Titus 2:13 - doctrinal sense

[Steven Avery]

This study came forth from the CARM discussion (which will likely vanish in a year or two.)

Titus 2:13 - similar in sense to pure Bible 1 Timothy 3:16- Richard Newton commentary
Steven Avery - 12/07/2014
http://forums.carm.org/vbb/showthre...Sharp-s-Rule&p=6242801&viewfull=1#post6242801

==================================

Titus 2:13 ​

Looking for that blessed hope, ​

and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;​

​

Now we had a couple of questions about the combination of the glorious appearing and the accurate non-identity translation we have in the AV. Richard Newton (1813-1887) pointed out that this comes forth as a declaration of God manifest in Jesus Christ.

Similar, I will add to the pure scripture (approx 99% of the Greek mss and the CT alternative is a solecism) verse :

1 Timothy 3:16 ​

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: ​

God was manifest in the flesh,​

justified in the Spirit, ​

seen of angels, ​

preached unto the Gentiles, ​

believed on in the world,​

received up into glory.​

​

If you understand and receive the high Christology of the Timothy verse, you will similar have no difficulty with Titus 2:13

. Same author, same sense.

The Glorious Appearing (1867)
An Advent Sermon
Richard Newton
http://books.google.com/books?id=KYQ4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA177

And here, before passing from this branch of our subject, I would remark upon the convincing testimony which is borne by our text, to the supreme and unqualified divinity of our blessed Saviour. The phrase, " The Great God," is here distinctly and unquestionably applied to Christ. This language cannot apply to God the Father, for we have no intimation in Scripture, that God 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;" but that the Father himself will appear, is not taught in the Bible. The uniform teaching here is, that God will be manifest in His Son; that the Divine approach to our world, will he through Him, to judge our race and that though He will he accompanied with the appropriate symbols of divinity, yet it will be the Son of God alone who will be visible. When Paul used the language of our text, he had his eye on the Son of God, and expected no other manifestation than would be made through Him. In no place in the New Testament is the phrase, " the manifestation or appearing of God," applied to any other one than Christ. And no plain reader of the New Testament, accustomed to the common language there used, would have any doubt that the Apostle was referring here to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The language which the Apostle here uses, is just such language as one would use who believed that the Lord Jesus is divine, and that the name of God may properly be applied to Him. It is language which would obviously and naturally convey the idea of His divinity to one who had no theory to defend. If the Apostle did not mean this, then he used language which was exactly fitted to lead men into error; and at the same time it is to be observed, that the fair construction of the Greek here, according to the application of the most rigid rules, abundantly sustains the interrelation which the plain reader of the New Testament would affix to it- And this being the case, our text must be regarded as furnishing a most important proof of the divinity of Christ, at the same time that it shows us that the event referred to is the personal coming of our Saviour to this earth again, when it speaks of "the appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ."

Then Richard Newton goes very nicely into a section about glorious appearance.

Steven Avery