God’s Grace Made Known (Titus 1:1-4)
We begin the Book of Titus with a salutation from Paul to Titus, and really to all those that will read this letter. For this letter was not for Titus alone. It was given to Titus in this way so that everyone that heard it and read it would understand the authority that Paul had given Titus for the work of putting the churches in Crete in order. And Paul presses hard to help everyone understand how close he is to Titus.
Titus is his “true child in a common faith”. This let everyone know two things. First, Titus likely came to faith in Christ through the preaching of Paul. And second, he and Paul teach and preach the same thing. This lets everyone understand that Titus is saying exactly what Paul would say if he were there. Titus carries Paul’s authority.
There were problems to deal with and the people must know that Titus had authority within the church. It is also probably not a stretch to say that Titus needed to more fully realize the authority that he wielded within the church.
But this authority was not due to who he was, rather it was given to him because of the gospel. In fact, the reason that all these people were together was because of the gospel.
They were the community of God’s chosen people because of the gospel. They were the community of the redeemed because of the gospel. They had received eternal life because of the gospel. And because of the gospel they were not like the other Cretans, which were liars.
This is a community built by the message of the gospel.
And this is how we should view ourselves as well. We are not a community built by some common interest. Though many of us have common interests. We are not a community built by common skills. We are a community built by the gospel. That is why we exist. And this shapes who we are.
So let’s look at the greeting that Paul gave to Titus and look at how this applies to our lives.
We are a community built by the gospel. God has given us eternal life and that has changed us and is forming us into who we are as God’s people here at Victory Baptist Church.
“Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior; To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.” (Titus 1:1-4 ESV)
Paul is himself a “servant of God” chosen to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the elect scattered among the gentiles. And he was working for their sake. This message is for their sake. And it is this message that saves us and forms us. God saved us and forms us through the gospel.
God Made Promises Of Eternal Life (V. 2)
God never lies. And He made promises in a time long ago, long before Paul’s writing the Book of Titus and long before Jesus came to Earth.
The phrase is somewhat difficult to translate with exactness. It is πρὸ (before) χρόνων (time-non-specific) αἰωνίων (eternity or the beginning of the world). With the little bit of insight given here, I am sure that you can see that why there is a struggle to translate it into English. That is why the different translations have so many different ways of translating this phrase.
- “before the ages began” ESV
- “before the world began” KJV
- “before the world began” NLT
- “long ages ago” NASB 95
- “before time began” CSB
The thing to understand about translating is that the context of a passage is king. And the context of this passage is that it is about the promises made concerning Jesus Christ. Because of that, I believe the NASB 95 actually gets to the real point Paul is making.
This is about the promise that God made concerning the coming of Jesus Christ. It is a promise made long ago. And as I have stated over and over, it is a promise that was made before the prophets, before there was a king in Israel, before there was a nation of Israel, before God rescued the people from captivity in Egypt, before promises were made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and before the Flood. The first time this promise is made is just after the curse.
“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”” (Genesis 3:15 ESV)
One would come that would destroy the serpent. And that one was Jesus Christ. And God’s promise could always be trusted because God never lies.
“God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (Numbers 23:19 ESV)
God’s promises will be fulfilled when God makes a promise. You can count on the fact that it will be fulfilled. And throughout the Old Testament, this promise was retold in different ways. That is, until Christ came and fulfilled God’s promises.
I often repeat this truth because I think it does much for our confidence as Christians. Thousands of years before Jesus came to Earth and accomplished our redemption, He had promised to accomplish our redemption.
We are not like so many people out there trusting in empty promises. We are the people of God, trusting in a sure redemption made by God who cannot lie. God, who cannot lie, has promised us redemption. God, who cannot lie, promised salvation in Jesus Christ. God, who cannot lie promised eternal life.
We are so often let down by the promises people do not keep, and so we might struggle with this idea. Ambrose Bierce, an agnostic Civil War veteran and author, called a promise “a form of incantation to conjure up a hope that is to be exorcised later by inattention.”[1] That is what we are accustomed to as human beings living in a fallen world. But that is not what God’s promises are.
When God makes a promise, He does not later exorcise it by inattention. He fulfills that promise. And so, we can have hope. For God keeps His promises.
And I want to emphasize here why you can know that you have eternal life.
