Lessons #55 and 56
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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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Basis for the instructions on believers’ conduct (Titus 2:11-14)
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 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.
We began to consider the clause who gave himself for us of Titus 2:14 in our last study but we did not complete its consideration. However, we indicated that the clause requires we consider the doctrine of atonement. So, we will consider briefly this doctrine at this point in our study since we have considered the doctrine in greater details in our study of 1 John 1:7ff. If you are interested in the fuller treatment of the subject, we refer you to lessons #17ff of that study on our website. We are concerned with a limited consideration of the subject because the Apostle Paul wrote who gave himself for us without any mention of sins so that it may not be clear that what he meant to state is the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ for our sins.
Atonement as a word used among Christians is concerned with the act by which God and man are brought together in personal relationship, that is, the means of reconciliation between God and man. It is a word that appears in the OT but not in the NT although the concept is found in it. You probably may be confused because in our last study we read Romans 3:25 that we also consider shortly where we found the phrase a sacrifice of atonement of the NIV. The Greek text uses a word (hilastērion) that may mean “place of propitiation, means of expiation”, that is, “the means of forgiveness” giving rise to the various translations we have in the English versions. The NIV reads a sacrifice of atonement with an alternative reading of as the one who would turn aside his wrath, taking away sin. The CEB gives the reading the place of sacrifice where mercy is found. The point is that the word “atonement” as found in the NIV of Romans 3:25 is not in the Greek text so that we are correct in stating that the word “atonement” does not appear in the NT but the concept is found in it.
Why is atonement necessary for any human to have personal relationship with God? It is because sin, which is an affront on God’s character, separated humans from God as Prophet Isaiah states in Isaiah 59:2:
But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
God’s nature is such that sin cannot be forgiven without satisfying His righteousness and His justice that requires sin be punished. It is for this reason that Jesus Christ had to die for sins so that God may forgive sin as conveyed in Romans 3:25-26:
25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
God does not overlook any sin. This is where Satan has succeeded in deceiving the world through religion to think that God is going to arbitrarily forgive sin. Sin must be atoned for before there can be forgiveness. This is what God taught to the Jews through the animal sacrifices of the OT time. God must have a basis for satisfying His justice so as to be free to love and forgive man. One reason that we often fail to understand that love is not something that you have outside your character, is because we are prone to think of love in terms of sentimentality instead of character and action. Christ’s death on the cross on our behalf gave God the Father the reason to forgive us, since our sins have been punished, so to say, on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Another reason atonement is necessary for any human to have relationship with God related to the first, is the character of sin. Because we really do not understand the nature of sin in relation to the character of the Holy God, people do not understand that atonement is very necessary for its forgiveness. Sin is everything that opposes God. It is rebellion against God or lawlessness according to 1 John 3:4:
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
If we understand that sin is very repulsive to God, we can then understand why it is so important for our sins to be atoned so that God can have any form of relationship with us.
Another reason related to sin that necessitates atonement is that sin elicits the wrath of God, as indicated in Romans 1:18–20:
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 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.
Let me illustrate this reason with us. We get angry or some of us get so violent using curse words when someone wrongs us. In fact, in some cases we want to hurt the person or want to have nothing to do with the individual. If we sinful humans react that way to wrong do ne to us, can you imagine how God feels because of our sins. Since sin provokes God’s wrath then to abate God’s wrath sin must be atoned for.
It is not only that we need to understand the reason atonement is important but also, we should consider its extent because, as we have indicated, when the apostle wrote who gave himself for us the pronoun us clearly refers to believers. The implication is that Christ died for believers or the elect which causes problem with the various passages of the Scripture that indicate that Christ died for everyone. To see the point, consider what is stated in Matthew 20:28:
just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
This passage states that Christ died for many not all implying limited atonement. This implication seems to be contradicted by what Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 2:6:
who gave himself as a ransom for all men — the testimony given in its proper time.
