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The School of Grace: Two Appearings (Titus 2:11–14) · Reformed Thinking

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Hello and welcome to another edition of Reformed Thinking.
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I am your host, and I'm really glad to be sitting down once
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again to open up our sources and just get into the substance of
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what we believe. I am joined, as always, by our
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expert guide through these theological waters.
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It's good to have you. Here.
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It is a pleasure to be here. I always look forward to these
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conversations. There's something, you know,
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really refreshing about taking the time to flow down, look at
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the text and try to understand the the architecture of our
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faith. Architecture.
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That's a great word for it. We live in such a fast-paced
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world where you know everything is a sound bite or a tweet.
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But theology, Good, robust theology.
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It requires us to sit, to listen and think.
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And architecture really is the right word.
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We're looking at a passage today that feels like a blueprint.
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We are focusing our attention on the Book of Pitas, specifically
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chapter 2, verses 11 through 14. Now, for anyone who spent time
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in church, you might have heard this described as a compact
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theology of salvation. It's only four verses, but the
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material we have today suggests that these 4 verses might just
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contain the entire Christian life in miniature.
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That is absolutely correct. It's an incredibly dense section
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of scripture. What makes Titus 2.1114 so
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critical is that it solves a problem that has plagued the
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church for, well, 2000 years. What's that?
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It addresses the tension between two errors that we are
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constantly falling into. On one side you have legalism,
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this idea that we can earn God's favor through our behavior.
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Right, the spiritual treadmill. Exactly.
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And on the other side, you have antinomianism, which is just a
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theological term for lawlessness.
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It's the idea that because we are saved by grace, it doesn't
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matter how we live. I.
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Think we've all felt that tension?
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Sometimes you feel like you're running yourself ragged trying
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to please God, and other times you see people treating grace
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like a like a get out of jail free card.
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That's it. And the solution to both of
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those errors is found in a proper understanding of the word
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grace. The core cry we're looking at
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today is this is grace just a pardon?
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Is it just a judge saying you're free to go or is it something
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something more energetic? More active.
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Yes, much more active. Our mission for this deep dive
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is to examine how grace functions not just as a judge,
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but as a school or a tutor. We're going to see how grace
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actually reshapes the believer between two historical horizons,
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first coming of Christ and his future return.
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That's a fascinating way to frame it, Grace as a school like
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that. But before we get into the
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classroom, we need to understand where the school was built.
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We have to talk about the context.
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The letter is written to Titus, who is on the island of Crete.
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Now, from what I gathered in the reading, Crete wasn't exactly a
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vacation paradise for the early church.
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No, it certainly was not. Paul left Titus there with a
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very difficult assignment. Crete was known throughout the
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ancient world for its moral chaos.
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It was just a mess. Well, in chapter 1, verse 12,
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Paul actually quotes a Cretan prophet.
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One of their own guys who said Cretans are always liars, evil
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beasts, lazy gluttons. Wow, that's that was their own
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reputation for themselves. That was their reputation.
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It was a culture of dishonesty, brutality, and just raw self
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indulgence. Evil beasts and lazy gluttons.
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That is quite the review. So you have this young pastor
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Titus, and he's trying to establish a church in a hostile,
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dishonest culture. It really begs the question, how
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does a church survive in that kind of environment?
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That is the challenge. And what's so interesting is how
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Paul answers that challenge in the 1st 10 verses of chapter 2,
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just before our passage. He gives these very specific
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instructions to different groups in the church, right?
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He talks to older men, older women, younger women, younger
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men and even slaves. And he gives them these
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household codes. He tells them to be sober,
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reverent, self controlled, honest.
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And reading through those first 10 verses it can feel like a
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just a list of rules. Do this, don't do that.
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It feels a little dry, maybe, but then right at verse 11,
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something shifts. The whole tone changes.
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Why? Why does Paul pivot from these
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very practical instructions about behavior to this this high
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theology in verses 11 through 14?
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This is the crucial point. If you miss this connection, you
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miss the gospel. Paul pivots because the theology
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of verses 11 through 14 is the engine that drives the behavior
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in verses one through 10. The engine you.
