Grace, Now and Then – Pt. 2

If you would open your Bibles
and find that spot where we left off last Lord’s Day in Titus
chapter 2, we will resume that same passage
this morning. We’re kind of ambling through
Titus 2, 11 through 14, because it’s probably my favorite paragraph
in all of Scripture. And it’s a favorite of mine because
it is really, I find, one of the most profound articulations
about God’s saving grace in all of the Bible. Paul here powerfully
and beautifully lays out the gospel in these concise lines,
which will and have echoed into the ears of all who are desperate
to hear this message. These words are not only a call
of grace to everyone who lugs around the burden of sin, but
they’re also deep theological encouragement to the faithful,
even if they are weary Christian pilgrims. As we learned last
week, these verses don’t occur in a vacuum. They are comfortably
nestled into a context, namely the midst of Paul’s cautions
and admonitions to real believers. And they serve as a spirit inspired
conclusion to this chapter, chapter two, a chapter that we saw, which
was written to anyone and everyone. Paul gives admonitions to older
men, to older women, to younger women, to younger men, and even
to bond slaves. He leaves nobody unaddressed. And then he justifies those admonitions
with this passage in chapter two, verses 11 through 14. We are taking a reasonable course
through this paragraph of which I saw two main points both built
on the repeating word appear. We learned that this popular
word or the pardon me this particular word appeared refers to something
or someone that has suddenly burst out onto the scene like
an unexpected and an abrupt bright light. but not a flash or a flicker,
but a shining that is steady and ever intensifying. As such,
this word is the word that serves in the Bible as referring specifically
to Christ’s coming. Either his initial, that is first
coming, his first advent, or his second, that is his final
coming. And these appearances by Christ
are divine intervention into the world. Because they point
to Christ’s incarnation, even his entire life, as savior in
his death and resurrection. In Jesus Christ, our Savior,
the grace of God has burst onto the scene of the fallen world
in which we live. The darkness is scattered because
God has brought salvation to hopeless sinners. This language
should not only capture the believer’s attention, but any burdened sinner
who hears it. This word appeared that we first
came across last week occurs in the opening of the verse,
and again at the halfway mark. The grace of God has appeared,
verse 11, and in verse 13, looking for the appearing. And that provides
us with the structure As I explained, the structure even upon which
my title is derived, that there is in this passage a declaration
of God’s rich blessings that have a now and a then aspect
to them. There are the blessings that
we enjoy now, and there are blessings to be enjoyed then, that is later. The initial word appearing and
experiencing of God’s grace introduced in verse 11 is further characterized
there as being lived out, as it says at the end of verse 12,
in the present age. That’s in the here and now. This
present age is the realm or the season in which this first measure
of God’s grace is bestowed. In other words, God’s grace has
already come and we are already enjoying it in some measure. But as we see, the word appear
is used again in verse 13, and there it is spoken of as something
future, something for which we are watching and waiting. We
are looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory. And so there is a blessing of
God to be enjoyed later sometime in the future. And these two
seasons. Formed the natural outline of
the paragraph. The revelation of spiritual blessings
of which there are two. We looked last Lord’s Day at
the appearance of the grace of God by which we live in verses
11 and 12. This morning, I want to look
at the appearance of the glory of Christ in which we hope in
verses 13 and 14. Would God’s people just follow
along as I read? Titus chapter two, verse 11. For the grace of God has appeared,
bringing salvation to all men, instructing us that, having denied
ungodliness and worldly desires, we might live sensibly, righteously,
and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope
and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior,
Christ Jesus. who gave himself for us that
he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself
a people for his own possession, zealous for good deeds. Last
Lord’s Day, we looked at the appearance of the grace of God
by which we live. And we discovered three things
lying on the surface there. The first is that the grace of
God brings salvation. Verse 11, the grace of God has
appeared bringing salvation to all men. We also discovered though
