In the Bible the apostle Paul, who wrote a sizeable portion of the New Testament epistles, did not often speak about himself. In fact he wrote, "we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord" 2Corinthians 4.5. However, when he wrote to his close companion Timothy, in the final days of his life, he did refer to himself a number of times and some of these references are introduced with the expression "I am". I would like you to think of three of these expressions.
The first is in 1Timothy 1.15 and is a confession: he says, "I am chief". We may ask, "Chief of what?" Note the unmistakable language, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." This man described himself as the chief of sinners. You may say, "I’m not a sinner", but God’s Word states, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" Romans 3.23; "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" Romans 5.12. There is no way of evading these statements; we are all sinners and thus are facing eternal banishment from God.
