Itty Bitty Bible Study – Titus 1:2 Hope and promise

My thoughts for the Itty Bitty Bible Study group on Facebook. (join if you’d like to get these in fb!)

Itty Bitty Bible Study Titus 1 verse 2
Titus 1 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
2 in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.

The Hope of Eternal Life which God promised before time began.

Most Christians know what the Hope of Eternal Life is….

Romans 6:23 King James Version (KJV)
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

For more information on this:

  • This is the Hope…that we who were dead in our sins were loved while we were yet sinners and Christ came down from his glorious heaven, took on our form, dealt with our pains and sufferings, and died a horrible death on our behalf, then rose from the grave and now sits at the right hand of God to intercede for us day and night!

    Why did I post all of those previous blog post links? Because, if you do not know the hope of eternal life…they are there to guide you and explain!

    If you think you are getting into heaven just because you are good enough…let me burst that bubble right now. So you think you are going to heaven? is something I wrote years ago, and it’s because I want you to have the TRUE hope of eternal life!

    2 in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie,promised before the beginning of time,

    The hope of eternal life…..
    Talked about in Titus introduction.

    The hope of eternal life…salvation.
    God, who does not lie…I think we can agree with this…God is TRUTH.
    Here’s a bunch of verses about truth…from BibleStudytools.com

     

    None really say God is Truth…but, when you take all of verses together…you get:

    Romans 3:4 King James Version (KJV)
    4 God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.

    Another collection of God is true verses comes from Bible Knowing Jesus.

    Again, only a few specifically say that God is true…but you get the picture…God cannot lie and still be truth.
    He promised eternal life…He promised salvation…He promised a solution to our sin situation!

    James 1:17 KJV
    Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

    2 Timothy 1:12 Holman Christian Standard Bible
    12 and that is why I suffer these things. But I am not ashamed, because I know the One I have believed in and am persuaded that He is able to guard what has been entrusted to me[a] until that day.

    Philippians 1:6 Holman Christian Standard Bible
    6 I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you[a] will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

    The end is coming, and our hope is in this eternal life…

    1 Thes 4:14-18
    18 Therefore encourage[e] one another with these words.

    Hebrews 6:13-20 Holman Christian Standard Bible
    Inheriting the Promise
    13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater to swear by, He swore by Himself:
    14 I will indeed bless you,
    and I will greatly multiply you.[a]
    15 And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham[b] obtained the promise. 16 For men swear by something greater than themselves, and for them a confirming oath ends every dispute. 17 Because God wanted to show His unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, He guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for our lives, safe and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. 20 Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because He has become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

    So, this goes back to Abraham….
    What about Noah?
    Genesis 9
    God promises not to destroy the world again with a flood – but Noah and his family were a type of salvation…

    Hebrews 11:7 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
    7 By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

    For that matter, Hebrews 11talks a lot about the promise not seen in the heroes of the Faith.

    Heb 11:10 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

    Heb 11:16 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

    Heb 11:39-40 39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

    Now, going back before Noah…

    Hebrews 11:1-3 Holman Christian Standard Bible
    Heroes of Faith
    11 Now faith is the reality[a] of what is hoped for, the proof[b] of what is not seen. 2 For our ancestors won God’s approval by it.
    3 By faith we understand that the universe was[c] created by God’s command,[d] so that what is seen has been made from things that are not visible.

    Titus 1:2 in the hope of eternal life that God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.
    How did God promise this gift of eternal life before time began?
    What happened before creation?

    Luke 10:18 KJV
    And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

    Isaiah 14:12-15 King James Version (KJV)
    12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
    13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
    14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
    15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

    Ezekiel 28:11-19 tells more of the fall of Satan

    Got Questions answers about the angels that fell with Satan.

    One thing that Got Questions says that I’m not sure I agree with is that the fall was AFTER creation.
    Let me put forth what I believe I’ve just gotten, and you be the judge as to the WHEN of the thing!

    Based upon the promise before time began, when did time begin?

    Genesis 1 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
    The Creation
    1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.[a]
    2 Now the earth was[b] formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and He called the darkness “night.” Evening came and then morning: the first day.

    As far as I’m concerned – time was created when God created the light, separated the day and night, and declared “the first day” was good!

    Time began.
    As I read Titus 1:2, I take it that he had the plan for our salvation BEFORE day ONE.
    WHY?
    To choose good, there must be something else to choose from.
    The lack of good.
    Otherwise known as not good, or evil.
    The angels were created with choice – but, what choice did they have? Hmmm. Lucifer wanted to be like God! And he was already prepared to tempt Eve with the same thing!

