one are two, and yet thou sayest what reason does not suggest. “If He begat He also
suffered.”1174 “For there is one God,” he says, “and one Mediator between God and men,
the Man Christ Jesus.”
431
Ver. 6. “Who gave Himself a ransom for all to be testified1175 in due time.”
Was Christ then a ransom for the Heathen? Undoubtedly Christ died even for Heathen;
and you cannot bear to pray for them. Why then, you ask, did they not believe? Because
they would not: but His part was done. His suffering was a “Testimony,” he says; for He
came, it is meant, “to bear witness to the truth” of the Father, and was slain.1176 Thus not
only the Father bore witness to Him, but He to the Father. “For I came,” He saith, “in my
Father’s name.” (John v. 43.) And again, “No man hath seen God at any time.” (John i. 18.)
And again, “That they might know Thee, the only true God.” (John xvii. 3.) And, “God is a
Spirit,” (John iv. 24.) And He bore witness even to the death. But this, “in due time,” means,
In the fittest time.
Ver. 7. “Whereunto I am ordained a preacher and an Apostle, (I speak the truth in
Christ, and lie not:) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.”
Since therefore Christ suffered for the Gentiles, and I was separated to be a “teacher of
the Gentiles,” why dost thou refuse to pray for them? He fully shows his own credibility, by
saying that he was “ordained” (Acts xiii. 2.), that is, separated, for this purpose, the other
Apostles being backward1177 in teaching the Gentiles; he adds, “in faith and verity,” to show
that in that faith there was no deceit. Here is observable the extension of grace. For the Jews
had no prayers for the Gentiles; but now grace is extended to them: and when he says that
he was separated to be a Teacher of the Gentiles, he intimates that grace was now shed over
every part of the world.
“He gave himself a ransom,” he saith, how then was He delivered up by the Father?
Because it was of His goodness. And what means “ransom”? God was about to punish them,
but He forbore to do it. They were about to perish, but in their stead He gave His own Son,
and sent us as heralds to proclaim the Cross. These things are sufficient to attract all, and
to demonstrate the love of Christ. Moral. So truly, so inexpressibly great are the benefits
which God has bestowed upon us. He sacrificed Himself for His enemies, who hated and
rejected Him. What no one would do for friends, for brethren, for children, that the Lord
1174 ἔπαθεν. Not in the sense implied in Sabellianism. He refers to an Arian argument against the proper
Divinity of the Son, which he means is less plausible than one which this passage of St. Paul shows not to be le-
gitimate. See St. Ath. against Arians, Disc. 1, Ben. § 16, t. i. p. 421 a, Tr. c. v. § 6, p. 204.
1175 Lit. “the Testimony.”
1176 He seems to mean, “was slain for that purpose.”
1177 ἐνάρκων. Montf. observes that all copies agree, and that this may be true of the countries mentioned in
the Acts of the Apostles, but not universally.
744
1 Timothy 2:2-4