Well, good morning, everyone.
Good to see you here this morning. I've titled today's message,
as you can see, Obtaining Mercy. Obtaining Mercy. Today we're
going to be considering just six verses from 1 Timothy 1. And in this brief passage, Paul,
in reference to his own salvation, he uses this phrase twice. He said, I obtain mercy. I obtained mercy." And that's
an important statement, you see, for it's likewise the testimony
of all true believers. And you'll see that's what our
passage today itself even teaches us. So let's examine together
just what this means, to obtain mercy. What I'd like to do is
just read through these verses, beginning in verse 12, and I'll
make a few comments as we go to begin with. Now, leading into
verse 12, Paul had been speaking of the sound doctrine of the
gospel that he had been entrusted with as a minister. And with
that, we pick up as he continues there in verse 12, writing, And
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord. who hath enabled me, for that
he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry." In thanking
the Lord, Paul is acknowledging, see, that it is solely due unto
Christ that he was counted or deemed to be faithful. That's
why he is thanking him. In other words, he was made so
by the grace of God. And I like that language there
when he says he was actually put by Christ into the ministry. This becomes clearly evident
as we move on to verse 13. As we see Paul, how he describes
himself, he doesn't describe himself as one who was seeking
to be put into the ministry. He was not one who somehow became
qualified to be put into the ministry. But yet we see he's
totally without merit as he describes himself as one who was before
a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious. Here, he's explaining
how, first of all, as a blasphemer, he spoke evil of Christ and his
followers and his doctrine. But not only that, that he acted
against them, persecuting those who called on the name of Christ.
And furthermore, he was injurious. He used force and violence. You
see, towards them and their property, many of you will recall how when
Stephen was being stoned, Paul was standing there holding the
coats of those who stoned him. So it's clear then from verse
12 when he says he was counted faithful, that was no doing of
his own. It was nothing that prequalified
him for God's favor and service. But rather, as verse 13 here
continues, Paul says, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly
in unbelief. Now, as we consider the whole
context here, you'll see that Paul's not suggesting that because
his actions were against Christ, were the product of his ignorance
or his unbelief, that this somehow excused him, as if he was saying,
well, I obtained mercy because I did it in unbelief, as if that
was the reason God showed mercy. No, ignorance and unbelief, you
see, all sin springs from our ignorance and unbelief. So ignorance
and unbelief were not a reason or a cause of his obtaining mercy,
but rather his ignorant unbelief proved that it was indeed mercy. Well, he was ignorant. He was
unbelief. He didn't have a clue. And God intervened. He obtained
mercy. Only God's unmerited favor, you
see, could overcome and deliver him from his ignorance and unbelief.
And so he continues in verse 14, saying, And the grace of
our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is
in Christ Jesus. You know, God is faithful and
God is love. But that's not what Paul's talking
about here. He's talking about the internal
graces of God given faith and love towards God and towards
God's people that Paul personally experienced. And so he continues
in verse 15 and he writes, This is a faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners. Of whom I am chief. Now the word
faithful there means it's worthy of putting your trust in. That's
what that means. It means it's sure it's true. It's trustworthy and therefore
it's worthy of all acceptation. It's worthy to be accepted by
all sorts. What is the truth, the saying,
this saying of God? This is the gospel, about as
succinctly as we ever have it put, that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners. That's worthy to be accepted,
for it is a faithful saying, even for one such as Paul, who
calls himself the chief of sinners. So in verse 16, he continues,
he says, Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy. So there he
said it again, I obtained mercy. And Paul is in repeating that
truth. I think he is saying for this
cause in reference to the prior verse, as you read that many
are inclined to think that he's referencing what comes after.
In other words, that the reason he obtained mercy was that he
might be a pattern to others. And certainly we see the truth
of that in the scripture here, that he was a pattern to others.
But when you study that word for this cause or for this reason,
that's what it means, on this basis, and we know from the whole
of Scripture that only on the basis of the fact that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners, his finished work,
do any obtain mercy. And so that's what Paul, I believe,
is expressing here. He's saying, because Christ came
into the world to save sinners, even one such as I obtained mercy. And he continues in verse 16,
indicating that in his obtaining of mercy, there is something
specific about Paul. Now, Paul, here he is being used
by God the Holy Spirit in this epistle to Timothy, this letter
to Timothy, and to write much of the New Testament. And he
specifically, there is a pattern here that's set forth. And this
is that which is unique. And we're all not a pattern.
