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GRACE CALLS US TO ZEALOUS SERVICE
Titus 2:13-14
Bob Bonner
March 29, 2009
Those Jews who lived in Israel between 20 BC and AD 30 were a people who had lived under the taxation and tyranny of brutal local foreign governors who represented the nation of Rome. Many of their own in their local community, although Jewish, had forsaken their God and had begun to live as loosely and immorally as their unsaved gentile or non-Jewish neighbors. Some of the Jews even went to work for the Roman government as tax collectors, extorting funds from their fellow Jews. In return, the Jews hated them and viewed them as traitors. To the parents of that generation, who had seen better years, those times must have appeared to be the worst possible in the recent history of Israel. Those were not peaceful years for Israel, nor were they economically prosperous or morally or religiously upright, either.
It was in the midst of this that Jesus Christ gave his last public sermon, three days before he was arrested and promptly executed. It was not particularly a touchy-feely sermon of good news. But it was the truth. In His message, He spoke of even harsher days to come. Christ’s words were given not to frighten or discourage but to encourage them to hold on to the only proper perspective that would, in the end, enable them to live a purposeful and meaningful life in the midst of harsh circumstances. He wanted them to invest wisely their remaining years on the earth. This sermon is found in Matthew 24-25 and is called the Olivet Discourse, because it was given on the top of the small mountain known as the Mount of Olives about 2000 yards outside the city of Jerusalem. Look and listen to just a few words of Christ’s sermon. He said,
“You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not
frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and
in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these
things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. Then they will deliver
you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations
because of My name. At that time many will fall away and will betray
one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise and
will mislead many. Because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love
[for God] will grow cold. . . . But woe to those who are pregnant and to
those who are nursing babies in those days! . . . Unless those days had
been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the
elect those days will be cut short.” Matthew 24:6-12, 19, 22
Today we live amid similar distressing times the likes of which we have not ever seen worldwide. National economic woes brought on by our own greed and materialism have not only put our country into a recession or depression, but also affected countries around the world which depend upon our market. Added to this is what I am calling the ongoing white collar crime of business executives and political leaders padding their wallets with raises and personal bonuses at the taxpayers’ expense. Locally, this past week alone, I have been made aware of six families whose primary if not sole bread winner has been laid off work with little or no hope of being hired back.
Worldwide politics reveal more half-crazed political leaders, with nuclear weapons at their disposal, threatening for religious and political reasons to start a war.
On the side of personal tragedies, this past Monday I read about three California families headed for a skiing vacation who were all suddenly killed in a tragic plane crash, leaving a wide pool of friends and family in shock and grieving. Locally, there are several families whose children are facing serious illnesses.
In such harsh, immoral, and violent times, where is one to focus his or her attention? Where is one to get perspective as to how to live and invest one’s life? Clearly, the answer to those questions is to look to God and to His Word, which has not only predicted such times would happen, but delineated how not only first century Christians were to live, but we as well in this 21st century.
According to God’s Word, one day this present age will have run its course. When it has, our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, will come again and introduce a whole new order of living. But in the meantime, how are we to live as we wait for this great event? How are we to face such harsh and heart-rending times? According to the Apostle Paul’s letter to Titus, the answer is to focus on the past, present, and future work of God’s grace that has already taken place, is taking place, and will take place in the days ahead.
Open your Bibles with me to Titus 2 and we will to continue our study of Titus 2:11-14. These verses literally make up one very long sentence, the subject of which is the grace of God. This grace of God, according to the Apostle Paul, came to instruct us how to live today in light of God’s past and future work through the person of Jesus Christ. One key and operative word that helps us understand the purpose of these verses as they relate to the grace of God is the word “has appeared” in verse 11 and “the appearing” in verse 13. Both of these expressions refer to God’s grace or gift to humanity that has come in the person of Jesus Christ, our Savior. In verses 11 and 12, Paul refers to the first coming of Jesus Christ and how his crucifixion and resurrection impacts our lives today. In verses 13 and 14, Paul points to Christ’s future second coming and how, because at the end of the Great Tribulation he will judge the earth, this should affect how we invest our lives today. Interestingly, in verse 12 the subject matter is the steps a Christian should take to purify his life for living a godly life. In verse 14, we are called to live Christ-centered lives because of His past purifying work in us.
