1 Timothy 1:11

According to the glorious gospel--The Christian's freedom from the law as a sanctifier, as well as a justifier, implied in the previous, Ti1 1:9-10, is what this Ti1 1:11 is connected with. This exemption of the righteous from the law, and assignment of it to the lawless as its true object, is "according to the Gospel of the glory (so the Greek, compare Note, see on Co2 4:4) of the blessed God." The Gospel manifests God's glory (Eph 1:17; Eph 3:16) in accounting "righteous" the believer, through the righteousness of Christ, without "the law" (Ti1 1:9); and in imparting that righteousness whereby he loathes all those sins against which (Ti1 1:9-10) the law is directed. The term, "blessed," indicates at once immortality and supreme happiness. The supremely blessed One is He from whom all blessedness flows. This term, as applied to GOD, occurs only here and in Ti1 6:15 : appropriate in speaking here of the Gospel blessedness, in contrast to the curse on those under the law (Ti1 1:9; Gal 3:10).

committed to my trust--Translate as in the Greek order, which brings into prominent emphasis Paul, "committed in trust to me"; in contrast to the kind of law-teaching which they (who had no Gospel commission), the false teachers, assumed to themselves (Ti1 1:8; Tit 1:3).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Ti_1:11

According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God.

The glorious gospel

The gospel is here characterized as glorious. It depends not for its glory on any incidental circumstances. In its essential elements it is the same for all lands and nations, conveying glad tidings of great joy to all people. The language of the text, with all other gloriousness, implies the glory of perpetuity. Indeed, what is here called the glorious gospel is elsewhere called the everlasting gospel (Rev_14:6). Bringing these phrases together, we have glory everlasting; changeless amid changeful seasons. But having fully stated this evangelical commonness, let us now remark that the manner in which persons are brought into connection with the gospel varies. One is persuaded by the terror of the Lord, another is drawn by His mercy and constrained by His love. And every one who has tasted of the joys of salvation will find his estimate of them affected, not only by their intrinsic excellence, but by their particular adaptation and application to his individual exigencies and personal experience. Let us, then, in these words, transplant ourselves to Pauls position. Let us contemplate what he speaks of from his own point of view.

I. The apostle may thus have spoken in relation to the messiah. As a Jew, Paul had longed for Christ. This was the grand promise made to the fathers; the seed of the woman was to bruise the serpents head; in Abraham and his seed should all families of the earth be blessed; Shiloh should come, and to him should the gathering of the people be. Other nations glory in their founders, and look back. The Jews expected a Deliverer, and looked forward. And hence Christ, when He came and was recognized, gratified a peculiar, earnest, and ever-growing anticipation. The Lord whom they looked for came to His temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom they delighted in. It is true that Paul, in the first instance, was disappointed in Jesus--bitterly disappointed. But that disappointment enhanced, by contrast, his delight, when he came after all to perceive that this was indeed the Hope of Israel. He had abhorred the Christians for neglecting the Aaronic ritual. And what an exposition of their conduct was now before him!--that the rites had been exchanged by them for the reality; that the sacrifices were but shadows, and found their substance in Christ; and that the Mosaic ordinances received the utmost honour in being so fulfilled--in being done away by the accomplishment and verification of all their foreshadowings. In one aspect the revelation was appalling. The stupendousness of the remedy gave Paul impressions which he had never had before of the dreadfulness of the evil, compelling him to reason that if one died for all, then were all dead. Ruined must that state have been which called for such redemption. Paul stood aghast--sank aghast--at these thoughts. He had supposed himself, as touching the righteousness which is of the law, to be blameless. But under the teaching of the Cross, sin--that is the sense of sin--revived and expanded into such gigantic dimensions, that, at the thought of it, he died: all life of self expired within him; all personal merit paled and perished in a sense of penal desert. And what was now his relief? What was now his refuge? That very Cross which had previously so shocked him. Thus the grandeur of the remedy exposed to him the evil of sin; and the evil of sin commended reactively the gloriousness of the gospel. Surely when redemption exposes the evil of rebellion--when the bitterness of the curse is evolved by contrast with curative blessing--when blackness of darkness is discerned only afar off, and as rendered visible by light streaming from heaven and guiding us to its portals, we may well hear such instruction, and hail in it the Glorious gospel of the blessed God!

II. Paul might characterize the gospel as glorious, viewing it in relation to the gift of the spirit. Palestine had had its prophets; and wondrous characters had these teachers been. These prophets might be persecuted while they lived, but monuments were soon erected to them when they died. Hence the disappearance of prophets was more deprecated than their severest reprimands, and lamentation found its climax in saying, We see not our signs, there is no more any prophet, neither is there among us any that knoweth how long (Psa_74:9). The ancient seers were never numerous. Two or three distinguished a period. But now there is a whole company of apostles, and inspiration is not limited to them. God pours His spirit on all flesh, and sons and daughters prophesy in multitudes. Nor does the privilege terminate with preternatural qualifications. These accompany and promote transforming influences far more precious. According to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Now was the fulfilment of the promise: Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah … I will put My law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts, and will be their God and they shall be My people. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ, Jesus, Paul says, hath made me free from the law of sin and death. The apostles exemplified such renewing power. They manifested a spiritual-mindedness before which all grovelling sordidness might well be confounded, and, as ashamed, hide its head. Quit a partial and suspicious discipleship! rise to the heights of a high calling! and still multiply achievements, and still heighten attainments, tilt your religious profession bear its own proof, and all your aims, and aspirations, and efforts, beam with the glory of the gospel of the blessed God.

III. Paul may be supposed to have used the language of the text in relation to a favored people and a promised land. Paul had anenthusiastic patriotism. Even self-love seemed feeble when vying with love to his people (Rom_9:1-3). With such fervency of affection for his countrymen, Paul beheld and deplored their imperilled condition. The Roman tyranny was becoming every year more intolerable, and defeated insurrections only riveted and aggravated its domination. To what would these things grow? The question was inevitable and ominous; and, whatever desire might answer, probability, verging on certainty, pointed to the extinction of the Jewish name and nation. What was his joy, then, when an occasion of dismay became a source of solace, when spiritual illumination pointed beyond impending ruin to eventual recovery, and foretold the time when all Israel should be saved. Yet another and more cheering aspect of the case now burst upon his contemplation. The promise, that in Abraham and his seed should all families of the earth be blessed, was apprehended by him in its vastness. His survey, restricted before to the literal Israel, suddenly compassed the world, and embraced in all nations the true Israel of God. (D. King, LL. D.)

The beatific God: the gospel a transcript of the character of God

The only security at any time either for sound doctrine or earnest moral practice is the gospel. The fallacy with which the apostle contended is found operating in every time. Many would apparently make a divorce in their own minds between the moralities of every day life and the gospel--between works and faith. Because man is an intelligent being and must have a clear notion of what he is doing, if he is to act worthy of his nature, his conduct must be regulated by principle, and especially his moral conduct by a clear understanding of Gods will. What, then, is the will of God? It is the system of truth revealed in the Scriptures; in other words, it is orthodoxy. Of course there must be an orthodoxy, or system of right doctrine.

I. God is blessed in Himself, and therefore He has given a gospel to man. The epithet blessed, as applied to God, is one of singular grandeur and felicity. In the highest and richest sense of the word, God is the happy or beatific God. God is blessed in Himself, blessed in the manifestation of Himself, and blessed in the communication to others of His own blessedness.

1. God is blessed in Himself. This is a necessity of His being. To be God is to be infinitely happy; for God is just, good; and to be good is to be blessed. To say that a being is good is to say that he is happy. The purity or holiness of God is one of the fountain-heads of His blessedness. Jesus says, Blessed are the pure in heart. A pure heart is a well-spring of blessedness; it is a bower of fragrance, and an abode of spiritual beauty. It is a bright sky in which the thoughts sing to each other as birds in the sunny air; it is a home of the Holy Ghost. What, then, must be the blessedness of God! He is the holy heart of the universe; the light of light. God is happy because He is perfect. We have never known what it is to be perfect. From first to last in this life we are imperfect, and it is a painful thing to be imperfect. Not only to be so, but to know it--to have the clear consciousness that we carry imperfection within us; to feel that there is a discord at the very centre of our life--that surely is a sharp thorn in the heart. To have come to the vision of an ideal life, which we recognize to be our true and proper life, and love as such, while at the same time we are in bondage to a variety of mean restrictions; this is the cause of unhappiness and unrest. But God is the all-perfect One--harmonious, complete, self-sufficient, and therefore He is the blessed God. God is happy because He is almighty. Our weakness is to us a constant source of pain. We think we should be happy if only we had strength for every emergency, and if the arm could always fully second the will. But we live and die with the sorrowful conviction that, however splendid our projects, our performances are mean. With God, however, there is nothing of this. Above all, God is happy because He is the God of Love. The living essence of the God head has a name, and that name is Love. This is the one supreme joy of the universe; that great affinity, that beautiful spiritual attraction, which draws all souls together in peace and concord, by drawing them unto God. God is love, and therefore He is happy. This is the reason why God might not, and did not keep His blessedness to Himself. Although He was infinitely blessed in Himself in eternity, before angel, or world, or man appeared, He did not remain the sole possessor of this immense, this uncreated felicity. He decreed to unfold the hidden wealth of eternity; to manifest Himself, and to bring forth an image of Himself, in the form of an intelligent and moral being, who should be able to reflect His glory and to share His blessedness. Hence creation; hence the manifested wonders of providence in time; and hence eternal redemption. And so, having looked for a little at the self-possessed, inherent blessedness of God, let us now glance at--

2. God is blessed in the manifestation of Himself. All true work is a pleasure. It is a joy to produce anything. The exercise of power, the facility to act, the creation of a thought, the production of a work of art--each of these manifestations gives pleasure to the person who puts its forth. A child has pleasure in the gradual awakening of its nature, and the first exercise of its faculties. It delights in the discovery and manifestation of its powers, one by one. It delights to be able to walk and to speak. A school-boy, who is a true student, has pleasure first in mastering a problem, and, after that, in exhibiting his mastery over one domain of knowledge after another. A young artizan has pride in the performance of his first piece of independent work, and in earning his first wage. He feels that he is of some worth to the world. In the higher walks of human effort--in the productions of art and literature, the true artist has a pure joy. As the poem, or the picture, or the statue is slowly elaborated, the artist is bringing forth into palpability the fair image that has hitherto dwelt in the ideal world of the soul. There is a blessedness in the manifestation of ones true self. Let these faint analogies remind us of the blessedness of God in the forth putting of His power. He is the Creator, the Supreme Worker, the one Original Producer. He has brought forth the universe. The universe is Gods work. And what a work is that! So vast, so beautiful, so profound! Because God is God it must be a joy to Him to bring forth angels, and worlds, and men; and the proof that God rejoiced in His own creation is to be found in the fact that He Himself blessed it, and called it very good.

3. God is blessed in the communication to others of His own blessedness. He who works a work merely that he may delight himself therewith, even although that work is beautiful and good, has not reached the highest blessedness. This consists in making others blessed. He who lives for himself alone can never know what the highest blessedness is. To seek to shut up happiness in ones own heart is to embitter and destroy it altogether; for selfishness and blessedness can never keep company. Men are unhappy just in proportion as they are selfish; and consequently God is blessed because He is absolutely unselfish. Even in eternity God was not alone in His blessedness; for there are three persons in the adorable Godhead, and from eternity there was fellowship in God, and the high interchange of love. The Gospel was an eternal purpose of God. Yea, how marvellous it is that sin has become the very occasion in connection with which God has revealed the wonders of His grace, and given the highest manifestation of His own happiness and glory. The highest joy of God is the joy of saving souls, It is a blessed thing to communicate happiness to the unfallen, and preserve them in their felicity; but it is more blessed to give joy to the miserable, and open up a way by which the wretched and the impure may return to the very bosom of God. And since these are the tidings; since this is the message of gladness that the gospel brings to every man, how fitly may it be styled the glorious gospel of the blessed God!

II. God has given a glorious gospel to man, and therefore man should bless God. In the verse from which the text is taken the apostle speaks of the gospel as something committed to his trust. Notice here some of the particulars in respect of which the epithet glorious may be applied to the gospel. The gospel is glorious in its own character; in its authorship; in its unfoldings; and in its everlasting issues.

