Grace

Part 3- How and what does grace teach us?

Titus 2:11-14

11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 

12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,

13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

In part 1 of this study on the grace of God, I looked at how God’s grace has been here since before time began. I used 2 Timothy 1:9 as my key verse for this statement. I also looked at how God’s grace touched the lives of people in the Old Testament leading up to Jesus, and how His grace back then, has been reaching forward to each of us today. In part 2, I looked at Romans 6:1-4, 15 which proves that grace does not give us a free pass to sin over and over willfully. I also used Titus 2:11 to show that God’s saving grace is available to every person on earth, however only those who follow God’s plan of salvation will be able to accept God’s gift of grace. I will now look at Titus 2:12-14 and answer the question, “how and what does grace teach us?”

First of all, does grace teach us without any effort on our part? Titus 2:12 says that grace teaches us to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. But how does grace teach us to live this way? The word teach has many synonyms: train, instruct, educate, discipline, and chasten. When I look at all these words that go along with the word teach, I realize that to teach someone something relevant to their lives is one of the greatest gifts we can give someone. Let’s say someone tries to teach us how to swim. In my opinion, I feel that this is a good example of something relevant, because I feel that everyone needs to know how to swim for their own safety. You never know when you will wind up in some water and have to swim to survive or you may have to save someone else from drowning. Will we learn to swim if we don’t follow what we are being taught by the instructor? No we won’t. We won’t learn anything if we ourselves don’t put forth effort into what we are being taught. There are certain things that go into learning to swim. First, you have to train yourself to not be afraid of the water. You have to train yourself to have the courage to put your head under the water. You have to learn how to hold your breath. Putting my head under water was my biggest fear when I was learning to swim. But no one could make me overcome my fear. I had to do that on my own. I could have all the adults around me cheering me on and telling me I had nothing to be afraid of. However, until I talked myself into not being afraid, I was still holding myself back from learning. This example ties in perfectly with how grace teaches us. I was holding myself back from learning to swim because of my fear. 

Can I hold myself back in my Christian walk? Can I keep grace from teaching me how to live the Christian life? Absolutely I can! If I don’t deny myself some things, then I keep God’s saving grace at bay, meaning I don’t gain access to it. I’m literally keeping God’s grace at an arm’s length from me. I’m not allowing myself to be molded into the kind of person that God wants me to be. And this is all because I don’t want to give up or deny myself certain things that are worldly. But I can’t expect to have my cake and eat it too. I can’t continue in whatever sin tempts me, and still receive His grace anymore than I could learn to swim without getting my head wet. So what are we supposed to deny in order to live the Christian life? Paul tells Titus that if we deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, then we will be able to live soberly, righteously, and godly. Of course, the world doesn’t think we should deny ourselves anything. The “live for the moment” and “live for self” mantra is what the world continually tries to teach us. So ask yourself, do you want the world to teach you or do you want God’s grace to teach you? Do you belong to the world or to God? Jesus expects us to deny ourselves if we are going to follow Him. Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 16:24, “that if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me”. We have to say “no” to sin or we deny Jesus. 2 Timothy 2:12 says that if we deny Him, then He will deny us. That is a scary thought since He is our Savior and our mediator between us and God. 

