"Grace Has Appeared"

In Paul's letter to Titus the preacher, Paul explains to him about grace, that it serves a two fold purpose. Many today speak of grace but have little understanding how the grace of God operates. God's grace brought salvation to all men (Tit. 2:11). If anyone is going to be saved, it will be completely by the grace of God because we all have sinned and defiled ourselves with sin. Through the death of Jesus, God brought salvation by His grace for the opportunity for all to be saved.

Now that salvation has come, what is the two-fold purpose of grace? First, the grace of God instructs us (Tit. 2:12). If we benefited from God's saving grace, it should mean something in our lives. It teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires. Worldly desires will take one away from the Lord because those desires come first in our lives. Ungodliness is what will lead one into worldly desires! Listen, ungodliness is not about being evil. There are good, decent people (according to our standard) that are ungodly. They just don't want God to run their lives or thinking! They may be nice and morally upright but ungodly. It's called U N G O D L Y...without God! Ungodly people are easily led into worldly desires because that is what they live for. The grace of God is to instruct us to deny ungodly and worldly desires.

Secondly, the grace of God gives us hope (Tit. 2:13-14). I was recently speaking with a lady in Christ. She was struggling with things in her life and was so discouraged. I asked her where her hope was. She didn't know what to say. I explained how she was placing all our efforts and thoughts on her struggles, rather than on Christ where our hope rests. How many of us are looking for the blessed hope and return of Jesus? And we wonder why things get us down so easily. Jesus is coming back for those who came under His saving grace. He gave Himself for us and redeemed us from every lawless deed. That's our hope! He is our substitute which should give us certainty. How many times have we just walked along in our lives, leaving God out of decisions and thinking? How many times have we done things our way? Jesus our Lord bought us back from every one of those times! He redeemed us from our ungodliness and the squandered opportunities. That should make us focus on Him and His coming for us and create within us a zeal to do good for His name sake.

The grace of God is powerful and when properly responded to by a surrendered heart, it will instruct you where to walk and where to fix your attention. Now that's good news!