God's Reforming Grace

Titus 2:11–14 (NKJV) ¹¹For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, ¹²teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, ¹³looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.

In this passage there are a few aspects of God’s grace: His redeeming Grace, His reforming Grace, and His rewarding Grace.

In this edition we will take the time to look at God’s reforming Grace.

God loved us enough to send Jesus Christ to pay the penalty of our sin.  This was God’s redeeming Grace.  Yet he does not just leave us to ourselves after salvation.

Vs. 12 ¹²teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,

He begins to teach us. Part of this teaching is to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts.

To deny ungodliness means to not let it into our life. When I played basketball in college I often played defense on the other team’s center.  We played denial defense.  We were to get a hand, body, foot or something between the ball and the offensive player to deny that ball from getting to the player.

God shows us how to keep these things out of our lives by showing us how we should live.

To live soberly –means to live with sound judgment, to live by biblical principles.  In the book of proverbs this is referred to as walking the way of wisdom.

Living righteously is living upright.  It is living within God’s direction for life.

To live Godly will attribute to God everything things which rightfully belong to Him, this includes rendering to God the reverence and worship emanating from a holy life.^[1]

“In this present age” –is living day to day as we wait for Christ to return.

Too many people today claim Christ as their savior, yet there is no change in their behavior.  According to this passage, after God redeems us with Christ he reforms us and begins to make us into the image of Christ.  Living a life that is worthy of the name Christian.

Let me challenge you today to look at your life.  Is there evidence of God’s reforming grace?  If not you may need to see if you have really trusted in the blood of Christ for salvation and have experienced God’s redeeming Grace.

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^[1] Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary : New Testament, electronic ed. (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).