Skid Marks and Grace

“for by professing it some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you” (1Tim 6:21)

You can tell a lot at an accident scene when you look at the skid marks. What’s left of the car may be still smoking in the ditch, but the burnt rubber left on the road will tell you where the trouble began. That’s why police investigating any wreck will carefully examine and measure when and where the tires made their black marks on the pavement. 

At the very end of his letter to Timothy, Paul looks over the skid marks of another accident scene. It was a terrible crash. No, there wasn’t six chariot pileup on some Philippian freeway. He’s talking about the wreck of the Ephesian church. It all happened when a team of false teachers distracted folks from following Jesus with a lot of pointless discussions they claimed was essential to the faith. The result was tragic. “For by professing it some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you” (v21). 

When you take your eyes off grace, you’re going to leave skid marks.

As Paul wraps up his note, he personally encourages Pastor Tim to “guard the deposit entrusted to you” (1Tim 6:20). The apostle is talking about protecting the purity of the Gospel. When you compare spreading the Good News to reporting, it’s critical to maintain journalistic integrity. This goes for pastors, ministers, Bible teachers, as well as folks like you and me. We must make sure the message of Jesus remains untarnished, untainted, and undiluted. This is Paul’s call to quality assurance. And by guarding it, he doesn’t mean hoarding it. I’m to share it readily and generously.

Just a quick reminder of exactly the key ingredients of the crystal clear Gospel of grace. In an incredible moment of generosity, God created a perfect universe and put us in it. It wasn’t long before we jacked the whole deal up by thinking He was holding out on us. We continually rejected His goodness and repeatedly ignored His loving guidance. 

In order to save us from ourselves and restore creation, God personally got involved. His Son left heaven and went on the greatest search-and-rescue mission in all of history. Jesus lived the perfect life we should have lived. He died the death for our sin and rebellion we should have died. He rose to new life we don’t deserve. Christ restores our broken relationship with God for us. 

We simply trust in what He did for us that we could never do on our own. We follow His leadership as an act of gratitude and worship. I must keep my eyes locked on Jesus who not only starts and ends my rescue. When I’m distracted and start thinking it’s up to me to save myself, I headed for trouble. BIG trouble. When I take my eyes off grace, I’m going to leave skid marks.

Meanwhile back in Paul’s epistle, he stands at the accident scene knows exactly what happened. It all started when some of these spiritual hucksters began making promises they couldn’t keep. He writes how they were “professing it” (v21). “It” being the “irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called ‘knowledge’” (1Tim 6:20). He uses a Greek word (Gr. epaggellomai) to describe what they said that describes someone promising publicly what will occur. The term literally means to “pre (epi-) announce (-announce).” They asserted openly and emphatically how things would go down. You may remember back near the beginning of the letter how Paul these religious con artists had a bad habit of talking about all sorts of goofy stuff “about which they make confident assertions” (1Tim 1:7). 

Check out how writers use this word in the NT. When Judas cooks up the plot to throw Jesus under the bus, religious leaders “were glad and promised (Gr. epaggellomai) to give him money” (Mk 14:11). Despite being well a VERY old man, Abraham put his trust in God’s covenant pledge to give he and Sarah a son because he was “fully convinced that God was able to do what He had promised (Gr. epaggellomai)” (Rom 7:5). In the opening lines of his letter to Titus, Paul tells him how everything hinges “in on the hope of eternal life, which God who never lies, promised (Gr. epaggellomai) before the ages began” (Titus 1:2). A promise is only as good as the one making it. Hint, hint. Trust God’s promises!

You can bet when we take our eyes off Christ, we’ll hear squealing tires very soon. Folks in Ephesus saw it happen with their own eyes. Paul and Tim remember that horrible time false teachers made empty promises and “some have swerved from the faith” (v21). “Swerved” is the Greek verb astocheo, which describes someone who completely misses the target. Picture a distracted driver while texting who veers wildly into your lane and off the road (because we know neither one of us would EVER do something so stupid, right? RIGHT?!?).

Earlier in this letter, Paul reminds Tim how folks who once had a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith, “by swerving (Gr. astocheo) from these, have wandered away into vain discussion” (1Tim 1:5-6). In his followup note, the apostle tells Tim how two false teachers named Hymenaeus and Philetus “swerved (Gr. astocheo) from the truth” by claiming the resurrection of the dead has already happened (2Tim 2:17-18). Pastor Tim is certainly used to seeing skid marks at spiritual accident scenes. 

