Title: Let's Live by the Plan of Salvation
“The grace of God, which brings salvation to all, has been revealed and nourishes us, leaving behind all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and living in this world with soberness, righteousness, and godliness” (Titus 2:11-12).
1. Text commentary
2. Extraordinary Salvation
The apostle first tells us not to think of God's saving grace as ordinary. When we first received salvation, there was nothing more precious to us than that. Being saved by God's grace became our whole life, and that emotion reorganized our lives. However, as time passed, he lost the first impression of salvation and began to live with God's saving grace that came upon him as a very natural and common thing. And what these people have in common is that they have no current experience with the cross. For as long as the experience of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is being reproduced in us, salvation can never be taken for granted.
Believers who have the thrill of salvation always set themselves up before the cross of Christ, and for sinners like me, Jesus took up the cross and accomplished redemption. Now, how do I live according to God's saving grace? There is tension. When these feelings of salvation, gratitude, and holy tension disappear, the things of the world come into the believer's heart and occupy the most important place in his heart. Eventually, he becomes corrupted from grace and lives a life that is not related to the plan of salvation. Therefore, we should not, for a moment, regard our salvation as ordinary. You have to live a life that currently achieves salvation (the life of sanctification) with the thrill of salvation and holy tension.
3. Salvation with a plan
1) To make you live “in this world”
This world is full of sin and disobedience, intertwined with the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. After God saves us, He continues to live in this world. Perhaps the most pure time is when we first experienced the grace of salvation and were filled with only the Lord. But God's plan for our salvation is not to call us to the purest time, but to show us who God is, what human duty is, and what kind of life we live for God by appearing as lights while we live in this world. .
2) To “forsake and get drunk”
4. The God Who Nurtures
2004-07-25