Lesson By: Nche Sam Takoh
Theme: The good work of Jesus Christ.
Scripture: Titus 2:14
The term "good works" has several dimensions. One is a word used in the phrase "good works" found in Titus 2:7,14,3:8,14 meaning good in the sense of perfect or pure in itself, while "good works as found in Titus 1:16,2:5,10 means not only perfect, but also beneficial to others.
All good works starts with God, and He does it simply because He is the Kind God He is.
Titus 2:14 describe the good works of Jesus Christ for the elect. The fact that Jesus "gave himself for us" describes the beauty of His good work of love for His people (John 15:13) and the benefit that they can expect from it (Rom.8: 1-4). The words "gave him" also emphasize that even though Jesus Died as a man, to be the substituted for Hid elect, He was always God in full control of the good work He did (John 10:17,18).
One benefit of Jesus’ good works is that believers are redeemed from "all iniquity", in the sense that they are free from the condemnation that their iniquity requires. Another benefit is that believers are purified and "Zealous of good works". That is, they are redeemed from the power of iniquity. They no longer have to continue to live in sin, but are free to do the good works God has planned for them.
God’s peculiar people are distinct from all the other works of unsaved men in the words of Titus 2:11-12, Ex. 19:5, Deu. 14:2, 26:18, the grace of God that brings salvation appears unto all men in the preaching of the gospel. But only those who heed the teachings, who deny the attractions of the flesh and the world as well as live wisely and obediently, are the peculiar people of God.
As mentioned earlier on, redemption and purification are separate issues, the first authorizing the second. They are one act. God does not redeem unless He also purifies. A redeem man who is not yet purified is a theoretical idea that has no counterpart in reality. A man who claims Jesus as his saviour must show in his life that Jesus is his Lord, or his redemption is a figment of his imagination.
In as much as the book of Titus describes the good works of Jesus for the elect, it also describes His good works in the elect.
Titus 3:5 explains that man’s salvation from God includes not only a justification before the law, but also an inner separation from sin, called a "washing f\of regeneration" and a "renewing of the Holy Spirit". This refers to the new life believers receive, not in the sense of life in addition to what they already have, or life in replacement for the life that they have, but in the sense of life where they had no life before. These phrases are two of a variety of ways that the Bible expresses the same thing. Other ways are "Baptism in the Holy Ghost," "born again" and ’born of the spirit.’ They altogether refer to the one good work of creation that God performs in the hearts of all His children. (Psalm 51:7-10,2 ccor.5: 17).
Salvation this context of Titus means God gives us "in proportion" to His riches. That is we are blessed to the same degree that God is rich in mercy.
Philippians 2:13, conclude that the good works for the elect and in the elect are really the works of a good God who works within them.
