Looking For That Blessed Hope

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world, Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”  Titus 2:11-14

Grace is the unmerited, undeserved favor of God which He has given to all people in order to effect salvation among those who receive that grace with gratitude and humility.  Paul wrote in I Corinthians 5:14(a) that the love of Christ compels us not to live for ourselves but for Christ.  Matthew Henry wrote that if we don’t feel compelled to live for Him, then grace is received in vain.  God’s grace is available to all people, but not everyone receives His salvation by grace because they refuse to submit to Him and His word.  Even so, all people have experienced God’s grace, but most do not acknowledge God nor His grace.  Jesus said that God sends rain and sunshine on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45).  He doesn’t just bless His children and ignore the wicked, and He doesn’t always withhold tough times from His own children.

The conviction of sin brings to the sinner his or her cognizance of the life of ungodliness and worldly desires that he or she has been living.  (Paul calls them “lusts” because people want what they want and will do whatever is required to receive those desires.  These lusts aren’t confined to sexual desires.  People lust after many things, mostly selfish pursuits that never really satisfy.  Too bad sinners don’t lust after righteousness, joy, and a godly peace.  They sure would be a lot happier and contented.)  The sinner must see himself the way that God sees him–one whose sin has separated him from his Creator.  Many folks who have never had a born-again experience with the Lord don’t realize that without Jesus, they have no relationship with God.  In John 8:19, a Pharisee asked Jesus where His Father was.  Jesus replied that because this Pharisee didn’t know Him, Jesus, he also didn’t know His Father.

The first step for an individual to be reconciled with God is for Him to repent, that is, admit his sin and then turn from it, leaving ungodliness and worldly desires behind.  Then trust must be placed in Jesus Christ and a commitment made to live for Him.  To live for Christ is an intentional pursuit to live righteously which is now possible as the repentant sinner receives the righteousness of Christ at conversion and is given the Holy Spirit to help him or her in his or her Christian walk.  Paul wrote that the believer in Jesus Christ must live soberly, that is, to be serious about one’s relationship with Christ, to live with self-control, reason, and balance in all areas of one’s life, not with a sad countenance, but rather with a joy on one’s face that comes from knowing his or her sins are forgiven, and Christ is his or her Lord and Savior.  Believers must live godly, that is, being obedient to the Lord, worshiping Him, and acknowledging Him above all others.  This is how Christians show the world that they are followers of Christ, sons and daughters of the most high God and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.

While living for Christ on this earth is a huge benefit for us as we go about our daily lives, the good times and the bad, the greatest benefit of all is the day when we will be with Christ on the day when He appears to receive us unto Himself forever and ever.  That indeed is the most blessed hope.  It will be a glorious day when we see Jesus coming from heaven and calling all believers to Himself.  We will leave this sinful world to the sinners, “Goodby cruel world”, and Christ will be our constant companion as we live with Him in our new, eternal bodies.  This day will be like no other day that has ever taken place.

It was the highest form of nobility that Jesus would voluntarily lay down His life, suffering excruciating pain, for us sinners, just because God loved us so much that He wanted to be reconciled with us, His creation.  But we had to first be redeemed from all sin and made pure in order to be accepted by God, and only God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ, could make that possible by paying sin’s penalty on the cross of Calvary.  When this penalty was paid, and God raised Jesus to life in approval and acceptance of His sacrifice, all those who repent and trust in Christ and His work on the cross are received by God as His peculiar people, a term that has come to mean “strange or weird” which is how many sinners think of Christians because they can’t figure them out.  But peculiar means according to Webster’s Dictionary “distinctive, exclusive, unique, special”, and, let me add, privileged, and that describes those who desire to follow Christ and do good works, leaving sin to the sinners and striving for excellence in Christ.