Sermon on Titus 2:11–15: The grace of God that brings salvation
A sermon by James de Costobadie (Costa) on Titus 2:11–15, exploring the meaning of grace and its power to transform Christian life.
Summary
This is a sermon delivered at a church associated with the Latimer: Listen channel, expounding Titus 2:11–15. James de Costobadie (Costa) argues that spiritual dryness in the Christian life is not remedied by new messages or greater effort, but by a fresh appreciation of grace — the undeserved love of God poured out through Jesus Christ. He works through verse 14 in particular, presenting three dimensions of grace: that it sets believers free from sin's penalty, sets them apart as God's own people, and sets them on fire with eagerness to do good. The sermon closes with a forward look at the second "appearing" of Christ in verse 13, and a call to live faithfully now in light of that coming glory.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Opening illustration: spiritual dryness
Many years ago I was at theological college, which was residential and provided food for us during term time. But I couldn't help noticing that by the time it got to Friday dinner, the married people had run off to their own quarters and the budget had run out. Normally it was pretty slim pickings by the end of the week. We had a cohort of American exchange students staying at the college who had brought a bit of extra life, and I distinctly remember one young man called Jason who helped himself to a piece of cake that was being served for dessert — a sort of arid cake — and he put it in his mouth and he started chewing, and then he just kept on and on and on, and this thing just would not go down. And eventually he kind of exclaimed, he said, "Gee, this is just a mouthful of dryness."
I wonder if you've ever felt like that spiritually. Or maybe you do at the moment — when it's hard to be excited anymore in the Christian life. Maybe you've been a Christian a while, or maybe for a long time. I remember the early days when I became a Christian, very excited. I didn't know anything of the Bible, and any verse we looked at was full of excitement. But as you go on as a Christian, those new verses become familiar verses. Things that you heard for the first time you'd be reminded of, but you learn less and less new the longer you go on. And it's easy to become lacking in appetite. Perhaps we still hear the sermons, but they taste a bit like another bite of that cake. Or we find ourselves lacking in desire to change, or lacking in joy.
Introduction to Titus 2:11–15
Well, if that's the case, welcome to these verses in Titus chapter 2 — verses which pour life-giving water onto a parched soul. And that's not just the preacher imagining this, I think. Paul was writing these verses to show that there is a life-giving power in the message of Jesus Christ that simply cannot be found anywhere else in this world. Not in religion, not in morals, not in pleasure-seeking, not in meditation, nor anything else in this world which can offer this outside of Jesus. And to access this spiritual fountain of life, no new message is needed, no new effort is needed. What is needed is a fresh appreciation of one word, and that word is grace. Grace, meaning the undeserved love and generosity that has been poured out upon us by the one true and living God.
This morning, if you feel that you have a soul full of dryness, if we know we're not firing on all cylinders, then here is a message for us. And I do hope that if you're not sure where you stand Christian-wise, these verses here are a very helpful and great insight into what the core of Christianity is all about and why it's better than you ever thought it was.
I remember once buying an ice cream and turning up with it at home, and the title on the container was "Too Good to Be True." And when we read these verses about God, I think we'll see something similar.
These verses really centre around two appearings. The word "appearing" comes twice. Verse 11: salvation has appeared. Verse 13: the glorious appearing. But we're going to spend nearly all of our time on the first of those, because it really sets up the second.
The grace that has appeared — Verse 11
So see, first of all, the grace that has appeared.
Have a look at verse 11: For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
The grace of God. What does that tell us about God? It tells us that he loves us, for he is gracious towards us. He loves us when we don't deserve to be loved, for he is a gracious God. Think about that for a moment. He is the God who loves to shower us with what we do not deserve. He is the God who loves to love even when we have been unlovely. He delights to delight in us, even when there is nothing attractive about us.
And so loving is he that he has stepped into history to change the course of history. Because we read that this grace of God has appeared — has appeared in time and space. And we read in verse 11 that it has appeared to bring salvation. Just think about that. To bring salvation.
