The Grace of God: Life Between the Epiphanies

December 21, 2025|The Grace of God|Titus 2:11-14

JD Cutler

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For the last four months we have been looking at the book of 1st John in our Sunday morning sermons. This past Sunday we wrapped up 1st John. As I was thinking about Christmas and where to bring the message from, I looked at the narratives of Jesus’ birth in Matthew and Luke, I thought about looking at his arrival through the lens of Old Testament prophecy, and up until a few weeks ago, I was undecided. While I was at lunch with a group of pastor friends, one mentioned that he was preaching from Titus. My immediate thought was, weird choice! But as I read the passage, I immediately knew that I was going to do the same thing.

As I have been studying this passage over the last couple of weeks, I was amazed at the way God works these things out, because not only do I believe this passage is perfect for Christmas, it does a pretty good job of accompanying what we have been studying in 1st John. This past Wednesday, at our Christmas Candlelight Service we heard the Christmas story from both Matthew and Luke. This morning, as we keep our attention on the birth of our savior, I want to move us beyond the narrative of his birth, beyond the fact of his birth, to the wonderful truths that his birth brought into our lives. 

If you have your Bibles, please open to Titus chapter 2, at verse 11. For anyone who is not familiar with Titus, it is one of three letters written by the Apostle Paul that form what we call the Pastoral Epistles. 1st and 2nd Timothy are the other two books. What is unique about these books in contrast to Paul’s other letters to churches in places like Corinth, Ephesus, Colossae, and Philippi is that Paul is not writing to a church, but to an individual. More specifically to two men whom he was discipling, men whom he had left in places to help young churches appoint elders, to strengthen the churches, and to lead them as they became established in these areas. Timothy in Ephesus and Titus in Crete. 

Biblically, we do not know much about Crete. We know when Paul was being sent to Rome to appear before Caesar the ship he was on had to stop at Crete due to a storm. At this time they did not stay long, but from Paul’s words to Titus, it appears that after his first imprisonment he traveled back to Crete with Titus, where he proclaimed the gospel, men and women were saved, and churches were born. It also appears that when Paul needed to move on, he left his protege Titus to oversee the development of these young churches. The only other detail we get about Crete is from this same letter, where Paul says, 12 One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. There also seems to be a Jewish presence on Crete, particularly Paul says of the circumcision party, or Judaizers that were trying to lead the church astray. It is in this pastoral situation, planted among wicked people and fighting Jewish influences that sought to diminish the gospel, that Paul writes to Titus.

Paul, after greeting Titus as his true child in a common faith, immediately reminds him of why he had left him in Crete. 5 This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you—His second order of business is to remind Titus to labor in teaching what accords with sound doctrine, in contrast with the Judaizers. Paul then gives Titus some more instruction about pastoring and leading well and then closes with instructions on what to do next and what to do when Paul sends additional leaders to Crete.

All in all it is a brief and direct letter from a spiritual father to a spiritual son, mostly concerned with Titus’ ministry in Crete. 

It is surprising then, that in this little letter we find two of the great theological passages of the New Testament. The one we are going to look at today and its companion passage, that hopefully we will get to look at together one day.  One commentator said, referencing the passage we are looking at this morning, Titus 2:11-14, that there are few passages in the New Testament which so beautifully and vividly point us to the transforming power of both the first and second epiphanies, or appearances of Christ as does this passage. 

So this morning we are going to look at these four verses under the heading, The Grace of God: Life Between the Epiphanies.

Follow along in your copy of God’s word as we read Titus 2:11-14

Titus 2:11–14 ESV

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹² training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³ waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ 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.