OK, but rather, Paul says, I am a pattern when he says that in
me first, Jesus Christ might show forth all long suffering
for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life
everlasting. Now, that word first, it says
in me first. Paul's not saying he's the first
convert, he wasn't the first convert in the New Testament
and there were many old saints before him that had obtained
mercy. No, he's saying in me first,
that word first is the same word as chief in the previous verse.
So it's as if Paul is saying in me a sinner of the first degree,
the chief of sinners. He's repeating that, see. Christ's
long suffering is then shown forth in him as a pattern to
all believers hereafter. And he finishes up our text for
today in verse 17 with what seems to be a prayer of sorts as he
says, Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only
wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Well, in light of the fact that
Paul is clearly the pattern for all true believers, we just read
that, that come after him. I want to get a bit personal
with you this morning, and let us each ask ourselves, have we,
have I, in keeping with Paul's pattern, truly obtained mercy? You see, all true believers,
those who believe on him, as he said, to life everlasting,
they follow this pattern, and they too have obtained mercy. Now, I want to talk just a few
minutes, I'll digress a moment, and speak a little about this
word obtaining. I know if somebody tells me they
obtained something, you know, typically my next follow-up question
is, well, how do you go about obtaining that, you know? How
did you get it? As if they could do something to get it. We typically,
we use that word often that way. When one graduates from school,
we say they obtained a degree, and they do, and they earned
it, they worked for it, they merited it. But likewise, when
someone inherits a bunch of money, we say they obtained an inheritance,
an inheritance which they did nothing to deserve. They were born into it, into
a family they had no part in choosing. They didn't decide
to be born, but rather they just simply were, and they contributed
nothing to bringing that inheritance about, but we say they obtained
it. So what you see, very simply,
is That the word obtained carries no connotation about whether
it's something that you can merit or earn or not. It's rather the
thing being obtained that defines that force. And so it's clear
that that's the case when Paul says he obtained mercy. Because mercy is that which is
unmerited by the one upon whom it is bestowed. And we know that
the Apostle Paul often used, in Colossians 1 and 3, Galatians
3, Hebrews 9 and elsewhere, he described salvation by grace,
the obtaining of mercy, as an inheritance. So in like manner
we see that he's not describing here anything that's done in
him or by him or through him, the sinner, when he says, I obtain
mercy. It's much like obtaining an inheritance. If he did anything to obtain
mercy, that's not mercy. Now, that would mean you did
something to merit it. Well, with that, I want to share
just three observations concerning the obtaining of mercy that were
impressed upon me in my study. First one is this, that those
who obtain mercy, they need mercy. Now, when I say they need it,
those of you who have obtained mercy, you know that all sinners
need mercy, whether they know it or not. But I'm speaking of
those that are brought to perceive of their own desperate need of
mercy. In other words, they must have
it. Nothing else will do for them. In Philippians chapter
three, verses five and six, Paul, he lists things that he wants
in his former ignorance and unbelief, as he described it in first Timothy.
