Titus 2:11-15 (NIV) “11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 15 These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.”
Grace teaches, we train, as we train we go out and practice, practice, practice, putting into action what grace has trained us for. Grace disciplines and inspires our dedication, but never strangles or throttles anyone into submission.

Israel had to shift from an agricultural nation to a nomadic nation which was good at war. They had to shift from using plows to swords, and once they were trained to make swords out of plows, then they had to be trained in how to use the swords.

It occurs to me that if we are trained by grace we will be graceful people, if we’re trained by arrogance and greed, chances are very good we too will be arrogant and greedy….and of course that’s not always true for there are very few things in this life which are always and never. Graceful and kind parents typically generate graceful and kind offspring; manipulative and subversive parents typically generate manipulative and subversive children; children easily catch the character content of the parents due to simply being in contact with them. Don’t you know that we can give away what we’ve got even if we don’t know we’ve got it we can give it away, and that would include our condition of abnormal functioning as well as our normal functioning.

Are we trained by grace, or simply employing what we were born with?

If grace is not your trainer, then who is? Are you good with only your natural born talents, you know, the characteristics you were born with which are easily exploited by satan, who’s will is fully set against us, are you good with that cur dog being your mentor and trainer? i realize that many seem to think they have everything they need without including God, but seeing as how the Bible is the universal, One-Stop Resource for morals, ethics, principles, conduct, and character, i think it would be best to choose the Bible as our standard and see what God has to say. Indeed, this world of fluid and mobile boundaries needs a standard higher than itself, wouldn’t you agree?

According to the Bible the greatest ability of our flesh and uncrucified mind is …. wrongness of character, our inclination is iniquity from the start. i believe everyone is born with certain capacities and giftings, but above that, the unredeemed mind only knows the unredeemed life style with all it’s unredeemed inclinations….or what the Bible would call the “works of the flesh”.

What are our natural inclinations, trained by the world under our slave master called sin, which gladly bruises our conscience and gives power to our flesh over our spirit? Paul speaks to that in Romans 1 where he goes through a list of wrongness that is natural to those without Jesus. Our natural talents include every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity; we are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice; our natural born talents also include gossip, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful.

Naturally, we have a talent for inventing ways of doing wrong, seeing no good reason to even obey our parents, and in that we become senseless, faithless, heartless, and ruthless, not thinking it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, refusing to even think in the Lord’s direction.

Many would probably say, after hearing that list, “Well, it’s not all THAT bad, you know. i’m not really like that and i don’t know anyone who is. i’m a good person and i only hang out with good people!” Hmmm….really? If God and His word are the standard, and believe me, in the end He is conclusively, and finally the End-All and Standard, then if God says there is no good thing in me, then i think it absolutely prudent to take Him at His word. Romans 7:18
18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”

Even if we understand the good things to do, without Christ we are trained and practiced in the ways of the world, we don’t have the where-with-all to do Godliness. Now that should upset more than a few who still believe they’ve got what it takes to make it on their own. Can we make it on our own? Do we truly believe that we somehow think we can be obedient enough to prosper, attaining the favor of God by our ability to be obedient? If we’re going to return to the law then Christ has died in vain.

So, i’m going to use myself as an example. i’m going to cut loose with a list of my natural, flesh born skills …. that is – Without Christ-type skills.

These things i know of myself: In and of myself, all on my own, i’m a superior failure, a good and veteran failure. i do failure VERY well.; i’m good at it! i don’t have to learn how to successfully fail; i arrived in this world well trained at it and all i needed to do was practice, afterall, practice does makes perfect. Without Christ, everyone is a perfect and successful failure.

i’m good at not telling myself the truth, no training necessary, all i need is a medium to practice in. By the grace of God i see my ugly and understand my long history of ugly. Hell regularly reminds me of my disqualifications, my rebellious behavior, and my past dis-ingenuousness. i didn’t have to take any classes to learn to do stuff badly, no training necessary.

i didn’t have to learn to quit…. i’m a talented and natural quitter. i’m good at shifting the blame so i don’t have to be responsible. i’m good at calling myself horrible names and then believing it’s the truth. Sadly, those are a few of my natural talents.

But here’s the best part of it all: Jesus lifts me above my natural talents and breaths life into me to live life abundantly, trained by grace, not according to someone else’s idea of what they think i should do. i’m the one standing here. i’m the one who is responsible, and through Christ alone do i have the power and authority to be different.

We are being taught, trained by either Heaven or hell! Who or what are your trainers? How do you know you are being trained in righteousness? Ephesians 4:22-24 “22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” “NEW”. What part of “new” does not mean “new”?

In the previous scripture, Ephesians 4:23, Paul uses a word which i think needs a little clarity: it was the word “attitude”. Attitude speaks to the pitch and yaw of our heart, how we lean in our heart towards God. For a better understanding of that scripture, i’m going to insert the definition of attitude, so then it would read like this: “to become renovated and renewed in how you lean toward or away from God in your hearts;” That means, in Christ, we have an entirely better set of skills. Let us allow the Holy Spirit to train us.

God purposely gave us an option of either being trained by righteousness or by sin. Romans 6:13-14 “…..offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.”

Did you hear that? That is incredibly wonderful!! Paul said, “For sin, your bruised conscience and alienated mind, shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” Through the blood of Jesus, we take to ourselves a new trainer who trains us in grace. “..not under law, but under grace.”

When we spend our time participating with God, going where He goes and doing what He does, it is easy to see that we are being trained by grace.

Hear what i’m saying here, catch the vision: There’s two sides to the process, someone teaches, and someone learns. i suppose a good question is what exactly is grace teaching us? What are we learning?

i am confident it would be simple to show that grace teaches us to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. i want to add that, honestly, no one has ever suggested to me that i be “more temperate” …. so i looked it up and it means to be sound in mind, to be sober in opinion or passion.

i also think it important to say why i spend time looking up meanings of some words. Well…..the truth is, some biblical words i’ve never been able to relate to, and i figure if i can’t relate to it, then there’s a lot of other people who can’t relate either. i also want to add that many many times English doesn’t do Greek, Hebrew, or their translation any favors, so it is to our benefit to dig into discovering God’s intent and purpose….it’s part of being trained in Grace.

The Handbook of Bible Application says we need to depend on God to train our conscience. How can you hold on to a good conscience? Treasure your faith in Christ more than anything else and do what you know is right. Each time you deliberately ignore your conscience, you are hardening your heart. If we deliberately ignore our conscience, over time our capacity to tell right from wrong will diminish.

The training of Grace teaches us the value of truth, not just facts, but the truth; we learn from grace …. kindness and a preference for doing the right thing not just leveraging the facts to facilitate the advancement of our agenda. Grace teaches us diligence and perseverance, even when we’re in the long night of a storm. Grace emphasises over and over the importance of a sound conscience. Without a conscience, conviction has no foothold, making condemnation the only other option. Convicted or condemned, you choose.

Let us hold character and conscience in Christ above the values of the world! As you walk with God, he will speak to you through your conscience, letting you know the difference between right and wrong….that is a life-long-lesson in the school of Grace. Be sure to act on those inner tugs to do what is right— the training of grace is because of the everlasting love of God. Participate with Jesus and let grace train you, the training of grace is for an eternity with God.

Ephesians 4:12-13 (MSG)”..to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, 13 until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ.

2 Timothy 3:16 (MSG) “Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way.”

i like that, “training us to live God’s way”, no longer slaves to this world or sin. That is wonderfully attractive.