Room For All

… God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:3-4)

In this day of rampant relativistic humanism, there is “the truth.”  It is not based on the on the fickle whims of men, but on the immutable Word of God.  “The truth of the LORD endureth for ever” (Psalm 117:2).  “Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever” (Psalm 119:160).  “ For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:  But the word of the Lord endureth for ever” (1 Peter 1:24-25).

Man’s “truth” is mutable.  What is “true” in one century is proven false in the next.  It was once true that the sun circled the earth; now we know that the earth circles the sun.  The “science” of man is ultimately flawed because man has limited knowledge and understanding and because it originates from a faulty source – man himself.  Jesus says, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Matthew 24:35).  That is an incredible assertion to make, if the claimant is incapable of validating it.  Anyone making such a claim in the world of science and academia today would be laughed to scorn, and yet Jesus makes such a claim without hesitation because He can, and did, validate it with His own death and resurrection.

Our verse contains one of the greatest, if not the greatest, truths: that God “will have all men to be saved,” and thereby “come to the knowledge of truth.”  God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (1 Peter 2:9).  “This is a [“truthful” or “trustworthy”] saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Timothy 1:15).  The “truth” is that in God’s plan of salvation, there is room for ALL.  The companion truth is that not all will make it.  Jesus said, “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).  There IS room for all, but not all will find room.