Grace that trains us

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
(Tit 2:11-14)

As followers of Christ, we will know that we have been saved not by works but by grace. Grace makes salvation available to all mankind, regardless of the former condition we came from, but the truth is whether we are willing to admit it or not, we have been saved from wretchedness. If we don’t see our salvation from wretchedness than grace doesn’t bear its significance. Because we have been called out of darkness into marvelous light, thus grace revealed to us our state of darkness and our response to grace is to want to get out of it. We are saved not in sin, but grace beings salvation to us out of sin.

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
(Col 1:13)

The work of translating us from darkness and the power behind the darkness is the work of God, thus we are saved by God’s grace. Grace therefore is powerful, not just to save us but changes our standing.

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
(Rom 5:1-2)

Our standing or foundation changed to one that has peace and live in agreement with the Holy God. We can see the doorway into the foundation of grace is faith. Without faith it will not please God to save us by His grace. Our new standing through Christ is our cause for rejoicing, Jesus said that our rejoicing is on the basis that our names are written in heaven (Luke 10:20). What are we rejoicing over these days? Are they eternal and heavenly in nature or earthly and temporal?

Beyond having the power to save us from darkness and the power thereof, grace has the authority to teach or to train us to godliness and our ‘taste’ for worldly lust change into the blessedness of hungering and thirsting for righteousness (Matt 5:6).

What happens if we reject the training to godliness?
We are saved from one kingdom to another, either we are in the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of darkness. Jesus said that there is another father, the devil (John 8:44)..... and He taught us to pray to our Father in Heaven. Earthly parents are to train children in the way they should go (Prov 22:6), more so our Heavenly Father would want to train us, His children, in the way of righteousness. If we are indeed His children, than the authority of His grace must be seen at work in our lives to train us into God (Christ)-likeness. To deny the authority of grace is to deny the Fatherhood of God.

If we subject ourselves to the grace of God that trains us unto godliness, we then have the blessed hope to meet Christ in the air when He returns (1 Thess 4:17) and receive the redemption of our body (Rom 8:23). Conversely, if we reject the training unto godliness, we will follow the way that seems right to us and its end are the ways of death (Prov 14:12).