Here Christ is asserted to have died for all, implying unlimited or universal atonement. Who then did Christ die for? Well, there is no conflict once we carefully examine several passages of the Scripture that state both assertions. Thus, we begin by considering some of the passages of the Scripture that state Christ died for all. These passages may be classified into four categories. The first category of passages declares that Christ died for the sins of the world. These include the following passages:
John 1:29:
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
John 3:16-17:
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
1 John 2:2:
He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
The second group of passages speaks of Christ’s death as all-inclusive or universal in intent. They include:
2 Corinthians 5:14-15:
14 For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
1 Timothy 4:10:
(and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.
This passage should be understood as proclaiming universal atonement for two reasons. First, there is a distinction made between all men and those who believe. Those who believe are a sub category of all men. It must mean that while salvation is possible for all but it is only an in reality for those who believe. Second, if we do not interpret it this way, we run into the danger of universal salvation, an error that is advanced by some scholars. The last passage in this second group is Hebrews 2:9:
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
The third group of passages consists of those that deal with the universal offer of the gospel and the passages where the word “whosoever,” with unrestricted meaning, appears. These include:
Matthew 24:14:
And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Matthew 28:19:
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,
Acts 10:43:
All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
The argument regarding these passages of the third group is that if Christ died only for the elect, how can the offer of salvation be made to all persons without some sort of insincerity or dishonesty being involved? It is improper to offer salvation to everyone if in fact Christ did not die for everyone. Of course, this is a very weak argument because the offer of gospel to all can be explained by the fact that there is no way to know who the elect is and therefore, the message must be given to all from which those who are elect will respond to the gospel. The final and fourth group of passages are those which seem to contradict the notion of Christ dying only for the elect and the universal love of God for the world. The first passage is John 3:16 that we have cited previously. The second is Romans 5:8:
But God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8 does not necessarily declare God’s universal love or that Christ died for all since the pronoun us is primarily a reference to believers.
Several passages state that Christ died for the elect or believers. These passages may be grouped into two categories: passages with clear statements and those with inferential statements. The passages with clear statements, state that Christ died for a specified group. It is implied that Christ died for Israel to save them from their sins, as we can gather from Matthew 1:21:
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."
The context indicates that the phrase his people refers to Israel. Another passage indicates that Jesus died for His sheep that included not only His immediate disciples but those who in the future will believe in Him, as stated in John 10:15–16:
15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.
Another passage states Jesus died for His friends in John 15:13:
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
Friends here refer to all those who obey God’s command. The second group of clear passages that should be cited are those that declare Christ died for the church. The first passage is Acts 20:28:
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.
A second passage is Ephesians 5:25:
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
A third passage is Romans 8:32:
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
We have cited passages that indicate Jesus died for all and for a select group so based on these passages; what can we assert about atonement or for whom Jesus died that will accommodate all the passages without conflict? There seems to be only one reasonable conclusion which is that atonement is unlimited, but its application is limited to the elect. This answer is described by some scholars as “unlimited atonement-limited redemption.” This conclusion will allow us to state that Christ died for us as believers since we are part of the humanity He died for, only that we are the ones who appropriate the benefits of His death on the cross. In effect, Christ’s death takes care of all sins but only the elect actually benefit from it
In any case, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul makes us aware of the results of the death of Christ on the cross for us in the passage in Titus we are studying. The first result is liberating us from the hold of sin that causes us to be lawless as in the verbal phrase of Titus 2:14 to redeem us from all wickedness. It may not appear that this verbal phrase is concerned with the hold of sin over us that causes us to be lawless in the sense of behaving openly in defiance of God’s law but it is as we can infer from considering the key words used in the phrase.
The first key word is “redeem” that is translate from a Greek word (lytroō) that may mean “to redeem” in the sense of freeing someone by payment of a ransom as it is used to describe believers being freed from futile or useless lifestyle through the death of Christ in 1 Peter 1:18–19:
18 For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.
The word may mean to liberate from an oppressive situation hence means “to set free, rescue, redeem” as it is used in the anticipation of the Jews of the time of Christ who had the expectation that Christ would liberate them from the oppressive rule of the Romans, as we can gather from Luke 24:21:
but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.
