For the grace of God that bringeth salvation
By which is meant, not the free love and favour of God, which
lies in his own heart; for though that is productive of
salvation, and is the source and spring of it, and what brings it
forth, and is far from encouraging licentiousness, but instructs
in real piety, and constrains to obedience to the will of God;
yet this does not appear, nor has it been, nor is it made
manifest unto all men, but is peculiar to the Lord's own people;
nor does it design the grace of God wrought in the hearts of
believers; for though salvation is strictly connected with it,
and it powerfully influences the lives and conversations of such,
who are partakers of it; yet it has not appeared to, nor in all
men; all men have not faith, nor hope, nor love, nor any other
graces of the Spirit: but by the grace of God is intended the
doctrine of grace, the Gospel of the grace of God; called so,
because it is a declaration of the grace of God, and of salvation
by it: and is the means, in the hand of the Spirit, of conveying
grace to the heart, and implanting it in it; in which sense the
phrase is used in ( Acts 20:24 ) ( 2
Corinthians 6:1 ) ( Hebrews
12:15 ) and this is called the Gospel of salvation, the word
of salvation, and salvation itself, and so may be said to bring
it; it brings and publishes the good news of it; it shows unto
men the way of salvation; it gives an account of the Saviour
himself, that he is the great God, and so fit to be a Saviour;
that he was appointed by God the Father to be his salvation; that
he was sent, and came to work out salvation; and that he is
become the author of it; and that he is the only Saviour, and an
able, willing, and complete one: it gives an account of the
salvation itself; that it is the salvation of the soul; that it
is a great one, and includes both grace and glory; that it is
everlasting, and all of free grace; and it points out the persons
who are interested in it, and shall enjoy it, even all those that
are chosen to it, and are redeemed, reconciled, and justified by
the blood of Christ, and are brought to believe in him: and the
Gospel not only brings the news of all this to the ear, in the
external ministration of it; but it brings it to the heart, and
is the power of God unto salvation, when it comes, not in word
only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost; or when it comes under
the powerful influences and application of the Spirit of God.
Some read this clause thus, "that bringeth salvation to all men";
to which agrees the Syriac version, which renders it,
(lk tyxm) , "that
quickeneth" or "saveth all"; and so the Arabic version: but then
this cannot be understood of every individual person; for the
Gospel has not brought salvation to everyone in any sense, not
even in the external ministry of it; there have been multitudes
who have never so much as heard the outward sound of salvation by
Jesus Christ, and fewer still who have an application of it to
their souls by the Spirit of God; to many to whom it has come, it
has been an hidden Gospel, and the savour of death unto death: it
follows indeed,
hath appeared to all men;
which supposes it to have been hid, as it was, in the thoughts,
purposes, and counsels of God; and in Jesus Christ, in whom all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid; and in the
covenant of grace, of which the Gospel is a transcript; and in
the types and shadows of the ceremonial law: it was in some
measure hid from angels, who desire to look into it, and from the
Old Testament saints, to whom it was not known as it is now, by
the apostles and prophets; and it was entirely hid from the
Gentiles, the times of whose ignorance God overlooked: and it
suggests, that it now appeared or shone out more clearly, and
more largely. The Gospel had been like a candle lighted up in one
part of the world, only in Judea, but now it shone out like the
sun in its meridian glory, and appeared to all men; not to every
individual person; it has neither shined upon, nor in everyone:
it did not in the apostle's time, when it appeared the most
illustrious, and shone out the most extensively, as well as the
most clearly; nor has it in ages since, nor does it in ours;
there are multitudes who know nothing of it, and are neither
under its form nor power: but this is to be understood of all
sorts of men, of every nation, of every age and sex, of every
state and condition, high and low, rich and poor, bond and free,
masters and servants; which sense well agrees with the context, (
Titus
2:2-4 Titus 2:6
Titus 2:9
Titus 2:10 )
and the words are a reason why the apostle would have duty urged
on all sorts of persons, because the Gospel was now preached to
all; and it had reached the hearts of all sorts of men;
particularly the Gentiles may be intended from whom the Gospel
was before hid, and who sat in darkness, and in the shadow of
death; but now the great light shined upon them, and the Gospel
was no more confined to one people only, but was preached to
every creature under heaven, or to the whole creation; namely, to
the Gentiles, pursuant to the commission in ( Mark 16:15 ) .