One time, there we were, far away from God, walking in our own direction. If you've been part of our growth groups, our midweek groups, we've been studying the book of Genesis. And in Genesis chapter 2, what we see is the generosity of God. God who gave us a beautiful land. God who gave an amazing garden. Gave us not just what we needed, but far, far more besides. And gave us people. To Adam, he gave Eve. For those who are married, he gave you your spouse. And for those who are not married, he's put other people into your lives. It all stems from the grace of God.
And what did we do with all of this graciousness, this generosity? We threw it back in his face. Despite receiving a millionaire's playground in the Garden of Eden, we turned our backs on God and by our monstrous ingratitude have managed to make this generous God our enemy. We have cut ourselves off from the author of life. And that's why we face an eternal death.
So when we talk about salvation, being saved, being rescued, we're not talking here about an optional extra in life. This is not just a hobby for those who are into that kind of thing. We're not talking about the icing on the cake of life. We're talking about life and death. We're talking about being transferred from death to life. We're talking about a desperate need that we have.
And the story of the rest of the Old Testament is that we cannot save ourselves. It doesn't matter what we're able to do, what we try to do — we're not able to. And nor, in fact, do we even want to. Every time the people of Israel are given a choice, they turn further away from God, because that's really what we're all like.
Now, put yourself in God's position at the end of Genesis 2. Most of us, if we were God, we would have walked away. You think of how you've been treated. Humans can only put up with so much, can we? And we would have been severely tempted to think, well, let them stew in their own juice. Let them get what they deserve. They've cooked their own goose, that kind of thing.
But not this God — the God of grace. Though we had offended him so much, he took action to launch his global rescue plan, designed before the beginning of time. And it is this generous, undeserved love which propelled him out of the palace of heaven to come to earth as a person — though knowing that he would be executed at the hands of the people he created, yet he was willing to do it in order to bring salvation, to bring rescue. And this he did not because he had to, but because he chose to. Not because he needed to, but because he wanted to. He wanted to bring salvation. To save you and me. And we read in verse 11, to save people everywhere — the salvation that has appeared to all men, meaning all kinds of people everywhere.
Three things about grace — Verse 14
And in verse 14, we find out more about this grace that has brought salvation. Have a look at verse 14, because I want to spend most of our time in that one verse.
This grace through Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Three things about this grace.
Grace sets us free
First of all, this grace sets us free.
Verse 14: Jesus, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness. That word "redeem" comes from the language of slavery. You redeem slaves. And in biblical terms, it comes from the Old Testament where the people of Israel, as you may know, were once upon a time, many centuries before, in slavery in the land of Egypt. They were enslaved to a foreign power, to an evil king who was enormously powerful. And the point about slaves is you need to be set free. In other words, you can't free yourself. If you could be free as a slave, you wouldn't be a slave. You need someone else to come and free you.
And so God, in his mercy, comes to free the people. There they are, suffering under brutal oppression, hard work — it gets harder at a certain point in time as they're told to do more work with the same amount of materials. There's no payment. Miserable conditions. They cry out for mercy. And God, we're told, hears their cry. He's full of compassion. And he provides for them a rescue such that when he comes in judgment on the people of Egypt and the gods of Egypt, those who are his people living within Egypt are saved from his judgment. You may know it comes about because he allows them to provide a sacrifice — the death of a lamb in their place. He sets them free.
And that experience of the Israelites in Egypt is a picture of our own state — naturally under the power of Satan, unable to free ourselves. And we should point out, we don't even want to free ourselves. And it's a great mistake to think, oh, no, no, I'm free — I don't even know what you're talking about. I can do what I want. No, you can't. You can only do what your desires want. You're enslaved to your own desires.
I remember once talking with a good friend of mine. He said, I can become a Christian whenever I want. I said, no, you can't. He said, of course I can. I said, well, become a Christian. He said, I don't want to. I said, well, there you are. That proves you cannot do anything. You can only do what your desires want to do. And naturally, we don't want God to come into our lives. We don't want someone sticking their oar into our lives to tell us how to live.
