Another verse people reach for when they hear someone preaching freedom from sin is this line in 1 Timothy (1:15), where Paul says: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.” Like with Romans 7 and 1 John 1:8, it gets quoted like some kind of trump card against the idea of walking free from sin. The moment you say that believers can walk completely free from sin in this life, someone throws it down and says, “See? Even Paul called himself the worst of sinners. If he couldn’t escape it, neither can we.”
But that’s not what Paul is doing in this letter. He’s not trying to justify sin or teach us to identify with it. He’s not confessing a destiny of defeat for the Christian. He’s pointing to the kind of mercy Jesus showed him when He was a sinner, and just how far that mercy was willing to go. Paul is saying, “Look who I used to be, and look how patient Jesus was with me in spite of it.”
Understanding the Context of 1 Timothy
Before we continue, we need to understand the fuller context of 1 Timothy so we can see what Paul’s overall goal is for this letter—and why he brings up his own past at all.
Paul is writing to Timothy, his spiritual son, and charging him to stay in Ephesus for a specific reason: to confront a group of men who are teaching false doctrine (1 Timothy 1:3). These men are devoting themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculation rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith (1 Timothy 1:4). They want to be teachers of the law, but they neither understand what they are saying nor the things about which they make confident assertions (1 Timothy 1:7). Paul is sending Timothy to bring correction, not just with truth, but with the right heart. He reminds him, “The aim of our charge is love that comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5).
That is important to see. Timothy is being sent into conflict with other people, but Paul does not want him going in with arrogance or aggression, he wants him anchored in love. This is exactly why Paul brings up his own story just a few verses later. He is not sharing his past to highlight how bad he used to be (or “still is”), he is offering a model for Timothy to follow. Paul is saying in effect, “I used to be just like them. I was ignorant and blind and zealous in all the wrong ways. But this is how Jesus responded to me—He showed me mercy and patience.”
This shapes how we read everything that follows. By the time we get to 1 Timothy 1:15 we can see that Paul is not lowering the standard or making excuses for sin–his overall point isn’t really about sin at all. He is saying, “This is the kind of love and patience that came after me when I was in their shoes. Now you carry that same love to them.” His story becomes a model for Christian conduct. He wants Timothy to confront false teaching, but to do it with the same gentleness and mercy that Christ showed him. Why? Because if God showed mercy and patience for Paul, the worst of the worst, then God certainly wants to show mercy for this group of people too. In other words, by showing mercy for the worst, God is expressing a desire to show that same mercy to all the rest.
Paul’s Testimony, Not His Identity
Some have pointed to Paul’s use of the present tense—“I *am* the foremost”—as proof that Paul still identified as a sinner, even after all Christ had done in him. But this misreads both the grammar and the context.
In the Greek, the verb *eimi* (am) is indeed present tense. But the use of the present tense here is not a confession of ongoing sinful behavior. It is a rhetorical emphasis used to highlight the depth of mercy Paul received. Paul is not identifying with sin; he is identifying with mercy.
Just one verse earlier (1 Timothy 1:13), Paul says plainly, “Formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent.” If we are going to interpret Paul’s use of “I am” in verse 15 to be a present-tense confession, then we must also accept that he is still blaspheming, still persecuting, and still violently opposed to Christ, since that is the context in which he is claiming to be the (present-tense) “worst” or “foremost” of sinners.
But we know Paul is not saying that. He is describing who he was when Christ came for him, and he is using his story to put the mercy of Jesus on display. His point is not, “I am still the worst.” His point is, “If mercy came for me when I was the worst, then it can reach anyone.” (see What the Cross Did)
A Hypothetical to Clarify Paul’s Meaning
Let’s consider a hypothetical. Imagine that a man like Adolf Hitler had genuinely come to repentance before the end of his life. Imagine that this architect of the holocaust came face to face with the mercy of Jesus, confessed his crimes, and placed his trust in the blood of Christ. If that had happened, then the gospel would apply to him in full: he would be forgiven, made righteous, and born again—not because his crimes were small, but because Christ’s mercy is vast.
