Dear Friends,

You might be tempted to ask after reading the subject line, “Isn’t that too good to be true? Is there really a truth that comforts in life and in death?” Today’s devotional will explain. God bless you.

Because of Calvary,

John Janney

• I Timothy 1:15

  1 Timothy 1:15   English Standard Version
  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.

I Timothy 1:15

When that eminent German critic, Bengel, the very father of true Biblical criticism, lay sick, he was very sorely tried with doubts and fears, and he therefore sent for a young man from the College, and said to him, ‘Young brother, it is very dark with me; I want you to say something that will cheer me.’ But the youth answered, ’My dear sir, you are an old man; you cannot expect me to say anything that can comfort you.’ ‘But,’ said Bengel, ‘you are a student of divinity, and you will have to speak to men, like me, who are cast down, if you are to do any real service in the ministry; I hope you will have something cheering to say to me.’ ‘Then, sir,’ the student replied, ‘I do not know that I can say anything to you except that “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. ‘Ah!’ exclaimed Bengel, ‘what better thing could you have said? You have opened a window for me.

[Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit XLIII, (London: Passmore and Alabaster, 1897), p. 579]