But at the cross of Jesus, we were set free from the penalty of sin. He died to absorb our sins, to break us free from our sins and the consequences of them. And now in this life, as we'll see next week, by the power of his Spirit, we are being set free from the power of sin. We have been set free from the penalty of sin. Now we are being set free from the power of sin.
Sometimes it's said of someone who comes from a disadvantaged background that if they do well at school or well in life, someone might say, look at how far they've come. And the same might be said of every follower of Jesus — once living under a sentence of death, once with God as their enemy, and now brought out, set free to have God, to be friends of God, set free from our sins and the consequences of them. Amazing grace, for it was God that did this, one hundred percent.
Grace sets us apart
Set free. Secondly, set apart.
Verse 14: who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people who are his very own.
Back to Egypt. When the Israelites were brought out — you remember Moses did his thing and the water parted and they were brought out the other side — it wasn't that God then left them. You know, well, good, I've brought you out from Egypt. See you later. Have a good life. No, no, no. The reason he saved them was to bring them to himself. So instead of being captive to King Pharaoh, they would now be able to worship the true king, the living Lord God, and love him as they were made to. That is, they would be his treasured possession. They would belong to him. They'd be protected by him. They would find their security and their identity in him.
You imagine watching rugby matches and think of one of those brutes on the pitch — eighty minutes knocking seven bells out of everyone else on the pitch. And then the final whistle goes and, as sometimes happens, their families come onto the pitch. Now you imagine a young lady walks across and gives to one of these monsters a little baby — it's clearly their newborn. And the man takes this baby and holds the baby in his arms. He's caked in mud, sweat pouring off him. He's got his baby in his arms. Now, you thought it was difficult to get hold of the ball off him in the previous eighty minutes — you try and get hold of that baby off him. No chance. Because this is his.
And God's grace brings us into his arms — into the arms of Almighty God — which means that we are never chasing an identity. So many people around us are chasing identity, trying to work out what life's about and that sort of thing. Forget it. When you come to Jesus, you are anchored in the arms and the love of a gracious God. What security this gives, and what incentive to draw near to him.
Charles Spurgeon, the Baptist minister, put it this way. He said:
"You may fear the Lord has passed you by in life, but it is not so. He who counts the stars and who calls them by their names is in no danger of forgetting his own children. He knows your case as thoroughly as if you were the only creature he ever made or the only saint he ever loved. So approach him and be at peace."
In other words, as it says in verse 14, he has brought us to himself to be a people — his people, who are his very own. Not so that we then carry on living life as we always did before, but so that we might be changed, that we might reflect the glory of God in our lives. So that when people see us, they actually see a pale reflection of Jesus himself. He's brought us to himself to purify for himself a people who are his very own.
Grace sets us on fire
So set free, set apart, and then thirdly, set on fire.
To purify for himself a people who are his very own, eager to do what is good. In other words, never the same again. Our desires are changed because our hearts have been changed.
This is not event Christianity, where we just come to an event and listen to someone tell us how to change. This is not self-help Christianity, where we look for a few new tips and tricks to help us through life. This is not tick-box Christianity, where we do what is expected of us. This is not values Christianity, where we have a set of values or principles to live by. This is biblical Christianity, where our minds are changed by the word of God — understanding what God has done for us — and where our hearts are changed because we understand where we were headed, and how God has shown us grace and set us on a different path. And now we want to be different.
And I think this is very hard to understand before you become a Christian. Before you become a Christian, it can feel like, oh, I don't know what that would be like — it might be a few rules and regulations, and I'm not sure I'm really into that. And that's how it can seem to people.
I remember when my own mother became a Christian in her seventies. Her life — she'd always been a sort of good person — but now she went into overdrive. Monday, she was cooking for the evangelistic course. Tuesday, she was helping clean the church. She'd pay for someone to clean her own house at home, but she'd go and help in the church and clean there. Wednesday, she would help run a mums and toddlers group in the church. And I remember another member of the family — non-Christian — saying, "Oh yeah, I thought this would happen. See, the church has really got its claws stuck into her." Because that's how it sort of feels from the outside. But when you're on the inside, you understand what God has done for you. It's not anyone getting their claws stuck into you. You want to live for Jesus because of what he's done for you.
