Titus 2:11–15

 

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹² training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³ waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ 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. ¹⁵ Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

Our prayer for this series of seven messages through the book of Titus is that we as a church would grow in adorning our doctrine with goodness toward each other and especially toward others in the Twin Cities. To use Ken Currie’s illustration from last weekend, we pray that we would become increasingly better prongs at displaying the Diamond of Jesus and his gospel in our metro. Or you could put it in terms of Matthew 5:16 and pray that we would grow in letting our light shine in such a way that our neighbors and coworkers and extended family might see our good deeds and give glory to our Father in heaven.

We see room for growth as a church in this area of displaying our doctrine through our deeds. That’s why we picked Titus for these two months of June and July. Titus is all about extending the gospel into our doctrine and our doctrine into deeds. It’s about transposing grace received from God to grace given to others. We want to see more and more that our daily living flows from our doctrine which flows from the gospel of God’s lavish grace. God’s goodness toward us in Jesus should bring about goodness in us toward others. 

Gospel, Doctrine, Deeds

And Titus was the perfect pick for this emphasis. The apostle Paul wrote this letter to (probably) a young leader in a young church in an acutely nonChristian context (1:12–13), perhaps not all that different than the Twin Cities, just without the veneer of “Minnesota nice.” Verse 15 in our passage reminds us that Paul is writing to Titus. “Declare these things [verses 1–14],” Paul says to Titus, “exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.” This is still the introduction, but here’s an application for us: Let’s declare “these things” (the gospel and its entailments) to each other; exhort and rebuke each other. When our doctrine is not an extension of the gospel, or when our doctrine is not being extended into words and deeds of love and service, let’s gently and patiently bring it each other’s attention. So as we look now at verses 11–14, let’s keep this in mind. This sermon is an effort to do verse 15, and let’s not only take these verses personally, but let’s help each other be the kind of people this passage is pointing us toward.

Last weekend Ken Currie focused mainly on verse 1 of chapter 2, which connects with verse 15 in our passage to cluster these 15 verses of chapter 2 together into a kind of unit. Verses 1–10 are filled with practical instructions about Christian conduct, and then this weekend verses 11–14 provide the theological basis for these instructions. One way to sum up verses 1–10 is to say that our lives should display our doctrine. Our practical living should make the God of the gospel look good. Verses 11–14 then provide the basis for this. “For the grace of God has appeared . . . training us.” Grace trains. The grace of the gospel changes us. What we see in these verses is that the grace of the gospel is catalytic grace—it is an agent of change, both theologically and ethically. God’s saving grace is never earned, and it never leaves us unchanged. The main idea in this text it is grace that trains.

Here’s where we’re headed in this text: First, we’ll see WHAT grace produces (we’ll call this the product of grace). Next, we’ll see WHY grace is dangerous (the peril of grace).  Finally, we’ll see HOW grace works to bring about change (the power of grace)

 

1. The Product of Grace

What grace produces is godliness. That’s one way to say it from this text. Look again at verses 11–12:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹² training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

So, the grace of God (verse 11) trains us (verse 12) to live godly lives (verse 12). Grace produces godliness.

Grace Trains 

Note the connection between verses 11 and 12: “The grace of God has appeared . . . training us.”

Grace trains. Grace instructs. Grace teaches. Grace changes us. Built into the reception of Christian grace from God is the growing of a kind of lifestyle that increasingly extends grace to others. God’s free grace is never earned and it never leaves us unchanged. When we truly receive grace, it affects us, and continues to do so. 

Grace Trains

But don’t miss this: It is grace that does the training. There is a kind of grace-trained, grace-taught, grace-produced life that flows from the central Christian reality of the gospel of God’s grace to us in Jesus And note this: It is not the case that grace makes us Christians and then something else comes in to do the training for godliness. Grace trains. Grace teaches. Grace not only “saved a wretch like me,” as John Newton wrote, but “T’was grace that taught.” Grace changes. Grace sanctifies. Grace trains.