1. It is glorious in its own character. It is the Almighty God proclaiming an amnesty to sinful men. Surely that is a great fact in the history of this universe. What can exceed in glory such a proclamation?

2. The gospel is glorious in its authorship. Everything God has made is glorious in having Him as its author. Throughout the whole of Gods workings, everything speaks of His glory.

3. The gospel is glorious in its unfolding. All the other manifestations of God in creation and providence are but introductory and preparatory to this. Creation is but the scaffolding, and providence but the great stairway leading to the gospel.

4. The gospel is glorious in its eternal issues. It is through it alone that we come into the possession of eternal life. What, then, is our response? It is for us to reflect in some measure this glory. It is for us, in turn, to bless the blessed God. We do so, first of all, by believing the gospel--by listening to this message, and accepting it as the truth of God. Can there be anything more awful than for a human being to reject such a gospel? And yet this can be done--this is done every day. What is worthy of the entire and unreserved homage of our being, if the glorious gospel of the blessed God is not worthy of it?

In conclusion, there are four warnings that come sounding out to us from this text, to which we would do well to take heed.

1. Beware of ignoring the gospel. This is what many are doing at the present time. They quietly and complacently set it aside.

2. Beware of caricaturing the gospel. It is a caricature of the gospel to represent God as sitting merely on a throne of justice, manifesting only the sternness and severity of the law, and insisting on the law being satisfied at whatever price, and with whatever results. But the gospel has been so caricatured. Its enemies have said that it is a wrathful and vindictive system.

3. Beware of undervaluing the gospel. There are some who regard Christianity as a form of natural religion.

4. Beware of finally rejecting the gospel. (F. Ferguson.)

The glorious gospel

The gospel!--the glorious gospel! whence did it come? Its birth-place was the bosom of God. What its end and aim? To save a world of souls. Whence does it rescue? From the fellowship and destinies of hell. Whither does it lead? Back to its birth-place--to heaven--to God. The single inquiry into the reason and propriety of the epithet here bestowed upon the gospel--the glorious gospel. Let this then be our point, to prove that the gospel is a glorious scheme--a glorious gospel. The glorious gospel! What is it to be glorious? Need I define this to you?--need I tell you what it is to be physically, what it is to be morally glorious? Who can need that I define to him the term glorious, as applied to natural things, that has seen the bright orb of heaven shedding abroad his noon-day splendour? Who that has gazed upon the mighty sea, as it careered along, so bold, so free, so wild, gilded but untamed by that bright orbs beams? Or who so lost, I say, not to religion, but to all sense of moral beauty and grandeur, as to see no glory, no dignity, no greatness, in virtue? And the gospel is glorious! Why? It is glorious, I observe--

I. In its author. Think you that even the most presumptuous hope would have whispered, that perhaps the very Being whom he had offended would Himself bear the penalty, that his Judge would perhaps be his Saviour, that grace should flow to him and his race through the blood-shedding of the only begotten Son of God, the Son in the bosom of the Father--God Himself? No; the brain of man devised not the glorious gospel--the heart of man conceived it not!

II. The gospel was glorious in its mediator. Now this notion that such a free pardon, such a remission of the penalty of guilt, would have been a glorious act on Gods part, is derived from human analogy, but so far from being a glorious act, it would have sullied the brightness of Gods glory for ever, for He would have denied Himself, would have appeared before His creation as a Being uttering threatenings which He had no final and real intention of executing. Mercy might have been magnified, but to a woful disparagement of justice and holiness and truth. But Jesus is the Mediator of the new Covenant--He who is so much better than the angels--the Creator and heir of all things--the Beloved Son--the very and eternal God! How glorious a gospel flowing through such a mediation! how great the price of its salvation!

III. The gospel is glorious in its objects and results. It is the gospel of salvation, a gospel of peace, It finds God and man at variance--God offended, man lost. How glorious then the object of the gospel--to reconcile God and man--to offer salvation, not to the Jew only, but to all the world--to utter a cry free as the air we breathe: Ho, every one that thirsteth! But how glorious its results! And these, in all their eternal fulness, who shall tell? But how glorious now!--how glorious Christ Jesus in the heart, the hope of glory!--how glorious to see the Ethiopian change his skin, and the leopard his spots!--to see the blasphemer, the persecutor, and injurious, preach the faith which once he destroyed!--how glorious to hear the savage gaoler cry: What must I do to be saved? But time shall one day be no longer, and shall the gospel glory be entombed in the grave of time? Bather shall its glorious results then truly begin.

IV. The gospel is glorious as contrasted with the law. See, then, the glory of the gospel as a scheme of salvation for man, when contrasted with the law. See the law demanding (and that justly) what man cannot render--hear it, as the penalty of non-fulfilment and disobedience, proceed to call for vengeance, the death of the transgressor. See the gospel not only not refusing to recognize mans need, and frailty, as a lost sinner, but taking man up at this very point, the pinching point of his need, that he is a lost sinner. The very object, then, of the gospel is to vindicate Gods law, and yet save the transgressor of that law, to exhibit a God all-just as a God all-merciful. But the gospel is more glorious yet! for as its only source was the grace of God, as God only gave His only begotten Son up to the death, because He so loved the world, so from first to last is the gospel one of grace, and grace alone. But the gospel is more glorious yet! The law, we saw, had no pardon to bestow, no righteousness to give, still less could it restore the fallen nature, renew the alienated heart, or rectify the perverted and biassed will. It could not purify the springs of action. No law does this. But the Spirit of Christ to sanctify, no less than the righteousness of Christ, and the blood-shedding of Christ to justify, is the gift of the gospel. Such is the gospel--so glorious to God, so glorious to man. (J. C. Miller, M. A.)

The glory of the gospel

I. It is the glorious gospel because it is a system of eternal truth, in which the moral perfections of the Godhead are most transcendently displayed.

1. Now, in reference to this glorious gospel, we say, that in it all the perfections of the Divine nature a strikingly displayed.

2. But in this glorious gospel there is, besides the exhibition of all the perfections of the Godhead, the most striking development of them. For though all the attributes of the Godhead are infinite, yet their manifestation may be varied in an endless diversity of degrees and forms: but in this glorious gospel there is the most striking display of the whole. Is love an attribute of the Divine nature? Is justice an attribute of Divine nature? Where do we see it displayed so effectually as in the glorious gospel of the blessed God? Is wisdom an attribute of the Divine nature? Where have we such a display of it as in the glorious gospel of the blessed God?

3. We must, however, advance a step further: here is the most harmonious exhibition of the perfections of the Godhead.

II. It is the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, because it is admirably adapted to the moral and spiritual necessities of man. Those necessities are vast and varied; but there is no want that it cannot supply, no guilt that it cannot pardon, no depth of misery that it cannot explore.

1. But when we say that this gospel is adapted to man as an ignorant being, I would remind you that it is so, not merely as adapted to convey to him the truth he should understand, but, by a light directed to the understanding and to the heart, first to instruct the judgment, and then to renovate the soul. There is all the difference in the world between mere intellectual and spiritual light; between that knowledge that may he obtained by the unaided efforts of the human mind, and that which is to be acquired by the teaching of the Spirit of God. The one is as different from the other as the mere picture of a country as it is painted on a map is from the country itself, where, with its hills and dales, and rivers, it stretches itself before your view.

2. It is adapted likewise to man as a guilty being.

3. This gospel is still further adapted to man as a polluted being.

4. It is the glorious gospel because it is adapted to man, as a miserable being. Misery and guilt are linked to each other in an unbroken chain; and no man can be the voluntary slave of sin, without, in a proportionate degree, being the victim of wretchedness.

5. This gospel is adapted to man as an immortal being.

6. It is so, in the last place, because it is adapted to man as an impotent being.

III. It is the glorious gospel of the blessed God, because it is designed to achieve ultimately the most important blessings to the world at large.

IV. I must now come to the concluding part of the subject, to deduce such remarks as its nature will suggest. First, I remind you both of the privileges and the obligations with which you are invested who possess this gospel. Secondly, we infer from this subject how pitiable must be the condition of those inhabitants of the earth to whom this gospel has never been sent! (T. Adkins)

The glorious gospel

It seems, as a revelation, so to eclipse every other, that earth with all its wonders grows dim by its side, and the firmament with all its hosts is no longer effulgent with Deity. And this is, we think, what St. Paul in our text designs to assert of the gospel. He speaks as though the carrying that gospel to a land were the furnishing such a revelation of God as must necessarily, even if it did not overcome the unbelief in man, redound immeasurably to the glory of its Author. He will not allow that it could at all depend on the reception which the gospel might meet, whether or not God would be glorified by its publication. Why should it? Suppose that it were to please the Almighty to give some new and striking exhibition of His existence and His majesty to a people that had been indifferent to those previously and uniformly furnished; suppose that on a sudden the vault of heaven were to be spangled with fresh characters, the handwriting of the everliving God, and far outshining in their burning beauty the already magnificent tracery of a thousand constellations; would not God have splendidly shown forth His being and His power--would He not have given such demonstrations of His greatness as must vastly contribute to His own glory, even if the people for whose sake the overspread canopy had been thus gorgeously decked, were to close their eyes against the glittering evidence, or to hearken to infidel philosophers, who should resolve into natural causes, or explain by their boastful astronomy, the mighty phenomenon which announced the immediate agency of the Creator? God is sublimely independent of man; and if He have made a discovery of Himself--His nature--His perfections--He can contemplate that discovery with ineffable complacency, however it may be regarded by His creatures. He does not wait their admiration in order to be assured of its beauty; He does not require their approval, to be confirmed in His delight. We read, that when God rested from the work of this creation, He saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. He surveyed His own work with unspeakable pleasure; He saw and He knew it to be glorious; and if no anthem of lofty gratulation had ascended to His throne from intelligent creatures, He would have reposed, in majestic contentment, on those vast performances, and have felt Himself so praised in His deeds, that neither angels nor men could break the chorus. And why should not we hold the same in regard of the gospel? Why, if this gospel be an incomparably more brilliant and comprehensible revelation of Himself than could have been made by His coming forth from His inaccessible solitude with a fresh retinue of suns and systems--why should not God regard its publication with ineffable complacency, whether men hear, or whether they forbear? Are we to hold it to be in the power of such creatures as ourselves to prevent, by our infidelity, the accruing of any glory to God, from that into which He may be said to have gathered Himself--which is nothing less than a focus, in which all the Divine attributes meet, or from which they diverge, to irradiate the universe? Oh I we are not thus mighty in evil. We may shut our eyes to a manifestation of God, but this is the utmost that we have in our power. We cannot obscure that manifestation; we cannot despoil it of one atom of its beauty; we cannot make it a jot less worthy or expressive of Godhead. And therefore may it well be supposed, that God would regard the ambassadors of His Son--those who with the cross in their hand hastened to publish to the ignorant the tidings of redemption--as more really and more emphatically the revealers of Himself than all those worlds, gorgeously apparelled, with which His creative skill had peopled infinite space. We may well understand, that as these apostles went from shore to shore, making proclamation, wherever they stood, of the mystery of God made manifest in the flesh, they would be viewed by Him whose commission they bore as finer witnesses to the stupendous, and the awful, and the majestic, and the beautiful properties of His nature, than stars as they marched in their brightness, or angels as they moved in their purity. Who, then, can be surprised at the lofty tone which has been assumed by St. Paul, when speaking of the gospel committed to his trust? But now let us go on to speak of the two separate cases, in order to show you, with greater precision, how this character of the gospel holds good in regard equally with those who are saved and of those who are lost. Is the gospel, indeed, ever detrimental to the hearer? and if detrimental, can it still be styled glorious? Yes, the gospel may prove injurious to the hearer, but it cannot prove otherwise than glorious to its Author. You are not to think that the gospel can be a neutral thing, operating neither for good nor for evil. There is a self-propagating power in all kinds of evil; and every resistance to Gods Spirit, operating through the instrumentality of the Word, makes resistance easier, and facilitates for the future the hearing without obeying. So that preaching, where it produces no salutary effect, unavoidably hardens the hearer. But if it be admitted that in various ways men may be actually injured by the gospel, making it the occasion of their own aggravated condemnation, what have we to say to such a result being in any sense or degree glorious to God? But we are to blame in confining our thoughts to the ends in which man has an immediate concern, in place of extending them to those in which God Himself may be personally interested. We forget that God has to make provision for the thorough vindication of all His attributes, when He shall bring the human race into judgment, and allot to the several individuals a portion for eternity. We forget that in all His dealings it must be His own honour to which He has the closest respect, and that this honour may require the appointment and continuance of means of grace, even where those means, in place of effecting conversion, are sure to do nothing but increase condemnation. For the great point, so far as we can judge, which will have to be made out in respect of every man who perishes hereafter, is the inexcusableness of that man--his being nothing less than his own wilful destroyer; and the making out this, in regard of those condemned for neglecting the salvation provided by Christ, will require that it be abundantly proved that this salvation was offered, yea, pressed on their acceptance. Think ye that the minister of Christ has nothing to do but to confirm the righteous in their faith, and rouse the careless to repentance? Indeed it is at these that he is avowedly labouring, but in acting upon man he is acting for God. He may seem to you to labour in vain, just because those to whom he speaks forsake not their iniquities; but it is not in vain. He preaches for the day of judgment; he preaches as an evidence of Gods forbearance, as a witness against the impenitent--an evidence and a witness which shall be called forth and displayed when the trumpet hath sounded, and the Judge is on His throne. And St. Paul knew, and felt this. He knew, and he felt, that when He preached Christ to a people, he was making that people without excuse if they persisted in iniquity, and therefore providing that God should be glorious in dealing with them in vengeance. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