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Can't have the behavior without the source.
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If you preach the commands without the gospel foundation,
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you just end up with moralism, just trying to be a better
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person on your own strength. And I guess if you do the
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opposite. If you do the opposite, if you
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preach the gospel without expecting these behavioral
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changes, you've missed the whole point of salvation.
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You've created a cheap grace. So the theology is the why and
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the how for the behavior. It's the power source.
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Spot on. In reformed theology, we often
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talk about the indicative and the imperative.
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What do those mean? The indicative is what God has
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done. It's the facts of the gospel,
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the statement of reality. It is true.
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Yes, this is what has happened. The imperative is what we must
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do in response. It's the command.
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Therefore do this. Exactly.
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And Paul is showing us here that the indicative always, always
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grounds the imperative. We don't behave better to get
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God to save us. We live differently because God
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has already acted to save us. That is such a helpful
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distinction. It really stops us from putting
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the cart before the horse, you know.
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So let's look at that indicative, let's look at what
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God has done. Verse 11 starts with a very
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important little word. It starts with the word for.
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In the Greek, it's gar. Gar.
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It's a connector. It links everything he just said
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about older men being sober and slaves being honest to what he's
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about to say. He's giving the reason, he says,
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for the grace of God has appeared.
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Has appeared. That sounds like a big event.
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It doesn't sound like a feeling. It is massive.
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The Greek word is epiphany. Epiphany.
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That's where we get epiphany, right?
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It's exact route and it means a sudden manifestation, a
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brilliant showing forth. It's used to describe the sun
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breaking over the horizon at dawn, or an emperor arriving in
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a city for a royal visit. So it's a grand entrance.
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It's a grand entrance. It implies that grace is not
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just a sentiment in God's mind. It isn't just God feeling nice
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toward us. Grace is an event.
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It is a historical invasion. So when Paul says grace has
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appeared, he is talking about a specific moment in time.
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He's talking about Jesus. Yes, he is talking about the
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incarnation, God becoming man. Christianity is not based on a
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philosophy that we figured out or some set of timeless
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principles. It's based on the fact that God
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broke into history. He stepped onto the stage of our
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world. It's subjective.
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It is objective, it happened, and this helps us avoid the trap
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of thinking grace is just a subjective feeling we have
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inside. No grace appeared in the person
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and work of Jesus Christ. OK.
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And the text says this grace is bringing salvation for all
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people. Now I have to pause here because
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that phrase, all people can be a tricky 1.
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You hear that? And you might think, does this
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mean everyone is saved? Is Paul teaching universalism
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here? That's a very important
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question, and we have to be precise theologically.
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We know from the rest of Scripture that not every single
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human being is saved. Jesus himself talks about a
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final judgement, right? So we have to look at the
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context. Who was Paul just talking to in
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the previous 10 verses? He was talking to older men,
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older women, younger men, younger women and slaves, all
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those different groups. Correct.
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He was talking to all categories of people in the ancient world,
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and specifically in some streams of Jewish thought, there were
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these these barriers between Jew and Gentile, slave and free,
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male and female. OK, but Paul is saying that this
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grace, this epiphany, it smashes through those social barriers.
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It brings salvation to the slave just as much as the master.
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It brings salvation to the woman just as much as the man, to the
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cretin just as much as the Roman.
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So all people means all kinds of people, not every single person
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without exception. That's the best way to
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understand it. It means people from every
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station of life, every ethnicity, every social
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standing. This connects very nicely to the
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Reformed doctrine of particular redemption, or what is sometimes
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called limited atonement. Right?
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We believe Christ died effectually for his elect, for
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his chosen people, but those elect are drawn from every
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tribe, tongue and nation. So the effect of the atonement
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is limited to the elect, but the elect are not limited to one
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kind of person. You've got it.
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Grace is not class bound. It doesn't matter if you are a
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lazy glutton, Cretan or a high status Roman official, grace has
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appeared to bring salvation to your kind.
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That is actually a much more powerful idea than just a
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blanket statement. It means grace targets us where
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we are, regardless of our social standing.
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It does. So grace appears and it brings
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salvation. But then verse 12 takes a turn
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that I think surprises a lot of people.
