WHO GAVE
HIMSELF FOR US: hos edôken (3SAAI) heauton huper hęmôn: (Mt 20:28;
Jn 6:51;
10:15;
Gal 1:4;
2:20;
3:13;
Eph 5:2,23,
24,
25,
26,
27;1Ti 1:15;2:6;
Heb 9:14;
1Pe 3:18;
Rev 1:5,
5:9)
Paul now reverts back
from the prophetic future (looking for the blessed hope - the future
Second Coming of Christ) to the historical work of Christ which laid the
foundation for His present work of sanctification in believers.
Expositor's Greek Testament
notes that...
This is an appeal from the
constraining love of Christ to the responding love of man.
Who gave Himself -
Speaking of His vicarious suffering and death. The act of giving Himself
indicates Christ’s willing, gracious gift of Himself. Christ by His own
choice gave humanity the priceless gift of His perfect, sinless life.
The idea of "gave" is that this was a gift and as such could not
be earned or merited or deserved!
Hiebert writes
that...
"Who gave himself for us" summarizes
that work as voluntary, exhaustive, and substitutionary. His giving of
himself was the grandest of all gifts.
(Gaebelein,
F, Editor: Expositor's Bible Commentary 6-Volume New Testament.
Zondervan Publishing)
In First Timothy we read...
(Christ Jesus) Who gave Himself
as a ransom for all, the testimony borne at the proper time. (1
Timothy 2:6)
For us - Paul includes himself here and thus is speaking of
believers, including Titus to whom he is writing.
For
(5228)
(huper) is a
preposition which serves in some contexts (as in this verse) as a marker
indicating that an activity or event is in some entity’s interest or in
behalf of or for the sake of someone else.
Thus in this verse
huper depicts the substitutionary atonement...
Christ “for the sake of" ______ (fill in your name).
Christ "in behalf
of"_________ (fill in your name).
Christ "instead of”_________ (fill in your name).
Compare the notes on
1 Peter 3:18,
Romans 5:6,
Romans 5:8
See a foreshadowing of this
reality in the great epistle of Hebrews where we read about the Old
Testament ritual describing the Day of Atonement noting that...
into the second (the Holy of holies)
only the high priest enters, once a year, not without taking blood,
which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in
ignorance. (see note
Hebrews 9:7)
Paul’s great doctrine of substitution is reiterated in the famous
passage where Paul declares...
I have been crucified with Christ;
and it is no longer l who live, but Christ lives in me and [the life]
which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who
loved me and gave Himself up for me. (see note
Galatians 2:20)
Huper is used in John 11:49-50,
Caiaphas, the high priest, speaking prophetically declared...
You know nothing at all, nor do you
take into account that it is expedient for you that one man should die
for (huper = in the place of) the people, and that the
whole nation should not perish.
In Galatians Paul used huper with a
similar meaning writing...
Christ redeemed us from the curse of
the Law, having become a curse for (huper = "instead of") us--
for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE" (Galatians
3:13)
THAT HE MIGHT REDEEM US
FROM EVERY LAWLESS DEED: hina lutrosetai (3SAMS) hemas pases anomias:
(Ge 48:16;
Ps 130:8;
Ezek 36:25;
Mt 1:21;
Ro 11:26
27
Lu 24:21;
1Pet 1:18)
That
(hina) expresses purpose and here clearly explains the
purpose for which sinners have been redeemed as saints.
Redeem
(3084)
(lutroo
from lútron = ransom in turn from
lúo = loose) (Click
word study on lutroo) in simplest terms means to release someone
held captive (prisoner, slave) on receipt of a ransom payment (the
"ransom" being the technical term for money paid to buy back a prisoner
of war) with the implied analogy of freeing a slave set free (liberate,
liberation, deliverance).
The Roman Empire had by some estimates as many
6 million slaves and the buying and selling of slaves was a major
business. If a person wanted to free a loved one or friend who was a
slave, they would buy (pay the redemption price = lutroo)
the slave for themselves and then grant the slave his or her freedom,
testifying to the slave's new state of liberation or deliverance with a
written certificate.
Enslavement to sin is
bondage, whereas enslavement to God is freedom (see discussion of
eleutheroo = to set free from
domination). True freedom means
having the ability to yield your will to His good and perfect will and thereby become all He
created you to be, set free from sin and free to live an abundant,
"victorious" life pleasing to
God empowered by His Spirit.
Lutroo is in
middle voice which indicates that the person who carries out the action
(of redemption) has a special
interest in what the overall transaction. This is certainly the case in the redemption
accomplished by Christ as Paul explains in the remainder of this verse.
