Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: It is this truth, it is this core gospel truth that makes Christianity truly radical. We do not work to save ourselves, but rather we are saved by the grace of God, and as a result of that salvation, we learn to live differently.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths, and Jonathan, sounds like you're saying that our behavior, or at least the motivation of good behavior in Christianity, comes from a different place than basically any other teaching in this world. It's a response to the goodness and the grace of God, not trying to earn God's favor on our lives.

Jonathan Griffiths: That's absolutely right. We can sometimes dip into a passage of scripture and see some of the requirements for godly living that God sets out for us and think that the Bible is simply a book of rules and requirements. I think that's the stereotype that many who are not Christians might have about the faith. Maybe for some listening, that's exactly what you think: Christianity is just about a list of dos and don'ts.

But actually, as we engage with the text of scripture, what we discover is there's a consistent pattern of God transforming people by his grace and then calling us to live in a certain way as a result of what he's done for us. That's the pattern here in the book of Titus. Paul sets out standards for Christian living, for godly living, but he shows us that the ability to live a transformed life comes from the grace of God, it comes through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And that's what we need to see and what we need to understand. If we want to live changed lives, we won't do that on our own. We need God to change us from the inside, change us by his Spirit. That's the point that Paul really wants to drive home in our passage today, and we're going to hear about in our message today.

Steve Hiller: Well, that passage is Titus chapter two. We're looking at verses 11 to 15. Here's Jonathan as we begin the message "The Engine of Transformation".

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, why should you and I live in a distinctive way as Christians? Why should we pursue godliness in daily life? Why should we seek to honor the Lord in our thoughts and our actions and our words? What is the compelling reason? What is the driving motivation?

In our previous passage, we were reminded of some of the basic requirements of Christian living. Paul set out for us there the priorities of godliness for different groups within the Christian family. For you may remember, for older men, for older women, for younger women, for younger men, and for bondservants too. But as you remember that, you may remember that last time we observed that the instructions for Christian living actually came ahead of the motivation for Christian living.

The structure of Christian ethics was set up and built up before actually the foundations were laid. I suggested for us the image of a train where the engine was actually at the back pushing the carriages rather than at the front as is normal, pulling them. The carriages of Christian living came before the locomotive that drives them. But now today, in our present passage, we come to the powerful engine of Christian living. We come to the reason why.

Of course, we know that Paul is an intensely logical writer and teacher. In his letters, he is always looking for what he might call, or what we might call, the logical linking words, the "fors" and the "therefores". We've always got to look out for those. And as we bear that in mind, we notice right away that our passage begins with a very prominent and a very significant "for". Here is why we live the Christian life. Here is why we say no to sin and yes to righteousness. Here is why we minister and serve within the Christian family and within the church. Verse 11: "For the grace of God has appeared."

Just yesterday at home, we took up some old patio stones behind our house and we found the most incredible colony of ants living underneath them. We had seen some evidence of the ants over time coming in their little marching line through the kitchen door. But you wouldn't believe the population of these little creatures that were hiding in the darkness. You probably had that experience at one time or other of moving a stone or an old wooden log and uncovering beneath that a great population of insects that had been living and breeding in the shadows: ants or earwigs or other little things.

But what happens when the light breaks through the darkness in an environment like that? Suddenly the environment is transformed and the way of life for these little creatures, it's turned upside down. Many will immediately scatter looking for the shadows once more. Others will scurry in circles just wondering what on earth to do. But in that little world, in that little environment, everything is suddenly changed when the light displaces the darkness.

The grace of God has appeared as a light dawning on a dark world. God's grace has shone in this place of sin and decay and death. And the appearance of the grace of God in the coming of Jesus 2,000 years ago, in his radiant life, in his remarkable act of self-sacrifice, in his glorious resurrection and ascension on high, it has shed light on us in such a way that everything is changed.

Fundamentally, the appearing of God's grace in Jesus has done two things according to Paul. It has brought salvation and it has trained us to do certain things. And we need to consider both of those results very carefully. The appearing of the grace of God in Jesus, first of all, it brings salvation. Verse 11: "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people."