    God knows the end from the beginning, right? Isaiah 46:10
    God wants us to love him freely, not out of requirement or slavery, right?
    So, God gave us a choice…freewill…and, it didn’t take very long, as far as we know, for humans to mess up.
    Knowing that we would mess up, and choose ‘not good’, God still put the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil in the midst of the garden.
    It’s the ONLY thing that they could not touch. THE ONLY THING!
    They could have eaten from the tree of life!
    AND EVERY OTHER TREE, SO BEAUTIFUL, SO FRUITFUL, SOME THAT WE CAN’T EVEN IMAGINE! Paradise! with ONE restriction.
    The devil was there in the garden…
    The devil used words to tempt Eve to question God.
    Adam didn’t stand up to Eve…which may have changed everything! He just ate.
    Their gods were their bellies, their eyes and their pride. Phil 3:18-20
    The sin was idolotry…they put their own desires above God. They wanted to be LIKE God!

    The Plan

    Genesis 3:15 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
    15 I will put hostility between you and the woman,
    and between your seed and her seed.
    He will strike your head,
    and you will strike his heel.

    This is known all through Christendom as the first declaration of the plan of salvation.

    Genesis 3:21 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
    21 The Lord God made clothing out of skins for Adam and his wife, and He clothed them.

    This is the first death, and it was on behalf of Adam and Eve’s sins…their futile attempts to hide their sins with fig leaves failed. The wages of sin is death…something had to die…and Adam and Eve had to wear the skins of the animals that they had named and cared for…to remind them of the cost of sin.

    Hebrews 9:22 Amplified Bible (AMP)
    22 In fact under the Law almost everything is cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness [neither release from sin and its guilt, nor cancellation of the merited punishment].

    The shedding of animal blood was the foreshadowing of Christ being the lamb that takes away the sins of the world. John 1:29
    Isaiah prophesied of this lamb in Isaiah 53 – long before he came.

    Here’s what has blown my mind.
    As I read it, God had already experienced the angels falling….and they had lived in perfection.
    Still he chose to create us.
    He knew the end from the beginning…so when Eve was rebuked, He knew that Jesus was going to come and die on our behalf…seed of Eve, destroying the seed of the enemy.
    When HE covered them with those bloody animal skins, the first death, HE KNEW that one day, Jesus would be that bloody mess, paying the price for sin on our behalf.
    And still – God chose to create us.
    He created us in His image…so that we could be like him.
    He gave us free will and choice…so that we could choose to be like him…or not.
    And, He gave us His son, that we might be saved from the dead heart that chooses evil.
    AND – HE GAVE US THE GIFT OF FAITH SO THAT WE COULD BELIEVE!

    Ephesians 2:8-10 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
    8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

    While we were yet sinners – yes:Romans 5:8

    Before we were knit in our mother’s womb – yes –

    • Jere 29:11
    • Jere 31:17
    • Lama 3:26
    • Jere 1:5
    • Psalm 139

     

    But even before that!
    Before time began!
    He created us with a plan!
    He knew we would choose to fail,
    And that we would slip into hell
    But when we listen to his voice
    He calls us to a better choice
    Come unto me my little dears
    I will love and draw you near
    I have loved you since before time began
    And I have set in motion the perfect plan.
    Choose Jesus and the blood you see
    And I’ll give you life that is so free
    The life I planned, that you destroyed
    Is still here waiting with love untold.
    Just turn to me, and let me show
    The love I planned to help you grow.
    Eternal life is mine to give,
    Just turn to me, and live, live, live.
    (c)MCWildman2019

    Forgive me for this long passage of scripture at the end, but, it is God’s words to us…He has set before us life and death…we must make a choice!

    Deuteronomy 30:15-20 King James Version (KJV)
    15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;

    16 In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

    17 But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them;

    18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.

    19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

    20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

    I hope you worship with me:

    Hi!
    My hope in the midst of despair and my joy in the face of depression is because of my relationship with Jesus Christ. If you do not have one, or are not sure you will join him in heaven, please check out these links.

    Thanks for joining me in this journey,
    In His hands and under His wings,
    ~Christi
    Ps 63:7 Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.

    “The Lord does not give me rules, but He makes His standard very clear.
    If my relationship to Him is that of love, I will do what He says without hesitation.
    If I hesitate, it is because I love someone I have placed in competition with Him, namely, myself.” –     from My Utmost for His highest

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