Lessons #07 and 08
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual exposition not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GWT = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Paul – his office and purpose (Titus 1:1-3)
... .2 a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, 3 and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
It is our assertion that a person’s piety or lack of it is affected by belief in the existence of an eternal future. Those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ have the confident expectation of an eternal future that involves a permanent living relationship with God and the associated blessings of such relationship. This truth was based on the phrase the hope of eternal life of Titus 1:2. We ended our last study by stating that there is more to this phrase. In effect, there is more Apostle Paul had to say about eternal life besides the fact that it affects a person’s devotion to God. He made two assertions about eternal life in the passage that we are considering that are intended to be an encouragement to those who are confidently expecting enjoyment of eternal life more fully with God in the future.
A first assertion of the apostle with respect to eternal life is that it is God’s promise from eternity. It is this assertion that is given in the last clause of Titus 1:2 which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time. The clause contains two important truths that may not be that obvious, so we need to harness them. The first truth of our clause is that a promise is as good as the character of the individual who makes it. Many of us have had the experience where someone makes us a promise but failed to deliver and so we get disappointed. If you have experienced this, it is probably because you did not understand this truth that we have stated. Whenever a person makes a promise, there are two factors we must know in order to have any faith in the promise: a person’s capability and a person’s reliability. By reliability, we mean how truthful and trustworthy the individual is. There are many people today who are not careful with what they say in that they do not recognize the gravity of telling lies. These individuals tend to differentiate in their minds between what they call “small lies” and “big lies.” The Scripture makes no such distinction. Every untruthful assertion is a lie before God so that there can be no distinction with respect to lying. This means that if you know that the person who makes a promise to you is known to be a person who is not afraid of lying then that person is not a reliable person. You see, a person who does not recognize how sinful it is to tell lies is a person who cannot be trusted. Therefore, before you take a promise made by someone seriously, it is important to know the person’s trustworthiness with respect to telling the truth. Let’s assume that you are convinced that the person who made a given promise to you is one who is truthful in what the individual says then you should consider a second factor before trusting the promise. The second factor is the person’s capability to carry out the individual’s promise. If you know that a person does not have the means to deliver what is promised, then you should not take the promise serious. Take for example, a person who is known to be truthful in all the individual says and does, promised to give you a million dollars at a specified time. However, you know that this person is not a millionaire, you should immediately recognize that the individual is incapable of such amount of money so that it would be foolish to expect the individual to fulfill such a promise. Hence, you get the point that the two factors of reliability and capability must be present when a promise is given in order to take the promise seriously. These two factors are subsumed in the clause we are considering.
The apostle in effect, tells us that we can confidently expect the fulfillment of the promise of eternal life because God is capable of delivering it to those who trust in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. This capability of God is implied in the phrase which God of Titus 1:2. How can the mention of God imply His capability, you may ask? Well, let me show you that this is the case. The relative pronoun which refers to eternal life in the phrase the hope of eternal life. That aside, when the apostle used the word “God”, it is not merely to identify the One who made the promise of eternal life but to focus on the first factor of capability that we mentioned. Here we imply that the apostle had the power of God in his mind. We say this because, as we argued in our last study, it is inconceivable that the apostle would have mentioned eternal life without his mind focusing on resurrection. Resurrection, in the mind of the apostle, would invoke the concept of the power of God. This we can deduce first from his defense before King Agrippa when he asked him the question of why it is difficult for him to believe in resurrection in Acts 26:8:
Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?
There are other passages in the apostle’s epistles to indicate he links resurrection to the power of God; for example, Colossians 2:12:
having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.
So, when the apostle mentioned God, we contend that he thought of God in terms of His attributes in keeping with his discussion of God’s revelation of Himself in creation, as we read in Romans 1:20:
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Anyway, the apostle in using the word “God” intends to convey to us the ability of God to deliver His promise of eternal life. It is not only that the word “God” focusses our attention on God’s power, but it also speaks of His eternal existence. That when the apostle mentioned God, that the thought of His power and eternal existence would have been brought to his mind by the Holy Spirit may be deduced by the fact that the Holy Spirit brought the same concept of God’s power and eternal existence in the mind of Apostle John, as per what he wrote in John 5:26:
For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself.
The clause the Father has life in himself affirms two things: God is alive, and He has power to give life. Hence, it is difficult to conceive that t Apostle Paul would have mentioned God in the same verse that he introduced the concept of eternal life without him thinking of God’s power and eternal existence. Thus, when he wrote the phrase which God of Titus 1:2, he focused not only on God’s qualities, especially that of His power, but also the fact that the eternal God is the One who gives eternal life. We know that a person cannot give to others what the individual does not have, hence it will make sense that when the apostle mentioned God, he would have also thought of the life that God has in Himself as the self-existent One. It is because God is powerful and so can give eternal life that the believer should confidently expect God to fulfill His promise with respect to eternal life. Of course, as we have studied previously, eternal life is such that the believer already has it because of faith in Christ who is eternal life, as the Scripture declared in 1 John 5:20:
We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Those who have Christ have eternal life at the present time as per 1 John 5:13 but there is a time when the fullness of eternal life will be enjoyed by those who at the present have it. This brings us to the second factor of reliability that must be found in a person who makes a promise in order for that promise to be taken seriously.
