Based on 2 Timothy 2:1–2
Introduction: A Legacy That Continues
Peace and grace be with you and with your household. May the eternal God, the Almighty, the Creator of all things, our Maker and Sustainer, pour out upon you and your household prosperity, grace, and health. Let us give thanks to the Lord for this time He grants us once more, because everything we live is by the good pleasure of His will. We are not gathered here because man decided it, but because it has pleased the Lord, because it has been His will to open for us times of exposition before His Word, times of exposition before His grace, before His mercy, and above all things, before the power of His Holy Spirit.
We continue in this teaching with the Second Epistle of the apostle Paul to Timothy, discovering what instructions the apostle declared to his spiritual son in the last days of his earthly existence. The Word has shown us that Timothy was, for Paul, much more than a companion in ministry. In his epistles the apostle calls him “my son,” and this is not merely a term of affection: it is, in reality, what Timothy had become for Paul. As a spiritual father, Paul dedicates this final epistle to declaring to him what were, for him, the most important points on which he built his ministry.
In his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, the apostle asked two questions: “Who are You, Lord?” and “What do You want me to do?” This last question represented the directive by which Paul guided his entire life of faith and his ministry. As he came to the end of his days, everything he had discovered to be God’s will for his life he now transmits to Timothy, precisely because he is handing him a spiritual legacy.
This is the importance that the Second Epistle to Timothy holds for us: these are not merely operational instructions, but formative instructions. That formative value carries great weight for each of us, because in the words the Spirit of God declares through the mouth of the apostle Paul, a path of perfection is traced for us, a path of spiritual direction, a path of ministerial formation. This is the reason we continue studying this epistle.
The Second Instruction and Its Three Elements
In this teaching we will study the second instruction Paul gives Timothy, contained in chapter 2, verses 1 and 2:
“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Timothy 2:1–2, NKJV)
This second instruction contains three clearly identifiable elements: first, “be strong in the grace” (v. 1); second, “the things you have heard from me among many witnesses” (v. 2); and third, “commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (v. 2). Of these three elements, the foundational instruction, the primary one, is the first: be strong in the grace.
With this instruction, the apostle closes the cycle of formation he intends to leave as an inheritance to Timothy. In chapter 1, verse 6, we find the first instruction, when Paul writes to him:
“Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you.” (2 Timothy 1:6, NKJV)
With these two instructions, the formative cycle the apostle declares to Timothy is practically closed. The reason is as follows: with the first instruction, Paul is removing everything that hinders so that Timothy can move forward. In his First Epistle to the Thessalonians, the apostle admits that Satan hindered his purpose of returning to Thessalonica: “We wanted to come to you—even I, Paul, time and again—but Satan hindered us” (1 Thessalonians 2:18). Paul went through moments when his ministry was obstructed, and he discovered that the enemy hinders precisely in order to prevent the man of God from doing what the Lord has demanded of him.
For this reason, when the time comes to instruct his spiritual son, Paul first reveals to him: “Stir up the gift of God which is in you.” When this is activated, the enemy can no longer hinder, can no longer prevent the person from doing what God has demanded. Then, when he delivers the second instruction, Paul closes the cycle by declaring: “Be strong in the grace.”
We will find further instructions later that complement these, but these first two constitute the foundation of a life of faith and a ministerial life in accordance with the will of God, in accordance with His heart. This is of the utmost importance, because in the life of faith and in ministerial life it is not simply a matter of doing for the sake of doing, but of having the certainty that we are doing what God wants us to do. In several New Testament texts we discover that there are men and women with ministry who, at a given moment, will be rejected because they did not do what God wanted them to do. Such is the case, for example, of what Jesus declares in Matthew 7:21–22.
It is not about doing for the sake of doing. We could be full of many activities, but that is not enough: it is about doing what God wants us to do. With these two first instructions, the apostle establishes the foundation on which a man or a woman can be assured that they are doing exactly what God wants. Because not all of us know, with certainty, what God’s will is for our lives. Not all who confess Jesus know with precision what God wants us to do. Here we find the assurance that a man or woman of God needs in order to know His will.
What Is Grace?
Let us then go to verse 1: “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” The first thing we must answer is: what is grace? Because how could we be strong in something if we have not first defined what it is?
Until this moment, many of us have relied only on the most popular definition of grace: “the undeserved gift of God.” But can we settle for such a simple, such a scant definition? If this second instruction is fundamental to knowing the will of God for our lives, then the life of faith consists in each man and each woman fully knowing what grace is.
