Titus 2:14 Cleansing for Himself a people

…our Saviour Jesus Christ, Who gives Himself for us, that He should be redeeming us from all lawlessness and be cleansing for Himself a people to be about Him, zealous for ideal acts.

Besides the fact that Christ Jesus gave Himself to redeem us from all lawlessness, Paul mentions another motive. It is that He might “be cleansing for Himself a people to be about Him, zealous for ideal acts.” This motif speaks specifically of Jesus Christ’s surrender in the present tense. It is very reminiscent of what Paul puts forward in Ephesians 5 about Christ loving the ecclesia and giving Himself to sanctify it by cleansing it by the bath of water, that is by His word.

It is inevitable that we will be defiled during our sojourn “in the flesh” on earth. That is why it is so necessary that “the word of Christ” reorients us again and again, “resets” and cleans us from the inside. That is what Christ gives Himself for today. That commitment is not aimed at believers individually, but collectively as a people. Just as in Ephesians 5 Christ loves “the ecclesia”. Where believers gather to listen to the word of Christ, He purifies them as “people to be about Him”!

Delen: