It has often been pointed out that in 2nd Timothy we see the failure of the church, and have the instruction for the direction of the faithful in the last days. Although man fails, and the outward testimony of the church is in ruin, there can be no failure in the carrying out of God's promise, for it depends, not on the fidelity of man, but on the faithfulness of God. This is what the Apostle begins with in his second epistle to Timothy, "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus" (
2 Tim. 1:1).
God's promise of life is also mentioned in
Titus 1:2, "In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began", so that God's promise tells us what He determined to do in regard to the communication of eternal life to His own, to those He had chosen to be the companions of His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. God's promise, His eternal purpose, cannot be frustrated by anyone, nor can the failure of man hinder what He is determined to do; and with the failure of the church before his eyes, Paul, by the Spirit of God, falls back upon the eternal purpose of God.
This life that God has promised is the eternal life that is in Christ Jesus. It is in Christ Jesus now where He is in heaven; it was in Him essentially before time began, and ever remains in Him in this way (
John 1:4); and when He came into Manhood to carry out the Father's will, the Father gave to Him as Man "to have life in Himself' (
John 5:26). This eternal life is in God's Son, and true believers have it in Him now, and shall have it in Him and with Him for all eternity (
1 John 5:11). The Spirit of God presents through John eternal life as even now possessed by the saints in Christ, but Paul is used by the Holy Spirit to present it as connected with our glorified condition with Christ in a coming day, so that it is a "blessed hope", the "hope of eternal life" (
Titus 1:2;
Titus 2:13;