Our Remarkable Salvation

I have heard a great many salvation testimonies in my lifetime—the stories people tell about how they came to realize their need for forgiveness from God and why they embraced the gospel and began to follow Christ. Many of these stories are typical of children growing up in homes where the gospel is taught. The believer made a profession of faith while very young, then either continued to grow steadily or went through a season of moral crisis later on, affirming or reaffirming her faith afterward. People tend to think of this kind of testimony as “unremarkable.” By comparison, a “remarkable” testimony contains a dramatic story of God’s redemption, often recounting the believer’s former ignorance of the gospel or his fierce opposition to it.

The testimony of the apostle Paul is the earliest on record of this remarkable sort. When writing to Timothy, Paul breaks into thanksgiving for the Lord’s salvation of him personally:

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, ¹³ though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, ¹⁴ and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. ¹⁶ But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. ¹⁷ To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen (1 Tim 1:12–17).

This testimony doesn’t do justice to the drama of Paul’s conversion—the bright light, the voice of the risen Jesus, Paul’s blindness and healing, his commission and preaching in Damascus, the plot to kill him, and his harrowing escape. Luke narrates this testimony in several chapters in Acts (see chapters 9, 22, and 26). But Paul’s burst of thanksgiving is not a biographical reflection on the Lord’s work in his life as much as it is a theological reflection.

As a theological reflection, there are many reasons Paul has to thank God for his salvation. A few of them, however, are truly striking, because they show that Paul’s “remarkable” testimony is remarkable for the same reason every believer’s is: not because of what Paul did, but because of what Jesus did.

Paul writes, “Christ Jesus our Lord … judged me faithful, appointing me to his service” (v. 12). The verb judged is an accounting term—often translated reckon—meaning to count, consider, deem, or regard something as true. From the Greek text, the phrase can literally be read, “He reckoned me faithful, having placed me into the ministry.” Yet Paul began his Christian ministry almost immediately after his conversion. So, he cannot mean, “God watched my long record of service and eventually decided I had proved myself faithful.” It’s rather quite the opposite. Paul is saying that Christ reckoned faithfulness to him and on that basis appointed him to ministry. Because our virtues—even our faithfulness—are matters of God’s grace. Paul was grateful for his ministry precisely because the faithfulness the Lord required was the very faithfulness the Lord supplied. In the words of Augustine, the Lord crowns his own gifts.

There is another theological reason Paul praises the Lord for his conversion. Christ reckoned faithfulness to Paul and called him into ministry even though he had been a violent aggressor against the gospel. Paul explains, “I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief” (v. 13). At first glance, we might read this as, “The Lord had mercy on me because I didn’t know any better,” as though ignorance made him more excusable. But that is not Paul’s point. He is actually saying, “The Lord had to be merciful to me because I was an ignorant unbeliever.” Just as the Lord had to reckon faithfulness to Paul in order to put him in the ministry, the Lord had to extend mercy to him in order to save him in the first place.

Later, Paul repeats the words, “I received mercy.” But this time, it is because he, as the “foremost” sinner (v. 15) was being used by the Lord to establish an example for all future believers. If Paul, the foremost sinner found mercy and salvation through Christ, then he is living proof that anyone can know the mercy of Christ. You can be ignorant, unbelieving, even a persecutor of the gospel. But the Lord can still reckon faithfulness to you, show you mercy, and bring you to himself.

And that is what makes every salvation testimony remarkable. None of us are faithful apart from divine grace. None of us are saved apart from divine mercy. It is truly remarkable that the Lord saves any of us. If you are a believer, then you have a remarkable testimony—not because of the details of your own story, but because of the Lord’s work that he does in all of us who know him.

And for that reason, each of us should share in Paul’s doxology: To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen!