The blessed hope: Titus 2:13

c. 1714 · Jeremiah Smith, Commentary on Titus 2.11-14

Hope, by a metonymy, is put for the thing hoped for, namely, heaven and the felicities thereof, called emphatically that hope, because it is the great thing we look and long and wait for; and a blessed hope, because, when attained, we shall be completely happy for ever. And the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. This denotes both the time of the accomplishing of our hope and the sureness and greatness of it: it will be at the second appearing of Christ, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels, Luke ix. 26. His own glory which he had before the world was; and his Father's, being the express image of his person, and as God-man, his delegated ruler and Judge; and of the holy angels, as his ministers and glorious attendants. His first coming was in meanness, to satisfy justice and purchase happiness; his second will be in majesty, to bestow and instate his people in it. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto those that look for him will he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation, Heb. ix. 28. The great God and our Saviour (or even our Saviour) Jesus Christ; for they are not two subjects, but one only, as appears by the single article, tou megalou Theou kai Soteros, not kai tou Soteros, and so is kai rendered 1 Cor. xv. 24, When he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; to Theo kai Patri.

c. 1714 · Jeremiah Smith, Commentary on Titus 2.11-14

] At, and in, the glorious appearing of Christ will the blessed hope of Christians be attained; for their felicity will be this, To be where he is, and to behold his glory, John xvii. 24. The glory of the great God and our Saviour will then break out as the sun. Though in the exercise of his judiciary power he will appear as the Son of man, yet will he be mightily declared to be the Son of God too. The divinity, which on earth was much veiled, will shine out then as the sun in its strength. Hence the work and design of the gospel are to raise the heart to wait for this second appearing of Christ.

1740 · Jonathan Edwards, The Portion of the Righteous 1

The hope of the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, is said to be a blessed hope. Titus ii. 13. “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” But when it comes it will be a more blessed sight.

1886 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 32 (1886) 1894

One work of the Grace of God is to cause us to be "looking for that blessed hope of the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ." What is that "blessed hope"? Why, first, that when He comes we shall rise from the dead, if we have fallen asleep, and that if we are alive and remain, we shall be changed at His appearing!

1886 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 32 (1886) 1897

If I begin to describe our hope, I must begin with what, I think, is always the topmost stone of it—the hope of the Second Advent of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ—for we believe that when He shall appear, we shall also appear with Him in Glory. We know that He has gone up into Heaven. His Apostles saw Him as He ascended from Olivet—and we believe the words which the angels declared soon after His departure to remind us of His coming again—"This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him go into Heaven."

1896 · Andrew Murray, Waiting on God! 28

The hope of that glorious appearing will strengthen you in waiting upon God for what He is to do in you now: the same omnipotent love that is to reveal that glory is working in you even now to fit you for it. 'The blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,' is one of the great bonds of union given to God's Church throughout the ages. 'He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at in all them that believe.'

1918 · Arthur W. Pink, The Redeemer's Return The Hope of the Redeemer's Return, I. The Character of Our Hope, 4. Our Hope is the personal Return of our Redeemer

But hope always looks forward. Hope has to do with the future. “We are saved in hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it” (Rom. 8:24, 25). This means that what we hope for is that which we do not yet possess. As another has said, “Man was not made for the present, and the present was not intended to satisfy man. “It is for the future, not the present, that man exists” (W. Trotter). The Hope of the believer is clearly set forth in Titus 2:13—“Looking for that blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (R. V.). Our Hope is the personal Return of Christ when He shall come back again to receive us unto Himself. Our Hope is to be taken out of this scene of sin and suffering and sorrow to be where Christ is (John 14:1–3). Our Hope is to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and be for ever “with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). Our Hope is to be “made like” Him, and this hope will be realized when “we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). This is the “one hope” of our calling” (Eph. 4:4). This is the only Hope for everything else has failed.

c. 200 · Hippolytus of Rome, Treatise on Christ and Antichrist (De Antichristo) 67

These things, then, I have set shortly before thee, O Theophilus, drawing them from Scripture itself, in order that, maintaining in faith what is written, and anticipating the things that are to be, thou mayest keep thyself void of offence both toward God and toward men, “looking for that blessed hope and appearing of our God and Saviour,” when, having raised the saints among us, He will rejoice with them, glorifying the Father.

