Titus 2:11-15
Sermon Transcript
Introduction
I imagine we all grew up hearing someone tell us: "Look both ways before crossing the street!" Look right, look left, and make sure you don't get hit by a car. It's not rocket science, is it?
But even at places full of smart people—places like Yale University—people need reminders to look both ways. A few years ago, Yale put out a campaign to remind students—bright as they are—to look both ways before they cross the street. Know why they did this? Because the students were so absorbed with what was right in front of them that they didn't even bother to look up before crossing. And guess what was right in front of them all the time: their cell phones. They'd walk right out into the street with eyes facedown—texting, or surfing the web, or looking at social media. And bam! they'd get hit by a car. That was happening to students at Yale. Even though they were bright, they needed to be told something as elementary as "look right and look left before you cross." They suffered from myopic vision, nearsightedness, looking only at what was right in front of them, and not paying any attention to their surroundings.
This happens to us too, not when we cross the street, but as we go through daily life. We have myopic vision, only seeing what's right in front of us. We just see the immediate, just the now. I feel this particularly in 2020 and I bet you do too. It's so easy to be completely absorbed with what is directly in front of us. We have an election which seems as crazy as anything could be. We have riots in our nation. We have a pandemic that's affecting all of us in numerous ways. It's hard to remember 2019, to remember what life was like before Coronavirus was a household word. Right? It feels hard to remember what it was like before we knew the name George Floyd. It's hard to remember 2019. And sometimes it's even harder to think about what 2021 will bring. I struggle even to think past what will happen in November. All of these things are hard to see because my vision is so myopic. I am absorbed with the present. And I imagine you often feel the same. This happens to us so easily in the Christian life.
And yet, we are called to look both ways as we go about this life. we are called to look both back to what Christ has done and forward to what Christ will do. John Stott says this about our text today: "The best way to live now, in this present age, is to learn to do spiritually what is impossible physically, namely, to look in opposite directions at the same time." We're really bad at that, aren't we? We're really bad at looking back and remembering what Christ has done and looking forward and longing for what Christ will do. We look so much at the present. But Stott says what this text shows us is that the best way to live now in the present is to learn to look in opposite directions at once—to learn to look both ways; to learn to live today in light of yesterday and in light of tomorrow.
And that's what Paul is driving at in this text. This sermon is called “The Twin Epiphanies of Grace and Glory”. If you didn't grow up with the church calendar, then you might not know what an epiphany is. Epiphany comes from the Greek word which means to appear. Epiphany is a season of celebration after Christmas celebrating that Jesus appeared in the incarnation. The one we've been waiting for has appeared. Epiphany celebrates his appearing. Likewise for Paul. In verses 11 to 15 Paul draws our attention to two epiphanies (two appearings): glory and of grace.
He draws our attention to those so that we can know how to live in the present. This text starts with the word "for", which points back to Titus 2:1–10. Remember Titus 2:1–10 was all about how we live out godliness in the present. Paul is saying: "live in the present this way, because of what Christ has done, and what Christ will do—because of the epiphany of grace and the epiphany of glory." So as we read through this text, look for those two appearances. See if you can see that structure as we read.
Paul writes in Titus 2:11–15: “For 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, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 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. Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”
Grace Has Appeared
First, we see in verse 11 that grace has appeared. We're looking back to what has happened. Grace has appeared. The first thing I want us to notice is that grace is not abstract. We so often treat the grace of God as an abstract noun, something that God doles out. Maybe something like money that God gives, and we can receive more of, but something that might run out someday. But that's not how Paul treats grace. He says, "the grace of God has appeared." When he uses this word appeared, he's using the same word that he consistently uses to refer to either (1) Jesus' first appearing in the incarnation or (2) Jesus second appearing, when he returns to redeem his people. So when Paul says the grace of God has appeared, he's not talking about an abstract noun, like the word grace appeared. He's talking about grace as a person. Grace has appeared because Jesus has appeared. Grace is not abstract. Rather grace is inseparable from the incarnation of Jesus. We see this in John 1:14. John writes, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Grace cannot be separated from the person of Jesus Christ.
This grace does something. Paul says, “the grace of God has appeared,” verse 11, “bringing salvation for all people.” Grace in Jesus saves; Jesus saves. This is fundamental to the Gospel. Grace brings salvation by justifying sinners—by declaring them righteous. You and I, as sinners—enemies of God, have been declared righteous by the grace of God given to us in Jesus Christ. You and I have been saved by grace. Ephesians 2: By grace, you have been saved. It's not something you've done. It's not works that you may boast. It's a gift of God. It wipes the slate clean. It declares us to be righteous like Jesus is righteous
But grace does not merely hit the reset button. It's not just bringing salvation. It's doing something to change us as well. This is what Paul says in verse 12. Notice the grace of God brings salvation for all people making salvation available to all in Christ and then, in verse 12, grace is “training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in the present age.” Grace doesn't just save us. Jesus doesn't just save us. Grace in Christ trains us.