A second factor necessary to be confident that a person’s promise would be fulfilled is reliability or trustworthiness. It is this attribute of God that the apostle affirmed negatively in the clause who does not lie of Titus 1:2 of the NIV. An alternative literal translation of this clause is the trustworthy God. This is because we have a Greek word (apseudēs) that appears only once in the Greek NT; it means free from all deceit, and so means “trustworthy, truthful.” The word “trustworthy” is similar in meaning to “truthful” but the two words are not the same. The word “truthful” pertains to telling or disposed to tell the truth while “trustworthy” pertains to being able to be relied on as honest, truthful or reliable. Another word for “trustworthy” is “dependable.” No doubt both words convey that which are true of God but perhaps the emphasis here is that of God’s trustworthiness. This is because the word “trustworthy” is often used in the Scripture to describe God’s word, as for example, in Psalm 19:7:
The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The trustworthiness of the word of God is also implied in the revelation given to Apostle John by an angel, as stated in Revelation 22:6:
The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.”
Of course, the word “trustworthy” may be used to describe a person, as Apostle Paul applied this adjective to himself in his instruction to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 7:25:
Now about virgins: I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.
However, because the Greek word translated “who does not lie” in Titus1:2 is used in the context of God’s promise, it is probably better to use the meaning “trustworthy” in describing God in this passage. This does not mean that it is not possible to describe God using the word “truthful” since that is also implied with respect to God’s character in 1 Samuel 15:29:
He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind.”
The concept of being truthful is also applied to God’s promise in Hebrews 6:18:
God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.
The two unchangeable things that the human author of Hebrews meant are the promise of God and the oath He swore. Thus, it is not wrong to use the meaning “truthful” to describe God in Titus 1:2 only that because the focus is on God’s promise with respect to eternal life that it may be better to show that God can be depended to fulfill His promise that we opt for the meaning of the Greek word used as “trustworthy.” In effect, we are saying that God’s promise of eternal life can be relied on because God’s word is trustworthy. Anyway, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul wanted us to be certain that God’s promise of eternal life is true because of who He is and how reliable His word is. In any event, the first truth of the clause of Titus 1:2 which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time is that a promise is as good as the character of the person who makes it. If you apply this truth, you will save yourself from some problems. This brings us to the second truth.
A second truth conveyed in the clause of Titus 1:2 which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time is that the epistle is inspired. How is that, you may ask? It is because the apostle asserted what happened in the past or in a period before human existence. There is no way for anyone to be certain of what happened in the past without either being a personal witness or having a record of it at the time of that event. It is failure to observe this simple fact that it is at the root of the misconception of the theories that purport to speak of the earth as being billions of years old or even the theory of evolution. No one was there when creation of the earth took place and so to say with authority of when that happened is really to claim divine inspiration which the scientists who advocate such theories do not claim. It is because no one knows with certainty what happened in the past without either being present or having a record of whatever event in question that we assert that what the apostle wrote is an indication of the inspiration of his epistle. The apostle had no way of knowing about God’s promise at a time that no human being was in existence to hear it. Thus, for him to write that God promise eternal life when no human being was in existence must be because he was divinely inspired to write that truth. This truth is applicable even if the time of this promise is disputed by some, as we will note later.
The time of this promise of eternal life is given in the phrase before the beginning of time of the NIV. There are those who take the phrase as a reference to a time period of the OT so that they take the position that the promise is parallel to that the apostle mentioned in Romans 1:2–4:
2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
The problem of using this passage to interpret the phrase before the beginning of time is the promised gospel is said to have been through the prophets but in Titus 1:2, the apostle only stated of a promise without specifying that it was through the prophets and so he was not thinking of the same thing or the same time phrase in both passages. Those who support this interpretation of a reference to the OT period also support their position by assuming the promise here is that made to the Serpent at the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:15:
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Granting that this promise is concerned with the coming of the Messiah, it is not a direct promise of eternal life as stated in Titus 1:2. So it is unlikely that the apostle was thinking of this promise to the Serpent and by implication to Adam and Eve. Hence, it makes more sense to accept that the apostle was thinking of God’s promise before creation or time began. The close parallel to the concept expressed in Titus 1:2 is that of grace stated to have been given prior to creation, as recorded in 2 Timothy 1:9:
who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,
In any event, the phrase the beginning of time in Titus 1:2 is the way the translators of the NIV translated a Greek phrase that literally reads times eternal. The Greek phrase is associated with a Greek preposition (pro) that means “before” so that the Greek phrase before times eternal refers to time which has always continued (in the form of endless ages), prior to which God devoted Himself to believers. Hence, the Greek phrase is translated “before the ages began” or “before the beginning of time.” Regardless of how the Greek phrase is translated, the fact remains that we are dealing with a period that precedes the existence of mankind on this planet. This being the case, there is no way for the apostle to know of God’s promise that was made, so to say, at time prior to human existence unless it is revealed to him by God. It is for this reason we stated that the clause of Titus 1:2 which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time conveys the concept of inspiration. In any event, the first assertion of the apostle with respect to eternal life is that it is God’s promise from eternity.