One of the great mistakes we can make in considering the Christian life is to think that behaving in a certain way will lead to salvation or will somehow even earn salvation. That is the great myth about Christianity that we need to be very careful to set aside and reject entirely. The myth, it's common enough because the idea that we can earn our salvation before God, we can earn right standing in his eyes, even earn our way into heaven, that is the default assumption of the sinful human heart. That is the foundational principle, actually, underlying most world religions. It is in a different guise, in a different form, but it's there pretty much everywhere.

And it is this truth, it is this core gospel truth that makes Christianity truly radical. We do not work to save ourselves, but rather we are saved by the grace of God, and as a result of that salvation, we learn to live differently. Now, we might think of grace as a concept or as an attribute. It is the outpouring of undeserved kindness. We know something about grace even in this fallen world. We rely on the grace of others in life. We aspire to grow in grace towards those around us. Grace is a beautiful thing. Grace is a wonderful thing. We all recognize that.

But it's very interesting that Paul talks about this concept, this characteristic, as appearing in the world. We know, of course, that Paul is talking about the appearing of Jesus at his first coming. He's going to use that same language of the appearing of Jesus to refer to his second coming in verse 13. But the coming of Jesus to earth 2,000 years ago, it was the appearance, the appearing, the manifestation of the very grace of God shining into a very dark place.

He came into this world of darkness. He came into this world of sin. He came into a world of pain and of death, a world suffering alienation from its Maker, a world bound for judgment, and he offered salvation, an escape from sin's punishment and from the clutches of the grave. He offered forgiveness and new life. He offered these things as an undeserved gift. His entire life and mission was grace through and through.

The Bible makes it very clear, of course, that we need saving. We cannot save ourselves. There's nothing we can do. We may or may not realize our own need. We may feel at times perfectly settled and perfectly secure. But the Bible tells us that we face this fearful prospect of appearing before God the judge and being unable to stand because we are in the wrong. We may not be as bad as we could be, we're probably not, but we can never meet the standards of a just and a holy God.

Our record of wrong—wrong thoughts, wrong words, wrong actions—it stands against us. And we face the prospect, the Bible tells us, of separation from the blessings of God and from the experience of life in his presence. We face an eternity of judgment. It's what the Bible calls hell. And so the situation, it's clear: we need saving. That is our desperate need as human beings. I need saving. You need saving. Our friends and our neighbors, our business associates, our classmates, our family members: they all need saving.

And Paul declares here the wonderful news that God's grace in Jesus brings salvation and makes salvation available to each and every one of us without distinction. "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people." Salvation is available to everyone, says Paul. It's not given to everyone without exception so that people are automatically saved. No, that's not what's being said. It is available to all people without distinction, so that anyone who would come to Jesus by faith and trust in him, anyone who would repent of sin and trust in his promises, anyone can be saved.

The invitation, the opportunity, it's not for some segment of the population, those born in a certain place or from a certain cultural background. No, the offer of salvation, it is for all people. A selective salvation just for some, that's a very hard thing to bear. But Paul insists here: salvation in Jesus is for all people. No one is barred from receiving this life-saving gift if they would come.

I just want to pause right there. It's such an important point. I want to pause right there and make this very, very personal and say the offer of salvation in Jesus is for you. It's for you, whoever you are, wherever you're from, whatever you've done. I'm just conscious that there may be some among us who feel for one reason or another that this is not for me. I'm somehow beyond the reach of salvation in Jesus. But the words of verse 11 are so clear, so emphatic: Jesus came to bring salvation for all people.

And so that means you, whoever you are, wherever you're from, whatever you've done. And so the question for you is simply this: Will you respond? Will you receive this salvation? Will you accept the offer of forgiveness by faith? It's for you.

Steve Hiller: That is Jonathan Griffiths here on Encounter the Truth. Some important questions that I hope that you have asked and answered yourself. How are you going to respond to God's offer of forgiveness, of salvation for you? If you've got questions about how you can begin that relationship with Jesus and receive the salvation and forgiveness that he offers, I hope you'll contact us here at Encounter the Truth. You can do that by calling us at 833-99-TRUTH. That's 1-833-998-7884.

