“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 NIV
Because of God’s abundant grace and mercy—God
came down from His own kingdom into the earth as Jesus Christ (John
1:14), in order to save us from our sins by crucifying Himself on the cross
as an atonement. This means He destroyed the evil one that has been controlling
our minds into sin that leads us to death (Colossians
2:13-15; Hebrews
2:14-15), so we can be fully-saved (Acts
4:12). For this reason, the word of God declares,
At one time we too
were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and
pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But
when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because
of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through
the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us
generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by
his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a
trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who
have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.
These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
For it is by grace
you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the
gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Titus
3:3-8, Ephesians 2:8-9)
Therefore, we only ought to believe in
Jesus Christ until the end of the age to get our eternal inheritance from God (John
3:16-18). This is because if we believe in Him, then we are able to do the
works of God as well. “For we are God’s
handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in
advance for us to do.” (Ephesians
2:10) However, we must lose our lives (Matthew
16:24-27), which means to crucify our worldly passions and desires. Instead
of having those ones, we have to let the Spirit of God to transform our mindset
to have godly ones (Romans
12:1-2; Galatians
5:24-25). This is why the word of God states,
Do not love this
world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not
have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for
physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our
achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this
world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave.
But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. And it is impossible to
please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God
exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. (1
John 2:15-17, Hebrews 11:6)
His divine power
has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him
who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his
very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in
the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil
desires.
For this very
reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness,
knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance;
and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to
mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing
measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your
knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is
nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past
sins.
Therefore, my
brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election.
For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich
welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2
Peter 1:3-11)
Don’t be
misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you
plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest
decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the
Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of
doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing
if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do
good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith. (Galatians
6:7-10)
Overall, we ought to keep the living hope
from the Holy Spirit (1
Peter 1:3-9), because this hope is going to help us to persevere any
hardships/difficulties/uncomfortableness that may come in our way of walking
with our heavenly Father. (Romans
8:31-39)
Therefore we do
not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being
renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us
an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is
seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is
unseen is eternal. (2
Corinthians 4:16-18)
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