Ok……my sisters in Christ…. I’m going to get more personal for a bit. It might be a bit of a soapbox. The thought of Jesus denying me before God is horrifying and heartbreaking for me to even think about. But more than that, the thought of intentionally harming Jesus with my sin is even more heartbreaking to me. I mean God has this amazing plan to save me with His grace through His Son, that started before time began, and I couldn’t deny myself of ungodliness and worldly lusts so that I could live for Him? I don’t know what I’ve been thinking in my past with how I have acted at times. You may be saying to yourself, “wow, she’s hard on herself.” Yes I am! Well…. maybe not hard on myself anymore, just aware of myself and the temptations that I have struggled with in the past. I keep my guard up all the time, because Satan is just waiting for me to let it down. Now don’t get me wrong, I have forgiven myself of past sins which was hard for me to do, believe me. We all have to forgive ourselves for things we have done in our past, either before we were baptized or possibly after we became Christians, and let ourselves be pulled back into the world. Maybe this has happened multiple times for some of us. But if we don’t forgive ourselves, then we won’t allow ourselves to grow spiritually through God’s grace. I firmly believe that I had stunted my own growth for a pretty good while just by not being able to let go of some things from the past. I had gotten things right with God…. at least I thought I had. I was denying ungodliness and worldly lusts like I am told to do in our key verses. However, I was also denying myself grace because I wasn’t  forgiving myself. I wouldn’t be able to write this blog if I had kept that kind of thinking up, because I didn’t think I had anything to offer God’s kingdom. I didn’t think I was worthy to put my words out there. I had to show myself grace. It’s taken lots of soul searching, lots of Bible study and prayer, support from my wonderful family, and support from some very special sisters in Christ. You know who you are ladies! Letting myself feel God’s grace and know that I am truly His and knowing that He has really forgiven me has been the most wonderful experience that has ever happened to me. It took me years. Don’t wait years to figure this out my friends. If this is you and you are feeling like I have in the past…… like you just aren’t good enough to receive God’s grace, you need to KNOW that God has wonderful plans for you. None of us are good enough for God’s grace, am I right? Because of Jesus we don’t have to be “good enough”! It’s a gift! Let go of the past and fully accept that God loves you and wants to save you through His amazing grace. Then let Him transform you into a vessel for His purpose. And one more thing, if you are like I used to be, you might have looked at someone else and thought……”Wow, she is such a wonderful Christian lady. I could never be as good as she is”. Or…..”I wish I was as good of a Christian as she is”. Let me just say a big ole “NO” to this kind of thinking! If we compare ourselves to others in a derogatory way toward ourselves, we are only holding ourselves back from what God’s purpose is for us. And all the good that we could do for God’s kingdom will stay hidden, because of our feelings of inadequacy. Is it ok to pattern after a person who is a wonderful Christian example to us? Absolutely! Just don’t put yourself down in the process. Friends, we are here to support each other and encourage each other in our talents for God’s kingdom. Everyone has talents that can be used to spread God’s word to the lost. 

Let’s look at Paul and his ugly past for a bit. Do we think he would have been as successful as he was in his ministry if he had kept looking back at his past in a negative way? Of course, he did tell people about his past and about his conversion story in order to relate better to his audience. We can do this also. Our past and our conversion stories could help someone else open up to us and could even open a door for us to teach them the gospel. Our past could make someone feel less alone in what they are going through. But this is the only way we should be looking back at our past, to show people that we were once where they are. We should not look back so that we can continually beat ourselves up again and again. What if Paul had compared himself to Peter and thought, “I’ll never be as good as Peter’? Let’s all remember what Paul was in his former life as Saul of Tarsus, a persecutor and murderer of Christians. In Philippians 3:12-14 Paul writes some of the most encouraging words for me personally, “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,  I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Wow. He says I don’t have heaven yet, but that is what I am pressing forward towards. And I’m not looking back to where I was, only forward to where I want to be. He tells us in verse 15 that if we are mature, then this is the mindset that we should have. So if I really think about what God’s grace has done for me through Jesus Christ, then why wouldn’t I want to deny the things that will hurt me as a Christian, hurt Jesus, hurt the church that He died for, and cause me to abuse and lose God’s grace? This is how grace teaches us. When we fully realize what God has done for us and understand that our actions have hurt our Savior again and again, this is when we start allowing grace to teach us how to live. Grace is what teaches us about the love that God has for us, even when we are in sin before we are baptized into Christ, even when we turn our backs on Him after we are baptized into Christ, even when we don’t put Him first in our lives, even when our human weaknesses cause us to stumble, and even when we can’t let go of our past enough to let God heal us and use us for His purpose. You see, God is waiting on all of us to accept His grace and fully give our lives to Him. The gift is there for us when we are mature enough to fully accept it and let it truly transform us. To all my Christians readers, especially my younger readers, don’t wait on your chance to feel the freedom you can find by letting go of the past and the world, and fully living your life for Christ. It truly is the best life and honestly, it’s our only chance to be in heaven with God someday. God wants all of us, not just the parts of us we allow him to have.

What is godliness? Godliness is simply “God likeness” or “like God. So ungodliness would be “unlike God”. If we are Christians, then we should deny any words, behaviors or actions that are uncharacteristic of someone who is striving to be “like God” or “like Christ”. If we are striving to be Christ-like, then we will deny worldly lusts. As it says 1 John 2:15-17, we will not love the world or things of the world. If we do, then we don’t have the love of the Father in us. Then we are told the three worldly lusts that all sin falls under, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Every sin can be put under one of these three categories and all sin is ungodliness. The bottom line is that if we are continually giving in to worldly lusts, then we are ungodly. If we strive to deny these things, then we will be able to have the kind of life that God wants for us, a good and healthy life, with the ultimate reward at the end of it. Obviously, we will slip up and make mistakes but God will know our hearts, and He will know that we are striving to give Him our best effort. I used some verses from Romans 6 in part 2 of this series to show that we can’t abuse God’s grace. If we look at Romans 6:12-13, we can see that these verses tie in well with the verses in Titus about denying ungodliness and worldly lusts. “Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” (Romans 6:12-13) Remember verses 3 and 4 of this same chapter, baptism into death, to newness of life? Sin is supposed to be dead in us and grace should be alive in us after our baptism into Christ. I really love this entire chapter of Romans. I feel a series coming on this in the future! Notice the word “reign” in verse 12. Sin should not “reign” or rule over us. Making a mistake every now and then, because of human weakness, is not the same as letting sin “reign” in us or have control over us. God’s grace will not abide in us if sin reigns in our mortal bodies. 

