The Epiphany

Titus 2:11-14

This is one of Paul’s wonderfully long sentences. Modern translations chop it up into high-school-English sentences and thus rob us in a sense of Paul’s genius. I have been thinking about this passage lately, meditating on it, following the flow of it, noting how the thoughts flow into each other to make the whole. It is an amazing sentence. Here are just a few of my thoughts on this.

For This links it to the preceding section, which is full of instructions on practical living. “This is why you should obey these commands.”

the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men Amen! I believe the best way to understand this is, the grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared Both the Greek and the context of the pastoral epistles support this.

teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world Saving grace is also teaching grace. (It is also enabling grace, but he doesn’t mention that here.) Chrysostom pointed out, “He has not said avoiding, but denying. Denying implies the greatest distance, the greatest hatred and aversion.” See the complete comment on this in my post We ought to preach like this today.
This is important. We should probably spend some time learning what these various words mean (ungodliness, worldly lusts, soberly, righteously, godly).

in this present world World or age. The New Testament divides time into “the present age” and “the age to come.” There is so much that could be said about this, but he is saying, We should live a certain way in this present age while we are

looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Awesome! We are WAITING for Jesus to come and also LOOKING for him to come.
At this point I must confess, I’ve had to repent of my views on this verse. Ever since I can remember I have heard and believed that blessed hope referred to the coming of Christ. George Eldon Ladd wrote a book, The Blessed Hope, and everyone knew it was about the second coming (and specifically the rapture question). When I read Chrysostom’s sermon on this passage I was shocked that he understood blessed hope as referring to eternal life! “What, doesn’t he know anything?” But as I studied this I learned that hope is used three times in Titus. Here and also:

1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
3:7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Ahhh! The light came on. The blessed hope is our hope of eternal life. We are looking for the full realization of the promise of eternal life! Of course, this is received at

the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ This is cool, he mentions the first advent in v. 11 and the second advent here. The word used both times is Epiphany. It was used by the Greeks of the appearance of the gods. In the pastoral epistles it is used for the Incarnation (2 Timothy 1:10, Titus 2:11) and for the second coming (1Timothy 6:14; 2 Timothy 4:1,8, and here).
Now concerning this Epiphany of our Lord. There are those who tell us he will come secretly, he will sneak in and take His people and no one will see Him. That teaching sounds good until you compare it to what the Bible actually says! We are looking for the “glorious appearing.” When our Lord Jesus comes he will not sneak in or slink in or come unobserved. No, every eye will see Him as He comes with power and glory! Trumpets will sound and angels will shout. There will be enough noise to wake the dead! Maranatha!
Notice what he says about who is coming, the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Just who is Jesus of Nazareth? He is God. Not a god, not a little god. The Great God! (see also Deuteronomy 10:17; Nehemiah 8:6; Daniel 2:45; Zechariah 14:3-5 – the Great God is none other than Yahweh)

Jesus is the Great God. He is Yahweh!! And he is our God: “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:1). Amen!

As Daniel Amos of old sang,

“Jesus is Jehovah to me

He's Lord and He's King of Kings

Almighty God is He

Jesus is Jehovah to me”

Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity What does it mean to be redeemed from iniquity? Another way to look at it is, What does iniquity do? It separates me from God so that I can’t know Him or live for Him. Jesus gave Himself for us so that we might know God and serve Him. Since He redeems us from all iniquity that means there is no iniquity that can keep me from knowing God, having peace with Him, and then living for Him. This is awesome, but is this automatic? No, but if I confess my sins, believe His Word, and place my confidence in His blood, I can be redeemed from ALL iniquity! Now that’s good news!

and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. The previous portion is comforting. This portion is convicting. Am I zealous for good works? Do I spend as much energy finding out what God considers good works as I do studying the epiphany?

The whole passage is awesome. The grace that brings salvation has appeared! The incarnation brings redemption from all iniquity; the glorious appearing brings our blessed hope! Hallelujah for the Epiphany!