Saying no — and saying yes
And that's where these yeses and nos come in. Back to verse 11. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. We're different now. We're set on fire. Part of being set on fire means that some things need to go.
The grace of God has appeared that brings salvation to all men, and it teaches us that because we've been set free from wickedness and because we've been set apart to be the Lord's people, it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. Because when you've been brought out of slavery, you're not being rescued in order to rush straight back in again.
And yet, there is an awful part of us that sometimes feels that pull to want to go back to what we were before. You remember how that was actually true of the Israelites. God brought them out — think how bad it was to be in slavery, absolutely dreadful, they were complaining all the time, understandably so. God brings them out, and then as soon as they encounter one or two difficulties on the way to the promised land, you get these strange verses where they have this bizarre, perverse nostalgia for what Egypt was like. And they begin to say, "Oh, you know, the watermelons there, they were enormous, and the leeks — we had such a marvellous time there." What? Not true at all. But that's how they persuade themselves.
And in the Christian life, it's very easy to do the same. Bizarrely, we can wish at points, even, that we didn't have Christ — that if only we were non-Christian, then we could do what we want and we'd be free again. That's not freedom. That's slavery. Going back into slavery.
Whereas grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness, no to worldly passions, because we've been put on a different path. And so we have different desires.
No to ungodliness. Maybe we feel like yelling at someone — someone at home or someone on the road or whatever it is. And grace says, no, don't. Don't express that kind of anger, because I'm no better myself and I've been set free from having to live in line with those desires. Maybe it's about being selfish with time. You get into the habit of thinking life is about me, myself, and I, and how I can use my time for my comforts and what I like. Grace says, no, actually, there are better things I could be doing here. Maybe enough's enough of living a quiet life — I need to be more adventurous so I can be more thoughtful of others. Maybe it's with sexual desires — good desires, but given to be expressed within marriage and not before then and nowhere else. Maybe that's an area we need to say no to. Or maybe greed, where we find it hard to share what we have or give of what we have, when really we could and should be blessing someone else.
And to each of these, and any others besides, grace says no. Don't do it. You've been saved from sin, so don't run back into it.
I think all of us can relate to this and how easy it is to go back to where we came from. To change the picture for a moment — think of someone who in adulthood develops a pain and intolerance to dairy products. Sometimes that happens, and people can develop quite a severe type of intolerance. Now, imagine this happens and they realise that the diet has to change. And then, in a typical office or common room somewhere, the cream cakes come out. There's a cream cake sitting there. "Oh, gosh, look at those. Absolutely — a cherry on top. I love the look of those." But you know that if you have one, you'll pay for it later on. You will regret it. And so maybe you do, maybe you don't. "No, I shouldn't. Yes, I will." And you eat one. And then later on, you regret it.
Now, sin is just like that. It's there. "I shouldn't. No, really I won't. No, I'll regret it. Oh, look at it. Do it." And then afterwards — why did I do that? Regret it later on.
So can I ask you: when was the last time you said no to something? When was the last time you made a decision to cut something out of your life? Because all of us should be doing that until we reach perfection. So when's the last time that you did that? And if we can't think of a time, that itself might be a warning signal — because to cut something out of you is painful by definition, and therefore, by definition, we probably remember it. So let's have a think about what needs to go, and maybe isolate one thing, and then replace it with a big yes.
Now, this is so important. The Christian life is not just about saying no. It's about living positively for Jesus. There's a lot of talk in the news at the moment, of course, about what will happen in Iran. Israel in particular has had this strategy over a number of years of leadership decapitation — kill the leaders. But we should note that the West has a bad history of killing leaders without replacing them with something better. If you don't replace them with something better, evil abhors a vacuum and you usually end up worse than what you had beforehand.
