God's Kindness to Sinners

Part 1

Titus 3:3-7

March 12, 2006

 

"What must I do to be saved?" That question has been asked countless times since posed to Paul and Silas by a desperate Philippian jailer. The question does not doubt the ability of God to save. It seems that the underlying foundation that leads to this question has been grasped and affirmed. Now the sinner questions how the transaction takes place. How does that which Jesus Christ has secured by His death and resurrection become vital in the heart? Paul's answer was quite simple yet profound. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved." To believe, calls for faith, reliance upon, trust in, dependence upon, and resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. The use of the familiar titles of Christ as "the Lord Jesus Christ," points to the focus of one's faith. It is a faith that rests in this One revealed to us in the gospel, the Son of God come in the flesh, dying and rising from the dead to redeem us from our sin, and reigning as Lord of all in our lives. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

That's quite a statement and quite a promise that we have the privilege of passing along to others. Yet the call to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ depends upon one's understanding of what God has already accomplished through Christ to save sinners. We do not just walk through the streets saying, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." It's not that this is incorrect; it is absolutely true. However, unless a person has some understanding of the reason for faith in Christ and the foundation that undergirds such faith, then he cannot and will not believe in Christ.

 

On the other hand, suppose someone has a relatively good grasp of the gospel and then hears the call to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet that person balks, maybe even scoffs. He has heard the good news; nothing else can compare to it. The promise in the gospel affects one's eternity. Yet that person still balks. He has a problem, we might think. Indeed, he does. It's an inward problem of heart and affections turned away from God, darkened in understanding the need and power of the gospel. It's not a matter of that person's intelligence; rather he cannot believe apart from the grace of God being shown to him enabling him to believe.

 

What I've just described to you is that salvation is all of God. We considered in a previous study in Titus that since salvation is all of grace it is therefore all of God. Through the use of what may be an ancient creed in the early church, Paul helps us to grasp the foundation for faith by seeing that salvation is all of God. From start to finish, salvation is God's kind work on behalf of sinners. How can sinners ever be saved?

 

I. Common lot of humanity

 

If you juxtapose two graphs or charts describing the temperatures in the South from 1900 and 2000, then you place them side-by-side. You put the data in a position so that you can accurately compare the changes and similarities in the temperatures.

 

Paul uses something similar as he juxtaposes the heart of new creatures in Christ (vv. 1-2) alongside a picture of men in their natural state apart from God's grace (v. 3). He does this by stating how believers are to relate to society in light of the impact of the gospel on their lives. Being subject to governing authorities, readily obedient to society's laws, engaging in acts of service to men that can do nothing for you, speaking graciously to others, seeking to behave peaceably and gently, and showing deference even toward those that might be offensive are not natural to the human heart! But the description of all men in verse 3 spells out what is native to human nature. One picture displays what happens when grace transforms; the other vividly characterizes the Christ-less life.

 

Why does he bring up such a disgusting picture of humanity? Apart from grappling with this to some degree one cannot see any purpose to believe the gospel of Christ. If what Paul stated in verse 3 is true of only a few among the billions on earth, then the message of the gospel has no global scope. Yet what the Apostle accomplishes in a few words is to capsule the human condition-the common lot of humanity.

 

1. Inclusive statement

 

We do not find Paul wagging a finger at his audience as though the shoe did not fit his foot! "For we also once were foolish ourselves," he admits. It was not just the Cretans whom Paul described as "liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." It was not just the barbarians as the Romans would have considered the uncultured and uncouth of their day. "For we also were foolish ourselves." That is, the lot of all men can be described as "foolish, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another." Paul's intention is to include all of us.

 

Does that offend you that a man writing almost two millennia ago would make such a remark about the esteemed and cultured people of a civilized country? Have things changed in 2000 years so that the language must exclude the moral people of the world? We must not forget that many of the philosophers of Paul's day taught a strict code of morality. The Stoics whom he faced in Athens crossed their "tees" morally, yet this description fits them as well.

 

Similar language fills the Scripture. David confesses, "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me" (Psa. 51:5), explaining that the whole nature is bent on sin even in the womb. Solomon admitted to the Lord at the dedication of the temple, "For there is no man who does not sin" (1 Kings 8:46). Jeremiah summarized the human heart: "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9) Jesus set the standard for all men: "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect," (Matt. 5:48), yet who has met such a standard? John told us, "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us... if we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us" (1 John 1:8, 10). Paul declares of us all, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1). Then, in that haunting passage in Romans 3, he describes both Jews and Gentiles-all of the world, "There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one" (3:10-12).