The gospel of the glory of the happy God

Two remarks of an expository character will prepare the way for our consideration of this text. The first is that the proper rendering is that which is given in the Revised Version--the gospel of the glory, not the glorious gospel. The apostle is not telling us what kind of thing the gospel is, but what it is about. He is dealing not with its quality but with its contents. It is a gospel which reveals, has to do with, is the manifestation of, the glory of God. Then the other remark is with reference to the meaning of the word blessed. There are two Greek words which are both translated blessed in the New Testament. One of them, the more common, literally means well spoken of, and points to the action of praise or benediction; describes what a man is when men speak well of him, or what God is when men praise and magnify His name. But the other word, which is used here, and is only applied to God once more in Scripture, has no reference to the human attribution of blessing and praise to Him, but describes Him altogether apart from what men say of Him, as what He is in Himself, the blessed, or, as we might almost say, the happy God.

I. The revelation of God in Jesus Christ is the glory of God. The theme, or contents, or the purpose of the whole gospel, is to set forth and make manifest to men the glory of God. Now what do we mean by the glory? I think, perhaps, that question may be most simply answered by remembering the definite meaning of the word in the Old Testament. There it designates, usually, that supernatural and lustrous light which dwelt between the cherubim, the symbol of the presence and of the self-manifestation of God. So that we may say, in brief, that the glory of God is the sum-total of the light that streams from His self-revelation, considered as being the object of adoration and praise by a world that gazes upon Him. And if this be the notion of the glory of God, is it not a startling contrast which is suggested between the apparent contents and the real substance of that gospel? Suppose a man, for instance, who had no previous knowledge of Christianity, being told that in it he would find the highest revelation of the glory of God. He comes to the Book, and finds that the very heart of it is not about God, but about man; that this revelation of the glory of God is the biography of a man: and more than that, that the larger portion of that biography is the story of the humiliations, and the sufferings, and the death of the man. Would it not strike him as a strange paradox that the history of a mans life was the shining apex of all revelations of the glory of God? And that involves two or three considerations on which I dwell briefly. One of them is this: Christ, then, is the self-revelation of God. If, when we deal with the story of His life and death, we are dealing simply with the biography of a man, however pure, lofty, inspired he may be, then I ask what sort of connection there is between that biography which the four Gospels give us, and what my text says is the substance of the gospel? Brethren! to deliver my text and a hundred other passages of Scripture from the charge of being extravagant nonsense and clear, illogical non sequiturs, you must believe that in the Man Christ Jesus we behold His glory--the glory of the only begotten of the Father. And then, still further, my text suggests that this self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ is the very climax and highest point of all Gods revelations to men. I believe that the law of humanity, for ever, in heaven as on earth, is this, the Son is the Revealer of God; and that no loftier--yea, at bottom, no other communication of the Divine nature can be made to man than is made in Jesus Christ. But be that as it may, let me urge upon you this thought, that in that wondrous story of the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ the very high-water mark of Divine self-communication has been touched and reached. All the energies of the Divine nature are embodied there. The riches, both of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God, are in the Cross and Passion of our Saviour. Or, to put it into other words, and avail oneself of an illustration, we know the old story of the queen who, for the love of an unworthy human heart, dissolved pearls in the cup and gave them to him to drink. We may say that God comes to us, and for the love of us, reprobate and unworthy, has melted all the jewels of His nature into that cup of blessing which He offers, to us, saying: Drink ye all of it. And my text implies, still further, that the true living, flashing centre of the glory of God is the love of God. Christendom is more than half heathen yet, and it betrays its heathenism not least in its vulgar conceptions of the Divine nature and its glory. The majestic attributes which separate God from man, and make Him unlike His creatures, are the ones which people toe often fancy belong to the glorious side of His character. Of power that weak Man hanging on the cross is a strange embodiment; but if we learn that there is something more godlike in God than power, then we can say, as we look upon Jesus Christ: Lo I this is our God. We have waited for Him, and He will save us. Not in the wisdom that knows no growth, not in the knowledge which has no border-land of ignorance ringing it round about, not in the unwearied might of His arm, not in the exhaustless energy of His being, not in the unslumbering watchfulness of His all-seeing eye, not in that awful Presence wheresoever creatures are, not in any or in all of these lies the glory of God, but in His love. These are the fringes of the brightness; this is the central blaze. The gospel is the gospel of the glory of God, because it is all summed up in the one word--God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son.

II. The revelation of God in Christ is the blessedness of God. And so I would say, the philosophers God may be all-sufficient and unemotional, the Bibles God delighteth in mercy, rejoiceth in His gifts, and is glad when men accept them. But there is a great deal more than that here, if not in the word itself, at least in its connection, which connection seems to suggest that howsoever the Divine nature must be supposed to be blessed in its own absolute and boundless perfectness, an element in the blessedness of God Himself arises from His self-communication through the gospel to the world. All love delights in imparting. Why should not Gods? He created a universe because He delights in His works and in having creatures on whom He can lavish Himself. The blessed God is blessed because He is God. But He is blessed too because He is the loving and therefore the giving God.

III. The revelation of God in Christ is good news for us all. It means this: here are we like men shut up in a beleaguered city, hopeless, helpless, with no power to break out or to raise the siege; provisions failing, death certain. Some of you older men and women remember how that was the case in that awful siege of Paris, in the Franco-German War, and what expedients were adopted in order to get some communication from without. And here to us, prisoned, comes, as it did to them, a despatch borne under a Doves wing, and the message is this: God is love; and that you may know that He is, He has sent you His Son who died on the cross, the sacrifice for a worlds sin. Believe it and trust it, and all your transgressions will pass away. Is not that good news? Is it not the good news that you need--the news of a Father, of pardon, of hope, of love, of strength, of heaven? (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The gospel, glad tidings

Show what the gospel of Christ is, by illustrating the description given of it in our text.

1. The gospel of Christ is tidings. This is the most simple and proper conception we can form of it. It is not an abstract truth, it is not a merely speculative proposition, it is not an abstruse system of philosophy or ethics, which reason might have discovered or formed; but it is simply tidings, a message, a report, as the prophet styles it, announcing to us important intelligence, intelligence of a connected succession of facts; of facts which reason could never have discovered; intelligence of what was devised in the counsels of eternity for the redemption of our ruined race, of what has since been done in time to effect it, and of what will be done hereafter for its full completion when time shall be no more. It is true, that, in addition to these tidings, the gospel of Christ contains a system of doctrines, of precepts and of motives; but it is no less true, that all these doctrines, precepts and motives are founded upon the facts, communicated by those tidings in which the gospel essentially consists; and that to their connection with these facts, they owe all their influence and importance. Perfectly agreeable to this representation, is the account given us of the primitive preachers, and their mode of preaching the gospel. They acted like men who felt that they were sent, not so much to dispute and argue, as to proclaim tidings, to bear testimony to facts.

2. The tidings which constitute the gospel of Christ are glad tidings; tidings which are designed and perfectly adapted to excite joy and gladness in all who receive them. That they are so, is abundantly evident from the nature of the intelligence which they communicate. They are tidings of an all-sufficient Saviour for the self-destroyed. And must I prove that these are glad tidings? Does the sun shine? are circles round? is happiness desirable? is pain disagreeable? And is it not equally evident, that the tidings we are describing are glad tidings of great joy. But it may in some cases be necessary to prove even self-evident truths. To the blind it may be necessary to prove that the sun shines. And in a spiritual sense we are blind. We need arguments to convince us, that the Sun of righteousness is a bright and glorious luminary; that the tidings of His rising upon a dark world are joyful tidings. Such arguments it is easy to adduce, arguments sufficient to produce conviction even in the blind. If you wish for such arguments, go and seek them among the heathen, who never heard of the gospel of Christ. See those dark places of the earth, filled not only with the habitations, but with the temples of lust and cruelty. Enter into conversation with the inhabitants of these gloomy regions. Ask them who made the world; they cannot tell. Who created themselves? they know not. Ask them where happiness is to be found, they scarcely know its name. Ask for what purpose they were created, they are at a loss for a reply. They know neither whence they came, nor whither they are to go. View them in the night of affliction. No star of Bethlehem, with mild lustre, cheers or softens its gloom. If this be not sufficient, if you still doubt, go and contemplate the effect which these tidings have produced wherever they have been believed. We judge of the nature of a cause by the effects which it produces, and, therefore, if the reception of the gospel has always occasioned joy and gladness, we may justly infer that it is glad tidings. And has it not done this? What supported our trembling first parents, when sinking under the weight of their makers curse, and contemplating with shuddering horrors the bottomless abyss into which they had plunged themselves and their wretched offspring? What enabled Enoch to walk with God? Here the well-spring of salvation was first opened to the view of mortals; here the waters of life, which now flow broad and deep as a river, first bubbled up in the sandy desert; and thousands now in heaven stooped and drank and live for ever, tasting the joys of heaven on earth. Then pause and say, whether the tidings which excite all this joy are not glad tidings? Have patriarchs and prophets been deceived? Were the apostles and primitive Christians mad? Are the angels of light infatuated or blind? Is the all-wise God in an error? Does He call upon all His creatures to rejoice, when no cause of joy exists? You must either assert this, or acknowledge that the gospel of Christ is glad tidings of great joy.

3. The gospel is not only glad tidings, but glorious glad tidings. That it is so, is asserted in other passages, as well as in our text. St. Paul, contrasting the gospel and the law, with a view to show the superiority of the former, observes that if the ministration of death was glorious, the ministration of the Spirit must be still more glorious; for if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. Glory is the display of excellence, or perfection. That the gospel contains a grand display of the moral excellences and perfections of Jehovah, will be denied by none but the spiritually blind, who are ignorant of its nature. If any doubt respecting the character of the gospel still exists in your minds, it must surely vanish when you recollect that it is--

4. The gospel of God, of the blessed God. What that is not glorious can proceed from the God of glory? What that is not calculated to give joy to all holy beings, can proceed from the God of happiness and peace?

II. consider its human administration. It was committed, says the apostle, to my trust. But why? I answer, the gospel was no more designed to remain locked up in the breast of its author, than the rays of light were intended to remain in the body of the sun. In condescension to our weakness, therefore, God has been pleased to commit the gospel to individuals selected from our ruined race; individuals, who, having experienced its life-giving and beatifying power, are prepared to recommend it to their perishing fellow sinners. Of these individuals, the first to whom it was committed were the apostles; it was committed to them as a proclamation is committed by earthly princes to their heralds, not to be retained, but communicated. (E. Payson.)

The glorious gospel

I. The manifestation which the gospel gives of the glory of God. There are many sources whence we may derive some faint glimpses of the Divine glory. We may see it in the world around us, wherever we cast our eyes. This, then, we take it, is the glory of God; the revelation of His mercy and grace to sinful man. And this revelation is only to be found fully developed in the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Here we see the attributes of Deity brought out with surpassing and undimmed lustre. Do we speak of Deity as the only wise God? We see this attribute also strikingly brought out in the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Wisdom consists in the employment of the best means for the best ends; and although evident traces of this attribute are scattered all around us in the fitness of things to the manifest design contemplated, it is in the gospel alone that we discover the mightiest effort of Divine wisdom.

