God's Rewarding Grace: Titus 2:11-14

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 rewarding 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.  He begins to conform us to the image of his son, that is His reforming grace.

¹³looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

For those who know Christ as Savior as who escape physical death their great hope is the reward of Jesus Christ’s return.     This is further explained in 1 Thessalonians 4:14–17 (ESV)  ¹⁴For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁵For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. ¹⁶For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.

¹⁷Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

The privilege of being in the presence of our God and Savior Jesus Christ is only a hope for those who have placed their trust in his shed blood for salvation.  For those who have never asked forgiveness of their sin believing that their sin can be cleansed only by Christ’s blood to see Christ will not be a hope.  It will be a fear as they face the judgment of the king of kings and Lord of Lords.

My hope is that each one who has a chance to hear this will put their faith in Christ that they may one day experience this blessed hope as Jesus Christ returns.

The video version of this is available at www.youtube.com/churchoflitteton  FW #31