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We usually think of grace as a gift, something we receive
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passively. But here grace is described as
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doing something active. This is where we get into the
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school of grace. Verse 11 was in the past tense.
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Grace appeared, an event that happened.
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Verse 12 shifts to the present tense.
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It says this grace is training us.
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Training us? That sounds like work.
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It sounds like effort. It is the Greek word is peduusa.
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Peduusa. It's related to the word for
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child, which is pace. It refers to the way a father
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raises, educates and disciplines a child.
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It's a really comprehensive term.
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So it's not just sitting in a classroom.
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No. It involves instruction, yes,
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but it also involves correction. It involves character formation.
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It's hands on training. So Grace is not just a pardon,
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it is a tutor, a personal trainer almost.
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That is the key inside of this passage.
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Grace acts as a tutor. A lot of people think grace
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means God just overlooks our sin, that it just sort of waves
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it away. But Paul says no.
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Grace is the force that teaches us, that trains us to leave sin
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behind. OK, this is a huge point.
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It is This is what we call the third use of the law in reformed
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theology. Explain that.
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The first use of the law is to show us our sin like a mirror.
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The second use is to restrain evil in society.
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But the third use is for the believer.
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The law doesn't justify us. Grace does that.
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But for the believer guided by grace, the moral law shows us
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how to live in gratitude. It's the shape of a life that
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pleases God. So Grace uses the law as its
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textbook. An excellent way to put it.
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Grace doesn't just liberate us from the penalty of sin, it
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educates us out of the practice of sin.
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I love that image, Grace as a father disciplining a child
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because he loves him and wants him to mature.
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That's the heart of it. So what is the curriculum?
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If Grace is the teacher, what are the subjects we're learning
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in this school? Well, Paul lays out the
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curriculum very clearly. It has two parts, a negative
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part and a positive part. A What to unlearn and a what to
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learn. OK, let's start with the
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negative. What are we unlearning?
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The text says grace trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly
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passions. Renounce.
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That's a strong word. It sounds like a breakup, a
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formal declaration. It is a breakup.
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The Greek word is Arnosa menoy, and it implies A definitive
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break, a formal rejection. It's like saying no to a former
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master. You are declaring that you don't
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work for them anymore. Your allegiance has changed.
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And notice what we're renouncing first Ungodliness.
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What exactly is that there? Are Greek is a Sebian.
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It literally means a lack of reverence.
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It's living without reference to God.
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It's conducting your business, your relationships, your free
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time as if God doesn't exist or doesn't matter.
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It's practical atheism. Just living life on a horizontal
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plane. That's it.
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And the second thing is worldly passions.
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I feel like that's a phrase we hear a lot in church, but what
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does it actually look like day-to-day?
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That's a great question. Worldly passions are desires
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that are shaped by the present age rather than the age to come.
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They are the desires that this world tells you are normal and
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good. Like what?
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Give me some modern examples. Well, in our context, this
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includes things like pragmatism, the idea that the end justifies
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the means that you should do whatever works regardless of
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what is right. It definitely includes the lust
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for authority, for power over others, the obsession with
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material accumulation, with getting more stuff.
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The consumer mindset. Absolutely, and maybe the
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biggest 1 today is expressive individualism.
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What's that? It's that drive that says my
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identity is based on my inner feelings and I must express
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those feelings outwardly to be authentic.
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My happiness depends on satisfying my immediate desires.
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That sounds like the air we breathe.
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It is, and grace trains us to look at all those desires and
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say, no, that is not who I am anymore.
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I reject that master. So we clear out the old.
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We say no to ungodliness and these worldly cravings, but you
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can't just leave a vacuum. What's the positive side of the
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curriculum? What do we learn to do instead?
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Paul gives us this beautiful triad of virtues.
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He says grace teaches us to live self controlled, upright and
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godly lives. 3 adverbs. 3 adverbs and they cover every
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relationship we have. It's a complete picture of the
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Christian life. OK, let's break those down
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first. Self controlled.
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The Greek is sosfranos. It refers to the inner
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government of the self, a found mind.
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Inner government. Yes.
