Another Excerpt from Gospel:... Gospel change is the Spirit of God using the story of God to make the beauty of God come alive in our hearts. Having our eyes opened to see our part in that story creates in us a love for God that is strong enough to finally drive out our attraction to other idols. The gospel cures us of fear, dissatisfaction, and pride. Paul describes this Zacchaeus-style process of change to his young pastor-friend, Titus: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our 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 lawlessness and to purify for himself a people . . . who are zealous for good works. (Titus 2:11–14) That’s a pretty exhaustive list of righteous living, isn’t it? “Renouncing ungodliness and worldly passions”; “living self-controlled, upright and godly lives”; “waiting” eagerly for Jesus to return . . . But how does Paul say we develop these things? What is it that trains us to do them? Bible memorization? Accountability partners? Being baptized in the Spirit? Radical devotion? Not that they don’t have their place, but Paul points to none of those here: It is “ the grace of God,” Paul says, that trains us to “ renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives.” Think about, Paul says, how the grace of God came into the world for you, pursuing you to the cross. The God of the universe “ gave himself for us,” made us His own, and will appear again to take you home with all the glory and splendor and power that brought Him out of the grave. When we get swept up into that story of grace, we will be “zealous for good works.” We will even long for His appearing!
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 22:51:51 +0000
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