‘Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a people for his own possession, zealous of good works.’

But the One Who is coming is not just the mighty King and Judge, He is also the One Who gave Himself for us in order to buy us back to Himself (1Co 6:20; 1Pe 1:18-19) and pay our ransom (Mar 10:45) by the offering of Himself. The word translated ‘redeem’ means ‘to pay a ransom’. He is the Redeemer, the One Who pays our debts so that we might go free (Col 2:13-14). He is our Saviour, the One Who brings forgiveness and will make us completely whole (see Mat 1:21). He ‘gave Himself for our sins’ (Gal 1:4; Eph 5:25; 1Ti 2:6), and ‘suffered for us, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God’ (1Pe 3:18). For ‘to redeem us from all iniquity’ compare Psa 130:8.

‘Gave Himself for us’, that is, on our behalf. He did it for us (compare 1Ti 2:6; 2Co 5:21). It was as a sacrificial offering (see Rom 8:3 ; 1Co 5:7; Joh 1:29; Heb 9:12; Heb 9:14; Heb 10:12; Heb 10:14).

‘And purify to Himself.’ He not only redeems, He cleanses. See 1Co 6:11; 1Jn 1:7. Elsewhere we learn that this is partly accomplished through His word (Eph 5:25-26), and by turning from unrighteousness to righteousness (Isa 1:15-16). But it is primarily through coming to His light and through the shedding of His blood (1Jn 1:7).

‘A people for his own possession, zealous of good works.’ And His purpose in all this is in order to produce a ‘people for His own possession’. A similar phrase occurs in Exo 19:5 where it is used by God to indicate a treasure which He has set apart for Himself. These are to be His own people, His own treasure. They are the true people of God (2Co 6:16-18), springing as a refined remnant from the old (Zec 13:9; Mal 3:2-4), the new nation replacing the old (Mat 21:43), the new branches of the true vine from which old fruitless branches have been cut off (Joh 15:1-6), the revivified olive tree (Rom 11:14-16), the new household of God (Eph 2:11-22), the Israel of God (Gal 6:16). They are His jewels (Mal 3:16-18). But note carefully why He has made them His own possession, a people set apart for Him. It is so that they may be zealous of good works, eager to participate in and constantly maintain good works. It is so that they may be the light of the world, bringing glory to God by what they do (Mat 5:16).

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Tit 2:14. A peculiar people, The word , rendered peculiar, does not appear to have been used by any of the ancient prophane writers. The LXX seem first to have framed it, in order to express the Hebrew Segleh, a peculium, a peculiar treasure or property. The phrase signifies “a supernumerary people, a people wherein God had a superlative property and interest, above and besides his common interest in all the nations of the world,” says the learned Jos. Mede, p. 125. The pious Jews were formerly God’s peculiar people; his peculiar people under the gospel are genuine Christians: they are distinguished or separated from the world by their being devoted to Christ. All real Christians are the peculiar people of God under the gospel; but perhaps the apostle of the Gentiles, in writing to a Gentile evangelist, among Gentile churches, might have here a more particular reference to the Gentile Christians, who had not formerly been the peculiar people of God, and whom the Judaizers would still have excluded from that number, unless they would submit to their impositions. It should be observed particularly with what strength and emphasis the apostle speaks throughout these verses of the absolute necessity of a life of holiness and purity, and of good works: and when our Lord and his apostles have laid such a stress upon good works, none who profess Christianity can neglect the practice of them without the extreme peril of their souls; and none who profess to be teachers of that Christianity can speak of them with contempt or indifference, without bringing a grievous offence upon the faith of Christ: and woe be to them by whom such offence cometh! See 1Pe 2:9.

Inferences.Scarcely does the word of God afford a more instructive and comprehensive summary of the gospel, than that which is given in this chapter. It gives us a view of the nature of the dispensation, as a doctrine of grace; and, at the same time, a doctrine according to godliness. It hath appeared to all men, and it bringeth the faithful to salvation, by inculcating the most salutary lessons that man can receive. It teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, how pressing soever their solicitations may be. It instructs us in all the branches of our duty, to God, to ourselves, and to our fellow Christians. It guides us to uniform and complete goodness; not extolling any one part, to the neglect or injury of the rest, but tending to produce this beautiful birth, entire in all its members, and then to nourish it to its full maturity. As we are slow of heart to attend to such instructions, it enforces them with motives the most generous and the most animating. It represents to us, as it were in prophetic vision, that blessed hope, even the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; when he shall come with everlasting blessings in his hands, to reward all his faithful people; and with the terrors of divine vengeance, to be poured forth upon all that have rejected the authority of his gospel. And, that the most powerful considerations of gratitude may join with those of the highest interest, it directs our eyes to this divine triumphant Saviour, as having once given himself to torture and death for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify us to himself, a peculiar people, devoted to God, and zealous of good works. And surely, if this view cannot prevail upon us to consecrate ourselves to God, and to engage with vigour in his service, we must be utterly insensible, and worthy of the severest punishment.

Let these lessons, therefore, every where be taught with all authority. Let them be addressed at once to the meanest and the greatest of mankind; that they may join in a pious care, to adorn the doctrine of such a Saviour, and to secure their share in such a salvation.

REFLECTIONS.1st, The apostle proceeds to direct Titus in the faithful discharge of his office. But, in contradiction to these deceivers, speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, the wholesome truths of God’s life-giving word, dividing it aright to every man, according to their age, station, and circumstances.

1. That the aged men, as their years as well as profession especially demand, be sober, or vigilant, circumspect in their conduct; grave, in habit, manners, conversation, that they may engage the reverence of their younger brethren; temperate and prudent, having their passions and appetites in subjection; sound in faith, in doctrine and practice; in charity enlarged; in patience exemplary, bearing the provocations of others with meekness, and not fretful under their own infirmities. Such old disciples are noble ornaments to their Christian profession.

2. The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, in dress, conversation, and deportment; not false accusers, not slandering and defaming any, nor sowing discord among brethren; not given to much wine, drunkenness, or the love of liquor, being in women doubly odious and hateful; teachers of good things, by their example and discourse inculcating on their children every thing which may adorn the Christian name.

3. What the aged must teach. The younger women should learn of them to be sober, avoiding every appearance of wantonness, excess, or levity; to love their husbands, cleaving to them in warm affection; to love their children, training them up from infancy in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; to be discreet in the management of their families; chaste, shewing the most unfeigned modesty and purity of manners; keepers at home, not gadding about to the neglect of their domestic affairs, but ever best pleased to be in their own house; good, kind and gentle to their servants, and, like Dorcas, full of alms-deeds and good works; obedient to their own husbands, delighting to serve and please them; that the word of God be not blasphemed by a contrary behaviour, which would give the adversaries of Christianity occasion to speak reproachfully. Note; Nothing makes Christianity appear so amiable as the conscientious discharge of the relative duties which it enjoins.

4. Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded, serious, solid, tractable, having a due sense of their own inexperience, and willing to be ruled and advised by their elder and wiser friends.

2nd, We have a particular direction for Titus himself, who should be the example of what he taught to his brethren. In all things shewing thyself a pattern of good works; practising what he preached: in doctrine shewing uncorruptness, declaring the pure unadulterated truth, and maintaining a single eye to God’s glory and the benefit of immortal souls; gravity, with all seriousness delivering his message, and with all sincerity; using sound speech that cannot be condemned, inculcating scripture truths in scripture language, and with such plainness and simplicity as that he that is of the contrary part, and would be glad to carp at and censure any ambiguous expression, may be ashamed of his malicious design, having no evil thing to say of you, finding no just charge of error in doctrine, or immorality in practice, to allege against you. Note; (1.) They who preach to others, must by their practice prove that they themselves believe; else how can it be thought that others should credit them. (2.) Many watch for the halting of Christ’s ministers; and the knowledge of this should make them more watchful over all that they speak or do, that confusion may cover their malignant enemies.

3rdly, The duty of servants is prescribed. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, with inward respect, as well as all outward dutiful submission; and to please them well in all things lawful to be done; not answering again, disputing their orders, murmuring at their commands, or daring to make an impertinent or saucy reply; not purloining the least thing from them, but, to a crumb of bread, strictly honest; nor conniving at the least waste or robbery committed by others; shewing all good fidelity, true to every trust reposed in them, speaking with the greatest veracity, and punctual in the observance of their masters’ orders; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things, and even in the eyes of their unbelieving masters, if under such, recommend the religion which they profess. Note; Such a servant as is here described, is a great acquisition. Would to God that those who make profession of godliness, might oftener read this apostolic directory.

4thly, The strongest motives are suggested to enforce the practice before recommended.
1. This is one great end of our redemption. For the grace of God, displayed in the gospel word, that bringeth salvation, declaring the free mercy of God in Christ to miserable sinners, hath appeared in the most illustrious manner, to all men, of all ranks, degrees, and nations; teaching us, that denying ungodliness of every kind, and worldly lusts, whether of the flesh or of the eye, or the pride of life, we should live soberly, in the government and subdual of every inordinate appetite and passion; righteously, with unimpeached integrity and uprightness in our dealings towards men; and godly, in all acts of public and private devotion, in the use of every holy ordinance, and with a constant regard to the divine glory in this present world, full as it is of evil and temptation. Note; (1.) The gospel is a revelation of mercy to all ranks and degrees; and God appears eminently glorious therein, in justifying the chief of sinners who believe in Jesus. (2.) Whenever we are truly partakers of grace, the blessed influence thereof will appear on our hearts and lives, effectually engaging us to renounce every known sin, and powerfully quickening us for the discharge of every duty towards God, our neighbour, and ourselves. The doctrines of grace are the only principles which can produce righteousness and true holiness.

