This is the third and final blog in a three-part series on Titus 2 and the power of God’s grace. In the first blog, we explored how grace saves us apart from religious performance. In the second, we saw how that grace is offered to all people and propels the church outward. Now we come to the final movement of Paul’s argument. Grace does not only save; grace trains.
“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Titus 2:11–12).
Grace That Says No and Yes
According to Paul, grace actively trains us. It shapes us, forms us, and teaches us to say no to some things and yes to others. First, grace trains us to say no. Paul uses the word ungodliness, which simply means anti-God. It is anything that runs contrary to his character and his design. Think about it like this. In our culture, we have plenty of things that are considered just plain un-American. People joke about unsweet tea, soccer, Toyota in NASCAR, or people who do not like the movie The Sandlot. I once had a debate with our staff team about whether speedos are un-American or very American, but that is neither here nor there. The point is not whether those jokes are fair, but that we all instinctively know when something does not fit.
Ungodliness is what does not fit with the life God has called us to live, and Scripture gives us clear examples. Paul lists things like sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry, jealousy, fits of anger, and selfish ambition. These are not just bad habits; they are ways of life that contradict worship of God (Galatians 5:19–21).
Grace also trains us to say no to worldly passions. These are the desires that rise from our fallen nature and pull our hearts away from God. John describes them as the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life (1 John 2:16). This can include obvious sins like pornography, but it also includes “respectable” idols like materialism, comfort, control, and approval. Grace does not excuse these things but rather confronts them. But grace never leaves us with a simple no. Grace also trains us to say yes.
Paul says grace trains us to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives. Self-control is the ability to say, “I want that, but it is not good for me.” Upright living is about walking justly and looking outward. Proverbs tells us not to withhold good from those to whom it is due (Proverbs 3:27). Grace changes the way we see our neighbors, our coworkers, our employees, and even our enemies.
How Grace Actually Changes Us
At this point, an important question surfaces: How exactly does grace train us? Many of us assume that change comes primarily through more willpower, more discipline, or more accountability. Those things have their place, but Paul points us somewhere deeper. Grace changes us because grace changes our worship.
A saving grace does not just forgive us; it gives us new desires. It creates gratitude for the cross and hope for the return of Jesus. When gratitude for what Christ has done and hope for what Christ will do fill our hearts, obedience becomes something we want, not just something we attempt. And this matters because sin is always a worship issue. When we worship autonomy, rebellion follows. When we worship created things, worldly passions take over. But when we worship God, different fruit begins to grow. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control flow from a heart oriented toward him (Galatians 5:22–23).
This is why powerless religion ultimately fails. Religion says that if you worked your way into a wrong relationship with God, you must now work your way out. But the truth is, we did not work our way into sin. We worshiped our way into it. And we must worship our way out. Only the gospel has the power to reorient our hearts toward true worship.
For the Weary and the Struggling
Some of you are battling sin right now. You are fighting for purity. You are fighting not to idolize a relationship. You are fighting to stay faithful in a marriage that feels like it is slipping away. You keep saying yes to the wrong things and no to the right things, and you are starting to wonder if Jesus is even working in you at all.
Listen carefully. It is not easy. The sin in our hearts was enough to fracture the world. But grace is stronger, and grace is sure. God’s grace saves, and then it trains. In that order. Grace does not just change what you do. It changes why you do it.
Without the gospel, you might say no to sin out of pride or fear. With the gospel, you say no out of love. With gratitude for the cross and hope in the return of Jesus, obedience becomes worship.
That is where the power is. Grace does not merely clean up the outside. Grace transforms the heart, and the life follows. And when grace trains us, God does not just get our actions. He gets our motivations, our desires, and our worship.
Andrew Hopper
