1 Timothy 1:11

according to the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

Far from decrying the Law and deprecating its continued use in the Church, the apostle is careful to place his right knowledge in opposition to the false teaching of the errorists: We know, however, that the Law is admirable, if one makes a lawful use of it. The apostle chooses such words as bring out his position properly and ward off the objection that his language does not agree with his policy. That the Mosaic Law, the Moral Law, is good, acceptable, that it is of real value in the world, the apostle says also in other instances, e. g., Romans 7:12; Romans 14:18 its contents correspond to the highest demands which can be made with reference to a law, namely, that it be above all justified criticism. But the Law must now also be used lawfully, in accordance with its object. Only then is the Law used properly, when it is taught for the purpose of working knowledge of sin, of making men conscious of their guilt and damnableness. It is not there for the purpose of affording occasion for various idle questions and speculations or for teaching righteousness through works.

The apostle now illustrates his meaning by naming such sins as demand the application of the Law: Knowing this (when every teacher for his own person has this knowledge), that for the just man the Law is not set forth. This is a sweeping statement concerning the Moral Law, and one which puts the doctrine of justification into the very center of Christian preaching. He that is justified in Christ through faith and by virtue of the merit of Christ is acknowledged by God as just, is no longer under the Law, for Christ is the end of the Law to them that believe, Romans 10:4; Romans 6:14; Galatians 2:21; Galatians 3:21. A person justified in this manner is clothed with the righteousness of Christ and no longer is subject to the condemnation of the Law. The Law, as demanding a perfect fulfillment, no longer exists for him. "But the meaning of St. Paul is that the Law cannot burden with its curse those who have been reconciled to God through Christ; nor must it vex the regenerate with its coercion, because they have pleasure in God's Law after the inner man. " To a believer in his capacity as Christian, as justified before God, the Law, as Law, shall no longer be applied. And evangelical admonitions that have the sanctification of the believers in view must never assume the character of legal driving.

But the case is different with the unbelievers, with the unregenerate. The Law is indeed given, and exists in its full force, for the lawless, for those that deny the validity of the Law and serve their own lusts and desires; for refractory people, unruly rebels that resent restrictions of every kind; for irreverent, that deliberately deny all respect to God; for sinners, such as are continually engaged in acts of evil against God and man; for irreligious, who consider nothing holy and refuse to know anything of the dignity of duty and obligation; for profane, that deliberately tread everything holy under foot. Their sins profane the name of God and destroy all morality. There is, however, not only a general disposition toward evil on the part of the unregenerate, but they become guilty also of specific transgressions. The Law is given for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, children that so far forget themselves as not only to omit the respect and reverence due the parents, but actually mistreat them brutally, and under circumstances do not shrink back from the last terrible step, that of taking the life of them that gave them life. As the Fourth and Fifth Commandments are both included here, so the apostle names the transgressors of the Fifth Commandment separately: murderers. As violators of the Sixth Commandment are mentioned adulterers and sodomites, people that either in a natural or in an unnatural manner abuse their fellow-men for the sake of gratifying their sexual lust. See Romans 1:27; 1 Corinthians 6:9. The kidnapers mentioned by the apostle include all who exploit other men and women for their own selfish ends, especially such as abducted girls and boys for the purpose of selling them into slavery. As transgressors of the Eighth Commandment Paul names liars, such as deliberately speak falsehoods in order to harm their neighbor; and perjurers, that do not hesitate to swear in corroboration of a lie, or deliberately break a word given under oath. All other sins the apostle includes in the expression: And if there is anything else opposed to the sound doctrine, according to the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. The expression "healthy, wholesome doctrine" is peculiar to the Pastoral Letters. Evidently the apostle is speaking of the Christian doctrine as a whole, of the teaching concerning sin and grace. All sins are contrary to this doctrine, for they indicate the corruption of human nature, they are external symptoms for the illness of the soul. Against such transgressions the proclamation of the Law is directed, such violations it condemns. By applying the Law in its proper manner, the disease should be uncovered, the tumor of the soul exposed. Only then will it be possible to put a person in the condition that accords with the wholesome doctrine of the apostle: the Law having shown the disease, the Gospel brings the remedy, health and strength.

So the apostle closes this paragraph by summarizing his knowledge regarding the wholesome doctrine entrusted to him. He has the knowledge, as every true teacher in the Christian Church should have it, on the basis of the Gospel, namely, that the Law is not made, does not exist, for a righteous man. The apostle wants to distinguish absolutely between the teaching of the Law and the proclamation of grace; for the one class of men, for the justified as such, he wants only the Gospel; for the other class, the unrighteous, he wants only the Law. His Gospel, moreover, is a Gospel of glory; it contains and transmits all the gifts of grace through which God is glorified in the believers. But the perfection of this glory will be reached in the life above, when our existence for eternal ages will redound to the glory of God, of Him who is blessed and perfectly happy in Himself and will make us partakers of this eternal happiness. With the news of this grace, of these blessings, the apostle has been entrusted. He considers his office a wonderful privilege, which no natural inclination caused him to seek, but which he now, in the full consciousness of its dignity and power, defends with all warmth, and which causes him to voice his heartfelt gratitude.