THE GRACE OF GOD

Titus 2:11

Morning Meditation 2/20/16

Note: I welcome new members to our morning meditation. As of this morning I have 66 on my mailing list. If you were to ever want off the list for any reason just type unsubscribe in the body of the message and send it to me. Our list has grown through recommendations. The Meditations are too long for some to use as a devotional. That is the reason I am not calling them Morning Devotionals. However, they do come out of my morning devotional time. I don’t make any claim to be an authority. I just simply share with you what I am understanding the Bible to say on a particular thought. I pray for all of you. Please pray for me. -EW

Titus 2:11 says: “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men...” The word “grace”is a concept you can never quite define satisfactorily. When I say grace is “the unmerited favor of God,” it satisfies my mind at the time I say it and defines the aspect of that great truth as applied to the subject with which I am dealing at the time. But the more I consider the subject the more I feel that any simple definition comes far short of its great meaning.

Tozer said, “In God mercy and grace are one; but as they reach us they are seen as two, related but not identical.” Then he goes on: “As mercy is God’s goodness confronting human misery and guilt, so grace is His goodness directed toward human debt and demerit. It is by His grace that God imputes merit where none previously existed and declares no debt to be where one had been before.”

Our text says, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation.” The words “bringeth salvation” identify the reason that grace came. Salvation could come no other way and be an assured way to heaven for the human race. God’s grace does not require merit. In fact, grace will not accept merit. To receive grace one must come as an undeserving sinner. Jesus did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance (Matt 9:13).

John says in John 1:17: “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Didn’t Moses know about grace? Absolutely. The law of Moses is the law of God. It is a friend to grace. The law can bring us to the realization of our need but only grace can save. When John says, “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” is he saying that grace did not come until Jesus came? Is he saying that the law was not truth? No. But Jesus does present grace in its fullness and picks the sinner up and saves him where the law leaves him guilty and condemned.

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen 6:8). This is the first time grace is found in the Bible. But it is not the first time it is taught. When God killed an innocent animal and clothed Adam and Eve in the skins of that animal (Gen 3:21), He was teaching an object lesson on grace. Adam and Eve did not deserve God’s gracious treatment. They ran, they hid from God. They didn’t come running around the edge of the bush saying “Oh Lord, I have messed up. Can you help me?” They came crawling out of their place of hiding at the call of God. They came out making excuses. Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent. And it hasn’t changed. Man is still blaming someone else for his sin. Some people live their whole lives blaming the way they were raised (mother or dad) for their hangups and failures. If they are successful, they are self-made men. If they consider themselves a failure, they are that way because of mom and dad or the lack of a break. And the respected (not by me) intellectuals (psychologists) support and counsel people along those lines.

Can’t you just see a man coming to Jesus like this: “Oh Lord, I am a mess. I realize I have a lot of short comings (It’s hard for this guy to call it sin). I’m really this way because I’ve never had a chance in life. My parents didn’t do right by me. I was abused as a child. It has messed me up all through life. Now, I am a wreck (I didn’t cause it but I’m willing to admit that I am a wreck). Jesus, can you help me straighten this mess out?”

Now I hope I don’t shock you. That man is not a candidate for grace.. Romans 5:20 says, “Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:” Grace is for the undeserving. It is for sinners. It is not for people who feel they are victims of other peoples failures.

The man in Luke 18:13 reveals the true spirit of those who qualify for grace: “And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.”

This man literally prayed “God be merciful to me [the] sinner.” The definite article stands before “sinner” in the Textus Receptus. He saw himself “the” sinner that was the sinner of sinners. Have you ever felt that you were the most sinful person in the whole world. If you haven’t you haven’t been in the presence of God. Isaiah saw himself as this man did when he saw God high and lifted up. There is something else of grace in this prayer. The word “merciful” (hilaskomai) means “to be propitiated to me a sinner.” It is translated “mercyseat” in Hebrews 9:5. He is asking God to be his mercyseat. It is an aorist passive imperative. The aorist tense means once for all. The passive voice is where the subject (the publican) is acted upon. He does not act in his behalf (works for salvation) but he is asking God to act on him (grace). It is an imperative mood. This is a command. Now the whole passage is out of context with this man ordering God around. The imperative mood is a spontaneous outcry for grace and the mood expresses’ urgency. There is something about a person coming before God as a hell deserving sinner that encourages the sinner to express an immediate need. Help!

Jesus is the manifest Grace of God. He has appeared to all men. I understand some could challenge this and say Jesus has not been preached the world over. But Paul said, and whether we understand it or not it is the inspired Word of God, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men...”

One other thing. The unmerited favor of God is not only for lost sinners, it is for saved sinners. We begin to grow in grace after we are saved and start feeling good about our growth and the first thing you know we disqualify ourselves for grace as a means of victory. If we make progress, it is due to the grace of God and not our own strength and determination. Once we start taking credit for our progress, we become self righteous and grace moves out of range. I have been there, have you?

May God bless these words to our hearts.

In Christ

Earl White