As I studied this subject, I was deeply struck by how many times the Greek word charis (grace) appears in the New Testament: an average of 155 times. What is most striking is that, of those 155 occurrences, one hundred belong to the writings of the apostle Paul. This shows us that, for Paul, grace was not merely a simple definition, but something far more complete, a doctrinal development the Spirit of God wove throughout all his writings.
Grace Is the Opening of God’s Throne
In Romans 3:23, the apostle writes:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23, NKJV)
And in the same epistle, chapter 6, verse 23, he adds: “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). All have sinned: those of the Old Testament, those already born, and those yet to be born. All are destitute of the glory of God. That is the condition of man and woman: there is no way, by their own means, that they can draw near to God.
What, then, is grace? It is the opening of God’s throne, which has allowed man to know His manifestation. It is not that man sought God; it is that God revealed Himself to man. This is something we must understand clearly: it was not man who sought God, nor woman who sought God; it was God who revealed Himself to them. The prophet Isaiah declares it, in a text also taken up by the evangelist Matthew:
“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, upon them a light has shined.” (Isaiah 9:2; Matthew 4:16, NKJV)
These texts show us that the condition of man and woman is that of being destitute of the presence of God. It is not that there are no options for drawing near to Him; it is that man does not want to seek God, that woman does not want to seek God. The Gospel of John puts it this way:
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14, NKJV)
But in that same Gospel, the apostle also declares:
“And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:19, NKJV)
What is grace? It is God’s opening. In the book of Acts, the apostle Paul declares it with precision:
“Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent.” (Acts 17:30, NKJV)
For this reason, the message of the gospel began precisely with the call to repentance. No man and no woman, unless they repent before God, can enter His presence, even while belonging to a church, because it is not affiliation with a congregation that guarantees closeness to God, but the repentance we show before His presence.
Grace is the opening of God’s throne. That is why, when Jesus gave up His spirit that day of the crucifixion, at three in the afternoon, the veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. That is grace: the opening of God’s throne so that man, who was sunk in the darkness of the kingdom of darkness, could see the light and draw near to the light of Christ Jesus. Grace is God’s manifestation toward man. God showed Himself to man, God showed Himself to woman, and opened the space for both to see it, similar to what happened at creation, when in the midst of the earth being without form and void, the Lord established: “Let there be light.”
Grace Is Mystery
In Ephesians 3:9, the apostle writes:
“And to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 3:9, NKJV)
Grace is a mystery, because the apostle, through the Holy Spirit, presents the gospel precisely as a mystery, to show that this doctrine was not invented or designed by human minds. How is it possible for a man to die on a cross to reconcile others? Paul himself acknowledges, writing to the Romans, that for many the cross is foolishness. For this reason grace is presented as mystery: it does not arise from human intelligence, but is the message of the kingdom of heaven reaching down to earth so that, through it, man and woman may draw near to God. In that same chapter, the apostle had already declared:
“If indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery, as I have briefly written already.” (Ephesians 3:2–3, NKJV)
Grace Is Revelation
In Romans 16:25, the apostle writes:
“Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began.” (Romans 16:25, NKJV)
Grace is the revelation of Jesus, the revelation of a message that belongs to the kingdom of heaven but has been established on earth so that man and woman may walk according to that teaching. The gospel is not a product of the earth; it is the property of the kingdom of heaven, and therefore it is the way God wants us to walk here. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He gave them the Lord’s Prayer, and in it He established: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). With these words, Jesus teaches us that grace consists in walking on earth according to what has been established in heaven, according to the principles and laws of the kingdom of heaven.
For this reason, although we inhabit this earth and take part in everything that exists in it, we are not governed by its laws, nor by its conduct, nor by its societies, but by what has been declared to us from heaven that we must do. Grace is the revelation of the principles, the laws, the life of heaven. It is not simply a matter of being better Christians each day, as if this were an earthly life; it is a matter of walking each day according to the revelation of the grace of the kingdom of heaven.
A man of God, a woman of God, does not walk by information nor by knowledge, even when that knowledge comes from God. A man of faith, a woman of faith, walks by the revelation of the grace of God. Now we can understand why the apostle’s concern was: “Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” What Paul was telling Timothy was: be strong in what the Lord has revealed to you, be strong in what you have learned, in what you have been taught, be strong in what you have seen of the supernatural manifestation of the Spirit of God.
We must understand something of the utmost importance: it is not about preaching for the sake of preaching, nor about scattering the message of the gospel as if that scattering were, in itself, grace. It is about preaching and establishing the message so that the Spirit of God may raise up, from the earth, those the Lord has chosen and those the Lord has called. For, although it is true that Christ Jesus died for all without exception, not all are chosen nor all are called. Therefore, when we establish the message of grace, we do so so that the Spirit of God may raise up those who have been chosen and called, that they may be integrated into the body of Christ, as described in the book of Acts, when the Lord added daily to the church those who were being saved (Acts 2:47).
