Dan. 3-4
Nebuchadnezzar is one of the few people in the Bible on whom God uses some extra persuasion to turn toward Him. Paul is another. Are there people who could have experienced what King Nebuchadnezzar did and not come out the other side convinced of God’s existence, presence, and sovereignty? Maybe. But you’ve gotta admit God went to pretty extreme lengths to show these truths to the king, leaving him with little choice but to believe. And based on Nebuchadnezzar’s words in Daniel chapter 4, I’d say he finally got it.
I wonder why it is that God chooses to make the truth of His existence so unavoidable to a few, like Paul and King Nebuchadnezzar. Such people seem to me to hold a pretty special place in God’s plan. It’s like they never really had the option to deny Him. Why doesn’t God make Himself so unavoidable to more of us? I sometimes wish God would strip me of my ability to choose anything other than Him. “Free will” doesn’t seem like such a great thing when it takes you down roads you don’t really want to travel. But I believe, at its foundation, love is a choice. So we cannot truly love God unless we are given that choice. We love God when we make the choice to serve and draw near to Him with every step we take.
Titus 2
When we go beyond paying lip service to God and make the decision to truly love Him with our lives, we make choices that allow God’s character to shine in and through us. Paul gave examples in this chapter of what that looks like for various general life situations. We don’t do this of ourselves. Paul said it is the grace of God that trains us to “renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Tit. 2:12).
Paul also noted that Jesus Christ, who is the grace of God, “gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works” (Tit. 2:14). Even though people had the law before Christ, they still chose to disobey the law, making them lawless. Now that we have Christ, we have been freed from the law, yet we are not lawless because He has purified us and put the desire for good works in our hearts. So He truly has redeemed us from ALL lawlessness.