Do I hesitate? Then let me remember that He has called me, and that His commands

are His enablings. Will He call me to an act of service and leave me to my own devices?

Surely not. The very consciousness that we are called of God puts courage into our

hearts and nerves us for the conflict.

Am I intimidated by the awful character of the enemy with whom we have to contend?

Then let me remember that I have been called with an holy calling. The conflict is a

conflict between light and darkness, between Satan and the Lord. If we know anything of

the moral condition of the world at the time that Paul wrote of this "holy calling", it will

be clear that here are two conflicting camps, one standing for truth and all that it

connotes, the other for the lie and its terrible accompaniments. A conflict such as this

demands our utmost, and even this is vain and valueless apart from the grace of God. So

the Apostle reminds us that this holy calling is "not according to our works". This,

however, does not in the least suggest that good works in their scriptural place are not

acceptable. They are the fruit, but they cannot find a place as the source or means of our

salvation or calling.

Before going further, let us confirm, from this same epistle, the importance of good

works when given their rightful place. In II Tim. 2: 15, the injunction rightly to divide

the word of truth is addressed to one who is described as a "workman". In II Tim. 2: 21

the servant of the Lord is likened to a clean vessel, meet for the Master's use, and

"prepared unto every good work". In II Tim. 3: 16 and 17, the Word of God is to be

studied and read, so that by it the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every

"good work". Moreover, in the last chapter, Timothy is exhorted to take up, not the

profession, or office, or calling of an evangelist, but rather the "work" of an evangelist.

If ever there was a worker, Paul was one, and yet, more than any other writer of the

N.T., he emphasizes again and again the grace of God.

Returning now to II Tim. 1: 9, let us examine a little more closely the end of the

verse: "According to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus

before age times." The Apostle looks back to a period before the ages began, and looks

forward to "that day" when Onesiphorus would find mercy of the Lord (II Tim. 1: 18),

and he himself would receive the crown of righteousness (II Tim. 4: 8). It was in view

of "that day" that the Apostle could stand unashamed by the circumstances of his own

immediate time (II Tim. 1: 12). In contrast with "the present age" (literally, "the age that

is now") he puts "that day", and is sustained in all his trials by "the salvation which is in

Christ Jesus with aionion glory" (II Tim. 2: 10).

The A.V. translation of II Tim. 1: 9: "before the world began", while conveying a

sense of great distance back in time, hides from the reader the Apostle's reference to the

ages. The same A.V. translation of the same phrase occurs in Titus 1: 2: "In hope of

eternal life, which God, That cannot lie, promised before the world began." If we insert