II. The comprehensiveness of its blessings. In this point of view, also, we shall see significantly brought out the truth of the text, that it is the glorious gospel of the blessed God. The blessings of the gospel are calculated to meet all the wants and longings of man as a pilgrim destined for eternity. Here knowledge is offered, which, while it is worthy of the highest intellect to expend its gifted powers in boundless research, is also adapted to the meanest capacity; here is knowledge far superior to any that the philosophers of Greece ever taught, or the proud sons of Rome ever knew; here is knowledge which can penetrate with its illuminating influences the innermost darkness of the understanding, refine the affections, purify the heart, and regulate the life of man in his upward aspirations for heaven. Do you feel yourselves guilty before God? In the gospel you may learn the way to obtain redemption through the blood of Christ, even the forgiveness of sins. But more than this: the gospel offers the cleansing and renewing influences of the sanctifying spirit. It belongs to the glorious gospel alone to afford substantial and enduring joy.

III. The magnitude of its triumphs. The triumphs of the gospel were soon made manifest, even in the earliest days of Christianity.

IV. The simplicity of its requirements. Now the grand scheme of the gospel presents us with many things inscrutable to our understandings, which things, like the angels, we desire to look into (1Pe_1:12); but what affects us much more than all is, the simplicity of the means by which the most mighty and blessed results are accomplished. In this simplicity of arrangement, so available by all, the glory of the gospel shines conspicuously and pre-eminently forth. Herein we discover the master-wisdom of the great Contriver, and are led to ascribe glory to God in the highest. (W. J. Brock, B. A.)

The happiness of God

I. I will consider what we are to understand by the blessedness or happiness of God, and what are the essential ingredients of it.

1. Perfect knowledge, to understand what it is that constitutes happiness, and to know when one is really possessed of it. For as he is not happy, who is so only in imagination or a dream, without any real foundation in the thing; for he may be pleased with his condition, and yet be far enough from being truly happy: so, on the other hand, he that has all other necessary ingredients of happiness, and only wants this, that he doth not think himself so, cannot be happy.

2. To perfect happiness is likewise required a full power to do whatever conduceth to happiness, and likewise to check and control whatever would be a hindrance and disturbance to it; and therefore no being is as happy as it can be, that is not all-sufficient, and hath not within its power and reach whatever is necessary to a happy condition, and necessary to secure and continue that happiness against all attempts and accidents whatsoever.

3. There is wisdom also required to direct this power, and manage it in such a manner, as it may effectually conduce to this end; and this is very different from mere power abstractedly considered; for one may have all the materials of happiness, and yet want the wisdom and skill to put them so together, as to frame a happy condition out of them; and he is not happy, who doth not thoroughly understand the proper method and means of compassing and securing his own happiness.

4. Another most considerable and essential ingredient of happiness is goodness; without which, as there can be no true majesty and greatness, so neither can there be any felicity or happiness.

5. Perfect happiness doth imply the exercise of all other virtues, which are suitable to so perfect a Being, upon all proper and fitting occasions; that is, that so perfect a Being do nothing that is contrary to or unbecoming His holiness and righteousness, His truth and faithfulness, which are essential to a perfect Being.

6. Perfect happiness implies in it the settled and secure possession of all those excellences and perfections; for if any, of these were liable to fail, or be diminished, so much would be taken off from perfect and complete happiness.

7. In the last place, infinite contentment and satisfaction, pleasure and delight, which is the very essence of happiness.

II. I propose, to show, that this attribute of perfection doth belong to God, and that the divine nature is perfectly blessed and happy; and this is so universal an acknowledgment of natural light, that it would be a very superfluous and impertinent work to trouble you with particular citations of heathen authors to this purpose; nothing being more frequent in them than to call the Deity, the most happy and most perfect Being, and therefore happy, because felicity doth naturally result from perfection. It shall suffice to take notice of these two things out of heathen writers, to my present purpose.

1. That they accounted happiness so essential to the notion of a God, that this was one of the ways which they took to find out what properties were fit to attribute to God, and what not; to consider, what things are consistent with happiness, or inconsistent with it.

2. Whatever differences there were among the philosophers concerning the perfections of the Divine nature, they all agreed in the perfect felicity of it; even Epicurus himself, who so boldly attempted to strip the Divine nature of most of its perfections, by denying that God either made or governed the world; whereby he took away at once His being the first cause and original of all things, and His goodness likewise, and wisdom, and power, and justice, or, at least, made all these useless, by taking away all occasion and opportunity for the exercise of them; yet this man does frequently own, and profess to believe, the happiness of the Divine nature. For thus Lucretius, the great disciple of Epicurus, describes his opinion of the Divine nature:--It is necessary that the Divine nature should be happy, and therefore altogether unconcerned in our affairs; free from all grief and danger, sufficient for itself, and standing in need of nobody, neither pleased with our good actions, nor provoked by our faults. This was c very false notion both of God and happiness, to imagine that the care of the world should be a pain and disturbance to infinite knowledge, and power, and goodness.

III. How far creatures are capable of happiness, and by what ways and means they may be made partakers of it. As we are creatures of a finite power, and limited understandings, and a mutable nature, we do necessarily want many of those perfections, which are the cause and ingredients of a perfect happiness. We are far from being sufficient for our own happiness; we are neither so of ourselves, nor can we make ourselves so by our own power; for neither are we wise enough for our own satisfaction. All the happiness that we are capable of is, by communication from Him, who is the original and fountain of it. So that, though our happiness depend upon another, yet if we be careful to qualify ourselves for it (and God is always ready to assist us by His grace to this purpose), it is really and in effect in our own power; and we are every whir as safe and happy in Gods care and protection of us, as if we were sufficient for ourselves. But to what purpose, may some say, is this long description and discourse of happiness? How are we the wiser and the better for it? I answer, very much, in several respects.

1. This plainly shews us that atheism is a very melancholy and mischievous thing; it would take away the fountain of happiness, and the only perfect pattern of it.

2. If the Divine nature be so infinitely and completely happy, this is a very great confirmation of our faith and hope concerning the happiness of another life, which the Scripture describes to us, by the sight and enjoyment of God. So that the goodness of God is the great foundation of all our hopes, and the firmest ground of our assurance of a blessed immortality.

3. From what hath been said concerning the happiness of the Divine nature, we may learn wherein our happiness must consist; namely, in the image and in the favour of God: in the favour of God, as the cause of our happiness; and in the image of God, as a necessary inward disposition and qualification for it. All men naturally desire happiness, and seek after it, and are, as they think, travelling towards it, but generally they mistake their way. In a word, if ever we would be happy we must be like the blessed God, we must be holy, and merciful, and good, and just, as He is, and then we are secure of His favour; the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, and His countenance will behold the upright. (Archbishop Tillotson.)

The happiness of the eternal mind

The word here translated blessed is the same that occurs in the beautitudes, signifying happy, and is to be distinguished from another word, also translated blessed, but signifying to be blessed or adored. This phrase the happy God stands out in bright contrast with the dark dream of Asia, that there were two gods--one good, one evil--Ormuzd and Ahriman, against which Jewish religion had witnessed from the beginning. The Jewish faith was distinguished from all other ancient beliefs by maintaining the unity and blessedness of the King Eternal, and by asserting the recent origin, the reptile quality, and the final destiny of evil.

I. Let us, then, observe that our own souls, in their profoundest instincts, compel the belief in the happiness of the eternal mind. Our minds revolt at once at the idea of a miserable everlasting cause. We cannot steadily conceive of an everlasting and boundless power otherwise than as resting on its own ocean depths in unfathomable bliss. We cannot even imagine it as suffering eternally, whether from weakness, or weariness, or pain, disappointment, or malignity, or through sympathy with everlasting misery of created beings. The necessity of indestructible being, which supports the eternal life, necessitates its blessed life. The very heathen, as in Homer, always speak and sing of the happy gods. If we are to follow in our thoughts the instincts of our own nature (and we have no other means of thinking of the boundless life), then it is blessed for ever. For life here--its product--in all its orderly states is identical with enjoyment. It is disorder alone which produces misery. Think of the life on this planet, from its lowest to its highest ranges, from the dance of animalculae seen in the magnified drop of water up to the pleasures of the highest races that frequent the atmosphere, the land, the ocean. To breathe the pure air, to drink in the pleasant sunlight, to seek for and enjoy each its proper food, is the law of life, for if their life is short they have no sense of its shortness, and while it lasts it supplies the pleasures of motion, of rest, of vision, of action, and of love. For mankind there opens a new world of delights. Words fall us to describe the heights and depths of human enjoyment. What must that blessed existence be as a life of thought! To us thought is one of the chief and steadiest sources of enjoyment even amidst all our darkness, and deficiency of light, and baffled inquiries, and unsatisfied longings for intelligence. But what must be the delights of that infinite intellect, the energy, the reach, and the force of that Spirit, whence have sprung all the worlds, all the sciences, and all the minds in the universe. What must be that life of inexhaustible power in design, radiant within all the archetypes of beauty in form and colour, the mind in which have dwelt for eternity the patterns of all loveliness in earth and heaven; in which have bloomed the floral splendours of all the worlds; all the lovelinesses of figure, and form, and face, and scenery in earth, and sky, and air, and in the heaven of heavens? What, again, must be that life of creative energy from whose eternal love of life-giving have sprung all the delights of parental and life-giving love through the creation? What ideas can man form of the intrinsic and eternal blessedness of God before and apart from the creation? In that past creationless eternity, the Son, we are told, was in the bosom of the Father; He had a glory with the Father or ever the world was. And in Him were gathered up all the thoughts and purposes of God as to creation, moral government, and redemption (Joh_17:5-24). This gives a ledge of solid ground for one further step upward in our thought. In the past eternity the self-existing wisdom and power revolved the whole infinite future of His manifestation to an everlasting universe, including the redemption of man, the incarnation of the Word; and this eternal counsel of love was the outcome of the holy and loving blessedness of the Sun of spirits. For God is love. He was never alone in eternity.

II. Let this same temper appear in our worship. Let us sing unto the Lord. (E. White.)

The glorious gospel

I. The import of the gospel as here conveyed. You are all doubtless aware that the true meaning of the word gospel is glad tidings, or good news. The gospel tells us of the grace and love of the Father, of the condescension and sacrifice of the Son, and of the mission and influence of the Holy Ghost. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, etc. This is good news for all men, and this is the gospel. We all like to hear glad tidings. The intelligence of the relief of Lucknow and the salvation of our countrywomen and children sent a thrill of joy and gratitude throughout the country--it was good news. But no tidings ever proclaimed to men can equal in sublimity, and joyousness, and importance, the good news of the gospel.

1. The gospel is good tidings to man as a rational and intelligent being. The possession of a thinking soul is the distinction and glory of man, and knowledge is necessary for the welfare of his soul. The desire for knowledge under various modifications is one of the natural desires of the human heart. Nowhere is there such a treasury of the highest knowledge for man as in the gospel of Jesus Christ. On the loftiest and most important themes it yields the surest information--the only information which can fill and satisfy the human soul; throwing the purest light on the pilgrimage of man; unfolding his dignity, his duty, and his danger; dispelling doubts, dissipating darkness, and offering certainty on questions about which men have perplexed themselves in vain.

2. Further, the gospel is good news to man as a moral and sinful being. Man is a moral being, and everywhere gives evidence of the possession of a moral nature. In all countries, amongst all peoples there are moral judgments, distinctions between right and wrong, or between what it believed to be right and wrong. The presence of conscience is universal. It is a sad and solemn truth that man is a sinner, and that he is guilty. But the gospel brings good news to him. It tells him of a Divine provision by which he may be pardoned and saved. It tells him of a sacrifice which has been offered for sin--a sacrifice of boundless value, which has met all the requirements of righteousness, and laid the foundation for mercy. How glorious the news for a guilty soul! And this is not all. Man, as a sinner, is not only guilty, but polluted, more or less, under the power of sin. How shall he be purified from this pollution, rescued from this dominion? The same gospel that tells him of pardon, tells him also of purity. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. And further--

3. It is good news to man as a social and a suffering being. Mans life here is, more or less, in company with others, a pilgrimage of sorrow. He is born to trouble. And perhaps sometimes you are perplexed, and strange thoughts come into your mind, so that you call the proud happy, and the wealthy blessed, and wonder what kind of a Being it is that governs the world with such apparent inequality. Is this world left to chance, or left to the sport of fiends? The gospel comes to our relief, and tells us that an Almighty Father governs all; that He numbers the very hairs of our heads, and that not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without His permission. It tell us that now we are in a state of probation and discipline, and provides the richest consolation, with the assurance that God is too wise to err, and too good to be unkind.