that the grace of God provides, grants us the repentance needed
to enjoy this salvation. We found that in verse 12, that
it is instructing us that having denied ungodliness and worldly
desires. That points no doubt to repentance
from sin. And that leaves only a third
discovery that we made last week, not only salvation and repentance,
but Christ likeness. The grace of God produces in
us a Christ likeness. And as Paul wraps up his initial
thought here in verse 12, he speaks, as we’ve already identified,
of this present age. Here in this present life, we
can confidently rejoice that it is well with our soul. Or as Paul says in Romans 8,
that there is therefore now no condemnation. But as great as
those truths are, it gets better. And what a comfort it is to the
believer in Christ to know in this life, God’s Son, our Lord
Jesus Christ, has not only granted us these infinitely practical
favors, salvation and repentance and holiness of life, but there
are still yet benefits to be discovered. and enjoyed. This is because as we first saw
last week, this word appear is used again in verse 13, speaking
of something future, something for which we as believers are
watching and waiting. We are looking for the blessed
hope and the appearing of the glory. This is the blessing of
God to be enjoyed later sometime in the future. And this is what we want to focus
on this morning, this second element of the now and then. Having looked at the appearance
of the grace of God by which we live, we want to spend our
time this morning looking at the appearance of the glory of
Christ in which we hope. And as we course our way through
this passage, We will note three things. Three things that this
appearance of the glory of Christ delivers to us. The first is
what Christ graciously brings to believers. He graciously brings
to believers hope and glory. Look, if you would, at the passage
And bear with me as I leap from verse 11 into verse 13. For the grace of God has appeared,
bringing salvation to all men, verse 13, looking for the blessed
hope in the appearing of the glory. Paul continues that the
Christian not only enjoys the abundance of God’s grace, here
on earth in the here and now, but there also are blessings
to be enjoyed then, later. And we are so confident of God’s
continued blessings that we are found to be looking for them. And we come face to face with
an obscure Bible character. Obscure except for the fact that
we were reacquainted with him just last week Remember a man
named Simeon Now last week if you will recall
We were discussing that little word salvation and how it’s used
in verse 11 and We’re not going to revisit that entire discussion
we only want to note the context of in which that word was seen. It was upon seeing the baby Jesus
for the very first time that Simeon said, Lord, my eyes have
seen your salvation. Used in the exact same sense
that it is here in Titus. But that’s not our focus this
morning. But just a few verses earlier,
we’re told why Simeon saw God’s salvation, why he was allowed
to see the Christ child. And here’s how Luke introduces
him in Luke 2 25. Just listen. There was a man
in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and
devout, looking for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Spirit
was upon him. Why did God show this child to
this humble and relatively unknown man? Because he was looking. He was watching. This is our
word. He was looking. God blessed Simeon
with the blessing and privilege of seeing the baby Jesus just
because he was looking. And Paul’s point here quite plainly
is that we too should be looking. And this fallen world, this fallen
world actually does the Christian a great kindness. because it
wipes away the thin veneer of perceived beauty or pleasantness
of this world, revealing the horrifying decay and foulness,
it naturally repulses the Christian and makes him or her look for
future glories. There’s an absolutely goofy saying
that has bubbled up recurringly in my Christian life. I’ve heard
it again and again. Maybe you’ve heard it too. It
goes something like this. That guy is so heavenly minded,
he’s of no earthly good. Have you heard that? It’s a ridiculous
statement. Because Paul in Colossians In
an epistle which he repeatedly draws focus upon heaven, in 1.5 he says, the hope laid
up for you in heaven. In 1.16 he says, by him all things
were created both in the heavens and on earth. In 1.20, reconciling
all things to himself, things on earth or things in heaven.
In 123, the gospel is proclaimed under all creation under heaven. Heaven was important to Paul,
so much so that he urges the Colossians in chapter 3, verse
1, to keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated
at the right hand of God, heaven. And that’s Paul’s point here.
