What is the Apostle Paul's Secret to Facing Death Without Fear According to Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones?

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explores Paul's confident statement in 2 Timothy 1:12: "For the which cause I also suffer these things, and nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."

According to Lloyd-Jones, Paul's secret to facing imprisonment and death without fear was rooted in his complete embrace of the Christian gospel. This wasn't mere intellectual agreement but a transformative experience that gave him a new perspective on life and death.

How does Dr. Lloyd-Jones describe the difference between existing and living?

Dr. Lloyd-Jones makes a profound distinction between merely existing and truly living:

"There is all the difference in the world between existing and living," he explains. He uses the medical analogy of people kept technically alive by machines: "You can keep a person in a state of existence, but that isn't living."

In the spiritual realm, Lloyd-Jones argues that many people today are "just the victims of circumstances and of their surroundings and of their environment." They're manipulated by external forces, advertising, and cultural pressure. They don't really think for themselves but are "carried along by the crowd."

True living, according to Lloyd-Jones, involves understanding, purpose, mastery, and control. Christ came that people "might have life and have it more abundantly" - a quality of existence fundamentally different from mere biological existence.

What does Lloyd-Jones teach about how a person receives new life in Christ?

According to Dr. Lloyd-Jones, receiving new life in Christ is:

1. God's work, not man's work: "It isn't man's work. It is God's work." Lloyd-Jones emphasizes that this new life is "the result of the operation of the Holy Spirit of God upon us."

2. A mysterious process: Using Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, Lloyd-Jones explains that spiritual rebirth is like the wind - "You can't see it. You know its effects. You can see the results, but you don't understand."

3. A deep transformation: "Christianity is not merely a superficial washing. It's not merely something that changes a man in his externals... It changes a man's heart. It changes his very spirit."

4. A new creation: Lloyd-Jones describes it as "nothing less than a new creation. It's a regeneration. It is the God who created at the beginning, creating a new man, and bringing into being something that wasn't there before."

What are the characteristics of the new life in Christ according to this sermon?

Dr. Lloyd-Jones outlines several key characteristics of the new life in Christ:

1. Becoming children of God: "What this new birth really does is to make us children of God." We become "partakers of the divine nature."

2. A new view of oneself and everything else: "When a man becomes a Christian, he never sees anything again as he saw it before." Creation itself appears different - "Something lives in every hue Christless eyes have never seen."

3. New purposes and objectives: The Christian no longer lives for self but "lives for Christ. He lives for God. He's a pilgrim going to eternity."

4. New desires - holiness: The Christian is "called with a holy calling." Where sin leads to dissatisfaction, restlessness, fear, and hatred, the new life brings transformation - "He has new desires. It's a holy life to which it calls us."

5. A different view of death: The Christian sees death differently because they know they're "passing through this evil world" toward eternity with God.

Lloyd-Jones concludes that it was this transformed perspective that allowed Paul to face imprisonment and death "with absolute equanimity," encouraging Timothy not to be ashamed or afraid but to "hold fast" to the gospel message.