Grace That Teaches

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. Appeared is the word for something coming into view, the way a light does, and it puts the sentence in the past tense. Grace is handled here as an event with a date on it, something that showed up where people were standing.

Then the verb attached to it, which is the surprise. Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. The word behind teaching is the one used for bringing a child up, correction included. Grace is the tutor in the house. And the curriculum runs in three directions: soberly, which concerns you, righteously, which concerns the people you deal with, and godly, which concerns God. Paul has just spent a chapter on old men and young women and household servants who are told they can adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour, and the reason clause under all of it opens with For.

That leaves it an offer, and it stays open in that shape. Nobody is being asked to manufacture the sobriety first and qualify for the grace afterwards. The grace arrived ahead of the curriculum and brought it along, and the next line says where the course is headed, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. If the teacher you have been sitting under is your own disappointment in yourself, there is a better one, and it has already appeared.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 225 is Forgiveness and Healing (Psalm 103:3).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna, Year Two