Back to the Bible Daily Program Transcript

you had an older brother or an older sister or you had a very famous father
or famous mother and your whole life was lived in the shadow of someone
else. There are verses in the Bible like that. When you think of Titus 2, you
probably think of verse 13, looking for that blessed hope. What a powerful
verse that is. There's a tower right there. But you know what? The next
verse lives in its shadow and it's probably more important.
Let me go back and read a few verses before that. Let's start at verse 11 so
we can get the context: "For the grace of God that brings salvation has
appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly
lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age,
looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and
Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, [now watch this—two reasons]
that He might redeem us from every lawless deed [that's number 1] and [2]
purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works" (verses
11-14).
May I just pry a little bit into your personal life? If I were to ask how many
times you have heard a message on Christ dying to redeem us, all of our
hands would go up. And if I ask you, Was it often a frequently repeated
message? a lot of hands would go up too.
But Christ died for two reasons. I wonder when was the last time we heard a
message on the second reason? He not only died to redeem us, He died to
purify us—that's to live holy lives. The second reason why Jesus died is so
we can live for the very reason He died.
We couldn't go to Him, so He came to us. He paid a debt He didn't owe
because we owed a debt we couldn't pay. He died so we could live. And one
of the reasons why (according to verse 14 in Titus 2) Jesus died, the second
reason, is to prepare a holy people, a unique, separate, distinct people.
For those of us who are happy about the first and ignorant about the second,
relief is here. We have a Bible in front of us. We can see exactly what God
said to us.
I want you to think about the tendency we have to ignore the second half of
that verse. I say "we" because we all have that tendency. I do as well as
you.
A. J. Gordon said: "I gravely fear that many Christians make the apostle's
word, 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,' the unconscious
justification for a low standard of Christian living. It were almost better to
overstate the possibilities of sanctification in an eager grasp after holiness,
2