All of Grace

Part 2

Titus 2:11-14

February 19, 2006

 

Grace turns our attention to Jesus Christ as our salvation. Apart from grace, we will look in every nook and cranny of religious experience to find something to satisfy our anxious souls. Like the rich young ruler, we ask God what we can do to inherit eternal life. We look to ourselves and our achievements to provide enough merit to push us over the wall that separates us from God. Yet earnest sinners desiring to know forgiveness and assurance of relationship to Holy God understand in the back of their minds, that in spite of all that they attempt to do, nothing is adequate to remove the stain of sin and put the heart righteous in the face of the omniscient God.

 

Such was the story of a diminutive law student in Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1516. Thomas Bilney, serious-minded with a tender conscience, did his best to obey God's commandments. In spite of his earnestness, he still felt anxiety over the condition of his soul. Often he knelt before the priests, confessing his sins, going to lengths to name every sin he could imagine and a few more for safe-keeping. The priest would prescribe fasting, vigils of prayer, attending additional masses, and buying indulgences. His body, slight as it was, grew weak through his regular fasting and acts of devotion assigned by the priests. In spite of it all, Bilney cried in anguish, "Alas! My last state is worse than the first." Occasionally, he wondered if the priests might be taking advantage of him for financial gain rather than truly helping with his spiritual need; then he rejected such thoughts, only to fall deeper into condemnation over his sin.

 

Bilney heard some friends speak of a new Greek Testament along with an elegant Latin translation recently edited by the great humanist scholar Erasmus. He thought of securing a copy but every time he did so, he also remembered the church's and the college's prohibitions against reading Greek and Hebrew books. Yet, this Greek Testament contained the words of Christ, Bilney argued with himself. And should he not be able to read the words of Jesus Christ and perhaps find some help for his soul? He sought out the secret place that kept the Greek Testaments, bought a copy, and then shut himself secretly in his room so that he might read without fear of being caught with the banned book.

 

When he opened it, his eyes landed on 1 Timothy 1:15, "This is a faithful word and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; among whom I myself am first" (my translation). He was astonished, and so immediately laid the book down to meditate upon what he had read. Merle d'Aubigne picks up the inward conversation. "What! St Paul the chief of sinners, and yet St Paul is sure of being saved!" He kept reading the verse over and over, letting its truth sink into his grace starved mind. "O assertion of St Paul, how sweet art though to my soul!" he exclaimed. D'Aubigne explains, "This declaration continually haunted him, and in this manner God instructed him in the secret of his heart. He could not tell what had happened to him; it seemed as if a refreshing wind were blowing over his soul, or as if a rich treasure had been placed in his hands. The Holy Spirit took what was Christ's, and announced it to him" [The Reformation in England, vol. 1, 153-155].

 

Thomas Bilney's doubts ended as he saw the grace of God through Christ alone for his salvation. "I see it all," said Bilney; "my vigils, my fasts, my pilgrimages, my purchase of masses and indulgences were destroying instead of saving me. All these efforts were, as St Augustine says, a hasty running out of the right way" [d'Aubigne, 155].

 

That was Thomas Bilney 490 years ago. But what of the present day? Have things changed greatly with those that have concern for their souls? The instinct of the mind at enmity with God when there's a growing awareness of sinfulness is to do something. Start doing some good things; leave off some of the bad habits; start attending church; start giving money for worthy causes; clean up the language and even use Christian lingo; join the church; be baptized; take communion; volunteer for service or mission work; enter the ministry. More can be added, but I think you get the picture. Until we recognize that salvation is all of grace then we will labor with the goal to achieve what God only gives as a gift. The grace of God doesn't need or want our help in securing salvation. Grace points to the action of God on our behalf, doing what we cannot do, providing what we desperately need, and doing so in such a way that He alone is glorified. Do you understand the grace of God in salvation?

 

I. Grace personified

 

As we considered in our previous study, Paul declares that "the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men." Grace is the subject of this very long sentence in vv. 11-14, and grace can only be explained by looking to Jesus Christ. Paul is not referring to some abstract quality in the nature of God that we call "grace." In this case, the grace of God appearing is synonymous with Jesus Christ appearing, since it is Jesus Christ that brought salvation to mankind through His life, death, and resurrection. This is better understood as we investigate the explanation of Christ in verse 13.