It is in the sense of being set free from that which is oppressive that the word is used in Titus 2:14.
The second key word is “wickedness” of the NIV that is translated from a Greek word (anomia) that may refer to a state or condition of being disposed to what is lawless hence means “lawlessness” as opposite of righteousness, as the word is used in describing the state of believers before they became saved in Romans 6:19:
I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.
The phrase in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness is more literally as slaves to immorality and lawlessness, leading to lawlessness. Although the translators of the NIV sometimes used the meaning “wickedness” to translate our Greek word but they certainly used the meaning of “lawlessness” for our word when it is used in defining sin in the passage we cited previously, that is, 1 John 3:4:
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
The Greek word may refer to the product of a lawless disposition hence means “a lawless deed,” or in the plural means “transgressions”, as in Romans 4:7:
“Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
It is probably in both senses that the word is used in Titus 2:14. In other words, as unbelievers, we had a condition that is disposed to what is lawless so that we demonstrated that disposition through committing lawless deeds. This being the case, the death of Christ on the cross results in freeing us from the hold of sin that causes us to be lawless, that is, to sin.
It is important that we are careful to understand what we mean by being freed from the power of sin. Firstly, because our experiences do not often reflect that we have been freed from the hold of sin. Secondly, because the Scripture indicates we have been set free from sin in Romans 6:18:
You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
To be set free from sin does not mean we are freed from our sinful nature in the sense that it no longer exists. No! We still have our sinful nature after salvation as our experiences confirm but more importantly as the Scripture implies. If we have been freed from our sin nature then the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul would not have informed us that there is an ongoing battle between the sinful nature and the Holy Spirit regarding the control of the believer’s soul, as indicated in Galatians 5:17:
For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
This passage implies that the sin nature has not be eradicated from the believer; otherwise, the verse will not make sense. Instead, to be set free from the power of sin means that the hold sin has over us has been neutralized. Sin had a strong hold on us so that it controlled us in such a way that we find ourselves rebelling against God’s law, as implied in what the Holy Spirit states through Apostle Paul in Romans 7:5:
For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death.
But when we were liberated from sin then that power that compels us to sin was broken but not removed. It is this truth that is conveyed in Romans 6:6:
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—
The brokenness of the power of sin in the believer is described in the clause that the body of sin might be done away with. The phrase the body of sin refers to sinful nature or the whole person enslaved by sin. The verbal phrase might be done away with refers to making ineffective or powerless since the phrase is translated from a Greek word (katargeō) that may mean “to cause something to come to an end”, but here the sense of the word is “to render powerless, to make in effective.” Hence, the apostle taught that the power of the sin nature over us has been rendered ineffective, but it is not destroyed in the sense that it ceases to exist. It still hangs around us waiting for us to activate it through disobedience. The idea expressed in the verse about rendering ineffective the power of sinful nature is like that of unplugging an electric device from power source so that it ceases to function but will function once plugged back. The death of Christ on the cross resulted in us being freed from power of sin in the sense that we have been freed temporally from its hold so that we do not have to obey the sin nature to rebel against God. Because this freedom on this planet is not permanent, we should strive to resist any attempt of the sinful nature to gain control over us through sin. This we can do by resisting temptation under the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. It is for this reason that we have the command of Galatians 5:16:
So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
The power of sin over us has been displaced by power of the Holy Spirit although not permanently hence the struggle to keep the sin nature from gaining control over us. We have been empowered by the Holy Spirit to resist the attempt of sin to gain control over us. Because we have the power of the Spirit, we have been commanded to ensure that we render ineffective any of our desires that will give the sin nature power over us, as stated in Colossians 3:5:
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Our prayer should mimic that of the psalmist who realized that it is possible that for the saved, the sin nature could dominate the individual, so he prayed in Psalm 119:133:
Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me.
