Titus 2:11
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.” Why is grace amazing? Why would we find grace amazing? What is grace?
Grace is goodness that you cannot earn. The grace of God includes his mercy, not punishing us for things we have done. It also includes his goodness, giving us kindness that we do not deserve. Grace is a gift from God. It cannot be earned, nor can it be repaid.
Strange, then, that Paul would tell Titus that the grace of God has appeared. Grace is a concept. Grace is an idea. How can grace appear? You already know, don’t you? The grace of God that had been hidden in the past has finally physically and visibly appeared. Grace has come in the form of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
In the beginning, God created everything. As part of that creation, God created mankind, men and women, in his image. God placed humanity in a perfect place, and gave them everything they would ever need. But humanity turned against God. We believed the lie of the devil, and we decided that we should not have to submit to God’s rules. Adam and Eve, and every human since then except for one, turned away from God and chose their own way, a way of sin, a way that leads to death, destruction, and the burning wrath of God.
Just after Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, God made a promise. An obscure one, to be sure, but a promise none the less. God promised that he would send someone into the world, born of a woman, who would crush the head of the serpent, the devil. God was hinting at his grace that would one day come.
God pointed us toward his grace all throughout the Old Testament. God promised Abraham that he would bless the whole world through one of his offspring. God promised David that, from David’s family, God would set a king on the throne who would rule the world forever in perfect justice. In Isaiah, God promised that a servant would come who would humbly sacrifice his life as a way to pay for the sins of others, sins the servant did not commit.
But still, all those who heard these promises could not truly grasp what they would mean. IT was not until the time of Jesus that the promise of God’s grace became clear. In that time, God entered the world. God has always existed as a trinity, three persons yet still only one God. God the Son, one of the three persons of the one God, chose to take on humanity and allow himself to be born as a human baby. Jesus was born of woman, descended from Abraham and David, and was fully God while being fully and totally man. And Jesus came to be the embodiment, the revealing, the fulfilling of God’s promise of grace. So, truly, God’s grace has appeared.
Jesus then lived a perfect human life. God commands that we all live perfectly if we wish to please him; Jesus did so. Then Jesus allowed himself to be put to death as a sacrifice. In his suffering, death, and resurrection, Jesus paid the full price for all of the sins of all of God’s people. Jesus himself told us that whoever would put their trust in him, turning away from their sins, would have eternal life because of his sacrifice.
So, yes, the grace of God has appeared. Grace has come in the form of God’s Son who humbled himself to be the sacrifice for our sins. This is amazing. This is truly amazing grace.
But there is more. The grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all. Some translations say that grace has appeared to all, but it makes more sense that the Bible is communicating that salvation has come to all. What Paul is saying is that all kinds of people, all of the categories from the first ten verses of this chapter, can be saved by Jesus. Jesus did not merely bring grace to Jews. He did not bring grace for the wealthy only. Whether you are young or old, man or woman, Jew or gentile, rich or poor, slave or free, smart or dumb, thin or fat, successful or a failure, married or single, God has brought grace that can be yours in the person of Jesus Christ. Anyone of any social class or nationality can receive the grace of God and be forgiven of his or her sins. All you must do is trust Jesus.
Do you not know God? Have you not yet been forgiven. No matter who you are and no matter what you have been through, the grace of God has appeared. God’s grace is offered to you in Jesus. You have lived as a sinner, we all have. Today, if you will renounce your rebellion, your sin against God, and if you will trust in Jesus alone for your eternity, God will give you his grace. God will save your soul and make you his child and forgive you of your sins if you will place your soul in the care of Jesus Christ, believing in and trusting him and his finished work on the cross.
And if you are a Christian, praise God for his grace. God’s grace is for all kinds of people, even people like us. What a loving, gracious, glorious God we serve. God’s grace has appeared. As the old song says:
He Paid a debt he did not owe
I owed a debt I could not pay
I needed someone to wash my sins away
And now I sing a brand new song
Amazing grace, the whole day long
Christ Jesus paid the debt
That I could never pay.
Pastor Travis Peterson 