Monday, February 4, 2019

Titus 2:11-15 “What Makes Godly Living Possible?”


When the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone that believes[1]  comes into the lives of people, then a real change of life is to be expected. 
Sadly, it must be said that one meets many people who have had some kind of religious experience, but in the long term it appears to have made no difference. 
Some have grown up in a Christian home, they had been baptised as infants and yet they have never come to Christ themselves. Others have been baptised in the hope that this would make them a Christian. They were never thoroughly instructed concerning the purpose and meaning of baptism to begin with.   Others  have accepted Christ by  walking to the front of the church, praying the sinners prayer and then,  having been pronounced  by  a pastor  or counsellor  that  they had thereby become a Christian,  feel after a while that there  is no change happening.  Whatever your Christian conversion experience may be, if  it did not reverse the direction of your life, and  if it does not presently transform  you, then you are not likely to be converted at all. 

Our contention from Paul’s letter to Titus is that the receiving of the gospel of Jesus changes your life.    
The gospel had come to Crete, an island of morally degenerate people (cf. 1:12). In the midst of this moral mess, people became followers of Jesus. Their lives began to change.  Churches were planted. Godly elders were installed in the church (1: 5-16). These qualified elders were to teach the church and watch over the church, for there were many corrupting influences, directed by the archenemy of the church, Satan who seeks to destroy the young church at all times[2].   New converts had to be instructed in the faith they now embraced.  This teaching and training was to be done at many levels. Older men, older women, young men and young women had to learn to live this new life in accordance with the gospel they had embraced (2:1-10).

We now come to the climax  of this little letter in 2:11-15.  It provides the theological basis for the practical instructions given in vv.1-10,  as  the apostle Paul affirms his conviction concerning  the ability and the power of the gospel to save and  to  change all kinds of people (even the worst[3]) for good:  11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ[4], 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

SALVATION : The Grace of God has appeared bringing salvation for all people (v.11)

Follow the logic of Scripture now as we pursue this text.  Why can people change? How can older men, older women, younger men and younger women, caught in the vicious patterns of sin – how can they change? How can they not be slaves to sin? How can they be free from sin?   It all begins with this great truth that  "the Grace of God  has appeared .  What is this Grace of God?   It is not a magic wand; it is not a formula; it is not a thing. The grace of God has appeared in the form of  a person, a Saviour. His Name is Jesus Christ.  In the next chapter, in 3:4-7 this powerful  experience of God’s grace  is clearly explained. The work of salvation is applied to us  by the  Triune God: The Father (2:11), the Son(2:13;3:4), the Holy Spirit (3:5).  

But to whom is the grace applied?
This part of the text needs to be understood in its context i.e. following the logic of 2:1-10. This text does not teach that all people will be saved. There is, of course   a sense in which the church is called to proclaim the grace of God in the hope that all will be saved.  But Paul is not teaching universal salvation here.  The better translation (in context)    is  probably,  “the grace of God has  appeared, bringing salvation to all kinds of people… i.e. the grace of God  comes to all kinds of people irrespective of, gender, race (yes , even Cretans can be saved!), age  or social class. In heaven we will find a ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Rev. 5:10; 7:9). Not all will be saved, but God will have for Himself a chosen people from all kinds of people.

Grace for Living
Now that Paul has  established the doctrine of salvation  for a  chosen people of God, he goes on to  explain how  that salvation ( the act of having been justified by grace  cf. 3:7)  now expresses itself in an ability  to please God   through sanctified living…
12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Here  we see  that the grace  God not only saves (and justifies) all kinds of  people  from sin, but we also see that  the grace of God is  involved in our sanctification.  The grace  that has appeared  does not leave us as we are, but  it  also  trains us (Gr.paideuō –instructing, educating). This  word is most often applied to children, and so  it  means to train by the use of discipline. It sometimes has the force of chastisement. Hebrews  12:5-11 best  conveys the  idea of  God’s grace-based training.  So, grace is our teacher. Grace is our instructor. What does the grace-based  training of  God  teach us?
·       To renounce ungodliness and worldly passions (negative)
·       To live self -controlled (note  2:2,5,6), upright and godly lives  (positive)
·       Redeem us from  all lawlessness
·       Purify us

Paul affirms that those who have become recipients of the grace of God  are trained (this can be a challenging experience)  by God  in this present age.  This training means   that  we are developing the ability  to persevere, endure, discern (i)  what is not good and (ii) what is good, by way of contrast. We are trained to love the world and the things of this world less. We are  trained  to control ourselves in all aspects of living, and thus we can  live godly lives in this present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great  God and Saviour, Jesus Christ…”.

It is very important that we keep the goal in view. Many  people give up on the Christian faith,
(i) because they do not train and 
(ii) they do not keep the end in view. 

It is  questionable  that  such people (notwithstanding the fact that many appear to be greatly gifted)  had received  saving grace in the first place.

I want  you to see that true salvation is a package deal. When you are saved, you persevere. That is the logic  of our text.  While training and perseverance are words that speak of personal commitment, we need to remember that they are preceded by the grace of God -  by enablement. 
I can train  for this Christian race, I can run in this Christian race, I can endure  this Christian race, BECAUSE  I am graciously enabled to do that. Not everyone endures (just as not everyone endures the Namib desert dash or a marathon). We see this in the pastoral epistles. Phygelus  and Hermogenes turned away from Paul (2 Tim. 1:15)  Hymeneaus  deserted  Paul ( 2 Tim. 4:9) and Alexander the coppersmith did the cause of God great harm ( 2 Tim. 4: 14,15). One of my constant prayers is that I may endure, that I may run and finish the race  by the grace of God.  I believe that it is a prayer that God hears  and answers. Careless Christians  beware!

By means of enduring this training, by means of living a God – centered life, while waiting for Christ’s coming ( whether by our death or  by His  visible appearing)  we    become  a people “purified for His own possession, who are zealous for good works.”  Our sanctification, the work  of God in our souls  leads to  purification. But it is ultimately all by His grace. Grace is the Christians starting point, and he ends the race by grace. We enter heaven  being entirely purified by the shed blood of Christ.

THE THREEFOLD TASK OF THE PASTOR- TEACHER  (Titus 2:15)

15 Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Here Paul lays before Titus the threefold task of the Christian pastor and preacher. 

·       Speak these things! (Gr.  tauta lalei) It is a task of proclamation.  There are some things about which argument is not possible and on which discussion is not relevant. There are times when the preacher must say: "Thus says the Lord." When it comes to the doctrine of salvation, this is what  your preacher  must declare to you. 

·       Exhort! (Gr. parakaleō)  Offer encouragement.  Any preacher who reduces his audience to bleak despair has failed in his task. Men must be convicted of their sin, yes, but they must be helped to see  that their case is not  hopeless; they must be led to the grace of our Lord Jesus  Christ, that grace  which is greater than all their sin. 

·       Rebuke!  Use  conviction. The eyes of the sinner must be opened to his sin. The Christian message is not a drug to send men to sleep; it is rather the blinding light which shows men themselves as they are and God as he is.

Do all this  with a sense of your delegated  authority. Paul says to Titus, “Remember that this message is not yours. It is God’s Word.”  Don’t tone the message down. It is after all a message of hope for those who  will hear. They must hear.  Their eternal destiny is at stake.



[1] Rom 1:16
[2] 1 Peter 5:8 ; Revelation 2&3
[3] 1Timothy 1:15,16
[4]  one of the texts affirming the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ

No comments:

THE DOCTRINE OF REST

This Paper was given at a Break-away Session  during the 2024 SOLA 5 Conference by Joachim Rieck  The doctrine of rest, or ceasing from work...