Anyway, we are saying that the death of Christ on the cross freed us from the power of sin on this planet. But that is not all, we have been eternally freed from the effect of sin in that we are eternally free from condemnation due to sin as the Holy Spirit informs us is the case for those in Christ in Romans 8:1:
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
In any event, the first result of Christ’s death the apostle states in Titus 2:14 is liberation from the power of sin over us.
The freeing of believers from the power that sin has over us does not immediately make us ready to be useful to God in our relationship with Him. Furthermore, liberating us from the power of sin does not deal with sin that we have already committed. Therefore, a second action is required to ensure that we are useful to God. This action is a second result of the death of Christ on the cross for us that is indeed the forgiveness of our sins. It is this that is given in the verbal phrase of Titus 2:14 to purify for himself. The word “purify” is translated from a Greek word (katharizō) that may mean to make physically clean as it is used in Mark 7:19:
For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)
The word may mean “to heal, to make clean”, especially, regarding leprosy, as the word is used by both a leper and Jesus in the healing of the leper in Luke 5:12–13:
12 While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” 13 Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.
When the leper stated that Jesus can make him “clean”, he meant that Jesus could heal him. It is the same Greek word that is used for Jesus’ command Be clean! which is essentially saying “be healed”, as the result stated implies. The Greek word may mean “to purify, to make clean” both in a ceremonial sense and a moral sense. It is in the ceremonial sense that the word is used in the Lord’s instruction to Peter about unclean animals that were used to convey to him that he should not resist going to a Gentile who summoned him to his house, as we can gather from Acts 10:15:
The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
It is in moral sense of purifying that the word is used in the instruction of the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 7:1:
Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
It is in the sense of purifying or cleansing from moral contamination that the apostle used the word in Titus 2:14.
What does the apostle mean when he used the verbal phrase to purify? He means primarily that the death of Christ on the cross results in forgiveness of our sins. This understanding of our word may be seen from the context in which the Greek word translated “purify” is used. During the first church council in Jerusalem, Peter used our Greek word in showing that there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles regarding the matter of salvation in Acts 15:9:
He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.
When the apostle stated that God purified the hearts of the Gentiles by faith, he meant that God removed their sins from their soul, which is a way to say that God forgave them. This we should understand to be the case because the gospel message is one that is concerned with the forgiveness of sins as Jesus conveyed to His disciples before He returned to heaven in Luke 24:47:
and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Peter in his address to those assembled for the church council in Jerusalem referenced his preaching of the gospel to Gentiles in the house of Cornelius that was primarily a message of forgiveness of sin through faith in Jesus Christ, as we read in Acts 10:43:
All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Therefore, when the apostle spoke of God purifying the hearts of the Gentiles by faith, he meant they received God’s forgiveness by believing in Christ. It is for this reason that when our Greek word translated “to purify” is used in Acts 15:9 that the meaning is that of forgiveness of sins. The fact that “to purify” has the sense of to forgive sins may also be deduced from the epistle of John. The apostle dealing with forgiveness of sins that is possible because of the death of Christ in the cross writes in 1 John 1:7:
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
The clause and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin conveys that forgiveness of sin results from the death of Christ. In this passage, John indicates that it is the blood of Jesus, that is, His death on the cross that purifies us from all sin. However, the Lord Jesus spoke of His death as one that brings forgiveness of sins, as we read in Matthew 26:28:
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins
The pouring out of the blood of Jesus in Matthew is the same thing as His death on the cross. But Jesus said that such will result in forgiveness of sins. Thus, what He said is essentially the same thing the Holy Spirit says through Apostle John when he asserted that the blood of Jesus purifies us from sins. Since both Matthew 26:28 and 1 John 1:7 speak to the death of Jesus in terms of His blood and in Matthew the result of Jesus’ death is forgiveness of sins and in 1 John 1:7 the result is purification from sins, we should conclude that to purify in some contexts will be equivalent to forgive sins. This conclusion is further implied in 1 John 1:9:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Although it is possible to consider forgiving of sins and purifying from all unrighteousness as two different actions of God when we confess our sins, but it is probably that the two actions are essentially the same thing so that forgiveness of sins is again equivalent to purification from sins. This being the case, we are correct to indicate that when Apostle Paul wrote the verbal phrase of Titus 2:14 to purify for himself that he meant that the death of Christ leads to forgiveness of sins that will certainly include removal of any pollution of sin and the punishment due to sin.