In verse 11, grace is the professor, not the TA. Grace is the instructor, not the aid. This may seem subtle, but it is so significant. We are prone to think of grace as something like the grease in the gears that helps along our training and Christian growth, but the engine is some other reality without grace at its core and bottom. We operate with a vision of godliness that isn’t grace-shaped but at best sub-Christian. We think of holiness without grace at the center. We tend toward a view of godliness that must be re-thought once the grace of God has appeared.

Follow with me again how Paul puts in verses 11–12, and now we’ll dig in to verse 12:

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people [what “all people” emphasizes in this context is that salvation is not only for Jews, but also for Cretans and Minnesotas, young and old, male and female, “all people”—not every single person automatically receiving salvation, but all kinds of people being saved], ¹² training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.

See in verse 12 that grace trains us for two things: 1) to renounce and 2) to live. There’s the negative side and the positive. Grace educates us to renounce certain ways of living and, on the flip side, to live in a certain way.

Renouncing Ungodliness

Look first at what grace trains us to renounce. Verse 12: Grace trains us “to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions.” Ungodliness is a word Paul uses in 1 Timothy 1:9 and 2 Timothy 2:16 and here in verse 12 as a kind of summary term for the kind of living that is contrary to the gospel. And it seems he’s using this term, along with the phrase “worldly passions” as a way of summarizing what he’s been saying throughout the book that the Christian life should not look like. Grace trains us to renounce:

1:7: arrogance, a quick-temper, drunkenness, violence, and greed

1:10: being insubordinate, empty talkers, and deceivers

 1:12: being liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons

 1:16: being detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work

2:3: being slanderers or slaves to much wine

2:9–10: pilfering and being argumentative

In other words, we renounce the trajectories of life that are contrary to the God of the gospel of grace—in sum, renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. That’s the negative.

Living in Godliness

But grace also trains us for the positive. This is the last part of verse 12. Grace trains us “to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.” And just as Paul used summary terms for the negative, he’s doing the same here for the positive. He calls this the life of godliness, uprightness, and self-control. This is a carefully chosen triad of descriptors: self-control is in relation to self; uprightness in relation to others; and godliness in relation to God. Let’s quickly take them one at a time.

Self-control is a huge reality in Titus. First, Paul lists “self-control” among the elder characteristics. Then we find it four times here in chapter 2. Verse 2: “Older men are to be . . . self-controlled.” Verses 4–5: “The young women [are] to be self-controlled.” And in verse 6, the only instruction Paul has for younger men is this: “urge the younger men to be self-controlled.” It’s obvious with self-control that the particular referent is the self. Grace trains us to be self-controlled. And so phrases like “I just lost control” are not displaying Christian virtue. Just as the God of grace is in control of all things and never loses control, so his grace trains us to be self-controlled (not in control of the universe, but in control of own selves). Not to try to control what we can’t, but shaped by his grace to control what we can and should, namely, ourselves.

 

Upright: Just as self-control and upright appear back to back here in verse 12, so they also come together in the elder characteristics in 1:8: an elder should be “hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy.” Paul also writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:10 how “upright” (righteous) was his “conduct toward” the Thessalonians. The particular referent of “uprightness” seems to be others, both in the church and in society.

 

Godly: Which is plainly Godward, and we’re using it as our catch-all term for what grace produces in us, because of its prominence in 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus and because it’s opposite, ungodliness is the negative term earlier in the verse.

So grace trains us to live godly lives. To live like the God of grace would live if he were human—or we could say, to live like he did live as human, as Paul describes Jesus’ life as ultimate godliness in 1 Timothy 3:16. Grace trains us to live in self-control and not be mastered by our remaining sin. Grace trains us to live upright with respect to our neighbors and coworkers and family and friends. Grace trains us to live in godliness, and to have grace at the heart of our godliness. 

Godliness with Grace at Its Heart

In saying in verses 11–12 that it is grace that does the training, Paul is challenging our conception of what it means to live lives that are “godly.” We should ask, Is my life grace-trained? Is our life together grace-taught? Have I been grace-grown, or is my so-called “godliness” the product of some other instructor? Does our conception of what is the godly life or the holy life have grace at its core? Is grace at the bottom? Is grace the heart that sends the blood of good deeds coursing through my veins? For the Christian, grace isn’t icing on the cake of our daily living; grace is in the batter. More than that, it’s the first and main ingredient. And verse 11 says, more than that, grace is the baker.