The three uses of
lutroo are all translated “redeem” and tell the story of
the Cross.
In Lu 24:21 it means to set Israel free from the Roman yoke
"But we were hoping that it was He
who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is
the third day since these things happened.
in Titus 2:14 it means to set men free from the yoke of self-will,
who gave Himself for us, that He
might redeem (lutroo) us from every lawless deed and purify for
Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
in
1 Peter 1:18 (note) from a vain manner of life, i.e., from bondage to tradition.
knowing that you were not redeemed
(lutroo) with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way
of life inherited from your forefathers,
Spurgeon comments...
That word “redemption” sounds in my
ears like a silver bell. We are ransomed, purchased back from slavery,
and this at an immeasurable price; not merely by the obedience of
Christ, nor the suffering of Christ, nor even the death of Christ, but
by Christ’s giving himself for us. All that there is in the great God
and Savior was paid down that he might “redeem us from all iniquity.”
The splendor of the Gospel lies in the redeeming sacrifice of the Son of
God, and we shall never fail to put this to the front in our preaching.
It is the gem of all the Gospel gems. As the moon is among the stars, so
is this great doctrine among all the lesser lights which God hath
kindled to make glad the night of fallen man. Paul never hesitates; he
has a divine Savior and a divine redemption, and he preaches these with
unwavering confidence. Oh that all preachers were like him!
From
(575) (apo) indicates effective removal from that sphere and our
deliverance from "all" aspects of the domination of
Sin
and our fallen
flesh.
Lawless (458)
(anomia from a = neg. + nomos = etymologically
something parceled out, allotted, what one has in use and possession;
hence, usage, custom, rule, law) describes violation/transgression of
law, wickedness; iniquity.
Lawlessness is the essence of sin and represents self-assertion as
opposed to the self-sacrifice of unconditional love.
Hiebert writes that...
lawlessness (is) that
assertion of self-will in defiance of God's standard that is the essence
of sin. The expression ("redeem us from every lawless deed") stresses
not our guilt as rebels but rather our deliverance from bondage to
lawlessness through Christ's ransom. (Ibid)
Expositor's Greek Testament
writes that...
To what degree soever we allow the
love of Christ to operate as a controlling principle in our lives, to
that degree we are delivered from anomia (lawlessness) as an opposing
controlling principle.
Lawlessness is living as
though your own ideas are superior to God's.
Lawlessness says, "God
may demand it but I don't prefer it."
Lawlessness says, "God
may promise it but I don't want it."
Lawlessness replaces
God's law with my contrary desires. I become a law to myself.
Lawlessness is rebellion
against the right of God to make laws and govern His creatures.
John gives a direct definition of
anomia writing...
Everyone who practices (present tense)
sin also practices (present tense)
lawlessness; and sin is (present tense)
lawlessness. (1John
3:4)
So as John teaches, lawlessness equates with sin. Salvation delivers the
redeemed permanently from enslavement to the power of Sin. The
unregenerate person is in total bondage to the ruling power of Sin, the
principle of which indwells them.
Notice also that believer were not
set free from some of the lawless deeds but from all. Thus there is
nothing incomplete about Christ's redemption. When He paid the
redemption price, He paid it in full and declared
It is finished! (John
19:30)
Paul (though his emissary Titus) is
exhorting the believers in Crete now to live like men who have been
redeemed and set free to obey a new Master.
><> ><> ><>
REDEMPTION ILLUSTRATED -
A missionary in
West Africa was trying to convey the meaning of the word redeem in
the Bambara language. So he asked his African assistant to express
it in his native tongue.
"We say," the assistant replied, "that
God took our heads out."
"But how does that explain
redemption?" the perplexed missionary asked.
The man told him that many years ago some of his ancestors had
been captured by slave-traders, chained together, and driven to
the seacoast. Each of the prisoners had a heavy iron collar around
his neck. As the slaves passed through a village, a chief might
notice a friend of his among the captives and offer to pay the
slave-traders in gold, ivory, silver, or brass. The prisoner would
be redeemed by the payment. His head then would be taken out of
his iron collar. What an unusual and graphic illustration of the
word redeem! Let Him take your head out of the enslaving collar of
sin and set you free. Christ was lifted up on the cross that we
might be lifted out of our sin.
Redeemed-how I love to proclaim it!
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb;
Redeemed through His infinite mercy-
His child, and forever I am.
(Play
Redeemed How I Love to Proclaim It! by
Fanny Crosby!)
