October 10
Bible Reading: Titus 2
Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our 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 lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”
January 5th, 1982. It was a day I had been looking forward to for months, even years. I had enlisted in the Navy six years earlier, and though I’d been a good submariner, even earning several commendations, all I could think about was being done. Prowling around under water in a long steel tube with a hundred other smelly men has its shortcomings. I was counting the days until my freedom. At night, I’d sometimes dream about that day and alternately I’d have nightmares about somehow being stuck in the service. I was waiting expectantly for the day I’d be set free.
Our text speaks to how we as believers are waiting, but for something infinitely better, our blessed hope. The term translated “blessed” means “spiritually prosperous.” Our passage speaks to two appearings of Christ (Titus 2:11,13). By both we are “graced,” but in the second we will be so in transcendent fashion. Note that this blessed hope which we are waiting for is not an event, but a Person–”the appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ’ (Titus 2:13; 1 Timothy 1:1).
What are we looking for? First, Jesus Christ is going to receive us to Himself. In that, the longing of your heart, for which your heart is even now groaning (2 Corinthians 5:4-7), will be fully and finally satisfied. Second, Jesus Christ is going to transform you to be like Himself (Philippians 3:20-21). That great work of grace, which God has patiently and progressively been working out in you, will reach its glorious conclusion. You will be like Him, and perfectly fitted forevermore to dwell in His presence. Thirdly, Jesus Christ is going to have you forever to Himself, to worship Him and enjoy Him in His glorious presence. We will marvel at Him! And Jesus’ long ago prayer to the Father will be fulfilled (John 17:24)!
This waiting for Christ is an attitude of heart. Much as I was eagerly looking to the last day of my Navy enlistment, we believers are to be expectantly looking forward to our blessed hope. It is the one hope that is to rise above all others, preeminently so, in our minds and hearts. But contrary to repeated admonitions in Scripture, I’m not sure we are always living with this kind of longing for His return. It’s far too easy to set our minds on earthly things and we will inevitably gravitate to that if the Spirit is not at work in us. We are earthbound by nature. Much like an un-inflated hot-air balloon. It’s only when you fill the balloon with hot air that it defies gravity and ascends above. The Holy Spirit has a ministry of focusing our eyes on Jesus, and thus lifting our hearts and thoughts to a higher plane. To the extent that He fills us, and the Word richly dwells within us, we will live our earth-bound days with a heaven-bound mindset. Helpful too, is the encouragement we can offer one another (Hebrews 10:25), as we collectively remind ourselves that our hope lies not in the here and now, but in the there and then!
We live in a broken world. Sin is an ever-present reality, and death looms over us all (Romans 7:24; Psalm 23:4). We are ever prone to look to human solutions to fix or avoid our plight. But God is great at redeeming things! And He has a plan! Jesus is coming again. He’s coming to take us home. In an instant all will be changed! For us, sin will be no more. There will be no more mourning or crying or pain or death or tears when that new day dawns and the morning star arises in our hearts (2 Peter 1:19). We will see Jesus as He is, and we will marvel at Him (1 John 3:2; 2 Thessalonians 1:10). Herein lies the salve for every wound, the comfort for every heartache, the fulfillment of every promise, the banishment of all evil, and the embracement of all that is pure. The promises of God all lean heavenward, and when we arrive in that promised home in the presence of God, we will experience unimaginable blessings (1 Corinthians 2:9).
In his book “The Christian Life and How to Live It,” W. H. Griffith-Thomas commented on this, “Hope, in the New Testament, is always associated with the great future connected with the Lord’s Coming. Again and again, indeed no less than three hundred times, is the “blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior,” brought before us as the expectation of the Christian, and the crown of all his aspirations and endeavors…We look forward with joy and satisfaction to the time when we shall see Him as He is, and be made like unto Him in His eternal and glorious kingdom… Joy looks upward, peace looks inward, hope looks forward. The Christian hope is fixed on the coming of the Lord!”
W. H. Griffith-Thomas
“If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”—C. S. Lewis
Someday we’ll cease our toiling here,
Our hopes are now on things above;
Someday, without a doubt or fear,
We’ll gather home to those we love.
Some blessed day, oh, joyful day,
When we shall speed from earth away!
Our feet shall press that golden shore,
To be with Christ forevermore.
LookingtoJesus 