A second assertion of the apostle with respect to eternal life is that it has been revealed in time. This assertion is conveyed in the first clause of Titus 1:3 and at his appointed season he brought his word to light. God is sovereignly in control of all things in His plan, therefore, He decides when and how to reveal His plan with respect to eternal life. It is because no one determines God’s time table on which He functions that we have the phrase at his appointed season that literally reads from the Greek of His own time. This is because the word “appointed” of the NIV is translated from Greek word (idios) that may mean “one’s own”, as the apostle used it to describe those who instead of obtaining God’s righteousness through faith in Christ, seek to establish their own righteousness, as stated in Romans 10:3:
Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
Another meaning of the Greek word translated “appointed” in the NIV of Titus 1:3 is “privately”, as the apostle used it in connection with his disclosing to a select few of those in the early church the content of the gospel he preached, as we read in Galatians 2:2:
I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.
The Greek word translated “appointed” in the NIV may also mean “belonging to or peculiar to an individual”, as the apostle used it in a negative manner in the context of explaining why spouses should not withhold sexual relationship from each other in 1 Corinthians 7:4:
The wife’s body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife.
How is the Greek word used in our passage? It is in the sense of “peculiar or unique” to something, which the NIV indicates is “season”
The word “season” is translated from a Greek word (kairos) that may mean “time” in a general sense, as it is used in 2 Corinthians 6:2:
For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.”
I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
The Greek word translated “season” in the NIV of Titus 1:3 may mean “fixed time, season, occasion,” as it is used in Galatians 4:10:
You are observing special days and months and seasons and years!
The Greek word in question may also mean “opportunity or proper time or right time,” as it is used in connection with doing good in Galatians 6:10:
Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
In Titus 1:3, it is used in the sense of “fixed time” or “opportune time.” Thus, the Greek phrase translated appointed season in the NIV may be understood as the proper time.
In any case, there is a proper time for everything in God’s plan to take place. For example, there was the proper time for Jesus Christ to come to this world through the virgin birth in order to die for our sins, as stated in Galatians 4:4:
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law,
The fact there was the proper time for Jesus to die for our sins is stated in Romans 5:6:
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
In our context of Titus 1:3, the event that occurred at the proper time in God’s plan is the revelation of the message or promise that is concerned with eternal life, as we read in Titus 1:3 he brought his word to light. The expression “brought ... to light” is translated from a Greek word (phaneroō) that may mean “to make known, disclose, show” someone or something. Thus, the Greek word is used to report the urging of the brothers of Jesus Christ to make Himself known to the people, as we read in John 7:4:
No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”
It is used by Apostle Paul in the sense of making something known that was previously unknown about God’s future action regarding the activities of believers in 1 Corinthians 4:5:
Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God.
The Greek word translated “brought ... to light” in Titus 1:3 of the NIV may mean “to reveal, to appear.” The meaning “to appear” is used in connection with the judgment seat of Christ in 2 Corinthians 5:10:
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
It is in the sense of revealing or making things visible that our Greek word is used in Ephesians 5:13:
But everything exposed by the light becomes visible,
In our passage of Titus 1:3, it is in the sense of “making known” or “disclosing” something so that it is clearly known that the Greek word is used.
The thing that God revealed or disclosed at the proper time is the message or promise in connection with the eternal life that He promised as implied in the sentence he brought his word to light of the NIV of Titus 1:3. The word “word” is translated from a Greek word (logos) that although means “word” but it has a range of meanings. The Greek word translated “word” when used with God may mean “promise”, as it is used in the Apostle Paul’s defense of election, as recorded in Romans 9:6:
It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
The phrase God’s word refers to God’s promise, consequently some English versions such as the TEV and NJB instead of the phrase God’s word used the phrase promise of God or similar expression in their translation. The word may mean “statement”, as it is used by Apostle Paul to summarize the commandments given in the OT Scripture in Romans 13:9:
The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
The phrase in this one rule is more literally in this statement/word. The Greek word translated “word” may mean “message.” It could mean “message” as content of what is said, as Apostle Paul used it in 1 Corinthians 1:18:
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The meaning “message” may refer to what is communicated, as in 1 Corinthians 12:8:
To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,
The Greek word translated “word” may refer to a unit of language that native speakers can identify as the apostle used it in 1 Corinthians 14:19:
But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.