1647–1657 · Thomas Manton, Works, vol. V An Exposition, with Notes, upon the Epistle of Jude, Verse 6

The faithful ‘love his appearing,’ 2 Tim. iv. 8. This is the great day which they long to see, that they may meet with their beloved, and see him in all his glory and royalty. They have heard much of Christ, and tasted much of Christ, and they love him much, but yet they have not seen him; they know him by hearsay, and by spiritual experience, but never saw his person: ‘Whom having not seen you love,’ &c. They have seen his picture; ‘crucified before their eyes,’ Gal. iii. 1; ‘Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord,’ 2 Cor. iii. 18; therefore they cannot be satisfied till this day cometh about. Oh! when shall it once be? ‘The Spirit in the bride saith, Come,’ Rev. xxii. 17. Nature saith not Come, but Tarry still. If it might go by voices whether Christ should come, yea or no, carnal men would never give their voice this way. The language of corrupt nature is, ‘Depart,’ Job xxi. 14. Carnal men are of the devil’s mind: ‘Art thou come to torment us before our time?’ Mat. viii.; they cannot endure to hear of it; but ‘Come, O come!’ saith grace. This day we have cause to long for, not only upon Christ’s account, but our own: it is the day of our perfection as well as Christ’s royalty. Now everything tendeth to its perfect state, so doth a Christian; then there is perfect holiness and perfect freedom. We never find Christ a Saviour to the uttermost till then; to the glorified spirits he is but a Saviour in part, some fruit of sin is continued upon the body; but then body and soul are united and perfectly glorified to enjoy God in heaven. Christ then cometh to make an end of what he had begun.

1679 · Thomas Manton, Works, vol. III Eighteen Sermons on the Second Chapter of the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians,, Sermon XVI. And good hope through grace

The coming of Christ to our comfort: Titus ii. 13, ‘Looking for the blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;’ 1 Peter i. 13, ‘Gird up the loins of your minds, and be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.’ Hope is there described by its singular object, the coming of Christ, called there the revelation of Christ. Christ is now under a veil, his bodily presence being removed, and his spiritual glory seen but darkly, as in a glass; but then he shall appear in person and in his glory. When Christ withdrew out of sight, our comfort seemed to be gone with him; but he will come again. He is not gone in anger, but about business, to set all things at rights against the day of solemn espousals; and then he cometh to possess what he hath purchased, and to carry the church into the everlasting place of her abode. This is the great hope of Christians, and a blessed and good hope it is indeed.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Titus 2.13

Looking for - Expecting; waiting for. That is, in the faithful performance of our duties to ourselves, to our fellow-creatures, and to God, we are patiently to wait for the coming of our Lord. (1) We are to believe that he will return; (2) We are to be in a posture of expectation, not knowing when he will come; and, (3) We are to be ready for him whenever he shall come; see the Mat 24:42-44 notes; 1Th 5:4 note; Phi 3:20 note.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Titus 2.13

The glorious appearing - Notes, 2Th 2:8; compare 1Ti 6:14; 2Ti 1:10; 2Ti 4:8. Of the great God - There can be little doubt, if any, that by "the great God" here, the apostle referred to the Lord Jesus, for it is not a doctrine of the New Testament that God himself as such, or in contradistinction from his incarnate Son, will appear at the last day. It is said, indeed, that the Saviour will come "in the glory of his Father, with his angels" Mat 16:27, but that God as such will appear is not taught in the Bible. The doctrine there is, that God will be manifest in his Son; that the divine approach to our world be through him to judge the race; and that though he will be accompanied with the appropriate symbols of the divinity, yet it will be the Son of God who will be visible.

1834 · Jonathan Edwards, The Final Judgment: or, the World Judged Righteously by Jesus Christ 7

Upon these accounts the saints have reason to love the appearing of Jesus Christ. 2 Tim. iv. 8. “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but to all those that love his appearing.” This is to the saints a blessed hope. Tit. ii. 13. “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” This day may well be the object of their eager desire, and when they hear of Christ’s coming to judgment, they may well say, “Even so come, Lord Jesus,” Rev. xxii. 20. It will be the most glorious day that ever the saints saw; it will be so both to those who shall die, and whose souls shall go to heaven, and to those who shall then be found alive on earth: it will be the wedding-day of the church.

1872 · Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, vol. 3 (Part III, chapters XV-XX; Part IV, Eschatology) 4.3.3

Certain it is that they believed that He would come visibly and with great glory, and that they held his coming as the great object of expectation and desire. Indeed Christians are described as those who “are waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor. i. 7); as those who are “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Tit. ii. 13) (it is to them who look for Him, He is to “appear the second time, without sin unto salvation,” Heb. ix. 28); as those who are expecting and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God.

1875 · Reformed Episcopal Church, Articles of Religion of the Reformed Episcopal Church 3

Christ did truly rise from death, and took again his body, with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the perfection of man's nature, wherewith he ascended into heaven, and there sitteth, our High-Priest and Advocate, at the right hand of the Father, whence he will return to judge the world in righteousness. This Second Coming is the blessed hope of the Church. The heavens have received him, till the times of the restitution of all things. To those who look for him he shall appear a second time without sin unto salvation.