We should be looking, we should be watching and waiting. The
word looking here has in mind an eagerness, not just a heart
readiness for Christ to return, but an eager expectance of these
additional blessings from God. It is the anticipation that is
felt at the reception of a guest or a long awaited letter that
finally arrives. The same word is used in 1 Corinthians
1.7, translated, awaiting eagerly, if I may, heavenly minded. Now we’ll dismantle this statement
more thoroughly in a moment and savor the particulars, but let’s
take it in its fullness first. When Paul says that Christians
are to be looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the
glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus, he points to none
other than the second coming, the second appearing, the second
advent. And it’s clear here that this anticipation is not just
a passive openness to the Lord’s return. Paul says we’re to be
looking for our Lord Jesus Christ’s return. In other words, we can’t
wait. For Jesus Christ to come back. We are to fix our whole hearts
and all of our hopes on Jesus Christ’s return. There could be no greater dream. The soon return of their Savior
is the continual and constant desire of everyone who has trustingly
placed her or his faith in Jesus Christ. It is no sullen wishfulness. It is a confident hope. It’s
a joyous expectance. It is indeed well with our soul
here But we long to see Christ face to face. Paul himself said
of this life, right? His grace is sufficient, but
that same man of God told the Galatians that we through the
spirit by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness. And
he likewise commands here that we look and wait for an even more overwhelming
measure of God’s grace. The truth is, some people are
almost ashamed to admit that they’re watching for the Lord’s
return. But we should be. And while we
know ultimately that this sentence points us to the ultimate return
of Christ, let’s ponder briefly how Paul describes it, shall
we? He calls it the blessed hope in the appearing of the glory. First, he calls it here a blessed
hope. And elsewhere, the hope of righteousness,
the hope that is laid up for us in heaven. Friends, this isn’t
just wishfulness on the part of the faithful. This plentifully
used word, used more than 50 times in the New Testament, refers
here to something concrete, hope. Not something that is merely
potential, as if it’s wished for. In other words, it’s not
indicating the sentiment of hopefulness, the attitude of one who is waiting
but rather it speaks of the thing itself, the great and wonderful
event that is joyously anticipated, our hope in that sense. It’s the settled confidence in
our soul that looks to the fulfillment of God’s promise. Such hope. It’s born of faith, and it sweetly
assures the believer that God’s promises will be fulfilled. Christ is going to return, and
for Him we wait. It takes God at His word. God
is at the heart of the believer’s hope, particularly the Lord Jesus
Christ. As Paul declared to young Timothy,
when he spoke of Christ Jesus, who is our hope. And so in technical terms, the
hope is objective, not subjective. Our hope is in the Lord’s return.
He is our hope. Paul confessed himself to having
the same hope. while standing before a heathen,
earthly governor, Felix. And the first thing he does is
deny the charges that were levied against him. And he tells them
they cannot prove sedition. But I will admit to one thing.
Acts 24 14, this I admit to you, having a hope in God. that there
shall certainly be a resurrection, both of the righteous and the
wicked. Because Christ came the first
time, believers can be strengthened so as to stand in his grace and
to confidently hope in his soon return. Look again, if you would, at
verse 13, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the
glory. There’s a fullness to that which
the believer anticipates. As we’ve already noted, this
is the second occurrence of that word appear. It points to the
second coming. This is Paul’s routine use of
this very precise word. In his second letter to the Thessalonians,
Paul spoke of the end of the lawless one. I mean, can you
even imagine the thought? the end of the devil, whom Paul
says the Lord will slay with the breath of his mouth and bring
to an end by the appearance of his coming. All Jesus has to
do is show up and the devil is done. Christ’s second coming
will be the end of the devil’s reign. To Timothy, he issues
a series of directives, four in all, all tied to Christ’s
second coming. Listen to just a few of them.
In 1st Timothy 6.14, he speaks of his appearing when he says,
keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What great motivation. Second
Timothy 4.1, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and
of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and
by his appearing, preach the word. Paul refers again and again to
Christ’s appearance at his second coming. And what more powerful
argument to faithfulness could Paul possibly think up than to
gently remind his fellow servant of the Savior’s inevitable return. He came first bearing his grace,
but his return will be in the fullness of glory. We speak of
the glory of God as that exhibition of his attributes. Thomas Watson
called it the sparkling of the deity. Isn’t that beautiful?
