Titus 2:14 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Titus 2:14

Comments

In verse 14 the apostle immediately provides us with an added reflection. We remind ourselves constantly that he gave himself for us. The incarnation of Christ and his earthly ministry, his wearing a human body, becoming the God man, his going to Calvary for us to be our Redeemer and King; in a sense it changed him eternally. Of course he is God and as God he is unchangeable, immutable. He cannot change. God is perfect and complete and infinite and eternal. You can't change any of those things. If they were subject to change, they wouldn't be true. How could God be infinite if he was anything other than infinite? How could he be pure and holy if he had to improve? No, he always has been, and always will be. So when Christ gave himself for us, he didn't change in the tiniest bit in his divinity and his Godhead. But, without contradiction, there was a great change experienced by Christ the Saviour, because he took upon him human flesh and he wears it forever in glorified form. He becomes in eternity our visible God, the Son of God, but in a human nature, which is wonderfully glorified. So he gave himself to be eternally different in order to become our Lord and our King. Who did he give himself for? Sinful wretches, tiny little people, with limited minds and fallen hearts. What an astonishing thing! Out of love for us – to lift us up a thousand miles to be partakers of his glory – he gave himself. Then the twofold work within us. First, ‘that he might redeem us from all iniquity’, purchase us from the power of sin. ‘Iniquity’ – lawlessness is the original Greek, things contrary to God's law. He entered into the world and gave himself to suffer and to die on Calvary's cross. The word ‘redeem’ is used. He came to pay a ransom for us. The ransom that he paid was his shed blood and his suffering and his agonies on Calvary, bearing the punishment of sin due to us. It was a ransom. Then the positive side: ‘and purify unto himself a peculiar people.’ Purify, purge away the sin. So the sin has to be atoned for, and heaven earned by the righteousness of Christ, and then the soul of the sinner has to be purged cleansed from sin. Even the cleansing comes in two parts. There is the cleansing away of all sin from your record book, which takes place when God justifies you. You repent, you believe in Christ, and if you are sincere, you are said to be justified by God. That is a declaration made in heaven: that you are deemed clean, and that God will regard you as clean and pure and forgiven. So you are purified once for all in the sense that your record book of guilt and sin is cleansed and made clean. But then you have to be literally improved and sanctified, and that is done considerably at conversion, but not completely. It goes on progressively through the remainder of your life, and you are being sanctified by God. By the word, Christ says: ‘Sanctify them by thy truth’, he prays to the Father.‘That he might redeem us [ransom us] from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people.’ You could read for ‘peculiar’, special. That is nearer to the original, but not near enough. ‘Peculiar’ is actually a very good translation, except that now the word has other meanings, so we don't like it so much, because we hope we are not a peculiar people in the sense that that word is commonly used today. But we are a distinctive, special people, set aside for Christ.

Application

Are you a Christian who doesn't read your Bible regularly? How then can you be sanctified? Because the prayer of Christ to the Father is that you will be sanctified by the truth, by the word. It’s your reading regularly that would challenge you and purge you and encourage you and help you, and the Holy Spirit would apply it to your heart. Neglect the word, and you will fall behind. Your sins will not be overcome; you will not conquer and improve. You will be no better next month than you were last month. The record book is totally cleaned at conversion, but the life must be progressively tidied up and cleaned up as you draw near to the gates of heaven.

‘Who gave himself for us, that he might purify unto himself’, for his own special exclusive possession, a distinctive special people, different from worldlings. Are you different from a worldling, friend, or have you slipped back so that the engine of desire within you is the same as that of a worldling? You want goods, you want things, you want to appear special. You want the nicest possible of this, and the most expensive possible of that. Are you nearer to a worldling than a distinctive different special person, set aside for Christ? Have you gone back to all the pre-conversion music, and the stuff that is written for the lovers of this world, to their taste, to their values and fallen desires? ‘That he might purify unto himself’, for his very own possession, ‘a [special and distinctive] people’, so quite different from worldlings. Oh yes, we are to be lovers of souls, sympathetic, helpful, reaching out to worldlings constantly, but distinctive. There have been books written in the past with titles such as ‘The distinctive marks of Christian character’, and that says it all. You don't see titles like that so much today. ‘The distinctive marks of Christian character.’ That is it.

‘A [special] people, zealous’, fervent. The Greek word means heated, hot. Fervent, warm, for good works. Praying to the Lord to make us all fervent for good works, noble deeds, right things. ‘Oh Lord, give me eyes to notice fellow believers and others in need of my help. Give me a sympathetic heart to speak encouraging words and gospel words to the lost. Lord, give me an inner fervour to do good things. A special people, zealous, full of further for good works. So those are the practical exhortations: to look for the Lord's coming, to reflect on what Christ has done for us. Never say to yourself, ‘I know all that; I don’t need to hear that again’, but bring it freshly before your mind, every day. Dedicate your life, live a life of sacrifice for the Lord. Put him first whenever you can. Be a distinctive person for him.

Questions

Naturally, the question arises, if Christ paid a ransom – if this is the illustration that the Holy Spirit chooses to use – who was the ransom paid to? Some people historically have answered quite wrongly: the ransom was paid to Satan. In a way it sounds logical to them, but that is impossible. The ransom wasn't paid to Satan. He doesn’t own us, for one thing. He is only a thief. Nothing is due to him. He is under judgement himself. In the illustration – it is only an illustration – the ransom was paid to the Father. In what sense was a ransom for our souls paid to the Father? In this sense: that the Father's justified indignation or wrath is upon us for our sin. God must pour out his destructive wrath upon guilt and sin, and purge it from his moral universe everlastingly. That can only be done by the sin being justly punished. Christ is said to have paid a ransom to the Father, by making an offering of his own righteousness, and by suffering and shedding his blood to purchase us from the just and righteous wrath, of the Father. So the ransom is paid to the Father. The currency of the ransom is the righteousness of Christ, and that buys out the wrath of God, which was due to fall upon us. He gave himself for us, that he might redeem or ransom us from all iniquity. That is what you might call the negative side of the work of Christ.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Titus 2:14 Commentary and Bible Study