Being then, Justified by [Jesus’] Faith

 I want to start this article with a powerful quote from Dean Hough:  

“Either Paul is evangelizing justification as God’s achievement through His Son’s death on the cross, or as our achievement by our believing in Christ.  It is one or the other, not partly one and partly the other (no matter how little our part may be).  Either justification reveals God’s righteousness in making all humans right by not sparing His own Son but giving Him up for the sake of all humanity (both sinners who presently listen and sinners who do not yet believe) or there is no evangel whatsoever.”¹

The points made by Dean Hough are the points I hope to reinforce in this article.  One is the point that the salvation of all (the constituting just, or making righteous of all) is inherent in the evangel (good news) that the apostle Paul was chosen to share.  The second is that because the salvation of all is inherent in the evangel, the constituting just of all is the achievement of God through Christ’s death on the cross, not because one believes.  I also hope to bring some clarification to what Paul means when he says that believers are being justified.  

Paul starts his explanation of the evangel in Rom. 3:21 after describing why this evangel is necessary and coming to the just verdict of vs. 20, that “by works of law, no flesh at all shall be justified in His sight, for through law is the recognition of sin.”  Rom 3:21-23: “Yet now, apart from law, a righteousness of God is manifest (being attested by the law and the prophets), yet a righteousness of God through Jesus Christ's faith, for all, and on all who are believing, for there is no distinction, for all sinned and are wanting of the glory of God.”  The evangel reveals God’s righteousness (Rom 1:17) and this righteousness of God is revealed through Jesus Christ’s faith.  Through Jesus Christ’s faith, which led him to die on the cross in obedience to the will of God (Luke 22:42, Phil. 2:8), God’s righteousness has been procured for all, as all have sinned and are wanting of the glory of God, and God sent Jesus to die for all sinners (Rom 5:8, 1 Timothy 1:15).  This righteousness is on all that believe the evangel, and believers are displays of this righteousness in the current era (Rom 3:26).

What evangel are believers believing? Paul lets us know in Rom 3:24: “Being justified gratuitously in His grace, through the deliverance which is in Christ Jesus.”  This is a different way of expressing the evangel that Paul explicitly states in 1Cor 15:3-4: “For I give over to you among the first what also I accepted, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was entombed, and that He has been roused the third day according to the scriptures.”  The deliverance which is in Christ Jesus is His death for our sins and subsequent entombment and resurrection; through this deliverance God graciously and gratuitously justifies.  This evangel is a proclamation of an achievement, not a conditional invitation.

In Romans 4, Paul puts Abraham up as an example of one that believed God’s promise to him, and God reckoned that belief unto righteousness.  Abraham did not believe the same good news/promise that is Paul’s evangel.  The promise made to him by God was that Abraham (then Abram) would have seed (heirs) as numerous as the stars (Gen. 15:2-5), and that he would be a father of many nations (Gen. 17:4).  Even though at the time the promises were made Abraham had no heir, he believed God: Gen. 15:6 “Now Abram believes on Elohim, and He is reckoning it to him for righteousness.” When we believe God’s promise to us, we believe in the same way Abraham did.  It is in this sense that Paul says we as believers in the evangel are “of the faith of Abraham” and he is the “father of us all”: Rom 4:16-17 “Therefore it is of faith that it may accord with grace, for the promise to be confirmed to the entire seed, not to those of the law only, but to those also of the faith of Abraham, who is father of us all, according as it is written that, a father of many nations have I appointed you -- facing which, he believes it of the God Who is vivifying the dead and calling what is not as if it were - -”  