1886 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 32 (1886) 1894

The people of God stand between two appearances. In the 11th verse he tells us, "The Grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men." And then he says, in the 13th verse, "Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ." We live in an age which is an interval between two appearings of the Lord from Heaven.

1892 · James Denney, The Expositor's Bible: The Epistles to the Thessalonians The First Epistle to the Thessalonians, XII. The Day of the Lord

If we keep our faith in Jesus Christ, if we love one another, if our hearts are set with confident hope on that salvation which is to be brought to us at Christ's appearing, we need fear no evil; no foe can touch our life. It is remarkable, I think, that both here and in the famous passage in Ephesians, as well as in the original of both in Isaiah lix. 17, salvation, or, to be more precise, the hope of salvation, is made the helmet. The Apostle is very free in his comparisons; faith is now a shield, and now a breastplate; the breastplate in one passage is faith and love, and in another righteousness; but the helmet is always the same. Without hope, he would say to us, no man can hold up his head in the battle; and the Christian hope is always Christ's second coming. If He is not to come again, the very word hope may be blotted out of the New Testament. This assured grasp on the coming salvation—a salvation ready to be revealed in the last times—is what gives the spirit of victory to the Christian even in the darkest hour.

1892 · James Denney, The Expositor's Bible: The Epistles to the Thessalonians The First Epistle to the Thessalonians, IV. Conversion

The door of the unseen world closed behind Christ as He ascended from Olivet, but not for ever. It will open again; and this same Jesus shall so come in like manner as the apostles beheld Him go. He has gone to prepare a place for those who love Him and keep His word; but "if I go," He says, "and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and take you to Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." That is the final hope of the Christian faith. It is for the fulfilment of this promise that the Church waits. The Second Coming of Christ and His Resurrection stand and fall together; and it will not long be possible for those who look askance at His return to receive in all its fulness the revelation of life which He made when He rose again from the dead.

1930–1933 · A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament: Titus 2.13

Looking for (προσδεχομενοι). Present middle participle of προσδεχομαι, old verb, the one used of Simeon (Lu 2:25 ) and others (Lu 2:38 ) who were looking for the Messiah. The blessed hope and appearing of the glory (την μακαριαν ελπιδα και επιφανειαν της δοξης). The word επιφανεια (used by the Greeks of the appearance of the gods, from επιφανης, επιφαινω) occurs in 2Ti 1:10 of the Incarnation of Christ, the first Epiphany (like the verb επεφανη, Tit 2:11 ), but here of the second Epiphany of Christ or the second coming as in 1Ti 6:14; 2Ti 4:1,8 .

1938 · William R. Newell, Romans Verse-by-Verse 16

Not only humility, but hope—the true hope of the instructed Christian, will rise and well up in our hearts: “Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). 7. Thus the believer walks consciously justified from all things, and in newness of life (Romans); as a new creature in Christ (II Corinthians); as made alive together with Christ, raised up in Him, and made to sit with Him in the heavenlies (Ephesians); thus with Paul as the example, he runs His course toward Christ Himself (Philippians); as walking through many dangers on this earth, yet “holding fast the Head,” in Whom is all fulness, and in Whom, in constant appropriation of His fulness, the believer is being made full (Colossians); and thus with ever-absorbing hope he expects the day when Christ shall appear, and he become “in a moment” “like Him,”—seeing Him as He is (Thessalonians).

1647–1657 · Thomas Manton, Works, vol. V An Exposition, with Notes, upon the Epistle of Jude, Verse 6

Look for it, Phil. iii. 21; Titus ii. 13. Every time you look up to the clouds, remember you have a Saviour that in time will come from thence, and call the world to an account. Faith should always stand ready to meet him, as if he were upon his way; as Rebecca spied Isaac afar off, so doth faith, which is ‘the evidence of things not seen,’ Look within the curtain of the heavens, and spy out Christ as preparing for his coming. If he tarrieth longer than we expect, he is ‘not slack,’ 2 Peter iii. 9; but we are hasty. He wants no affection to us; his ‘delights were with the sons of men’ before they were created, Prov. viii. 31; and certainly, now he is so deeply interested in us, as having bought us with his blood, he desireth to enjoy what he hath purchased. It is not want of love keepeth him away, nor want of truth; God is punctual in his promises, even to a day: Exod. xii. 41, ‘Even the self same day,’ &c. If all things were ready he would come presently; therefore wait and look still: they were not deceived that expected his first coming in the flesh. It was said, ‘a virgin shall conceive.’ Was it not done? That God would ‘bring his son out of Egypt.’ Was it not done? That he should ride to Jerusalem ‘upon the foal of an ass;’ and was it not done? Surely the God that hath been faithful all along hitherto will not fail at last.