2. We expect the appearing of the great Judge, and therefore are peculiarly called upon to prepare to meet him: Looking for that blessed hope, the great object of it, the Lord from heaven; and the glorious appearing of the great God and, or even, our Saviour Jesus Christ, who shall shortly sit upon the throne of his glory, when all nations shall be gathered before him, to receive from his lips their irreversible sentence, and in whose favour we have a gracious interest; who gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, both from the guilt and power and nature of it; and might purify unto himself a peculiar people, yielding to be saved by grace, and thereby taken from the corrupted mass of mankind to be to the praise of his glory; and zealous of good works, influenced by the divine principle of faith which worketh by love, aiming at the advancement of their Redeemer’s honour, and giving themselves up to be guided by his word and will. Note; (1.) Every believer has a blessed hope before him, under the influence of which he lives comfortably, and supported by which, if faithful, he dies happily. (2.) They who would meet the great God their Saviour in peace, must be found among his redeemed from iniquity, and experience a present deliverance from the power and nature of sin. (3.) Christ’s people are indeed peculiar in their manners, temper, and conduct, distinguished from the world in which they dwell, by the purity of their lives, and their zeal for good works.

3. The apostle enjoins Titus to urge these things upon the consciences of his hearers. These things speak with all freedom, and exhort them diligently to observe; and rebuke with all authority those who dare oppose the truth, and would maintain their erroneous principles and practices. Let no man despise thee: behave in such a manner as may command respect; and if any notwithstanding presume to treat thee or thy ministry with contempt, it shall be at their peril.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Tit 2:14 . The thought in this verse is very closely related to Tit 2:12 : , . . ., as it shows how far the appearance of the grace of God exhorts us to deny . . . In construction, however, it is connected with . . .

] comp. Gal 1:4 , equivalent to , Eph 5:25 . The conception of the voluntary submission to death is not contained in (Heydenreich) so much as in the whole expression.

] is not equivalent to , but: “ for us, on our behalf ;” the notion of , however, is not excluded (Mat 20:28 ). The purpose of this submission is given in the next words: ] : “set free by means of a ransom.” In Luk 24:21 (comp. too, 1Ma 4:11 , and other passages in the Apocrypha) the reference to ransom falls quite into the background; but in 1Pe 1:18-19 , where, as here, the redemption through Christ is spoken of, the of Christ is called the ransom. The same reference is indicated here by the previous , comp. 1Ti 2:6 . The middle form includes the reference which in the next clause is expressed by .

] “from all unlawfulness.” is regarded as the power from which Christ has redeemed us; it is opposed to : “the unrighteousness in which the law of God is unheeded.” It is wrong to understand by “not only the sin, but also the punishment incurred by sin” (Heydenreich), or only the latter; comp. Rom 6:19 , 2Co 6:14 , and especially 1Jn 3:4 : .

] positive expression of the thought which was expressed negatively in the previous clause. De Wette and Wiesinger without reason supply as the object of ; the object is .

( . . in N. T.). Chrysostom wrongly interprets it by , ; Theodoret more correctly by ; so, too, Beza: peculiaris, and Luther: “a people for a possession.” The phrase belongs to the O. T., and is a translation of the Hebrew , Exo 19:5 ; Deu 7:6 ; Deu 14:2 ; Deu 26:18 , LXX.; in the church of the N. T. the promise made to the people of Israel is fulfilled; comp. 1Pe 2:9 : .

corresponds with . The sentence is pregnantly expressed, and its meaning is: “that He by the purifying power of His death might acquire for Himself ( ) a people for a possession.”

The moral character of the . is declared by the words in apposition, : accensum studio bonorum operum.

De Wette is inaccurate in saying that the apostle is speaking here not of reconciliation, but only of moral purification. Wiesinger rightly asks: “What else are we to understand by than the reconciling death?” But de Wette is so far right, that reconciliation is not made the chief point here, but rather, as often in the N. T., e.g. 1Pe 1:17-18 , the design is mentioned for which Christ suffered the death of reconciliation; comp. Luther’s exposition of the second article of faith.

Tit 2:15 . (viz. these moral precepts, see Tit 2:1 , with the reasons given for them, Tit 2:11-14 ) ] The distinction between these words is correctly given by Heydenreich. denotes simple teaching, . pressing exhortation, . solemn admonition to those who neglect these duties. “The theoretic, the paraenetic-practical, and the polemic aspects of the preaching of the gospel are combined” (Matthies).

] According to 1Co 7:6 , is the opposite of ; this clause therefore enjoins that Titus is not to leave it to the free choice of the church whether his exhortations shall be obeyed or not, but to deliver them as commands. De Wette translates: “with all recommendation,” which is right in sense; still is not properly recommendation but command, and it is therefore better to say, “ with entire full command. ”

With this the final words are closely connected: ] ( . .); properly: “consider something on all sides;” then: “think beyond, despise,” equivalent to ; comp. 1Ti 4:12 . Luther is right in sense: “let no man despise thee,” viz. by not receiving thy teachings, exhortations, and admonitions as commands, and by thinking lightly of them. There is nothing to suggest that Titus is to conduct himself so that no one may be right in despising him.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Ver. 14. That he might redeem us ] God will have the price of Christ’s blood out; he will thoroughly purge us.

A peculiar people ] Gr. A people that comprehend all that God sets any store by, that contain all his gettings; called elsewhere the people of acquisition, , 1Pe 2:9 . The word here used Jerome saith he sought for among human authors, and could not find it. Therefore some think the Septuagint feigned this, and , used also in the Lord’s prayer. Theophylact saith it signifieth such a people as are conversant about their master’s business, procuring of wealth and riches for him.

Zealous of good works ] Give God thine affections, else thine actions are stillborn, and have no life in them. Now zeal is the extreme heat of all the affections, when they are seething or hissing hot, as the apostle’s word is, Rom 12:12 , when we love God and his people out of a pure heart fervently, . Non amat qui non zelat, saith Austin, he loveth not at all in God’s account, whose love is not ardent, desires eager, delights ravishing, hopes longing, hatred deadly, anger fierce, grief deep, fear terrible, voice, eyes, hands, gestures, actions, all lively, as in holy Bucholcer, Luther, Laurentius, Athanasius, Ignatius, Paul, Baruch: Neh 3:20 , he earnestly fortified, seipsum accendit; he burst out into a holy heat, he wrought with a kind of anger against himself and others, because the work went on no faster. He was not of his temper that said, Deum colo, uti par est, I go as far for God as in discretion it is fit. Religiosum oportet esse, sed non religantem; such and such are more precise than wise. The reserved professor never shows himself but at halt-light; he follows Christ but afar off, as Peter, or as the people followed Saul (they tremble after him, 1Sa 13:7 ); he is afraid of every new step, saying as Caesar at Rubicon, Yet we may go back. Carnal discretion controls his fervency, cools his courage, keeps him that he cannot be zealous of good works, which he doth at the best in a loose, lazy, perfunctory strain, like the pace the Spaniard rides, like Adonikam, that was the last that set foot forward toward the return of the captives, and therefore had his lot below his brethren, Ezr 8:13 . Where is now our ancient zeal, heating and whetting (saith a reverend zealot)? Oh, how cold and careless, how dissolute, and dilute are we! May it not be said of most of our hearts and houses, as Isa 47:14 , there is not a coal to warm at? May not the old complaint be well renewed, “There is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee?” Isa 64:7 . Let God’s love in the work of our redemption be duly pondered (as here), and it will fire us up to a holy contention in godliness.

These things speak and exhort ] Lest men should think we should only preach of Christ and grace, preach thou obedience and zeal, saith the apostle.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Tit 2:14 . . . .: see note on 1Ti 2:6 . As already observed, this is an appeal from the constraining love of Christ to the responding love of man.

: deliver . The language is borrowed from Psa 129 (130):8 . The material supplied by this passage for a discussion of the Atonement is contained in , not in . See Dean Armitage Robinson’s note on Eph 1:14 .

: Lawlessness is the essence of sin (1Jn 3:4 ), self-assertion as opposed to self-sacrifice which is love. Love, which is self-sacrifice, is a dissolvent of self-assertion or sin. And to what degree soever we allow the love of Christ to operate as a controlling principle in our lives, to that degree we are delivered from , as an opposing controlling principle.

: This is a pregnant expression for “purify and so make them fit to be his people”. St. Paul has in mind Eze 37:23 , “I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God”, , , . . . There is in an allusion to Holy Baptism, which is explicit in Tit 3:5 . Cf. Eph 5:26 , .

: populum acceptabilem (Vulg.). A people for his own possession (R.V.) is the modern equivalent of a peculiar people (A.V.). is the LXX for . means “a valued property, a peculiar treasure” ( peculium ), and occurs first in Exo 19:5 , “Ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me.” Here the LXX inserts , possibly from the references in Deut., in which the combination is found. alone occurs in Mal 3:17 ( ) and in Psa 135:4 ( ). The LXX of Mal 3:17 is echoed in Eph 1:14 , , (where see Dean Armitage Robinson’s note) and 1Pe 2:9 , , in which is a reminiscence of the LXX of the passages in Exod. and Deut. Perhaps refers to the treasure as laid up, while refers to it as acquired.