It is the supernaturally produced, overwhelming presence of God,
often appearing as a bright light, but always representing the perfect
attributes of God. What this tells us is that at
his return, Jesus Christ will be seen in his full manifestation. When Jesus Christ came the first
time, men rejected him, denying his deity. But he will prove himself once
and for all when he returns. Because this time, as he himself
declared it, it will be in the glory of his father. And so this
passage tells us of the hope and the glory that Christ graciously
brings to believers. It’s believers that are looking
up. It’s believers that are confidently waiting, earnestly expecting. It’s believers that will enjoy
the hope and glory of Christ. But there’s a second blessing
that Christ brings. Not only does He graciously bring
believers hope and glory, But when he comes, Christ will be
seen fully in his nature as God and Savior. Would you look at
the verse once again? The grace of God has appeared,
bringing salvation to all men, looking for the blessed hope
and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior. Now here. In one of the most
direct statements in all of the New Testament, Paul declares
the truth, the truth that sadly many believers are more and more
willing to abandon, that Jesus Christ is God. Did you realize
that? About a third of those who profess
to be Christians do not believe that Jesus Christ is God. Paul
says it right here. And still, even though Paul so
openly declares it here, it has not prevented scores of translators
and commentators from clouding and casting doubt on this simple
statement. Historically, there have really
been only two translations of this simple statement. Either
the one that attempts to divide the two The one into two and it would be translated something
like this Our great God and our Savior
Christ Jesus What it does is point to both the great God our
Father and our Savior Jesus Christ That’s the suggestion And their
primary argument is that Paul typically saves the word theos,
God, to speak of the Father himself. And I would say that this is
well and good when Paul is speaking about the Father. He is God. But here Paul is speaking of
Jesus Christ. And so the second translation
is not only more accurate, it maintains the declaration intended
by Paul. And so the second translation
would be more in line with this. Our great God and Savior, Christ
Jesus. Let me explain. Paul’s whole focus in this passage
is Jesus. And his purposes in this statement
is to proclaim the deity of Christ. There are many reasons other
than the obvious for taking this passage in this way. Again, Paul’s
whole purpose is to declare the greatness of Christ’s return,
the blessings that he brings, and so he calls him great here. Beyond that, the fact that the
definite article, the, it only occurs once here, would make
the other translation clumsy. It would have to read something
like this to be literal. The great God and our savior,
two completely different subjects of the sentence. Instead of pointing to the two
as one. And it would be utterly confusing.
When we arrive at the verb. Which occurs in verse 14 he gave. He gave himself. Who did? Not God, the father. The father
gave the son. and the Son likewise gave himself. And remember our key word for
these four verses appearing? Well, that word is never used
of God the Father in the New Testament, only of Christ. This verse, if it’s translated
correctly and interpreted accurately, declares the standing declaration
of Scripture. that Jesus Christ is God and
Savior. He is revealed in Scripture as
co-equal with God God the Father he is spoken of as existing from
all eternity. John 1 10 30 and 14 9. He is in essence God the titles
given to him the worship given to him miracles performed by
him the attributes he possesses all testify of his divine nature. Just as Paul assured the Colossian
believers, in him the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. He’s God. So what do we anticipate? That
Christ’s return, his second coming? We anticipate that Christ will
graciously bring believers hope and glory and that we will see
that what Christ is fully by nature is both God and Savior. And he will there and then when
he comes In his glory, he will complete his immeasurable kindness
to sinners, because thirdly. Not only does he graciously bring
believers hope and glory being by nature, God and Savior Christ
willfully accomplished for sinners, redemption and sanctification. Would you look at the passage?