The theological word we use for this is sanctification. Grace in Christ Jesus sanctifies us. Jesus himself trains sinners to be sanctified, to be holy. This may seem counterintuitive to us. So often, when we think about grace, we abstract grace away from Jesus and think what grace brings is mainly forgiveness—grace lets things go. It's not a big deal. If I sin, I don't have to pursue righteousness because I'm under grace, not the law. To say that you need to be righteous, that you need to pursue holiness, seems like legalism to us. Grace, we think, just means letting that go.
But friends, that's called antinomianism—anti-law or lawlessness. And Christ came to redeem us from lawlessness. Christ came to train us toward godliness. We are trained by Christ “to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” Rather than making works unnecessary, grace requires good works!
Why does grace make good works necessary? Why, if we're saved by grace, not by works, does grace require good works? Because grace is inseparable from Jesus. Grace comes to us through Jesus alone, and Jesus is holy. Grace comes to us in Jesus Christ, the holy Son of God and we are called to image Jesus. We are called to be holy as he is holy. For us to be united with Christ and yet to have nothing to do with good works is an oxymoron. It can't happen because Jesus himself devoted himself to good works. Jesus himself displayed the holiness of God in His good works.
Paul puts it this way in Romans 6:1–14: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”
See how grace demands good works? Grace requires that we do not live as those who are slaves to sin—we're not live as slaves to worldly passions like we once did. Grace requires that we now live in light of our new life in Christ Jesus. Jesus Himself is holy. Therefore grace requires godliness; good works; holiness. Grace trains us this way. We become learners in the School of Grace. How does that work? How does grace train us to be righteous when our flesh wages war against us?
The answer is that we are united with Christ. We are saved and set free from slavery to sin. In Christ Jesus, we are given the ability to no longer slavishly follow our sinful desires and worldly passions. Jesus himself shows us how to live. We are trained by Jesus himself. Jesus shows us a life that renounces the god of self—renounces the idolatry that says, "I have to have what I want. I have to have what I think I need." And Jesus teaches us to live for the sake of others. As Paul says in Philippians 2, Jesus didn't count his God-ness something to be used for his own advantage; he counted it a thing to be used for our advantage! Jesus laid his life down for us. He humbled himself, even becoming obedient to the point of death on a cross for you and for me. That's what Jesus trains us to do. By grace, he trains us to live just like that. And he enables us to live just like that by freeing us from sin and by sending His Spirit into us to work that out.
Friends, this helps us fight our myopic vision because our tied-ness to the present and to what's right in front of us is ultimately a tied-ness to ourselves. It's ultimately either legalism or lawlessness. It could be a legalism that says I'm not justified therefore I need to justify myself. I've got to pay close attention to right now to make sure that nobody has anything against me; that I'm in the clear; that I'm living uprightly enough to be accepted by God. Such a way of thinking is obsessed with self-justification and therefore always stuck perseverating on the present. But the grace of Jesus frees us from that by saving us and justifying us, so we no longer have to justify ourselves. The grace of Jesus kills legalism.
Others among us are irresistibly tied to the present because we are so absorbed with living for pleasure. We live in the moment, living with one goal: make sure we get exactly what we want. And our one fear is that we won't get it. This could be something we want or it could even be something we're sure we need. There's not much difference in how it affects our myopia. The outcome is the same: we become obsessed with the present. But guess what? Jesus trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. The grace of Jesus that trains us teaches us how to live for another, how to not be so absorbed with ourselves—with our needs and desires. Grace kills self-absorbed lawlessness. Paul even says as much in verse 14: Jesus gave himself for us “to redeem us from all lawlessness.” Jesus did that work so that we could be freed from those forces that pull us into the present only. We can be freed to look back and to remember the grace given to us in Jesus Christ.
We are free, then, to remember grace. Friend, we do this by remembering stories of God's grace. We must know the great stories of God's grace written down for us in our Bibles. Time and time again, we read of God's faithfulness and kindness toward his people. God keeps his promises. I'm reading through Jeremiah and Kings right now and I'm seeing over and over that even though God's people are unfaithful, God remains faithful to His promises. We have a record of God's faithfulness—God's grace— that we can look back to and remember. Most importantly, we have the record of the cross. If God has given us Jesus, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Rom 8:32)
Friends, you have even more than that: you have the record of God's grace in your own life. If you know Jesus, you can look back on your life and remember the ways that God has proven His Grace to you—over and over and over again. All it takes is a little walk down memory lane. Look at some old pictures, think about your past, think about where you've been and where God has brought you, by His grace. Think about the ways that Jesus has trained you to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. Think about the ways he has trained you to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. Friends, we've all grown in sanctification. If you've been walking with Jesus for any length of time, you can look back and remember and be encouraged.