Well, coming up a little bit later this month, we're going to have a special series called Listener Favorites. We went back and we took a look at what have been the most listened to broadcasts and messages of the past year, and we've compiled them together in this special series. We've also put together an accompanying study guide that's available at our website. So I hope you'll go to the website and get your copy of our Listener Favorites study guide. Our website address is encounterthetruth.org. Let's get back to the message. Again, here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: The appearing of God's grace in Jesus, it brings salvation and next it trains us. Here we begin to see, I think, the deeper logic of the passage play out. Remember that chapter two has been all about Christian living, Christian ethics. We are to live a certain way. Why? Because, for, verse 11: the grace of God has appeared in Jesus. Well, how does the appearing of God's grace in Jesus relate to godly living?

If we were playing devil's advocate, we might say that the appearance of God's grace in Jesus could push us the other way. We learn from the appearance of grace that we don't need to earn our salvation, indeed we cannot earn our salvation, and so we might think my living, my lifestyle, my behavior, it just doesn't really matter anymore. Jesus has paid the price, so I am free to live as I please.

But Paul shows us here that there is an integral relationship between the appearing of the grace of God in Jesus and the lifestyle and character of the Christian. Live in such a way for the grace of God has appeared. And how does that grace impact our living, our behavior? It trains us, says Paul. It teaches us, it shapes us, it disciplines us to live in a certain kind of way. And now he gives us the specifics.

The appearing of God's grace in Jesus trains us, first, to renounce ungodliness. Notice it here with me in verse 12: "training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions". Now again, playing devil's advocate, we might just push back a little bit and say that God's grace, it surely gives us license, actually, to say yes to those things. We're forgiven, so why not indulge?

But no, the coming of Jesus, the saving work of Jesus, it trains us, says Paul, to say no. And here's why: the coming of Jesus to earth, the appearing of the grace of God in Jesus, it was a rescue mission and not a social visit. And we need to be clear about that. Jesus didn't come down from heaven just to hang out with us and to enjoy our company here on earth for a time.

He came down from heaven because our ungodliness and our worldly passions, to use Paul's language here, had taken us to this place of terrible danger and of terrible loss, even destruction. He came down because we were on a sinking ship with no rescue boat in sight. We were in a burning house with every escape barred. He came down because we were perishing in our sin with no help in sight.

From time to time, of course, there will be these situations of imminent danger in a given place and the authorities will issue evacuation orders. There's a wildfire or a hurricane or a civil war, and you need to get out now. You need to move. The emergency services might go door to door to warn people, to check that they actually heard the message.

And for some, it will take the appearance of the rescuer at their door to realize that they were ever in any real danger. They didn't get the alert on their phone. They didn't turn on the evening news. But the arrival of the rescuer at their door, it tells them that they were in a place of danger of which they were not aware. The arrival of God's rescuer, the appearing of his grace, it tells us of our acute spiritual danger.

Jesus's arrival here on earth 2,000 years ago, it tells us that the patterns of life that we've adopted in sin, they are fatal and they are corrosive and they are entirely destructive, even inviting the very judgment of God. And as we look into the heart of that saving work and as we look at the cross itself, if we were ever inclined to think that sin isn't really a particular problem, if we were inclined to write off our misdemeanors as minor foibles and insignificant slips-ups, the violence, the sheer violence and the agony of the cross tells us that something much more serious was going on.

To put it simply, if we are not inclined to hate sin, to have a sense of revulsion at our own ungodliness, to recognize the wrongness of our worldly passions, to feel the depth of the offense toward God of our rebellion against him—if we lack those sensitivities and awarenesses, and of course the sinful nature, it dulls our sensitivity toward sin and our awareness of sin—if those were dull, the appearance of God's grace in Jesus as he goes to the cross of Calvary on our behalf, as he endures that violence, as he endures that suffering, it teaches us.