In the Greek this is one long Pauline sentence that revolves around the statement ‘the grace of God has appeared’. This morning I want to share with you four ways grace operates in our lives. The first is we are…

I. SAVED BY GRACE

Paul introduces this grand statement with the word for. As you know from our time together, whenever you see a connective you have to ask what precedes it. In this case, the word for refers us back to Paul encouraging Titus to teach what accords with sound doctrine. He then addresses older men, older women, young women, young men, and bondservants.Much of what he says has to do with the way each of these groups conducts themselves, how they live and arrange their lives, then he says, for-

Why should Titus, in the context of his role as elder, declare these things? Why should he exhort those in the churches he oversees to live this way, why should he rebuke with all authority those that are not?

Because Paul says the grace of God has appeared.The way he arranges this pastoral letter is different than his normal writing style. Paul usually presents his doctrinal justification and then addresses right behavior stemming from right belief. Here he does the opposite. After telling Titus to teach what accords with sound doctrine and then outlining lives that reflect that teaching, he gives his reason for these exhortations. The reason we should live differently is Christ’s appearance in his first advent.

Christ’s arrival in the incarnation is God’s grace on display. God sending his one and only son so that men may be reconciled to himself, receive forgiveness of sins, and receive eternal life in Christ, summed up by Paul as bringing salvation for all people. 

Jesus stated his mission in similar terms.

Luke 19:10 “10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.””

John 3:17 “17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

John 12:47b … for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.”

Mark 10:45 “45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.””

John 6:40 “40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”” 

This salvation, Paul says, is for all people. Since we are not universalist, we know that Paul is not saying that by coming into this world, Jesus saves everyone. The phrase all people is used in two different ways in the New Testament. —sometimes it means all without exception, as in "all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." In other passages it signifies all without distinction, as it does here—to the bondsmen, as well as the free; to the servant as the master, to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews; to all kinds and conditions of men.

One of the great truths of salvation by grace alone is that there is no prerequisite to salvation dependent on conditions external to yourself. You do not have to be born into the right nation, the right social class, the right religious circle. God can and does save men from every tribe, tongue, and nation, and from every station in life.

Another great truth of salvation by grace is that there is nothing we can do to earn salvation.

Paul says in Ephesians 2:8–9 “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” 

Christ’s first appearance and mission is a result of God’s grace, indeed Christ is the embodiment of God’s grace, it is God’s grace on display. Chuck Swindoll wrote that "Grace is summed up in the Name, Person, and work of the Lord Jesus Christ."

How do we participate in this salvation by grace? Not merit, not works, but by faith. Indeed, if it rested on anything else, it wouldn’t be rooted in grace. Listen to what Paul says in Romans. Romans 4:16 “16 That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,” 

I doubt anyone here this morning would disagree with that statement. We regularly preach and teach that salvation is a work of God’s grace, and we are comfortable with that language. However, although many of our gospel presentations stop there, Paul doesn’t.

Paul continues that Christ’s first appearance has done more than just bring salvation, bringing us to our next point. Not only are we saved by grace, we are…

II. TRAINED BY GRACE

Grammatically, the grace of God is the subject, appeared is the verb and the two results of grace appearing are that it brings salvation to all men and it trains us. Notice the difference in scope. While salvation is available to all men, only those who are in the category Paul uses of ‘us’ are trained by it.

Those who are recipients of divine grace are trained by it.

The idea of training in classical greek is the idea of training children. God’s grace is the thing that causes us to learn.Learn what?Paul says it teaches us or trains us to live.The purpose of God’s grace is not just so that we are saved, but that we are taught to live.

Those who are recipients of divine grace are trained by it.

In what way? Using the idea of training children, we know that we do not have to train children to breathe, to crave food and water, etc… The basics of living are natural to us, rather the idea of live here is the manner in which we live or act, how we conduct ourselves in this life. In the same way, the grace of God instructs us in the manner of how we live. The same way we train our children to behave, think, reason, and interact with the world, Paul says God’s grace trains us. What kind of manner of life does Paul says Christians should have?