: See Eph 2:10 ; 1Pe 1:15 ; Heb 10:24 .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Deuteronomy

GOD’S TRUE TREASURE IN MAN

Deu 32:9 – Tit 2:14 .

I choose these two texts because they together present us with the other side of the thought to that which I have elsewhere considered, that man’s true treasure is in God. That great axiom of the religious consciousness, which pervades the whole of Scripture, is rapturously expressed in many a psalm, and never more assuredly than in that one which struggles up from the miry clay in which the Psalmist’s ‘steps had well-nigh slipped’ and soars and sings thus: ‘The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; Thou maintainest my lot,’ ‘The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.’

You observe the correspondence between these words and those of my first text: ‘The Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.’ The correspondence in the original is not quite so marked as it is in our Authorised Version, but still the idea in the two passages is the same. Now it is plain that persons can possess persons only by love, sympathy, and communion. From that it follows that the possession must be mutual; or, in other words, that only he can say ‘Thou art mine’ who can say ‘I am Thine.’ And so to possess God, and to be possessed by God, are but two ways of putting the same fact. ‘The Lord is the portion of His people, and the Lord’s portion is His people,’ are only two ways of stating the same truth.

Then my second text clearly quotes the well-known utterance that lies at the foundation of the national life of Israel: ‘Ye shall be unto Me a peculiar treasure above all people,’ and claims that privilege, like all Israel’s privileges, for the Christian Church. In like manner Peter 1Pe 2:9 quotes the same words, ‘a peculiar people,’ as properly applying to Christians. I need scarcely remind you that ‘peculiar’ here is used in its proper original sense of belonging to, or, as the Revised Version gives it, ‘a people for God’s own possession’ and has no trace of the modern signification of ‘singular.’ Similarly we find Paul in his Epistle to the Ephesians giving both sides of the idea of the inheritance in intentional juxtaposition, when he speaks Eph 1:14 of the ‘earnest of our inheritance . . . unto the redemption of God’s own possession.’ In the words before us we have the same idea; and this text besides tells us how Christ, the Revealer of God, wins men for Himself, and what manner of men they must be whom He counts as His.

Therefore there are, as I take it, three things to be spoken about now. First, God has a special ownership in some people. Second, God owns these people because He has given Himself to them. Third, God possesses, and is possessed by, His inheritance, that He may give and receive services of love. Or, in briefer words, I have to speak about this wonderful thought of a special divine ownership, what it rests upon, and what it involves.

I. God has special ownership in some people.

‘The Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.’ Put side by side with those other words of the Old Testament: ‘All souls are Mine,’ or the utterance of the 100th Psalm rightly translated: ‘It is He that hath made us, and to Him we belong.’ There is a right of absolute and utter ownership and possession inherent in the very relation of Creator and creature; so that the being made is wholly and altogether at the disposal, and is the property, of Him that makes him.

But is that enough for God’s heart? Is that worth calling ownership at all? An arbitrary tyrant in an unconstitutional kingdom, or a slave-owner, may have the most absolute right of property over his subject or his slave; may have the right of entire disposal of all his industry, of the profit of all his labour; may be able to do anything he likes with him, may have the power of life and death; but such ownership is only of the husk and case of a man: the man himself may be free, and may smile at the claim of possession. ‘They may ‘ own’ the body, and after that have no more than they can do.’ That kind of authority and ownership, absolute and utter, to the point of death, may satisfy a tyrant or a slave-driver, it does not satisfy the loving heart of God. It is not real possession at all. In what sense did Nero own Paul when he shut him up in prison, and cut his head off? Does the slave-owner own the man whom he whips within an inch of his life, and who dare not do anything without his permission? Does God, in any sense that corresponds with the longing of infinite love, own the men that reluctantly obey Him, and are simply, as it were, tools in His hands? He covets and longs for a deeper relationship and tenderer ties, and though all creatures are His, and all men are His servants and His possession, yet, like certain regiments in our own British army, there are some who have the right to bear in a special manner on their uniform and on their banners the emblazonment, ‘The King’s Own.’ ‘The Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance.’

Well, then, the next thought is that the special relationship of possession is constituted by mutual love. I said at the beginning of these remarks that as concerns men’s relations, the only real possession is through love, sympathy, and communion, and that that must necessarily be mutual. We have a perfect right to apply the human analogy here; in fact, we are bound to do it if we would rightly understand such words as those of my text; and it just leads us to this, that the one thing whereby God reckons that He possesses a man at all is when His love falls upon that man’s heart and soaks into it, and when there springs up in the heart a corresponding emotion and affection. The men who welcome the divine love that goes through the whole world, seeking such to worship it, and to trust it, and to become its own; and who therefore lovingly yield to the loving divine will, and take it for their law-these are the men whom He regards as His ‘portion’ and ‘the lot of His inheritance.’ So that God is mine, and that ‘I am God’s,’ are two ends of one truth; ‘I possess Him,’ and ‘I am possessed by Him,’ are but the statement of one fact expressed from two points of view. In the one case you look upon it from above, in the other case you look upon it from beneath. All the sweet commerce of mutual surrender and possession which makes the joy of our hearts, in friendship and in domestic life, we have the right to lift up into this loftier region, and find in it the last teaching of what makes the special bond of mutual possession between God and man.

And deep words of Scripture point in that direction. Those parables of our Lord’s: the lost sheep, the lost coin, the lost son, in their infinite beauty, whilst they contain a great deal besides this, do contain this in their several ways; the money, the animal, the man belong to the woman of the house, to the shepherd, to the father. Each is ‘lost’ in a different fashion, but the most clear revelation is given in the last parable of the three, which explains the other two. The son was ‘lost’ when he did not love the father; and he was ‘found’ by the father when he returned the yearning of the father’s heart.

And so, dear brethren, it ever is; the one thing that knits men to God is that the silken cord of love let down from Heaven should by our own hand be wrapped round our own hearts, and then we are united to Him. We are His and He is ours by the double action of His love manifested by Him, and His love received by us.

Now there is nothing in all that of favouritism. The declaration that there are people who have a special relationship to the divine heart may be so stated as to have a very ugly look, and it often has been so stated as to be nothing more than self-complacent Pharisaism, which values a privilege principally because its possession is an insult to somebody else that has it not.

There has been plenty of Christianity of that sort in the world, but there is nothing of it in the thoughts of these texts rightly looked at. There is only this: it cannot but be that men who yield to God and love Him, and try to live near Him and to do righteousness, are His in a manner that those who steel themselves against Him and turn away from Him are not. Whilst all creatures have a place in His heart, and are flooded with His benefits, and get as much of Him as they can hold, the men who recognise the source of their blessing, and turn to it with grateful hearts, are nearer Him than those that do not do so. Let us take care, lest for the sake of seeming to preserve the impartiality of His love, we have destroyed all in Him that makes His love worth having. If to Him the good and the bad, the men who fear Him and the men who fear Him not, are equally satisfactory, and, in the same manner, the objects of an equal love, then He is not a God that has pleasure in righteousness; and if He is not a God that ‘has pleasure in righteousness,’ He is not a God for us to trust to. We are not giving countenance to the notion that God has any step-children, any petted members of His family, when we cleave to this-they that have welcomed His love into their hearts are nearer to Him than those that have closed the door against it.

And there is one more point here about this matter of ownership on which I dwell for a moment, namely, that this conception of certain men being in a special sense God’s possession and inheritance means also that He has a special delight in, and lofty appreciation of, them. All this material creation exists for the sake of growing good men and women. That is the use of the things that are seen and temporal; they are like greenhouses built for the great Gardener’s use in striking and furthering the growth of His plants; and when He has got the plants He has got what He wanted, and you may pull the greenhouse down if you like. And so God estimates, and teaches us to estimate, the relative value and greatness of the material and the spiritual in this fashion, that He says to us in effect: ‘All these magnificences and magnitudes round you are small and vulgar as compared with this-a heart in which wisdom and divine truth and the love and likeness of God have attained to some tolerable measure of maturity and of strength.’ These are His ‘jewels,’ as the Roman matron said about her two boys. The great Father looks upon the men that love Him as His jewels, and, having got the jewels, the rock in which they were embedded and preserved may be crushed when you like. ‘They shall be Mine,’ saith the Lord, ‘My treasures in that day of judgment which I make.’

And so, my brother, all the insignificance of man, as compared with the magnitude and duration of the universe, need not stagger our faith that the divinest thing in the universe is a heart that has learnt to love God and aspires after Him, and should but increase our wonder and our gratitude that He has been mindful of man and has visited him, in order that He might give Himself to men, and so might win men for Himself.

II. That brings me, and very briefly, to the other points that I desire to deal with now. The second one, which is suggested to us from my second text in the Epistle to Titus, is that this possession, by God, of man, like man’s possession of God, comes because God has given Himself to man.

The Apostle puts it very strongly in the Epistle to Titus: ‘The glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us that He might purify unto Himself a people for a possession .’ Israel, according to one metaphor, was God’s ‘son,’ begotten by that great redeeming act of deliverance from the captivity of Egypt Deu 32:6 – Deu 32:19. According to another metaphor, Israel was God’s bride, wooed and won for His own by that same act. Both of these figures point to the thought that in order to get man for His own He has to give Himself to man.