4. The gospel is glad tidings to man as a dying and immortal being--dying, and yet immortal. Yes, both. It is the gospel only,--not philosophy, not reason, not infidelity, not atheism,--but the gospel of Christ alone that can teach us to say and sing, O Death, where is thy sting? O Grave, where is thy victory?

II. The character of the Gospel as here given. It is glorious--the glorious gospel. Few descriptive terms are more commonly used, and yet, perhaps, none more difficult of exact definition than glorious. There are many kinds of glory recognized and spoken of in the world, and many things called glorious. There is regal glory, military glory, political glory, intellectual glory. We speak of a glorious day, a glorious scene, a glorious achievement, a glorious victory. It is expressive of lustre, excellence, and beauty. Glory belongs to God; and that which belongs to Him or comes from Him is alone truly glorious. Nowhere has the word so fitting and true an application as in reference to the gospel of God. It is the expression to us of the supremacy, greatness, and moral excellence and perfection of the Almighty Father, and is especially glorious in two respects: as a revelation, and as a remedy.

1. The gospel is glorious as a revelation. It makes known to us, what we nowhere else can learn, the loftiest truths connected with the character of God, and with our relationship to Him. It is the highest revelation of God, and of His law, of His government, and grace. Nature speaks of Him, and providence speaks of Him, but it is the gospel only that fully unfolds His moral character--reveals His grace. There, too, we see--as nowhere else can be seen--the value of mans soul, the terrible act of sin, the majesty of moral law, and the glory that may yet be ours. By the revelation of such momentous truths, the gospel may well be designated glorious. But it is not only in the truths revealed, but in the manner and mode of the revelation that the gospel is especially glorious. God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. It is not a mere proclamation from heaven, nor a Divine theory, nor a set of holy doctrines, but a revelation of facts--facts the most wonderful and glorious in the worlds history. It is this especially that constitutes the distinction and grandeur of the gospel. Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifested in the flesh. The full and final revelation is in Jesus Christ, in what He was, and what He did. To rest on His love, to trust His righteousness, to look up into His radiant countenance, is to see the glory of the gospel.

2. The gospel is glorious as a remedy. It is a remedy, perfect and sufficient for human care and crime, for sin, and wretchedness, and death. We have seen that something is wrong with humanity; for there is everywhere the consciousness of evil and guilt. The gospel of God meets that which is wrong and sets it right. It is a perfect remedy, never-failing if fairly tried. In its universality, its adaptation and its efficacy, we see its glory. That gospel is, indeed, a glorious remedy for all, good news to the thoughtless, the outcast, the prodigal, the penitent. It contains within itself the test of its truth, its adaptation, and its power. Try it.

III. The design of the Gospel is here inferred. It is the glorious gospel of the blessed God. The word that is rendered blessed, might perhaps be more familiarly rendered happy, for that is its meaning. The good news about Jesus as the Saviour, and the Friend of sinners, is from the blessed, the happy God. God is infinitely happy; nothing can disturb His serenity, or interfere with His enjoyment, or hinder His pleasure. But happiness is eminently diffusive. A cheerful, happy man will soon make his presence felt in any company; if we may so say, he cannot help it; his influence will be from the outgoing of his own nature. Thus the gospel is to us the expression of Gods blessedness, and His provision for the happiness of His sinful creatures. We learn, then, that its design in reference to men is to make them happy--truly, eternally happy. Oh! that they would believe this and turn to the gospel of God as to the fountain and means of solid, durable enjoyment. Happiness, true, abiding happiness, can only be found in the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Would you then be happy, happy in your souls, and in your homes, in your daily toil, and duty, happy even when you have to pass through scenes of sorrow, and when the shades of death fall upon you? Accept the good news of the gospel. No intelligence can affect you, except it is believed. The best earthly tidings will neither sadden nor elevate if you do not credit them. So every man must receive Gods message, and believe the gospel for himself if he would feel its preciousness, and realize its power. (J. Spence, D. D.)

The preeminent glory of the gospel

I had a great affection for Algernon Wells, and I now distinctly call to mind that blended pathos and humour which gave an exquisite charm to his unaffected manly character. He had, like Thomas Aquinas, the gift of tears, and was apt to weep on public occasions when his heart was touched, or his carefully finished plans were interrupted; but he had a fund of humour in conversation, and could pour forth sunny smiles and hearty, healthy laughs, such as I do not think often irradiated and warmed the countenance of the angelic doctor. His death was like his life, full of faith and love and joy; and when his end was drawing nearer than he apprehended, he said to Dr. Burder: My dear friend, if it please God, I hope to be able to preach as I have never yet done. Not that I reproach myself with having concealed or forgotten it. No, but more than ever I would fain speak of it as I have thought and felt here. I would make it the first thing, the pre-eminent. All gathered knowledge, all history, all poetry, all pleasant thoughts and happy things--all that I have, and am, and know, and think, shall range round and illustrate, but be subordinate to this the glorious gospel! The more I think of it in my long and quiet ponderings, the more precious and needful it becomes to me! (J. Stoughton, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The gospel of the glory for the glorious gospel, A,V The gospel of the glory of the blessed God. The phrase, tolion thv doxhv tou makariou Qeou, cannot mean, as in the A.V, "the glorious gospel of the blessed God," except by a very forced construction. It might mean three things:

(1) thv doxhv tou Qeou might be a periphrasis for "God," as Rom_6:4, or Exo_24:16, 17 33:18; Lev_9:6, Lev_9:23; Psa_104:31; 2Co_4:6; or as "the Name of the Lord" (Pro_18:10; Isa_30:27, etc.) and as we say "thee queen"s majesty," the "king"s grace." Or

(2) "the glory of God" might mean Jesus Christ, who is the Brightness of God"s glory, the Image of the invisible God, in whose face the glory of God shines. (2Co_4:4, 2Co_4:6) Or

(3) it might mean the gospel which tells of the glory of God, which reveals and proclaims his glory, the glory of his grace, (Eph_1:6, Eph_1:12) or perhaps here rather the glory of his holiness, which St. Paul"s "sound doctrine" pressed for imitation upon all Christians; (see 1Ti_6:3; 2Co_4:4) The gospel of the glory of Christ." Either the first or last is doubtless the true meaning. The blessed God. This andriov, 1Ti_6:15 are the only passages in the New Testament where maka blessed, is an epithet of God. Elsewhere "blessed" is eujloghtov; as e.g. Mar_14:61; kar 2Co_11:31. In classical Greek ma is the proper epithet of the gods; makarev Qeoi makariov is usually spoken of men or qualities, and especially of the happy dead. It does not appear how or why the apostle here applies makariov to God. Committed to my trust; literally, with which I was entrusted. A thoroughly Pauline statement (comp. Rom_1:1, 5 2:16; Gal_1:11, Gal_1:12; Eph_3:1-8, etc.)

A gospel of glory.

to the glorious gospel." These are the words of a true enthusiasm. St. Paul gloried in the gospel. We may read it, however, as in the Revised Version, "According to the gospel of the glory of God." Either way the glory of it fills the heart of the apostle with intense rapture. No good work is done without enthusiasm. The great Italian artists men like Angelico, Fra Bartolomeo, and Michael Angelo associated heaven with earth in their work, and did it, not for mere pay, but for great ideal results. So also great apostles and reformers, like Paul, Wickliffe, and Luther, were enthusiasts. But all healthy enthusiasm is inspired by reality and truth. Some men have made shipwreck of religion because they lost the compass of the Word of God; and others, dependent on feeling alone, have wandered, being led by the ignis-fatuus of imagination alone.

I PAUL SEES IN HIMSELF WHAT THE GOSPEL CAN DO. "Take me," he says; "I was before a persecutor, and injurious." What could account for such a change as is embodied in the man who from Saul became Paul? No theory of moral dynamics can stand, that suggests he lifted himself into so great a change. Neither could the Hebrew Church of that age, which was coldly ritual, sterile, and barren. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Christ Jesus might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting." No man can be so ardent about a cure as he who has tried a physician; no man admires the great artist so much as he who has tested his own feeble powers. And now "what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son," had done, and done in Paul: he is a proof of the gospel before he becomes a preacher of it.

II PAUL GIVES A NEW SIGNIFICANCE TO THE WORD "GLORY." On his lips glory takes a new meaning. He had seen the glories of the Caesars, who raised their thrones on hecatombs of human lives, and filled their courts with unbounded luxuries and lusts. Surrounded by soldiers and courtesans, their glory was in their shame. He had seen the glories of the architects, sculptors, and artists, at Athens, Corinth, and Rome. But the glory of which he spoke was in a life that gave itself that came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and that on the cross died for the sins of the whole world. It was the glory of goodness, the glory of compassion, the glory of self-sacrifice.

III PAUL REJOICES TO TELL THE GOOD NEWS OF THIS GLORY. It is the glorious gospel, or the glorious "good news" for all men Greek and Jew, barbarian and Scythian, bond and free. How simple a thing it seems news!" and yet it is speech that moves the world! Homer is remembered, when the military heroes of Greece are forgotten. Syncs live longer than thrones. This good news was of a Christ who had died, and risen, and was working then in the hearts of men. Paul lived long enough to plant Churches, and to show that the cross could turn men "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God." He could show them not only the root, but the tree; not only the seed, but the flower. It was good news in relation to man himself to his present history and his everlasting destiny. The gospel had made life desirable, and checked the false euthanasia of Roman suicide; and it had spread a great sky of immortality above men"s heads, so that to live was Christ, and to die was gain. W.M.S.

The nature of God.

the blessed God." Prove that the gospel comes from God, and it must be blessed; for God is blessed in himself. His nature is light, which is always beautiful; and love, which is always beneficent.

I THIS IS A DESCRIPTION OF THE DIVINE NATURE. Not of some of the attributes of that nature, but of the very heart and center of it. Not the Omnipotent, the Omnipresent, the Omniscient; but the Blessed! Look at nature! Study its purity, its harmony, its exquisite adaptations of provision and plenty to the varied wants of all living things, show that God is not a Being of mere power or wisdom, but One whose works are very good, One who wished his creatures to share in his own blessedness.

1. Look at his revelation. Do we want beatitudes? Duty turned to joy? We find the way of peace and rest and joy in obedience to his will.

2. Look at the Christ himself. Blessed within, amid all outward forms of temptation and all endurances of trial. "That my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

3. Look at the cross. Designed to make atonement, to reconcile man to God, and so to renew his image within, and to make man understand that separation from God was the root-cause of all his misery. The gospel is not only a revelation of doctrine; it is an unfolding of the Divine nature, into which we may be changed "from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

II THIS IS THE UNIQUE REVELATION OF THE GOSPEL. False religions give prominence to aspects of power, and merge into dreads. The gospel alone shows that God is Love. And in revealing the blessed nature of God in his Son, it has shown us that evil is misery because it is another nature. Life apart from God is death death to peace, purity, harmony, holiness. Men have in their experience testified to this. All is vanity apart from him. Over all life may be inscribed, "Nihil sine Deo without God." So Christ would lead us to the Father, unite us with the Father, and transform us into the likeness of the Father One who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. W.M.S.

Trustees of the truth.

was committed to my trust." Here Paul speaks of the preacher of this glorious gospel as a trustee. It is not a gospel of merely personal salvation; it is not designed to awaken only moral and spiritual admiration for its teachings; nor for the culture of immortal happiness, so far as we are ourselves alone concerned.

I THE GOSPEL IS OURS IN TRUST. Water is sweet, but others are perishing with thirst. The open sky is beautiful, but others are in prison. Peace is restful, but others are in pain. What do you think in earthly matters of fraudulent or neglectful trustees? You rank them amongst the very worst of men. How ninny sons and daughters of the careful and. the prudent have been ruined through the long years by negligent trustees!

