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Sunday 08/17/25
Title: Saving Grace has been revealed to all
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Saving grace has been revealed to all
Last week we opened the letter Paul wrote to Titus, his “other” son in the faith. As you remember Titus was appointed the monumental task of finishing up the apostolic work of Paul on the Roman Isle. I told you last week this island was low in population but I think that may have painted the wrong picture. Per square mile it only had about 77 people, but the island was over 3,200 square miles so it still had a population of about 250,000 people making the Christian population about 5,000 across approximately 100 cities and townships. So it was a labor intensive task!
The first chapter introduces some mind-blowing truths associated with our eternal union with God of knowing and being known by Them. That it was a promise they made to Each Other before time began!
Such was the introduction to this letter giving high purpose to Titus’ work in Crete. He had been privileged with the stewardship of Their promise in the people of Crete! What an awesome responsibility and honor!
Notice that the beginning of Titus’ work (where Paul left off) was to affirm sound doctrine and appoint shepherds in every local assembly on the island.
This points to the premium role these elders/pastors held in the work of God. Paul began the work by initially proclaiming the gospel on this hostile and pagan island and Titus had been with him in this work. Then Titus was left behind to affirm, refine and deepen the understanding of these people in the scripture. To root and ground them in sound doctrine and to mentor men who had the obvious call of God upon them and install them as the indigenous, resident shepherds who would continue the work when Titus left.
Chapter 1 gives the qualifications which were 100% necessary in anyone appointed as pastors. Much like in the upper room in Jerusalem when someone had to fill the apostolic position Judas defected from, there was a short list of who could qualify. This effectively reduced the candidates from 109 to 2 from which the Holy Spirit chose Matthias.
In a manner not nearly as easy as this illustration from Acts 2, Titus was given the task of appointing elders in EVERY city church on Crete.
Then in chapter 2, Paul tells Titus to bear down on some doctrinal points for the Older men, the younger men, the older women and through them to the younger women – ending in counsel to those who were slaves.
The counsel to all the above could be summed up in two words which have many expressions:
GOOD WORKS!
These take the form of –
- Self-controlled
- Dignity and integrity
- Being sensible, sound in faith, love, and endurance.
- Being reverent
- Not slanderers
- Not addicted to much wine
- Pure
- Fulfilling their God given gender roles
- Faithful
- honorable
The stated reason for these ‘Good Works’ beyond honoring the saving work of Christ in their lives was so that the SOUND message of the gospel has no ground upon which to be criticized or discredited.
They, as God’s children, MUST model sound doctrine so that their lives did not discredit the gospel!
This was what introduced the last thing we read which is regarding what grace teaches! But before we dive in, make note of the relational aspect of the gospel and the dissemination of God’s grace to the world.
God has given us both the privilege and the responsibility (the stewardship) of living and sharing the grace of God to and before the world. What we do and how we live matters!
So turn with me to Titus 2:11-15 and we will work through these closing verses of chapter 2 which we read at the end of our teaching last week.
Verse 11 begins with these most important of statements…
“FOR the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people.”
Key words:
Grace – appeared – salvation & everyone
The reason why “fruit” in our lives is important
Just to be certain you don’t lose sight of WHY this statement begins with the word “FOR”, remember Paul had JUST told Titus what type of things should exemplify the lives of these Christians in Crete.
One of THE REASONS why these character traits were to reign in their lives is because – “the Grace of God has appeared to all people – making salvation available to them all”!
Grace is not the gospel
Now let’s spend some time with these words, because it would be impossible to overstate their importance. In fact it is by misunderstanding them that a pit is created that Christians often fall into.
These words actually uncover some deep treasures of truth regarding the gospel which will help you throughout your life as a living witness.
Of first importance is to recognize what Paul, did NOT say here. This is because in our day, we have developed lazy minds and a poor understanding of life in the first century regarding the gospel.
It is hard for us to imagine anyone not possessing at least a passing familiarity with the Gospel. So when we read about “the grace of God appearing to all men for salvation” many find themselves replacing the word “grace” for the word “gospel” and that is NOT what Paul was saying!
Paul knew all too well, the gospel had not reached even all of Rome, much less the entire world!
So what WAS Paul saying?
Well the biggest clue is found in the word “grace”. In our church we know its meaning well.
What is and isn’t Grace?
About 20 years ago when I was in a bit of a spiritual slump, I began being very unsettled in my understanding of the gospel. In all honesty I had been, since college back in 1990, but over time it had come to a head. One of the words which had always plagued me was grace. Every definition I had ever received was less than satisfactory, because they never truly defined it. Every definition simply danced AROUND its meaning, but never really told you what it is!