“Calling what is not as if it were”… In believing God when He says He will justify us gratuitously, we are believing that He will constitute us something that we are not, which is righteous.  Rom 4:5: “Yet to him who is not working, yet is believing on Him Who is justifying the irreverent, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.”  God promises to justify all sinners through the deliverance which is in Christ Jesus.  All sinners are inherently irreverent, but God promises to justify all of them gratuitously in His grace.  The word gratuitously means “unwarranted, freely, without a cause”.  We can get a good idea of what this word means from John 15:25: “but it is that the word written in their law may be fulfilled, that they hate Me gratuitously.”  Those that hated Jesus hated Him without a cause, there was no reason at all to hate Him.  In like manner, there is no reason inherent in ourselves why God should justify us, but God promises to do so.  When we believe the evangel, we are believing like Abraham:  Rom 4:20-22 “yet the promise of God was not doubted in unbelief, but he was invigorated by faith, giving glory to God, being fully assured also, that, what He has promised, He is able to do also. Wherefore, also, it is reckoned to him for righteousness.”  We believe that God will gratuitously justify all sinners (make them right, constitute them righteous, Rom. 5:18-19) through the deliverance in Christ Jesus.  Our faith in this promise is reckoned to us for righteousness.  

This is where things can get confusing, and they have been for me. Believers are not currently constituted righteous, we are reckoned righteous.  God, through the evangel (that Jesus died for our sins, was entombed and resurrected) has promised to justify all mankind.  In believing this promise, God reckons the righteousness He has promised to all mankind onto the believer’s account. We enter into enjoyment of this promise at believing it earlier than the rest of mankind, because we are able to reckon as God reckons.  We are not justified because we believe, as God has already made the promise to justify gratuitously in His grace (unmerited favor) through the deliverance in Christ Jesus.  Paul using the words “gratuitously”and “grace” removes the thought that one is justified because they believe, as then there would be a cause in the one believing to be justified and the favor would be warranted, thus, the words gratuitously and grace could not be used.  God does not promise to justify if we believe He will justify us.  It was the same with Abraham, God did not promise to make Abraham the father of many nations if Abraham believed God would make him such.  In both Abraham’s case and in the case of the evangel, God has shared good news of something He will not fail to accomplish.   

All will be justified by Jesus’ faith (Rom. 3:22, Gal. 2:16).  It is because of this reason that I cannot agree with anyone that says the evangel is “justification by faith” unless the clarification is made that we are “justified by Jesus’s faith”.  Jesus’ faith in obedience to His God and Father unto death for our sins on the cross is what justifies.  Rom 4:24-25: “but because of us also, to whom it is about to be reckoned, who are believing on Him Who rouses Jesus our Lord from among the dead. Who was given up because of our offenses, and was roused because of our justifying.”  God roused Jesus from the dead because of our justifying.  Jesus died for our sins in obedience to God, and God, in lovingly providing Jesus as the sacrifice for our sins righteously accepts Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf.  Rom 5:8: “yet God is commending this love of His to us, seeing that, while we are still sinners, Christ died for our sakes.” God roused Jesus absolutely guaranteeing that Jesus’ sacrifice will accomplish what it was meant to, life’s justifying for all.²  

Some may ask the question, or one similar to it, “if our faith does not save us or justify us, why did Paul say to the Philippian jailor in Acts 16:31, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved…””  One of the things I love about the Concordant Version, are the study tools provided right in the text.  In Acts 16:31 before the word “saved” a vertical stroke is seen, denoting that “saved” is in the action or incomplete verb form.  I have attached a photo of the explanation of this verb form from the study tools in the CLNT:

In the case of Acts 16:31, the literal reading would be “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be being saved.” This corroborates what we have already covered, that hearing the evangel acquaints us with a promise of God, and believing that evangel allows us to reckon as God reckons, and we will be being saved/justified. The ACT verb form is also used in Rom 3:28 and can literally be read as “For we are reckoning a human to be being justified by faith apart from works of law.”  Again, Paul uses the ACT verb form when writing about our being justified in Gal 2:16: “having perceived that a man is not being justified by works of law, except alone through the faith of Christ Jesus, we also believe in Christ Jesus that we may be being justified by the faith of Christ and not by works of law, seeing that by works of law shall no flesh at all be justified.”  Believing the evangel is believing that one is not being justified by works of law but through the faith of Christ Jesus.  One who is continually working to be justified is never being justified in their own mind.  They are not trusting that their justification has been procured by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, and that God roused Him from the dead because of our justifying.  