Things he thought were gain. In other words, he thought they
gained God's favor. But he says, I now count loss
having obtained mercy, you see. And among that list, I found
it interesting. He says concerning zeal, speaking
of his religious zeal, persecuting the church. In other words, the
actions he described in 1 Timothy 1. I was a blasphemer, persecutor,
injurious. You see, they were all a product
here of his religious zeal. And so they were considered by
Paul previously. He said, I thought those things
were gain. By him and his religious cohorts, they would have been
thought to have had merit, to have gained some favor, to account
for something before God. And certainly in Philippians
3, boy, what a pattern we have of Paul to consider when we consider
his repentance, not from his thievery, and his being an adulterer,
or his being a murderer, or any immorality we can think of, but
rather from the things he thought were gain. That's what repentance
is. You see, if we come to God in
faith, we're looking as one who's been made alive to see something
that dead men can't see. And in so doing, we turn from
what we thought was gain, from the way that seemed right to
us, And so there's no such thing as God-given faith without repentance
from what truly is our former idolatry, our imaginations in
thinking that God could bless us in some way He hasn't. But
back to 1 Timothy now. I didn't mean to get into a lesson
on Philippians 3, but in 1 Timothy, as he directs ourself now to
himself as a pattern for true believers, note that he doesn't
mention any of those things that would be considered positive
by the natural man like he did in Philippians 3. He doesn't
mention in 1 Timothy 1 his morality. In fact, when he mentions I was
a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, almost all of
us would say, oh man, he must have been a bad guy. And yet,
back in Philippians 3, here's what he said. One of the things
he listed there, he said when it came to touching the righteousness
which is in the law, he said he was blameless. Yet today,
as we consider 1 Timothy 1, we see he doesn't really make any
mention of his religious observances. And I believe this is to give
us the sense from this passage that he's limiting our focus
here to relate to only his self-awareness of his own sinfulness. As he
came to see the horrible evil, see, of daring to oppose Christ
in his gospel. So much so that he called himself
the chief, the worst of sinners. He didn't mention here the fact
that he once thought those things were commendable, that they were
gain. Instead, he's just focusing on
what? The reality of them. Now that he has the eyes of God-given
faith as one who needs and has obtained mercy. You know, by
nature, none of us would really consider an outwardly blameless
keeper of God's law, to be the worst of sinners, wouldn't we? I know men, I'm sure many of
you do, that are held in high esteem. And among men, perhaps
rightfully so, they're honest, men of integrity or women of
integrity. They are sincere, and I know
men who, much like Paul, others would look at and say, well,
you know, touching the law, it's hard to measure up to that guy.
And we don't typically think of ones such as that, such as
perhaps some of us were, as the chief of sinners, do we? We might
say that about a rapist. We might say it about a murderer.
E.D. Amin or Adolf Hitler or Charles
Manson, but not a strict religionist such as Paul. I think when Paul
says that Christ came to save sinners of whom I am chief that
he's expressing the real sense or apprehension of his own sinfulness
that all who obtain mercy come to experience when they're convinced
by God's spirit of the dreadful evil of their former religious
thoughts. And having imagined that they
could be found in God's favor based on something other than
or in addition to the one perfect righteousness that Christ alone
came into the world to produce to save sinners. Now keeping
in mind while Paul persecuted the church that he did so because
of his religious zeal. So here's what we have. We've
got Paul, a moral religionist. seeing himself as the chief of
sinners. In other words, when it comes
to his standing before God, now Paul knew he wasn't a murderer
in the strictest sense, although he did do violence, but it was
a just cause in his mind, you see. He knew he was not a rapist. Touching the law, he was blameless,
he said. He knew that compared to other
men, he wasn't the chief. And yet, when it comes to his
salvation before God, he saw himself as no more worthy than
even the most wicked, outwardly immoral tyrants that have roamed
this earth throughout its history. The chief of sinners. And note,
back in verse 12 there, he had said before that he was before. A blasphemer, a persecutor, an
injurious. In other words, he no longer
was, but he was before. But in verse 15, he doesn't use
the past tense to describe himself as one who was previously the
chief of sinners. He uses the present tense. He
says, Christ came to save sinners of who I am right now, chief. Not I was chief. I am chief. Now, I want you to think about
this. When Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, it was near the end
of his earthly ministry here. He only had an earthly ministry.
I guess if we use that cliche because we think of Christ's
earthly ministry. But he only used it. His ministry
was almost over, and here Paul is saying, I still am right now.
The man who wrote most of the New Testament And who surely
had grown in grace and knowledge, he saying, even now I am the
chief of sinners. And so likewise, all who obtain
mercy, they never find any worthiness before God by looking here within
ourselves. Rather always, even in heaven's
glory, as we heard in the 10 o'clock hour, was the song of
the saints. Worthy is the lamb that was slain according to the
book of Revelation. And so, as with Paul, when God
the Holy Spirit convinces a sinner of his exceeding sinfulness,
you remember John 16 says that's the work of the Spirit to convince
us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Why, when we
see the standard by which we're going to be judged, as Acts 17
tells us, we have to have the perfect righteousness. We better
measure up to that which Jesus Christ, the God-man, rendered
in his life and death. When we see that, then it makes
any kind of comparison between one worm or another, so to speak,
compared to the righteousness, the holiness of God. It makes
it fade by comparison. It's of no use to us whatsoever.
