God’s grace is the greatest teacher. It is the existence of this grace that drove all of the initial instructions that Paul urged Titus to pass on.
The grace of God brings salvation for all people, but it also instructs us. Any time we learn a skill, we must learn both to unlearn our bad habits or incorrect instincts, and to learn the proper truths and techniques.
And so we are called to renounce our own ungodliness and turn aside from our desires that do not line up with the mind of God. There is a strain of Christianity that skips this part, depending entirely on grace to cover sin and this not worrying about changing behavior. Paul here clearly speaks against that.
On the positive side, the grace of God also teaches virtues – Paul cites three here that would have been understood culturally as virtues. First, sensible-minded self control. Second, an uprightness and righteousness. Third, a godly life pointed towards God.
This training by grace never ends. Some circumstances change, some stay the same, but there is never a point where we outgrow the instructions of grace nor where we enter a setting where they do not apply, either in time of life or the surrounding culture.
Not only does grace instruct, but like any great teacher, it inspires. Paul specifically calls out the Second Coming as the ultimate hope, subsuming all the cares and trials of the culture and world and even our physical existence. Jesus Christ himself is our blessed hope, for both our current moment and for the future.
Then Paul moves from the future to the current moment, and from the personal to the corporate, speaking to the full people of God, set apart together for his glory. It is not an individual process, but rather a team effort to carry out the good works that God calls us to, and calls us to live out zealously.
– Sermon Notes, Mahlon Friesen, Seed Church, Lynnwood, WA, November 24, 2019