A Call to Recollection

Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel. Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound. A.V.

Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead, of David’s seed, according to my Gospel; in which Gospel I am suffering hardship, even to chains, as a malefactor; but the Word of God is not enchained.

In the passage last before us the Apostle had at the 2 Tim. ii. close referred to ‘the Lord,’ undoubtedly the Lord 8, 9. Jesus, as the living Interpreter of truth to His alee servant’s heart: — ‘Consider what I say, for the reve is Lord shall give thee intelligence in it all.’ Timothy

was referred for insight and exposition not to the

Church, not to the Apostle, or to the Apostles, but

to the divine Master Himself, present, attentive, cognizant of Timothy’s individual difficulties and

mental needs; able to set truth before him in

precisely the right light, from just the right angle,

and to make it evidence itself to his whole soul.

Let us note the words ere we quite leave them. Important Nowhere does St. Paul more distinctly claim, though ferences. he does so only indirectly, to be an authentic bearer of inspired oracles. For he claims Christ as the one true Interpreter of the very lines he is writing. Then on the other side, nowhere does he more distinctly

8, 9.

‘ Remember.’

Thereis. Need, affirm our living Saviour’s power and will to be precisely this, the true Interpreter of His own Scriptures. May we always bear that assurance reverently and practically in mind as we open our Bibles in His presence.

But now the Apostle turns to this same wonderful Lord for a far other purpose. He points now not to His present care and grace, as He whispers truth into the soul through the Word, but to the everlasting fact, at once historical and spiritual, of His Cross and Resurrection. St. Paul essays to reassure Timothy’s heart for his difficult and dreaded life by one last and highest argument; it is JESUS Curist, crucified and risen; Jesus Christ the Fulfilment of all the promises, for He was born ‘of the seed of David’; Jesus Christ the substance of all the Gospel, as He had sent Paul forth to preach it, ‘Looking off unto’ (Heb. xii. 2) this wonderful Jesus Christ, will not Timothy ‘strengthen himself in His grace’ for whatever shall be Azs cross, in a bright assurance that he too shall have his resurrection?

Take the words up in this connexion, and think them over once again.

‘Remember Jesus Christ.’ What, is there need for such a precept?

‘Remember Thee, and all Thy pains,
And all Thy love to me;

Yes, while a breath, a pulse remains,
I must remember Thee!’

Even so; but it is grace alone that maintains such a remembrance as those sweet lines imply and as

A Call to Recollection

this precept of the dying Apostle contemplates. 2 Tim. ii. Alas, otherwise, amidst the very stress and noise 8, 9

of religious work it is only too possible to forget

Jesus Christ, till the Christian comes altogether to

lose that living basis of faith and spring of love,

the spiritual sight of Hr.

‘Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead.’ The Fact of In other words, keep steadily in view the fact of ere your Lord, as once slain and now for ever risen; risen, a8 the Greek perfect participle implies, with a resurrection not only achieved but, in its glorious issue, in His ‘indissoluble life,’ permanent and present. Here two mighty truths roll themselves into one, and both are full of force for Timothy. First, Jesus Christ was once among ‘the dead.’

He did indeed once ‘suffer. Does His servant shrink from pain, and from the grave? Does he dread the seeming defeat of dissolution? Let him remember that his Lord was once entombed, a lifeless corpse in the long white shroud. Then secondly, does he doubt, in the bewilderment of his burthened soul, about the glory that is to follow? Does the hope of heaven seem to melt into nothing in his grasp as he faces the dread facts of earth? Let him remember that his Lorn, once dead, stands risen beside him, eternally risen — and his Lord for him is Heaven. Here and now, there and then, the Risen One, once buried, is his ‘rock, his portion for ever. Absolutely historical, for He is ‘of the seed of David’ and Heir therefore of all the predicted ‘mercies,’ He is now and for ever, in the secret of His servant’s spirit, the spiritual Reality which F 81

2 Tim. ii, stands radiant amidst all forms of shadowy fear, alike

8, 9.

on this side the dreaded grave and on the other.

Here lies a ‘peace, passing all understanding,’ for St. Paul. He knows that ‘his Gospel’ is this Risen Saviour’s absolute truth. What then matters the Roman dungeon, while that truth, that ‘Word of God,’ once liberated from the Jewish grave, is free for ever? Paul may be sure of a final liberty and victory along with it — and so may Timothy be sure, and so may we.