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December can be such a crazy time. It starts before Thanksgiving and keeps moving full speed with food, shopping, presents, family, friends, decorating, lights, music, parties, and more. Even for those who know the true meaning of Christmas, we can forget Jesus midst the hustle and bustle. Or we wait until Christmas Eve or Christmas Day to meditate on and celebrate Jesus’ birth.
Several years ago, I decided to try an Advent devotional to prepare my mind and heart throughout December. It has been refreshing and encouraging to focus every day on Jesus. Without Jesus, all the Christmas food, shopping, presents, gatherings, decorating, etc., are empty, fleeting. Jesus is the only One who brings true and lasting transformation, hope, and joy.
I have several Advent devotionals now. If you need ideas, please message me. My favorite devotional is Come Let Us Adore Him by Paul David Tripp, and Finding Messiah in Christmas by The Friends of Israel. I also use the “Names of Jesus Advent Calendar” by Lara Beeston (which is what prompted me to write on the names of Jesus).[1] Links for all three are at the end.
Some of you may think of Advent in terms of calendars where you open the “door” and find a surprise each day or your church lighting a candle each Sunday in December and discussing hope, love, joy, and peace. But the Advent season is so much more than just a hidden treat or candle. Advent in Latin means coming. It is a time of waiting – remembering the waiting for the coming of the promised Messiah that first Christmas and now, this side of the cross, waiting in the brokenness for Jesus to come again and make all things new.
Most of us don’t wait well, and current technology makes so many things instant. We forget that waiting can be good. God uses waiting for His good purposes. As I wait for Christmas, I have been blessed by focusing on the names of Jesus each day. Each name or title for Jesus from Scripture reveals His character. We tend to think we know who Jesus is, but how often do we actually meditate on Him and think beyond the baby born in a manger or the man who performed miracles, suffered, died, and rose again. We think of specific events in the life of Jesus, but don’t dwell on who He is.
So, for these three weeks, I hope you will join me in looking closer at three of Jesus’ names. I will share twenty-two other names with corresponding Scripture on Facebook and Instagram.
“Redeemer” is the first name of Jesus we will consider this year.
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, 12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, 13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.[2]
Titus 2:11-14
This passage in Titus ties in with the section in Ephesians we finished last week – grace and redemption. In Ephesians, we learned that it is by grace we have been saved. In Titus, Paul writes that “the grace of God has appeared.” Grace is a person, and His name is Jesus. Grace incarnate.
In verse 11, we read that the grace of God has appeared (past tense). This word for appear is also in verse 13 pointing to the future. Jesus has appeared, and He will appear again when He returns. Appear indicates making plain something that was previously unseen or hidden.
Jesus appeared when He took on flesh as a baby, fully God and fully man. He appeared, “bringing salvation for all people.” Salvation or redemption was Jesus’ purpose in leaving the glory of heaven to come to earth as one of us. Salvation is Jesus’ redeeming work in delivering, rescuing, and releasing us from sin, spiritual death, separation from God, and the punishment for sin (vs 14). In Ephesians 2:1-3, Paul detailed our hopeless, helpless, dead state apart from Jesus. Then, Paul inserted the two life-altering words “but God.” God made us alive. Through Jesus’ finished work in his death, resurrection, and ascension, God redeemed us.
The salvation Jesus brought was for all people meaning it is a universal means of salvation for all people not that all people are saved.
Within our verses, we find both what God has done and is doing (vs 11, 12b, 14b) and our response or the purpose of God’s action (vs 12, 13a, 14b). In verse 12, Paul says that grace in the person of Jesus has appeared not only to bring salvation but to train us. The purpose is to renounce (put off) ungodliness (lacking genuine awe and devotion towards God) and worldly passions (sins we desire to carry out). In light of our redemption, we should live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives, and be zealous for good works (vs 14, Ephesians 2:10).
We also wait expectantly for His return (vs 13). We wait for “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us” (vs 13b-14a). Jesus willingly gave His own life to redeem us. MacArthur gives a helpful definition: “Redeem is from lutroō, which refers to the releasing of someone held captive, such as a prisoner or a slave, on receipt of a ransom payment.”[3] That payment was Jesus’ own life. For our redemption, He didn’t hold on to His equality with the Father or the glory of heaven. Jesus endured shame for our redemption. He suffered and died for our redemption. He bore the Father’s wrath for our redemption. The sinless One became sin for us, giving us His perfect righteousness that we could be reconciled to God.
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Mark 10:45
and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
Galatians 1:3b-4
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
1 Timothy 2:5-6
“Paul deliberately chooses Old Testament words and images [vs 14] from the beginnings of Israel as a nation, so as to portray Christ’s salvation as the fulfilment of these foreshadowings. Thus ‘gave himself for us’ (‘sacrificed himself for us’, reb) recalls the Passover sacrifice; ‘to redeem us’ the exodus redemption from Egyptian bondage; and ‘a people that are his very own’ the Sinaitic covenant by which Israel became Yahweh’s ‘treasured possession’.”[4]
Jesus redeemed “us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” Jesus redeemed us for a purpose: to be His own possession, living lives that glorify Him. We have been bought with a price. We are His forever.
Reflection
1. Have you trusted in Jesus, Redeemer for your redemption? If not, find someone to talk to (you can message me). Don’t reject Jesus a minute longer. If you have, spend time in thanksgiving for how God has transformed you by redeeming you.
2. How does your life reflect your redemption? Are you growing in living a self-controlled, upright and godly life, zealous for good works? What hope do you have in Jesus, Redeemer that encourages you in living a godly life?
3. What about Jesus, Redeemer brings you joy?
4. Your redemption is a free gift of grace, but it came at immeasurable cost to Jesus. How does Jesus’ willingness to pay the redemption price challenge you to sacrifice in sharing the Gospel and loving others as Jesus has loved you?
[1] Each day there is a card with a different name of Jesus on it. The cards come with a string and mini clothespins to hang them up. Lara Beeston sends you the verse each day and a short meditation that correspond with the name of Jesus. I ended up writing the verses on the cards, so I had everything together.
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Tt 2:11–14.
[3] John F. MacArthur Jr., Titus, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1996), 121.
[4] John R. W. Stott, Guard the Truth: The Message of 1 Timothy & Titus, The Bible Speaks Today (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 195.
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