The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
verse 13, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the
glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave himself
for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and
purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for
good deeds. The first thing you notice, he
is our sacrifice. He gave himself for us. Verse 14 begins by stating to
us that Jesus willingly accomplished these things for sinners. And
it does so by declaring the most selfless act in all of human
history. That Jesus Christ gave himself
for us. You know, it would be one thing
if we were to learn that Jesus gave out of the abundance of
His possessions, but Paul says that Christ’s gift was infinitely
exhaustive. He gave Himself. He gave Himself
to die. His life was not taken from him,
but as the apostle John will tell us, he willingly laid down
his life for us. So the first thing that we learn
about his great accomplishments on our behalf is that he died
in our stead. Paul pointedly reminded the Galatians
of this great truth. He gave himself for our sins
so that he might rescue us from this present evil age. We’ll
look momentarily at the reasons for which Christ gave himself,
but for now, I want you to ponder this. It’s important to take
this in its simplicity. He gave himself for you. He gave himself for me. He gave
himself for us. And this of course declares the
substitutionary nature of Christ’s atonement. Because you see, even if collectively,
first we’d have to get everybody willing to do this, even if collectively
we were all to give our lives on behalf of one other person. Our lives collectively would
not pay for one sinner’s penalty. It had to be Christ. He had to
die. He had to give his life as a
ransom for many. We couldn’t pay for our own sins,
so we had to step in and serve as our substitute. Christ’s entire
life was lived. according to the father’s will,
but his ultimate act of submission came at the cross when he gave
himself up for us. John’s words echo forever in
our ears, don’t they? Greater love has no one than
this, that one lay down his life for his friends. This was the
ultimate act of selflessness. This was no empty sacrifice.
It was done with a purpose. It was done to redeem sinners.
And that’s our second observation of this section. He’s not only
our sacrifice. He is our redeemer. Look at verse
14. He gave himself for us that he
might redeem us from every lawless deed. Have you pondered the latter
part of that first? Look at how graphically Paul
describes our sin. And by virtue of that, how desperate
was our condition. He says that we are redeemed
from every lawless deed. Not a few of them, not even most
of them, but every single one of them. Lawlessness, 1 John 3, 4 tells
us, is the essence of sin. In fact, he says it so simply.
Sin is lawlessness. The word lawlessness speaks of
our rebellion against God’s authority. And so it is open and flagrant
disregard of God’s commandments. But this word gets clearer still. It points not only to transgression,
but to a hatred for the command that it breaks. It is a hostile
rebellion. There is no more incredible news
than that which is echoed in Romans 4. A quote from Psalm
32. How blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Christ came for redemption. Jesus
Christ willingly and completely accomplished our redemption through
his death on the cross. His death was vicarious. He took
our place of punishment. He redeemed us. Jesus was sinless. And because of that, he was not
under the curse of death. But he accepted the opportunity
to suffer our punishment. First Peter says it this way.
First Peter to he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross. Our sin. Scripture tells us had
us in bondage. Unbreakable chains held us to
the fully deserved penalty incurred by our sin We deserved it And no one had a key We were pinned as it were to
a cold dank wall and we were doomed forever But Christ that Christ came and
he bought our release, he redeemed us out of our sin. In his sacrifice
on our behalf, he fully paid the price of our penalty. The
ransom for our sin granted us release, freedom, delivery out
of the guilt and the power of sin. It was like the overwhelming
freedom that a person experiences when they’re released from slavery.
or set free out of prison, or rescued from the captivity of
an enemy. But there’s a difference. There’s
a difference in Christ’s redemption. In slavery or in prison or in
captivity, all such men inevitably bear the marks, the scars of
their incarceration. but not those rescued by Christ.
In them there is no condemnation. Peter says that Christ ransomed
us, not with cash, not with silver or gold, but with the precious
blood of an unblemished lamb, the lamb of God, the blood of
Christ. His death on our behalf was not only propitiatory, it
fully paid the ransom. We don’t run around with chains
dangling from our wrists. And it was redemptive, it fully
satisfied God’s righteous demand for punishment. But there’s a
third thing that we observe. Not only is he our sacrifice
and he’s our redeemer, he is our sanctifier. And we end up
exactly where we ended up at the verse 11 and 12. Look, if you would, at verse
14, he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every
lawless deed and purify for himself a people for his own possession,
zealous for good deeds. The Holy Spirit, the initiator
of salvation, continues the work of God in a believer’s life.