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It's dealing with your own appetites, your emotions, your
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impulses. It's the opposite of being
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driven by whatever you feel in the moment.
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It's having inner order and stability.
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So it's about my relationship with myself.
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Primarily yes. OK, what's the second one?
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Upright. That's D kais from the word for
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justice. That refers to our horizontal
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relationships, our relationship with others.
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To my neighbor. Your neighbor.
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It means integrity, justice, fairness in your dealings.
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It means paying your employees a fair wage, being an honest
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friend, keeping your promises, treating your neighbor right.
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OK, so we have the inward, the outward.
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And then the upward godly use bouche that is the upward
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direction of our lives. It means living with reverence
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and devotion to God. It's about worship, prayer,
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orienting your whole life toward Him.
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Wow. So grace really reforms the
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whole person, the. Whole person, the inner self,
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the social self and the spiritual self.
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There's no part of you that Grace doesn't intend to train.
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And it does all of this, as the text says, in the present age.
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That is such a crucial dose of realism.
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It really grounds it, doesn't it?
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It does. We're not in heaven yet.
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Sanctification, this training, it happens now.
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It happens amidst the difficulty, amidst the evil
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beasts of Crete or the pressures of the modern world.
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It happens in the mess. In the mess we live in this
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tension of the already not yet. We are already saved, but we are
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not yet glorified. We are distinct from the world,
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but we are living right in the middle of it.
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The training ground is right here, right now.
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That phrase in the present age is so important.
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We're not waiting until we die to become holy.
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The training happens today. But Speaking of waiting, verse
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13 moves our eyes to the horizon.
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It says we are waiting for our blessed hope.
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Yes, we've looked back to the first appearing of Grace, we've
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looked around at the present training of Grace, and now Paul
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tells us to look forward to the second appearing.
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And that word waiting, What does that look like?
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Is it passive? Not at all.
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The text says we are waiting and the Greek word prostacomano is
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very active. It's not like waiting for a bus
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where you're just bored and checking your watch.
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It's more like waiting for a guest you're really excited to
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see. Precisely.
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It's like a bride waiting for the groom.
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It is an eager, active expectation.
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You're preparing, You're getting ready.
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And this is where eschatology, the study of the end times,
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becomes intensely practical. Yeah, a lot of people think of
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eschatology as just, you know, charts and timelines and debates
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about the Millennium. And it can involve those things.
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But its primary purpose in the New Testament is ethical.
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It is fuel for holiness today. How does that work?
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How does thinking about the future help me say no to sin
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right now? Because it reorders your loves,
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it changes what you find attractive.
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If you know that Christ is returning in glory and that His
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glory is the final ultimate reality, then the temporary
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pleasures of Finn start to lose their shine.
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They look flimsy and cheap in comparison, Right?
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You can say no to the worldly passions we talked about because
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you were saying a much bigger yes to something infinitely
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better. You're waiting for the blessed
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hope. And that hope is not a thing,
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it's a person. The text calls it the appearing
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of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
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There is a massive theological point in that phrasing that we
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absolutely cannot skip. OK, notice the phrasing again.
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Our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
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It sounds like he's calling Jesus God.
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He absolutely is. In the Greek, there's a
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grammatical rule that's very famous.
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It's known as the Granville Sharp Rule.
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The Granville Sharp. Rule.
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I won't bore you with all the technical details, but
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essentially when you have one article, the word the governing
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2 nouns connected by and, it means both nouns refer to the
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same person. So it's not the God and the
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Savior as two different beals. Exactly.
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Paul is not saying we are waiting for the great God and
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the a Savior named Jesus. He is saying we are waiting for
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Jesus who is our great God and Savior.
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It's one person. That is an incredibly definitive
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statement on the deity of Christ.
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One of the clearest in the entire New Testament.
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And for us as Reformed Christians holding to the
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Westminster Confession, this is non negotiable.
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Jesus is not a secondary helper, He is not a created being.
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He is God himself. And there's a contrast here with
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the first appearing. Isn't there a?
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Huge contrast. The first pairing in verse 11
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was Grace. It was humble.
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It was a baby in a Manger, a man on a cross.