 

1. Jesus Christ-the great God

 

Is Jesus Christ God or not? That question has been asked for centuries. The early church faced confrontations by those refusing to accept the deity of Jesus Christ. Some were Jews whose high view of God would not allow them to consider that He came among men. Others were Gnostics who denied that the spirit could have anything to do with the flesh. Certainly, the Jewish influence would have been strong on the island of Crete, as well as the Greek influence that allowed for multiple gods to be worshiped simultaneously. So Paul strikes at the heart of this dispute by clarifying Jesus Christ as the great God; "looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus."

 

Paul explains what he means by the grace of God, first, in verse 11 by explaining that the grace of God "appeared, bringing salvation to all men." Then in verse 13 he speaks of yet another appearing, "looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus." The first appearing brought salvation. Here he points to the First Advent, the Incarnation, as God became a man in order to secure the salvation of God's people. But now he considers the Second Advent, the Second Coming of Christ, as He returns in triumph bringing to grand fruition what He secured in His death on the cross. Grace calls for us to look in two directions. We are to look to Christ in the first advent as He came to die in our place at the cross, securing our eternal pardon and satisfying eternal justice on our behalf. But we're also to look to the Second Advent so that we keep in mind how temporal this life really is, and how one day, all that Christ has done for us in His death and resurrection will be fully realized in the sinless presence of God forever.

 

But was Jesus simply an agent of God and less than God? That's what the Gnostics would have believed; it's what modern Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and New Age adherents believe. However, Paul calls Jesus Christ "the great God." We know this due to several details in the language. First, one article governs both "great God and Savior." Since Paul understood the seriousness of what he stated, if he had wanted to make a distinction to identify two different persons he would have used an article for God, referring to the Father, and another article (the) for Jesus Christ, the Savior. The apostle is not identifying two different Gods or two different modes to the same God. He's stating clearly that the one called "Savior," whom he identifies as Jesus Christ, is "the great God."

 

Second, since Paul is explaining the action of God in bringing salvation to all men, and further describing the blessed hope found in this God, the aim of his explanation goes immediately to "Christ Jesus," as the one that brings salvation and as the focus of our hope. In 1 Timothy 1:1, Paul personifies Jesus Christ as "our hope." Hope has no meaning outside of the person of Christ. The confidence that the believer has rests securely in the Person who has redeemed him, Jesus Christ [see Wm. Mounce, WBC: Pastoral Epistles, 425]. "The blessed hope" is explained to be "the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus." ("And" or kai in the Greek is epexegetical, translated as "that is," so it is an explanation of what Paul means by "blessed hope").

 

Third, the phrase that Paul used, "great God and Savior," was borrowed from the common Hellenistic language that always referred to one person. It was a title used of ancient emperors as they flaunted themselves as gods and saviors. But the Christian could not accept such mockery of the one true God. Mounce explains, "Paul is using language that places his gospel in direct confrontation with emperor worship and Ephesian religion, the phrase most likely refers to one person in this context, not two. This is how it would have been understood in Cretan society" [428].

 

Finally, Paul uses "appearing" to explain what "our great God" would be doing. He always uses this term in reference "to Jesus' second coming and never to God" the Father [Mounce, 429]. So, God's appearance refers to the appearance of Jesus Christ.

 

Paul's use of "glory" borrows language from the Old Testament to describe the brilliant, radiant outshining of the divine being. It refers to the weightiness or heaviness of the combined attributes of God, immeasurable and unexplainable and unfathomable by our finite minds. Yet the day will come when that glory will be undeniably explained and revealed. It will not be secret so that only a few will know of Christ's coming but open for all the world to see: for believers to be filled with wonder at the outshining majesty of our Savior and for unbelievers to cringe in terror at the dreadful appearance of one so holy and just. Paul does not use "great" to infer that He is greater than the Greek pantheon of gods. That goes without saying! As the only God, He alone has greatness. Chrysostom explained that our God is great, and "after whom no one is great" [quoted by Mounce, 426].

 

So, since Jesus Christ is the "great God," what will you do with Him? Will you believe the good news concerning Him?

 

2. Jesus Christ-our Savior

 

It is very clear in Titus 1:3, when Paul speaks of "God our Savior" he refers to the only true and living God. He is not referring to multiple gods but to one God who alone promised eternal life. Now he uses the same title, and clearly applies it to Jesus Christ: "our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus." Christ Jesus is set as an appositive which explains the identification of "Savior." He is the great God who is also our Savior. The first title speaks of His inherent majesty and transcendence and loftiness. The second reminds us that He has come to us to deliver us from our sin and from His own wrath.