Overall, this passage teaches Christians how to live in wildly immoral and unjust days that are politically and economically unstable at best. In our verses of study for this morning, the focus and motivation is that of getting the most out of life by keeping one’s eye on the age to come. Let’s begin again by reading this rather long sentence, starting with verse 11. Paul writes to Titus saying,
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to 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 to redeem us from every
lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession,
zealous for good deeds.
Allow me to paraphrase the salient points of verses 11-12 so as to set them off and more easily explain and introduce verses 13-14, our verses for study this morning. Paul says in verses 11-12 that the grace of God instructs us to live sensibly, righteously, and godly today, all the while being on the lookout for the blessed hope, the future appearing of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, who came the first time around with a specific purpose in mind. We will look at that purpose closely, when we get to verse 14.
It is worth noting that in the original language of the New Testament, "looking for" is in the present tense, indicating that this eager anticipation of the Lord’s coming should be our characteristic attitude. We should always be ready to welcome His return.
Also, in the original language the word “the” appears only once before “blessed hope.” The word “the” is not there before the words, “the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior.” Because the second “the” is absent in the Greek language from before the term “appearing,” it indicates grammatically that “the blessed hope” and “appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior” are one and the same event, not two separate events. Thus, this appearing refers to Christ’s second coming at the end of the Great Tribulation, when the anti-Christ and all of the rulers of this world will join forces in an all out war against Jesus. The end of this is that Christ is victorious and judges this world. Following that, we have Christ bringing in His 1000 year reign on the earth, having reunited for the first time His faithful living believers with the faithful resurrected dead believers.
Normally, we use the word “hope” to indicate a feeling towards something that is merely wished for, something that is uncertain. For instance, we hope that we’re going to get the job we have applied for—but of course we cannot be sure. We hope that we shall be able to visit again next year—but there is no guarantee that we will be able to.
In the New Testament, the word “hope” does not indicate merely what is wished for, but what is assured or guaranteed by the promises of God. We noted this about the word “hope” when looking at the “hope of eternal life” mentioned back in 1:2. Hence, although His promise of Christ’s second coming rests in the future, it is guaranteed.
Likewise, the words “our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” have a very clear meaning in Greek. Due to Greek grammar, these words are best understood to refer to one person, not two. In other words, Paul is not saying that God the Father and Jesus Christ are going to appear. Instead, he is saying that our Savior is one and the same “great God,” Jesus Christ. This translation agrees with every usage of the expression “the appearing” in the New Testament, in that “the appearing” always refers to Jesus Christ and never to God the Father.
As further evidence that Paul is clearly pointing to Jesus Christ as being God is this unusual phrase “the great God.” It is found only here in the New Testament. Elsewhere in the Old Testament, the adjective “great” most often applies to God. And in the New Testament, this same term “great” is reserved for Jesus and thus affirms His deity. (Luke 1:32; Heb. 10:21; 13:20).
In addition, Paul calls Jesus great not just because he wants to notify us that Jesus is God, but also because he wants the greatness of Jesus to stand out in stark contrast to that vanity of what this ungodly world calls greatness. People have always been dazzled by what this world calls greatness, but only when Jesus comes again will they see true greatness. At that time, what the world thought was greatness will shrink in comparison to Jesus’ greatness as He defeats all of the world’s forces and takes back the rulership of the earth. Sadly, those who have rejected and rebelled against Jesus will, as their last act before being cast into Hell, bow down before Christ and acknowledge Him. But by then, it will be too late.
Many if not most today reject the idea of Jesus Christ being God, but rather point to Him as being a just one of many great moral teachers. Three weeks ago, this was one of the rebuttals I received from one of my high school friends whom I had not seen in forty years. My response to this foolish idea that Christ was merely a good moral teacher came from C. S. Lewis’s often-quoted statement:
I am ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His
claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was
merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great
moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic —on a level with the man who
says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell.
The reason Lewis says this is because the Devil is a liar. Jesus would have had to lie and deceive, as Satan does, in order to claim that He is God, or that He would raise from the dead, or that he would come again. A liar cannot be a “great moral teacher.” Historically, Jesus did rise from the dead, and there is absolutely no evidence that shows Him to have ever lied. Hence, Jesus was not a lunatic or a liar. Therefore, Lewis concludes:
You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God;
or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you
can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon, or you can fall at His feet and call
Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense
about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He
did not intend to.