Now imagine that man telling his history (which, to be fair, we are already familiar with) and saying, “Christ came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost.” Would Christians take that to mean he was still sneaking out on Monday morning to orchestrate evil? Of course not. No one would take that as a confession of ongoing behavior. We would understand instinctively by the context that he’s speaking of what he was and did at one time: “When Christ found me, I was the most guilty man alive—performing absolute atrocities in the name of God—and yet He responded to me with love, patience, and mercy that saved me.” Even now, long after his death, we still speak of Hitler as “the worst person” in the present tense, not because his actions continue, but because we don’t consider anyone to have surpassed the scale of his evil.
This is what Paul is doing. When he calls himself the foremost of sinners, he is not describing a present spiritual condition. He is ranking himself as the “foremost,” or the “top-ranked” sinner, based on the evil he was actively committing before he knew Jesus. He is drawing from his past to magnify the patience of Christ—even in the midst of the worst atrocities. He is not presently identifying with his old sinful self (the same self he says was crucified with Christ and no longer lives); he is highlighting the grace that came for that old man and put him to death, and how Christ made him into a new man, despite his previous activities. He is using the old to highlight the entryway into the new (see The Old Self is Dead).
Not a Confession, But a Commission
This failure to comprehend tenses has made this part of Paul’s letter one of the most misused verses in the modern church. Many read that line as if Paul is making a present-tense confession, suggesting that even after everything Christ had done in him, he still saw himself, not only as a vile sinner, but the worst of them. Some even take it as a kind of humble posture: “If Paul still saw himself that way, then so should I.” But that is not what is happening in this passage. (See Who Do You Say Christ Is?)
With the full context of chapter 1 in view, we can now see why Paul brings up his past in verses 12 through 15. He is not shifting topics or making a self-deprecating side-note. He is not telling Timothy—or us—that he still views himself as a wretched, filthy sinner. He is doing something far more purposeful. Paul is reinforcing the heart posture he wants Timothy to carry with him as he confronts the false teachers in Ephesus. He is saying, “I know what it’s like to be on the wrong side of the truth. I was that man and I was proud of it. But here’s how Jesus treated me.”
This is not a confession of ongoing sin. It is a celebration of Christ’s mercy and patience toward someone who had once violently opposed the truth. Paul is offering his own story as a living example of how God deals with ignorance—by pouring out love and mercy. And he is holding that example up as a model for how Timothy is to deal with these false teachers.
Back in verse 13, Paul says, “Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief.” That word *formerly* is not there accidentally. It tells us exactly how Paul is framing his story. He’s not describing his current state, but pointing to the man he used to be. “Though formerly I was…” (see You Are Already Free From Sin)
The True Identity of the Saints
When people use this verse to justify a sinner identity, they not only miss Paul’s goal, but they contradict the overarching theme of all of his letters. Paul never makes excuses for sin or relating to sin. On the contrary, he is always emphasizing the grace that pulls people out of it, and he draws a distinct line between the old life and the new. If you’ve read his letters, you know he never calls the churches sinners—not even once! He always calls them saints. He builds them up in their calling and reminds them who they are in Christ. (see What the New Creation Is)
Even when Paul writes to the Corinthians—a church marked by division, pride, and compromise—he doesn’t define them by their failures. Instead, he reminds them of who they truly are in Christ. After giving them a long list of the kind of people who won’t inherit the kingdom of God, he writes, “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). He doesn’t say, “You’re acting sinful, so you are sinful.” He certainly doesn’t say, “You’re still sinning, so you must not be real Christians!” He says, in effect, “Your behavior is out of alignment with the truth of who you are—so let me remind you.”
Paul isn’t offering empty flattery, he’s describing the real identity Christ has given them. Paul knew what happens when people believe what God says about them, so he was always building them up in that. If you think you’re just a sinner saved by grace, you’ll keep living like a sinner, and grace will be seen as something that “covers” sin instead of taking it away. But if you believe you’re righteous in Christ, you’ll start to walk like it.
To conclude that Paul is suddenly appealing to a sinner-identity is to misunderstand everything he has written about in his letters so far. Or it’s to assume that he says all of those wonderful things about us, but he doesn’t believe it about himself.