Because all will be justified gratuitously in God’s grace through Jesus Christ’s faith, boasting that we in ourselves have contributed in any way to our justification is debarred:  Rom 3:26-27 “toward the display of His righteousness in the current era, for Him to be just and a Justifier of the one who is of the faith of Jesus. Where, then, is boasting? It is debarred! Through what law?”  We, like Abraham, have nothing to boast in: Rom 4:2-3 “For if Abraham was justified by acts, he has something to boast in, but not toward God. For what is the scripture saying? Now “Abraham believes God, and it is reckoned to him for righteousness.””  If we were justified because we believe, we would have position to boast, saying I have believed and now God will justify me because of it.  But the evangel itself debars this line of thought, as God has already promised to gratuitously justify in His grace through the deliverance in Christ Jesus.  

Yes, it takes faith to believe the evangel that we will be justified through Christ's faith, but any faith we have to believe this evangel has been given to us by God.  Before his in-depth explanation of the evangel begins in Rom. 3:21, Paul made sure to make known that all are under sin (miss the mark) and “that “Not one is just” -- not even one. Not one is understanding. Not one is seeking out God.” (Rom. 3:10-11).   The fact that not one (of us humans) seeks out God under our own volition does away with the idea that one can choose to seek God or conjure up faith within ourselves to believe the evangel.  Any faith we have is a gift from God: Eph 2:8-9 “For in grace, through faith, are you saved, and this is not out of you; it is God's approach present, not of works, lest anyone should be boasting.”  Our faith is given to us by God, and it is given in different measures based on God’s plan for the individual (Rom 12:3).  

When God gives us the faith to believe the evangel, He does so through His spirit: 1Cor 2:12 “Now we obtained, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we may be perceiving that which is being graciously given to us by God,”  God’s spirit is what allows us to be able to perceive the truth of the evangel, the promise that He will gratuitously justify all in His grace.  Unbelievers remain ignorant of this truth:  Eph 4:18: “their comprehension being darkened, being estranged from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the callousness of their hearts,”  The promise that all mankind will be constituted just gratuitously in God’s grace is still true even though most remain ignorant of it (through God’s intention, of course).  God designates beforehand those whom He is going to call to believe this evangel and become members of the body of Christ (Rom 8:29-30, Eph 1:5).  There are absolutely no grounds for anyone to say they have a part in their own justification.  All truly is of God (2 Cor. 5:18).

Tit 3:4-7: “Yet when the kindness and fondness for humanity of our Saviour, God, made its advent, not for works which are wrought in righteousness which we do, but according to His mercy, He saves us, through the bath of renascence and renewal of holy spirit, which He pours out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Saviour, that, being justified in that One's grace, we may be becoming enjoyers, in expectation, of the allotment of life eonian.”  This passage is a great description of what we have been talking about, God’s kindness and fondness for humanity is revealed in the evangel, that promise that He will gratuitously justify all in His grace through the deliverance in Christ Jesus, not through works.  God saves believers by pouring His spirit on us richly through Jesus Christ, so that being justified, reckoning as God does, we can enjoy in expectation the allotment of life eonian, which God promises to those who believe.  

Romans 5:1-2 is similar to the passage in Titus 3 above, and comes right after Paul wrote that Jesus was given up because of our offenses and roused by God because of our justifying in 4:25:  “Being, then, justified by faith, we may be having peace toward God, through our Lord, Jesus Christ, through Whom we have the access also, by faith, into this grace in which we stand, and we may be glorying in expectation of the glory of God.”  “Being, then justified by faith”… This literally reads “out of faith”, and it is out of Jesus’s faith, for our faith ( a callback to Rom 1:17³).  We are being justified through belief in the evangel, and we may have peace toward God, through our Lord, Jesus Christ (not because of anything we have done, but because of the knowledge of what God has done through Christ).  By faith (by believing) we have access to the grace (the promise which is the evangel) in which we stand (by believing), and we may be glorying in expectation of the glory of God (again, we can glory in expectation because we are believing God, that in His glory He will do what He has promised).  