Another thing we can do is leverage the collective memory of the local church. What I mean by that is that when it's hard to see God's grace in your life—when you have trouble remembering; when you can't think of a single story that you learned in Sunday School of God's grace—that's what the local church is for. That's why we gather together. We are called to gather together and to sing to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We are called to gather together and to consider how to stir one another up to love and good works. And how do we do that? By pointing each other to the grace of Jesus Christ; by calling each other to look away from the myopic view of the present and look back to what Jesus has done. I need that reminder every week and so do you. So leverage the collective memory of the local church, friends.
Glory Will Appear
But we're not only called to look back. We're called to look forward too—not just back to what Jesus has done, but forward to what Jesus will do. And that's where Paul goes next. He continues in verse 13, “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Notice again, glory is not abstract. Glory is not separated from the person of Jesus Christ. We're not waiting for this abstract thing called glory. No, friends, we're waiting for Jesus. Jesus, who is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature (Heb 1:1–3). We're waiting for Jesus, in whose face we see the knowledge of the glory of God (2 Cor 4:6). We're waiting for Jesus who is glorious. Listened to how he's described in the book of Revelation. “Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, ‘Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.’” (Rev 1:12–18).
Friends, that's the glory we're waiting for—our blessed hope; the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. That's what we're waiting for. It's a blessed hope. It's where our hope is turned because this glory that is in Christ Jesus will right every wrong. That's what's alluded to when John says Jesus has that sword coming out of his mouth. Jesus comes to judge and to make war. Every enemy will be defeated. Right now Psalm 2 says the nation's rage against God and against his anointed. But friends that is not forever. One day, when Jesus returns like this, he will defeat all the nations who oppose him. All who oppose him he will crush with a rod and all who find their shelter in him will be blessed. Jesus will defeat every enemy when he returns. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess without exception that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Phil 2:9–11). When he returns, perfect justice and perfect peace will prevail over everything. We see that Isaiah chapter 11.
When he returns all will be made right. Revelation 21:1–4: “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
Death will be gone—defeated! There will be no more Coronavirus. There will be no more miscarriages. There will be no more watching your loved ones slip away. All pain will be gone. There will be no more chronic disability. There will be no more disease. There will be no more reason for sorrow because the glory of our great God and Savior has appeared. He will be with us. What a day! This is our blessed hope (as Paul says in verse 13) because when the glory of Jesus appears, he will right every wrong.
Not only that though, but we also get to share in his glory because we are his bride. When the glory of our great God and Savior appears, it will be the glory of our husband appearing. Paul writes in verse 14 that this Jesus is the one “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.” When you see the words "people for his own possession," they should trigger memories of the Old Testament. If you've read Exodus or Deuteronomy recently, you might recognize that language. It's covenant language. It's what God calls his chosen people, Israel: people for his own possession (Deut 7:6–11). When Paul writes that Jesus redeemed us, he's drawing on the imagery of Exodus where God redeemed his chosen people from slavery in Egypt and then made a covenant with them to be his treasured people, his chosen ones, people for his own possession. Here in Titus, then, Paul is using this covenant language to describe what Jesus has done for you and me. Such covenant language is marriage language.
This marriage language is talking about you and me as Christ's bride—people purified for his own possession, not as slaves, but as a bride; those he loves. And so, his appearing—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ—is the appearing of our husband. United to our husband, Jesus, we share in his glory. That's what Paul says in Colossians 3: our life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our life appears, we will appear with him in glory. We share in his glory. And when our husband appears, every chance to object to our marriage will be gone. “If anyone has a reason why these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace.” Any objection to why you should be joined with Christ will be gone. There will be no more reason that you can think of or conjure in your head or the devil can try to convince you is true for why you should be separated from Christ. We will be with him. Every objection will be silenced and we will be pure. Ephesians five says as much. Paul writes, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” That's our future, friends. That's what Christ is doing in us even as he saves us and trains us in righteousness. He is purifying us. Paul says that in verse 14: he gave himself up for us to purify for himself a people for his own possession; to purify for himself a bride! Our husband gave himself for us and he is returning.
What that means for us is the "now" that we are so absorbed with is not ultimate. Now is not ultimate reality and truth. Now is not the end of the story. What is now is not what will always be. Paul says we see in a mirror dimly (1 Cor 13:12). Therefore, when we see in this world what looks like prevailing injustice and lies and there seems to be no way things will ever get better, our hope is undeterred. Our hope is not in things getting better here; things might even get worse and probably will. But our hope, our blessed hope is in the appearing of the glory of our husband, Jesus Christ. And ultimately, it is his glory that will right every wrong; his glory will cause truth, and justice, and peace to prevail forever and ever and ever and ever. So when it's not right now, we don't have to lose heart. We don't have to lose hope. We don't have to be so absorbed with why it's not right now and what to do about it. We can be freed from that because we are assured that justice and truth will prevail and we don't have to hope in worldly systems.