Paul gives a list- self-controlled, upright, and godly

Self-controlled may be translated sensibly or soberly in your translation. This is the only time the word is used in the NT. The idea is with a sound mind. It has to do with our thinking. The root of this word comes from two words, saved and mind. The idea of saved is whole or healthy. Paul says that God’s grace trains us to think wholly or healthy. Salvation by grace alone through faith alone, the redemption of the man is not just spiritual, it affects the way that we think. Christians who are being trained by the grace of God in salvation ought to think differently than the world. Ultimately our minds are not shaped by men or by good teaching, although God uses these, the transforming power of our mind is God’s supernatural work through his supernatural word. Paul summarizes it perfectly in his letter to the church at Philippi. Philippians 3:15 “15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.” 

How do we know if we are thinking Biblically, if our mind is being trained by the grace of God? That’s a hard question isn’t it?In many ways, our minds remain a mystery to us, and we don’t know what we don’t know.

I think a really good way to evaluate our minds and whether we are maturing in Christ and being trained by grace is to ask is our thinking radically different than the world around us.

Notice that Paul says we are to live this way in this present age. Of course we saw in 1 John, the apostle emphasized again and again the difference in the ways of God and the ways of the world.

Does the way that you think align with the world’s way of thinking or God’s way of thinking?

Here is the encouragement, according to Paul, this healthy mind isn’t dependent on our IQs, it is dependent on whether or not we are book smart or not, it is something that God’s grace works in us. We see in the New Testament that an uneducated fishermen can think more wholly and Godly than a lifetime student of the OT scriptures. 

The next word that describes our manner of life as believers is upright. If self-controlled has to do with our thinking, upright has to do with our actions. Many translations choose to translate this word as righteously. That is God’s grace working in our lives also trains us to live morally correct lives, agreeably to the law. Not in the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law. Our lives ought to be marked by obedience to God’s word and decrees. I don’t think Paul’s order is by accident, as God trains our minds to think according to his truth, our lives are conformed to his will and way. 

The next word that describes our manner of life as believers is godly. Strongs concordance defines this word as living in a devoutly religious or reverent way. Showing a deep respect for God or religious duty.

Follow Paul’s trajectory for a minute. God’s grace trains our minds and we begin to think differently, which leads to our actions and deeds being changed as God’s grace trains our actions, which culminates in a completely different lifestyle. A life where God is first in our lives. A life where what God desires for us is what we desire for ourselves, what God commands for us we want to obey. With God at the center of our lives, all the areas of our lives begin to fall in order and circle God like the planets circle the sun in our solar system. Everything is affected by who God is, what he has done for us, and what he desires for us. 

We have to ask, does this describe my life?

Do these words describe our thinking, our actions, and our priorities?

If not, why not?

Paul says this is the result of experiencing the grace of God through salvation.If it doesn’t in some degree or another, recognizing that none of us are perfect, I would argue it is because we have resisted or refused to cooperate with God’s training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions. The idea of renounce is the idea that we forsake it, we actively reject something.

What?Ungodliness- that which is destitute of reverential awe towards God.

A word you might be more familiar with in this context is repentance. To repent of something is to turn away from it. To forsake it. Have you turned away from anything and everything in your life that is indifferent towards God?Along with that, Paul says worldly passions or desires. Have you turned away from your desires of the things of this present corrupt age, of the world John describes in 1st John?

God’s grace in salvation poured out through Christ and appropriated by faith always brings repentance. We talk about repenting in conversion, turning away from trusting in ourselves and trusting in Christ and his finished work on the cross, but repentance doesn’t stop when you are converted, it is a way of life for the believer. God’s grace leads us to more repentance, daily, hourly, moment by moment, as we see things in our lives that are inconsistent with God and his Holiness, we turn from them, we forsake them and we grow in our minds, hands, and hearts in Godliness. 

Grace is a daily teacher, guiding believers towards Godly lives.