 

Savior, save, and salvation are all built on the same root stem. It indicates that someone is in a dire predicament and another rescues him or delivers him. We do not know that we need a Savior until we come to terms with the human predicament of bondage to sin.

 

This is pictured for us in the story of Israel in Egypt. The Egyptians held the Jewish nation in bondage. They applied the whip to their backs and demanded more of them than they could deliver. They were powerless to do anything to change their situation. But God sent a deliverer by the name of Moses who was the human instrument God used to rescue Israel from bondage and a type of savior. Yet Moses was powerless apart from the Lord who met him in the wilderness and set him apart as an instrument in the hand of God. That's why the preface to the Ten Commandments begins with the declaration of God as Savior: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery" (Ex. 20:2).

 

Do you need a Savior? If you have come face to face with your own inescapable bondage to sin and the weight of judgment against you, there's only one to deliver you, Christ Jesus, our great God and Savior.

 

II. Grace clarified

 

I hear it so often as a pastor. When someone of a different denomination or at times, even a different faith, discovers that I'm a Baptist pastor, they say, "Well, it doesn't matter about our label. We're all working to get to the same place!" But that is a fallacy. I'm not working to get to heaven. I could never do enough work in a thousand lifetimes to merit the forgiveness of my sins and achieve the righteousness necessary for entering such an infinitely holy realm. God does not save "on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy" (3:5). We see this clearly as Paul clarifies what the grace of God accomplishes through Christ.

 

1. Act of substitution

 

Often, critical doctrines turn on a preposition. In this case, the preposition "for" or huper in the Greek, explains what Jesus Christ did on the cross. The word literally means "on behalf of," so that it clearly indicates that One substitutes for another. Notice the language: "Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for [on behalf of] us to [in order to] redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." This act of self-giving shows the willingness of Jesus Christ to offer Himself as the payment necessary for our sins. "Gave" refers to an accomplished act, something that is unrepeatable. He did not give Himself for Himself but for us whom He purposed to save because of our inability to save ourselves.

 

The Old Testament provides us a clear example of substitution like that of our Lord. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest placed his hands upon the head of a young goat as an act of transferring his sins and the sins of the people of Israel upon this goat so that he would bear them on behalf of the people. The goat became their substitute. All of their sins effectively resided in the young goat as it waited for the moment of execution by the priest. As the stroke fell upon the goat it was as though it fell upon the people. As the goat's blood was poured out in sacrificial death, as the substitute for the people of Israel, it was as though their own blood poured out to assuage the wrath of God and atone for sin.

 

What is the alternative to Christ being your substitute? Eternal damnation. It is either you or Christ on your behalf, bearing God's justice toward you as a rebel and lawbreaker. There is no other way for your sins to be addressed. No church can take your sins away; no amount of penance or good deeds or religious fervor can remove the judgment against you. But the good news of the gospel is that God was satisfied to accept Jesus Christ as your Substitute, to bear away your guilt and judgment as though you took the full measure of eternal damnation yourself.

 

For whom did Jesus Christ act as a Substitute before the wrath of God? Paul puts it quite simply: "for us." Can't you hear him now? "Titus, my boy, think of what God has done for you-for us through our Lord Jesus Christ! He took our place at the cross! He died for us so that He might deliver us from sin and purify us as His very own!" Dare we rob the beauty and magnificence of what Christ did on the cross by making "us" generic, a reference to everyone without distinction? Here was a definite act of substitution by Jesus Christ, so that He might secure a particular people by His redemptive work that He would treasure as His very own possession. "Who gave Himself for us" points to a distinct and effective work of Jesus Christ on the cross for the very ones the Father sent Him to redeem. Our Lord considered this in His high priestly prayer. "Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life" (John 17:1-2). All that the Father gave the Son, He secured for Himself as their Substitute on the cross.

