“The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen” (2Tim 4:18).
And the Crowd Goes Wild!
A spectacular performance results in an enormous ovation. Like the packed house at a concert jumping to its feet when the band rocks their encore. Like the standing-room-only crowd at a stadium celebrating a score. The better the show, the longer the cheers.
You might think this would be the last thing a prisoner on Death Row would be writing about. There’s not much to celebrate when you’re in your final days of walking the Green Mile. Prison? Cheers? Ovations? Celebrations? Unless you’re the Apostle Paul.
A Letter from Death Row
It’s late in the year 67 AD. The place is Rome, specifically a nasty dungeon known as the Mamertine Prison. Paul is a condemned man (2Tim 4:6-7). He’s writing one last letter to his spiritual son, a young preacher named Timothy (2Tim 1:2).
While he’s desperate for one last chance to see him (2Tim 4:9, 21), the apostle knows his situation is about to change. Drastically change. Radically change. “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen” (v18).
Busting out of the Joint
Paul knows he’s getting out of the joint soon. Very soon. But not because the emperor will grant him a pardon. Not because a judge will overturn his conviction. Not because of some plot to bust him out of the joint. No, he’s not walking through the prison doors to freedom. He’s walking through the door of death and into the gates of Heaven.
Jesus is coming to his rescue as He’s done so many times before. But this time it’s different. This time it’s permanent. This time it’s paradise. And when Christ carries him home, the apostle is going to cheer like never before. He’s going to celebrate God with the rest of creation.
The applause will be loud and long because the performance has been unmatched. Great big cheers for our great big God. It’s going to be the Eternal Standing O. And nobody deserves it like Jesus.
Double Deliverance
Maybe you’re wondering the reason behind all the raving applause. Specifically, Paul says it’s because “the Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom” (v18). This is double deliverance. Out of evil. Into joy. Talk about going from worst to first!
First of all, the apostle tells Tim how Jesus is the ultimate Lifeguard who “will rescue me” (v18). He uses a Greek verb here (Gr. ρυομαι/ruomai) which means to bring someone out of severe danger, deliver, draw out of desperation.
And the Crowd Goes Wild!
A spectacular performance results in an enormous ovation. Like the packed house at a concert jumping to its feet when the band rocks their encore. Like the standing-room-only crowd at a stadium celebrating a score. The better the show, the longer the cheers.
You might think this would be the last thing a prisoner on Death Row would be writing about. There’s not much to celebrate when you’re in your final days of walking the Green Mile. Prison? Cheers? Ovations? Celebrations? Unless you’re the Apostle Paul.
A Letter from Death Row
It’s late in the year 67 AD. The place is Rome, specifically a nasty dungeon known as the Mamertine Prison. Paul is a condemned man (2Tim 4:6-7). He’s writing one last letter to his spiritual son, a young preacher named Timothy (2Tim 1:2).
While he’s desperate for one last chance to see him (2Tim 4:9, 21), the apostle knows his situation is about to change. Drastically change. Radically change. “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen” (v18).
Busting out of the Joint
Paul knows he’s getting out of the joint soon. Very soon. But not because the emperor will grant him a pardon. Not because a judge will overturn his conviction. Not because of some plot to bust him out of the joint. No, he’s not walking through the prison doors to freedom. He’s walking through the door of death and into the gates of Heaven.
Jesus is coming to his rescue as He’s done so many times before. But this time it’s different. This time it’s permanent. This time it’s paradise. And when Christ carries him home, the apostle is going to cheer like never before. He’s going to celebrate God with the rest of creation.
The applause will be loud and long because the performance has been unmatched. Great big cheers for our great big God. It’s going to be the Eternal Standing O. And nobody deserves it like Jesus.
Double Deliverance
Maybe you’re wondering the reason behind all the raving applause. Specifically, Paul says it’s because “the Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom” (v18). This is double deliverance. Out of evil. Into joy. Talk about going from worst to first!
