Titus 2:14
14 Who [hos] gave [didomi] himself [heautou] for [huper] us [hemon], that [hina] he might redeem [lutroo] us
[hemas] from [apo] all [pas] iniquity [anomia], and [kai] purify [katharizo] unto himself [heautou] a
peculiar [periousios] people [laos], zealous [zelotes] of good [kalos] works [ergon]. KJV-Interlinear
14 who gave Himself for us, that
He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for
His own possession, zealous for good deeds. NASB
Jesus Christ is the one
who gave Himself, or placed Himself, in our place, in order to save us from
inevitable destruction.
God is life, but more
than that, life comes complete with security, happiness, self-awareness, a
sense of purpose and worth, a destiny of value, the ability to enjoy ones
existence, the ability to provide for ones self.
Anything that is apart
from God, does not have these characteristics. Being apart from life means that
you have to produce your own security, your own self support, make your own
provision in every aspect of life, and no one is capable of doing this.
Look what God has done
in order to bring life and support to humanity.
For one thing He created an entire universe, an entire planet, water,
food, air to breathe.He created an
entire social structure, economic structure, everything that you are able to
observe in life, and far, far more.
None of us can do any
of that.
God is perfect. Man is born out of sin. Sin is the degeneracy, the corruption of ones
self.
Have you ever placed a
slab of meat out at room temperature?
What happens to it? It begins to spoil and rot. Have you ever seen a
rotten slab of meat heal itself?No.
Anything of corruption
cannot fix itself.Only God, who is
incorruptible, is able to cure the corrupt.
The corrupt cannot cure itself.
So, Jesus Christ came
to this earth in the form of perfect humanity, and took over the penalty of sin
(corruption) and paid its price in our behalf.
This gives each one of us the opportunity to regain our lost eternal
life, with God at the helm of life, not ourselves.
Those who reject Christ
believe by default that they can control their own destiny, and when they die, they
realize that they are absolutely powerless to control anything. They cannot control their life, their
location, the environment around them.
They cannot control the universe and the powers that control the
universe, and the realm beyond death, or anything else that we have no clue as
to what might still be out there, that we have yet to discover.
Just a couple of
centuries ago, man knew nothing about galaxies, or atoms, or genetics, or
gravity, or magnetic fields.And today,
there are theories of still more complex dimensions that help bleed off the
phenomenal power of gravity, into other dimensions, so that we might not be
crushed by it all.Mind boggling things
that we usually see only in science fiction movies. And yet do we resort to believing that the
world is flat, that we are the center of the universe, that witches should be
burned, that some people are superior to others?
When beliefs exclude
God and doctrine, then anything can become acceptable. When God is rejected, then we do not realize
just how inferior we are.
God (Christ) redeemed
us. He paid a ransom for our life.By
paying that ransom, He now owns us, and we belong to Him. However God does not wish to make us human
slaves, so He has given all the opportunity for freedom with Him, or by ones
self.
To believe in Christ
means that He will receive us as His own.
To reject Christ means that He will graciously bow out of our life and
we can continue on in our existence to the best of our ability. Unfortunately, man has no ability, and the
Lake of Fire, which is a realm of an uncontrollable environment, is where
unbelievers end up.
Try jumping into an
active volcano and command the fires to cool. You can t. Try commanding the wind. You can t.
Try solving the world s economic problems by tomorrow. You can t.
Try stopping your own heartbeat for an hour and then restarting it. You can t.
In fact if you have
been with this study for any length of time, then you know that it is God
(Christ) who controls every aspect of life, not humanity.
By giving ourselves
over to Christ, we then gain our freedom and much, much more, rather than
losing it.
Unbelievers seek their
own independence, believing that they have the ability to control their own
existence, but lose their independence and life, through their bad choice in
rejecting God, who controls every aspect of reality.
We were redeemed,
ransomed, from every lawless deed (from the power of sin), and for the purpose
of being purified (being cleansed from ongoing corruption). Salvation begins the process, and spiritual
growth makes our existence and transformation even better.
This God does for those
who belong to Him, and those who belong to Him are those who choose to belong
to Him.God never coerces anyone do
follow Him.
Zealous for good
deeds, is a reference to those who pursue their spiritual growth to
maturity.As you advance in your
spiritual life, then the grace provisions become greater and greater (Book of
James).
So why can t people see
the advantage of being with God?Because
arrogance blinds people to the truth of reality around them, and prevents them
from seeing it.And arrogance causes
people to embrace the lies of this world, and desiring them instead.
Unfortunately it is
only when a spiritually negative person has died that the blinders come off and
by seeing the activity of angels, by seeing heavens activities, and more, do
they realize that they have been foolish beyond their wildest dreams.
And yet, everyone knows
of God, of Christ, of the many aspects of this world. They just choose to ignore them. After all, they are smarter than truth!!!
Unless you want to be
one of the dummies who discover their dumbness after death, then your best
course of action is to get with your own daily study of doctrine, and begin the
long and drawn out process of growing up in your spiritual life.
There are no tricks, no
gimmicks, no shortcuts to learning and living a lifetime of doctrine, in less
than a lifetime.