Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Titus 2:13

"looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;" — Titus 2:13 (ASV)

Those being trained by God’s grace, having renounced their sinful past and living disciplined lives in the present, now “wait for” (GK 4657; cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:9–10) the future.They anticipate “the blessed hope,” the personal return of Christ who will consummate our bliss in eternal glory.

The Greek connects “blessed hope” and “glorious appearing” under one article, suggesting that the reference is to one event viewed from two aspects. For believers, it is indeed the blessed hope and the longed-for consummation of that hope. For Christ himself, this anticipated return will vindicate his character as the Lord of glory. “Glorious appearing” points to his present glorification in heaven. Now unrecognized and disregarded by the world, his glory at his return will be manifested in all its splendor.

Grammatically, the glory to be revealed relates either to Christ alone or to both the Father and Christ, but the former is to be preferred. (1) This is the most natural view, since both nouns are connected by one article as referring to one person. (2) The combination “god and savior” was familiar to the Hellenistic religions. (3) The added clause in v.14 refers to Christ alone, and it is most natural to take the entire preceding expression as its antecedent. (4) In the Pastorals the coming appearance is referred to Christ alone. (5) The adjective “great” of God is rather pointless but highly significant if applied to Christ. (6) This view is in full harmony with other passages such as Jn 20:28; Romans 9:5; Hebrews 1:8; and 2 Peter 1:1. This view takes the statement as an explicit assertion of the deity of Christ.