14 day plan

The Gospel Centred Leadership

Day 5 of 14

NIV

Titus 2:11-12

11For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age,

Reflection: The Grammar of the Gospel

Learning the gospel is like picking up a new, foreign language. You need to have a good grasp of the grammar. The gospel too has a grammar: Declaration-obligation. Not obligation-declaration (see Titus 2:11-12, 1 Cor 5:7; Gal 5:16, 24; Eph 4:32).

God does not grade us on a bell curve, plotting people based on their intensity in obeying his laws (or lack of it).

God’s grace is not dispensed to us commensurate with our ability to meet God’s key performance indicators for leaders (e.g., do not cheat on taxes, do not be greedy with profits, treat your staff well, care for the environment).

That would constitute the opposite grammatical sequence (obligation-declaration), a moralistic pattern that will see us living our lives in quiet desperation, grappling with fear and guilt on the treadmill of performance, perpetually wondering whether we have done enough to earn his approval and blessings.

Those who want to be justified based on their law-keeping should meet God’s standard of absolute perfection. Yet since no humans can exemplify an utterly sinless life in obedience to God, the only way to be justified before God is through the perfect righteousness of Christ that is imputed to us.

We are instantly declared righteous in Christ without any law-keeping or moral achievements. Then and only then we are truly moved to live in joyful and grateful obedience to Christ. It’s joyful, not fearful, obedience. It’s grateful, not prideful, obedience. That’s the declaration-obligation pattern.

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, precisely because we are never able to live in perfect righteousness, you sent your Son to be our righteousness and to die on our behalf so that his righteousness became ours, and our sins became his. Nothing in my hands enables me to merit that reward, only by sheer grace and mercy that you lavishly gave me.

Titus 2:1-15

Doing Good for the Sake of the Gospel

1You, however, must teach what is appropriate to sound doctrine. 2Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance.

3Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.

6Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. 7In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness 8and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us.

9Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, 10and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.

11For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14who 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.

15These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.