><>
><> ><>
AND PURIFY FOR
HIMSELF: kai katharise (3SAAS) heauto: (Mal 3:3;
Mt 3:12;
Acts 15:9;
Heb 9:14;Js 4:8;
1Pe 1:22;
1Jn 3:2,
3:3)
(Ezek 37:23)
Purify for Himself
- In his elaboration on the New Covenant, the prophet Ezekiel
records God's promise to the believing remnant of Israel that...
they will no longer defile themselves
with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their
transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places
in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My
people, and I will be their God. (Ezekiel 37:23)
Hiebert explains that...
This negative work (redeem us from
every lawless deed) is the necessary prelude to the positive work of
sanctification, "to purify for himself a people that are his very own."
Purify points to the moral defilement that man's rebellion
produced. Sin makes us not only guilty but also unclean before a holy
God. The blood-wrought cleansing (1 John 1:7) enables men to be restored
to fellowship with God as "a people that are his very own." Since they
have been redeemed by his blood (see notes
1 Peter 1:18;
19;
20;
21),
Christ yearns that they voluntarily yield themselves wholly to him. Such
a surrender is man's only reasonable response to divine mercy (see notes
Romans 12:1;
12:2).
(Ibid)
Purify
(2511) (katharizo
from katharos = pure, cleansed, without stain or spot; English words
- catharsis = emotional or physical purging, cathartic = substance used
to induce a purging, Cathar = member of a medieval sect which sought the
purging of evil from its members) means to cause something to become
clean from contamination or impurity or
to
make clean by taking away an undesirable part. To cleanse from filth or
impurity. Katharizo means to cause to become
clean as from physical stains and dirt (Mt 23:25).
This word group
conveys the idea of physical, religious, and moral cleanness or purity
in such senses as clean, free from stains or shame, and free from
adulteration.
In secular Greek
katharizo occurs in inscriptions
for ceremonial cleansing.
Click here
(and
here) for more background
on the important Biblical concept of clean and cleansing.
Figuratively katharizo
referred to cleansing from ritual contamination or impurity as in (Acts
10:15). In a similar sense katharizo is used of cleansing lepers from
ceremonial uncleanness (Mt 8:2-3, et al)
Another figurative
use in 1John 1:9 (cf James 4:8, Hebrews 10:2) describes the purifying or
cleansing from sin and a guilty conscience thus making one acceptable to
God and reestablishing fellowship.
In the present context the cleansing is not just an external cleansing
like that of the hypocritical Pharisees who cleansed (katharizo)
only
the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside" they remained "full
of robbery and self-indulgence. (Mt 23:25)
The quality of purification that Jesus produces is prefigured by His
miraculous healing of the leprous man, Matthew recording that Jesus
stretched out His hand and touched him, saying, "I am willing; be
cleansed
(katharos)." And immediately his leprosy was cleansed (katharizo).
(Mt 8:3)
Only God can cleanse a
leper and only the God Man, Jesus can purify sinners on the "inside" of
"robbery and self-indulgence".
Paul's use of the
aorist tense for
katharizo
conveys the truth that Jesus' purification of sinners was a once for
all, effective, completed action, which equates with "past tense"
salvation or the justification which occurs once for all time
when a sinner receives the free gift of salvation by grace through
faith.
Paul speaking of Jesus and His church writes that He has
cleansed (katharizo) her (His bride the Church) by the washing of water with the
word (see note
Ephesians 5:26).
The Greek Septuagint uses
katharizo when it
translates David's prayer --
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.
Cleanse
(Lxx = katharizo) me from my sin. (Ps 51:2).
John uses katharizo twice in first chapter of his first
epistle, teaching that
if we walk in the light as He Himself
is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of
Jesus His Son cleanses (katharizo) us from all sin." and that "If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse (katharizo) us from all unrighteousness. (1Jn 1:7
1:9)
In both of these uses in First John,
the purification that is wrought in believers by Jesus refers to
"present tense" salvation or sanctification which is a process that
began with our our initial purification (justification) and which will
continue until our "future tense" salvation or glorification is
realized.
Until that glorious occasion Paul writes
having these
promises, beloved, let us cleanse (katharizo)
ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness
in the fear of God. (2Cor 7:1)
In so doing we will indeed be a "peculiar people", each
a vessel for honor, sanctified,
useful to the Master, prepared for every good work (deed). (see note
2 Timothy 2:21)
A PEOPLE FOR HIS OWN
POSSESSION: laon periousion:
(Ex 15:16;
19:5,6;
Dt 7:6;
14:2;
26:18;
Ps 35:4;
1Peter 2:9)
This verse is most literally rendered
"a peculiar people". Below are other translations
for comparison...
people to be peculiarly His own -
Amplified
His own special possession - Analyzed Literal Translation
so that we can be His special people GWT
unto himself a peculiar people - KJV
a people who are truly His - NET
a people that are his very own - NIV
His own special people - NKJV
a people of his own - Phillips paraphrase
a people as his own treasure - Rotherham
people who belong to Him alone - TEV
a people who should be specially His own - Weymouth
a people of His own private possession, - Wuest
Spurgeon comments that...