II THE GOSPEL AFFECTS ALL TRUSTEESHIPS. Its spirit is to pervade all that we have and are. Men are coming to see that knowledge, skill, wealth, are not only to be enjoyed for personal gratification, but to be used for the uplifting and bettering of others. These will, and always must be, "our own;" but we are to look also "on the things of others." Do not fence in the park of your life, but act the steward of its beauties and its joys. Rights of possession there are, and yet responsibilities of possession too. Look at Christ.

1. He knew the secret of blessedness, and came to earth to reveal it.

2. He knew the grandeur of human nature, and came to live in it and to restore it.

3. He knew the mastery that evil had over us, and he came to break the fetters.

4. He knew that sin separated us from God, and he came to die, "the just for the unjust, to bring us unto God." Our captains at sea are guardians of life, and bravely do they do their duty. Our soldiers are trustees of a nation"s honor, and never have failed in the great crises of her life. And our great citizen-fellowships are trustees of broad rivers, open commons, and the health and well-being of the poor, and have striven to protect their interests. As Christians we are each and all trustees of the gospel. It is no mere ecclesiastical privilege; for, alas! ecclesiastics have too often been trustees only of their own rights, or the rights of their special Churches. We are all trustees of the glorious gospel of the blessed God, and woe be to any of us who shirk our responsibilities or idly neglect our trust! W.M.S.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1 Timothy

‘THE GOSPEL OF THE GLORY OF THE HAPPY GOD’

1Ti 1:11.

Two remarks of an expository character will prepare the way for our consideration of this text. The first is, that the proper rendering is that which is given in the Revised Version--’the gospel of the glory,’ not the ‘glorious gospel.’ The Apostle is not telling us what kind of thing the Gospel is, but what it is about. He is dealing not with its quality, but with its contents. It is a Gospel which reveals, has to do with, is the manifestation of, the glory of God.

Then the other remark is with reference to the meaning of the word ‘blessed.’ There are two Greek words which are both translated ‘blessed’ in the New Testament. One of them, the more common, literally means ‘well spoken of,’ and points to the action of praise or benediction; describes what a man is when men speak well of him, or what God is when men praise and magnify His name. But the other word, which is used here, and is only applied to God once more in Scripture, has no reference to the human attribution of blessing and praise to Him, but describes Him altogether apart from what men say of Him, as what He is in Himself, the ‘blessed,’ or, as we might almost say, the ‘happy’ God. If the word happy seems too trivial, suggesting ideas of levity, of turbulence, of possible change, then I do not know that we can find any better word than that which is already employed in my text, if only we remember that it means the solemn, calm, restful, perpetual gladness that fills the heart of God.

So much, then, being premised, there are three points that seem to me to come out of this remarkable expression of my text. First, the revelation of God in Christ, of which the Gospel is the record, is the glory of God. Second, that revelation is, in a very profound sense, an element in the blessedness of God. And, lastly, that revelation is the good news for men. Let us look at these three points, then, in succession.

I. Take, first, that striking thought that the revelation of God in Jesus Christ is the glory of God.

The theme, or contents, or purpose of the whole Gospel, is to set forth and make manifest to men the glory of God.

Now what do we mean by ‘the glory’? I think, perhaps, that question may be most simply answered by remembering the definite meaning of the word in the Old Testament. There it designates, usually, that supernatural and lustrous light which dwelt between the Cherubim, the symbol of the presence and of the self-manifestation of God. So that we may say, in brief, that the glory of God is the sum-total of the light that streams from His self-revelation, considered as being the object of adoration and praise by a world that gazes upon Him.

And if this be the notion of the glory of God, is it not a startling contrast which is suggested between the apparent contents and the real substance of that Gospel? Suppose a man, for instance, who had no previous knowledge of Christianity, being told that in it he would find the highest revelation of the glory of God. He comes to the book, and finds that the very heart of it is not about God, but about a man; that this revelation of the glory of God is the biography of a man; and more than that, that the larger portion of that biography is the story of the humiliations, and the sufferings, and the death of the man. Would it not strike him as a strange paradox that the history of a man’s life was the shining apex of all revelations of the glory of God ? And yet so it is, and the Apostle, just because to him the Gospel was the story of the Christ who lived and died, declares that in this story of a human life, patient, meek, limited, despised, rejected, and at last crucified, lies, brighter than all other flashings of the divine light, the very heart of the lustre and palpitating centre and fontal source of all the radiance with which God has flooded the world. The history of Jesus Christ is the glory of God. And that involves two or three considerations on which I dwell briefly.

One of them is this: Christ, then, is the self-revelation of God. If, when we deal with the story of His life and death, we are dealing simply with the biography of a man, however pure, lofty, inspired he may be, then I ask what sort of connection there is between that biography which the four Gospels gives us, and what my text says is the substance of the Gospel? What force of logic is there in the Apostle’s words: ‘God commendeth His love toward us in that whilst we were yet sinners Christ died for us,’ unless there is some altogether different connection between the God who commends His love and the Christ who dies to commend it, than exists between a mere man and God? Brethren! to deliver my text, and a hundred other passages of Scripture, from the charge of being extravagant nonsense, and clear, illogical non sequiturs , you must believe that in that man Christ Jesus ‘we behold His glory--the glory of the only begotten of the Father’; and that when we look--haply not without some touch of tenderness and awed admiration in our hearts--upon His gentleness, we have to say, ‘the patient God’; when we look upon His tears we have to say, ‘the pitying God’; when we look upon His Cross we have to say, ‘the redeeming God’; and gazing upon the Man, to see in Him the manifest divinity. Oh! listen to that voice, ‘He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father,’ and bow before the story of the human life as being the revelation of the indwelling God.

And then, still further, my text suggests that this self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ is the very climax and highest point of all God’s revelations to men. I believe that the loftiest exhibition and conception of the divine character which is possible to us must be made to us in the form of a man. I believe that the law of humanity, for ever, in heaven as on earth, is this, that the Son is the revealer of God; and that no loftier--yea, at bottom, no other--communication of the divine nature can be made to man than is made in Jesus Christ.

But be that as it may, let me urge upon you this thought, that in that wondrous story of the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ the very high-water mark of divine self-communication has been touched and reached. All the energies of the divine nature are embodied there. The ‘riches, both of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God,’ are in the Cross and Passion of our Saviour. ‘To declare at this time His righteousness ‘ Jesus Christ came to die. The Cross is ‘the power of God unto salvation.’ Or, to put it into other words, and avail oneself of an illustration, we know the old story of the queen who, for the love of an unworthy human heart, dissolved pearls in the cup and gave them to him to drink. We may say that God comes to us, and for the love of us, reprobate and unworthy, has melted all the jewels of His nature into that cup of blessing which He offers to us, saying: ‘Drink ye all of it.’ The whole Godhead, so to speak, is smelted down to make that rushing river of molten love which flows from the Cross of Christ into the hearts of men. Here is the highest point of God’s revelation of Himself.

And my text implies, still further, that the true living, flashing centre of the glory of God is the love of God. Christendom is more than half heathen yet, and it betrays its heathenism not least in its vulgar conceptions of the divine nature and its glory. The majestic attributes which separate God from man, and make Him unlike His creatures, are the ones which people too often fancy belong to the glorious side of His character. They draw distinctions between ‘grace’ and ‘glory,’ and think that the latter applies mainly to what I might call the physical and the metaphysical, and less to the moral, attributes of the divine nature. We adore power, and when it is expanded to infinity we think that it is the glory of God. But my text delivers us from all such misconceptions. If we rightly understand it, then we learn this, that the true heart of the glory is tenderness and love. Of power that weak man hanging on the Cross is a strange embodiment; but if we learn that there is something more godlike in God than power, then we can say, as we look upon Jesus Christ: ‘Lo! this is our God. We have waited for Him, and He will save us.’ Not in the wisdom that knows no growth, not in the knowledge which has no border-land of ignorance ringing it round about, not in the unwearied might of His arm, not in the exhaustless energy of His being, not in the unslumbering watchfulness of His all-seeing eye, not in that awful presence wheresoever creatures are; not in any or in all of these lies the glory of God, but in His love. These are the fringes of the brightness; this is the central blaze. The Gospel is the Gospel of the glory of God, because it is all summed up in the one word--’God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.’

II. Now, in the next place, the revelation of God in Christ is an element in the blessedness of God.

We are come here into places where we see but very dimly, and it becomes us to speak very cautiously. Only as we are led by the divine teaching may we affirm at all. But it cannot be unwise to accept in simple literality utterances of Scripture, however they may seem to strike us as strange. And so I would say--the philosopher’s God may be all-sufficient and unemotional, the Bible’s God ‘delighteth in mercy,’ rejoiceth in His gifts, and is glad when men accept them. It is something, surely, amid all the griefs and sorrows of this sorrow-haunted and devil-hunted world, to rise to this lofty region and to feel that there is a living personal joy at the heart of the universe. If we went no further, to me there is infinite beauty and mighty consolation and strength in that one thought--the happy God. He is not, as some ways of representing Him figure Him to be, what the older astronomers thought the sun was, a great cold orb, black and frigid at the heart, though the source and centre of light and warmth to the system. But He Himself is joy, or if we dare not venture on that word, which brings with it earthly associations, and suggests the possibility of alteration--He is the blessed God. And the Psalmist saw deeply into the divine nature, who, not contented with hymning His praise as the possessor of the fountain of life, and the light whereby we see light, exclaimed in an ecstasy of anticipation, ‘Thou makest us to drink of the rivers of Thy pleasures.’

But there is a great deal more than that here, if not in the word itself, at least in its connection, which connection seems to suggest that, howsoever the divine nature must be supposed to be blessed in its own absolute and boundless perfectness, an element in the blessedness of God Himself arises from His self-communication through the Gospel to the world. All love delights in imparting. Why should not God’s? On the lower level of human affection we know that it is so, and on the highest level we may with all reverence venture to say, The quality of that mercy . . . ‘is twice blest,’ and that divine love ‘blesseth Him that gives and them that take.’

He created a universe because He delights in His works, and in having creatures on whom He can lavish Himself. He ‘rests in His love, and rejoices over us with singing’ when we open our hearts to the reception of His light, and learn to know Him as He has declared Himself in His Christ. The blessed God is blessed because He is God. But He is blessed too because He is the loving and, therefore, the giving God.

What a rock-firmness such a thought as this gives to the mercy and the love that He pours out upon us! If they were evoked by our worthiness we might well tremble, but when we know, according to the grand words familiar to many of us, that it is His nature and property to be merciful, and that He is far gladder in giving than we can be in receiving, then we may be sure that His mercy endureth for ever, and that it is the very necessity of His being--and He cannot turn His back upon Himself--to love, to pity, to succour, and to bless.

III. And so, lastly, the revelation of God in Christ is good news for us all.

‘The Gospel of the glory of the blessed God.’ How that word ‘Gospel’ has got tarnished and enfeebled by constant use and unreflective use, so that it slips glibly off my tongue and falls without producing any effect upon your hearts! It needs to be freshened up by considering what really it means. It means this: here are we like men shut up in a beleaguered city, hopeless, helpless, with no power to break out or to raise the siege; provisions failing, death certain. Some of you older men and women remember how that was the case in that awful siege of Paris, in the Franco-German War, and what expedients were adopted in order to get some communication from without. And here to us, prisoned, comes, as it did to them, a despatch borne under a dove’s wing, and the message is this:--God is love; and that you may know that He is, He has sent you His Son who died on the Cross, the sacrifice for a world’s sin. Believe it, and trust it, and all your transgressions will pass away.

