When Grace Appeared (Titus 2:11-14)
When I was 6 or 7, my two brothers, Mom and Dad, and I were all in the family room a few days before Christmas. For some reason, my brothers and I got into a fight; there was hitting and screaming and all-around ugliness, but Mom and Dad just sat there and watched. A couple minutes into the fight there’s a knock at the front door. Dad answered the door, and in walked Santa Claus. My brothers and I made up in record time.
Santa gave us each a coloring book, a candy cane, and a good talking to. Needless to say, Mom and Dad had no more trouble with us that year!
Have you ever had an unexpected guest suddenly show up at your home? Maybe a friend you hadn’t seen in a few years or a family member you weren’t expecting? Have you ever bumped into a celebrity in Houston? Were you ever going a little over the speed limit when a cop suddenly showed up behind you?
How would you react if Jesus suddenly appeared? He did that about 2,000 years ago, and this week the world pauses to remember when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea. Paul wrote to Titus about that sudden appearing of God’s grace in the Person of Jesus Christ, and the apostle told Titus, “The grace of God brings change.”
Scripture (Titus 2:11-14)
verse 11:
“The grace of God has appeared.” The Greek word “appeared” means “to appear suddenly.” When Jesus was born, the grace of God appeared suddenly in the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
“Bringing salvation for all people.” The Jews thought of God’s salvation as only available to the Jew or the proselyte; in Jesus Christ, however, the grace of God is available to anyone regardless of his ethnicity.
verse 12:
We often think of God’s grace in terms of forgiveness or salvation, but God’s grace has ethical ramifications—because we have been forgiven and saved, we live in a new way which pleases God.
verse 13:
While Christians live godly lives “in the present age,” we wait for our “blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” “Waiting” is used here in the sense of anticipating; the Christian knows that Jesus is coming back, and he just can’t wait for that day. After all, the appearing of our God and Savior is the Christian’s “blessed hope.”
verse 14:
Jesus “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness.” Jesus, in other words, paid a ransom price—his own blood—because we were enslaved to acts against the law.
Jesus not only ransomed us, but he purified us. The image of purification reminds us of how much sin pollutes the soul.
Jesus purified us to make us a people of his own possession; he ransomed us, and we belong to him.
And the people of Jesus’s own possession are “zealous for good works.” In other words, we can’t wait to do what is good.
Application
“The grace of God brings change.” Notice the change God’s grace brought: Trained us to renounce sin and to live godly lives, gave us hope as we await Jesus’s return, purified us from the pollution of sin, and made us eager to do good.
How does the changing nature of God’s grace affect your life? Let’s think about that in terms of different types of grace revealed in this text. God has given to you:
A Guiding Grace
“The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Tit 2:11-12). God’s grace appeared in Bethlehem to teach you how to live.
Since God has given A Guiding Grace, you must be open to divine guidance. That only comes through the Word of God. “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word” (Ps 119:9). Only through Scripture do we learn what is right and wrong: “If it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, ‘You shall not covet’” (Rom 7:7).
The only way to know how God wants you to live is through the Guiding Grace which comes from Scripture. This world will not tell you how to live righteously. Your family will not teach you how to live righteously. Only God through his word can do that. Therefore, you absolutely must spend time in the Word of God to know how to live. If you do not read the Bible, you are risking hell because you might end up in sin and not even know it.
A Godly Grace
“The grace of God has appeared . . . training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Tit 2:11-12). God’s grace appeared in Bethlehem so that you would put off your old self and live self-controlled, upright, and godly.
God’s saving grace is only part of the story; because grace saves you, you must live godly. “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires” (Rom 13:14). “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5:24). “Put to death . . . what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col 3:5).
When you look at your life, what do you see? How godly are you?
A Goal-Oriented Grace
“The grace of God has appeared . . . [and we are] waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Tit 2:11, 13). God’s grace appeared in Bethlehem so that you can anticipate Jesus’s Second Coming as your goal.
You have every reason to anticipate Jesus’s appearing. “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:2). “By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 Jn 4:17-18).
The Second Coming should be the most anticipated day on your calendar. No, you don’t know when, but you do know he is coming. Anticipate that day when you will see Jesus face to face. Anticipate that day when you hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Anticipate that day when you meet the saints of all the ages. Anticipate that day when you have a new body that never grows old or gets sick or hurts.
How much do you anticipate that day?
A Good Grace
In grace Jesus “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” (Tit 2:14). God’s grace appeared in Bethlehem so that you can do good in your life.
As a Christian, you have an obligation to do good works. “Walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col 1:10). The rich in this world “are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share” (1 Tim 6:18).
What good works do you regularly perform? What good works can you do this week? How can you live a life that is “rich in good works?”
Do you need to come this morning to the Messiah who came for you nearly 2,000 years ago?
This sermon was originally preached by Dr. Justin Imel, Sr., at Church of Christ Deer Park in Deer Park, Texas.