And the very height and sublimity of that truth is found in the Christian fact which the Apostle points to here. We need not depart from human analogies here either. Christ gave Himself to us that He might acquire us for Himself. Absolute possession of others is only possible at the price of absolute surrender to them. No human heart ever gave itself away unless it was convinced that the heart to which it gave itself had given itself to it.

And on the lower levels of gratitude and obligation, the only thing that binds a man to another in utter submission is the conviction that that other has given himself in absolute sacrifice for him. A doctor goes into the wards of an hospital with his life in his hands, and because he does, he wins the full confidence and affection of those whom he treats. You cannot buy a heart with anything less than a heart. In the barter of the world it is not ‘skin for skin,’ but it is ‘self for self’; and if you want to own me, you must give yourself altogether to me. And the measure in which teachers and guides and preachers and philanthropists of all sorts make conquests of men is the measure in which they make themselves sacrifices for men.

Now all that is true, and is lifted to its superlative truth, in the great central fact of the Christian faith. But there is more than human analogy here. Christ is not only self-sacrifice in the sense of surrender, but He is sacrifice in the sense of giving Himself for our redemption and forgiveness. He has not only given Himself to us, He has given Himself for us. And there, and on that, is builded, and on that alone has He a right to build, or have we a right to yield to it, His claim to absolute authority and utter command over each of us.

He has died for us, therefore the springs of our life are at His disposal; and the strongest motives which can sway our lives are set in motion by His touch. His death, says this text, redeems us from iniquity and purifies us. That points to its power in delivering us from the service and practice of sin. He buys us from the despot whose slaves we were, and makes us His own in the hatred of evil and the doing of righteousness. Moved by His death, we become capable of heroisms and martyrdoms of devotion to Him. Brethren, it is only as that self-sacrificing love touches us, which died for our sins upon the Cross, that the diabolical chain of selfishness will be broken from our affections and our wills, and we shall be led into the large place of glad surrender of ourselves to the sweetness and the gentle authority of His omnipotent love.

III. The last thought that I suggest is the issues to which this mutual possession points. God owns men, and is owned by them, in order that there may be a giving and receiving of mutual services of love.

‘The Lord’s portion is His people.’ That in the Old Testament is always laid as the foundation of certain obligations under which He has come, and which He will abundantly discharge. What is a great landlord expected to do to his estate? ‘What ought I to have done to my vineyard?’ the divine Proprietor asks through the mouth of His servant the prophet. He ought to till it, He ought not to starve it, He ought to fence it, He ought to cast a wall about it, He ought to reap the fruits. And He does all that for His inheritance. God’s honour is concerned in His portion not being waste. It is not to be a ‘garden of the sluggard,’ by which people who pass can see the thorns growing there. So He will till it, He will plough it, He will pick out the weeds, and all the disciplines of life will come to us, and the ploughshare will be driven deep into the heart, that ‘the peaceable fruit of righteousness’ may spring up. He will fence His vineyard. Round about His inheritance His hand will be cast, within His people His Spirit will dwell. No harm shall come near thee if thy love is given to Him; safe and untouched by evil thou shalt walk if thou walk with God. ‘He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of Mine eye.’ The soul that trusts Him He takes in charge, and before any evil can fall to it ‘the pillared firmament must be rottenness, and earth be built on stubble.’ ‘He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.’ ‘The Lord’s portion is His people,’ and ‘none shall pluck them out of His hand.’

And on the other side, we belong to God in Christ. What do we owe Him? What does the vineyard owe the husbandman? Fruit. We are His, therefore we are bound to absolute submission. ‘Ye are not your own.’ Life, circumstances, occupations, all-we hold them at His will. We have no more right of property in anything than a slave in the bad old days had in his cabin and patch of ground. They belonged to the master to whom he belonged. Let us recognise our stewardship, and be glad to know ourselves His, and all events and things which we sometimes think ours, His also.

We are His, therefore we owe absolute trust. The slave has at least this blessing in his lot, that he need have no anxieties; nor need we. We belong to God, and He will take care of us. A rich man’s horses and dogs are well cared for, and our Owner will not leave us unheeded. Our well-being involves His good name. Leave anxious thought to masterless hearts which have to front the world with nobody at their backs. If you are God’s you will be looked after.

We are His, therefore we are bound to live to His praise. That is the conclusion which one Old Testament passage draws. ‘This people have I formed for Myself; they shall show forth My praise’ Isa 43:21. The Apostle Peter quotes these words immediately after those from Exodus, which describe Israel as ‘a people for God’s own possession,’ when he says ‘that ye should show forth the praise of Him who hath called you.’ Let us, then, live to His glory, and remember that the servants of the King are bound to stand to their colours amid rebels, and that they who know the sweetness of possessing God, and the blessedness of yielding to His supreme control, should acknowledge what they have found of His goodness, and ‘tell forth the honour of His name, and make His praise glorious.’ Let not all the magnificent and wonderful expenditure of divine longing and love be in vain, nor run off your hearts like water poured upon a rock. Surely the sun’s flames leaping leagues high, they tell us, in tongues of burning gas, must melt everything that is near them. Shall we keep our hearts sullen and cold before such a fire of love? Surely that superb and wonderful manifestation of the love of God in the Cross of Christ should melt into running rivers of gratitude all the ice of our hearts.

‘He gave Himself for me!’ Let us turn to Him and say: ‘Lo! I give myself to Thee. Thou art mine. Make me Thine by the constraint of Thy love, so utterly, and so saturate my spirit with Thyself, that it shall not only be Thine, but in a very deep sense it shall be Thee, and that it may be “no more I that live, but Christ that liveth in me.”‘

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

Titus

CHRIST’S GIFT OF HIMSELF

Tit 2:14 .

We have seen in former sermons on the preceding context that the Apostle has been setting forth the appearing of the grace of God as having for its great purpose the production of a holy and godly character and conduct. In these words which close the section he returns substantially to the same theme, only, as a great composer, will do with some favourite musical movement, he repeats it in a somewhat different key and with variations. The variations are mainly two. Instead of the more general and less definite expression, ‘the grace of God hath appeared,’ he now specifies the precise act in which that grace did appear. ‘He gave Himself for us.’ Christ’s self- sacrifice is the ‘appearing of the grace of God.’ The diffused flame is gathered into a focus, and thus concentrated .it has appeared to melt hearts. Then there is a second variation in the treatment of the theme here, and that is that the actor is different. In the former case it was ‘we’ who, trained by ‘the appearing of the grace,’ were to deny ourselves and ‘live soberly, righteously, and godly.’ Here it is ‘He’ who redeems and purifies us by His gift of Himself. He and we, the human and the divine, cooperate. If we ‘deny ourselves,’ and ‘live soberly, righteously, and godly,’ it is because He ‘has redeemed us.’ If He has purified us, it is in the measure in which we deny ourselves and yield ourselves to His influences. And so the two views stereoscope and become a solid reality. Now then, there are three points to which I would turn especially in the words before us – Christ’s great self-bestowment, Christ’s great emancipation, Christ’s great acquisition. ‘He gave Himself,’ the great self- bestowment; ‘that He might redeem us,’ the great emancipation; ‘and purify unto Himself a people for a possession,’ the great acquisition. I. First, then, the great self-bestowment. ‘He gave Himself,’ the supreme token of love every. where, the natural expression of love everywhere We know inferior instances of the same sort, and they make the very salt of life. The most self-engrossed recognizes their nobility, and the most cold-blooded thrills at the sight. We know what it is for benefactors, and well-wishers, and enthusiasts of all sorts to yield up themselves joyfully for some great cause not their own, or for some persons who appeal to their hearts. The one noble thing in the devilish trade of war is that there sometimes we can see men flinging their lives away gladly in the thrill of devotion to the cause for which they fight. In the narrower regions of our hearts and homes, happy husbands and wives, mothers to their children, know what it is joyfully to give themselves away. All these illustrations do help us, but they help us only a very little bit along the road to understand that supreme and transcendent gift of a self of which Paul is speaking here as the basis of all nobleness in the characters of men. After we have travelled as far as any human illustration or analogy will help us, we are still infinitely far from that great fact. They lead us along the road, but it is not only a question of travelling along a road, it is a question of springing from the furthest point attained up into the very heaven itself, for this gift is unique, and to be paralleled by naught beside.