So…..if we are in Christ, and we deny ourselves these things, then we will live the way God wants us to live, soberly, righteously and godly in this present age.  I find it interesting that the Bible uses the word “soberly” here. Some versions I have read use the word sensibly which means having self control. This is referring to keeping our mind sharp and clear. It is also a direct reference to the abuse of alcohol or drugs. We can’t have a sensible or right mind for God if we abuse substances or use them as coping mechanisms instead of turning to God. And….. if we drink socially as a Christian, we could be complicit in helping cause someone to stumble who has a serious problem with alcohol. Romans 14:13 says for us to resolve not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way. To resolve to do something means to set a firm course of action. It is a decision made ahead of time to prepare our minds to either do something or not do something. We never know who we are influencing around us. Let’s always keep in mind that we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. We are to show Christ to the world. We may be the only window through which some will ever see Christ and see how to live the Christian life. This is why Paul put emphasis on living soberly. There is no righteousness or godliness if we are not living a sober lifestyle. Of course living righteously and godly goes right along with living soberly. Let’s never forget our purpose is to show others the way to heaven through the way we live. 

What does grace teach us to look or wait for? Verse 13 tells us that as we live the Christian life, we are to be looking for our blessed hope, which is Jesus Christ who gave His life for us. We are waiting for Him to come back and take us to our heavenly home. Through grace, we have that hope if we are in Jesus. Verse 14 is a beautiful verse because it reminds us to always look back at the cross and remember why we have the hope that we have. It also reminds us of why Jesus did what He did, “that He might redeem us from every lawless deed”. And again, here is grace. Grace is what redeems us. The next part of verse 14 says that He redeems us so that He can “purify for Himself His own special people”. We are His special people if we are in Christ and living soberly, righteously and godly in this present age of 2023. How cool is that? To be Jesus’ own special people! Let that sink in! And for good measure, Paul added one more phrase to verse 14. Jesus wants us, His special people, to be zealous of good works. He wants us to take every opportunity that we can to do good unto all men, especially to those of the household of faith. (Galatians 6:10) Paul told the Christians at the church at Ephesus these words, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10) We were created for good works when we were baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins. God’s awesome grace toward us should make us want to live the best Christian life we can possibly live, which would include being zealous for good works. Some synonyms for zealous: enthusiastic, eager, fervent, intense, passionate, and dedicated. Let those words sink in for a minute. We are all passionate about our families, especially our precious children. We may be passionate about a lot of worldly things such as, sports, music, movies, books, and these are just a few of the things I enjoy. Everyone has different interests and hobbies. But none of these should surpass the zeal and passion that we should have for God, His Son, His Word, and His Church. If we keep these things as our number one passion, then everything will fall into place and we will be free, because we will 100 percent know that God’s grace is with us, even when we fall short at times. 

So now as I end this post and this series on grace, I ask myself, “Am I zealous for good works for God? Am I zealous for the cause of Christ? Am I zealous about saving the lost?” Because being zealous directly correlates with Jesus showing us grace and purifying us as His own special people. That is the challenge for us this week. Let’s all work on our zeal for God and His purpose. I promise you that getting in God’s word more will help us gain more zeal for Him. I hope this post helps us also. It has certainly helped me to write it. Every post is written to myself and is something I need to work on in my life. Thank you all so much for reading my blog!! I appreciate all of you so much!!

If anyone ever needs help in learning the truth of the gospel, please reach out and I can help you or put you in contact with someone who can. Below is the plan that God has set forth in His word, for mankind to receive His grace that leads to salvation and an eternity with God in heaven.

• We have to hear His word. (Romans 10:17) 
• Upon hearing the message of Jesus, we believe it. (Mark 16:16) 
• Then, we confess Jesus’ name before men. (Matthew 10:32) 
• Next, we repent of our sins. (Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19) 
• Finally, we are baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins. (Acts 2:38, Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:16, Romans 6:3-4, Acts 22:16, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:26-27) After baptism, God adds us to His church. (Acts 2:47)
• Then, we remain faithful in our commitment to Christ until death. (Revelation 2:10, 2 Peter 2:20-22)