God not only saves, he redeems and he purifies. If we view redemption
as the negative aspect of Christ giving himself, this must be
viewed as the positive aspect. We are thoroughly sullied by
sin, stained throughout from our life of wallowing in it all
our lives. And so Christ not only redeems
us out of bondage, but he purifies us of its stains. Paul, as you
know, he uses this same imagery to speak of his work in his bride,
the church. Ephesians chapter five. Great
wedding verse. Husbands, love your wife, wives,
just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for
her so that he might sanctify her. Having cleansed her by the
washing of water with the word. And we might be tempted to think
of this washing as the result of baptism, as if the water of
baptism will wash away all our sin. But baptism is symbolic. And the cleansing here, as also
in our passage in Titus, is spiritual cleansing. It’s a prolonged pardon
me rather, a prolonged soaking even in the most pure water on
earth could not wash away these stains of ours. Only Jesus Christ can purify
a sinner. Christ by his spirit and his
word purges not only the immense and the deeply rooted weeds of
sin, it cleanses the child of God from even the spot, the vestiges
of sin. so that baptism does remain the
perfect God-given symbol for the purification of sin, which
is a lifelong process. Positionally, in Christ, a believer
is justified before God. This is true. But practically
speaking, a believer is not yet perfect in holiness. Far from
it. And so the Holy Spirit continues
the work of sanctification in every believer’s life. But note,
as we close the purpose of this purification, this is beautiful. It isn’t even ultimately for
the sake of the believer that we’re purified. Isn’t that amazing? We’re not purified so that we
can walk around squeaky clean. Though we do. It’s for Christ. It’s for his
sake that he purifies us. That he might have for himself
a people for his own possession who are zealous for good deeds. The idea. I know the idea of
being someone’s possession. Anyone’s possession is abhorrent
to us as Americans. I get it. But Paul says here
that in the most precious and special way, we who are redeemed
belong to Christ. We are to be what God once asked
of Israel, to be a peculiar people as the old King James has it.
But let’s pause and correct that just a bit. Because it doesn’t
mean odd, peculiar in that sense. We don’t have a license as Christians
to be strange or to use this as an excuse for our strangeness. If you’re strange, repent of
it and ask God for grace. Paul here refers to a people
who are set apart. They are a treasured possession
of God’s. And as such, we are to live accordingly,
to live as those who are members of Christ. And as he says here,
zealous, they are in hardy and passionate pursuit of good deeds. Now, if you know the book of
Titus, you know that good deeds is his focus. It’s not the means
by which we’re saved, never. We’re not saved by our doing
good, but we are saved for them. Good
deeds are one of Paul’s particular concerns in this letter. And
it seems that the people of this island were in special need of
earthly examples. Can you imagine? They were in need of special
examples, those who treated the world with the same kind of mercy
and kindness that God had shown to them. Let me ask you, will it ever
be any different? Will it ever be any different
anywhere where Christians find themselves to have a need to
show the world of the mercy of God by which they have been treated? There’s no place like that. There’s
no place where those good deeds are not needed to show forth
the abundant grace of God. Would you humble yourself before
him? Oh, Father God, we thank you
and praise you And not only are we looking,
this world has us longing desperately for Christ’s return. But Lord, even if it’s another
thousand years off, we pray for the grace to be faithful and
to be found watching and looking and waiting. Lord, we long to
see to see Christ in his fullness as he brings us hope and comes
in glory. Merciful God, we plead with you
to keep us faithful until the day where we see you face to
face as God and Savior. And Lord, we look forward to
worshiping the one who we know has begun this work in our life,
a work of redemption and paying for our sin but also this beautiful
work of sanctification, which continues even to this day. Lord,
we thank you for initiating this work in our lives. We thank you
for the privilege that we have. To be found among those who are
waiting and watching. Lord, we plead with you. For
the sake of those who do not know Christ. Even such as may
be in this room. We pray, Father, that you would
reveal yourself to them, bring them to repentance, help them
to know and to hate their sin. And having come to a place of
the hatred of their sin, would you gently remind them that Christ
died for sinners and that Christ seeks to make them new? Christ
seeks to make them holy as he is holy. Father, we plead with
you for souls, whether they’re people on our block or in our
household or in our place of work or total strangers. We pray
that you would give us the gospel for this evil day and grant us
faith. and confidence to proclaim Christ
our only hope. It’s in Jesus’ name that we plead.
Amen.