First of all, the apostle tells Tim how Jesus is the ultimate Lifeguard who “will rescue me” (v18). He uses a Greek verb here (Gr. ρυομαι/ruomai) which means to bring someone out of severe danger, deliver, draw out of desperation.
It actually comes from a root word which describes a fast-moving current, rip tide, or raging river. Picture a lifeguard jumping down out of the tower and sprinting into the surf.
The Gospel according to Baywatch?
Okay, I realize this conjures up images of David Hasselhoff and the Baywatch gang running in slo-mo down the wearing red swimming suits. But seriously, have you ever seen a highly trained lifeguard risk their own life to save someone who’s struggling to survive in the surf? Maybe you’ve been the one they’ve brought back and rescued.
When your lungs are filling with water, a lifeguard doesn’t stand up in his chair and shout swimming instructions to you over a bullhorn. This is no time to learn the backstroke or butterfly. You don’t need an education. You need a rescuer who will get personally involved and come to you!
Jesus to the Rescue
That’s exactly what Jesus has done for Paul, for you, and for me. When we were drowning in the sea of our own sin, He didn’t yell for us to swim harder. Christ jumped up from lap of Heaven’s luxury and dove headlong into the mess we made in order to save us.
We can’t save ourselves. None of us can. Not you. Not me. Not them. We can give it everything to get out of this rip tide of rebellion but it won’t happen. We don’t earn our rescue. We can’t obey our way to safety. The only way we’re going to make it is when our Lord does what He does best. Save. That is, after all, why we call Him our Savior!
The Great Exchange
Our salvation is all part of a crazy swap that some folks refer to as the Great Exchange. In one of his letters to Corinthian Christ followers, Paul talks about how Father God had His sinless Son grab our utter rebellion and give us His absolute obedience (2Cor 5:21).
He does for us what we could never do for ourselves. Christ doesn’t teach us how to swim. He dives in to take our sin. But He doesn’t stop there. Jesus graciously exchanges our badness for His goodness. I told you it was a crazy swap.
But there’s a bit of problem. Too many of us don’t think we need to be saved. We don’t realize we’re being carried away by the current. When Jesus comes to our rescue, we tell Him to leave us alone. We’re fine. We fight against Him like so many drowning victims struggle against the lifeguard. Relax. He’s got you.
Dirty Deeds
Paul points out that he’s counting our Savior to pull his sorry carcass out of danger from “every evil deed” (v18). Not just some evil deeds. We’re talking all of them. Every. Single. One. If you’ve been following the apostle’s current situation, that would include anything thrown at him by guys like Alexander who’s been a real pain (2Tim 4:14).
When we serve the Lord and start spreading His message, we’re going to face opposition. Moments before He’s betrayed and murdered, Jesus warns His team how they can expect to be hated since the world hates Him (Jn 15:18-20).
The Gospel according to Baywatch?
Okay, I realize this conjures up images of David Hasselhoff and the Baywatch gang running in slo-mo down the wearing red swimming suits. But seriously, have you ever seen a highly trained lifeguard risk their own life to save someone who’s struggling to survive in the surf? Maybe you’ve been the one they’ve brought back and rescued.
When your lungs are filling with water, a lifeguard doesn’t stand up in his chair and shout swimming instructions to you over a bullhorn. This is no time to learn the backstroke or butterfly. You don’t need an education. You need a rescuer who will get personally involved and come to you!
Jesus to the Rescue
That’s exactly what Jesus has done for Paul, for you, and for me. When we were drowning in the sea of our own sin, He didn’t yell for us to swim harder. Christ jumped up from lap of Heaven’s luxury and dove headlong into the mess we made in order to save us.
We can’t save ourselves. None of us can. Not you. Not me. Not them. We can give it everything to get out of this rip tide of rebellion but it won’t happen. We don’t earn our rescue. We can’t obey our way to safety. The only way we’re going to make it is when our Lord does what He does best. Save. That is, after all, why we call Him our Savior!
