in [the] hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the ages of time,
Paul opens his letter to Titus by tracing his own work back to something older than the world: a promise of eternal life, made by a God who cannot lie. Two questions follow. When was that promise made? And what does "hope" mean for a life the believer already has?
The phrase "before the ages began" points behind all recorded history. One writer places it before every age in which God has dealt openly with the world:
I understand that before the ages of time refers to that eternal purpose which was in the secret of God's mind, or to which He was committed, unknown to the creature. It was there before God brought any revealed age into existence, and to Him there is no time. … God has given many promises in time, to encourage His people on their way. But this was a counsel and promise before any of the ages in which His government is displayed on earth.
Commentators differ. Others take it as a promise spoken in words at the very start of human history:
If the purpose itself was eternal, the promise given to us is no doubt in the words of God to the woman in the Garden of Eden, that her seed would crush the serpent's head. God gave that promise before He sent man out of the garden to be tested under His different ways of dealing with him. These ages clearly only began in connection with man estranged from God.
The words "who never lies" — older translations read "who cannot lie" — are not decoration. They met these first readers where they lived:
It is almost impossible for man, who is naturally false, to take in the idea of absolute truthfulness. … The Cretans were strongly marked by this devilish characteristic; they were "always liars." They had been raised in an atmosphere of falsehood, and they had never met truth until the gospel came to them. … It was a change for men who until then had dealt only with liars, now to have to do with One to whom lying was an impossibility.
It also settles the outcome:
In Titus 1 the Holy Spirit adds, about the promise of eternal life, that the One who made the promise could not fail to carry it out for the elect, for He says, God "cannot lie."
Calling eternal life a "hope" does not push it out of reach. It looks ahead to the day when the believer's surroundings match the life inside him:
This does not in any way deny that the believer now has eternal life as a living reality in his soul. But in the future he will also enter into those outward circumstances that are vibrant with the same life. There will be nothing around him then that is subject to death and decay.
Paul and John stress different sides of this:
Eternal life is truly given to the believer now, and this revelation is by no means uncommon in our apostle's writings. John's writings make its present possession stand out, whether the Gospel or his First Epistle. But Paul often treats it according to its future display. … He looks on to life in glory.
What God kept secret did not stay secret. The cross was the turning point:
The counsel of God — what was in God's mind connecting us with Christ, and existed before the world did — came out in the gospel, and never came out until after Christ came and died and made atonement.
Between the promise and its full enjoyment comes the announcing of it, and Paul had a part in that:
Between the promise and the realisation of eternal life there has been the proclamation of it in the testimony of God. In that testimony the Apostle Paul had a special part, as minister of the Gospel and minister of the church.
The setting makes this promise shine brighter, not dimmer:
Far from God giving up His glorious counsels, the truth of eternal life comes out far more fully in the decay of Christian profession. A sad flood of evils had swept over Christendom. That was just the moment when the Holy Spirit drew attention to something more than the grace of God saving sinners and the faithfulness of God keeping His own children. He pointed to the character of the life that was their portion in Christ.
- Promise — God pledged eternal life before the ages began. Commentators differ on what that was: a purpose hidden in God's mind, or the word spoken in Eden about the woman's seed.
- Promiser — God's own nature secures the pledge. Lying is impossible for Him, so the promise cannot fail.
- Contrast — Paul writes to people marked out as "always liars." The gospel brought them face to face with One who could not lie.
- Proclamation — The hidden counsel came out only after Christ died, and preaching now carries it to people.
- Permanence — The believer has eternal life now and waits for its full display. This truth shines brightest when Christian profession is at its weakest.
but has manifested in its own due season his word, in [the] proclamation with which *I* have been entrusted, according to [the] commandment of our Saviour God;
Paul's opening sentence reaches from eternity past into the present: God's promise from before time is now out in the open, and it comes out as preaching. Verse 3 tells us when God chose to speak, who carried the message, and whose authority stood behind him.
The phrase "at the proper time" points to a moment God chose. One writer ties that timing to man's proved failure, and names Crete as a clear case.
There was a certain time chosen by God for making His mind known — when all man's failure had been exposed, his history run out, and his utter ruin proved. Crete was without doubt a glaring example of this. Paul had the great work of preaching the word committed to him by our Saviour-God.
God's purpose stood long before, but it stayed unspoken until the cross.
It was God's counsel before the foundation of the world, but it was never brought out until the cross... All this glorious purpose, glorious for us and for God, was never brought out — never hinted at — until Christ laid a righteous ground for it in the cross. Then God brought it out and said, "That is what I am going to do."
We take preaching for granted. One commentator points out how recent it is in the world's history.
It was there before the world began, no doubt. But at the proper time God manifested His word through the preaching. This lets us see the very special place Christianity has in the ways of God. We do not often notice a very striking and obvious fact. For by far the largest part of this world's history, no such thing as preaching was known. We are so used to thinking of preaching that we do not always weigh what it means, or what light it casts on the character of God.
Verse 2 looks back and forward; verse 3 is about now. Preaching exists to display God's word, so the preacher's own reputation has no place in it.
Verse 2 of our chapter looks on into a coming eternity, when the promise made in a past eternity will be fulfilled. Verse 3 speaks of the present, in which God is making His word known through preaching... It would be good if everyone who shares in this great work today felt its dignity and importance deeply. It will go badly for us if we make the preaching a platform for showing off our own cleverness or importance! It is for the manifestation of the word of God.
Paul says God entrusted the message to him — and the trust did not stop with him.
The truth shown in the word has come to us through the "preaching" which God specially committed to the apostle, with all His authority, for the Gentiles. As we know, that preaching was to continue through "faithful men, who will be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:2).
Paul traces his commission to a command, not to his own gifting.
We now see that eternal life only in the word of God. What God has made known "at the proper time" is of course the full truth of Christianity, preached publicly and specially entrusted to Paul. "The command of God our Saviour" had decided this — not any special ability or energy on Paul's part.
The title that closes the verse is rare, and it is startling.
"God our Saviour" is a wonderful title. It is found only in the letters to Timothy and Titus. That He should Himself seek to save rebels against His own majesty is a marvel indeed... He was under no obligation to save any of His rebellious creatures. He might have declared Himself "God our Judge"... "God our Saviour" is not so familiar a thought to some as "Jesus our Saviour." The popular idea is a severe God and a gracious Jesus... "God our Saviour" means that the very One we have sinned against has Himself, in His great love, provided everything His throne required. Who would distrust such a God?
Within this short letter the same title passes between God and Christ.
It is even more striking how the term Saviour is applied to both God and the Lord Jesus in such a way as to assure us that Jesus is God. In Titus 1 it is "God our Saviour" in verse 3 and "Christ our Saviour" in verse 4. In Titus 3 it is "God our Saviour" in verse 4 and "Christ our Saviour" in verse 6. In Titus 2 it is "our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ" in verse 13.
- Promised. The purpose stood in God's mind before the ages, unspoken to anyone.
- Timed. It waited for the proper season — after man's failure stood exposed and the cross laid a righteous foundation.
- Manifested. God's chosen way of bringing it out is preaching. Most of the world's history knew no such thing.
- Entrusted. God committed the message to Paul by command, not by Paul's own ability. It passes on to faithful people who can teach others.
- Saviour. The One who gave the command is "God our Saviour." The very One we sinned against does the rescuing, and He shares the title with Christ.