We must not let there be a disconnect in our minds between the grace-trained life and the life of godliness. God is the God of grace. The godly life is the grace-trained life. And the grace-trained life is the only true life of godliness—any other so-called “godly” life may have “the appearance of godliness” but if not trained by grace, “denies its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).

Valjean and Javert

Another way to put it is that grace produces Valjean, not Javert. If you’re not familiar with the novel/play/movie Les Miserables, I’ll explain. The main character Jean Valjean begins the story a law-breaker. A convicted thief in prison with bad behavior for almost 20 years, he gets out, is taken in by a grace-trained bishop, gets up in the middle of the night and steals the bishop’s expensive silverware. He’s soon found by law-enforcement and brought back to the bishop, suspecting he robed him of the silver. But instead of responding according to law, the grace-trained bishop says, “Jean Valjean, my brother, you forgot the candlesticks.” And Valjean is changed by grace. Not mere leniency. It is costly grace. And so grace begins its work of training on Valjean. Grace begins to teach him afresh.

But Valjean’s antagonist is an inspector named Javert. Constantly preoccupied with law, his so-called “godliness” cannot rise above the level of law to grace and compassion and mercy. Valjean is the former law-breaker, now trained by grace to extend grace to others, while Inspector Javert is the grace-adverse, rule-enforcer. Javert’s life is bent on pursuing law and order, while Valjean’s life demonstrates grace after grace to those in need. And late in the story, it is Valjean who rises in grace to do what Javert cannot. Even while Javert is seeking to destroy Valjean’s life, Valjean saves the life of Javert. (And if Les Mis doesn’t do it for you, perhaps the parable of the Good Samaritan will. The rule-bent priest and Levite pass along the road, while it is the religiously suspect Samaritan who stops to extend kindness after kindness to the man beaten by robbers. Which of these proved to be a neighbor? Answer: “The one who showed him mercy,” Luke 10:37.)

Such extraordinary grace-trained virtue makes for a different flavor of life than the mere ordinary virtue of rule-enforcement. And it is the grace-trained life that is true biblical “godliness.” The product of grace is a kind of life that is called “godliness,” a godliness, like God, with grace at its heart. Biblical godliness is not rule-molded Inspector Javert but grace-shaped Valjean. Which leads us to #2, the peril of grace… 

2. The Peril of Grace

Now we touch on why grace is dangerous. Grace is dangerous because we sinners, so much in need of grace, are so prone in our sin to diminish and falsify grace. There are two ungodlinesses to avoid, not just one. Jonathan Parnell made the case two weeks ago that “ungodliness” in Crete involved not only the Cretans who lived lawlessly, but also the false teachers who were Javert-like in their rule orientation. The peril of grace is that with our remaining sin, our old self is still wired in ways to diminish and falsify God’s grace in one or both of two ways.

Grace Falsified

One the one hand, we may operate as if grace doesn’t train. As if grace doesn’t educate. It doesn’t grow us or change us. We think that God’s grace lands on us and leaves us where we are, with all the same inclinations and desires, with no incremental growth—slow as it may be, but making real progress over time. This is grace falsified. Perhaps in a misguided effort to protect free grace from being tainted by our doing, we think that grace cannot have any association with our doing. But that’s not true. Real grace trains. Real grace changes. Real grace produces our doing, but real grace is not predicated on our doing. Grace is never earned, and it never leaves us unchanged.

Grace Diminished

But on the other hand, we may operate as if grace isn’t sufficient for training. We think it’s not enough for grace to educate us, to grow us, to change us. We need another instructor (usually his name is Law or Tradition, or most often it’s Preference, cloaked beneath the guise of Law). This is grace diminished. Christian education, Christian training, Christian change is the product of grace, not as the aid, but as the teacher. Pick your image: At the core, at the bottom, at the heart of Christian training is grace, not only initiating godliness, but shaping what godliness is at every stage of the training. Grace and true godliness go together—godliness as a reflection of the God of grace. It is not the counterfeit “godliness” of Inspector Javert, but the grace-shaped godliness of Valjean.

