Grace Awakening Series

During an interview this past week on CNN, the family of the man named Robert Godwin Sr. who was murdered on a recently posted Facebook video, responded in a way people could never imagine. His daughter said: “My father taught us how to love God, how to fear God and how to forgive. Each one of us forgives the killer, the murder. We want to wrap our arms around him. I honestly can say right now that I hold no animosity in my heart right now against this man, because I know that he is a sick individual…..I could not do that if I did not know God as my God and my savior.” When the host, Anderson Cooper asked how they could do this, how they could forgive the killer, they responded that “our parents didn’t just talk about (forgiveness), they lived it”. (http://www.imsoblesseddaily.com/family-of-facebook-murder-victim-says-we-forgive-the-killer/) Regardless of the issues of self-defense, the state’s role in punishment and the related issues, the question becomes, does this killer deserve the forgiveness of this family? Humanely speaking, the answer is no. How then can this family forgive this killer? They can do this because God seems to have changed them. Supernaturally, by Grace through faith, He has saved them and supernaturally, they are able to offer that forgiveness and grace.

God longs to display His grace. He longs to display His love and display His mercy. And the most magnanimous way He can do that is by delivering sinners from their sin when they don't deserve to be delivered, when they can't do anything to achieve a deliverance, either ceremonially or morally. God, wanting to display His glory then, wanting to display His lovingkindness, mercy, and His grace - His forgiveness, His compassion - forgives sinners on the basis of no merit of theirs. His saving work is what displays His grace and glory… God longs to display, then, the greatness of His grace and His love and His mercy by saving sinners from the judgment they deserve, by no merit of their own but purely on His own grace merit - on the choice of His own love and the mercy of His own will. (https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/56-21/saving-grace-part-4)

In Titus 2:1-10, we've already looked over the very specific things regarding godly behavior that demonstrates God's saving power. In fact, in all the categories of age groups, and including those who are slaves or employees, but coming to verses 11 to 14, we now come to the foundation, the doctrinal foundation for this righteous behavior. Righteous behavior is called for and it should be expected because of God's saving work.

Do you presently find yourself stalled in your Christian life? Do you find your testimony seemingly ineffective? Are you generally unnoticed by others in terms of your Christianity? Titus 2 should be a Grace Awakening for you soul. When we truly become amazed by Grace in our own salvation, we can supernaturally forgive, joyously worship, and radically live as testimonies of Grace. Such a life shows how radical God’s grace is and God can use it to wake up a selfish, dying world.

In Titus 2:11–14, Paul condenses the eternal plan of God in Christ by grace. He gives four aspects, or realities, of God’s redemptive grace, in salvation from: 1) The Penalty (Titus 2:11), 2) The Power (Titus 2:12), 3) The Presence (Titus 2:13), and 4) The Possession (Titus 2:14) of sin.

We are awakened to the reality of God’s grace when we see:

1) Salvation from the Penalty of Sin (Titus 2:11),

Titus 2:11b [11] For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, (ESV)

Paul wanted to reinforce this central reality of redemptive purpose and therefore culminates this practical instruction with a monumental section about the saving work of God. He begins where we should always begin—with the grace of God. God’s grace is His unmerited favor toward wicked, unworthy sinners, by which He delivers them from condemnation and death. God’s grace is his active favor bestowing the greatest gift upon those who have deserved the greatest punishment. But the grace of God is more than a divine attribute; it is a divine Person, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ not only was God incarnate but was grace incarnate. He Himself personifies and expresses the grace of God, the sovereign, eternal, and unmerited divine gift. This grace has penetrated our moral and spiritual darkness. It “has appeared.” The verb used in the original is related to the noun epiphany, that is, appearing or manifestation (for example, of the sun at sunrise). Upon those sitting in the darkness and in the shadow of death the grace of God had suddenly dawned (see also Mal. 4:2; Luke 1:79; Acts 27:20; and Titus 3:4). It had arisen when Jesus was born, when words of life and beauty issued from his lips, when he healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, cast out demons, raised the dead, suffered for man’s sins, and laid down his life for the sheep in order to take it again on resurrection-morning. Thus, grace had “shed on the world Christ’s holy light” and had “chased the dark night of sin away.” The sun of righteousness had arisen (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953-2001). Vol. 4: New Testament commentary : Exposition of the Pastoral Epistles. New Testament Commentary (370). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.)