointed him to apostolic ministry, the three actions and two conditions that characterised his pre-conversion state (blasphemer, persecutor, insolent man; ignorant and an unbeliever), and the exceedingly abundant grace that overwhelmed and reversed every one of those conditions. The central application is that no sinner stands beyond the reach of a grace that is, by Paul's own coinage, super-abundant — and that the same Christ who staffs his church by sovereign appointment, not human aspiration, has furnished everything requisite for salvation through faith and love in Christ Jesus.