The Blessed Hope

Day 16 - Encountering grace and second chances

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 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 appearing of the glory 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.”

-Titus 2:11-14

(Photo by Laura Nyhuis on Unsplash)

Recently a good friend of mine commented: “to me, grace means you get second chances”. I had actually been working on this post earlier that day and when she made the comment, it hit me that I needed to re-write the whole thing! (Perhaps this is my ‘second chance’ to write this devotional).

When we read this passage it is easy to focus on the part that calls us away from ‘worldly passions’ and to be self-controlled individuals, and we can end up feeling that we need to ‘step up our game’. However the verse begins with an incredible word of hope: “for the grace of God has appeared…”. In the words of my friend, we have been given the opportunity for a second chance. Now, I realize that Paul is saying that God’s grace offers us salvation and that is what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:8 when he said that “it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith…”, so it is clear that in speaking of a ‘second chance’ it is in no way connected to the gift of salvation. As Ephesians 2:9 says, salvation is “not by works, so that no one can boast”.

At the same time, Paul is making a connection between God’s grace and call to live like Jesus in our daily lives. In Day 11 of this series we looked at the statement in Philippians 2 that in our relationships with the people around us, we should have the same mindset and attitude as Jesus, and today we hear that grace is given to us and that it teaches us how to live like Jesus. Teaching and learning speaks of a process where throughout out lives we are being taught, or mentored, to live more and more like Jesus, and there is grace in this process.

There is another part of the passage that is extremely important in this Advent season: we are called to “wait for the blessed hope-the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ”. It is God’s intention that we would continually draw tremendous hope from the innumerable promises in Scripture of the glorious return of Jesus. We must feed our souls on the ‘blessed hope’ of Christ’s second advent when He will usher in the fullness of the Kingdom of heaven. When our hearts are weighed down because of the darkness of our circumstances and when our faith feels weak in the midst of life’s pressures, “we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Heb 6:19).

Embrace the hope that God’s grace has appeared in order to give you a second chance today, as you seek to live like Jesus. Embrace the hope of Christ’s second advent and the promise of His glorious Kingdom.