We have seen that the evangel is the good news that God will justify all in His grace through the deliverance which is in Christ Jesus (Jesus’ death for our sins, burial and resurrection).  This confirms that the salvation of all is indeed inherent in the evangel itself.  The fact that the justification of all mankind is a foundational part of the evangel destroys any idea that one is justified because they believe.  Like the quote from Dean I began this article with, it is either God’s achievement or ours, and it cannot be partly one and partly the other.  The wonderful truth is that our justification is God’s achievement through Christ’s sacrifice.  We have also seen what it means for a believer to be being justified in believing the evangel, reckoning as God reckons, as the evangel is out of Jesus’ faith for our faith.  All are saved (absolutely) because of Christ’s sacrifice, believers are being saved currently through belief in the evangel and all will be saved (constituted just), with believers being vivified and constituted just earlier than the rest of humanity.   

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1.  This quote is from Unsearchable Riches Volume 116, pg. 185, in the article titled “The Evangel of Which Paul is not Ashamed”.  You can read this article for yourself HERE by scrolling down and clicking on volume 116.

2.  Rom 5:18-19: "Consequently, then, as it was through one offense for all mankind for condemnation, thus also it is through one just award for all mankind for life's justifying. For even as, through the disobedience of the one man, the many were constituted sinners, thus also, through the obedience of the One, the many shall be constituted just."

3.  Rom 1:17: "For in it God's righteousness is being revealed, out of faith for faith, according as it is written: "Now the just one by faith shall be living.""

Drew Costen has a great article going into how the phrase  “for our sins”  in the evangel proves that the evangel contains and promises the salvation of all, you can read it HERE.

All scripture is quoted from the Concordant Literal Version

The Faithful (Trustworthy) Saying of Paul in 2 Timothy 2:11-13

 2Tim 2:11-13: "Faithful is the saying: "For if we died together, we shall be living together also; if we are enduring, we shall be reigning together also; if we are disowning, He also will be disowning us; if we are disbelieving, He is remaining faithful -- He cannot disown Himself.""

The faithful saying expressed by Paul here in 2 Tim 2:11-13 has given rise to fear in some who read it.  Sometimes, religious baggage clouds our minds when we read passages like this and causes us to misunderstand what is being said.  This faithful saying is meant to be a profound encouragement to Timothy and all those in the body of Christ that read it.  My hope is that this encouragement will become clear as we go through it.  

This faithful saying seems to follow a structure, in more than one way.  In the original Greek, this saying had a rhyming structure as explained by BibleRef: “The two words translated "died" and "live" in this verse rhyme in the original Greek: synapethanomen and syzēsomen. The same rhyming pattern is found in the next verse as well.”  The other way this faithful saying is structured is that the first and last clause have to do with the eonian life promised to believers by God, while the two center clauses concern our service in the Lord.  In this way, the saying begins and ends with the faithfulness of God, keeping our minds on that all encompassing truth.  Each clause is a promise from God that one can take to be trustworthy or faithful. 

The first clause “For if we died together, we shall be living together also;” is a reference to the member of the body of Christ’s belief in the evangel, and God’s promise of eonian life to the believer: Rom 6:8 “Now if we died together with Christ, we believe that we shall be living together with Him also.”  Those that believe the evangel believe and understand that they have died with Christ and trust they are justified through the faith of Christ (Gal 2:16-21) and will be vivified at the snatching away to live with Christ during the coming two eons (Rom 6:22-23, Titus 1:2, 3:7).  Paul does not want those that believe the evangel to be ignorant of the fact that they have died with Christ and that their old humanity was crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:3-5).  Paul is encouraging Timothy and other believers here, if they believe and trust they have died with Christ, they can believe and trust that they will live with Christ during the coming eons also.  Eonian life is promised as an allotment to those that believe they are justified gratuitously through Christ Jesus: Tit 3:6-7 "which He pours out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Saviour, that, being justified in that One's grace, we may be becoming enjoyers, in expectation, of the allotment of life eonian." Also see Rom 3:24.

