… 2in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago, 3but at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior, 4To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Paul writes with the promise God made “long ages ago,” which has now come to fulfillment in Christ “our Savior.” Our future as followers of Jesus rests on the dependability of God, that He will do what He said He would do. Paul is not thinking of lesser promises (as if we can call any of God’s promises lesser). Instead, he has in mind the overriding promise of God that sets the framework of history. This promise was first stated cryptically to Adam and Eve that the devil would be destroyed (Gen. 3:15). God expanded on that promise when He said to Abraham, “[I]n you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Gen. 12:1–3), and when He spoke to and through many different prophets concerning the coming Messiah.
Yes, Paul saw that the gospel message he preached was nothing less than the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a solution to the sin problem and to restore God’s image bearers to their originally intended union with their Creator. God had entrusted this truth to him, and his life’s mission was to proclaim it to the world. We should not easily slip over this introduction without giving sufficient pause to the significance of what Paul has said. God’s plan from the very beginning, the controlling principle of all history, is God bringing about His promise to deal with the sin problem in the world that began with Adam and Eve, and continues to the present day. Finally, there is genuine grace and peace with God because it comes from God. And it is bound up in the person of Jesus Christ. The apostle Peter put it this way:
It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to look. (1 Peter 1:12)
Jesus Christ is the fulcrum of all of history. He is the pivot of all existence in the universe, from the moment of creation to the new heavens and new earth. Everything hinges on the truth at the core of the gospel. This is the substance of the “common faith” that Paul preaches and Titus embraces. And Paul takes this truth as foundational to everything he has to teach Titus.
Lord, my hope is built on nothing less than Your Word and Your dependability.
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