Scripture says men comparing themselves with men are not wise.
No, instead, what happens to one who's obtained mercy? They
see they have to possess a perfect righteousness that they have
no chance of producing for themselves. And so they know that judged
on their very best efforts at obedience, all they can strive
to do, that they are truly deserving of God's wrath if he judges them
on that basis. They come to see, you see, their
best efforts. It just doesn't hold any kind
of candle to the perfect righteousness that the Lord of glory alone
could and did provide for them so as to save those sinners,
sinners of whom I am chief, see, in light of the perfection that
we must have. So one who obtains mercy in being
taught what it truly took, you see, for a holy God to be reconciled
unto them a sinner. He'll no longer dare to presume
to have contributed even one iota toward gaining, toward his
acceptance or removing God's wrath. He comes to see the issue really
isn't whether I will accept Jesus, but how can this holy God accept
me, a sinner? He won't dare to place his or
her sin-tainted efforts in a position of rivalry with what it took. It took the precious blood of
the God-man. He'll plead God's mercy in Christ
and that alone. You see, one who has obtained
mercy is one who's been given spiritual life. And with that,
the spiritual eyes to see his desperate need for mercy. Those
that obtain mercy, they need mercy. And secondly, those who
obtain mercy, they receive the accompanying gifts of grace.
You see, it's by those gifts of grace that they discover their
desperate need for mercy. Like Paul has indicated in verse
14, they receive the internal graces of faith and love as a
gift from God. Paul wrote to the Ephesians,
for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God. It's not of works. How can faith
be of works? Well, if your faith is what makes
the difference in your salvation, it's of works. He says it's not
of works, lest any man should boast. So, in accordance with
the pattern of Paul, these who have obtained mercy, they don't
view their faith as that which they exercise in order to merit
or earn or distinguish themselves so as to obtain God's blessings
for them. No, instead they discover, as
Paul writes, it's of his abundant grace. toward them in Christ. In other words, it's a gift of
grace purchased, merited for them by Christ in His obedience
unto death. And so thereby those who obtain
mercy, they're brought to comprehend their previous ignorance and
unbelief. And that newfound love for God
is not the God as they had imagined Him to be in their former religious
zeal, but as He is uniquely revealed in the gospel of grace. That
love is a product of discovering the truth of 1 John 4, 10, where
we read, Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he
loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Herein is love that he sent his Son to be the propitiation for
our sins. Those who obtain mercy know that
they only love God, as verse 19 of that same chapter says,
because He first loved them. Consider verse 10 there. Herein
is loved the second part of that, that He sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. He sent His Son to be merciful
unto them, propitious. You remember the parable of the
publican and the Pharisee where the publican cried out, God,
be merciful to me, a sinner. That word merciful there is the
word propitious. Be propitious to me. He was crying
out the plea of one who obtains mercy. You see, they plea for
that mercy. They're mercy beggars. And that
mercy there speaks of the unmerited favor of God, something they
can't do to get it, and yet it carries with it this propitiation. This this I must it must be merited
for me. It's just unmerited in the one
upon whom it's bestowed. But there is a merit. Christ
has to merit something. There must be satisfaction made
before a holy God in his justice. God will not just look at our
sins and say, I'm so gracious, I'm going to pretend like that
didn't happen. No, he's holy and he cannot commune
with sins. The sins must truly be dealt
with. And they were on the cross of
Calvary. So all who obtain mercy according to the pattern of Paul,
they come to faith and they have love toward God as he experienced. But as we see from Paul's writing,
not not something they attribute to having any merit or meaning
that by their faith they earned anything from God, but rather
strictly as a fruit and an effect of what Christ purchased for
them, these graces. You see, they come to see that
the work of God in the believer is all owing to his abundant
grace and mercy toward them as objects of his everlasting love
for whom Christ came into this world to save, for whom he came
to live and die. so as to merit those gifts for
them. I had noted earlier when we read
through the passage to begin with there in verse twelve, how
Paul described he was put into the ministry. You know, not all
believers are given the same gifts. Not all are called to
be preachers such as the Apostle Paul was. Yet, if you consider
1 Corinthians 12, and you might study that sometime on your own,
again, it talks about how all believers make up the church
body. The church body of whom Christ
is the head, and it teaches us there that as such, all who attain
mercy, they are vital members of that body. It uses the example
of the physical body, and the hand can't do without the foot.
