The Gospel

Titus 2:15

Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.

 

The things that we must declare can all be summed up in one word: gospel. The verses preceding give a succinct definition of the gospel and how we are to live in the power of the gospel every day.

• For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people...God's grace came in the person of Jesus the Savior, who is grace and truth. When I accept His salvation, His grace and His presence become mine. Amazingly, they indwell me and allow me to live in His grace constantly.
• training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions...His grace first empties out the negative, the ungodliness and worldly passions, through a training process. I am not emptied at once, but must grow in grace; thus my training changes from day to day transforming my hearts and mind.
• and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age...Into the place where ungodliness and worldly passions once lived and flourished now abide self-control, uprightness, and godliness. Thankfully, this new life is all of grace as well.
• waiting for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ...Grace gives me the power to focus completely on Jesus and to hope expectantly as I wait for His return where He will call me to Himself and make me like Him. It is here that my training will be complete. I will be like Him for I will see Him as He is!
• who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possessions who are zealous for good works. To clarify, Paul now goes full circle by relating back to what he has said earlier. Christ redeemed us by giving Himself for us which happened when the grace of God appeared bringing salvation to all. His purpose was to free us from all lawlessness which relates to training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. In the place of lawlessness, He purifies for Himself a people for His own possession which parallels living self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. Finally His people are zealous for good works and a vital part of those works is waiting expectantly for the appearing of Jesus. Wow!

How concise yet so powerful! The gospel, the message of salvation, the redeemer sacrificing His life for my sin, the grace of God dealing with my sin, the indwelling Spirit and Son, the transformed life, the constant supply of grace so I might live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives, is what I must declare, exhort, and rebuke. It is to fill my thoughts, my life, and my conversation. I Pet. 2:9-10 echoes this same gospel. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people, once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. I am redeemed, freed from sin, trained to live godly so that while I wait for His return, I can proclaim the excellencies of Him, the gospel in all its fullness!

 

Father,

Thank You for such great grace. Teach me more each day about how to live in the power of the gospel. Give me boldness in my proclamation of Jesus.

In Jesus name,

Amen