It began earlier, the initial step was when ‘the Word became flesh.’ There was one Man who willed to be Man, and whose not being ‘ashamed to call us brethren,’ and taking upon Himself part of the children’s flesh and blood, was the supreme instance of condescending self-abandonment and bestowment. It began earlier; it went deeper; for not only is His self- surrender unstained by the smallest self-regard, as is manifest by the records of His life, but it goes down deep and deep and deep into such an utter gift of Himself as no mere human beneficence can ever emulate or even approximate to. And it brought with it heavier burdens and deeper sorrows, which culminated in that great act which, by its very greatness, has sometimes led men to separate it from the life of which it was the climax and superlative degree, and to declare that only in His death does the Lord give Himself for the life of the world, whereas the life among men, with all its pains of contact, with all its pains Of sympathy, with all its self-oblivion, was as really a part of Christ’s giving Himself to the world as was even that death upon the Cross, by which the gift was perfected and sealed. So then, brethren, whilst we thankfully accept the analogies which lead us a little way, let us never forget that in this matter degree is not the only difference, and quality as well as quantity are unlike. But mark the other word. ‘He gave Himself for us.’ Now the Apostle here uses a word which does not imply ‘instead of,’ but ‘for our behalf.’ He is not for the moment dwelling upon the way in which that gift benefits – that comes in the next clause – but simply upon the fact that it does benefit. And Christ gave Himself – in a way to be subsequently declared- for the advantage of whoever may be included in the ‘us.’ And who are the ‘us’? Paul was talking to Titus, and was including with him these Cretan Christians, none of whom had ever been seen by or seen Jesus. So that ‘us’ is universal, and includes all humanity. But it does more than that. Jesus Christ’s giving of Himself to us was no indefinite gift of a general beneficence, which had no knowledge of, or feeling towards, the individual units that make up the company, but as I venture to believe, and as I would press upon you to consider whether our Christian conception of Jesus Christ as the Incarnate Word does not necessarily carry with it, the human heart of Christ loved each unit of the mass, that the divine eye separated and distinguished. We cannot ‘see the wood for the trees.’ We generalize our beneficence, and we lose sight of the individuals that are to be benefited by it. Who of us can specify the single souls or bodies that may be helped by our contributions to a fund for dealing with some general disaster? But Jesus Christ takes men one by one, and ‘He gave Himself for us’ because ‘He gave Himself for me,’ and thee, and thee, and all the single souls that make up mankind. Each was in His loving desire a recipient of the gift. Brethren, I venture to assert, though it is impossible for me to go on here at any length to establish the assertion, that this conception of a Christ who not merely spoke, and was gentle and gracious, and the type of excellence, and the realised ideal of human perfection, but who came to do and to give Himself for the behalf of every soul of man, is the heart of Christianity. This is the view which, like a key, will unlock the rusty gates of our wills and spirits. This is the conception which alone adequately represents the teaching of scripture, the requirements of the deepest reason, and what is even more authoritative, the instinctive needs of hungry, sin-laden hearts. Here is the lever that moves the world: ‘He gave Himself for us.’ II. Now, secondly, notice Christ’s great emancipation. The Apostle states the object of the gift in a twofold fashion, ‘That He might redeem us all from iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.’ Let me deal now with the former of these two expressions. The object of Christ’s gift is man’s redemption. And what is redemption? Well, it is no doubt a metaphorical expression, and there lies beneath it the image of a slave set free by a ransom. That is in the word, and no fair interpretation of the word can strike that out of the depth of its meaning. So then we begin as the fundamental fact, without which we shall never come either to understand the meaning of Christ’s whole appearance, or get the highest good out of it for our own souls, with this conception of our condition – that we are in bondage to what the Apostle here calls ‘iniquity,’ or lawlessness. Now do not say that this is Pauline, and that the Christ of the gospels does not say so. He does. Do you remember what He said when the people, with that strange but yet universal forgetfulness or ignoring of the facts of their condition, said to Him, whilst the Roman garrison in the castle might have heard the boast: ‘We were never in bondage to any man’? He answered: ‘He that doeth sin is the slave of sin.’ You may like it or not like it; you may believe that it is the deepest view of human nature; or you may brush it aside as being narrow and pessimistic and old-fashioned, and all the rest of it, but it is Christ’s view. Do not say it is Paul’s. It is Paul’s; but he got it from Jesus, and you have Him to reckon with, and Him to contradict, if you do not. And, alas! a great many of us do not recognise that, after all is said and done, the fact of sin, considered as setting up myself as my own centre and law, in antagonism to, or in neglect of, God, who ought to be my centre, is the universal experience of humanity. The fetters are on our limbs. I remember a story of an English author in the early part of last century, who was put into prison for some imaginary offence, and who pleased himself in a puerile fashion by twisting flowers round the grating of his window, and making believe that he was a free man. Yes, that is what a great many of us do. We try to hide the fetters by putting silk handkerchiefs over them. We, too, like these presumptuous Jews, say: ‘We were never in bondage to any man.’ No, not in bondage to any man, but in bondage worse than that. What about those tendencies in yourself – these lusts and passions, these temptations to ignoring God and living for self, and to other sins that, like springing tigers, have fixed their talons in us and keep us down, in spite of our kicking and struggling? The root cause of almost all the inadequate conceptions of Christ and His work which depart from the plain teaching of Christ and Scripture, lies here, that men do not recognise the fact of their bondage to sin. Wherever that recognition is weak, you will have a maimed Christ and an impotent Christ. It is of small profit to argue about theological doctrines unless you can get a man to feel that he is a sinful man in God’s sight. And when he has learnt what sin means, what guilt means, what the tyranny of a committed transgression means, what the awful voice of a roused conscience means, he will be ready to fling aside all his superficial, easygoing thoughts about Jesus of Nazareth, and to clutch as his one hope the great word: ‘Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.’ ‘He gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us.’ And so we come to the conception that that giving Himself for us is more than a giving of Himself on behalf of us, in some vague way, and that the way in which Jesus Christ gives Himself for us is that He gives ‘Himself instead of us. And there, as I humbly venture to believe, is the point of view at which we must stand, if we would give due weight either to His words or to His Cross. There is the point of view at which, as I humbly venture to believe, we must stand if we would receive into our hearts the greatest blessing that that Lord can give – emancipation from sin’s guilt by that great Sacrifice of His, emancipation from sin’s power by the presence within us of His own life and spirit. Christ came into the world ‘to give His life a ransom for many.’ Again I say, therefore, do not pooh-pooh such teaching as this of my text, or may I venture to say – I do it with all humility – such teaching as I am trying to give now, with the easy and superficial remarks that it is Pauline. It is Christ’s – ‘The Son of Man came to give His life a ransom for many.’ Oh, dear friends, there is the power. Christianity minus that Sacrifice is not a Christianity that the world or the flesh or the devil have ever been, or ever need to have been, much afraid of. We may gather metaphors in crowds to illustrate that Sacrifice, but they all fail, for it is unique and transcendent. Men have given themselves up to fetters that others might be made free. Men have given themselves up to the death that others might live. There was a Swiss soldier in one fight who gathered the spears of the enemy into a sheaf, and pointed them to his own breast, that a path might be cleared for the advance of his comrades. The angel that came into Peter’s cell touched him and the fetters fell from his limbs. Christ has come into the dark prison of our humanity, and a drop of His blood on the fetters that bind me to my sin, and my sin to me, corrodes them into dust, and my limbs are free. He fronts all our tyrants as He fronted the Roman soldiers, and says, ‘I am He; if ye seek Me, let these go their way.’ He ‘gave Himself for us that He might redeem us.’ III. And now your time will not allow me to speak, except very inadequately, about the last point that is here, and that is Christ’s great acquisition. ‘That He might purify unto Himself a people for a possession’ – as is the proper rendering – ‘zealous of good works.’ The Apostle is quoting, as I suppose we all know, from the ancient words which make the charter of the Israelitish nation, in which God declared that they were to Him a ‘people of a possession above all the nations that are on the earth,’ and he transfers these great words to Christ, and our relation to Him. He, too, has won a people for His very own. Christ wins us for His because He has given Himself to be ours. Mark how beautifully the reciprocalness of the relation is suggested by the former clause of our text, ‘He gave Himself for us,’ that He might win us for Himself ‘for a possession.’ Yes, in the commerce of love, nothing but a heart can buy a heart, nothing but a heart can pay for a heart. Jesus gives Himself to me, that I may give myself to Him. That is the only gift that satisfies Him. The only result which He recognizes as being the fruit of the travail of His soul, which is sufficient for Him, is that we poor men, delivered from our selfishness, emancipated from our sins, with our wills set free, should go to Him and say, ‘Lord, Thou art mine, and I, poor as I am, little as the gift is, I am Thine.’ We shall only be His in the measure in which we are ‘purified.’ And it is His love that purifies us, and His gift that purifies. For that gift sets in operation within us a multitude of new motives and new desires. And, more than that, He gave Himself that our sins might be taken away. But there is the present gift, as well as the past one, for He is giving Himself still, moment by moment, and hour by hour, to every one that cleaves to Him. And that gift of Himself comes into our hearts as, according to Luther’s old metaphor, the Elbe was turned into the stable to sweep out all the filth, and make all things clean. So, dear friends, let us cleave to that Lord. Let us see to it that we have fathomed, and not only fathomed, but accepted, the great gift of Himself in its most transcendent form, in its mightiest efficacy, the gift by which, by His death, He has taken away the guilt, and by His life within us, breaks the power of our sins, and makes us eager zealots, enthusiasts for all manner of ‘good works.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

Titus

ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS

Tit 2:14 .