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It was glory veiled in weakness. And the second appearing.
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The second, appearing in verse 13, is glory.
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It is majesty. It is the king returning on the
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clouds with power. The veil is removed.
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Now one of our sources mentioned the idea of the Rapture here,
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connecting this blessed hope to an imminent return.
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I know there are different views on the timeline of End Times
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events within the Church. That's true, and it's an
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important point. Our source material highlighted
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A dispensational and pre tribulational view, seeing this
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blessed hope specifically as the rapture of the Church.
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Which is a view many Christians hold.
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It is the Reformed tradition and the Westminster standards tend
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to view these things a bit differently, often focusing on
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the single glorious return of Christ for the final judgement
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and the restoration of all things.
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So different ways of mapping out the future.
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Yes, but the core truth here is shared across those views.
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The return of Christ is imminent.
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It could happen at any time, and that imminence that any
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momentness creates usefulness. Right.
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If the master could come back at any moment, you don't want to be
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found slacking off, you want to be found working.
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That's the point. Whether you hold to a pre
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tribulation rapture or the classic reformed A millennial
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view, the practical application is exactly the same.
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Urgency, good works matter right now because the time is short.
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We are to be found faithful when He appears.
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So we have the past appearing, the present training, and the
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future hope. Now verse 14 seems to circle
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back to the very center of it all.
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It tells us the cost of this who gave himself for us.
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This brings us to the heart of the Gospel, the Atonement, who
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gave himself. The first thing to notice is the
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voluntary nature of the cross. Jesus wasn't a victim of
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circumstances. He wasn't trapped.
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He was a donor. He gave the gift of himself.
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And it says he gave himself for us.
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What does that little word for mean?
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That little preposition for in Greek it's hyper carries the
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weight of substitution. Standing in our place.
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Standing in our place, this is penal substitutionary atonement.
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He took the penalty we deserved so that we could receive the
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blessing he deserved. It is the great exchange.
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And the text gives us 2 specific reasons why he did this.
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The first one is to redeem us from all lawlessness.
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The word there for redeem is lutro.
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It means to ransom or to liberate.
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It is the language of the slave market.
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Like buying a slave's freedom. Precisely.
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Imagine a slave being bought out of bondage, having their chains
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struck off. That is what Christ did for us
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on the cross. But notice what He bought us out
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of. He didn't just buy us out of
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hell, He bought us out of all lawlessness.
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This goes right back to the argument against antinomianism,
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doesn't it? If he died to buy us out of
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lawlessness, we can't stay there.
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It would be a complete contradiction.
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If a slave is bought to be free, he doesn't go back and
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voluntarily chain himself to the old master.
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We are redeemed from a life of breaking God's law.
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We are not saved so we can keep sinning with a safety net.
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We are saved from the very grip and power of sin itself.
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That's a critical distinction. And what's the second purpose?
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He did it to purify for himself a people for his own possession.
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This is beautiful covenant language.
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It echoes all the way back to the Old Testament, where from to
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places like Exodus 19 and Deuteronomy 7 where God calls
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Israel His signal, His treasured possession.
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So this is about belonging. It's not just a legal
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transaction it. Is so much more.
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Salvation creates a community. It isn't just about me and my
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private spirituality. It is about a people.
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We are Christ's own possession. He cherishes the church.
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He's actively purifying us, washing us to be his unique
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treasure in this Dark World. And what is the result of being
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this treasured, purified, redeemed possession?
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The text ends with the phrase that I think challenges a lot of
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us. We are to be zealous for good
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works. Zealous.
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The Greek word is zosten. It's where we get the word
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zealot. So this isn't a mild mannered
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suggestion. Not at all.
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It means burning, eager, passionate, on fire for
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something. It is the absolute opposite of
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lazy. It's the opposite of apathetic.
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It is the opposite of doing the bare minimum required.
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I think sometimes in our effort to avoid legalism, to avoid
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saying work save us, we get scared of being zealous for
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works. We get passive, almost
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quietistic. That is a tragic mistake, and
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it's a misunderstanding of grace.
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Paul corrects that right here. He shows us that works are the
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result of being possessed by Christ, not the cause of it.