If your life isn’t aligned with Godly living, you don’t need to try harder, you need to think deeper about the overwhelming, all encompassing, radical grace of God that you have experienced. God in his grace doesn’t destroy us when we find ungodliness and worldly lusts in our lives, it calls us to deny them and embrace all of God in all of our lives. Nothing else can produce Godly living in a Christian’s life. Not philosophy, not ethics, not human education, not culture. God’s grace trains us by working gratitude, desire, and determination in our lives, to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called (Ephesians 4:1)

We are saved by God’s grace, we are trained by God’s grace, and thirdly, we are…

III. FOCUSED BY GRACE

Titus 2:13 “13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,” 

When you become a Christian, not only is your eternal destination changed, not only are you adopted into the family of God, all by God’s grace, not only does God’s grace train you to live differently, the whole focus of your life is changed. 

I know we have talked a lot about how Paul has composed his thoughts here in the Greek and we have said much about his grammer and choice of words. I want you to understand, we talk about it not so you will be impressed by my study, but so that you will understand better what Paul is saying here.

In a similar way, the arrangement of Paul’s words here are important. Paul gives to modifiers to the word live, in the statement ‘training us to live’. That is there are two outcomes of the training of God’s grace in our lives. The first is that we will habitually and regularly renounce or deny ungodliness and worldly desires, the second is that we will be actively waiting for, or looking for Christ’s return. 

The word waiting does not mean a passive waiting, like we would wait for a train or to board an airplane or even like we wait for service to start or dinner to be serve. It is an active word.

The root word is one that describes the willing and joyful reception of a guest into your house. Paul combines that word with the greek word for toward, or in regard to. Together the idea is expectantly waiting to receive one to yourself.

The closest I can think of a human experience that captures what Paul is saying here is when we have someone we love coming to our house. Especially during the holidays, we know what this is like.

Maybe our out of town children are coming home for the holidays, or a parent, or dear friend and they are coming to stay with us. Because you know they are coming, you don’t just sit there and wait, do you?

No, you straighten up the house, you prepare them a place to sleep, you make sure you have enough food, and on and on. The reality that they are coming causes you to prepare for them as you wait for them to arrive. 

The imagery, I trust is not hard to grasp. As believers, we know our Lord is coming back, and our focus should be on preparing ourselves and our lives to welcome him when he arrives. 

This word is used to describe various people in the New Testament. Mark 15:43 “43 Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God… Luke 2:25 “25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.”

Jesus uses it to describe the attitude his disciples should have with a parable. He said, Luke 12:35–36 “35 “Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, 36 and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks.” 

 As believers, we know our Lord is coming back, and our focus should be on preparing ourselves and our lives to welcome him when he arrives. 

God’s grace working in our lives causing us to renounce ungodliness and worldly lusts also works in us an expectant waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of our great God and savior Jesus Christ.

The though that God would so graciously save you, that by his grace he would spare you from the eternal judgment you deserved, that he would give you life in His Son, that he would dwell with you in this life, ought to so consume your life that the greatest moment you can think of, that you can dream of, is the moment that you see him face to face and get to be with him forever. The reality of the first epiphany or appearing, what we celebrate at Christmas, ought to so impact you as a believer that you cannot wait for the second epiphany or appearing. Spurgeon, tying these two together said it this way, The manifestation of grace is preparing us for the manifestation of glory. What the law could not do, grace is doing. Spurgeon

So far we have seen that we are saved by grace, we are trained by grace, we are focused by grace, finally we are…

IV. TRANSFORMED BY GRACE

Having mentioned Christ by name in verse 13, Paul now expounds on the gracious salvation that began this sentence.

Titus 2:14 “14 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.” 

God did not pour out his grace on men to keep them where they are.

The modern church likes to say come as you are, and yes that is true, but we ought to also say, when you come to God you don’t stay where you are. There is purpose in God’s saving grace, and it is not so that you can remain unchanged and merely forgiven, it is to radically transform you. 

When Paul says Christ gave himself for us, it captures the totality of Jesus’ ministry, summed up in two expressions. One, to redeem us from every lawless deed or all lawlessness. This includes not only Christ’s atoning sacrificial death but his life of perfect obedience to the Father. To redeem something is to deliver from through purchase. Every person stands before God condemned because of sin and the price of sin is death, separation from God.We didn’t just need forgiveness of our sins to escape death, we needed righteous obedience to gain life. 