WE have seen in previous sermons on the preceding context how emphatically the Apostle reiterates that the end of the gospel is the production of Christlike and Christ-pleasing character. For this purpose our Lord came, and in Him the grace of God broke through the clouds which wrapped men in dark folds of ignorance and sin. For this end Christ died, giving Himself for us, that ‘He might redeem us from iniquity and purify unto Himself a people for a possession.’ That insistence on practice as the upshot of doctrine is characteristic of the three last letters of the Apostle, which are called the Pastoral Epistles, and it is very natural in an old man. Just as tradition tells us that when John was too feeble to walk, and too old to say much, he was carried Sunday by Sunday into the assembly of the Church to say nothing more than ‘Little children, love one another,’ so Paul, having laid the foundations in the great doctrinal Epistles of his early time, now an old man, deals rather with practice than with doctrine. But the practice is, in his mind, the offshoot of, and inseparably connected with, the doctrine, and to pit the one against the other, as Some people do nowadays, is to say, ‘I do not care much about root; fruit is what I want’; or, ‘I make little account of what a man eats; what I look to is his muscle and his strength.’ But will there be any fruit without a root, or any muscle and strength that is not nourished? Paul’s gospel is ethical because it is a gospel. Now these words of my text are a kind of appendix to what precedes them, in which the Apostle has been sketching the sort of people that Christ’s mission and work are intended to make. He says they are to be redeemed, they are to be purified, they are to be won for Christ’s own, and to be conscious that they are His; and then he adds this remarkable expression which I have not been able to deal with at length in former sermons, but which is too important to pass by – ‘zealous’ – what for? – ‘good works.’ Now I think, if we will consider these words, we shall find that they convey, some lessons, always important, and, as it seems to me, extremely important for the Church of this generation. I. A consistent Christian will be a zealous Christian. I do not need to waste your time in trying to define what zeal is.

We all know it. When we approve of its object we admire it and call it ‘beautiful consecration’; when we are not in sympathy with its objects we call it ‘ridiculous exaggeration’ and ‘fanaticism.’ Its elements are threefold, an overmastering recognition of the greatness of some truth, or cause, or person, for which, or for whom, we are ‘ zealous ‘ – a glow of emotion arising from that recognition, and a consciousness of obligation to strain all our powers for the diffusion of the truth, or the advancement of the cause, or the honour of the person, for whom we are zealous. Now, of course, when a man gets hold of some truth that masters him, there is always the danger of his losing the sense of proportion, of his getting his perspective wrong, and being so swallowed up in the one thing that he sees, that, like a horse with blinkers, he does not see anything except that one narrow line that lies in front of him. And so zeal is always in danger of being deformed into fanaticism, but it is God’s way in working the world onwards, to raise up successions of men, each of whom recognizes with overwhelming clearness some one little segment of the great orb of truth, and the world advances because there are men that believe in one thing, that see one thing, and that give themselves, body and soul, to the setting forth of that one thing. All the rest of us stand by and say, ‘What ridiculous exaggeration! how entirely oblivious he is counter-balancing considerations; how he has narrowed himself down into being the instrument and the apostle of this one thing!’ Yes; and if you want to bore a hole through a six-inch plank, you have to put a pretty sharp point upon your tool, and to make it very ‘narrow.’ The world never gets to see any truth, until it has been hammered into it by some man who did not see any other truth. There will come, too, with that overwhelming conception of the greatness of the truth, or of the person, or of the cause, a glow of emotion. Argument may be worked in fire or in frost, and the arguments that melt are warm, or if I might go back to my former figure, your boring tool will penetrate more quickly and easily if it has been heated as well as pointed. And zeal glows, and it is the glow rather than reasoning that convinces men.

I need not dwell upon other characteristics of zeal, but my next thought is – Christianity is such as that, if a man really and fully accepts it, he cannot help being zealous. Look at the truths that we say we believe. We believe in ideas about the significance and issues of this earthly life, so solemn, so great, so transcending all present experience, that it is incredible that they can enter into a man’s mind in any deep sense, and leave him cold and indifferent. We believe in such truths about Sin and Judgment and Eternity that they might kindle a soul beneath the ribs of death, and burn up all indifference, so as that the extremist, enthusiastic grasp of them is only moderation and rational. We say that we believe that the infinite, divine nature was incarnated in a Man, and that that Man lived and died because He loved every soul, and that that death brings to the world emancipation, and that Life brings to the world life, and that these things are true for all men. What I maintain is, that if a man really believes these things, not with the mere conventional faith that characterizes multitudes of professing Christians, it is impossible that he should be left cold. If the sun is shining the temperature will go up; and if the thermometer does not rise it is because something or other has come between the sunbeam and the mercury. If the iceberg floats down into the warm oceans of the temperate or tropical zones it will melt into sweet water, and it cannot remain ice. If it continue grim and cold, it is because there is only the sun of the Arctic winter, which has a pale light, and scarcely any warmth at all, shining down upon it. An indifferent Christian, who believes in sin and in redemption and in an incarnate Christ and in a sacrifice on the Cross and in a Divine Spirit and in a future Judgment and remains cold, is all but an impossibility; he is a contradiction in terms, and a living monster. Brethren, I venture to plead with you that there are few things which the conventional Christianity of this day needs more than to awake to the fact that the ‘sober standard of feeling in matters of religion,’ which some so much admire, is contrary to the genius of the gospel, and the importance of the truths which it con-rains. And when I say a sober standard I do not mean the sobriety which the New Testament enjoins, but I mean the sobriety which the conventional Christianity of this day so much admires, and which is scarcely distinguishable with a microscope from absolute indifference. We are frequently besought to beware of enthusiasm. I hear from quarters where one would not expect to hear it, the cynical politician’s advice, ‘Not too much zeal, I beg of you.’ And I venture to oppose to all that what the voice of the Master from heaven said, ‘I would thou were cold or hot.’ This Christianity that never turns a hair, that does not know what zeal means, seems to me uncommonly like no Christianity at all. We all want to be roused from our torpor. This community, like every church of professing Christians, is weighted by a mass of loosely attached and halt-believing professing Christians who are nothing better than clogs on the wheel, and instruments for Bringing down the temperature of the whole mass. And what we want, I believe more than anything else, is that we should be zealous, as dominated by the overwhelming greatness and solemnity of the truths, and melted into a passion of love by the overwhelming greatness and love of the Person whom the gospel reveals to us. We are to be ‘zealous,’ and whilst I dare not say that a true Christian will be a zealous one, I dare not conceal my conviction that a consistent Christian will be. II. Now notice that such zeal finds its best field in our personal character. ‘Zealous ‘ – the word suggests, I suppose, pictures of men, devoted to a cause, and going out into the world to try and persuade other people to believe it, becoming the apostles and missionaries of some truth, or of some movement, or of some great principle, religious or social But Paul suggests here another region in which zeal is to find exercise – ‘zealous for good works’

Now do not let us interpret these last two words in the narrow, conventional sense which they have come to bear in the Church. It is a very significant and a very sad thing that this wide expression ‘good works,’ which in the Apostle’s mind covered the whole ground of Christian morality, has been narrowed down to mean specific acts of beneficence, bits of charity, giving away blankets and soup, visiting the poor, and the like, which have got stamped on them, with just a soul. on of contempt in the expression, the name ‘good works.’ He means a great deal more than that. He means exactly the same thing which he has already twice described as being the end of the gospel, that we should ‘live soberly, righteously, godly,’ and again, that we should be redeemed from all iniquity, and purified. Within the four corners of this expression, ‘good works,’ lie ‘whatsoever things are lovely and of good report,’ every virtue and every praise. That is the width of the object which the Apostle here proposes for Christian zeal. Now the word which he here employs, and which is rightly translated ‘zealous,’ is literally ‘a Zealot.’ In Jewish history the Zealots were a class of men who, from the days of the Maccabees downwards, were fanatically devoted to the ritual and law of Judaism, and vehemently opposed any relaxation of or departure from it. But their religious zeal, as they thought it, did not keep them from the blackest crimes, and there were no more turbulent and no more immoral men in the dying agonies of the Jewish State than these zealots who had a zeal for God, but neither according to knowledge nor according to morality. One of the apostles, Simon Zelotes – the Zealot – had probably belonged to that class, and had found out a better Object for his zeal, when he turned to Jesus Christ and became an apostle. Paul uses the word in reference to himself when he speaks about himself as having been exceedingly ‘zealous for the traditions of the fathers,’ and it is used in Acts of the many Jewish Christians who are spoken of as being all ‘zealous for the Law.’ That is one type of zeal – a zeal that fastens on externals, that tries to enforce specific acts of conduct, that is devoted to ceremonial and regulations and red tape. And Paul points us here to another type, ‘Zealous for good works.’ Jehu, with His hands carmined with wholesale slaughter, turned to the son of Rechab and said, ‘Come and see my zeal for the Lord.’ Yes, a little bit for the Lord, and a great deal for Jehu. That is the sort of thing that goes about the world as zeal. A turbid river in spate picks up and carries along a great many foul elements; and zeal is always in danger of becoming passionate indignation against a man who will not believe what I want him to believe, not so much because it is true as because I think it is. A great many very impure elements mix themselves up with our zeal, when it is directed to amending the world. If we set to amend ourselves, and direct our zeal in that direction, we shall find ‘ample scope and verge enough’ for its operations. And, brethren, what different lives we should live if instead of feeling bound to the exercise of virtues and graces Which do not come sweet and easy to us, and instead of feeling that we ought to do so and so, and that we do not one bit wish to do it, we had this overmastering enthusiasm for holiness and passion for perfection which is involved in the words before us. To be’ zealous of good works’ is to be eagerly desirous of being beautiful and pure and true and noble and Christlike, to be panting after perfection, and casting ourselves with all the energy of our nature into the work of growing like Christ. That is what Paul wants us all to be. Let us ask ourselves, is it the least like what I am? Does my Christian zeal go all out in the work of amending other people, or do I begin with amending myself?