 

2. Necessity of redemption

 

Why did Jesus Christ go to the cross? Paul explains, "Who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed." The text more literally declares, "Who gave Himself on our behalf in order to redeem us from every lawless deed." A purpose clause (introduced by the Greek hina, in order to) explains the reason for Christ's self-giving at the cross: to redeem us from every lawless deed. While atonement speaks of the covering of our sin by Christ's blood, propitiation refers to the God-satisfying death of Christ on our behalf that met the demands of justice, redemption points to the act of deliverance through the bloody death of our Savior. He delivered us from bondage to sin and sin's mastery in order to reconcile us to God-to be His own possession. The word comes from the ancient slave market where someone pays the ransom price to deliver a slave from bondage. In this case, the price for deliverance was death. Nothing but death would do; and not just any death (e.g., Bonar's phrase, "no other blood will do"). Sin's mastery over us is so strong that to ransom sinners like us, only the death of one infinitely righteous and holy would do. So our Substitute, Jesus Christ, paid the full measure of our ransom. Nothing more can be done; no more price can be required; Jesus Christ ransomed us in full measure "to redeem us from every lawless deed." The 19th century pastor, Patrick Fairbairn expresses this work so well.

...for it is only by virtue of the reconciliation with God, effected through the propitiatory death of Christ, that there is attained by the sinner such a participation in the life of Christ, and such renewing and strengthening aid from the Spirit of grace, as may enable him to break the bonds of his spiritual captivity, and rise into the pure and glorious liberty of God's children [1st & 2nd Timothy & Titus, 285-286].


III. Grace exemplified

 

The apostle intends us to see that the redemptive work of Christ not only delivers us from the bondage of sin but He also did such a complete work as "to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." The redemptive work of Christ assures the certainty of the believer's sanctification, his ongoing growth in holiness and obedience as a child of God.

 

1. In His special people

 

Here is just the point that so many fail to understand in Christ's purpose in the gospel. The intention of His death was to reconcile His enemies to Himself so that they would be His own people. What does a holy God do with His own people, here described as "His own possession"? He doesn't put us in a cabinet as one does antique figurines! He purifies them even as He is pure. The Greek literally reads, "So that... He might purify to Himself a treasured people." Christ's self-giving at the cross has such an effect and is so sufficient as to continually purify the believer. Here is the remedy to legalism that would begin in Christ and then try to finish by works of the flesh. You cannot make yourself more acceptable to God than you are through the redemptive work of Christ on your behalf. Multitudes of Christians struggle at this point. They believe that Christ died for them to save them from their sins. But duped by human logic, they fail to see that His death is sufficient to take them through the daily grind of life and present them complete before God. HSo they labor and struggle with "do this... do that... obey this regulation... follow that rule... do these steps... keep this principle," all with a view to purifying themselves. Please don't misunderstand. I'm not saying that we are to be passive regarding our sanctification. That's the very thing that Paul corrects in vv. 2-10. But what I'm insisting upon is that you do not do these things to make yourself acceptable to God or to make yourself holy or to earn purity. "In Him you have been made complete," Paul told the Colossians (2:10). As those who by Christ have become "His own possession," He treats you as His treasure. He keeps you for Himself.

 

2. Unique zealousness

 

We've watched with horror the misplaced zeal of Muslims burning buildings, rioting, and killing as an act of zeal for the honor of Mohammed whom they believe to be have been blasphemed by some Danish cartoons. Here we see the vast difference between the grace of God in Christ and a religion that does nothing to redeem and purify. Christ's redemptive work redeems us and purifies us to Himself "a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." (Literally, the text reads, "a zealot for good deeds," so that he speaks singularly of the church as one zealous people). The work of Christ applied by faith in the believer has an impact on the way he approaches service to God. He has a new zeal; not for killing and rioting as we've seen in Islam and Hinduism and other religions, but in zeal that focuses on good works-those acts of obedience and service and ministry to others that God has prepared for the believer to walk in (Eph. 2:10). The Christian does not do good works in order to merit God's favor; rather he does them because he has already found God's favor in Christ. So affected by the redemptive work of Christ, his lifestyle pursues doing the kind of things that will bring glory and honor to his Redeemer.

 

Conclusion

 

Do you know the grace of God experientially? You see it on paper. You hear it with your ears. But has God shown grace to you through faith in Christ as your Redeemer and Savior?

 

Perhaps some among us have been actually depending upon your own labor to gain God's favor rather than depending upon Christ alone. You've done lip-service to the gospel but you actually struggle and agonize inwardly in your ongoing attempts to gain God's pardon and relationship. My friend, it is Christ that gave Himself to redeem you from every lawless deed and to purify you as His very own possession, and in so doing, your whole life is affected with a new zeal for serving Him. Will you believe Him?

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