Humility Means Agreement with God
Pride has two disguises: 1. Thinking of yourself more highly than you out to. And 2. Thinking of yourself more lowly than you ought to. Most Christians avoid the first only to dive headfirst into the second.
Real humility isn’t putting yourself down—it’s agreeing with God. And God says you’ve been made holy (Hebrews 10:10), perfected (Hebrews 10:14), and made righteous (2 Corinthians 5:21). It’s not pride to believe that. When you agree with His Word, it’s not arrogance, it’s true faith, and true worship. Paul says in Romans that we shouldn’t think ourselves more highly than we ought to, but he never says not to think of ourselves highly at all. That seems to be the root of false-humility and self-deprecation within the minds of Christians. But it’s not self-importance to think of yourself as highly as God does. Self-importance is to think of yourself higher, which usually happens when we think of ourselves as being anything apart from Him. But there is another kind of self-importance, which is to think your behavior is a truer definition of your identity than the Word of God. For example, if you keep calling yourself a sinner after He has made you holy and called you a saint, that’s not humility—it’s pride and unbelief.
This is where a lot of people fall back into striving. They fast, they pray, and they push themselves harder and harder trying to break free from sin. If they do get more free in an area, they look around and think, “I did this! It was my fasting, it was my praying, it was my devotion to God!” And that is how you end up with prideful people who act superior over others, judging others by their own work instead of Jesus’s.
If your freedom comes from your effort, then you have reason to boast over someone who’s still stuck. But if you see that you are what you are because of what Jesus did, and because of who you are in Him you can walk free, then all the credit goes where it belongs. You learn what it means to “boast in the Lord.” You didn’t work your way out of sin, you were rescued by grace. Why? “So that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:10)
This is Paul’s point in 1 Timothy 1:15. It isn’t some kind of false humility—“I’m such a sinner, but look how merciful God is.” That was the right response when we were still in sin (and is the response John is talking about in 1 John 1:8-10; see 1 John 1:8 in Context for a full theological breakdown). But now that we are saints and have been (past-tense) rescued from sin, we are to speak of our wretchedness in the past tense. I can still say, “Formerly I was,” but that statement should always lead to gratitude for how Christ responded to me in that condition, and should ultimately become a testimony of what I presently am in and because of Him. I am not meant to treat the “former” as if it’s still the present reflection of me, since doing that says Jesus didn’t actually save me from the former at all. It would suggest I’m still in the same sinful state He found me in.
A Testimony of Grace, Not a Justification for Sin
This is the difference between religion and the gospel. Religion turns Paul’s story into a reason to settle for defeat. In an effort not to “think of themselves more highly than they ought,” many believers run to the opposite extreme—thinking of themselves far lower than they were ever meant to. Then they go searching for that thinking in Scripture, even projecting it onto the apostles. They reduce Paul’s words to a kind of false humility that isn’t humility at all—it’s just pride wearing a religious mask.
They say, “If Paul called himself the worst, then how could I possibly think of myself more highly than that?” And they string together one-liners from different letters to make themselves sound humble—when in reality, they are calling God a liar (see The Lie That Makes God A Liar from my post on 1 John). But the gospel says something entirely different: “If mercy could save Paul there, then it can save you here.”
To that, many Christians will nod and say, “Amen.” So what’s the problem? The problem is that they confess things with their mouth but their heart never moves close to it. Instead of moving into the reality that they’ve already been saved from sin, they live and speak like those who have yet to be. They say they’ve been saved from sin, but go on calling themselves sinners. They say they believe in freedom from sin, but insist they’ll always be under sin’s power until they die. That isn’t freedom—it’s slavery dressed in Christian language; yet that’s what gets promoted as spiritual and humble.
But Paul isn’t deceived by that kind of double-mindedness and he doesn’t want us to be either. He isn’t identifying as a sinner in 1 Timothy, he is giving testimony to what happened to him when he was. He didn’t say it so we could keep sinning or thinking low of ourselves—he said it so we would believe in the mercy that has taken us from that low place and “raised us up with Christ,” seating us in Heaven with God.
Read 1 Timothy 1 as a whole, and you will see it with new and clear eyes. In that way you will let it transform the way you think about yourself. No longer seeing yourself as “the worst,” you will see that are alive and new because His mercy has already saved you.
