Christ Came to Save Repentant Sinners

1 Timothy 1:12-17; It is a continuing marvel to Paul—as it should be to all believers—that Christ saves repentant sinners!

1 Timothy 1:12-17; What hope of salvation would any of us have if Christ had not come? How could we be redeemed, either temporally or spiritually, from the effects of Adam's fall, except it be through the atoning sacrifice of our Lord? How could we become free from the bondage of sin, except by the grace of God and the blood of Christ?

1 Timothy 1:12-17; Truly, without Christ, there would be neither immortality nor eternal life. How glorious it is to know that Christ came to save sinners!

1 Timothy 1:12-17; Repentance] See Commentary II, pp. 108-110.

1 Timothy 1:13; 13. I obtained mercy] "In the gospel sense, mercy consists in our Lord's forebearance, on certain specified conditions, from imposing punishments that, except for his grace and goodness, would be the just reward of man. . .

1 Timothy 1:13; "No cry of thanksgiving and relief seems to come more gratefully from the prophetic voice than the comforting exclamation, 'His mercy endureth for ever!' (1 Chronicles 16:34, 41; 2 Chronicles 5:13; 2 Chronicles 7:3, 6; Ezra 3:11; Psalms 106:1; Psalms 107:1; Psalms 118:1-4; Psalms 136; Jeremiah 33:11.) Certainly his mercy is manifest in all his doings—his creative enterprises and his hand-dealings in all ages with all people. (Psalms 136.)

1 Timothy 1:13; "The atoning sacrifice of our Lord, upon which all things rest, came because of his infinite mercy. (D&C 29:1.) Through his condescension, grace, and mercy he has visited the children of men and given great promises to them. (2 Nephi 4:26; 9:53.)

1 Timothy 1:13; "But mercy is not showered promiscuously upon mankind, except in the general sense that it is manifest in the creation and peopling of the earth and in the granting of immortality to all men as a free gift. Rather, mercy is granted (because of the grace, love, and condescension of God), as it is with all blessings to those who comply with the law upon which its receipt is predicated. (D&C 130:20-21.) That law is the law of righteousness; those who sow righteousness, reap mercy. (Hos. 10:12.) There is no promise of mercy to the wicked; rather, as stated in the Ten Commandments, the Lord promises to show mercy unto thousands of them that love him and keep his commandments. (Exodus 20:6; Daniel 9:4; D&C 70:18.)

1 Timothy 1:13; "The great Sinaitic proclamation, from the Lord's own mouth, announced: 'The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.' (Exodus 34:6-7.)

1 Timothy 1:13; "Mercy is a gift the Lord reserves for his saints and their weaknesses (D&C 38:14; D&C 50:16; D&C 64:4); it is reserved for the meek, they who are the god-fearing and the righteous (D&C 97:2); because of it, they will be remembered in the day of wrath. (D&C 101:9.) Because of mercy men are enabled to repent (D&C 3:10), and when the elders of Israel 'confess their sins with humble hearts,' a merciful God forgives them of those sins. (D&C 61:2.) Indeed, the Lord's people may well ask themselves, 'What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?' (Micah 6:8.)

1 Timothy 1:13; "Justice demands that for every broken law a penalty must be paid, for 'How could there be a law save there was a punishment?' And since all men have sinned, all are in the grasp of justice. Accordingly, all men must pay the penalty for their transgressions unless they can find a supervening power which will wash away their sins and free them from the penalty, unless someone else pays a ransom for them. That ransom is offered to all men in and through the atoning sacrifice of Christ." (Mormon Doctrine, 2nd ed., pp. 483-486.)

1 Timothy 1:15; 15. "For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him. And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance." (D&C 18:11-12.)

1 Timothy 1:16; 16. A pattern to them which should hereafter believe] Christ is of course the perfect Prototype, the great Exemplar, the true Pattern for all men. In a lesser sense all of the prophets, and all of the elders of the kingdom, and all of the saints of God, should be living examples to the world of the truth and divinity of the Lord's great work of salvation. But where among all the prophets and apostles, among all the saints and righteous persons of all the ages, can one find a better pattern, save Jesus only, than Paul? Here is a man who fought the truth, who persecuted the saints, on whose hands was found the blood of martyrs. And yet he repented and became one of the most valiant defenders of the faith of all the ages. And yet he enjoyed the gifts of the Spirit, worked out his salvation, made his calling and election sure, and has gone on to eternal exaltation in the mansions which are prepared. In effect, he is saying to Timothy, and through him to all of us, 'If a blasphemer and perjurer, such as I, can be saved, what stands in your way?'