III. And now my last word is, that this passion for perfection will come to us just in the measure in which we let the gospel He upon our hearts and minds and influence us. The truths will produce it, but not unless they are wrought into our minds and hearts. Christ, whom the truths reveal, will produce it, but not unless we keep ourselves by honest effort of mind and heart and will in close contact with Him. The upshot of all that i have been trying to say is this, that the one thing which the superficial half-and-half Christianity of this day needs is that it should come into closer contact with the truths of the gospel. I plead for no blind, unintelligent zeal, I plead for no worked-up, artificial fervour. I want no engine without a driver, I want no zeal that, like Phaeton, will upset the car and set everything on fire. I want that Christian men should believe what they believe, and that they should meditate on the truths of the gospel intelligently, systematically, as a whole, and that they should be in touch with Him whom the truths reveal. A ruminant belief that chews the cud of the truths it professes is what today’s Christianity sorely wants. And if we in such a fashion keep ourselves under the spell of these truths, .then the zeal will come; not else. The spurious zeal which is excited by other stimulants will do more harm than good, and will be not like the river that flows, bringing fertility and freshness, but like the furious torrents of the spring when the ice is melting and the snows running down, which sweep away the very soil where growth was possible, and leave behind only barren rock.

Fix in your hearts and minds, and God grant that they may influence your conduct, these two things – on the one hand, that your Christianity is very suspicious if it has no flow in it towards Jesus, and if it has no passion towards perfection; and, on the other hand, that the surest way to bring all beauties of a moral and spiritual sort into your character and out into your lives is to gaze believingly on the appearing of She grace which God has sent us for the very purpose even of Him who gave Himself for us. When we are moved thereby to give ourselves to Him, we shall ‘covet earnestly the best gifts,’ and be ‘zealous for,’ and not merely reluctant and grudging doers of, ‘good works.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

for. App-104.

redeem. Greek. lutroo. Only here; Luk 24:21. 1Pe 1:18.

from. App-104.

iniquity, App-128.

peceliar people = a people as an acquisition. Greek. periousios. Only here. Compare 1Pe 2:9. Occurs in Septuagint Exo 19:5. Deu 7:6; Deu 14:2; Deu 26:18;

and in kindred forms, 1Ch 29:3. Psa 135:4. Ecc 2:8, Mal 3:17.

zealous. Greek. zelotis. Elsewhere, Act 21:20; Act 22:3. 1Co 14:12. Gal 1:1, Gal 1:14.

of Genitive of relation; “with respect to”. App-17.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Tit 2:14. , that He might redeem) An allusion to redemption from slavery.[12]- , a peculiar people) The adjective would be translated into Latin by superfactum. Columella writes, villica debet separare, qu consumenda sunt, et qu superfieri possunt, custodire, a farmers wife should separate what is to be consumed, and keep what may be left over and above. Comp. , 1Pe 2:9, note. [The in composition often expresses something remaining over and above. So , in Peter, something which God reserves to Himself out of all. And , a people peculiarly Gods own above all nations, Exo 19:5-6; LXX.]

[12] He had been speaking of slaves or servants, ver. 9.-ED.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Tit 2:14

who gave himself for us,-The fundamental idea of the bloody sacrifice is that he for whom the sacrifice is made deserved death for his sins and the death of the victim is accepted in lieu of that of the sinner. The animals were accepted as temporary and typical sacrifices for sin. They were temporary, as they took away finally no sin, but only freed them from it for a season. The sin was rolled forward and the sinner was held guiltless until the day of atonement, when there was a remembrance of the sins again, and a sin offering was made for it anew. It was typical in as much as it pointed forward to the sacrifice of the Son of God, the shedding of his blood for the sins of the world. The blood of Jesus alone can take away sins. So all sins previous to the shedding of his blood were rolled forward until he came and took away sins once for all. Then there was no more remembrance of sins that had been forgiven. To shed his blood for sin was to give his life for the life of the sinner. Jesus did this for man. Man had sinned, sold himself to the devil, brought himself under bondage to him as his servant, became subject to death, received the wages of sin so that he died.

that he might redeem us from all iniquity,-To redeem from iniquity is to lead from all wrongdoing to our fellow men, and just to the extent that he delivers us from wrongdoing he delivers us from sin and suffering.

and purify unto himself a people for his own possession,-[As Israel was represented as Gods chosen people, his peculiar treasure (Exo 19:5-6; Deu 7:6; Deu 14:2), so Christians are Christs own possession, given him by the Father (Joh 6:37; Joh 17:6-8), forming the body of which he is the head (Eph 1:22-23; Col 1:18), and made to him “an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for Gods own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy (1Pe 2:9-10).]

zealous of good works.-Doing the works of God. They are good because they conform to the likeness of God and make us good to man. Nothing brings good to man except the things commanded by God. To do them honors God and benefits man. Gods honor and mans good are joined together in the work he does. The humble can do good works as well as the mighty. Indeed, exalted positions carry with them strong temptations, of which we in the humbler spheres of life know nothing. God requires us to strive day by day to do something that will help others. If we do so from the right motives, do it in the name of the Lord, whether it benefits others or not, we shall save our own souls because in so doing we fit ourselves for a home with God.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

redeem

Sin. (See Scofield “Rom 3:24”).

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

gave: Mat 20:28, Joh 6:51, Joh 10:15, Gal 1:4, Gal 2:20, Gal 3:13, Eph 5:2, Eph 5:23-27, 1Ti 1:15, 1Ti 2:6, Heb 9:14, 1Pe 3:18, Rev 1:5, Rev 5:9

that: Gen 48:16, Psa 130:8, Eze 36:25, Mat 1:21, Rom 11:26, Rom 11:27

purify: Mal 3:3, Mat 3:12, Act 15:9, Heb 9:14, Jam 4:8, 1Pe 1:22, 1Jo 3:2

unto: Act 15:14, Rom 14:7, Rom 14:8, 2Co 5:14, 2Co 5:15

peculiar: Exo 15:16, Exo 19:5, Exo 19:6, Deu 7:6, Deu 14:2, Deu 26:18, Psa 135:4, 1Pe 2:9

zealous: Tit 2:7, Tit 3:8, Num 25:13, Act 9:36, Eph 2:10, 1Ti 2:10, 1Ti 6:18, Heb 10:24, 1Pe 2:12

Reciprocal: Exo 37:6 – General Exo 39:30 – Holiness Lev 9:3 – Take ye Lev 9:15 – General Lev 11:32 – it must be put into water Lev 16:30 – General Lev 20:26 – severed Lev 25:41 – then shall Num 3:50 – General Num 7:15 – General Num 19:19 – shall sprinkle Num 23:9 – dwell alone Deu 4:20 – a people Deu 5:15 – the Lord Deu 9:26 – which thou hast brought forth Deu 15:15 – General Deu 28:9 – establish 2Sa 7:23 – went 1Ki 8:53 – separate 2Ki 5:14 – and he was clean 1Ch 17:21 – redeem Job 7:21 – take away Psa 4:3 – for Psa 19:14 – redeemer Psa 26:11 – redeem Psa 31:5 – thou Psa 33:12 – his own Psa 34:14 – do Psa 39:8 – Deliver Psa 72:14 – he shall Psa 74:2 – redeemed Psa 78:35 – their redeemer Psa 105:45 – That Psa 107:2 – Let the Psa 110:3 – beauties Psa 111:9 – sent Psa 119:146 – and I shall keep Psa 136:24 – General Pro 3:27 – Withhold Pro 21:8 – but Isa 1:27 – redeemed Isa 35:9 – but Isa 41:14 – saith Isa 43:1 – Fear Isa 43:4 – precious Isa 43:21 – General Isa 45:21 – a just Isa 53:12 – he bare Isa 63:9 – in his Jer 31:11 – redeemed Eze 18:28 – turneth Eze 36:29 – save Dan 12:10 – shall be Hos 14:2 – away Mic 7:19 – subdue Mal 3:17 – jewels Mat 5:16 – that Mat 26:10 – a good Mar 2:17 – I came Mar 10:45 – and to Mar 14:6 – a good Luk 22:19 – given Joh 1:29 – which Joh 5:23 – all men Joh 10:11 – giveth Joh 10:18 – but Joh 15:2 – and Joh 17:19 – that Joh 19:34 – came Act 27:23 – whose Rom 3:12 – there is none Rom 3:24 – through Rom 4:25 – Who was Rom 6:14 – sin Rom 7:24 – who 1Co 1:13 – Paul 1Co 1:30 – redemption 1Co 6:19 – and ye 1Co 7:23 – are 1Co 14:12 – forasmuch 1Co 15:58 – the work 2Co 9:8 – may Gal 2:19 – that Gal 4:5 – redeem Gal 4:18 – it is Gal 6:10 – opportunity Eph 1:7 – whom Eph 3:18 – able Eph 4:24 – righteousness Eph 5:26 – he Phi 2:8 – the death Phi 4:8 – are pure Col 1:12 – made Col 1:14 – whom Col 1:22 – to 1Th 4:3 – your 1Th 5:10 – died 1Ti 4:15 – give 1Ti 5:10 – if she have diligently 2Ti 3:17 – thoroughly furnished Tit 3:1 – to be ready Heb 1:8 – O God Heb 4:9 – people Heb 7:27 – this Heb 8:3 – have Heb 8:10 – they shall Heb 9:12 – by his Heb 9:26 – the sacrifice Heb 12:2 – endured Heb 12:10 – partakers 1Pe 5:2 – of 2Pe 2:9 – the godly 1Jo 1:9 – and to 1Jo 3:5 – to Rev 3:19 – be

