awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ;
Paul has just told servants, wives, young men and older believers how to live. Now he anchors all of it in something they are watching for. The verse sets the Christian between two great moments: one already past, one still ahead. It raises two questions. What are we waiting for, and who is the Person named here?
Between Two Appearings
Verse 13 leans on the verse before it. Grace has already shown itself; the glory has not. One writer sets the whole passage in that gap, and calls it the place where real Christianity shows itself.
So there are two appearings: grace has appeared, and the glory of our blessed Lord will appear. Between these two appearings, those who have been brought into the possession of grace are to display true and practical Christianity. Without doubt the appearing of grace began when our Lord became man. It was seen in the whole of His life... it was declared at the cross... and it has continued ever since in the preaching of the good news.
Two Things, One Expectation
In the original, one article covers both the hope and the appearing of the glory. So commentators treat them as joined but not identical. The first satisfies the heart. The second clears the world of evil.
The one article covering the two objects links them together. It does not make them identical. It joins them here on purpose, to give one combined outlook. "The blessed hope" is the only thing that can satisfy the heart. It means being in the presence of Christ on high, changed at His coming into His likeness, and with Him for ever. "The appearing of the" divine "glory" belongs with it, and follows at the right time. It is the display of divine power, and our renewed souls cannot help longing for it, for it shuts out all moral and physical evil and every crafty work of Satan.
The second of the two is not good news for everyone.
"That blessed hope" is the coming of the Lord Jesus for His saints, and so it is unmixed blessing. "The appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ" is His later showing to all the world in power and great glory. To many this will be blessing; to many others solemn judgment.
Commentators differ on how far apart the two are. Some read "our blessed hope" as Christ coming for His people, separate from His public appearing. Others reply that this coming is not the theme of the letters to Timothy and Titus, where the appearing is the goal. Even so, they allow that a hint of it may lie in the phrase.
One Person, Not Two
The wording of the phrase carries the weight of who is coming.
The words "our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ" are arranged in the original so that they may, and beyond question do, refer to the same Person. It is not God and, separately, the Saviour Jesus Christ. The One who will appear in glory is our great God as well as our Saviour Jesus Christ. What a display of the dignity of His person — yes, of His Deity! And what a glorious event we are waiting for!
Kelly explains why the title "great God" stands here. It keeps us from ever forgetting what He is in Himself. He emptied Himself to become a servant and went down to the death of the cross.
Hope Shapes Character
A hope is not decoration. What a person looks at shapes what a person becomes.
The object before us is what forms our character. The Christian's object is the Lord in glory... The essential thing for the salvation of the soul is certainly Christ and His work for us, received by faith. But if a believer lacks the true hope, then even with that, the gap left can never be repaired.
The Ordinary Life It Transforms
This hope reaches ordinary working lives. One writer pictures a rough man from Crete after grace has changed him.
Here is a man from Crete who has been converted. This wild beast of a man is fully tamed. He now plods on serving his master in a sober, upright and godly way. But suppose he had nothing to look forward to! Life might then look very drab to him. Grace teaches him to lift up his eyes and look for the glory that is coming... That glory will be the fulfilment of all the hopes grace has awakened.
Summary
- Grace appeared. The first appearing is behind us — seen in Christ's life, declared at the cross, still preached today.
- Grace teaches. Once we receive it, grace trains us to live in a sober, upright and godly way.
- Grace waits. It fixes one object before us: Christ Himself, the blessed hope, and the glory that follows.
- Grace names Him. The One we wait for is our great God and our Saviour — one Person, not two.
- Grace forms us. What we look for is what we become. Life with nothing ahead turns drab. The coming glory tames and steadies the most unlikely man.