Well, likewise with the Christian. There is a decapitation to take place — there's a sinful part to cut out — but it needs to be replaced by something better. And Jesus spoke quite openly about that. What we find is that grace institutes within us a whole regime change, with Jesus himself as our incredible new king. The Christian life is wonderfully positive as we now live for the king of kings.
And so grace teaches us in verse 12 to say yes to the best things of all — to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this present age. Or in verse 14, to be eager to do what is good.
Eager to do good
Let's just think about that phrase: eager to do what is good. Amazed by his love, empowered by his Spirit, the Christian is set on fire to live for God by doing good. And here is one of the hallmarks of being a Christian. Christians are not identified by our political views — you've always had Christians who are right of centre and other Christians who are left of centre. We're not distinguished by our ethnicity — we've always been a wonderful mix of people from all over the world believing in Jesus. What does set us apart is to be on fire for doing good, because grace leads to godliness. Eager to do good.
And wherever God has placed you, there is an opportunity to do good. So you think about home — what would it mean for you to proactively do good at home, or in the flat that you're sharing with others? At work, how can you do good to your colleagues around you? You say, well, they're not doing good to me. Yeah, well, that's the difference. We're now to show grace, doing good as God has shown grace to us. Or at university with other students on the course — what's the good that I can do? Or at church — thinking, what good can I do here?
It changes the Christian life completely when we understand that the lens through which to view the Christian life is: what can I do good for others, rather than for myself? It's not a bad thing to come on a Sunday for yourself. It's not a bad thing to go to growth group for yourself. But it's an even better thing to do it for others — to be there for others, to help them in the Christian life, to do good.
And as a church together, we're to think: what is the good that we can do? In short, we're not going to Rosebank to make ourselves more comfortable. I mean, it will be more comfortable — that's not why we do it. We can put up with average air conditioning and freezing seats over there and slightly warm ones over there, and a building that's too hot in summer and too cold in winter. We can all live with that. It's absolutely fine. We're going to Rosebank to do good for others, so that we can try and reach more people with the message of Jesus — which is the most good we can do for them — and disciple more and more others, and do as many good works in the local area, where there are very few churches, as we possibly can. So when you give money to Rosebank, as many of you have so kindly done, just remember you're not giving it for yourself. You're giving it for the thousands of people who will hear about Jesus in that building — many of whom we will perhaps never meet on earth, but who will hear the gospel and worship Jesus in eternity.
We're to be eager to do good for others. And I think church is full of so many wonderful examples of people who live their lives in that way. I remember speaking to a very successful person many years ago — very successful in worldly terms, made a lot of money, became a Christian a bit later, in his thirties anyway. And I asked him once, what's the biggest difference in your life? And he said, "I think the biggest difference is that I now love to include people who otherwise would be forgotten." And I thought that was a great statement — not just to give to people, as he could have done, but: I love to include people who otherwise would have been forgotten.
John Wesley, the great preacher, said, "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."
The grace that will appear — Verse 13
And then just as we finish — God's grace will appear. Will appear.
Verse 13: While we wait for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Here, that grace is given a name. The name is Jesus. Jesus — God's amazing love in action. One day, he reminds us here, we will see him. One day, we will live with him. One day, we will be like him. And in the light of that, we should become like him now. We should have his attitude to sin. We should have his attitude to God. We should have his attitude towards people. For one day soon, we will give up living by faith and we will live by sight, in the glorious presence of Jesus. Everything our hearts were longing for on earth will be fulfilled. We ourselves will be filled with Jesus, front and centre.
So live faithfully for him. Not because you have to, but because you choose to. Not because you need to, but because you want to. We're to live even in this week ahead — in all we do — as those who before long will be living in the presence of our uniquely beautiful, perfectly good, indescribably gracious God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Closing — Verse 15
And that's why Paul finishes this section. That last verse, verse 15, to Titus: These then are the things you should teach about the grace of God. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Don't let anyone despise you, Titus. Keep on reminding them of what God has done in Jesus Christ.