who desires that all men should be saved and come to [the] knowledge of [the] truth.
The verse gives the reason behind the call to pray for all people: it tells us what God Himself wants. Two questions follow. What does "desires" mean here, when not all are saved? And why does the verse join salvation to knowing the truth?
The verse just before calls God "our Saviour." That title marks a change from the way God was known before:
The law by which God governed Israel tended to give Him the appearance of a national god who cared only for the chosen people. The great moral experiment was for man to learn what he is. After it, the gospel of His grace makes plain that God is now displaying Christ for what He is Himself. And He is God our Saviour.
The same writer reads the title as a statement about God's nature, not about His hidden plans:
"For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; who desires that all men should be saved" — speaking now of His gracious willingness. Not His counsels but His nature rises before us. We must be blind if we fail to see a great point in these letters. It is the good and loving nature of God, which would have us look at all men without exception.
Older versions render "desires" here as "will." The original word is softer than a decree:
The word here translated "will" — "who will have all men to be saved" — means desire, wish, in the original. It does not mean determination or decree. If it did, no one could escape being saved. It is a different word from the one used in verse 8, which carries more the force of prescribe, or decree.
So how does election fit with a desire this wide? One writer sets the two truths side by side:
This is where election comes in. It does not limit the provision. It does not restrict in any way the grace that invites and welcomes all. It secures the blessing of those who would otherwise refuse and forfeit it, as the rest do. The grace to all is not narrowed by the "grace upon grace" to many… The salvation of men is from God; the damnation of men is from themselves.
One writer uses the same verse to rule out any idea that God marks people out in advance for ruin:
Another error has caused difficulty over election. Some hold that, since some are ordained to eternal life, God has also fore-ordained others to destruction. This idea is called "reprobation." But Scripture does not teach it. God desires that all men should be saved, 1 Timothy 2:4, and His election to life ensures that some will be.
If God desires this much, why is anyone lost?
He is both able and willing to save the vilest, but not without acknowledgment of truth. Therefore He commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel… If men are lost, it is through their own will opposing the truth. It is not God's will. He desires their salvation. He gave His Son. He has now sent His own Spirit from heaven, so that the good news may be declared to them in the power of God our Saviour.
The verse does not stop at rescue. That second desire shapes what we ask for others:
To be saved comes first, yet it does not end here. The knowledge of the truth also matters greatly. So our prayers for others should not be limited to requests for salvation. We should pray that they learn the precious truth of God.
Many stop at the first half, and one writer counts that a real loss:
People must first be saved, and know it. Only then is the heart free to receive "the knowledge of the truth." While the conscience is unsettled, the soul is in no right condition to grow in that knowledge. And yet how many, sadly, rest satisfied with salvation. That is what their hearts had been set on — safety for themselves — without wanting to enter into God's wish for them — that they might come to the knowledge of the truth.
Because the verse states what God wants, it also corrects the range of our praying:
Obeying this exhortation of God's Word will keep Christians from praying with a narrow nationalism. They will not pray as though God were the God of one nation only, or of one nation and its allies… To pray with understanding, in a way acceptable to God, we must pray according to this revelation of Himself. Otherwise we misrepresent His character.
- Character — the verse shows God's nature, not His hidden plans. He is "God our Saviour," not the God of one nation only.
- Desire — the word translated "will" means wish, not decree. If it were a decree, no one could fail to be saved.
- Reach — "all men" means all men, not only the elect. Election secures some without narrowing the grace offered to all.
- Responsibility — salvation comes from God; ruin comes from man. People are lost through their own will opposing the truth.
- Result — God's desire runs past rescue into teaching. So pray for others that they be saved, and that they learn the truth.
For God is one, and [the] mediator of God and men one, [the] man Christ Jesus,
Everything here rests on two counts of one: one God, and one go-between. The verse also calls that Mediator a Man — and that word carries the weight of how sinners come to God.
Israel had long told a world full of idols that God is one. The second half of the verse is what the gospel adds.
Judaism was the revelation and testimony of the one God. Christianity also reveals the true God. But it brings out an equally great truth: there is only one mediator, just as there is only one God. And this one mediator is the Man Christ Jesus, who came into the world and who gave Himself a ransom for all.
Moses once stood between the Lord and one nation. What comes now reaches further.
Israel had the truth of the one, true, invisible Jehovah, Maker of heaven and earth. He was not revealed then, but He truly was all this. Moses, too, was the mediator between that same Jehovah and His people, and there was no ministry. But now God has revealed Himself. The Mediator stands between Him and men — not just Israel — and there is a ministry towards all men.
A mediator implies parties at odds and a third who comes between them.
God is the One offended by sin: man, the offender: the Man Christ Jesus, the Mediator.
The longing for such a person is older than the gospel.
Long before Christ appeared the hearts of men longed for a mediator. The book of Job is evidence of this, for that man felt the immense gulf that lay between God and himself... The One who steps in as arbiter or Mediator must Himself be God, to represent God fully. He must be Man, to represent man rightly. The Man Christ Jesus is He.
The word "man" in the verse is not decoration. It shows how the two sides meet.