The Great Exchange
Our salvation is all part of a crazy swap that some folks refer to as the Great Exchange. In one of his letters to Corinthian Christ followers, Paul talks about how Father God had His sinless Son grab our utter rebellion and give us His absolute obedience (2Cor 5:21).
He does for us what we could never do for ourselves. Christ doesn’t teach us how to swim. He dives in to take our sin. But He doesn’t stop there. Jesus graciously exchanges our badness for His goodness. I told you it was a crazy swap.
But there’s a bit of problem. Too many of us don’t think we need to be saved. We don’t realize we’re being carried away by the current. When Jesus comes to our rescue, we tell Him to leave us alone. We’re fine. We fight against Him like so many drowning victims struggle against the lifeguard. Relax. He’s got you.
Dirty Deeds
Paul points out that he’s counting our Savior to pull his sorry carcass out of danger from “every evil deed” (v18). Not just some evil deeds. We’re talking all of them. Every. Single. One. If you’ve been following the apostle’s current situation, that would include anything thrown at him by guys like Alexander who’s been a real pain (2Tim 4:14).
When we serve the Lord and start spreading His message, we’re going to face opposition. Moments before He’s betrayed and murdered, Jesus warns His team how they can expect to be hated since the world hates Him (Jn 15:18-20).
Christ also tips us off to our supernatural enemy known as Satan. The devil is out to steal, kill, and destroy anything and everything that has to do with God’s kingdom and Jesus’ followers (Jn 10:10).
Self-Inflicted Wounds
But there’s a massive pile of “evil deeds” (v18) from which the Lord saves us as well. Those self-inflicted wounds. Those dirty deeds I’ve done to myself. Paul tells believers in Rome of his own struggle with sin after Jesus saved him (Rom 7:14-20). He desperately wants to do the right thing but all too often he is his own worst enemy.
Been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt. Taken the t-shirt to Goodwill. Too often my biggest enemy is the goofball looking back at me in the morning mirror. As if I don’t have enough problems dealing with a culture which opposes Christ and the devil, I’m also in a cage fight with my own flesh.
The apostle reassures Tim that Jesus will eventually rescue us from all of them. Sound familiar? Paul seems to echo the words of Christ when He coaches up His crew on prayer. The Lord closes His model prayer by saying, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver (Gr. ρυομαι/ruomai) us from evil” (Mt 6:13).
From the Outhouse to the Penthouse
The man from Tarsus goes on to say that the Lord won’t just pull him out of trouble and leave him there. Picture an accident scene on the shoulder of a busy interstate. A good samaritan pulls an unconscious person out of a burning car. But instead of calling 9-1-1 and waiting for an ambulance, the dude drives away, leaving the victim in his rearview mirror.
Paul knows our Savior won’t just save his eternal bacon but promises to “bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom” (v18). This is double deliverance we talked about earlier. From the outhouse of evil. To the penthouse of paradise. Just like we can’t imagine what the Son of God left to come to our rescue, there’s no way we can wrap our minds around what it will be like to spend eternity with Him.
Draw Us out to Draw Us in
The phrase in the ESV “bring me safely” is actually one single word in the original language. And it’s a very familiar word: σωζω/sozo. The writers of the NT drop this little jewel a grand total of 118 times. So yeah, it’s kind of a big deal.
This is the word we normally translate as “save,” as in Jesus “will save (Gr. σωζω/sozo) His people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). It’s Peter’s cry for help when his own attempt at water walking doesn’t go so well. “Lord, save (Gr. σωζω/sozo) me!” (Mt 14:30). There goes Jesus being a lifeguard again!
Christ pulls us out of our own sin in order to pull us close to Himself. As Matt Chandler says, He draws us out in order to draw us in. That’s because Jesus wants to give us Himself. Forget all the other bennies you’ve heard about Heaven. Gates made of massive pearls. Golden pavement. Crystal rivers. The most awesome thing about eternity is God. Being with Him is THE Blessing! Nothing else comes close.