This has tremendous implications for how we respond to this election season and this Coronavirus crisis, doesn't it? We do not have to hope in these things being fixed now, by human means, because we have a blessed hope that will appear—the glory of our husband. This glory—the appearing of Jesus—assures us, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, that our labor right now is never in vain. Because even if it doesn't look like anything is happening—even if it looks like it's pointless and futile and we may as well eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die—even when it looks like that, that's not what's true. We look to the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
This future glory teaches us what is truly lasting, what is ultimate reality: Christ joined with his bride. See friends, we're not waiting as single people waiting to be married. We're waiting as a bride, already married, awaiting consummation of the marriage. The joy that a husband and wife experience on their wedding day is a dim mirror, a faint reflection. As they feast with friends and as they consummate their marriage in sexual union, these joys are a dim preview of the greater joy and intimacy we will share in union with Jesus when he appears in glory. We don't wait as single people hoping to be married. We wait as married people waiting for the consummation of our marriage. This, friends, is the reality that will last—our union with Christ as his bride. Governments will pass away; families will pass away. In Heaven, we are the bride of Christ. That is the only thing that lasts.
As it is the only thing that lasts, it teaches us now how to live now. Because we are not single people, we don't live as single people, do we? It would be unfaithful for a bride who is married to her husband to live as a single person. Wives and husbands live in light of their marriage to one another. We see that in earthly marriages. How much more so with Christ and his Church?
As a local church, we are a kingdom outpost, a spot on this earth and in this time, where the glory of Christ that will appear starts to shine through a little bit, as we live out being a bride to Christ. We live to please our husband. That's what Paul means when he says in verse 14, that Jesus gave himself to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are what? Zealous for good works, who love what their husband loves. That's what Paul's getting at. That's what we're called to be. As the church, we're called to love what Christ loves. That's why the grace of God and the glory of God in Christ Jesus require good works, because we are not single anymore. We're married and with that covenant relationship of love and union comes responsibilities.
Look to Jesus
All of these things—looking back to what Jesus has done and looking forward to what Jesus will do—can be summed up as looking to Jesus. If grace is inseparable from Jesus and glory is inseparable from Jesus, and we're called to look to grace and we're called to look to glory, then we're called to look to Christ. It's not rocket science, friends. It doesn't take a degree from Yale to comprehend this, right? It's simple, as simple as looking both ways when we cross the street. It's foundational to living the Christian life— to living in the now—that we must look to Jesus.
So the question then for us, is, are we fixing our eyes on Christ? Are you fixing your eyes on Jesus? Do you live in a way that helps you or hinders you from looking to Christ? Because it will be one way or the other won't it? What you do with your life, what you devote yourself to, what you prioritize, what you long for, how you spend your time—all will either help you or hinder you from looking at Jesus. But even more, we're not called to walk this alone, are we? Earlier in Titus 2, Paul writes that older women are supposed to teach what is good and so train younger women. And he tells Titus, as an older, mature Christian man to show himself in all things to be a model of good works. Our godliness matters not just for ourselves, but for the sake of others. Are you living a life that helps your brothers and sisters in this bride look to Jesus? Are you living in a way that helps your brothers and sisters behold Christ? That's what we're called to do. Are you doing it? Am I doing it? That's the question, we need to ask ourselves.
If we find the answer is no, we need to not then try to justify ourselves, because we have been justified. We need to instead let Christ's life train us and his coming glory give us the motivation to work hard. Yet it's not us that work, it's the grace of God that works in us. Paul says that about himself. He worked harder than anybody, but it wasn't him, it was the grace of God at work in him. Are you doing this? And are you prepared to persist in doing this, through suffering?—because, friends, the reality of our present circumstances is there's so much suffering. There are so many trials. Through many trials and suffering, we enter the kingdom of God. Not because God just likes to be mean. Not because God's not sovereign and in control. But because we are not living in our final home. We are longing, like Abraham and Sarah, and all of those who by faith, went before us for the home that is to come (Heb 11:8–16). We are citizens of a different kingdom. We are a bride waiting for our husband. And while there while we're apart, there's going to be suffering, there's going to be longing. Are we prepared to persist in faithfulness to our groom? That's what we're called to do.
Hebrews puts it this way: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” (Heb 12:1–3).
Friends, we are called to turn our eyes upon Jesus; to look full in his wonderful face. When we do—what happens?—the things of earth grow strangely dim in the light—of what?—his glory and his grace.