En Fuego

“who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14)

Back in his days at ESPN, Dan Patrick would let folks watching SportsCenter when an athlete couldn’t be stopped. DP loved to say they were “en fuego!” That’s “on fire” in Espanol. It was his all purpose catch phrase that translated to any sport. Michael Jordan dropping 50 in the playoffs is “en fuego.” Jerry Rice snagging 14 passes for three TDs is “en fuego.” Albert Pujols going 5 for 5 with two homers is “en fuego.” Here in his instructions to Titus, the Apostle Paul tells us that Jesus personally rescued us so that we would have a burning passion to do good stuff. He sacrificed Himself in order that we would be “en fuego.” 

A huge part of this letter from Paul to Titus are directions on how and what to teach new believers about following Jesus (Titus 2:1-15). The Big T was to make sure senior saints had a handle on the Good News so that they could teach the next generation about who Christ is and what He’s done for us. We apply what Jesus has done for us by doing good works. Good works that make God famous. Good works that bless the people around us. We give because we’ve been given. 

Right out of the chute, the apostle tells us that Jesus “gave Himself for us” (v14). In so many ways, this is THE Big Idea of the Bible. God is a Giver. Get it out of your head that the Almighty sits on the edge of a cloud like some sort of heavenly hall monitor, ready to zap us with a lightning bolt when we break the tiniest rule. Hall monitor, no. Good Giver, yes. He created the universe out of the overflow of His goodness and He’s never stopped giving. The pages of Scripture drip with the grace of our incredibly giving God. Jesus told Nick one night about what an incredibly gracious Giver God is. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him  should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). Because God loves, God gives. Paul wants his Corinthian buddies to join in and shout, “Thanks be to God for His inexpressible Gift!” (2Cor 9:15). By “Gift,” he means Jesus!

So just how awesome is this awesome Gift? Jesus gave Himself in order “to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for Himself a people for His own possession” (v14). He offered Himself in our place for two reasons. To redeem us. To purify us. Paul’s talking about how someone would redeem a slave or a prisoner. In order to bust somebody free, someone with a wallet full of cash would drop big bucks to make it happen. Think of paying a ransom to a kidnapper. Jesus gave Himself to pay the price for our freedom. He paid a bill so enormous that we could never dream of paying for it ourselves. And He did it with His very own flesh and blood (Acts 20:28). He freed me from my own sinful self. After playing the role of Redeemer, Christ becomes our Purifier. After buying our freedom, He doesn’t just leave us hanging. That’s when He goes to work cleaning us from all of the disgusting sin stains. He didn’t just post our bail. He scrubs us totally clean. This all happens as result of what Luther calls the Great Exchange. “For our sake He (God) made Him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him (Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God” (2Cor 5:21). In other words, Christ takes our sin and gives us His godly goodness. That’s indeed an awesome Gift!

But Jesus doesn’t stop there. He doesn’t make us free and scrub us clean only to move onto His next project. Instead, Christ does this to create in us “a people for His own possession” (v14). He desperately wants a relationship with you and me. He wants to hold us closely. Jesus doesn’t just love you, He likes you. The Apostle Peter pulls no punches when it comes to why the Lord did this. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1Pet 2:9-10). He makes us His own prized possession so that we can shout to the world about just how incredibly good and giving He is.

Jesus redeems and purifies us so that we would be folks “who are zealous for good works” (v14). When we see “zealous” in most of our translations, Paul actually uses the Greek word zelotes. This is someone with a burning passion. It comes from a root word that describes lighting a fire under something and heating it up. What are you stoked to do? Does what Jesus has done for you light a fire under you? Are you boiling with a passion to do something with what He’s done for you? We should all be “en fuego” for Jesus.

We’re to get fired up to do “good works” (v14). This little letter is loaded with references to these “good works.” False teachers actually reject God and because of that they are totally “unfit for any good work” (Titus 1:16). Paul tells Titus that he should do everything possible “to be a model of good works” to the people of Crete (Titus 2:7). A critical point to tell new believers is that we should all “be ready for every good work” (Titus 3:1). A sure sign of faith in Jesus is when people “devote themselves to good works” (Titus 3:8, 14).

But let’s make sure we’re clear what “good works” are and what they’re not. Don’t buy the lie that we save ourselves by what we do. It’s so stinking easy to no only fall for the fiction that we’re not just responsible to get ourselves into God’s kingdom but staying there too. Drop that nonsense like a bad habit. While doing good works has nothing to do with be saved or staying saved, they are an indication of what Jesus has done for us that we could never dream of doing for ourselves. God saves us by His grace when we place our total trust in what Christ has done (Eph 2:8). He lived the perfect life that I completely failed to live. He died the brutal death for my sin on a bloody cross that I should have died. He rose to a spectacular new life that I in no way deserve. I have no reason to brag about how I’ve rescued myself (Eph 2:9). I don’t save myself by my good works, but Jesus saves me to do good works. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10). In other words, our good works are the result of what God has done for us, not how we are saved.

We do good stuff and God stuff when we give ourselves to others. In other words, “good works” are when we give of ourselves and sacrifice like Jesus. It’s doing for folks when they can’t do anything in return for us. We don’t ask what we can get out of doing something good for this person. When we do this in order to get that, we’re as far from grace as we can get. God gives us what you and I absolutely do not deserve when there’s no way in heaven we could do anything for Him. Being fired up with God’s grace is the very definition of “good works.”

Are you on fire? Are you stoked to do good stuff and God stuff? Are you “en fuego?