The translation “peculiar people”
is unfortunate, because “peculiar” has come to mean odd, strange,
singular. The passage really means that believers are Christ’s own
people, His choice and select portion. Saints are Christ’s crown jewels,
His box of diamonds; His very, very, very own. He carries His people as
lambs in His bosom; He engraves their names on His heart. They are the
inheritance to which He is the heir, and He values them more than all
the universe beside. He would lose everything else sooner than lose one
of them. He desires that you, who are being disciplined by his grace,
should know that you are altogether His. You are Christ’s men. You are
each one to feel, “I do not belong to the world; I do not belong to
myself; I belong only to Christ. I am set aside by Him for Himself only,
and His I will be.” The silver and the gold are His, and the cattle
upon a thousand hills are His; but He makes small account of them, “the
Lord’s portion is His people.” (From Spurgeon's sermon
Two Appearings & the Discipline of Grace)
I like what Bryan Chapell
writes about this passage...
The work of salvation is His, and we
are His. These statements are our great protection against legalism
and our great propulsion toward godliness. Because Christ’s work
alone purchases our salvation through the redeeming price of His blood,
and Christ’s work alone purifies us through the cleansing that blood
supplies, we do not look to our works as the basis of acceptance. Doing
what God requires does not make us His own, but having been made His own
by no work of ours, we now love to love Him who first loved us (cf. 1
John 4:19).
"LOVE HIM WITH
ALL HIS HEART"
My daughter sometimes says to her
mother,
“Mommy, I love you with all your
heart.”
I realize why a three-year-old says
such things. She tries to show her love by mistakenly echoing her
mother’s frequent endearment,
“Katie, I love you with all my
heart.”
But it is no mistake that here in
Titus, God teaches us to love Him with all His heart. He pours
before us the signs of the love, so that we will love and respond to Him
at as high and close a level of affection as the human heart can
sustain.
What does being a loved people do to us? It makes us more
sensitive to sin. I want you to note clearly the apostle’s order. God’s
people are first ransomed by His work, then purified to be His own, then
they are “eager” (zealous) to do good (Titus: 2:14).
In some ways this message turns
upside down our more common approach to how the Christian life operates.
We tend to think that we cannot see the love of God until we see our
sin, but Paul here makes it clear that it is seeing the love of God that
enables us to see our sin.
Apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ makes us so long to love
Him and reject what hurts Him that we become intolerant of the sin in
our lives. I understand this as I look at my own marriage. The
longer I am married, the more I marvel at my wife’s love for me despite
my early coldness and continuing selfishness. But the more I see how
much she loves me the more conscious I become of my insensitivities and
the more eager I am to please her. The more I perceive her love, the
more I cannot stand my sin against her. In the same way, when we see how
wondrous is the love of Christ, then we become more and more sensitive
to the sin in our lives and we long more and more to do what pleases
Him.
THE POWER OF
NEW AFFECTIONS
This dynamic of having the love of
God create an intolerance for sin is what the Puritans called the power
of new affections. What will ultimately make us holy is not willpower,
not guilt, not an inspiring message, but apprehension of the mercy of
God in Christ that actually causes love for God to drive out and replace
love for sin. The Puritans taught this truth with the image of the live
oak, a variety of tree whose leaves—though dead—stuck to its branches
through the winter. What eventually forced the leaves from the tree was
not the abuse of the cold or the beating of the wind, but the new life
springing up within the tree and replacing that which was dead. So when
we are God’s people, there yet cling to us affections for evil that we
must confess, but these are truly shed only as the love of Christ builds
within us and ultimately drives out the old affections with the new life
that is love for Him. (“Intolerant”
Grace: Titus 2:11-15 - Revival and Reformation 7:3 Summer 1998)
(Theological
Journal Subscription info) (List
of 22 journals - 500 yrs of articles searchable by topic or verse!
Incredible Online Resource!) (Bolding added) (Greek tenses
and coloring added for amplification)
Possession (4041)
(periousios
from perí = beyond + eimi = to be, exist) means of one's
own possession, one's own and here qualifies people.
Periousios describes the
property one owned as a rich and distinctive possession, a possession
which is of very special status.
Titus 2:14 is the only NT use of
periousios where Paul figuratively describes God's redeemed people
as Christ's costly possession and His distinctive treasure. Believers
are those that belong in a special sense to Christ. What an incredible word
picture of blood bought, heaven bound sinners who are now the Savior's saints!