The Role of Our Doing

It is so important to be clear on the role of our doing. I’ve tried to summarize it with the sentence “God’s grace is never earned and never leaves us unchanged,” but let me put a couple key texts underneath that. Possibly the key text in the New Testament that puts this together for us is Ephesians 2:8–10: "By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."

We are saved by grace, through faith, not earned, but a free gift from God. And as his catalytic grace streams to us, we become his new creatures, ready to do others good. God’s grace is never earned and never leaves us unchanged.

And next to Ephesians 2, verse 14 in our passage might be the second clearest text on this: 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.” Jesus gave himself for us to make us a people zealous for good works. Not “we do good, so that he gives himself for us.” But “he gave himself for us to make us a people who do good.” Grace is never earned and never leaves us unchanged. Grace is not predicated on our doing, but grace comes first and produces our doing.

But how does this work? How is grace a catalyst that comes to us undeserved and makes us a people who are eager to do good to others? Here’s our last point: #3, the power of grace...

3. The Power of Grace

The product of grace (godliness) was the WHAT; the peril of grace was the WHY; and now the power of grace is the HOW. We finish with verses 13–14, but since it’s all one sentence, let’s start reading again in verse 11:

 

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹² training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, [and now pay careful attention to verses 13 and 14] ¹³ waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ 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.

Power in the Future Grace

Paul gives us two pointers toward the HOW here in verses 13–14. The first is verse 13 and looking to Jesus’ second appearing in the future. Look at verse 13 again: Paul says we live grace-shaped godly lives by “waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.” The future, taken hold of by faith—faith being a superior delight in Jesus over present ungodliness—has power in shaping our present. Knowing what is coming for us, namely, who is coming for us—“our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” and that he is better—trains us. The grace of the future orients us. Future grace directs us and molds us. But Paul doesn’t stop with verse 13. And O how important is verse 14.

Power in the Person Who Died for Us

Paul’s second pointer is deeper. Look in particular at the connection between verse 13 and 14: We wait “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.” Our hope for Jesus’ future appearing is rooted in who he is. And who is he? He is the one “who gave himself for us.” Those 5 words are the deepest reality in this text—and in the whole book of Titus. At bottom it is all grounded in the gospel. Jesus gave himself for us. Here is the richest, deepest, fullest, strongest appearing of the grace of God. And so the taproot of our hope in his second appearing is in his first appearing.

And now we see what’s behind Paul’s phrase “the grace of God” in verse 11. Jesus is “the grace of God” who appeared. Jesus is the one whose life, death, and resurrection is the appearing of the grace of God. Grace is not merely a principle that trains us, but grace is a person. (We could say there’s a hidden track in this sermon, a point #4 called “the person of grace.”)

Grace-shaped godly living in the present age looks forward to the second appearing of the person of the cross, tethered to his first appearing and the work of the cross for us. The power for godly living that comes from hope in Jesus’ second coming flows from the person who showed himself to be for us at the cross in his first coming.

Beholding Is Becoming

Grace trains us by directing our gaze to the person of grace, as Paul does for us in verses 13–14, and as we behold him, the man who is God and embodies the grace of God, we become grace-trained for true godliness. Grace trains us as we focus on our instructor Jesus. And so Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:18: “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” Grace trains us, teaches us, changes us, transforms us as we behold the glory of our Lord Jesus who gave himself for us.

Grace-trained godliness is the life centered on Jesus, continually conscious of his grace toward us sinners, continually resting in his redeeming and his purifying us for doing good to others. Calvary is the place where we focus our faith. Jesus and his gospel work for us is the relentless preoccupation of our training, education, growth, transformation.

Jesus Appeared and Gave Himself for Us

Bethlehem, the grace of God has appeared in Jesus. He gave himself for us. He is redeeming us from ungodliness and purifying us as his special people who are zealous for doing others good, zealous to serve others, and meet the needs of others. Zealous to make our Savior and Redeemer look good in our acts of love toward the people of the Twin Cities. The one who trains us to happily extend his grace to others is the very one who is the Grace of God incarnate and gave himself for us.