If Paul Could Be Saved, Anybody Can

1 Timothy 1:16 KJV

 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

The apostle here sets himself before us as a strange example. Though he was the worst of sinners, even persecuting and consenting to the death of Christians, he obtained mercy. Paul says his mercy is meant by God as a kind of pattern that, if such a sinner as he could be saved, any sinner could be saved. If one as terrible as he could find mercy, anyone can find mercy. 

Albert Barnes writes, "… here it means that the case of Paul was an example for the encouragement of sinners in all subsequent times. It was that to which they might look when they desired forgiveness and salvation. It furnished all the illustration and argument which they would need to show that they might be forgiven. It settled the question forever that the greatest sinners might be pardoned; for as he was “the chief of sinners,” it proved that a case could not occur which was beyond the possibility of mercy."

I suppose someone could imagine that they have committed worse sins than Apostle Paul, but God's Word sets him out as the chiefest of sinners so that the man who see himself even as the worst of sinners might see he has access to mercy through Jesus Christ. 

For a related thought, click here:

http://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com/2010/06/smallest-sin.html

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