The man from Tarsus signs off his letter to his spiritual son by writing, “Grace be with you” (v21). No, it’s not “yours truly.” Not “sincerely.” Not “regards.” It’s “grace.” This is no automatically generated signature at the bottom of an email. If you’re familiar with our man Paul, you know God’s amazing grace is a big deal. A VERY big deal. Some folks call it God’s descending, one-way love. Paul Zahl says it’s “love that seeks you out when you have nothing to give in return…Grace is being loved when you are unlovable.” It’s God’s overwhelming and overflowing goodness to each one of us who really deserve a one-way ticket to the far side of hell instead. 

Flip back to the opening lines of this epistle. Paul starts with a prayer for God’s goodness to Tim. “Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord” (1Tim 1:2). And now it ends celebrating His divine generosity to every follower of Jesus in the church. The apostle bookends every letter with grace (Rom 1:1; 16:20; 1Cor 1:3; 16:23; 2Cor 1:11 13:14; Gal 1:1; 6:18; Eph 1:1; 6:24; Phil 1:2; 4:23; Col 1:1; 4:18; 1Tim 1:1; 6:21; 2Tim 1:1; 4:22; Titus 1:4; 3:15; Phm 3, 25). Every. Single. One. See for yourself. I’ll hum the music to Final Jeopardy while you do.

Our journey with Jesus starts with grace. And it ends with grace. Why not open and close every conversation I have with a reminder of God’s undeserved and unmerited favor for you and me? Our relationship with our Heavenly Dad begins and ends with grace. His very act of creating the entire universe out of zilch for us to enjoy is certainly an example of it. It all starts with His grace and ends with His grace.

Paul constantly reminds us of the incredible impact of Jesus’ one-way love on his life. “The grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1Tim 1:12). Remember, the apostle formerly known as Saul was a one-man wrecking crew on a search-and-destroy mission to kill the followers of Christ before our resurrected Savior blindsided him outside of Damascus. From murderer to missionary. From assassin to apostle. Now THAT’S grace!

When it comes to my own salvation, I bring nothing to the table except the sin that makes it absolutely necessary. Or as Paul tells his Ephesian friends, “Saving is all His idea, and all His work. All we do is trust Him enough to let Him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play a major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing!” (Eph 2:8-9 The Message). I absolutely love Tullian Tchividjian’s description. “Grace is unconditional acceptance given to an undeserving person by an unobligated Giver.” And if I don’t keep my eyes on His grace, I’ll swerve and wreck myself too.

There’s something curious about the very last word of the letter: “you” (v21). It’s actually plural. At the very end of this very personal note, Paul’s talking to the entire church. For those of you from the south of the Mason-Dixon line, you can read this as “y’all.” Well, the apostle is originally from southern part of Asia in the city of Tarsus. This is a powerful reminder that while our relationship with Jesus is very personal, it is certainly NOT private. We do it together. In other words, we’re carpooling in our journey with Christ. I’m not traveling solo. If I don’t focus on His grace I could easily end up careening and crashing. Just like that horrible accident in Ephesus. You can still see the skid marks.

God. Never. Lies.

“in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began” (Titus 1:2)

Who’s let you down? Who’s failed to deliver on their promise? Who’s used you to get what they want by selling you a load of fecal matter? Let’s run down the list of the usual suspects. First of all, there are politicians. You can tell when their lying because their lips are moving. Then you’ve got the used car salesman. He’ll tell you what you want to hear so he can put you behind the wheel of that car today. Ever fallen for the sleazy pitch of cable infomercial? If you’re in the market for a pill to melt away your love handles or the secret to flipping houses on somebody else’s dime, operators are standing by! 

But I have some good news. Some VERY good news! When it comes to liars, God is THE Outlier. He’s the one we can always trust to be truthful. In the beginning of his letter to his protege Titus, the Apostle Paul wants him to be absolutely sure of God’s truthfulness, especially when it comes to His promise of everlasting life. “In hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began” (v2). I don’t know about you, but if there’s one thing I don’t want anyone fudging on the truth, it’s eternal life. That would be the ultimate bait and switch. Paul tells us we can relax because our Heavenly Dad isn’t pulling our leg when it comes to our eternity. 

God. Never. Lies.

First let’s back up and get a little context for what’s going on here. God has been using Paul and Titus to tell everyone on the island of Crete about the Good News of Jesus. Through Christ, God has thrown open the doors of His kingdom to every race, culture, language, and socio-economic group. Back in the day, the only way to get an invite to the party was becoming Jewish. Not any more. As a result, the Gospel is absolutely blowing up on this Mediterranean island. God has another assignment for Paul back on the mainland in Nicopolis in what we know today as Greece (Titus 3:12). Since there is still a boatload of work left to do on Crete, he hands the ball to his boy Titus (Titus 1:5). What a great lesson of trusting in Jesus to accomplish what needs to be done through others! For all you workaholics out there, stand down. There’s only one Savior. While He’s graciously invited you and me to be part of His work, He was doing this for a couple of thousand years before we got involved. Paul is totally confident Christ will use Titus to get the ball across the goal line. 