My brother, is not that good news? Is it not the good news that you need--the news of a Father, of pardon, of hope, of love, of strength, of purity, of heaven? Does it not meet our fears, our forebodings, our wants at every point? It comes to you. What do you do with it? Do you welcome it eagerly, do you clutch it to your hearts, do you say, ‘This is my Gospel’? Oh! let me beseech you, welcome the message; do not turn away from the word from heaven, which will bring life and blessedness to all your hearts! Some of you have turned away long enough, some of you, perhaps, are fighting with the temptation to do so again even now. Let me press that ancient Gospel upon your acceptance, that Christ the Son of God has died for you, and lives to bless and help you. Take it and live! So shall you find that, ‘as cold water to a thirsty soul,’ so is this best of all news from the far country.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:11 Titus 2:11-14 gives a fuller version of Paul’s idea here.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

1Ti 1:11. Κατὰ, according to) This is construed with sound doctrine, 1Ti 1:10. Paul hereby establishes the authority of his own ‘commandment.’ Those who know the glory of God from the Gospel, vehemently detest all kinds of profligacy. The law is thus established by faith. Or else κατὰ is construed with χρῆται, if a man use it, 1Ti 1:8; although I know not whether it can be said, that we must use the law according to the Gospel; or with πίστεως, from faith, 1Ti 1:5.—τῆς δόξης, of the glory) Glory redounds to the Gospel from the Divine blessedness, and thence there results ‘soundness’ of doctrine.—τοῦ μακαρίου, of the blessed) The same epithet is applied to God, ch. 1Ti 6:15. A peculiar phrase, indicating immortality and supreme happiness, which most powerfully move men to confess the Gospel. The highest pinnacle of praise is blessedness; comp. notes on Chrysostom de Sacerdotio, p. 371. The Blessed blesses: thence He is called the Saviour, 1Ti 1:1.—ὃ ἐπιστεύθην ἐγώ, with which I was entrusted) Tit 1:3. This sets forth the peculiar and extraordinary privilege of Paul, Rom 15:16; Eph 3:8; Col 1:25.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ti_1:11. Κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον κ.τ.λ.] may be joined with ἀντίκειται, so far as the grammar goes; but the thought is against this, since the ὑγιαίν. διδασκ. is simply the doctrine of the gospel, and the whole of the added clause would be very slipshod. There is as little ground for joining it with διδασκαλία, as was done by Theophylact (τῇ ὑγ. διδ., τῇ οὔσῃ κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγ.), and approved by many later expositors. The only right construction is to refer this addition to the whole of the preceding thought (Wiesinger, Plitt, van Oosterzee, Hofmann), so as to bring the thought to a concluding point. Similarly in Rom_2:16, κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγ. is joined with what precedes. The apostle asserts thereby that his doctrine regarding the law is not founded on his own private opinion, but on the gospel entrusted to him. In order to make its authority plainer as a rule of life, he describes it as τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς δόξης τοῦ μακαρίου Θεοῦ (de Wette, Matthies).

The genitive τῆς δόξης is not to be interpreted by the adjective ἔνδοξος, and then joined with τὸ εὐαγγ. (= τὸ εὐαγγ. ἔνδοξον; Luther: according to the glorious gospel), or even with Θεοῦ (Heinrichs: = τοῦ μακαρίου καὶ ἐνδόξου Θεοῦ); the genitive should rather be allowed to retain its special meaning. Ἡ δόξα τοῦ Θεοῦ may be the glory of the Christians, which is given them by God (comp. Rom_5:2. Wegscheider: according to the gladdening doctrine of the salvation which the blessed God imparts to us; Theodoret: εὐαγγ. δόξης τὸ κήρυγμα κέκληκεν, ἐπειδὰν τὴν μέλλουσαν δόξαν ἐπαγγέλλεται τοῖς πιστεύουσι, and Theophylact). It is more natural, however, to understand the expression here, as in 2Co_4:4; 2Co_4:6, Rom_9:23, etc., of the glory dwelling in God, peculiar to Him, revealed to the world in Jesus Christ (Wiesinger). The relation of the genitive τῆς δόξης to τὸ εὐαγγέλιον is not to be taken to mean that the δόξα was declared to be the ground of the gospel (the gospel proceeding from the glory of God); the δόξα is rather contained in the gospel (Wiesinger, van Oosterzee, Plitt), so that it is thereby revealed and communicated to men.

Gods nature is here described more precisely by the adjective μακαρίου, by which still greater emphasis is laid on Gods δόξα, manifesting itself in the gospel in its peculiar power. Though the word is not foreign to the N. T., it is used only here and in 1Ti_6:15 as an attribute of God. It is not improbable that the apostle uses it with some reference to the heretics. If, in 1Ti_1:4, we are to understand by the genealogies, series of aeons emanating from God, he might readily use μακάριος of God in order to mark the divine unity, for holiness excludes all division of nature. Theodore of Mopsuestia thinks that God is here called μακάριος, not only because He has τὸ μακάριον in His nature διὰ τῆς ἀτρεπτότητος, but also because out of His grace He imparts it to us.[59] The words that follow declare that the gospel was entrusted to the apostle: ὃ ἐπιστεύθην ἐγώ (Tit_1:3). Regarding the construction of these words, cf. Buttmann, Gr. Gram. § 121. 7; Winer, p. 244 [E. T. p. 287]. The same construction is found in Rom_3:2; Gal_2:7; 1Th_2:4; 1Co_9:17. It is to be observed that this construction of the verb πιστεύεσθαι, apart from the Pastoral Epistles, occurs only in the epistles of Paul, and only where he speaks of the gospel, or the office given him to hold.[60]

[59] Otto takes the reference otherwise. He refers the word to the heretics, inasmuch as they taught the eternal continuance of the law: The eternal continuance of the law presupposes a godlessness that cannot be amended. And these νομοδιδάσκαλοι teach a blessed God? God is not blessed if He is for ever afflicted with those opposed to Himself, with the ἀνόμοις κ.τ.λ. I teach that God got rid of this opposition by reconciling the world to Himself, and that we have indeed a blessed God. Hofmann refers μακαρίου to this, that the heretics make the law the subject of their instruction in the place where there should only be preached the things by which God has glorified His blessedness. In any case, Paul chose the attribute, because the heresy stood in contradiction to Gods blessedness.

[60] We need not be surprised that here, and somewhat frequently in the Pastoral Epistles, Paul directs attention to himself and his office, if only we reflect that the apostle was fully conscious of his position towards the development of Gods kingdom, and that he was bound, therefore, to vindicate fully the principle of the Christian life which he had enounced.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1Ti 1:11 . κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον , κ . τ . λ ., refers to the whole preceding sentence and is not to be connected with διδασκαλίᾳ . only, which would necessitate τῇ κατὰ , κ . τ . λ . This reading is actually found in [257] ,* [258] , [259] , [260] , Vg., Arm., quae est secundum , etc. Von Soden connects with δικαίῳ νόμος οὐ κεῖται .

[257] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[258] The Latin text of Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[259] The Latin version of Codex Augiensis (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Trinity College, Cambridge, edited by Scrivener in 1859. Its presents the Vulgate text with some modifications.

[260] The Latin text of Codex Boernerianus (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthæi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis ( δ ) of the Gospels.

Inasmuch as unsound teaching had claimed to be a εὐαγγέλιον (Gal 1:6 ), St. Paul finds it necessary to recharge the word with its old force by distinguishing epithets. εὐαγγέλιον had become impoverished by heterodox associations. The gospel with which St. Paul had been entrusted was the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. Cf . “the gospel of the glory of Christ,” 2Co 4:4 . The gospel concerning the glory , etc., which reveals the glory . And this glory, although primarily an attribute of God, is here and elsewhere treated as a blessed state to which those who obey the gospel may attain, and which it is possible to miss (Rom 3:23 ; Rom 5:2 ; Rom 15:7 . See Sanday and Headlam on Rom 3:23 ). The phrase is not, as in A.V., an expansion of “The gospel of God,” Mar 1:14 , etc., “the gospel of which God is the author,” τῆς δόξης being a genitive of quality = glorious . (Compare Rom 8:21 , 2Co 4:6 ; Eph 1:6 ; Eph 1:18 ; Col 1:11 ; Col 1:27 ; Tit 2:13 ).

μακαρίου : Blessed as an epithet of God is only found here and in 1Ti 6:15 , where see note. Grimm compares the μάκαρες θεοί of Homer and Hesiod. But the notion here is much loftier. We may call God blessed , but not happy ; since happiness is only predicated of those whom it is possible to conceive of as unhappy.

ὃ ἐπιστεύθην ἐγώ : This phrase occurs again Tit 1:3 . Cf. Rom 3:2 , 1Co 9:17 , Gal 2:7 , 1Th 2:4 . St. Paul does not here allude to his particular presentation of the gospel, as in Gal 2:7 ; nor is he thinking specially of God’s goodness to him in making him a minister, as in Rom 15:16 , Eph 3:8 , Col 1:25 ; he is merely asserting his consistency, and repudiating the charge of antinomianism which had been brought against him.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He setteth against fond and vain babbling, not only the Law, but the Gospel also, which condemneth not, but greatly commendeth the wholesome doctrine contained in the commandments of God, and therefore he calleth it a glorious Gospel, and the Gospel of the blessed God, the virtue whereof these babblers knew not.

A reason why neither any other Gospel is to be taught than he hath taught in the Church, neither after any other sort, because there is no other Gospel besides that which God committed to him.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 11. According to the glorious Gospel] The sound doctrine mentioned above, which is here called ευαγγελιον της δοξης του μακαριου θεου, the Gospel of the glory of the blessed or happy God-a dispensation which exhibits the glory of all his attributes; and, by saving man in such a way as is consistent with the glory of all the Divine perfections, while it brings peace and good will among men, brings glory to God in the highest. Sin has dishonoured God, and robbed him of his glory; the Gospel provides for the total destruction of sin, even in this world, and thus brings back to God his glory.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11 According to the gospel of glory By calling it “the gospel of glory,” that is, “the glorious gospel,” he sharply rebukes those who labored to degrade the gospel, in which God displays his glory. He expressly says that it hath been intrusted to him, that all may know that there is no other gospel of God than that which he preaches; and consequently, that all the fables which he formerly rebuked are at variance both with the law and with the gospel of God.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(11) According to the glorious gospel.—All that St. Paul had been saying concerning the Law—its true work and its only work—was no mere arbitrary conception of his own; it was simply a repetition of the teaching of the gospel which his Master had intrusted to him, the gospel which taught so clearly that the Law was for the condemnation of sinners—that it was for those alone who do not accept the easy yoke and the light burden of the Lord Jesus.

Of the blessed God.—The whole sentence is more accurately translated, according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. (Comp. 2Co_4:4.) “The glory of the blessed God,” whether as shown in the sufferings of Christ or in the riches of His great mercy, is that which is contained in and revealed by the gospel; in other words, the “contents” of the gospel is the glory and majesty of God. God is called here “blessed,” not only on account of His eternal and changeless perfection, but also on account of His blessed gift of forgiveness, offered to all sinners who accept His gospel of love.

Which was committed to my trust.—This precious deposit, this “trust,” the gospel of the glory of God, was perhaps, in St. Paul’s eyes, his truest title to honour. When we inquire more closely what was exactly meant by “the gospel committed to his trust,” something more definite seems to be required than the general answer that he was a minister of the Church, intrusted with the proclamation of his Master’s blessed message. If this were all, St. Paul’s loved title to honour would have been by no means peculiar to him, but would have been shared by many another in that great company of prophets, teachers, and evangelists of the Church of the first days. St. Paul rather seems to have gloried in some peculiar and most precious trust. Was it not possibly in that Gospel of “Luke,” which some of the most venerated of the fathers tell us St. Paul was accustomed to mention as the Gospel written by him? (Irenæus, Origen, Jerome.) It was, perhaps, this blessed privilege of having been judged worthy to compile, under the direction of the Holy Ghost—or, at all events, largely to furnish materials for—one of the precious records of his adorable Master’s earthly lite and work and suffering which St. Paul loved to tell of as his proudest title to honour.

