The glorious gospel
The glorious gospel of the blessed God. 1 Tim. 1:11
The text literally reads, "the gospel of the glory of the blessed God." In these words, we see why the gospel is so wonderful. It is wonderful, first, because it is about God. Beware the peddlers of false gospels. One of the ways you can detect a false gospel is by asking who the primary subject is. False gospels tend to make you the main subject; they are all about making you feel better about yourself without confronting your sin. They are often about making you the master of your fate and the captain of your soul. But not so the true gospel. It is good news because it is not about us, but about God. "But God" (Eph. 2:4) is the only hope for sinners. We cannot save ourselves; God must save us.
It is wonderful, secondly, because the God who is presented to us in the message of the gospel is the God of glory. If the gospel is glorious, it is only because the God of the gospel is glorious. He is glorious because he is sovereign, holy, good, loving, long-suffering, forgiving, just, immutable, infinite, and eternal. Every good thing is in God. He is the therefore the source of our salvation and all our hope.
The gospel is wonderful, third, because God is a blessed God. He is perfectly and fully and eternally happy. There is no discontent in God himself. He is a forever fountain of joy. He is the one in whom we can therefore find perfect rest and satisfaction and joy for ourselves.
The reason we can appropriate the blessedness of God so that we become ourselves blessed is because the gospel of God is the gospel of the Savior, Jesus Christ. We can come to this happy and glorious God through him. Hence Paul goes on to say, "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" (1 Tim. 1:15). How can inglorious and unhappy people find glory and grace? The answer is by finding it in God through Jesus Christ. Trust, my soul, in him, for Paul was a pattern for you: "Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, 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" (16).