Definitions like:
- Unmerited favor
- Undeserved kindness
- Acronyms like God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense
- That it is given to the humble
- It stands aloof from the proud
- It offers salvation
- It effects salvation
While not entirely unhelpful, these still didn’t DEFINE grace.
- These told me God’s attitude in offering it.
- They affirmed my undeserved or unearned right to it.
- They told me it was God’s favor and riches.
- They told me it is what makes salvation available and efficacious.
But not WHAT it actually is!
After countless sermons, hours of college classes and dozens of Christian books it finally occurred to me to look up the Greek word in the Strong’s concordance. Yes I know, sometimes I am not the brightest bulb in the pack.
As it turns out, grace is –
“literal, figurative or spiritual; especially the divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life; including gratitude”
Upon first reading it I was discouraged, then upon reflection it generated an epiphany that began a process of unlocking the New Covenant to me.
The answer agreed with every instance of the word I could think of. I started going through the New Testament inserting that definition into every sentence where the word grace was used. A bit of a tedious task I’ll admit, but eye-opening and life giving!
So it is here!
Grace and the New Covenant ministry of the Holy Spirit
It was the finished work of Jesus upon the cross that freed the Holy Spirit of God to finally begin His work of reconciliation with the world. Until the debt had been paid, any such attempt would have been futile. Why invite a person to a house warming party, when the house has not yet been built.
But once the wall of sin, separating us from the person of God and intimacy with Him was destroyed – the Spirit of God FELL!
He began doing His work of influencing the hearts of mankind towards reconciliation. Our verse in Titus 2:11 says grace leading to salvation has “appeared”. The word “appeared” means to shine upon.
One might even say it has “dawned upon” everyone.
There are countless stories of those who have come to faith in Jesus who at first had never even heard of Him.
Many of these begin with the testimony of creation which God impresses upon the heart of every person, LONG before they ever hear the Gospel. In fact, for generations before Jesus came and paid the redemptive price for salvation.
Paul tells us that God’s ‘attributes are clearly seen through what God made’, but with those attributes being impressed upon the heart by the Holy Spirit with the invitation to ‘seek and find Him’.
Paul alludes to this several times in his writings.
Let’s read two which I have already indirectly referenced.
God has shown it to them
Romans 1:16-32,
“(16) For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek.
(17) For in it God’s righteousness is revealed FROM faith to faith, just as it is written:
“The righteous will live by faith.” (18)
For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, (19) since what can be known about God is evident among them, BECAUSE GOD HAS SHOWN IT TO THEM. (20)
From the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, BEING UNDERSTOOD THROUGH WHAT HE HAS MADE.
As a result, people are without excuse. (21)
For though they KNEW GOD, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude.”
Remember that one of the primary expressions of grace once it has been received in the heart is gratitude!
“Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened. (22) Claiming to be wise, they became fools (23) and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.”
So in their pride they resisted God’s grace, which we know results in God resisting them.
“(24) Therefore God delivered them over in the cravings of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. (25)
THEY exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served something created instead of the Creator, Who is blessed forever. Amen.” (26)
“THIS IS WHY God delivered them over to degrading passions.
For even their females exchanged natural sexual intercourse for what is unnatural. (27)
The males in the same way also left natural sexual intercourse with females and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Males committed shameless acts with males and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty for their perversion. (28)
And BECAUSE THEY DID NOT THINK IT WORTHWHILE to HAVE GOD IN THEIR KNOWLEDGE, God delivered them over to a worthless mind to do what is morally wrong.
(29) They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness.
They are full of envy, murder, disputes, deceit, and malice.
They are gossips, (30) slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, (31) undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful.
(32) Although they know full well God’s just sentence–that those who practice such things deserve to die–they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.”
It doesn’t even take a very developed imagination to see how this has played out in our world. We’ve seen the development of it in various nations – especially after a time of national revival where the actual gospel was preached.
What leds to seek Him
Next let’s read Acts 17:22-30,
“(22) Then Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said:
“Men of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect.
(23) For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed: ‘to AN UNKNOWN GOD’
Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. (24)
The God Who made the world and everything in it–He is Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in shrines made by hands. (25)
Neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. (26)
From one man He has made every nation of men to live all over the earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live, (27) so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us. (28)
For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said,
‘For we are also His offspring.’ (29)
Being God’s offspring, then, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination. (30)
“Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent,”
So this passage tells us that the “times of ignorance” were before grace for salvation was available, but NOW, “God is calling upon all people everywhere to repent”.
Every culture knows
Everywhere and in every culture there is an awareness of God. Also that there are moral standards which are instinctively known and undeniable.
- Care versus Harm: meaning an emphasis on the importance of protecting others, particularly those who are vulnerable, and the need to avoid causing undo harm.