Periousios is used four times
in the Septuagint for Israel, the chosen people, the peculiar people of
Jehovah (see references in Vincent's note below).
Marvin Vincent has a
lengthy note on periousion writing that it is used...
A few times in LXX
(Septuagint), always with laos (Greek = people). For
example:
Exodus 19:5 "Now then, if you will
indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own
possession [periousion] among all the peoples, for all the earth is
Mine" (NAS)
Deut 7:6
"For you are a holy people to the
LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His
own possession [periousion] out of all the peoples who are on the
face of the earth." (NAS)
Deut 14:2
"For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath
chosen thee to be a peculiar [periousion] people unto himself,
above all the nations that are upon the earth. (King James Version)
Deut 26:18
"And the LORD has today declared you to be His people, a treasured
possession [periousion, as He promised you, and that you should keep
all His commandments (note privilege always conveys responsibility!)" (NAS)
The phrase was originally applied to
the people of Israel, but is transferred here to believers in the
Messiah — Jews and Gentiles. Comp.
1Peter 2:10 (Click
for discussion of "for you once were NOT A
PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD").
Periousios is from
a participle meaning to be over and above: hence periousía = abundance, plenty.
Periousios also means possessed over and above, that is, specially
selected for one’s own; exempt from ordinary laws of distribution. Hence
correctly represented by peculiar, derived from peculium,
a private purse, a special acquisition of a member of a family distinct
from the property administered for the good of the whole family.
Accordingly the sense is given in
Ephesians 1:14, (see
note) where believers are said to
have been sealed with a view to redemption of possession ("with a view
to the redemption of God's own possession"), or redemption which will
give possession, thus = acquisition. So
1Peter 2:9 (Click
note
) where Christians are styled a
people for acquisition, to be acquired by God as His peculiar
possession.". (Vincent, M. R. Word Studies in the New Testament: Vol. 4,
Page 346) (Bolding added)
Kenneth Wuest adds that...
Christians are the private
possession of God.
(Wuest,
K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans)
This has always been God's desire
from the beginning that His chosen people be a Holy People, His very own
peculiar and special possession. Paul is saying that we as believers are no longer our own but are
now Christ's special, treasured possession. Paul
could not be much clearer.
Jesus warned of the practical
implications of not heeding this truth (see note
Matthew 6:24). If you are loving the world
then you cannot be loving Jesus, the Master Who bought you. (Ja 4:4, 1Jn 2:15-17)
As noted above, the 1611 KJV quaintly
describes saints as “a peculiar people.” Unfortunately, too often
we are a "peculiar people", but not in the way God intended! He didn’t
die to make us odd or strange people, but a people who belong to Him in
a special way, not to the world nor to ourselves.
Just as we formerly were possessed
and enslaved by sin, now we are to be possessed by and enslaved to Jesus
Christ.
Barnes observes that
periousios
means, properly, having
abundance; and then one’s own, what is special, or peculiar (Robinson,
Lexicon), and here means that they were to be regarded as belonging to
the Lord Jesus. It does not mean, as the word would seem to imply - and
as is undoubtedly true - that they are to be a unique people in the
sense that they are to be unlike others, or to have views and principles
unique to themselves; but that they belong to the Saviour in
contradistinction from belonging to themselves - “peculiar” or
his own in the sense that a man’s property is his own, and does not
belong to others. This passage, therefore, should not be used to prove
that Christians should be unlike others in their manner of living, but
that they belong to Christ as his redeemed people. From that it may
indeed be inferred that they should be unlike others, but that is not
the direct teaching of the passage. (Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible)
(Bolding added)
Adam Clarke writes that
periousios...
signifies such a peculiar
property as a man has in what he has purchased with his own money. Jesus
gave His life for the world, and thus has purchased men unto Himself;
and, having purchased the slaves from their thraldom (enslavement), He
is represented as stripping them of their sordid vestments, cleansing
and purifying them unto Himself that they may become His own servants,
and bringing them out of their dishonorable and oppressive servitude, in
which they had no proper motive to diligence and could have no affection
for the despot under whose authority they were employed. Thus redeemed,
they now become His willing servants, and are zealous of good works -
affectionately attached to that noble employment which is assigned to
them by that Master Whom it is an inexpressible honor to serve. (Adam
Clarke's Commentary on the Bible)
ZEALOUS FOR
GOOD DEEDS: zeloten kalon ergon: (7;
3:8;
Acts 9:36;
Eph 2:10-note;
1Ti 2:10;
6:18;