1834 · Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: 2 Peter 3.12

The true Christian does not dread the coming of that day. He looks forward to it as the period of his redemption, and would welcome, at any time, the return of his Lord and Saviour. While he is willing to wait as long as it shall please God for the advent of His Redeemer, yet to Him the brightest prospect in the future is that hour when he shall come to take him to Himself.

1875 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 21 (1875) 1249

Do you not expect, each day, the coming of your Lord, and look for it with rapture? They, also, do the same. They say there is no hope in Heaven, but who told them so? The saints, like ourselves, are looking for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Your joy, your desire, your hope—are not these the same as theirs before the Throne of God?

1884 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 30 (1884) 1806

He expects that the Lord Jesus will come a second time, and that speedily. He has read of his going up into heaven, and he believes it; and he knows that he will so come in like manner as he went up into heaven. For the second advent he looks with calm hope: he does not know when it may be, but he keeps himself on the watch as a servant who waits his lord’s return. He hopes it may be today, he would not wonder if it were tomorrow, for he is always looking for and hasting unto the coming of the Son of God. The coming of the Lord is his expected reward.

1893 · Robert Rainy, The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Philippians Chapter XVI. Our City and Our Coming King

The expectation of the coming of Christ out of the world of supreme truth and purity, where God is known and served aright, to fulfil all His promises,—this is the Church's and the believer's great hope. It is set before us in the New Testament as a motive to every duty, as giving weight to every warning, as determining the attitude and character of all Christian life. In particular, we cannot deal aright with any of the earthly things committed to us, unless we deal with them in the light of Christ's expected coming. This expectation is to enter into the heart of every believer, and no one is warranted to overlook or make light of it.

1905–1910 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Luke 2.16

Does my heart cling to the Christ who is—who lives and reigns, and with whom my life is hid in God? Do my hopes crystallise round, and anchor upon, the Christ that is to come, and pierce the dimness of the future and the gloom of the grave, looking onwards to that day of days when He, who is our life, shall appear, and we shall appear also with Him in glory?

1905–1910 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Luke 12.37-44

It is not for us, as it is for men in the world, to fix our hopes for the future on abstract laws of the progress of humanity, or the evolution of the species, or the gradual betterment of the world, and the like. All these may be true: I say nothing about them. But what we have to fill our future with is that ‘that same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go.’ It is much to be lamented that curious chronological speculations have so often discredited that great central hope of the Church, which is properly altogether independent of them; and that, because people have got befogged in interpreting such symbols as beasts, and horses, and trumpets, and seals, and the like, the Christian Church as a whole should so feebly be holding by that great truth, without which, as it seems to me, the truth which many of us are tempted to make the exclusive one, loses half its significance. No man can rightly understand the whole contents of the blessed proclamation, ‘Christ has come,’ unless he ends the sentence with ‘and Christ will come.’

1905–1910 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Luke 12.37-44

Of course I need not remind you that much for which that second coming of the Lord is precious, and an object of hope to the world and the Church, is realised by the individual in the article of death. Whether Christ comes to the world or I go to Christ, the important thing is that there result union and communion, the reign of righteousness and peace, the felicities of the heavenly state. And so, dear brethren, just because of the uncertainty that drapes the future, and which we are often tempted to make a reason for dismissing the anticipation of it from our minds, we ought the more earnestly to give heed that we keep that end ever before us, and whether it is reached by His coming to us, or our going to Him, anticipate, by the power of realising faith grasping the firm words of Revelation, the unimaginable, and—until it is experienced—the incommunicable blessedness revealed in these great, simple words, ‘So shall we ever be with the Lord.’

1912 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 58 (1912) 3322

The true way of waiting for His blessed appearing is to work unceasingly for Him! Christ will come, will come Personally and visibly! Let this be your great joyous hope, but still believe that the best way to meet Him is with trimmed lamps and burning lights as men watching and waiting for their Lord, and not as idle star-gazers who go out and read the prophesies and stand puzzling their minds about disputed facts while souls are perishing!

1918 · Arthur W. Pink, The Redeemer's Return The Imminency of the Redeemer's Return, 3. Why was the fact of our Lord's Return presented in the language of Imminency and the

The perennial hope of Christ’s second advent is used as a call to a godly walk- “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world. Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11–13). How clear it is from these words that the Blessed Hope is intended to check the spirit of self-pleasing and self-seeking in the believer and to promote holiness in the daily life. As says the apostle John, “He that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself even as He is pure” (1 John 3:3).