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December 25, 2001
Christmas Day
Titus 2:11-14
Pastor Joel Zank

GOD'S GRACE HAS APPEARED!

(Titus 2:11-14) For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self?controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope??the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.

In Christ Jesus who became our brother to make us his people, dear fellow redeemed,

Have you ever gotten a Christmas gift that has left you completely baffled? Maybe the gift came without a tag, leaving you unable to identify its giver. Maybe you got some sort of novelty gift for which you never really found a purpose. Or maybe after hours of pouring over assembly instructions and hunting for missing pieces, you tossed the gift aside, concluding it wasn't worth the frustration.

How happy we can be that the first and best Christmas gift of them all has no such failings. The giver of this gift is clearly identified. His present to us is practical-something everyone needs, there's no assembly required, and best of all, this gift comes with all the accessories pictured here in our text. So says the Apostle Paul who tells us today, GOD'S GRACE HAS APPEARED! As we shall hear, this grace brings salvation; it teaches godliness and it provides hope.

We're all quite familiar with the word "grace." We talk about it, sing about it, we can probably even define it. Grace is the unearned, undeserved love that God has for sinners. But if that's all we knew about grace, it wouldn't really mean much to us. Oh, we could relate to those words unearned and undeserved. When you read what the Bible says about us sinners, it doesn't take along to figure out that the only thing we have earned and deserve from God is his anger and punishment. Paul says to us in Romans 2:5 "You are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed." Our sin has made us God's enemies. As such God would be showing us grace if only once in eternity he would consent to cool our tongues with a single drop of water as we suffered hell's unquenchable thirst. That would be showing us love that we don't deserve.

But even in that illustration it's an action that helps us understand grace. That's the way it is with love. Love is something better demonstrated than talked about. God knows that better than anyone and because he does, we're celebrating Christmas today. Christmas is the spectacular event that Paul is talking about when he says, "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men" (Titus 2:11). More than a feeling, more than an emotion, grace is God's love in action. Grace is the act of God taking on flesh and blood and appearing in Bethlehem's manger in the person of Jesus Christ. Grace is God's Son clothing himself with humanity in order to bring salvation to every undeserving sinner, including you and me. The Apostle John also explains grace as God's love in action when he says, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins" (1 John 4:10). God's Son appeared to bring us relief from hell's burning thirst, not by offering us a sip water, but by actually taking our place in hell and there paying our punishment for sin so that all would be forever right again between God and us. This is the salvation that Christmas brings us, God's free forgiveness, earned by him who, as Paul says in verse 14, "gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness."

Our first parents, Adam and Eve sold us into sin by disobeying God. We were born in their image, slaves of sin. But Jesus became our sinless brother and bought our freedom from sin's guilt and power. His perfect blood was the ransom price he paid.

We know all this because God's grace has brought us this news through the gospel in Word and sacrament. And when the news of our salvation comes to us, as it first did on the day of our baptism and as it does again today, grace does something else, it gives us faith to believe this good news. Grace teaches us that we enjoy a new status in God's sight. Even though we remain sinful, grace convinces us that God declares us innocent and holy for the sake of his Son who lived and died and rose for us.

By giving us this faith in Jesus, grace not only changes our status, it transforms our hearts. Once our hearts were cold and thankless. Now they beat with love and gratitude toward God. John says it this way, "We love because he first love us" (1 John 4:19). God's love is perfect. It knew just what to do to save us. Thank heavens it did because our love is imperfect. It can't do anything to save us. It doesn't have to. But it does want to show its thanks to God, and even in this, it completely depends on God's grace for much needed help. Once again grace supplies what we need. Grace teaches godliness. "It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self?controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age" (Titus 2:12).

Grace is the Christmas gift that keeps on giving! Every day God's grace works in us the desire to live like the innocent people he declares us to be. Such a life doesn't earn us God's favor. We already have that through Jesus. But such a life does keep us from throwing God's blessings away.

It's the law of God that teaches us right from wrong, but it God's grace that gives us the desire and the power to choose right over wrong. Is there bickering and arguing in your family? The commandments teach you this is sin. The grace of God teaches you to take this sin to Christ and have his forgiveness. The love God gives you, a forgiven sinner, teaches you to be more patient with the sinners around you, to deal with them in love as God deals with you. Grace teaches you to say no to the pride that would insist that your way of doing things is always best. Grace brings all pride and lust and greed and every other worldly passion under the control of the new person God created within you when he worked in you his gift of faith in Christ. If you and the members of your family are looking to live lives that better better glorify Christ, than as individuals and as a family you will want to spend more time learning of his love for you from his Word. For as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, "Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again." It's the good news of a Risen Redeemer from sin that causes the new person in all of us to rise up and live a godly, upright life of thanks to the Savior's glory.

Will we falter in such a life? Sadly we will. There will be days when we take one step forward and two backwards. But on those days as well as on the best days we have, we must look to Christ and his righteousness to cover the sin in us and make our words and actions acceptable to God. For without him, even our greatest works are filthy rags in God's sight (Isaiah 64:6). But with him and his grace we are holy all the time. This is what Paul means when he says in verse 14 that Jesus gave himself for us to "...purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good." In this way, God's grace that appeared on that first Christmas provides us with hope for today and it will continue to do so until Christ comes again.

For this is our hope-that every day we remain God's children, having with each day a new opportunity to live a life of thanks to God. Our hope is certain thanks to our Savior. The failures and regrets of yesterday are gone. Jesus has taken them away. We are his people and our slate is clean. This is a new day to live and love for him. And his forgiveness will make tomorrow another such day and the day after that and the next day and so on. There's more! It is also our hope that when we live for Christ we are not living life in vain. The world would say that we are. The world would say that if we aren't getting all the sinful pleasure out of life that we can, if we are not pushing and shoving our way to the top, if we're not looking out for number one, then, we're wasting our lives. That's what the world says. But here's what God says through the Apostle Paul, "Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory" (Colossians 3:2-4). Right now are lives don't appear very glorious. We live to serve Christ in our homes, at work, and here at church. We sin and are forgiven. We are sinned against and we forgive. It all seems rather ordinary, maybe even futile at times. But it's not. For our lives are built on the sure and glorious promises of Christ-the promise that we are redeemed and holy right now and the promise of verse 13, the promise of the "glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ" on the last day. We look forward to that day for when he comes again we will not only see his glory but we will share in it in heaven forever. No, we aren't wasting our time. We're using it in the best way possible, to thank him who appeared once to save us and who will appear again to claim us as the beloved brothers and sisters be bought with his own life-blood.

What a Christmas gift we have received from God, the gift we all need most, his perfect grace. It comes complete with free salvation. There's nothing for us to add, no batteries to supply, no accessories to purchase. The gift of Christ comes with all this and more-he comes with peace and power guaranteed not just for a lifetime but for eternity. Amen.