Titus 2:14 (a) — The Eyes of God

[Jesus Christ,] who gave himself for us …

Summary: The story of our salvation is amazing. Our part is rather sad and embarrassing. The exciting part is provided by God’s Son, Jesus Christ. He left heaven to become a man, live a good life, and then allowed mankind to take that life away from him. Under the law, he now has the right to take our lives, but instead, he gives us life. 

What do you and I deserve from God? Are you curious? Would you like to know? 

There is a scale God uses to evaluate what a person deserves. It ranges from totally evil, the opposite of God, to the goodness of God Himself. So then, the question is, “Where do we fall on that scale?” 

If you were able to keep your eyes closed from the moment of birth, and hold your mind in abeyance so that you had no thoughts, you might be considered neutral. The middle of the scale is neither good nor bad. 

What would such a person deserve from God? They have done neither good nor bad. They simply exist. Do they deserve anything? Jesus speaks to this condition in his letter to the church in Laodicea: 

“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3: 15-16)

Obviously, everyone who has eyes opens them, and regardless of whether we have eyes or not, we have thoughts. What kind of thoughts do you have? Are they pure and godlike? Do your thoughts tend to be focused on your own needs and wants? My guess is that most of us fall into the category of thinking about ourselves most of the time. What do we need? What do I want? How do I look? Am I too fat or too skinny? How come I don’t have what he or she has? 

I am just guessing because I cannot read minds, but most of us probably fall into the same category as the people who lived long ago. Those who lived before the Flood or lived in Sodom and Gomorrah before the fire had wants and needs, too. I say this because we are not that different from the people who lived in Jesus’ day, and Jesus seemed to think that those folks had a lot in common with their ancestors.

 “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.

“It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.” (Luke 17: 26-29)

What we deserve from God is the same as what they got. What we get from God is quite different. At the right time, God became man. To show that it can be done, he lived a perfect life. Jesus’  goodness deserves to be honored by God (See 2 Peter 1:17). But because he made everyone else look sketchy by comparison, he was killed. Even though he could have saved his own life, he gave himself for us so that he could claim us for his own. 

Under the law of Moses, every wrong has to be repaid in kind. (Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20, Deuteronomy 19:21) When Satan prompted mankind to take the life of God’s Son, our own lives became forfeit. Even though God created us and has the right to destroy us, he wants us alive. More than that, he wants us to be with him in love. When we realize this, when we look into the eyes of the living God, we see mercy. He died so that we can be saved. 

Application: Cry for your sins. Sing for your salvation!

Food for Thought: How does the death of Jesus on the cross affect our understanding of the laws given through Moses?