Text: Titus 2:11
By Bro. Stephen Umukoro
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DEFINITION
1. SALVATION – The act of saving people from the power and the effect of sin and from eternal destruction.
2. AMAZING – causing surprise or astonishing
3. GRACE – The unearned or unmerited favour.
INTRODUCTION
God nature involves divine opposite. God is love 1 John 4:8. This same God who is a personification of love is also the God of wrath and a consuming fire 2 Thess. 1:6-10, Heb. 12:29. He is merciful, full of compassion and forgiveness, yet He is also the God of vengeance Rom. 12:19. They speak of His goodness and His severity Rom. 11:22.
His holiness and perfect justice demanded that sin must attract punishment. Thus the wages of sin is death. Although God is not incline to bring quick punishment on those who sin against Him because by nature He is long-suffering and slow to anger 2 Pet. 3:9, Jonah 2:4-10, Gen. 18:23-33.
However, if His patience is exhausted He expresses his anger and execute his judgment in vengeance and wrath Exo. 32:10, 1 Cor. 10:8- 10. It is of paramount importance for us Christians to recognize both aspect of His divine nature or characteristics. It is easier for us human to be conscious of God’s Love, goodness and His tender mercy than His severity, Wrath and judgment. Heb. 9:27. “For there is no respect of persons with God” says Romans 2:11 My introduction is just a preamble to our main topic, so let us respect both aspect of the Lord’s attributes.
MAN IN THE BEGINNING
When God created the first man Adam, He gave him something very precious. He gave Adam a perfect human life. He had a perfect mind and a perfect body. He would never get sick, would never grow old and would never die. Infact, the bible says that Adam was a “SON OF GOD” Luke 3:38. Adam enjoyed a close relationship with God like that of a son with a loving father. God often communicated with His earthly son Gen. 3:8 giving him satisfying assignment of work and letting him know what was expected of him. Gen. 1:28-30, 2:19. What a glorious relationship if Adam had maintained it.
FALL OF MAN
Sadly, when Adam rebel against God’s authority (commandment) Adam lost his precious eternal human life, not only for himself but also for his future offspring. Because of what Adam did, sin entered into the world and death through sin, so death spread to all men because they had all sinned Rom. 5:12. Thus Adam and Eve descendants acquired imperfection and inclination to sin or do what is wrong. This is in line with the physical laws of inheritance. In Rom. 7:19-21. Apostle Paul wrote “19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.”
Adam paid a very high prize for his wrong choice. He lost his special friendship with God. He lost his eternal life and he also lost his precious home (The Garden of Eden) Gen 3:17-19. Even though God could not ignore the deliberate act of transgression on the part of the first man Adam. Yet God has not condemn all humanity to suffering and death forever on account of one man’s disobedience.
GOD LOVE EXPRESSED
In order to make everlasting life possible once again for obedient human, God expressed His love for mankind. King David in awesome wonder wrote in Psalms 8:4 saying “4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou
visitest him?”. Back to Adam rebellious act. Now Adam had lost his precious possession of eternal life, he could not pass it to his offsprings Rom. 5:12. Since a perfect life was lost no imperfect human can buy or restore it back. What was required was a ‘RANSOM’ equal in value to what was lost. This is in harmony with the divine principle of perfect justice found in Duet. 19:21 “LIFE SHALL GO FOR LIFE”. in applying this principle, God had to prepare His only begotten son Jesus Christ, gave Him a body Heb. 10:4-6 to enable Him taste death and sacrifice His life for us. Heb. 2:9 Put it this way “9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” So Jesus came as the second Adam to restore back what the first Adam had lost 1 Cor. 15:45-49.
Jesus had a perfect human life because His birth was not through the normal process of human procreation. Matt. 1:18, Luke 1:34-35. Jesus never sinned, therefore He was qualified to pay the ransom. So in essence, Jesus stepped into Adam’s place in order to save us by sacrificing or giving up His perfect life in flawless obedience to God. Jesus paid the prize for Adam’s sin. This is God’s amazing grace, the unmerited favour of God that brought salvation to mankind. Titus 2:11 Unselfish love prompted God to act on behalf of weak, helpless, perplex and hopeless sinful humans. We did not earned that nor can we ever repay God. So the greatest gift that man has ever received of the many gift, the gift of God’s
son to the world in human flesh stands out above all others. John 3:16, Rom. 5:8, Eph. 2:8-9, Tit. 2:11.
BENEFIT
1. Forgiveness of sin: It is hard to do what is right all the time. We make mistakes, we sometimes say we are doing the wrong thing because of our imperfection 1 John. 1:8-10. If we are sorry for our wrong doing and asks for forgiveness, He hears and forgives us. Eph. 1:7, 1 John 1:9.
2. A Clean Conscience Before God: A guilty conscience can easily lead to hopelessness and make us feel worthless 1 John. 3:20-21. Through the forgiveness made possible by Jesus Christ death (The ransom) it enables us worship God with a clean heart free of guilt. Heb. 4:16.
3. Use Jesus Name in Prayer: It is a wonderful privilege for us Christians to use the name of Jesus in our prayer. Jesus Himself taught us how to do so. John 14:13-14
4. Sonship: Adam was address or called the son of God in Luke 3:38. There after no human on earth have had the privilege of being called “Son of God”. But now through the cleansing power of Jesus blood faithful has received the spirit of adoption and can be called sons of God. Rom. 8:14-16.
5. Seal with the Holy Spirit: Faithful Christians are sealed with the Holy Spirit, without which one cannot be save at the end of time. Thus we are advice not to grieve the spirit. Eph. 4:30
6. Approve Worship: The grace afford members of the Lord’s church the opportunity to worship God in acceptable way.
7. Delivered from the Power of Darkness: According to Colossians 1:13, Christians hath been delivered from the power of darkness and hath been translated into the kingdom of His dear Son.
8. Eternal Life: Christian’s ultimate goal is to gain eternal life in the kingdom of Heaven, and this has been made possible by the amazing grace of God. Tit. 2:11.
CONCLUSION
The grace does not come to us with ease, but with pain and agony. Considered Christ cruel and painful death Phil. 2:8. How he was accused by false witnesses Matt. 26:27. Laughed at by mobs Matt. 27:40 . Tortured by soldiers John 19:1-3. Nailed to the cross, remember how he cried in pains with a loud voice “ELI ELI LAMA SABACH THA-NI” That is to say My God, My God, Why has thou forsaken me?
Do you think that God’s feeling was not ruffled as he watched His most cherished begotten son crying for help? If we appreciate the suffering and death of Christ because of our salvation, we would be obedient and be submissive to God’s will, serve Him with a Perfect heart and a willing mind.
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