God has blown my mind with a truth from Titus 2:11-14:
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”
(Titus 2:11-14 ESV, emphasis mine)
The truth is this: God’s grace trains His people for godliness. God’s grace trains me for godliness!
I could see God’s holiness training me for godliness. I could see God’s power training me for godliness. But not His grace. I know I need His grace to be saved. That makes sense to me. How could I, a sinner, be saved unless God gives me salvation? I must have grace. After all grace means receiving something that we do not deserve.
But if I lean too much on God’s grace, it will cause me to stumble. I’ll take advantage of it, take it for granted, and fall into sin. Grace is good, but it is not really powerful - or at least not the power behind holiness.
Titus 2, however, says that God’s grace trains me for godliness. Equips, girds up, prepares - trains. God’s grace does this. It is the power behind godly living.
A little exegesis
“Grace” is the subject of Titus 2:11-14. “Has appeared” is the main verb. This means Paul is saying that God’s grace is on the scene through Christ. The Savior has come; there is hope for sinners. This is good news.
Paul goes on though, speaking of what grace does. He says that grace is what trains God’s people to renounce ungodliness and worldly pursuits and to instead live godly and self-controlled lives in this world, as we wait for the return of our hope - Jesus Christ (v. 12).
Christ gave Himself to redeem God’s people, to buy us back from death and bring us to life. People whom Christ brings to life, live for God. We are about the worship of God, service to God, centering our lives on God. After all, He has given us life when all we had was death. And He has done all of this through His grace (vs. 13-14). Grace is the subject of the entire passage. Grace is what trains us for godliness.
How does God’s grace train us for godliness?
God is teaching me about this right now. I have much to learn. I would say that God’s grace is both the motivation and the power behind godliness.
God’s grace trains us for godliness because it leads us to have gratitude toward God, rejoice in God and worship God. As we realize that we are great sinners before a perfectly holy God, God’s grace bursts on the scene. God’s grace says “hope” when we should only hear “despair.” God’s grace says “accepted” when we should only hear “condemned.” God’s grace says “relationship with God, your Father” when we expect to hear “justice from God, your judge.”
Grace becomes a power when we realize as well that God has not merely pardoned us in Christ through grace. More than mere pardon, God has counted the righteousness of Christ toward us: He views us as pure before Him. More than mere pardon, God has adopted us as sons and daughters (Gal 4). More than mere pardon, God the Spirit has cleansed us and indwelt us, so that we - individually and as a group - are the place where God resides (Titus 3:5; 2 Cor 3; 6). God has done all of this through His grace - He gives us all of these things though we do not deserve them. His grace is the power behind all of these realities.
When we realize these things, as we realize these things, we are primed to respond to God instead of act out of our flesh. We are at the ready to rejoice, repent, worship - to delight in doing God’s will. The reality of what God has done by His grace provides the motivation for godly living.
But Titus 2 tells us that God’s grace is not just the motivation for godly living, but also the power behind it. It is as we live out of grace that we will live in a godly way. Period. There is no other way. Our own self-effort is not the way. Trying harder is not the way. Realizing grace and living out of the freedom it provides in dependence on the Spirit is the way.
It is as we live out of grace and delight in God’s good gifts to us - salvation, food, friends, His Spirit - that we want to do His will and are able to do His will. It is as we live out of grace and drink of the riches of Christ that we want to live like Him and are able to live like Him. It is as we live out of grace and live in relationship with God our Father that we want to image Him and are able to image Him. God’s grace is both the motivation and the power for godly living.
Galatians teaches that God saves us and grows us by His grace
Galatians is all about grace as the power for growth in godliness. There Paul condemns the Galatians because they were trying to be saved by grace and then grow in godliness by works - by the strength of their own efforts. Paul reminds them that they are both saved by grace and grow in godliness in the same way. He tells them that it is dependence on the Spirit that would enable them to produce godliness - the fruit of the Spirit - instead of giving into their sinful flesh (Gal 5, in particular vs. 16).
Galatians 5:1 says it is for freedom that Christ has set us free and that we should stand and live in this freedom. God frees us by His grace. It is as we embrace and live out of His grace that we live in a godly way and live in a way that brings God the most glory.
What Titus and Galatians are communicating is that it is God who both saves us and enables us to live in a way that glorifies Him. It is all by His power. It is all by His grace.
I look forward to learning more about this truth and I am grateful to God for opening my eyes to see it more clearly now. The grace of God has appeared. It is on the scene. God saves me by His grace. And God’s grace trains me for godliness. What a marvel: praise be to God!