What Grace Reveals to Us
Having established that grace is opening, mystery, and revelation, the question now arises: what, specifically, does grace reveal to us?
1. Justification
In Romans 3:24, the apostle writes:
“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:24, NKJV)
Grace reveals to us that there is justification for man and for woman. To justify means to make just someone upon whom a sentence weighed, upon whom a crime weighed. Therefore, justified before the Lord, we have peace with Him: there is no longer guilt, no longer accusation, nothing from the past pursues us, because there is justification in Him. This is important, because we often find men and women who have not yet been able to overcome the guilt of their past, of their background, of their actions. I have heard, on many occasions, people define themselves as “forgiven sinners,” and I must say that this expression does not align with the Word of God, because we ceased to be sinners: we were sinners, but justification transformed us, and now we are righteous, we are justified by the grace of God.
Grace reveals to us that there is justification in the Lord: not that our sins have been dimmed or softened, but that they have been removed altogether. On the day Jesus was on the cross at Calvary, all our sins—those of the whole world, without exception, those of the past, the present, and the future—were laid upon the body of Christ. That is why, when He spoke the final word, “It is finished,” He was declaring that the work of reconciliation had been completed.
However, not everyone activates that reconciliation with the Lord. Although Jesus carried the sins of all humanity on the cross, it is necessary for man and woman to activate that reconciliation in their own lives; it does not apply automatically. It is necessary that we come before Him and repent of what we were, so that we may then reactivate reconciliation with the Lord. Christ Jesus carried the sin of the whole world, but not everyone is willing to activate that reconciliation, and this is precisely what grace reveals to us. Scripture says we are justified “freely,” which means man does not have to do anything to earn it, with one exception: activating it.
2. Salvation and Eternal Life
In Ephesians 2:8, we read:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8, NKJV)
Grace reveals to us salvation and eternal life. Man was not formed by God to be destroyed; man and woman were formed by God to dwell in His presence. Therefore, when man and woman receive the grace of God, they receive salvation and eternal life. But the fact that salvation is a gift of God does not mean it is activated without our participation or our consent. This is the error many people walk in, believing that God is obligated to save us. He is not, because it was man, it was woman, who decided to disobey God. And although this happened historically in the life of Adam and Eve in the garden, the same history repeats itself in the life of every man and every woman, in every time and every place.
3. Authority
In Romans 12:3, the apostle writes:
“For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.” (Romans 12:3, NKJV)
Grace reveals to us that we have authority: authority to order not only our own paths, our own steps, and our own conduct, but also authority to order the steps and paths of others, when they are willing to follow the instructions we give them through the Spirit of God. Grace reveals to us that there is authority over our flesh, over our mind, over our conduct, and over everything we do; but we also have authority over the kingdom of darkness, authority over Satan, and over everything that proceeds from him.
4. Spiritual Gifts
In Romans 12:6, the apostle continues:
“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith.” (Romans 12:6, NKJV)
Grace reveals to us that we have spiritual gifts, spiritual abilities. How many of us have them? All of us. What happens is that, just as few embrace and activate the Lord’s grace, so also few activate the gifts God has given them. The Epistle to the Ephesians recalls the words of Jesus, who descended into the lower parts of the earth and ascended on high, giving gifts to men (Ephesians 4:8–10); and this is precisely the Lord’s grace.
Grace reveals to us that there is an activation of gifts. We do not need to pursue specific and particular studies to develop them, because the gifts are spiritual; what we must do is come and activate them according to the grace that has been given to us. That is why, when we read in 2 Timothy 2:1 the instruction “be strong in the grace,” what is being said to us is: discover the gifts you have. Many of us are not concerned about, are not interested in, the gifts; we are impressed to see a person moving in gifts of healing, of prophecy, of tongues, or in other different gifts, but we do not feel the same interest in having God manifest Himself, through His Holy Spirit, in us. We have not made the effort to discover what gift the Lord has given us, in what gift He wants to manifest Himself through us.
5. Strength for the Evil Day
The apostle Paul studied the Holy Scriptures before Jesus met him on the road to Damascus; therefore, the revelation he develops is grounded, to a great extent, in the Old Testament. It is precisely there that we find the background of the instruction we are studying today. In Isaiah 30:15 and 18, we read:
“For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength. But you would not.” (Isaiah 30:15, NKJV)
Grace reveals to us that there is strength for the evil day, that God is present in the midst of crises, that the Lord gives us strength in the midst of difficulty. It is precisely from these texts that the apostle declares to Timothy this second instruction: be strong in the grace; be strong, take strength, take energy, take vigor, take breath, take sustenance from the grace of God. May grace not be merely a definition, may it not be merely information, may it not be merely knowledge; may grace be the reality of your spiritual life, the manifestation of the Spirit of God in you, as you walk by faith in Christ Jesus.