I have often heard pastors say that you know you are saved because you recited a prayer long ago and really, really meant it down deep in your heart. But that’s not what the Scriptures say. We don’t look to something we’ve done for assurance of salvation. God promised eternal life to us through the finished work of His Son, Jesus Christ. And what He has promised He will give.
We can know that we have eternal life because God, who cannot lie, promised redemption to all those that repent and believe in Jesus Christ. My trust is not in my belief. My trust is in God who made promises and in God who accomplished that redemption.
God Fulfilled Promises Of Eternal Life
Paul said that these promises were manifested at the proper time. Over 4,000 years passed from Eden to the birth of Christ. That’s a long time. But, according to the Lord, it was the proper time. And His timing is the timing that matters. Over 4,000 years passed between the giving of the Promise in Genesis 3:15 and the birth of Jesus, who would die on the cross as the punishment for sin.
How is it that God fulfilled His promises? It was through Jesus Christ.
For many years God promised it and everything pointed forward to it.
Why were there so many sacrifices? To point to Jesus.
Who did the prophets proclaim would one day come and bring peace on Earth? Jesus.
Who would one day fill David’s throne? Jesus
Who would suffer and die for the sins of God’s people? Jesus (Isaiah 53, Psalm 22)
God, who is completely holy, righteous, and just created a perfect world. And He created two perfect and holy people to dwell in it. But they rebelled against God and brought upon their selves His wrath and condemnation. They are no longer perfect and holy. They are stained with sin and rebellion. They earned His justice. And because we are the descendants of Adam and Eve, we are also part of that fallen race. We are also stained with the taint of sin. And we also have God’s justice hanging over our head.
And God could have left us in this condition, but He did not. He chose to bring us back to Himself. And He did this through His Son. God the Son took on human flesh and dwelt among us. He lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose from the grave. All those who repent and believe receive eternal life, that is life with God forever. Jesus’s perfect life is credited to their account. Jesus’s death paid the punishment for their sin. And Jesus’s resurrection means that they are justified before God.
Jesus really died in history and because He did so, we have eternal life. God fulfilled His promises.
We Deliver Promises Of Eternal Life (V. 1)
Paul was entrusted with the gospel, and he delivered that message far and wide. But, if you will recall, we have been entrusted with the gospel and given the responsibility to spread it far and wide as well.
We, the Church, are to go forth and spread the fame of Christ’s great name to the nations. We are to make disciples of all nations. We are to long for, pray for, and work to see the peoples near us and far away from us come to know the Lord.
God made promises, God fulfilled those promises, and we deliver the message of that fulfillment to a lost and dying world.
And, this is how local churches and the churches here at Crete were created. It is how our church was created. Paul preached the gospel in Crete and people came to faith in Christ. And the church continued to expand in Crete through the preaching of the gospel.
How was this church created? Was it not the preaching of the gospel? Was it not that people came to faith in Christ?
Here is one place that I want to differentiate our church from so many others. And I hope that this differentiation remains for as long as Victory Baptist Church remains.
We aren’t attempting to bring people into the church through some sort of carnal means. We aren’t going to make the church service like a rock concert to get people into the door. We will not be playing secular music that will get people excited about what is happening on the stage. We are not going to bend Scripture to make people feel more welcomed.
We aren’t attempting to act like the world in order to gain an audience with more and more people.
How will this church grow? Through the preaching and teaching of the gospel.
Much of the Book of Titus is concerned with right preaching and teaching of the truth. You’ll notice that the pastor must know the truth and declare it so that the others in the church know the gospel, know the truth, proclaim it in their homes, and to the world.
How does the church grow? Through the proclamation of the gospel.
I’m going to begin harping on this now because it will be something I say repeatedly throughout the Book of Titus. But pastors are not CEO’s. That is not their job. They are not running a company. I’m not trying to sell you something. And success doesn’t look like running a Fortune 500 company.
Someday I hope to look out on the group of Christians gathered here and see a lot of holy and righteous families that have been transformed by the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. That will only happen through the preaching and teaching of the gospel.
The preacher is a herald. He is the deliverer of a message. And he has the job of teaching that message to others in his church.
The very first and most important message that I am to know and proclaim is the gospel. And the very first message I am to teach you to take home and share with your children is the gospel. And the most important thing that you need to know to teach your family, talk with your neighbors and coworkers is the gospel.