To his own disciples—as well as to those who disputed his apostolic authority—he would now and again refer to this, the highest of all honours bestowed on him by his Master; but there the boasting of the holy and humble man of God ended. Though the blessed evangelist St. Paul knew his work was for all the ages, the true humility of the noble servant of Jesus appears in the substitution of “Luke” for “St. Paul”—the scribe’s name in place of that of the real author.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. according to the glorious gospel] Rather with R.V. according to the gospel of the glory. How far back does St Paul look in ‘according to the gospel’? Surely through the whole passage since the last winding up at the end of 1Ti_1:3; just as the next passage winds up similarly at 1Ti_1:17. (The marking of the paragraphs in the R.V. throughout will be worth careful notice.) The charge to insist on sound teaching—the end of the charge, a life of love unselfish out of faith unfeigned, instead of a laboured law of mystic perfectionism—the sound teaching of those who (as he had written them word, Eph_4:11) were given them by Christ for the purpose—all this was ‘according to the gospel of the glory of God’: for the chief and surpassing glory of God was seen not in the law but in the person, the life of Jesus Christ.

the blessed God] The epithet seems added from the rush of personal feeling as the sense of the present love and mercy of Christ (never long absent) comes to him strongly in penning the words. It occurs again in 1Ti_6:15 in a similar passage.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

According to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God,.... For no doctrine is sound, but what is agreeable to that: this is a very great encomium of the Gospel. The doctrine preached by the apostles was not only Gospel, or good news, and glad tidings, but the Gospel of God; of which he is the author, and which relates to his glory, the glory of all his perfections; which reveals his purposes, shows his covenant, and exhibits the blessings and promises of it; and is the Gospel of the blessed God, who is blessed in himself, and is the fountain of blessedness to others; and particularly he blesses his chosen ones with spiritual blessings, and which are set forth and declared in the Gospel; for which reason this epithet seems to be given to God here: and it is a glorious one; it discovers the glory of God, of his wisdom, grace, and love in the salvation of men; its doctrines of peace and pardon, righteousness and salvation by Jesus Christ, are glorious ones; and so are its promises, being great and precious, all yea and amen in Christ, absolute, unconditional, unchangeable, and irreversible; its ordinances also are glorious ones, being amiable and pleasant, and not grievous and burdensome to believers; and it is glorious in its effects, being the power of God unto salvation, the means of enlightening the blind, of quickening the dead, of delivering men from bondage and servitude, of turning men from sin and Satan to God, and of refreshing and comforting distressed minds, and of reviving the spirits of drooping saints, of establishing and strengthening them, and nourishing them up to eternal life. The apostle adds,

which was committed to my trust: to distinguish this Gospel from another, from that of the false teachers, which was an inglorious one, and he had nothing to do with; and to show the excellency and worth of it; it being valuable, was deserving of care and keeping, and was a depositum the person intrusted with was faithfully and carefully to keep and preserve.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

11 According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

Ver. 11. Of the blessed God] Blessed in himself, and to be everlastingly blessed of all creatures. Hence he is called, "The blessed," Mar 14:61. And frequently in the Commentaries of the Hebrew Doctors he is set forth by this title, Baruch hu, " he that is blessed."

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

According to the glorious gospel - The gospel is a system of divine revelation. It makes known the will of God. It states what is duty, and accords in its great principles with the law, or is in harmony with it. The law, in principle, forbids all which the gospel forbids, and in publishing the requirements of the gospel, therefore, Paul says that the law really forbade all which was prohibited in the gospel, and was designed to restrain all who would act contrary to that gospel. There is no contradiction between the law and the gospel. They forbid the same things, and in regard to morals and true piety, the clearer revelations of the gospel are but carrying out the principles stated in the law. They who preach the gospel, then, should not be regarded as arrayed against the law, and Paul says that they who preached the gospel aright really stated the true principles of the law. This he evidently intends should bear against the false teachers who professed to explain the law of Moses. He means here that if a man wished to explain the law, the best explanation would be found in that gospel which it was his office to publish; compare Rom 3:31.

Of the blessed God - Revealed by the blessed God - the same God who was the Author of the law.

Which was committed to my trust - Not to him alone, but to him in common with others. He had received it directly from the Lord; 1Co 9:17; notes, Gal 1:1.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Here the apostle specifies the sound doctrine of which he spake; that it is contained in the gospel, the perfect rule of righteousness, which he styles

the glorious gospel of the blessed God, it being a doctrine revealed from heaven, wherein the concurrence and command of the Divine attributes, wisdom, power, mercy, and justice, do most clearly shine to the glory of God, 2Co 4:6; Eph 1:6,12; and he gives the title of

blessed to God, thereby to signify his transcendent goodness, in that, being infinitely happy in the possession of his own excellencies, without any possible advantage and profit from any creature, yet he was pleased to give his Son to be our ransom, and with him grace and glory to us. The apostle adds,

which was committed to my trust, to distinguish it from the false doctrine which seducers published under the name of the gospel.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. This entire charge against the errorists is according to the… gospel. The issue is between the vain jangling and that sound doctrine which is committed to my trust.

Glorious gospel—Literally, gospel of the glory of the blessed God; that is, the blessed announcement of that glory as a heavenly attainment.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

According to the glorious gospel - Which, far from "making void," does effectually "establish, the law."

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Ver. 11. According to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust—not the glorious gospel, taking τῆς δόξης as a qualitative genitive, equivalent to ἔνγοξος (see Winer, Gr. § 34. 6). The gospel of God’s glory is the gospel which peculiarly displays His glory,—unfolds this to the view of men by showing the moral character and perfections of God exhibited as they are nowhere else in the person and the work of Christ. Quite similarly, the apostle speaks in 2Co 4:4 of “the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God;” and elsewhere of “the riches of God’s glory toward the vessels of mercy,” or of the power which He gives them, “according to the riches of His glory” (Rom 9:23; Eph 3:16). By presenting the gospel thus as the manifestation of God’s glory, and the God from whom it comes as the blessed God, the apostle evidently intends to make it known as adequate to all the wants of men’s spiritual natures, and the purposes of their salvation. But while the meaning of the words is thus clear, what precisely is the nature of the connection between them and the preceding context? What does the apostle mean to tell us is according to his gospel? Is it simply the sound doctrine spoken of immediately before? So some have thought (as Theophylact, Bengel); but in that case there must have been required a connecting link with the διδασκαλίᾳ, such as τῇ κατὰ τὸ εὐαγ. (as is done in D; and Theophylact has the gloss, τῇ οὔσῃ τὸ εὐαγ.). But there being no such connecting particle, we are obliged to refer this concluding statement to the whole of the preceding passage; and so the meaning comes to be, that the assertion about the law being made rather for restraining the wicked, than for establishing and perfecting the righteous, is according to the gospel of the grace of God with which the apostle was entrusted.

Patrick Fairbairn — An Exposition of Ezekiel (1851), Jonah (1849), and The Pastoral Epistles (1874) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Note here, 1. The title given to the gospel: it is called the glorious gospel of the blessed God: partly, because the glorious attributes and excellences of God are more resplendent in the gospel, than in the law of God; as also because the gospel brings more honour and glory to God than all the works of creation put together.

Note, 2. He styles God the giver of that gospel, the blessed God; to signify thereby unto us his transcendent mercy and excelling goodness, in that being infinitely happy in the enjoyment of himself and his divine perfections, and incapable of any profit from, or advantage by, his creatures, he was yet pleased to give us his Son, his gospel, his Holy Spirit, to qualify us for, and bring us to, the enjoyment of himself: According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God.

Note, 3. What humble and thankful returns St. Paul makes to Christ for the high honour, the rich and special favour, conferred upon him, in calling him to dispense this glorious gospel, in calling him to it, in enabling him for it, and rendering him faithful and successful in it: I thank Christ Jesus, who enabled me, and counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.

Where note, That all the fidelity, ability, zeal, and courage, which the apostle had exercised in the whole course of his ministry, is attributed and ascribed unto Christ, and not to himself; his faithfulness was not the cause or motive, but effect and fruit, of the grace of God in calling him to the ministry, 1Co 7:25, having obtained mercy to be faithful. Had our Saviour only discovered this faithfulness in him, and not conferred it upon him, there had not been such reason for this affectionate thanksgiving, which here we find from our apostle: I thank Christ who hath enabled me, counting me faithful.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. According to the glorious gospel. The sound doctrine taught in the gospel, which was his trust.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

11. κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγέλιον κ.τ.λ. This seems to be in connexion with the ‘sound doctrine’ of which the Apostle has just spoken; viz. if there be anything else opposed to the sound doctrine, according to the gospel of the glory &c.

τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς δόξης τοῦ μακαρίου θεοῦ. Cp. the expression τὸ εὐαγγέλιον τῆς δόξης τοῦ Χριστοῦ in 2Co 4:4. In both cases δόξης is the genitive of contents; the import or substance of the good tidings preached is ‘the glory of God,’ which is described in Rom 5:2 as the object of the Christian’s hope (cp. also Tit 2:13). δόξα is in these passages used for a glorious revelation of God, as in Act 7:2; and the meaning of the whole phrase is that, according to the Gospel of the glorious revelation vouchsafed in Jesus Christ, justification comes not through the law. The use of the law is negative, to restrain and punish evildoers; but obedience to it has of itself no justifying efficacy. Cp. Rom 3:20.

τοῦ μακαρίου θεοῦ. This and 1Ti 6:15 are the only two passages either in O.T. or N.T. where μακάριος is applied to God. God is not only εὐλογητός, the Object of His creatures’ blessing, but μακάριος, having in Himself the fulness of bliss (cp. Tit 2:13). So in Homer and Hesiod the gods are called μάκαρες θεοί, and the epithet is frequently used by Philo.

ὃ ἐπιστεύθην ἐγώ. This is characteristically Pauline; cp. Rom 3:2; 1Co 9:17; Gal 2:7; 1Th 2:4; Tit 1:3.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. κατὰ τὸ εὐαγγελιον κ.τ.λ.] Constructed with the principal sentence οἴδμεν . . . χρῆται: cf. Rom 2:16.

τῆς δόξης τοῦ μακ. θ.] Possibly a title for Christ. The gospel of Him who is the manifestation of the Divine Glory (cf. Hort on Jas 2:1 and Tit 2:13 note); but the context suggests rather the glory of God as manifested in man, of which all sinners fall short (Rom 3:23), but which gives liberty to the children of God (Rom 8:21), which is the note of a ministry of righteousness and of the Spirit, and into which we are gradually transformed, 2Co 3:7-18, 4:2Co 3:4-6, 2Co 3:1 P 4:14. It is thought of here as a present glory, though its complete realization will come with the Returning Christ, cf. 6:15, 16. καὶ τὰ μέλλοντα αἰνίττεται, Chrys.

τοῦ μακαρίου θεοῦ] Here and 6:15. God as containing all happiness in Himself and bestowing it on men. “Beatus beat” (Bengel); cf. Isa 65:19 “I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people.” The exact title is not found elsewhere, but “the happy gods,” θεοὶ μάκαρες, is frequent from Homer’s time; and the idea of God as independent of men, and containing all happiness in Himself, came through Epicurus (τὸ μακάριον καὶ ἄφθαρτον, ap. Plut., p. 1103 D) and Aristotle (εὐδαίμων ἐστὶ καὶ μακάριος . . . διʼ αὐτὸν αὐτός, de Rep. vii. 1) into Alexandrine Judaism, and is common in Philo (e.g. ὁ θεὸς . . . σωτήρ τε καὶ εὐεργέτης, μακαριότητος καὶ πάσης εὐδαιμονίας ἀναπλέως, de Spec. Legg. i. 209) and Josephus (ὁ θεὸς ἔχει τὰ πάντα, παντελὴς καὶ μακάριος, C. Ap. ii. 22). See other instances in Wetstein and Dibelius.

ὃ ἐπιστεύθην (Cf. κατʼ ἐπιταγήν, 1) ἐγώ: cf. Eph 3:7, Col 1:23, Col 1:25, Tit 1:3. I, your father, whom you have to represent; I, the founder of the church, who have authority to enforce against false teachers (cf. 1Co 4:15 ἐν γὰρ Χρ. Ἰης. διὰ τοῦ εὐαγγ. ἐγὼ ἐγέννησα ὑμᾶς); I, who know the power of the gospel to rescue from sin.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

According to. The connection is with the whole foregoing statement about the law and its application, ver. 9 ff. The writer substantiates what he has just said about the law, by a reference to the gospel. Comp. Rom 2:16.

The glorious gospel of the blessed God (to eujaggelion thv doxhv tou makariou qeou). More correctly, the gospel of the glory, etc. The phrase as a whole has no parallel in N. T. The nearest approach to it is 2Co 4:4. Gospel of God is a Pauline phrase; but makariov blessed is not used of God by Paul, is not used of God by paul, nor elsewhere outside of the pastorals, where it occurs twice, here and ch. 6 15. For blessed is not used of God by Paul, nor elsewhere outside of the Pastorals, where it occurs twice, here and ch. 6 15. For blessed see on Mt 5:3. The appearing of the glory of God in Jesus Christ is the contents of the gospel. Comp. Tit 2:13.

Which was committed to my trust [ο επιστευθην εγω] . Or, with which I was intrusted. Comp Tit 1:3; Rom 3:2; 1Co 9:17; Gal 2:7; 1Th 2:4, The ejgw I emphatically asserts the authority of paul against the " teachers of the law) (ver. 7).

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.