It's all part of the necessary body of Christ. And as such,
there's a sense, I believe, in which all believers are put in
the ministry. You see, the God-given faith
and love, these graces that are shed abroad in the hearts, as
Romans 5 describes it, of those who obtain mercy, it inevitably
involves true believers in support of the ministry of the gospel.
as they make use of their respective spiritual gifts, which the Scripture
says the Holy Spirit grants to some degree in varying gifts
unto all believers. If you believe this gospel, if
you've obtained mercy, even today your identification with this
gospel and support of it is part of the ministry of the gospel.
One who has obtained mercy comes to see that the gospel ministry
that they take part in or support, that it's vital. You see, this is why it's inevitable. It presents this saying of God,
this gospel message that God uses to draw His sheep, which
Paul said was the power of God unto salvation, for therein is
the righteousness of God revealed. That's what faith is. It's that
revelation. of the perfect righteousness
that I must have, the satisfaction that Christ alone made. And so
knowing that it's vital and that it's what he used to draw you
into the ministry if you care about anyone. At all, if it's
life and death, eternally speaking to you, if it's been made vital,
you can't help but be a part of that kind of a ministry. You
got to have it, you see, and you know, it matters. And so
our respective involvement, I believe in the ministry of the body springs
from that love of God having been shared abroad in our hearts. It's put there. That is. And so we are put into some aspect
of supporting the ministry of the gospel. And so it is with
all who obtain mercy. You see, like Paul, their pattern,
they attribute then all that takes place here within them,
including their God-given faith and love to Christ, all is owing
to his mercy and grace. And in no sense do they ascribe
unto these things any kind of causal role in their obtaining
of mercy. It was obtained for them by Christ's
obedience unto death. So we see those who obtain mercy,
they need mercy. Those that obtain mercy, they
receive the accompanying gifts of grace. And thirdly, those
who obtain mercy, they recognize that they do so solely because
of, as a result of, on the basis of the person and the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ for them, a work that was finished
at the cross of Calvary. In verse 15, as we read, Paul
wrote, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom
I am chief. And he goes on to say in the
next verse, it was for this cause he obtained mercy. I believe,
I know, that all who obtain mercy in accordance with the pattern
of Paul, according to the truth of the Scripture, They likewise
see the truth of the gospel, that is, of a salvation for even
the chief of sinners to be solely owing to the person and work
of Christ in his incarnation, that is, as he came into the
world, taken into union with his deity, a sinless humanity,
and walked on this earth in strict and perfect obedience even unto
the death of the cross. His Galatians, I believe it's
four, tells us He was made of a woman, born of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law. He was
put under the same jurisdiction of all those He came to save,
you see, that He might fulfill all that was necessary before
the Father in His justice to save them from their sins. As
we mentioned earlier, He says this is a faithful saying. It's
a saying of God, first of all, and that makes it faithful. It
is God's gospel. The word faithful, I had mentioned
earlier, it refers to that which is true, it's sure, it's certain,
and so it is completely trustworthy. Paul is asserting that all who
obtain mercy, you see, come to realize that salvation being
solely a result of what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished in
his finished work on the cross of Calvary in perfect satisfaction
to God's justice, that righteousness they must have, They see then
that all who he basically they come to realize that. In other
words, they they behold that it in fact is sure and certain
because they're resting in the God man. God cannot fail and
he did not fail in that which he came to do. He came to save
sinners. That's a faithful saying. You
remember the angel? at the, as Christ was about to
come into the world, said, call his name Jesus. That means Jehovah
who saves. For he shall save his people
from their sins. And so we see that salvation
is sure and certain for all those he came to save. It is a faithful
saying and so it is worthy of all acceptation. You see, because
the gospel sets forth that it's all conditioned on Christ, and
as such, the God-man, it is sure and certain. And because of that,
it's worthy of all acceptation. That is, it's worthy to be received
by all sorts of sinners, rich, poor, evil tyrants, religious
zealots, indifferent foes, you name it, all acceptation. And here's how worthy it is.