Christ lived the life you and I could not live before God and died the death you and I deserved before God, so that he might completely and fully redeem us from all lawlessness. At risk of over simplification, this is the personal nature of Christ’s work for individuals.Individually, through faith alone in Christ alone, by the grace of God alone, to the glory of God alone, we are redeemed from our slavery to and death sentence from sin. We were not just redeemed from something though, we were redeemed to something. F B Meyer comments that in this passage "we are, therefore, taught that the death of Jesus was intended, not for our forgiveness and justification merely, but for our sanctification, and our deliverance from the power of all our besetting sins. We were purchased from lawlessness or unrighteousness to purity or righteousness. We were forgiven and we are made pure by the grace of God in Christ.

But Paul doesn’t stop there, there is also a corporate aspect to our salvation.

God saved us in order that we might be a people of his own possession.

This idea of a people for God’s own possession is not new language for our Bibles. In fact, when translators went back to translate the Hebrew scriptures into Greek, they chose the same word Paul uses here in a number of important passages. Exodus 19:5 “5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;”  Deuteronomy 7:6 “6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”  Deuteronomy 14:2 “2 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” Deuteronomy 26:18 “18 And the Lord has declared today that you are a people for his treasured possession, as he has promised you, and that you are to keep all his commandments,”  

We can see how this phrase was originally applied to the people of Israel, but is transferred here to believers in the Messiah- both Jews and Gentiles. Peter says the same thing in 1 Peter 2:10 “10 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.”

Here is the point for us today, being God’s people necessarily changes how we live. For the Jews it changed the way they worshipped, the way they interacted with one another, the way they thought about life, death, and everything in between. In the same way, coming to Christ, being brought into the people of God ought to change everything about our lives. 

Here is the point for us today, being God’s people necessarily changes how we live.

Only God’s grace can accomplish that, but as we saw repeatedly in 1st John, if you have experienced God’s grace in salvation, God’s grace in justification, there is no doubt that you will experience God’s grace in sanctification. To be saved is not a singular event, it is a transformative, lifelong experience by which we are conformed as God’s special people to the image of His son. 

What describes such a person?

Paul says they are zealous for good works.

Oxford dictionary defines zealous as- showing great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or objective.Strong’s Concordance defines it as- eagerly desiring to acquire. It is not just an internal desire but something that motivates you to expend great energy or great enthusiasm towards acquiring something. We might call it drive in today’s terminology. Driven for what? For good works.

God’s grace working in our lives transforms us from creatures focused on ourselves and what we think most benefits us to individuals whose greatest desire is what God’s declares good and into people who literally pursue with all our might good works. 

What does this practically look like? John Wesley once said it this way. "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can" I think that pretty accurate describes a grace transformed life. 

Christ has come, that is the message and celebration of Christmas. Christ is coming back, this is our daily declaration and blessed hope. Between these two events, God’s grace has been poured out on men. We are saved by it, we are trained by it, we are focused by it, and we are transformed by it. As we look back in gratitude to the grace of God that appeared in Jesus Christ at his first appearance, when he purchased our redemption, we also look forward with hope to the glory of God that will appear at the second coming when he completes our redemption. 

This is life between the epiphanies for the believer. Does it describe your life?

If you claim to be saved by God’s grace, but are not being trained by it, or focused by it, or transformed by it, I worry you might have missed it altogether.

God’s grace in sending his son is not just to save us in the eternal destination sense but to save us completely. We are a new creation in Christ Jesus, created for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Not by our own power or merit but because the same God who prepared them is preparing us through his grace to walk in those good works. If you find that God’s grace is not operating in your life this way, may God show you this morning why not. If you find that God’s grace is operating this way in your life, may it cause you to rejoice even more this Christmas season as we reflect on the appearance of that amazing grace.

Let us pray.