Faithfulness to the good news of Jesus

“Remember Jesus Christ, who was raised from the dead and descended from David. This is my good news. This is the reason I’m suffering to the point that I’m in prison like a common criminal. But God’s word cannot be imprisoned. This is why I endure everything for the sake of those who are chosen by God so that they too may experience salvation in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” (2 Timothy 2:8-10 CEB)

What is the good news of Jesus? In a nutshell, Paul wrote to Timothy, it is the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead and that he is the descendant of David. Everything that Paul proclaimed, everything that we proclaim today, hinges on the fact of Jesus’ resurrection. If there was no resurrection then Jesus was not who he claimed to be and his death was like so many others who were executed by the Romans. If Jesus was just another person then his death could do nothing to take away our sins. The good news is that Jesus did defeat death by coming back to life!

The good news also included that Jesus was descended from King David. Why was this important? Because of the prophecies which stated that the coming Messiah would be a descendant of David. These same prophecies detailed the death of the Messiah in the same way that happened to Jesus. All this showed that Jesus was the Messiah – both a human who descended from David and Deity.

This was why Paul was willing to go through all he went through. He realised how important this message was. It really was good news! It wasn’t a “take it if you feel like it” proposition – the information about Jesus, both who he was and what he did in his death, is necessary for all to experience salvation. This is how we receive eternal glory with him!

Just because someone follows Jesus doesn’t mean that their lives will be easy! It is actually more of the opposite of this: following Jesus will bring opposition. Paul is a prime example. He experienced opposition that led to imprisonment many times and, as far as we can determine, his imprisonment at the time he wrote to Timothy ended with his execution.

Why was he willing to endure this? Because he knew who Jesus was. He realised the necessity of telling others the good news of Jesus so they could experience the safety offered by Jesus which would lead to their eternal life with him.

“This saying is reliable: ‘If we have died together, we will also live together. If we endure, we will also rule together. If we deny him, he will also deny us. If we are disloyal, he stays faithful’ because he can’t be anything else than what he is.” (2 Timothy 2:11-13)

It is thought that these verses are quoting an early Christian hymn (they are set out in our modern versions as poetry). Like many hymns the words describe our life as Christians. If we die together with Jesus we will also live together. We die with him when we are immersed in water into his death, burial and resurrection. There is another truth here as well: if our living as a Christian brings our physical death we still live with him in eternity!

It is important that we remain faithful no matter what night happen to us. Imprisonment for following Jesus or even execution can’t separate us from him. What is important is that we don’t deny him – even if we are faced with imprisonment and death.

When we see what the apostles and other Christians went through and continued to remain faithful, it should cause us to examine our own lives. Are we faithful no matter what we come up against? Or are we willing to remain quiet and turn our back on Jesus at the first sign of opposition?

May we have the faith and confidence in what we have in Jesus, just like Paul and others had.

Image created by Apple’s ImagePlayground by Jon Galloway.

Readings for next week: 1 Peter 3-5; 2 Peter 1-3; 2 Timothy 1-2