Death as the Doorway
So instead of freaking out about his certain execution date, Paul explodes in praise to his Savior! “To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen” (v18). The closer he gets to it, the more he realizes his death is simply a doorway to eternity with the Son of God. It’s that same thought that’s behind the tough he mentions to his Philippian friends. “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21).
Because of who Jesus is, all He’s done and all He’s going to do, Paul says the resurrected Rabbi/Carpenter deserves an unlimited ovation. When we give God glory He so rightly deserves, we do everything we can to make Him famous. We raise up His name higher than any other. We shine the light on His righteous rep. We use our lives as a magnifying glass so that others can get a good look at the Lord.
Glory Words
We celebrate our Savior “forever and ever” (v18). The apostle actually repeats the same word (Gr. αιων/aion). You can easily translate this as “eternity and eternity.” In other words, we’re to join the unending, everlasting cheers for Jesus. It’s been going on longer than anyone can remember. And it’s not stopping anytime soon. This is the Eternal Standing O that only Jesus deserves.
Paul busts loose with this little ditty which theologians like to call a doxology. That’s a two-dollar word that simply means “glory words.” You bump into doxologies all throughout the Bible. Sudden explosions of praise which detonate whenever one of the writers of Scripture can no longer contain themselves when considering who God is and what He has done.
They’re littered all over the Old Testament (Ex 15:18; 1Chr 29:10-13; Ps 41:13; 72:18-19; 89:52; 106:48; 146:10; 150:1-6; Is 6:3). The words of glory keep on keeping on when you flip over to the New Testament. In the Gospels (Mt 21:9; Mk 11:9-10; Lk 2:14; 19:38). In the letters (Heb 13:20-21; 1Pet 4:11; 2Pet 3:18; Rev 4:8-11; 5:9-14; 7:12; 19:1). The apostle is personally responsible for this and four more (Rom 11:36; 16:25-27; Eph 3:20-21; Phil 4:20; 1Tim 1:17).
Never Stop Never Stopping
Long before Andy Samberg’s mockumentary, the inspired biblical writers were all about never stop never stopping when it comes to giving God the glory. It’s the never-ending applause for the only One who really rates. It’s the everlasting cheers for the only One who is truly entitled. It’s the Eternal Standing O that only Jesus deserves.
It’s amazing what happens when I get my eyes off my pathetic little pity party and look up to my awesome Savior. Can we be honest? Whatever you and I are facing probably finishes a distant second to Paul’s situation as he writes this letter.
If he can spontaneously combust in worship of Jesus while walking the Green Mile, what’s stopping you and me?
©2017 Jay Jennings
Self-Inflicted Wounds
But there’s a massive pile of “evil deeds” (v18) from which the Lord saves us as well. Those self-inflicted wounds. Those dirty deeds I’ve done to myself. Paul tells believers in Rome of his own struggle with sin after Jesus saved him (Rom 7:14-20). He desperately wants to do the right thing but all too often he is his own worst enemy.
Been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt. Taken the t-shirt to Goodwill. Too often my biggest enemy is the goofball looking back at me in the morning mirror. As if I don’t have enough problems dealing with a culture which opposes Christ and the devil, I’m also in a cage fight with my own flesh.
The apostle reassures Tim that Jesus will eventually rescue us from all of them. Sound familiar? Paul seems to echo the words of Christ when He coaches up His crew on prayer. The Lord closes His model prayer by saying, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver (Gr. ρυομαι/ruomai) us from evil” (Mt 6:13).
From the Outhouse to the Penthouse
The man from Tarsus goes on to say that the Lord won’t just pull him out of trouble and leave him there. Picture an accident scene on the shoulder of a busy interstate. A good samaritan pulls an unconscious person out of a burning car. But instead of calling 9-1-1 and waiting for an ambulance, the dude drives away, leaving the victim in his rearview mirror.