 The second and third clauses of the faithful saying go as follows: “if we are enduring, we shall be reigning together also; if we are disowning, He also will be disowning us;”  This is the section of the faithful saying that has caused fear in some believers, but I do not believe that Paul meant for this to cause fear in the hearer.  It is meant to be an encouragement, and produce endeavor on the part of the one who hears as Paul tells Timothy shortly after he shares the faithful saying:  "Endeavor to present yourself to God qualified, an unashamed worker, correctly cutting the word of truth." 2 Tim 2:15

The letter of 2 Timothy is a letter of encouragement to Timothy (and us as believers) to endure in faithful service and suffering for Christ and the evangel.  Paul wants Timothy to be unashamed. The use of the word ashamed in 2 Tim 2:15 is the fourth time Paul has used the word in this letter.  The first time is here, in 2Tim 1:8:  "You may not be ashamed, then, of the testimony of our Lord, nor yet of me, His prisoner, but suffer evil with the evangel in accord with the power of God,"  Paul encourages Timothy to not be ashamed of the evangel or of Paul, Christ’s chosen apostle and herald of the evangel.  This is after Paul has reminded Timothy to rekindle the gracious gift of God and that God gives him (and us) not a spirit of timidity, but of power and of love and of sanity (2 Tim 1:6-7).  Paul gives the absolute perspective of the matter (all is of God, any ability we have to endure comes from Him) before telling Timothy he may be unashamed and suffer evil with the evangel (1:8) because of this ability given to him by God.  Paul then reminds Timothy that God saves us not in accord with our acts, but according to Gods own purpose and grace (1:9).  Paul is making sure to set the stage with the fact that all is of God; our calling and our ability to be unashamed is according with God’s purpose and His grace.

Paul gives himself as an example of one who is unashamed of his sufferings 2Tim 1:12: "For which cause I am suffering these things also, but I am not ashamed, for I am aware Whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard what is committed to me, for that day."  Our apostle Paul was an unashamed worker in the evangel, which he proved through his sufferings for the Lord.  Paul encouraged Timothy to follow his example later in this letter: 2Tim 3:10-11: "Now you fully follow me in my teaching, motive, purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings, such as occurred to me in Antioch, in Iconium, in Lystra: persecutions such as I undergo, and out of them all the Lord rescues me."  Paul was not ashamed of the evangel as he tells us in Rom 1:16-17: "For not ashamed am I of the evangel, for it is God's power for salvation to everyone who is believing -- to the Jew first, and to the Greek as well. For in it God's righteousness is being revealed, out of faith for faith, according as it is written: "Now the just one by faith shall be living."" Paul wants Timothy to imitate him just as he told the Corinthians in his corrective letter of 1 Corinthians - 11:1 “Become imitators of me, according as I also am of Christ.”

After giving himself as an example of one who is not ashamed of the evangel, Paul gives examples of those who were ashamed of both him and the evangel:  2Tim 1:15: "Of this you are aware, that all those in the province of Asia were turned from me, of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes."  This is a very interesting statement made by Paul.  The Roman province of Asia contained the cities of Philadelphia, Colosse, and Ephesus.  Paul wrote the letters of Philippians, Colossians and Ephesians to the believers in these respective cities.  At the beginning of each of those letters, Paul addresses the  saints (believers) in each of these cities (Eph 1:1, Phil 1:1, Col 1:2).  This letter of 2 Timothy is widely believed to be one of the last, if not the last letter (in the scriptures) that he wrote.  This is backed up by Paul’s own statements later in the letter, that he had “finished his career” (4:7) and “the period of my dissolution is immanent” (4:6). If this is true, Paul is relaying the fact that all of the believers in those three cities in the province of Asia (among others in the province) turned from Paul.  Paul does not give us more details, but in the context of 2 Timothy, Paul is using “all those in the province of Asia” and “Phygellus and Hermogenes” as examples of believers who did not endure, but were ashamed of Paul and the evangel, in essence disowning Christ, the evangel, and Paul the apostle of that evangel.  

