Titus 2:11 | “Grace Has Appeared”

Preston Highlands Baptist Church

One Big Book of Advent

This season is often called “Advent,” from the Latin adventus meaning “coming” or “arrival.” It’s when the church considers the arrival of God in the coming of Jesus Christ.

The story of Jesus’ coming doesn’t begin in the New Testament and doesn’t end with a baby in a manger. The whole Bible anticipates his arrival. The Bible is one big book of Advent!

There are whispers of the Christmas story from Genesis to Revelation. Over these weeks, we’re listening to several of these “whispers.” We started in Genesis and we’ll end in Revelation at the end of the month.

The Bible doesn’t just tell us that God came to the earth, but why he came. We saw in Genesis 3:15 that God would come to defeat evil. In Deuteronomy 18:18, we saw that God sent a prophet like Moses to bring God’s word to God’s people. In Galatians 4, we saw that God sent his Son to rescue us from spiritual slavery and adopt us as sons.

This evening, we’re going to look at Titus 2:11. In this short verse we see the simple but glorious truth that Jesus appeared in order to bring saving grace to anyone who receives him.

Lives that Confirm the Gospel

The word “for” tells us that Paul is giving us the reason for what he said before. In verses 1-10, Paul tells Titus to teach the people in the churches of Crete to live in ways that confirm rather than contradict the gospel.

In verses 2-6, Paul says the gospel has implications for men and women of any age. If you want to know God’s will for your life in 2025, it’s in these verses!

Then he tells Titus to live in such a way that his teaching can’t be condemned (vv. 7-8), and that he should encourage slaves, or servants, to work in such a way that their work “may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior” (v. 10). The way they work should make the gospel look good.

Grace Changes Things

These verses are a blueprint for how Christians should live. Some think that Christianity is merely a set of ethical and moral rules to live by, that it’s a way of life that comes with dos and don’ts like every other religion.

Other religions operate on the principle that you need to do certain rituals and live a certain way to receive God’s blessing. But Christianity is actually the opposite of that. Verse 11 makes this clear. After Paul gives Titus these instructions about how people should live, he then says, “For the grace of God has appeared, brining salvation for all people.”

Why should Titus teach people to live like this? Because God’s grace is here. Because grace teaches us to live in certain ways. Because grace changes things.

Grace Comes to the Rescue

Why doesn’t Paul just say, “Jesus appeared”? Because he wants us to understand our need. Everyone loves a good hero movie, a story where someone comes in and saves the day. But the people rescued are usually good, well-meaning people who we’re led to believe deserve to be saved.

But this isn’t the story of Christianity. The story that the Bible tells is much more honest. It says that even though a good God created us in his image, we decided to rebel against him and follow the evil serpent, that we all deserve judgment as a result, but in mercy God sent his Son to live a flawless life, die in our place for our sins, and rise again so that everyone who believes in him will be saved and brought back into fellowship with the good God who made them.

In other words, Paul says that if we don’t understand our need, we won’t be transformed. He says grace appeared because that’s what we need the most. Of course, it didn’t appear as a sort of Easter Egg that only skilled people can find or like some vague and mystical feeling or something only really religious people can attain.

The grace of God came as the Son of God. As John writes, “The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (Jn. 1:17). From him, John says, we receive “grace upon grace” (v. 16).

“Meek Souls Receive Him”

Paul says that this grace came “bringing salvation for all people.” The word “bringing” means it wasn’t here before Jesus came. Jesus is the climax of God’s story and the only way to get grace is through him.

That God’s grace brought “salvation for all people” doesn’t mean that everyone goes to heaven now that Jesus came. Paul says earlier in the letter that some actively oppose God’s saving work (1:10, 15-16).

The idea is that Jesus comes offering salvation to all people who’ll have him. In other words, everyone who understands their need for grace receives grace. Jesus came to save all kinds of people: men, women, boys, girls, slaves, free, rich, poor, Anglo, Latino, Asian, or African. Anyone anywhere can have God’s grace. All you have to do to have it is admit you need it.

This is what the third verse in O Little Town of Bethlehem is talking about: “How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven. No ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.” Those humble enough to see their need for grace open the door for “the dear Christ to enter in.” Is that you?

As the hymn “Silent Night” says, Jesus’ birth was “the dawn of redeeming grace.” Has his grace dawned in your life? Is it changing your life? Everyone who sees their need for grace can have it in Jesus Christ.