But is now made manifest. — The grace, a gift given to us in Christ from all eternity, but hidden during unnumbered ages, till the fulness of time — the appointed time — arrived; the “now,” when it was made manifest.
By the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ. — The simple act of the Incarnation by no means covers the “appearing.” The “appearing” (Epiphany) here includes not only the birth, but the whole manifestation of Christ on earth, including the Passion and the Resurrection.
Who hath abolished death. — More accurately, when he abolished, or, made of none effect. The Greek word thus rendered, signifies that by the action of the Lord, death was rendered inoperative, comparatively harmless — its sting was removed. The “death” thus made of none effect has a far more extended meaning than that separation of soul and body we are in the habit of calling death. It signifies that awful punishment of sin which is best described as the exact opposite to “eternal life.” The death we are acquainted with by sad experience here is only the forerunner of the death eternal. Already to the believers in Jesus this death of the body counts for nothing; the time will come when it will even exist no more.
And hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. — The Greek word rendered “immortality” is more accurately translated by incorruption. “Life” here is that true life, in its highest and completest sense, which includes the most perfect happiness — a happiness a foretaste of which is enjoyed on this side the grave; over it (this bliss) death now has no power — indeed, death is the gate, so to speak, through which we pass to its complete enjoyment. St. Paul says Christ “brought to light” life and incorruption, not only from having imparted to His own these glorious and divine attributes, but chiefly because He has displayed (or manifested) the life and incorruption in His own resurrection body before our very eyes. When St. Paul wrote to Timothy, we must remember, many an eye-witness of the resurrection glories still walked on earth; with these must St. Paul, and Timothy too, often have conversed. Thus it can, with all literal truth, be predicated of Jesus Christ that He brought life and incorruption out of that darkness in which, as far as men were concerned, these things lay, into the clear and bright light of day. And as the hearers of Christ and the eye-witnesses of His resurrection were, when we consider this great mass of mankind, comparatively few, the medium by which these glorious truths were made known to men was the preaching of the gospel, in which gospel the Holy Ghost had enshrined both the words and the story of Christ.
On the Greek text of this grand verse Ellicott observes that it is remarkable that “Death,” being then a known and ruling power, has in the original the article, while “Life” and “Incorruption,” being then only recently revealed and unknown powers, save to few, are written without the article.