Giving credence to this view is the fact that Paul immediately gives another example of one who was not ashamed, in contrast to those who were.  2Tim 1:16-18: "May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshes me and was not ashamed of my chain, but, coming to be in Rome, he seeks me diligently and found me. May the Lord grant to him to be finding mercy from the Lord in that day! And how much he serves in Ephesus you know quite well."  Onesiphorous is mentioned by Paul as one who is not ashamed of Paul or of his chains and why Paul is suffering (for the evangel).  Onesiphorous is another example of one who endured and does not disown Christ.

Later in the letter, Demas is given as another example of one who does not endure and forsook Paul: 2Tim 4:10 "for Demas, loving the current eon, forsook me and went to Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia."  Demas was a believer, and in his letter to Philemon, Paul describes him as a fellow worker (Phlm 1:24).  He is also mentioned in Col 4:14.  Demas was a believer who at one time was a fellow worker with Paul, but did not endure in that work with him and in essence disowned Paul and the evangel like those mentioned earlier in the letter.  

After mentioning Onesiphorous, Paul goes on to encourage Timothy before he relays the faithful saying, telling Timothy to be “invigorated by the grace which is in Christ Jesus” (2:1), to “suffer evil with [Paul], as an ideal soldier of Christ Jesus” (2:3), and to “remember Jesus Christ, Who has been roused from among the dead” (2:8).  Paul again reminds Timothy he is suffering evil unto bonds and enduring all, with those chosen to believe the evangel  on his mind, that they may be saved for life eonian (2:9-10).  Paul then relays the faithful saying, after giving examples of those who do endure and those who do not and those who disown and those who do not.  

The promise to those that endure is that they will reign.  The promise to those that disown, is that they will be disowned (will not reign), as again these two clauses are related to service, not the promise given to all believers of being vivified unto eonian life.  The Greek term translated “reign” in 2 Tim 2:12 is basileuo and is defined as “exercise a king’s sovereignty” in the CLNT Greek-English Keyword Concordance.  The term translated as “kingdom” in the CLNT elsewhere used by Paul is the Greek word basileia.  These two Greek words are very closely related.  Paul mentions an “allotment of the kingdom of God” multiple times in his letters, warning that those that are habitual in works of the flesh will not be enjoying the allotment of the kingdom of God, or reigning in the kingdom.  Here is one such passage: Gal 5:19-21: "Now apparent are the works of the flesh, which are adultery, prostitution, uncleanness, wantonness, idolatry, enchantment, enmities, strife, jealousies, furies, factions, dissensions, sects, envies, murders, drunkennesses, revelries, and the like of these, which, I am predicting to you, according as I predicted also, that those committing such things shall not be enjoying the allotment of the kingdom of God."

The allotment of the kingdom is not to be confused with the allotment of life eonian, which we see in Titus 3:7: "that, being justified in that One's grace, we may be becoming enjoyers, in expectation, of the allotment of life eonian."  The allotment of life eonian is promised to all believers in the evangel of the grace of God, that they are justified gratuitously through the deliverance which is in Christ Jesus.  This seems to be corroborated by Paul in Rom 8:17: "Yet if children, enjoyers also of an allotment, enjoyers, indeed, of an allotment from God, yet joint enjoyers of Christ's allotment, if so be that we are suffering together, that we should be glorified together also."  The “allotment from God” is the allotment of life eonian, promised to all believers and “Christ’s allotment” is a reference to an allotment in the kingdom of God (reigning) promised to those that suffer together with Christ (endure and do not disown Him).  

When Paul uses the word allotment, it is not necessary that he is always mentioning the same allotment.  As we have seen, the context of each passage gives us the understanding as to what allotment Paul has in mind.  One thing that Paul is consistent in, however, is that he always solidifies the expectation of the allotment of life eonian before mentioning the allotment of the kingdom of God.  The allotment of life eonian (the special salvation that believers will enjoy) is entirely given through Christ’s faith unto death on the cross.  Of this we can be absolutely assured.  

