Two Appearings: Grace and Glory

Two Appearings

Nineteenth after Trinity

October 11, 2015

Epistle: Titus 2: 1-15

Homily Text: Titus 2:11-14

11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,

12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

After St. Paul was released from his first imprisonment, he took Titus with him to the Mediterranean Island of Crete. They evangelized and established churches in several towns, and, when Paul moved on, he left Titus to care for the churches. Titus’ job was to appoint leaders of the congregations, oppose false teaching, and teach those who believed the Gospel what it means to live according to the Gospel.

Paul grounded his teaching about living of the Christian life in a past appearance of grace and a future appearance of glory.

1. Past: Appearing of Grace

1.1 Grace Saving.  Paul writes that “the grace of God has appeared.” Grace is God’s initiative to give us what we don’t deserve and to do for us what we can’t do. The context of grace is our sin. We deserve condemnation, death, and damnation. We cannot deliver or save ourselves, for we are enslaved to our sins. But God in grace intervenes, to forgive our sins, to deliver us from hell, to set us free from sin’s control.

When did this grace appear? When was it revealed? In the first coming of Christ, who reveals God to us because he is God in the flesh, and who acts in his life, death, and resurrection, to deliver us from sin. We specially remember and celebrate this appearing of grace at Christmas and Epiphany and its culmination our salvation from Palm Sunday through Ascension.  

1.2 Grace to All. The King James Version translates “the grace that brings salvation has appeared to all” but the phrase “to all” should likely be attached to “salvation” so that we read “the grace that brings salvation to all has appeared.” So we must ask the question, “Does this mean that Jesus’ coming into the world to saves all?

The phrase could mean that, except that would make it contradict the teaching of Jesus and the Apostles. “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man comes unto the Father but by me.” “There is none other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Christ.

What does St. Paul mean when he writes “the grace that brings salvation to all has appeared’? He means that no one is excluded from salvation. All people, no matter how bad or self-righteous, religious or irreligious, whether a man or woman, whatever one’s race, nationality, or social status, may be saved. Jesus died for and offers salvation to all - every kind of human being in every condition of humanity. Christ is the Savior for all.  Nobody is beyond salvation. Everyone can be saved by Christ.  All who put their faith in Christ will be saved.

1.3 Grace Teaching. The grace that appeared in Christ not only saves us from sin’s consequences - condemnation and eternal punishment. It also teaches us a way of life. This way of life involves a “yes” and a “no.”

1.3.1 Grace teaches us to say “No” to the old way of life that brought condemnation - to renounce ungodliness and worldly lusts.

Ungodliness is way of life that others see that is a contradiction of our religion, of the faith we profess. That does not mean in order not to be irreligious we have to wear dark clothes, never tell or joke, or never laugh. It does mean that the clothes we wear, the jokes we tell, and the manner of life we live would not lead to someone who did not know we are Christians being surprised to find you we are, or to someone who knows we are Christians needing to figure out the contradiction.

We also renounce worldly lusts. Worldly lusts are the things that characterize life outside of Christ - the things, for instance, that Paul lists in Galatians 5: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of rage, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.” It’s interesting that some of these like “orgies” and “sorcery” sound like exotic sins, while others sound very much a part of everyday life - “rivalries,” “strife,” “jealousy.” To all these things we must say a decisive and settled “No.”

1.3.2 On the other hand grace teaches us to say “Yes” to living soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world.” To live soberly does not mean only that we avoid drunkenness but that we live lives of self-control. If you have raised children you know that one of the goals you have for your child and a sign of maturity you look for is that you do not have to control the child but he controls himself. Feelings and desires must not be our masters. By God’s grace we control sinful impulses, and we exercise self discipline over good feelings and desires.  

We live righteous or upright lives, lives that are directed by God’s will and God’s commands. We live godly lives - or religious lives in which people see a testimony to our faith and a consistency with the religion we follow.  

As Christians we swim upstream in this present age which is evil. We say “No” to the things that people who live in this present age regard as allowable or even good and we say “Yes” to things that people who live in this present evil age reject. We say “No” to the devil and sin and “Yes” to Christ and the Gospel.

2. Future: Appearing of Glory

St. Paul not only looks back to the appearing of grace in the first coming of Christ, but also forward to Christ’s coming again in glory.

2.1 Glory Appearing. He writes, “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the  great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,” or as another translation has it, “Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (ESV).

Our hope for the future is blessed because it is for the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior. When the Tabernacle was built in the wilderness the glory of God in the form of a bright shining cloud filled it. When the permanent Temple built by Solomon was dedicated the glory of God filled it and the glory was so great the priests had to stop ministering for awhile. When Jesus took his 3 closest disciples up on a mountain he was transfigured, and his face shone like the sun and his clothes were bright like light. This was an outbreaking of his heavenly glory.

But the final and full revelation of the glory of God is still to come - when our great God and Savior Jesus Christ appears at the end of the age. We now behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, but this is just a fleeting glimpse of what we will see when Christ, who is not only our Savior but also our God, who is himself fully God, equal in glory with the Father, appears. Then we will see him as he is, and we will not fear his glory, but delight in it even as now we delight in the shining of the warm spring sun on our faces after a long cold winter.

2.2 Redemption for Good Works.  Jesus Christ, who will appear in his glory, is the one who first gave himself to redeem us. In the ancient world people who were captured in wars or people who became slaves could be set free by payment of a price. Christ redeemed us from our slavery to the sin by giving himself as our ransom. He came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. He redeemed us not only from condemnation, but from all iniquity or lawlessness - to save us from bondage from sin’s control. Sin still has power in our lives. Sometimes it wins the battle, but sin no longer defines our identity, no longer controls us as helpless slaves, and cannot win the war.

He gave himself to purify us so that we could be a special people who belong to him. The LORD redeemed ancient Israel “to be his treasured possession among all peoples...a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Sometimes politicians talk about “American exceptionalism.” They believe the United States is a special country in the world and enjoys special blessings and has special responsibilities. That’s a debatable idea, but St. Paul tells us that the church and its members are a special and treasured people because Christ died to redeem us.

He wants us to live to up to that privilege by being a people who are zealous for good works. Some of these good works are the things Paul writes about in the first part of Titus 2:  that older men are sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness; that older women are reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine, and teach what is good, that they train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands; that younger men are self-controlled; that bondservants are submissive to their own masters in everything, well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, but showing all good faith.

What are you zealous about? People are enthusiastic about many things. Some will burn with zeal for politics for the next year. Others are zealous their hobbies. Others are hot with zeal for their sports teams. But the one thing that ought to characterize all Christians is that we are very zealous to do those works that please and glorify Christ.

Christianity is not moralism. It is not trying to be good to earn God’s favor and blessings. It is the life we live because Christ appeared in his world to save us from our sins and because we are eagerly looking forward to his future appearing in glory.