Have you ever heard that saying? “God is a gentleman. He waits to be invited in. He doesn’t barge in where you don’t want Him.”

I’m convinced that statement is a lie. Yes, it’s true He does not force anyone to accept Him, so in that regard He is a gentleman. But I’m here to tell you, when you give Him your heart, He takes your life!

Just take a look at this:

“Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:13-14 nasb)

We are redeemed and purified, why? To be a people of His own possession! He fully possesses us! There is no part of our body, no part of our life He does not see and where He is not! Every place we want to hide from Him because we think it’s too evil, to beyond the scope of grace, to beyond the reach of His blood, He is there! He possesses those parts too.

The parts of ourselves that are hidden from us, the parts we aren’t even fully aware of are fully possessed by Him.

No, God’s no gentleman, but He is good. That is what we must realize and trust in. His very goodness. Because He isn’t a gentleman. He goes places we don’t want Him to go, He messes with things we don’t want Him to mess with, He changes things we don’t want changed.  Yes, we can resist Him and make futile attempts to thwart Him but guess what? He always wins.

So just give it up right here and right now. That fight you’re fighting? Just give it up. Give in to Him. Partner with Him to work in you, even in those hidden places. You can’t hide from Him. He possesses you fully.

Let’s unpack this verse a little more. It is such a treasure trove of Truth!

It is the grace of God that instructs us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires. It’s His grace! We can’t do it on our own. He does it through us and uses grace to teach us! It teaches us how to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age. It points the way to the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus. His grace points the way to Him!

And that is glory!

Jesus gave Himself for us to:

• Redeem us from every lawless deed.
• Purify for Himself a people for His own possession!
• Possess us,
• Make us zealous for good deeds.

This means we are:

• Redeemed from every lawless deed and every violation of the law–wickedness. This means our old is gone (2 Corinthians 5:17) and our new is here. The old way was wicked and in constant violation of the law. Every intent of our heart was only evil all the time. But He redeemed us from that and He paid our penalty! We are no longer unwanted children, we are redeemed!  Camp on this for a pair of moments. He went to the slave auction of the enemy, and saw us there. We were over our head, drowning in a debt we couldn’t pay and He said, “I pick that one. I’m redeeming her.” He paid the price of our redemption. But He also paid the debt we owed that put us on that auction block in the first place! He paid our redemption and then He also paid the penalty, the debt we owed. Does anyone else want to shout, GLORY, or is it just me?
• Purified. He not only redeemed our lawless ways but He purified us. He made us pure because He is pure. He didn’t just buy us from our old way of living, He stripped us and cleansed us completely! We are completely clean, undefiled before Him. We are no longer the bad girls (or boys!) we are purified as He is pure!
• His own possession. He fully possesses us. There is no part of us that He does not possess–even those parts we try to hide because we think they are too wicked, to outside of grace for Him to see, too beyond the power and reach of His blood–He possesses those parts too. Even the parts we don’t know about ourselves, the parts hidden from our own eyes, He possesses them, because He redeemed and purified them.  We are completely clean before Him! We are completely His.
• Zealous for good deeds. Our desire is to work for Him, not to pay for our redemption and purification because that just can’t be done and it’s a slap in God’s face when we try. Rather it is because of our redemption and purification, and being fully possessed by Him, that makes us want to work for Him. But it isn’t us working at all. It is Him working in and through us. He not only gives us the desire and the ability, He does the work. We just have to submit to Him.