The recipients of forgiveness of sins or purification from sins are believers who are God’s special people described in the NIV of Titus 2:1 4 in the clause a people that are his very own. The expression are his very own is the way that the translators of the NIV rendered a Greek adjective (periousios) that appears only here in the Greek NT but appears five times in the Septuagint; the word means “more than enough.” It is used in the Septuagint to translate a Hebrew word (seḡǔllāh) that means “treasured possession” or “personal wealth.” In all the occurrences of our Greek adjective in the Septuagint, it is used to describe Israel as God’s treasured possession, as for example, in Deuteronomy 26:18:
And the LORD has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands.
Thus, the Greek word pertains to being of a very special status and so means “special, chosen.” In our passage of Titus 2:14, it is used in the sense of “special” although the meaning “chosen” is possible since that is quite similar to Apostle Peter’s description of God’s people as a chosen group in 1 Peter 2:9:
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
This aside, the adjective is used in our passage to indicate special people of God that here refers to believers in Christ. It is therefore a reminder to all believers of how special we are before God in that our Lord Jesus died on the cross to make us His special people. We are special people and a chosen people of God with special privileges.
Privilege has responsibility associated with it so we believers are expected to do good works. It is this responsibility that is given in the last expression of Titus 2:14 eager to do what is good. This expression indicates that believers should be positively and intensely interested in good works as that is the sense of understanding the literal Greek that reads zealot of good works. You see, the word “eager” of the NIV is translated from a Greek word (zēlōtēs) that may mean an ultranationalist hence “a patriot, zealot”, as it is used as a cognomen of one of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ called Simon the Patriot or Zealot to distinguish him from Simon Peter in Acts 1:13:
When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James.
The word may also mean one who is earnestly committed to a cause and so means “enthusiast, adherent, loyalist” as Apostle Paul used it to describe himself in his defense before the Jews in Jerusalem, as stated in Acts 22:3:
“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.
The phrase of the NIV as zealous for God could, according to the standard Greek English lexicon of BADG, be translated one who is loyal to God. In our passage of Titus 2:14, the word has the sense of being positively and intensely interested in good works so that we should understand that believers are expected to be enthusiastic about good works. It is God’s purpose for us to do good works as the Holy Spirit also asserted through Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:10:
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
We are to be enthusiastic with respect to good works because God works in us. In other words, we are to respond to what God does in us so that we become eager for good works. God acts in us in such a way that we will be eager to do good works in keeping with the assertion of the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2:13:
for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
This clause for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose in Philippians indicates that God is the primary agent for causing believers to want to carry out God’s purpose; consequently, believers are secondary agents in having the desire to carry out God’s purpose. This being the case, it is only when we are controlled by the Holy Spirit that we will be enthusiastic about good works. Hence, for any believer to be zealous of good works, that individual must be filled of the Spirit. Therefore, you should strive to be under the control of the Holy Spirit by resisting temptation and if you succumb to quickly confess your sin. In any event, it is important for us to recognize that because we are God’s special people, our lives should be characterized with enthusiasm for good works. By the way, we should understand that good work refers to every activity of the believer that is intended to glorify God on this planet as our Lord Jesus indicated in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:16:
In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
Thus, good works refer to those things we do to benefit others as the apostle mentioned 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.
With this understanding of good works, we should always have our eyes open so that we can see every opportunity the Lord provides us to carry out good works that please Him. As we end, let me remind you of the message of this section that we have considered which is: Believers are expected to live the way specified in this epistle because of grace of God in salvation and what it teaches.
08/18/17