Eternal Life Changes You (V.1)
Paul said here that the message of the gospel “accords with godliness”. It creates a people that behave a certain way. That will be fleshed out in a lot of ways throughout the Book of Titus.
Notice what God said would happen in the New Covenant. He was doing something different. He would change them deeply. They would follow Him.
“”Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” (Ezekiel 36:22-27 ESV)
That is a description of us as believers today. Our old, cold, dead, unfeeling, and rebellious heart is taken away and replaced with a heart of flesh. We now desire to follow the Lord. And the Holy Spirit is placed within us. And we desire to follow the Lord. And we will follow the Lord.
I often use the illustration of the pig because our church has a center isle and the visual is so powerful. But if we were to place a bucket of slop on one side and a steak dinner on the other, then release a pig down the center isle to what food would he go?
Obviously, he would eat the slop. The slop is what he knows and loves.
But what if that pig were transformed. What if he were made human?
Well, he would vomit up his slop and after he recovered would find his way over to the steak dinner.
That is the sort of thing that happens to Christians. They are supernaturally changed. They are made new (2 Corinthians 5:17). They now desire to follow Christ. They desire to do His will. The Holy Spirit has been placed within them and they will follow after Him.
We see this very idea in just a few verses when Paul expresses the fact that Cretans are liars and Christians are not.
“One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.” (Titus 1:12-16 ESV)
Notice what Paul says there. “They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works.” Being in relationship with God changes a person. These liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons prove that they are not in relationship to the Lord by their actions. Likewise, the fact that they are not that anymore speaks of the true nature of their faith.
Now, what is the assumption Paul is here working with? Is it not that a true relationship to Christ really and truly changes a person?
The message of the gospel is not, recite this prayer and I will Popishly declare you to be part of the Kingdom of God. The message of the gospel begins with the nature of God, our unrighteousness, and that we deserve God’s wrath and justice. And the gospel is good news because God the Son took on human flesh to bring us to God through His finished work. And this message doesn’t leave us in rebellion against God.
This message really and truly changes us. It is a message that accords with godliness.
It is a message that makes a godly people.
And a godly people go forth and declare the gospel with their mouths and testify to its truthfulness with their deeds.
I was once followed around and griped at by someone telling me that the church needed to do a sermon series on marriage so that visitors would come to church. I was told that this was necessary because people needed something applicable to their lives.
But what is more applicable to your life than the fact that you are a child of God? What is more applicable to your life than your relationship to Christ and its effects on your life?
If you are here today and Jesus has made no difference in your life than I am here to tell you that you do not know Jesus. That is what the Scriptures tell me repeatedly. And if you don’t believe me then go and read the Book of 1 John and get back to me. This grace made known to us is not a ticket punched that gets us out of Hell, but a relationship with Almighty God given to us through the finished work of Jesus Christ.
God’s grace has fallen upon you in the person of Jesus Christ. You were a rebel sinner destined for Hell and God saved you. And that makes a difference in your life.
To the wind with your profession of faith if you lie, cheat, steal, despise your family, and hate your neighbor. What God has done in your life has changed you, if you are a Christian.
This faith will change how your view your spouse, children, and church. It will change how you use your money. It will change how you spend your time. It will change you. It will make you walk in righteousness because the gospel accords with godliness.
Conclusion
This introduction to the Book of Titus lets us in to see that this grace that God has given to us will make a difference in our lives. It gives to us salvation from sin and death. But it also gives to us eternal life, which is a relationship with God. And when we have that, we have it all.
As a church, we often talk about reaching out to the lost around us. We think about what we can do to get the message out to our neighbors and the neighbors to this church.
In our day, the vast majority of humanity does a lot of talking about the world and, in reality, don’t care about anyone. They’ll talk a long time about ending world hunger, but never feed a hungry person. They speak of something, but don’t really care about it or do the little things that could be done right in front of them. They think globally and don’t do what they could be doing.
I often fear that Christians are functioning in the same manner, talking about the salvation of the world. And talking about the unrighteousness and perversions of the world. But not doing a thing about it in their homes where they have the ability to do something about it.
It starts right here with us. It starts with us understanding the gospel and applying right living to our own lives. It starts with how we apply this to our marriage and our children. And we influence and teach the gospel to the people around us. It all seems incredibly small. And as we go, we will see that the Lord is blessing this church and His people abundantly.
R. Dwain Minor
[1] https://www.thedevilsdictionary.com/p.html