Blessed hope

Titus 2:11-14 TNIV

For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

My thoughts -

What is salvation? What is this that Paul says, through the grace of God, is offered to all people?

You don't have to go very far into this passage to answer that. The grace that offers salvation "teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age".

So salvation is for this present age, then. God's grace saves us from sin in this life by equipping us to not sin. We don't have to be slaves to our sinful nature. We don't have to be slaves to worldly passions. We don't have to. We have been saved with the ability to say no, and to live godly lives.

But is that it? I mean, that's a useful thing. Don't get me wrong. But is grace like some self help book offering the ability to "live your best life today"? Is salvation only in this present life?

Paul says that, while we live in this present age, free from our slavery to sin, that we also wait with blessed hope for "the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ". We have hope in Jesus not just for this life but in eternity, the life to come. We have hope in the resurrection. We have hope in God's eternal glory.

Our idea of salvation is often limited to eternity. We think of salvation as being offered a way out of the consequences of our sin and into heaven after we die. This ignores the power of grace in our lives right now.

But in the same way we're looking for ways to live better lives right now. Grace frees us not just from the consequence of sin but our slavery to sin as well. We don't have to live that way! We have been set free!

That's good news but if we limit salvation to that which empowers us to live our best life today then it is little more that some kind of self help guide. Yes, we have hope today. But grace saves us from death into life, both abundant and eternal. We have eternal hope in Jesus.

So we are saved from sin. We don't have to live the way that leads to death. We don't have to be mired in our old sinful ways. Jesus died, Jesus gave himself, to free us from sin. Paul describes us, then, free from sin, as a people "eager to do good". That is salvation in this present life.

But Jesus didn't just die to free us from sin so that we can do good in this life. Jesus was also resurrected, destroying the power of death, which Paul calls "the last enemy" in 1Corinthians. In that resurrection, in the destruction of that last enemy, we then have hope.

Salvation is for this life. Grace frees us from sin and enables us to do good. We are reconciled to God and free to live in God's will in this life.

But salvation is also for the life to come. We are dead to sin. We are dead to death. We are alive in Christ and we have hope in the resurrection and in eternal life with our Lord and Saviour.