It educates us, it trains us to see the ugliness of sin and to recognize its seriousness. The cross teaches us to renounce—and that's a very strong word, it's an emphatic word—to forswear and to give up and to turn our back on worldly passions. In a sense, that is the negative side of the training of the grace of God in the cross of Christ, but there is, we might say, a very positive side to this training as well.

The appearing of God's grace in Jesus teaches us to renounce ungodliness through the kindness of our Savior. When we recognize that the Lord Jesus gave himself to save us from the judgment that we so richly deserve, that he bore the cost and offers us forgiveness freely and without any deserving on our part, it changes our heart, doesn't it? It has to change our heart. It makes us grateful, it must make us grateful. It makes us long, doesn't it, to honor him? It makes us desire to live our lives worthy of the grace we've been shown.

In verse 14, Paul reminds us that Jesus gave himself at the cross to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people. To redeem is to buy back, it's to repurchase. And the cost of buying us back, repurchasing us from our lawlessness, the cost of that was the very life of our Savior. He bought us with his very self. He purified us with his blood. It was costly.

But here's why he did it. Here was his purpose: it was to have a people for his own possession, verse 14, who are zealous not for sin and worldly passions and self-indulgence, but rather for good works. Returning to our old ways as we're inclined to do, living in worldly rebellion, we need to see that it denies the very purpose for which Jesus gave his life at the cross of Calvary.

And as we contemplate sin and then look back at the cross, we are covered in shame, are we not, that we would even toy with the idea of dishonoring the one who bought us at such cost and at such a price. And of course, it's right to say at this point that if you are a believer who is flirting with sin or walking in sin or immersed in sin and drowning in sin—ungodliness, worldly passions—you need to consider again the appearing of the grace of God in Jesus.

You need to learn again the lessons of grace. You need to let the life of Jesus and the cross of Jesus move you and provoke you and drive you to renounce that sin in the power of the Holy Spirit. I wonder if that is you this morning. I wonder if that is precisely your situation. I wonder if this reminder is precisely what you needed to hear. I suspect that for some, maybe even many, it is. Will you look again to the cross of Christ? Would you learn again the lessons of grace? Would you turn? Would you say no once more to ungodliness and to worldly passions?

Steve Hiller: Jonathan Griffiths with a powerful challenge to leave us with today here on Encounter the Truth. Our message is called "The Engine of Transformation", and we're going to continue to take a look at this, this idea of being transformed, on our next broadcast. So I do hope you'll make it a point to tune in.

Encounter the Truth is listener supported. That's exactly what it sounds like: we're able to be on this station because of your generosity. And as you give a gift of any amount, we want to say thank you by sending you a book called "The Final Lap". It's all about navigating the transitions of later life. And Jonathan, who do you think is really going to benefit from reading this book?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, this book is helping us to think biblically about a number of key transitions in later life. So it helps us think through how to move as believers from the world of work to the world of retirement, then from the time of independency to the time of dependency, and then ultimately from life to death as we approach the finishing line.

And for anyone who is in the midst of any of those transitions, in those later stages, those later decades of life, I think this book will be pure gold. There aren't many books actually in the Christian marketplace that help us think biblically about these seasons of life, but we need to be ready for them, and we need to think about them, and we need help to navigate them well.

But there will be others who are supporting parents and grandparents who are perhaps caregivers who need to have a biblical framework and some real encouragement as well for thinking through these things properly and from a biblical perspective. And John is a trusted teacher, a Christian ethicist, a medical doctor as well, and his wisdom is tremendously helpful. I know many have benefited from his teaching over the years, and I'm just thrilled that this book is available and that we are able to make it available to listeners here on Encounter the Truth.

Steve Hiller: Well, the book is called "The Final Lap", written by John Wyatt, our thank-you gift to you as you financially support Encounter the Truth with a gift of any amount this month. You can give online at encounterthetruth.org or when you call 1-833-99-TRUTH. That's 1-833-998-7884 or encounterthetruth.org.

You can also write us at Encounter the Truth, 2176 Prince of Wales Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K2E 0A1. Or in the US at Encounter the Truth, 250 North Arlington Heights Road, number 102, Arlington Heights, Illinois, 60004. For Jonathan Griffiths, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time.