- Fairness versus Cheating: A sense of fairness, mutual concessions and a dislike for exploitation, cheating and dishonesty.
- Judicial order and authority: Meaning a system of generally agreed upon social norms and expectations which if violated bare some consequence.
- Loyalty versus betrayal: This includes a commitment to one’s community, to one’s position and responsibilities as well as friendships and family. It generally involves negative consequences associated with betrayal.
- Authority versus subversion: There is a recognition of the need to respect established authority, social and family hierarchies as well as traditions.
- Respect for property versus theft or vandalism: All known societies recognize and respect the ownership of resources and belongings and have some sort of consequence for violating others in this regard.
These concepts of morality are not always interpreted or applied the same way in every instance. Cultural norms and situational contexts can and have greatly influenced how they are understood, expected of a population and maintained – but THAT they exist is not up for debate.
Where did these universal concepts come from?
Paul by the Holy Spirit is claiming that such are baked into humanity by God being both affirmed and confirmed by God’s invisible attributes seen throughout His creation! Furthermore, these are shown mankind BY GOD HIMSELF in order to awaken within them a desire to seek after the God they know exists.
This is what Paul meant when he told Titus that the Grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. It is God’s unique work which He alone accomplishes apart from the involvment of His servants. In fact, it is this very work of grace that prepares the world to seek God and be receptive to the gospel when they hear it preached.
Why “grace” rather than “gospel message” matters
Now what does all of this have to do with these first 12 words?
Because it is important that Paul did not say that the “gospel message” has been preached to all people, but that the grace of God has appeared to all people and that that grace teaches them something which will draw them to seek after God.
Again – don’t lose sight that Paul was setting a stage here for the necessity of ‘Good Works’. The need for the child of God to live a life of conformity to Christ before God, the angelic world and the natural world because they are all watching.
So God’s influence leading towards salvation has appeared to all men.
Saved from… saved to
If you will indulge me just a little more, let’s better understand salvation for what it really means.
Most people have been poorly trained by the proclamation of the gospel to believe salvation is about avoiding an eternity of torment, rather than being reconciled into a state of eternal intimacy with their Creator!
We’ve turned the gospel into a message which is more about being saved FROM, rather than being saved to.
If a person were to leave home on an ocean cruise and the ship sinks. They find themselves out in the ocean, far from the sight of land, dog paddling for life. Salvation for them certainly includes the desire to not drown or get picked off by sharks, but the longing of their hearts is for the safety of dry land and home. If you were to pick up that person, just to drop them off in the middle of the ocean on an abandoned oil rig. Even if it were fully stocked with years of provisions, it still isn’t home!
Salvation isn’t really salvation until you are brought back to the safety of what is normal.
It isn’t just about not drowning, though that is important, it is about being back on solid ground again in the safety of your homes.
In like manner, salvation is to be restored to that from which you left or fell. To once again know the eternal intimacy and closeness of our relationship with God our Creator. That you were also saved FROM an eternity apart from Him is simply a different truth of the same act.
Grace comes to save you TO HIM, not just FROM hell.
We see this in ALL the writings of the New Testament. Perhaps the greatest of which is found in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21. Let’s read it and see how many times it mentions what we were saved FROM as opposed to WHO we were saved to.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21,
“(17) So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away – look, what is new has come! (18) And all these things are from God Who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and Who has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
(19) In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and He has given us the message of reconciliation.
(20) Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us.
‘We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!”
(21) God made the One Who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we would become the righteousness of God.”
Notice hell and eternal punishment are never mentioned.
That isn’t because they do not exist. Nor is it because they are not important, but from God’s perspective salvation is all about You being eternally reconciled to HIM.
So heaven is a result not a goal. Not being locked away in hell, is a result of saving grace, not the goal of it.
WHAT YOU DO as a convert and carrier of God’s grace of salvation will either intensify the influence of God upon their hearts or work to nullify it.
So let’s start again knowing now that Paul was saying God’s grace which leads to reconciliation with God, has appeared to all people even independent from the preaching of the gospel.
Titus 2:11-15,
“(11) For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people.
(12) it TRAINS us…”
“Trains” means To instruct a child by influencing their conscious will and action.
“It trains us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,”
To reject things that are contrary to your Creator, so that you might live with Him in unity.
“(13) As WE WAIT for the happy fulfillment of our hope in the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
All of this is with the joyous hope of our being fully and finally reconciled to Him, spirit, soul & body forever. The point at which this happens is at the resurrection.
“(14) He gave Himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people who are truly His, who are eager to do good (works).
(15) So communicate these things with the sort of exhortation or rebuke that carries full authority.
Don’t let anyone look down on you.”
Blessings!
Tri
