Trust Issues

“which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know Whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me” (2Tim 1:12).

Some people have serious trust issues. Some don’t trust the government. Many don’t trust the media. Others don’t trust their boss. And nobody trusts a politician. You certainly couldn’t blame the Apostle Paul if he had a boatload of trust issues. For Pete’s sake, he’s deep inside the dungeon of the Roman Death Row. He’s all alone except for his old buddy Dr. Luke (2Tim 4:11). 

As the clock ticks down on the final days of his life, Paul writes to his spiritual son Timothy (2Tim 1:2; 4:6-7). Despite all that’s happened, he makes it crystal clear that his faith in God has never been higher and never been stronger. Jesus has called him to take His message to the world, “which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed for I know Whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me” (v12). The apostle remains convinced of God’s goodness. He trusts God and continues trusting in what God can do through him.

(Disclaimer: There’s a TON of awesome stuff here in this short little verse. Paul’s suffering for Christ. The apostle’s total lack of shame for his faith. His absolute certainty that the Lord is coming back for a spectacular encore. But we’re going to set all that aside in order to drill down on what it means to believe in Jesus and what our Lord has entrusted to us. You good with that?)

The apostle’s trust in Jesus is the whole reason he’s in the joint and why he’s suffering. Despite the stigma of being a dead man walking, he’s anything but embarrassed. Paul makes it clear that “I know Whom I have believed” (v12). Not WHAT he has believed. WHOM he has believed. The man from Tarsus doesn’t trust an ideology, philosophy, or religion. He doesn’t put his faith in a political system or financial plan. He trust in a Whom. (By the way, I’ve added a capital “W” to the original ESV translation. I make it a habit to go large on any pronoun about the Person of God.)

That Whom is God. Specifically the Son of God. The Second Person of the Godhead. You may know him better as Jesus Christ. Seventeen hundred years before our Founding Fathers slapped “In God We Trust” on our money, Paul had placed his complete confidence in the who Jesus is and what He has done. While doctrine is important, it doesn’t save. While theology is critical, it doesn’t save. Only Jesus does. Only God does. That’s why Paul trusts in a Person. Jesus.

Whom or what do you trust? Leaning hard on that great career, are you? Are you living vicariously through your children? Counting heavily on your 401k? Maybe you’re going all in on the next election (you HAVE seen who’s running, haven’t you?). There’s a chance you’ve realized there must be more than running the rat race. Remember, if you win that race you’re just the fastest rat on the track. Some of us have turned to religion. But by definition, religion is simply trusting in my own performance in order to earn God’s approval. That’s never going to work for me. My board scores barely got me into community college. If we trust in anything other than Jesus, we have serious trust issues.

Paul tells Tim that with his own death on the doorstep he has no doubt in “Whom I have believed” (v12). He uses the Greek verb pisteuo, which means to trust, place your confidence, rely on, or have faith in someone or something. It comes from the same root word that’s often translated “faith” (Gr. pistos). A cool way to rephrase this might be “Whom I have faithed” (v12) or even “Whom I have totally trusted” (v12). 

There’s also a little sumpin’ sumpin’ going on in the grammar too. The apostle uses the past perfect tense. In biblical Greek, this describes a completed action with ongoing results. Paul leaned hard on Jesus a few years back. It changed his life forever. The completed action of salvation. The ongoing results of becoming more like Christ every single day. Now don’t confuse this with some sort of wonky “once saved, always saved” idea. The apostle stays in a continual attitude of dependance on our Savior. A better way of saying it is “IF saved, always saved.” Completed action. Ongoing results. And when I say “ongoing,” I mean eternally ongoing!

So what does Paul believe about Jesus that makes an eternal difference? First and foremost, the apostle knows he can’t save himself. He spent the first part of his life trying to do just that (Phil 3:4-6). Turns out what he hoped would be his golden ticket of personal performance was nothing more than a big steaming pile of worthless works (Phil 3:7-8). The former Pharisee suddenly realized that God’s Law doesn’t save you any more than an MRI can heal you. All it does it diagnose the problem (Rom 3:20). As Mike Lee says, the law is a mirror. It shows me that my face is filthy but doesn’t have the power to clean me up.

We’re invited to trust in Who Christ is and what He’s done for us. You see, Jesus left the lap of luxury in the heavenly palace and come to our rescue. He made a spectacular dumpster dive into the slime of our sin and did what we could never do for ourselves. He lived the perfectly obedient life to the law we totally fail to live (Mt 5:17). He took the punishment of what should have been our death on a cross that we should have died (2Cor 5:21; 1Pet 2:24). He walked out of the graveyard, rising to a spectacular new life we don’t deserve (Eph 2:5). We believe in what He did that we could never dream of doing for ourselves.

While every follower of Jesus wants a deep and abiding faith, the most important part is in the Object of our trust. There is nothing more trustworthy in the universe than Christ. It’s better to have a weak faith in a strong object than the other way around. You may believe with every fiber of your being that the Detroit Lions are going to win the Super Bowl. But your amazing faith won’t get them the Lombardi Trophy, no matter how strongly you trust it will happen. (Please tell me you don’t REALLY think the Lions will win it all!) Strong faith in a weak object gets you zip, zilch, zero. And if you’re trusting the Lions, believe me, you’ve got serious trust issues. 

While Paul places his trust in Jesus (and NOT the Lions!), Christ is also trusting in the apostle. “I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me” (v12). The apostle knows that it’s a stone cold, lead pipe lock that his Savior has his back until the day He returns. Specifically, Christ handpicked Paul to spread the word about how God was throwing the doors open to His kingdom to Gentiles all over the planet (Acts 9:15). Chances are you’re not Jewish. If that’s the case, you don’t hear the Gospel without the message Jesus entrusted to Paul. 

Paul trusting Jesus seems like a no-brainer. But Jesus trusting Paul? Who saw THAT coming?!? Certainly not Paul. Why would the Son of God entrust His number one enemy, known back in the day as Saul of Tarsus, with such a critical responsibility? First of all, God doesn’t think like we think and He doesn’t work the way we work (Is 55:8). He specializes in making what would appear to be foolish chances with foolish people in order to show off (1Cor 1:27-28). God places His power in cracked human pots so the world will know it’s Him making it happen and not us (2Cor 4:7). Jesus wasn’t trusting in what Paul could do for Him. He was trusting in what He could do in and through Paul! 

So if Christ can take Saul the murderer and transform him into Paul the missionary, what could He do in and through you? He may not be calling you to a worldwide assignment of Gentile evangelism or writing a huge chunk of the NT, but Jesus can use you in a big way. Shine His light and spread His salt everywhere you go. You do that by loving people where they are. At home. At work. In the neighborhood. Have your doubts that He can use you? Feel like a nobody and a nothing? Remember, God began this whole thing by creating everything from nothing (Gen 1). We may be just the person He’s looking for. He’s not trusting in what we can do for Him. He is trusting in what He can do in and through us!