This proves the utter worthlessness of all men. Only Christ can bring men to God, and every one of them needs bringing. The Mediator is great enough to put His hand on the throne of God. By taking Manhood and going into death, He stooped low enough to put His hand on the sinner, so that He could bring him to God righteously.
His manhood is only half of what mediation takes.
So, just as we need, we have an adequate image of the invisible God. This Jesus is "mediator of God and men," though mediation goes further than representation. There are two parts in it — His manhood and His ransom. Both matter greatly if we are to know God, and if man, sinful man, is to be blessed as he should be in the knowledge of God.
A count of one leaves no room for other go-betweens.
Does not 1 Timothy 2:5 sweep away at one stroke the intercessor-saints of the Roman system? It says plainly, "there is… one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all." The Virgin Mary did not give herself as a ransom. Our Lord did. And we can well trust the One who did that when we come to Him, rather than turn to any go-between.
The reason lies in what God is like.
A great point in these letters is the good and loving nature of God. We must be blind if we fail to see it. That nature would have us look at all men without exception... "There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men." This is always the ground and character of First and Second Timothy. It is not the Father and His family; it is God and man.
Paul's word about Him is present tense, not past.
Later still Paul writes of Him as "The Man Christ Jesus" (1 Tim. 2:5). He does not speak of Him as the One who once was the Man Christ Jesus. He is a Man today.
- One God. The truth Israel guarded among the idols stands unchanged; the gospel adds no second God.
- One Mediator. As surely as God is one, the way to Him is one: God offended, man the offender, Christ between.
- One Person, both sides. He must be God to represent God, and Man to represent man. He is high enough to touch the throne, low enough to touch the sinner.
- One ransom. Mediation takes more than showing us God: He gave Himself a ransom — and that reaches men, not one nation only.
- One forever. Paul still calls Him "the Man Christ Jesus" — the manhood He took up He never laid down.
who gave himself a ransom for all, the testimony [to be rendered] in its own times;
This verse names the price behind the gospel: the one Mediator did not just speak for men, He gave Himself. Two words carry the weight — "ransom" tells us what His death did, and "all" tells us how far the news now reaches.
Verse 5 has just called the Mediator a Man. Who He is decides what He is able to pay.
And then — oh, wonder of wonders! — the Mediator became the Ransom. As Man He could rightly offer Himself as the ransom price for men. As God, the ransom price He offered had infinite value. So no one is shut out on God's part.
The word "ransom" comes from ordinary life, not from religion.
In the New Testament the word is lutron, or antilutron, from a word meaning "to loose, set free." Christ gave Himself, His life, a ransom for many. The precious blood of Christ shows that every claim of God against the believer has been met.
The captivity is not political. It is a grip no one can break by trying harder.
A ransom is the price that sets captives free. And the Lord Jesus has paid that price to free all who believe in Him from captivity to Satan, the power of sin, and the fear of death.
In Matthew, Christ is a ransom "for many." Here Paul writes "all." That is not a contradiction. The little word "for" changes its sense.
When, as in Matthew, it is a ransom for many, the meaning is clearly defined. The "for" there is "instead of" (anti) many. It is strict substitution. When, as in 1 Timothy, all are in view, it is simply "on behalf of" (hyper) all. "For" does not always have the same sense in Scripture.
So the "all" marks how far the offer reaches, not how many are finally saved.
The wording is wide. Some have used it to teach that every person will be saved in the end.
Some have twisted this statement, handling the Word of God dishonestly, to make it mean that the whole human race will be saved in the end, including all the wicked dead… He has given Himself a ransom for all. His propitiatory sacrifice makes provision for the salvation of the whole race. But faith is needed to receive this salvation.
Then why is not everyone saved?
This is one of those Scriptures that tells us the scope and reach of the death of Christ, rather than the effects it actually produces. Not all are saved, as we sadly know, but the blame for that lies on their side, not on God's.
The second half of the verse fixes a moment in history. The testimony goes out now, not in some future age.
"The testimony given at the proper time" points to the testimony now declared, after man's time of testing had shown every other option powerless. For long years God patiently bore with man and waited, giving him every chance to prove himself without a Mediator. Now the exact time has come for the revelation and testimony of the One Mediator.
That season has a starting point in history.
The proper time, or its own time, for that testimony to be given came when Christ finished the work on the cross. The one mediator between God and man gave Himself a ransom for all. Ever since then, the message of God's love and grace has been preached.
Paul has been urging prayer for all people. The reason lies in what God is like.
We must be blind if we fail to see that a great point in these letters is the good and loving nature of God, which would have us look at all men without exception. How far God's counsels reach, and how far He applies the effective work of His grace, is another question. But nothing alters God's nature.
- Price — a ransom is the price that frees a captive. Christ paid it with Himself, freeing believers from Satan's hold, sin's power and the fear of death.
- Person — as Man He could stand in for men. As God, the price He offered had infinite value. No one is shut out on God's side.
- Scope — "for many" means "instead of many." "For all" means "on behalf of all." So the two verses do not clash.
- Condition — the provision covers the whole race, but faith receives it. The verse does not promise that everyone will be saved.
- Timing — the "proper time" began at the cross and is running now. So we can pray for anyone alive.