The final clause of the faithful saying is this: “if we are disbelieving, He is remaining faithful—He cannot disown Himself.”  This is a great encouragement to all believers.  All believers in Paul’s evangel are members of the body of Christ, and thus cannot be cast out (disowned) of this position.  Their allotment of life eonian is secured.  Christ will not disown a member of His own body even if we disbelieve, do not endure, or disown the evangel or Christ.  The believers in Asia that turned from Paul, Phygellus, Hermogenes, Demas and any other believer that does not endure need not worry at all that they will “lose their salvation” or not enjoy the allotment of life eonian.  This is promised and guaranteed by God through Christ.  Believers are sealed with the spirit of promise: Eph 1:13 "In Whom you also -- on hearing the word of truth, the evangel of your salvation -- in Whom on believing also, you are sealed with the holy spirit of promise".  This seal will never be never be taken away, though we can cause sorrow to the holy spirit of God in us (Eph 4:30).   

Does this mean that a believer should worry about “losing out” on an allotment of reigning with Christ during the coming eons?  No, we must always remember that if God has chosen us to reign with Christ, He will enable us to endure: Col 1:12 "at the same time giving thanks to the Father, Who makes you competent for a part of the allotment of the saints, in light.”  God does not want us to worry about anything (Phil 4:6), and we need not worry about reigning during the coming eons because all is of God in the absolute perspective.  In the relative God encourages us contend the ideal contest (1 Tim 6:12, 2 Tim 4:7).

Will those that do not reign during the coming eons be unhappy or jealous of those that are? No, eonian life is always described as being enjoyed by those to whom it is graciously given.  Reigning is simply a requital to those God has chosen for this position (2 Cor 5:10).  Exercising the sovereignty of a kingdom requires structure, and the coming kingdom will definitely be structured under the rule of Christ.  God has given us some insight on how He is going to fill that structure out, while encouraging us to desire to be a part of that structure.  God uses Paul to encourage us in this way many times in his letters, one example is in another faithful saying found in Tit 3:8: "Faithful is the saying, and I am intending you to be insistent concerning these things, that those who have believed God may be concerned to preside for ideal acts. These things are ideal and beneficial for humanity."  Ideal acts can safely be understood to be those motivated by love, and not the acts of the flesh that Paul warns about (Gal 5:19-21).  Paul, who contended the ideal contest, showed us that suffering for the evangel is also an ideal act.

It cannot be emphases enough that Paul is not teaching “salvation by works” here.  Eonian salvation is promised to all believers in Paul’s evangel.  Reigning during the coming eons is not salvation, it is an allotment within the allotment of life eonian.  

What does it mean to endure?  I think enduring in the context of our service to the Lord is best summed up by Paul in 2Tim 4:7-8: "I have contended the ideal contest. I have finished my career. I have kept the faith. Furthermore, there is reserved for me the wreath of righteousness, which the Lord, the just Judge, will be paying to me in that day; yet not to me only, but also to all who love His advent."  Those that love Christ’s advent will be found enduring, and not disowning Christ or the evangel.  Enduring will look different for each member of the body of Christ, just as we suffer in very different ways for the evangel.  Paul does not give us a prescription for certain sufferings or a certain set of plans that our lives must follow.  He simply encourages us to endure, to not be ashamed of the evangel or of Christ.  

Paul mentioned that day in the above passage when he says the Lord will be paying him with the wreath of righteousness, Paul mentions that day two other times in this letter in 1:12 and 1:18.  This day is the day of Christ mentioned by Paul in 1 Cor 5:5 and Phil 1:6,10, 2:16.  The day of Christ is also known as the dais of Christ which Paul mentions in Rom 14:10 and 2 Cor 5:10.  Here is 2Cor 5:10: "For all of us must be manifested in front of the dais of Christ, that each should be requited for that which he puts into practice through the body, whether good or bad."  This passage and the others listed above concerning the day of Christ all fit perfectly with the faithful saying we have covered in this article. 

I hope that this article on the faithful saying in 2 Timothy 2:11-13 has helped you to understand this passage better, and realize that encouragement is really the reason for Paul including it in his letter to Timothy (and to us as believers).  This entire letter of 2 Timothy is meant to be an encouragement to not be ashamed of Christ Jesus and the evangel of the grace of God.  All is of God, and God is faithful.

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For a great talk by Dean Hough on the topic of distinct allotments for the body of Christ CLICK HERE