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Tit 2:14. Gave himself for us shows that Christ is the particular one of the Godhead who is meant in the preceding verse, since He is the one who was given as a sacrifice. To redeem means to rescue something from a state of bondage. A condition of iniquity or sin was that from which Christ offered himself as a ransom. After being rescued from iniquity, we are purified and are ready to become the Lord’s peculiar (special possession) people. Such a people are expected to have the distinction of being zealous of good works.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Tit 2:14. For us, on our behalf. The design of Christs self-offering to death was a moral one

to set us free by payment of a ransom-price (see the root text in Mat 20:28) from iniquity (or sin viewed as lawlessness, comp. 1Jn 1:3-4). The principle of lawless living is thought of as a tyrannical usurper over human nature. Its hold is broken when the price is paid for the slavethat price the precious blood, as in 1Pe 1:18-19. The redeeming act which is past describes one side of salvation. Another follows in the cleansing of the redeemed: purify to himself a people who shall be His own private possession; so peculiar means herea much misused expression. The phrase is from the Pentateuch; see Exo 19:5; Deu 7:6; Deu 14:2; Deu 26:18. In New Testament, the only parallel is 1Pe 2:9, where, however, the word is different. The ethical design of this redemption, which is also a cleansing of His people, becomes again emphatic in the last clause (zealous of good works), recurring to the radical idea (Tit 2:12) that the Gospel revelation of grace contemplates as its aim a holy life. On general thought compare Romans 6

Tit 2:15 reverts at the close to the opening of the section in Tit 2:1. Titus is to teach (speak), and also to urge to duty (exhort), and also convict (or rebuke) the disobedient after a fashion so vigorous and bold that no man in Crete shall undervalue him. Cf. 1Ti 4:12.

Authority is here imperativeness of manner (Alford).

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe here, 1. The way and manner how Christ came to be our Saviour, he gave himself for us.

Note, 1. The giver, Christ, he gave. 2. The gift, himself. 3. The persons for whom he gave himself, for us.

Learn, 1. That all that Jesus Christ suffered he did sustain and undergo freely and voluntarily. 2. That that which Christ gave for our redemption was himself. 3. That it was especially for his church, that he gave himself, who gave himself for us.

Observe, 2. The great ends for which Christ gave himself for his church, and they are two: 1. To redeem them from all iniquity. 2. To purify them a peculiar people to himself.

1. To redeem them from iniquity: redemption supposes a thraldom and bondage; redemption from iniquity supposes a thraldom and bondage to sin and iniquity: our Redeemer therefore is Jesus Christ, and by dying for us, he did, and only could, redeem us. He gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity.

2. Another end of Christ’s redeeming us, is to purify us to himself a peculiar people;

Here note, That as redemption did presuppose a bondage, so purification supposes an uncleanness, that is, sin.

Note, 2. That Christ’s redeemed people are a purified people, and a peculiar people, possessed by the Spirit of Christ with a zeal for good works.

Note, 3. That it was not only for us that Christ redeemed and purified us a peculiar people to himself, but ultimately for himself, and for his own and his Father’s glory and complacency; that he might purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

The clear concise Gospel. Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us. “Redeem” means to buy back or pay the ransom for release. (See also Mar 10:45 “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”) Christ did all that was necessary for all to come to him. He bought all on the cross. I don’t hold to the thought that He gave Himself only for the elect. What an accounting nightmare that would have been at the cross. He died for all that all might live. The fact that some thumb their ungodly noses at His kind work is their fault, not His. He did all that needed to be done to return mankind to God.

“Gave” has the thought of “put” “place” or “grant” all having the thought of the one giving, initiating the gift. His life was not taken; it was given for the redemption of mankind. Yes, the Jews took Him, yes, the Romans placed Him on the cross, but anytime during the arrest, trial and crucifixion He could have stopped the process. He gave Himself up to the authorities and freely, willingly laid down His life for us.

Now, who or what were we redeemed from? We were redeemed from iniquity. Iniquity had us hostage, but now we are bought back from its clutches by Christ’s work on the cross. Consider. If this be true and that is the clear teaching of the passage, then why do we go to iniquity and say, take me back I love you, I want you, and I want to be in bondage to you. WHAT? NOT SO, we should flee the iniquity that held us hostage. It is ludicrous for the believer, bought back from sins hold, to place ourselves back under that same terrible condition.

Not only is this ludicrous but it is just as, if not more ludicrous to believe that this redemption of Christ is only good as long as we can fight and scratch and claw our way up and over our old nature to get to Godliness. This is such a sick and debilitating doctrine. Christ redeemed us, Christ bought us, and Christ freed us from iniquity – so says the passage. To hold to this thought of our fighting an old nature would require the verse to say, Christ redeemed us from iniquity, but He wasn’t able to do a good enough job to keep iniquity from grabbing us from His loving clutches. Not a plausible interpretation, nor translation of the passage.

It is of note, that “purify” as well as “redeem” are aorist tenses – meaning they were one time occurrences. He redeemed us – once, he isn’t going to do it again, there is no need for Him to do it again AND He purified us at a point in time. Does that sound like the battle between the old nature and the new nature that many teach today – not in my mind. It seems that he bought and purified us once and for all at a point in time.

Purify has the thought of cleaning out and making clean – washing dishes, cleaning a wound, or removing dead flesh might be the thought.

Now, I would like to get theological for a moment or two. In the fall, several things happened and in salvation those things had to be corrected. Adam died spiritually. Adam would die physically. Adam turned away from God and God turned away from Adam.

In salvation we are given spiritual life; we are made a new creation. In salvation we are made to live eternally with Him. In salvation all was done that would turn God back to man, man has only to turn back to God.

This passage is one of the clearest that pictures this regeneration, this recreation, this purifying process that makes us right with God spiritually. It also is one of the best pictures of Christ’s buying us or purchasing us, and as such is one of the best pictures of His ownership of us, and our need to voluntarily submit to Him as master of our lives, proclaiming our servanthood and commitment to Him.

He was interested in a “peculiar people,” not a weird people but a special, select people. I have read that this Greek word translated peculiar was used of a niche in the wall where a person could hide expensive or prized possessions. A safe place to protect one’s things. God wanted a special people, one that He could prize and protect from all that would try to steal.

This people were to be zealous of good works.

I once undertook a study on the idea of zealots. My premise was that the zealots of the New Testament were not the dread plague of that day, but rather men that were properly motivated to do as they should, but misdirected. Paul himself was a zealot in his pursuit of the early Christians, but he was misdirected. After his conversion, he was a zealot for the Lord in the proper direction.

Many through the ages were zealots. Zealot is not a derogatory term; it is a term to describe the zeal with which they do their job. I feel that through the years that I have been a zealot. I have pushed to do what God has directed all my born again life. I believe that many pastors and missionaries are true zealots today.

This verse tells me that I have a Biblical basis for that thinking. Zealous of good works! Many believers today never do any good works much less be zealous to do good works.

Zealous of good works demands a few things:

a. Determination to do good. (Decision of the will.)

b. Motivation to do good. (Proper view of Christ’s sacrifice for us.)

c. Basis to do good. (The dictates of Scripture.)

d. Act to do good. (The act of the will to do.)

ZEALOUS OF GOOD WORKS. No, zealous is not a curse word as many would have us think today, it is a word that pictures clearly one that is properly viewing his relationship to Christ. To not be zealous is a negative in the Christian life, to not be zealous is the unspiritual thing to do, to not be zealous is a slap in the face of the one that died on the cross for your worthless hide!

Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson

2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a {f} peculiar people, zealous of good works.

(f) As it were a thing peculiarly laid aside for himself.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Christ’s intent in providing salvation for us was to buy our freedom from slavery to sin and wickedness.

"First, the verb gave (and indeed the entire saying-who gave himself for us) portrays Christ’s death as a ritual offering made specifically to atone for sins (Rom 4:25; Rom 8:32; compare Gal 1:4). . . .

"Second, the note of willingness is emphasized, for it is said that he gave himself. . . .

"Third, the phrase for us reveals that this offering was both representative and substitutionary." [Note: Towner, 1-2 Timothy . . ., p. 248.]

Christ’s purpose was also to purify a people for Himself who are eager to do what is right and good.

"When a royal visit is expected, everything is cleansed and decorated, and made fit for the royal eye to see." [Note: Barclay, p. 294.]

"The highest and purest motivation for Christian behavior is not based on what we can do for God but rather upon what God has done for us and yet will do." [Note: Griffin, p. 316.]

To summarize this section (Tit 2:11-14), the grace of God should result in the Christian’s present commitment to deny what He detests and to pursue what He values. We see God’s grace in His past provision of salvation in Christ and the prospect of Christ’s future return to take us to be with Himself forever. The fact that so few Christians make this commitment is disappointing, but it is true to life, and Jesus Christ anticipated it (Luk 17:11-19).

"Verses 11-14 are notable for their perfect balance of doctrine with living. Beginning with the incarnation (’the grace of God hath appeared,’ Tit 2:11), they relate this doctrine to a life that denies evil and practices good here and now (Tit 2:12); that sees in the return of Christ the incentive for godly conduct (’looking for that blessed hope . . .’ Tit 2:13); and that realizes, in personal holiness and good works, the purpose of the atonement (Tit 2:14). The passage is one of the most concise summations in the entire N.T. of the relation of Gospel truth to life." [Note: The New Scofield Reference Bible, p. 1307.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)