The meaning “message” may be understood as the gospel, as it is used in Colossians 4:3:
And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.
It is in this sense of the gospel that the Greek word translated “word” is used by the apostle in Colossians 1:25:
I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness—
The phrase the word of God is a reference to the gospel. The Greek word translated “word” in Titus 1:3 may mean “speech” as it is used by Apostle Paul to describe what his opponents say about him in 2 Corinthians 10:10:
For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.”
The phrase his speaking is more literally his speech. The Greek word translated “word” may mean “the Logos” as the independent personified expression of God, as it is used to describe Jesus Christ in John 1:1:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
We have considered the various meanings of the Greek word translated “word” in Titus 1:3, so the question is to determine in what sense it is used in our passage. It is in the sense of “promise” or “message” that the word is used. In effect, God revealed His promise of eternal life at the appropriate time through the message of the gospel. This promised eternal life is found in Jesus Christ, as Apostle Paul states in 2 Timothy 1:1:
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
This truth that eternal life is in Jesus Christ is also affirmed by the Holy Spirit through Apostle John in 1 John 5:11–12:
11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Anyway, the promise of eternal life in Christ Jesus is unknown to mankind as evident in the fact that people are not seeking to claim this promise. Those who think of life after death often seek to obtain a better life in the eternal state through their own efforts. This is because they are ignorant that God has made a promise of eternal life that is available only through the Lord Jesus Christ. Anyway, the truth is that God has made a promise of eternal life but this promise is unknown to humans and so the only way we could have known of it is if God revealed it to us. Hence, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul informed us that this promise of eternal life has been revealed at the proper time in God’s plan, as stated in Titus 1:3 at his appointed season he brought his word to light.
How did God reveal this promise of eternal life to us? The Apostle gives us an answer to this question in the passage we are considering but before we get to this answer, let me state that the revelation of this promise was made when Jesus Christ came into the world. In other words, once God took on human form, that was Him revealing His promise of eternal life in a bodily form, as implied in John 1:14:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
It is our claim that once God took on human nature that that was when the promise of eternal life was revealed but that does not mean humans understood it since those who lived at the time of incarnation did not know this revelation automatically, as evident from the assertion of the Holy Spirit through Apostle John that the world did not recognize Jesus Christ as the One who brought eternal life or fulfillment of the promise of eternal life God had made in eternity, as we read in John 1:10:
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
It is not only that when God became flesh the promise of eternal life was revealed but also the message that the only way to eternal life is through Jesus Christ was proclaimed. Jesus Christ taught that He is the dispenser of eternal life, as we read, for example, in John 6:27:
Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.”
This assertion that eternal life is only through Him was also made clearer in His claim stated in John 6:40:
For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”
Thus, the appearance of Jesus Christ to this planet not only was the revelation of the promise of eternal life but His teaching pointed to this truth. The implication is that Jesus Christ is the first to explain that the promise of eternal life has been revealed in Him and through His teaching.
Be that as it may, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul informed us that he was God’s instrument in revelation of this promise of eternal life because of the phrase of Titus 1:3 through the preaching. The phrase indicates that the way any human being can become aware of this promise of eternal life is through the preaching of the word of God. Preaching or proclamation is the only way to convey the content of God’s promise or message to others. Take for example, it is through preaching that Prophet Jonah warned the people of Nineveh of God’s threatened destruction that led to their repentance, as the Lord Jesus Christ referenced in Luke 11:32:
The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.
The Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul tells us that it is only through the preaching or declaration of God’s word that people become aware of God’s promise of eternal life or become aware of the gospel message, as we read in Romans 10:14–15:
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
This passage in Romans 10 clearly conveys the truth that without the preaching of the gospel, people would not come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and so will not enjoy the promise of eternal life that is offered in Him. Therefore, it is incumbent upon you as a believer to recognize the importance of preaching the gospel to the unbeliever so that such an individual will know of the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ. This means that it is important to communicate to an unbeliever that God has promised eternal life to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, as we read, for example, in John 3:36:
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”
In any event, I want to impress upon you the importance of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to unbelievers. This is an important mission of the church of Christ, as the Lord Himself commanded in Matthew 28:18–20:
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
You do not have to be an evangelist to carry out this responsibility. The very moment you become saved, you have been placed in a position that you should tell others the same message you believed that led to your salvation. The apostle speaks to this responsibility as it concerns him, as we will consider in our next study.
02/03/17