A huge part of this incredible Good News is the mind-blowing benefits package. In Jesus, we have “hope of eternal life” (v2). It’s all part of God’s overflowing love for you and me (Jn 3:16). Everlasting life is available to anyone and everyone who places their trust in the Son of God. Christ did for us what we could never do for ourselves. He was completely obedient to every single command of God. Jesus lived the perfect life I failed to live. He died the death for my disobedience and sin I should have died. He rose to a glorious new and eternal life I don’t deserve. 

First of all, we need to know that eternal life starts NOW!! Don’t believe me? How about Jesus? Well, He said exactly that. “Whoever hears My words and believes Him who sent Me HAS eternal life” (Jn 5:24 emphasis added). Once Christ gets us in His supernatural Kung Fu grip, He won’t let us go (Jn 6:39-40). We can be absolutely sure of this because God has “sealed us with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance” until the day it is fully realized (Eph 1:13-14). So this everlasting and overflowing life isn’t a pie-in-the-sky-sweet-by-and-by sort of deal. Eternal life starts the moment we place our faith in the resurrected Rabbi/Carpenter from Galilee. Eternal life starts right here, right now. 

This “hope of eternal life” (v2) is a game changer and brings with it endurance, patience, and perseverance. I don’t know about you, but life on this side of eternity is incredibly hard a lot of the time. It’s not exactly a skip down the primrose path with my pet unicorn under a Skittle rainbow. But our relationship with Jesus allows us access to His resurrection power to handle everything our fallen world throws our way. As a result, we can share in His sufferings, die with Him and fully experience the resurrection of the dead (Phil 3:10-11). The garbage we face in this fallen world pales in comparison to our glorious eternity with Jesus (Rom 8:18, 25). God promises to guard our eternal inheritance and guarantees it to be “imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you” (1Pet 1:3-5). 

But how can we be sure God isn’t just selling us some heavenly swamp land or an eternal time share? Paul wants us to be sure that He’s our “God, who never lies” (v2). This is no supernatural switcheroo. We can take it to the bank. One of the big ideas throughout the Bible is that God is the source of truth, He can’t do anything but tell the truth. King David praised God because “Your words are true” (2Sam 7:28). Even a slimy prophet for hire named Balaam had to admit, “God is not a man that He should lie” (Num 23:19). The writer of Hebrews goes so far as to say it’s absolutely impossible for God say anything but the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (Heb 6:18). Jesus had the audacity to say He IS the truth (Jn 14:6)! So it’s not surprising when Christ describes the Third Person of the Trinity as “the Spirit of Truth” (Jn 14:17).

God. Never. Lies.

This is going to be a big deal to Titus in wrapping up his mission. You see, Cretans are known liars (Titus 1:12)! The followers of Jesus should stand out from the crowd because we are truth tellers. Remember, He created us in His image and commands us to stop fudging the facts and shading the truth (Ex 20:16). Speak truth. Stop lying. Stop spinning things to make yourself look better. Just so you’ll know, the book of Proverbs promises that liars won’t get away with it in the end (Prov 19:9). Thought you’d like to know.

Our truth telling God wants us to count on this eternal life which was “promised before the ages began” (v2). This wasn’t some idea He cooked up for the New Testament. We’re talking so long ago that God hadn’t even invented time at the time. Over in his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul explodes in praise for all that God has done for us in an incredible run-on sentence of worship. In the original Greek, Ephesians 1:3-14 is actually one incredibly long sentence. In it, the apostle cranks up the Flux Capacitor to let us know how God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world…In love He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ…In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined” (Eph 1:4, 5, 11). Without going into a mind-numbing explanation of Calvinism and election, the best picture here is that God has been loving you and me long before He got around to creating the universe. God actually saved us in an incredible expression of His descending, one way love “which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began” (2Tim 1:9). Think about that for just a second. God loved you and planned to come to your rescue long before Adam and Eve fell for the lies of that satanic snake. 

God’s love for you and me won’t run out. He promises to finish what He started in our lives (Phil 1:6). He promises a spectacular life in His presence for all eternity. And we can take it to the bank. He doesn't have His fingers crossed behind His back. He's not going back out on His pledge. We can trust Him BECAUSE His lips are moving!

God. Never. Lies.