It's of great worth, first of all, because its worth is as
much as the price of the precious blood of Christ. It's worthy
of all acceptation, to be accepted by all sorts, because first,
it's what is absolutely necessary for God to be who he is, a just
God. Who says how by no means clear
the guilty who cannot wholly cannot commune with sin in any
way. How can such a God save the sinners?
Except the righteousness of another be put to their account by God's
gracious imputation of it. That means his charging it to
their account in the same way that their sins were laid to
his account since he had no part in producing. But he bore and
died for on the cross of Calvary. And they in turn have a righteousness
they had no part in producing. What a great exchange. You see,
it's necessary for God to save a guilty sinner. And secondly,
it's worthy to be accepted because it's suitable to the case of
all, because that's what we are. As Romans 3.23 teaches us, for
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Earlier
in that chapter, he had said there's none righteous. No, not
one. And yet, he says, that's what
we must have. I'm going to judge you in righteousness, he says.
You see, Christ didn't come to try to save anybody. He didn't
come to make it possible for you to be saved. He didn't come
to make you savable. He came to save sinners. And all those for whom he lived
and died shall be saved. He cannot fail. It's sure and
it's certain, and so it's worthy of all acceptation. And for this
cause, all of the objects of his everlasting love, all those
that he gave to Christ in the election of grace and for whom
Christ came into this world to save, like Paul, they obtain
mercy. You see, it's upon no other basis
that any obtain mercy other than the person and work of Christ
and his obedience unto death on the cross, and thereby God
is glorified. That's what he said in 2 Corinthians
4, 6, wasn't it? God who shined the light out
of darkness has shined in our hearts to give us the knowledge
of the glory of God. Where? In the face of Jesus Christ. In His person and Word. And we
see in verse 17 of our text today that His words of praise then
there, I believe, spring from the heart of one who's obtained
mercy. You see, if you come to see That when it comes to the
righteous, you must have your chief of sinners. That all of
your worthiness is in Christ and in Him alone. That your only
hope for salvation is being an object of His pure mercy and
grace. Then you see how God alone is
glorified in the salvation of sinners. And so we attribute
all glory and honor to God alone as we bow at His feet in thanksgiving
and praise. You see, those who obtain mercy,
they truly see that they do so based solely on the personal
work of Christ, whereby God is glorified and where there's no
room left for boasting in the sinner. God's not going to share
His glory. Well, what about you? Do you
really need mercy? Like the Apostle Paul, the chief
of sinners? If so, If you must have it, there's
great news. You too have obtained mercy.
You see, none of us can truly conclude that, not in our heart
of hearts, apart from God-given faith that was purchased for
us by our substitute at the cross of Calvary. And secondly, had
you received the gifts of grace, faith, and love that would cause
you to look to Christ alone for all of your salvation, Well,
if you need mercy, you have, because that's how you perceive
of that need for it. Like Paul, then, you ascribe
your faith and love towards God as just being a product of His
abundant mercy and grace in Christ. And unlike, sadly to say, most
of Christendom who continues to imagine, as many of us once
did, that they obtain mercy, the so-called Christendom, let
me be careful there, they imagine they obtain mercy because they
believed, because of their faith. And that's no mere technicality.
I trust it's clear that such notions certainly don't fit the
pattern that's provided by Paul in our text today. The pattern,
he says, of all who truly believe unto everlasting life. Lastly,
do you see yourself as one who's obtained mercy solely as a result
of Christ's finished work, his obedience unto death? Perhaps
you can sum up all three of those questions this way. Today, can
you from the heart say with Paul, This is a fateful saying. It's
sure and certain. And it's worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came in to the world to save sinners of
whom I am chief. How be it for this cause, I obtained
mercy. Now, what a blessing to be able
to identify with that.