August 7, 2025 - 2 Timothy 2:10 - "Enduring All Things for the Elect's Sake"

2 Timothy 2:10

"Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory."

We never know when it will please God to reveal His imputed righteousness in Christ in one of His chosen ones, but He will in His time. In the meantime, we may have to endure much opposition and trial in declaring this Gospel Truth, that when the LORD Jesus Christ laid down His life on the cross, it was there that God once and for all declared every one of the elect justified before Him, "Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:" (Romans 4:25, 5:1).

The question is, ‘What is it about this Doctrine that causes such opposition, even in some who may well be elect of God, that as yet the Spirit of God has not revealed in them this Truth of the FINISHED WORK of the LORD Jesus?’ The principal reason is the depravity and blindness of the heart that keeps them from seeing the clear testimony of Scripture. We all have a prejudice toward what men teach, rather than what the Word has to say. We all have our bias toward certain writers' positions because we would rather justify ourselves rather than God, so we hold on to the grave clothes that only the Spirit of God can unloose to free us, "But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away" (2 Corinthians 3:14-16).

The other answer is how our self-will wants to be right in our own eyes rather than confess that we have been wrong and need the LORD to bring us to Him again in repentance and the acknowledging of the TRUTH,  "In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;" (2 Timothy 2:25). How easy it is to preach that others must repent, yet ourselves resist the need for God to do a work of repentance in our hearts. The notion that we have already repented and therefore don’t need further repentance is contrary to the True Word of God. Biblical repentance is an ongoing work of the Spirit in the heart, where the Spirit of Grace is at work there is a continual cry unto the LORD to grant repentance even of our repentance, that in every way, our hearts be aligned with the TRUTH as it is in Christ, "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:10-11).

How hardened is the heart when we act like the ostrich with its head buried in the sand, saying, ‘I have already made up my mind, please don’t confuse me with the facts!’ When it comes to how God justifies sinners, the clear declaration of the Word is that: it is in, by, and through the blood shed unto death of the LORD Jesus Christ alone, "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:" (Romans 3:24). We dare not even add the words ‘based on’ or ‘on the ground of’ to allow for those who believe that the elect were justified by God before time ‘based on’ what Christ would accomplish or those who say that it is upon believing ‘based on’ what Christ did at the cross. NO! Let’s not be guilty of adding to what the Scriptures declare in Romans 5:9, “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.” It does not say ‘based on’ but BY His blood.

What can we conclude then of those who refuse to bow to the clear declaration of Scripture? They may well be the elect of God, ones whom God has already saved and justified at the cross, but has not yet taught by His Spirit. For them, we can and do endure all things for their sake. If not, then those who oppose should fear that by arguing against this Truth, they may be reprobated. For those of us that the LORD has taught, let us not be weary in well doing in giving testimony to no other righteousness than that ordained of God, earned and established by the LORD Jesus, imputed at the cross and revealed by the Spirit in the heart of those that Christ’s blood has justified already. Despite the opposition, we can rejoice that in God’s time it will be when it pleases Him to reveal Christ in one of His own, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace," (Galatians 1:15).

Faith proves itself to be a genuine grace of the Holy Spirit when it submits to and trusts in the righteousness of God in Christ alone for justification, His blood for pardon and His all-prevailing merits and intercession for life- "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2 Peter 1:4). Faith glorifies the LORD Jesus as God’s High Priest Who put away sin and honors Him as King to rule and govern and yields obedience to Him as God’s Prophet to instruct in the Truth.