This word was not only for the people of the Old Testament, nor exclusively for the Jews: it is for every man and every woman who has believed in Christ Jesus as Lord. “In rest and in returning you shall be saved”; we do not need to make greater effort, because it is the Lord who fights for us. Grace reveals to us that He is present, that there is strength for the evil day, for the day of weakness, and also, mark this well, for the day of temptation, because grace is not manifested only when we praise, when we worship, or when we exercise the gifts: grace is also the strength to resist on the day of temptation.
Unfortunately, verse 15 concludes by saying: “But you would not.” And verse 18 adds:
“Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you; for the LORD is a God of justice. Blessed are all those who wait for Him.” (Isaiah 30:18, NKJV)
The word “gracious” is, precisely, grace. Blessed are all who wait for Him. Grace is our strength, our vigor, our courage, our enthusiasm, our joy, our rejoicing. Grace is everything, because the apostle Paul himself writes, speaking of Christ Jesus, that He “fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:23). Grace is Christ Jesus; grace is everything.
In Isaiah 40:29–31 we find another familiar text:
“He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:29–31, NKJV)
Grace is strength, is vigor, is enthusiasm, is faith: grace is everything. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). That is why, when the apostle Paul declares this second instruction to Timothy, he is essentially telling him: “Timothy, my son, do not depend on your strength; do not depend on your knowledge; do not depend on information that reaches you through various means; be strong in the grace, in the grace of the eternal God, the Almighty.”
Be Strong in Grace: The Application
How many men and how many women have truly understood what grace is? At the time, this instruction was given to a young man, Timothy, who was receiving a spiritual legacy, a spiritual inheritance accumulated over many years of life of faith and ministerial life. Today, that same instruction, transmitted by the grace of God, reaches each one of us.
It is a simple declaration, but a deeply personal one: be strong in the grace. Put your own name on this instruction; make it yours. Do not depend on your knowledge, do not depend on your strength, do not depend on your ability, do not depend on the understanding you may have gained from the various theological studies you have pursued. Do not depend on anything you yourself have generated. Be strong in the grace; take shelter in the grace of God, take shelter in the supernatural intervention of the Holy Spirit.
This second instruction, together with the first, closes the cycle of the apostle’s legacy: “Awaken the gift of God that is in you,” “stir up the fire of the gift of God that is in you.” Hence the importance of being able to see whatever is quenching the fire of God in our lives, whatever is stealing our energy and revealed knowledge, whatever is robbing the participation of the Spirit of God in our lives. That is why the Spirit of God declares, through the mouth of the apostle Paul: “Do not quench the Spirit.” The enemy intends to steal everything that has been given to us through the grace of God.
Hence the declaration: be strong, be strong in the grace. Let us not settle into the experiences we have had, however many they may have been; let us not settle into the achievements attained thus far, as if we had already attained everything. The apostle himself, through the Spirit of God, declares:
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me… one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:12–14, NKJV)
Let us not settle, nor believe that we have already attained everything, for that is precisely one of the enemy’s strategies: to make us believe that there is nothing more, that we have already attained everything, that we no longer need instruction or teaching, that we no longer need anyone to teach us. That is one of the greatest tools the enemy has to stop a man or a woman of faith.
Conclusion
In this teaching the Lord presents us with an instruction of the utmost importance, an instruction of the Spirit of God for each of our lives: be strong in the grace. Now we know what the grace of God is; now we can say: “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You” (Job 42:5). We have been able to see the grace of God: that it is the opening of His throne, that it is mystery because it proceeds from heaven and not from earth, that it is revelation of justification, of salvation, of eternal life, of authority, of spiritual gifts, and of strength for the evil day.
All that remains is for us to activate this instruction in our own lives: be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. May the peace of the Lord be with you. Amen.
Review Questions
1. According to this chapter, what difference is there between knowing grace as a simple definition and being strong in it as the living reality of your spiritual life?
2. Among the different realities grace reveals to us—justification, salvation, authority, spiritual gifts, and strength for the evil day—which one do you feel you most urgently need to activate in your life right now, and why?
3. In what way might the enemy be “hindering” or “obstructing” your spiritual advance today, and what concrete steps can you take to, in your own words, “stir up the gift” and “be strong in grace” at the same time?
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