My friend’s response to these words was stunned thoughtful silence. His wife, on the other hand, who also had come from a Buddhist home, showed a greater interest in learning more about Christ. It is my hope that this coming fall, while on vacation, my wife and I will have the opportunity to continue our discussion with these friends.
Before we move on to verse 14, allow me to show you the significant differences between Christ’s first and second appearing. In Christ’s first appearing, He came in humility and submission. In His first appearing, by grace, He brought the offer of salvation to all people. During this first coming, His glory was mostly veiled, and His crucifixion led to sorrow for His followers but rejoicing for unbelievers. But during His second appearing, Jesus will come in power and majesty. Jesus will bring not merely an offer of salvation, but actual salvation from this world to the new world for all who believe. Whereas Christ’s glory was veiled in His first appearing, His glory will now not be veiled. It will be seen by all people. For those who have put their trust in Christ, there will be rejoicing; but for those who have rejected Christ, there will be terrifying judgment.
That’s why His second coming is to be considered by believers as a “blessed hope.” It is something wonderful to look forward to. It is something that should determine how we live today, in light of what will be coming.
Hence, if your sights are set on the promise of Christ’s return, then verse 14 tells us that we should also make His purpose for saving us the focus and purpose for living everyday of the rest of our lives until He comes. What is that purpose? Paul tells us in verse 14 that when Jesus came the first time, He did so to give His life as a payment to “redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.”
Paul cites two reasons for Christ’s giving His life for us. The first is revealed in the meaning and understanding of the redeeming work of Christ. Behind this metaphor of “redeeming” was the practice of buying a slave’s freedom by the payment of a ransom. In the Septuagint, it was used to describe God’s setting His people free from Pharaoh.
Here, the word “redeem” refers to the releasing of someone held captive through a payment of a ransom. In our case, according to 1 Peter 1:18-19, the payment was Christ’s precious blood. The slave master who owned our lives was sin. By redeeming us, Jesus released us from enslavement to sin. The slave master of sin caused us to live for ourselves and ourselves alone. We became as people living without constraints or lawless, hence Paul’s reference to “every lawless deed.” As it concerned the people addressed in this letter to Titus, the citizens of the Island of Crete, “lawless” was an accurate description of their typical Cretan lifestyle. So when Jesus purchases you with His blood, and when you allow Him His right to control your life, He gives you His supernatural life and the very same power that enabled Him to rise from the dead to control sin, the bad habits, and the hurts and hang ups that have ruled your life for years.
The unregenerate or unsaved person is in total bondage to sin, according to Romans 6:5-7, 16. Only when one is born again in Christ, is one free from the control of sin. That does not mean we will never sin; it means that as we learn to depend upon Christ, sin no longer has the power to dominate or control our lives. In our own power, we cannot find freedom from the sin that controls us. But when a person is redeemed and has a new Master, Jesus Christ, that potential for freedom from sin’s control changes. The believer now has supernatural resources at His disposal to live in a way that he could not before he met Christ. So, the first reason that Jesus gave His life for us was to set us free from sin’s controlling power over us.
The second reason Christ gave Himself for us is closely tied to the first and is stated in His desire to “purify for Himself a people.” When Jesus bought us from the slave market of sin, He cleansed us, His new possessions, or washed off our filth with His blood. Now that He has permanently purified us, we belong to Him as His personal possession.
But why did Jesus go to such great lengths to redeem us and to purify us? Jesus has always wanted a purified people to serve Him and to accomplish great things for Him on earth—things that will ultimately bring the applause of all creation to Him. But to understand why he went to such lengths to “purify us” one must understand Paul’s words that Jesus now claims us as “a people that are his very own.”
Those words in Greek, “a people for His own possession,” reflect the wording of Exodus 19:5, where God identified His people as “my treasured possession.” The attitude of the Redeemer toward the redeemed is that we are precious, like treasure to him, despite our sin that required such a great sacrifice from Him.
These words, “a people for His own possession,” breathe the grace that characterizes our God and should inspire us to be “zealous” or “eager” to do the good deeds that please our Savior. That word “eager” suggests the intensity with which Christians should pursue “doing what is good.” It points to one who is a fanatic, for that is how the term “zealous” was used to describe people in the first century.