Paul knows our Savior won’t just save his eternal bacon but promises to “bring me safely into His heavenly kingdom” (v18). This is double deliverance we talked about earlier. From the outhouse of evil. To the penthouse of paradise. Just like we can’t imagine what the Son of God left to come to our rescue, there’s no way we can wrap our minds around what it will be like to spend eternity with Him.
Draw Us out to Draw Us in
The phrase in the ESV “bring me safely” is actually one single word in the original language. And it’s a very familiar word: σωζω/sozo. The writers of the NT drop this little jewel a grand total of 118 times. So yeah, it’s kind of a big deal.
This is the word we normally translate as “save,” as in Jesus “will save (Gr. σωζω/sozo) His people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). It’s Peter’s cry for help when his own attempt at water walking doesn’t go so well. “Lord, save (Gr. σωζω/sozo) me!” (Mt 14:30). There goes Jesus being a lifeguard again!
Christ pulls us out of our own sin in order to pull us close to Himself. As Matt Chandler says, He draws us out in order to draw us in. That’s because Jesus wants to give us Himself. Forget all the other bennies you’ve heard about Heaven. Gates made of massive pearls. Golden pavement. Crystal rivers. The most awesome thing about eternity is God. Being with Him is THE Blessing! Nothing else comes close.
Death as the Doorway
So instead of freaking out about his certain execution date, Paul explodes in praise to his Savior! “To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen” (v18). The closer he gets to it, the more he realizes his death is simply a doorway to eternity with the Son of God. It’s that same thought that’s behind the tough he mentions to his Philippian friends. “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21).
Because of who Jesus is, all He’s done and all He’s going to do, Paul says the resurrected Rabbi/Carpenter deserves an unlimited ovation. When we give God glory He so rightly deserves, we do everything we can to make Him famous. We raise up His name higher than any other. We shine the light on His righteous rep. We use our lives as a magnifying glass so that others can get a good look at the Lord.
Glory Words
We celebrate our Savior “forever and ever” (v18). The apostle actually repeats the same word (Gr. αιων/aion). You can easily translate this as “eternity and eternity.” In other words, we’re to join the unending, everlasting cheers for Jesus. It’s been going on longer than anyone can remember. And it’s not stopping anytime soon. This is the Eternal Standing O that only Jesus deserves.
Paul busts loose with this little ditty which theologians like to call a doxology. That’s a two-dollar word that simply means “glory words.” You bump into doxologies all throughout the Bible. Sudden explosions of praise which detonate whenever one of the writers of Scripture can no longer contain themselves when considering who God is and what He has done.
They’re littered all over the Old Testament (Ex 15:18; 1Chr 29:10-13; Ps 41:13; 72:18-19; 89:52; 106:48; 146:10; 150:1-6; Is 6:3). The words of glory keep on keeping on when you flip over to the New Testament. In the Gospels (Mt 21:9; Mk 11:9-10; Lk 2:14; 19:38). In the letters (Heb 13:20-21; 1Pet 4:11; 2Pet 3:18; Rev 4:8-11; 5:9-14; 7:12; 19:1). The apostle is personally responsible for this and four more (Rom 11:36; 16:25-27; Eph 3:20-21; Phil 4:20; 1Tim 1:17).
Never Stop Never Stopping
Long before Andy Samberg’s mockumentary, the inspired biblical writers were all about never stop never stopping when it comes to giving God the glory. It’s the never-ending applause for the only One who really rates. It’s the everlasting cheers for the only One who is truly entitled. It’s the Eternal Standing O that only Jesus deserves.
It’s amazing what happens when I get my eyes off my pathetic little pity party and look up to my awesome Savior. Can we be honest? Whatever you and I are facing probably finishes a distant second to Paul’s situation as he writes this letter.
If he can spontaneously combust in worship of Jesus while walking the Green Mile, what’s stopping you and me?
©2017 Jay Jennings
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