By David ReayMonday 11 Jun 2018LifeWords DevotionalsFaithReading Time: 2 minutes
Read Titus 2:11
11 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. (NIV)
To hear some people, God is in the business of picking and choosing who might get saved. Through no merit of their own some get chosen to be saved. Those who don’t get saved are not treated unfairly because they didn’t deserve to be saved in any case.
While this has a certain neat logic, it doesn’t take into account the fact that God wants all to be saved and his offer of salvation is open to all, as our text reminds us. Of course none deserve to be saved: we all deserve our self-willed estrangement from God.
And yet we deal with a God who is rich in mercy and who offers Jesus as the way back to him for all who will embrace him. His offer of grace is not rationed out according to some preordained plan. It is made available to all and we can assume he finds ways of making it known to those who don’t have the advantages we have of seeing Jesus and the Scriptures with clarity.
This does not mean all accept the offer. Not all will be saved. This is so not because God has somehow decreed it, but because some will simply not see the need of salvation. Grace is available to all even if not all recognise their need of it or appreciate the nature of it.
God invites all into his forever family. He doesn’t have a secret guest list. Our membership of his family is only made possible by his offer, but only made effective by our acceptance of it.
Blessings
David Reay