Don’t miss the contrast in the first half of verse 14 and the last half of that verse. Before we came to Christ, our lives were described as producing “lawless deeds” or evil deeds. But when Christ saves us, His purpose for our lives is that we be transformed and empowered to produce “good deeds.” That expression “good deeds” as used in the New Testament does not simply mean being kind or helpful. “Good deeds” does not mean humanitarian efforts. In the New Testament, it points to those things done here on earth that will positively change the face of eternity. And what are those things? The only things that will carry over from this world to eternity are the truths about God and the souls of others. Since we cannot add to or take away from the truths of God, this limits the “good deeds” to those things that will positively affect the souls of others. In other words, as Christians we can invest our lives here on earth in pursuits that will have eternally worthwhile effects, changing the landscape of eternity by affecting the lives of others for Christ. In general, there are only two ways we can affect others’ lives for Christ: either lead them to Christ, or encourage them in their growing relationship with Him.
Hence, Christians building into the lives of others is the purpose for which Christ has made us His own possession. We will be the most happy and deeply satisfied when the focus of our lives is on these things. World wars, economic collapses, losses of any kind, in the end, do not affect our ability to find meaning in life as we seek to fulfill our purpose.
Hence, in answer to the question, “What is Christ’s purpose for my life as a believer, His own possession?” Paul tells us that our purpose is to invest our lives here on earth, engaged in doing those things that God says will change forever the landscape of eternity! And what are the characteristics of those good deeds? Anything that will lead someone to Christ or enable them to mature in their relationship with the Lord.
Jesus’ most beloved disciple understood God’s grace towards himself. He fully understood what it meant to deny himself and to follow Christ. In his exhortation from a life lived well, he charges all who follow after him with these words concerning our approach to living our lives today for Christ. He says in 1 John 2:28-29, 3:3:
Now, little children, abide in Him [moment by moment live in
dependence upon Jesus Christ], so that when He appears, we may have
confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. If
you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who
practices righteousness is born of Him. . . . And everyone who has this
hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
The least we can do as Christians is to be eager to do good and to bring honor to Jesus, just as the Apostle Paul says in Romans 12:1. It is to be our act of logical service, in worship to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Could you rightly describe yourself as a “fanatic for good deeds?” Keep in mind, by “good deeds” the text here means those things that lead people to Christ or further their growth in Christ. It seems to me that the vast majority of Christians dabble at good deeds when it is convenient, when they don’t have anything else that they’d rather do. But if we have been bought out of the slave market of sin by the blood of our great God and Savior, we should be fanatics for good deeds. We ought to be totally devoted to serving our new Master and helping others find freedom from shame and guilt. But are we?
Do you live in gratitude to Him with every thought, motive, and action? Are you doing everything in word and deed to the glory of God (Colossians 3:17), or does your God go away when the lights go out or when you leave the church building?
For you who are in business: Your work constantly challenges you to compromise what’s fair and to forget that you are not your own but were bought with a price. Will you act in business differently than those who do not know Christ? Will you submit to His wishes for how you do business, leaving the results or payoff to Him?
For you young mothers: Your culture continues to belittle motherhood and your personal worth if you choose to be a full-time stay-at-home mom. And if you must work, your culture seduces you to think of yourself and the lust of the flesh, the pursuit of possessions, and your search for significance beyond the significance which is yours in Christ. Will you continue to obey God’s Word by making commitment to your family and the nurturing and raising of your children the priority of your life?
For the youth: Besides the normal inward hormonal pressures, you face great pressure from your peers to prove yourselves adroit in your ability to seduce and conquer others. You are continually pressured to partake of drugs that can destroy your lives. To whom will you bow down and serve? Will you give in to the requests of your imperfect, ignorant, foolish peers who could really care less about you? Or, will you listen to and serve the One who died for you because He loves you?
In the end, each of us, daily, moment by moment, must choose whom we will serve and how we will invest our lives. We are challenged by God’s Word to remember that we are His redeemed and treasured possession. We are given the opportunity to invest our lives from this day forward to effect change in the lives of other people that will permanently color the landscape of eternity. With all my heart, realizing my own weaknesses, I will continue to choose to serve Him. What about you?
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