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Because we are His, because we redeemed, because we are
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purified, we should be on fire to do good.
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So a lack of zeal for good works is actually a theological
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contradiction for a redeemed person.
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It's a sign that something is wrong, that we've misunderstood
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the gospel. If you have been bought by the
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King, you should be eager to serve the Kingdom.
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It's the natural outflow of a redeemed heart.
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That brings it all together so powerfully.
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The high theology leads directly to this passionate, zealous,
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practical living. It does.
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You can see the flow of the whole passage now, can't you?
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I think so. Grace appears.
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That is our justification. Grace trains.
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That is our sanctification. We wait for glory.
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That is our future glorification, and the result of
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that whole process is a people who are zealous for good.
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It's a complete package. There's nothing missing.
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As we look at this, I want to try to synthesize it for the
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listener. We've covered a lot of deep
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theology, Greek words, doctrines, Old Testament
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connections, history. But what does this look like
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when we wake up tomorrow morning?
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How do we apply this in a really practical way?
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I think we can apply using those helpful categories of head,
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heart and hands. OK, let's start with the head.
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What do we need to think differently because of this
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passage? We.
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Need to fundamentally read? Think our definition of grace.
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Do not define grace as mere tolerance.
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Do not think of it as God just winking at your sin or being a
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bit soft. Understand it as a power and
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energy, a force that invaded history to save you and to train
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you. If your version of grace doesn't
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demand anything from you, if it doesn't seek to change you, it
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isn't the grace of Titus chapter 2.
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That is a direct challenge to our intellect, to how we
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conceive of God. So that's the head.
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What about the heart? The affections.
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For the heart, we need to do some self examination.
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We need to ask ourselves, are we homesick for heaven?
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Does the hope of his glorious return actually change what we
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love? Does it make the things of this
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world seem less appealing? The text says we renounce
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worldly passions. We need to ask ourselves
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honestly if we love the world and its passions more than we
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love the appearing of Christ. That's a heart issue.
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That is a tough searching question.
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And finally, the hands. What do we actually do?
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What actions flow from this? Well, two things.
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Negatively. We need to renounce specific
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modern idols. Name them.
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Is it pragmatism in my business? Is it expressive individualism
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in my relationships? Name the master you are
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renouncing. Be specific.
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Be specific and then positively. We need to practice ordinary
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holiness. It's so interesting that the
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list in verses 1 to 10 is very ordinary.
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Yeah, it's not spectacular stuff.
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It's loving your husband, being kind, working hard, being
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honest. We apply this by practicing
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integrity in our jobs, self-control with our phones and
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our appetites, and simple honesty with our neighbors.
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It's holiness in the small things.
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And we do this together. It's not a solo project.
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Yes, that is so important. We do it corporately, Paul says.
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Christ is purifying a people. We are not freelancers.
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We need the Church, we need the preaching of the Word and the
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sacraments, the means of grace to keep us enrolled and learning
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in the school. This has been such a dense but
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also clarifying discussion. As we wrap up, I'm just struck
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by how practical this high theology really is.
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It isn't just abstract ideas for seminary classroom, it is the
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fuel for our daily lives. It truly is.
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If I could leave you and the listener with one central
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thought, it would be this Grace saves, grace trains and grace
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sustains. So do not view your struggle
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against sin as a sign that grace has failed you.
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View it as the training of grace.
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That's a big shift in perspective.
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It is you were in the gym. The resistance is part of the
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process. The struggle is evidence that
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the trainer isn't working you. That is a very encouraging
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perspective. Thank you.
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And here's. One final thought to Mull over a
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provocative thought to end on If the grace you profess hasn't
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changed, your life hasn't begun to train you.
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Has it actually appeared to you? Or are you settling for a pardon
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without a person? Because grace is Christ himself,
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given for us and to us, and if you have Him, you have the power
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to change. A pardon without a person, that
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is something to chew on. Thank you so much for guiding us
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through this text today and has been a true deep dive.
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It has been my privilege. Thank you.
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And thank you for listening to Reformed Thinking.
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We hope this conversation helps you see the grace of God in a
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new and more active light. Till next time.