 

2. Habits of life

 

The explanation of our sin is furthered by the use of four present participles, showing that what he spoke of were not isolated incidents in the human race but the ongoing pattern of the human heart. Sin is the habit of our lives. Notice the choice of sins.

 

(1) "Foolish." The word means "without spiritual understanding" [Wm. Mounce, WBC: Pastoral Epistles, 446]. Its thrust shows that man rejects the wisdom of God in favor of pursuing life according to his own desires. God's will means nothing. Man's mind focuses on self and not on the pleasure of God.

 

(2) "Disobedient." Bryan Chapell explains that the word "carries a nuance of being "not persuaded" and thus culpably not compliant" [PTW: 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, 359]. Men naturally defy God's laws, rejecting divine authority over their lives. The Ten Commandments proved this. "All that the Lord has said, we will do," claimed those who saw the fire and smoke on the mountain and heard the voice of God as thunder. Yet they followed the natural inclinations of the heart in disobeying everything God had commanded. So stubborn is the heart toward God's authority that Paul admitted, "But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead" (Rom. 7:8). He cruised along just fine until he heard, "You shall not covet." The command caused a reaction with his own sinful nature so that in hearing God's prohibition, that unregenerate man wanted to covet instead of refrain from it.

 

(3) "Deceived." The word means to be led astray. The passive voice suggests a false guide has led men astray. That guide is likely the devil, by implication, just as Paul told the Ephesians, "In which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2). Being deceived by the devil as well as by the natural corruption of the heart, we dupe ourselves into thinking that we are wiser than God, that our way is better than His way, and that His warnings mean nothing.

 

(4) "Enslaved to various lusts and pleasures." The slavery speaks of an ongoing bondage to a variety (or multi-colored, as various can be translated) of lusts and pleasures. Both terms imply that a person lives by his unredeemed and unsanctified passions. He thinks that personal pleasure is the highest end of life, and so readily pursues whatever he thinks will make him happy. He does not think about consequences or the long-term effects; he just pursues whatever his sin-warped desires consider satisfying. The enslavement is found in that these lusts and pleasures are never really satisfied. They always want more, something else to give the high or the thrill or the temporary pleasure, only to clamor for more when that immediate gratification is met.

 

(5) "Spending our life in malice and envy." The present participle, "spending," metaphorically "describes a lifestyle" [Mounce 446]. In this case it focuses life on expressing malice or evil and envy. John Stott comments, "For malice is wishing people evil, while envy is resenting and coveting their good" [Guard the Truth, 202]. The first wounds, the second seethes with bitterness.

 

(6) "Hateful, hating one another." John Chrysostom from the 4th century correctly points out that "hateful, hating one another" is what "must necessarily happen when we let loose every pleasure on the soul" [quoted by Mounce 446]. Hatred evidences the absence of personal virtue. It is the certain sign that such a person considers himself to be lord of the universe with everyone existing for his own pleasure or else they do not deserve to exist. Once one crosses or disagrees with or disappoints the desires of such a person, he becomes the object of intense hatred.

 

That's the condition of the human heart. The intensity varies from one person to another according to the external restraints that mercifully hold him back. Does this kind of heart have the power to spiritually turn on a dime? Can he save himself from the divine judgment he deserves with such a darkened, rebellious heart?

 

II. God as subject of salvation

 

The controlling statement in verses 4-7, which constitutes one long sentence, is the verb, "He saved us." Everything focuses on the "He," that is, the Lord, and what He has done, "saved" from such a condition as he has just described, and the aim of His action, "us," who as objects receive the action of the subject of salvation.

 

1. Particular act

 

"But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, he saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

 

Paul's use of "but," shows the great contrast between man's sinfulness and the disposition and action of God on man's behalf in saving sinners. While the Lord God does many things for humanity, not the least of which is sustaining us every moment, the Apostle focuses upon His saving activity. "He saved us," speaks of a divine action that has no human corollary. The word for save, came out of the ancient Greek world, "in the sense of an acutely dynamic act in which gods or men snatch others by force from serious peril" [W. Foerster, TDNT, VII, 968]. So it contains the idea of to rescue or to deliver from some perilous situation. It implies the inability of the one needing rescuing to deliver himself. Hopelessly desperate, his deliverer snatches him from the plight that has him trapped. The word in classical Greek also carries the idea of "keeping, benefiting, and preserving the inner being" [ibid. 967-968].

 

From what has the Lord saved us? First, it is obvious that he means that the Lord has saved us from the condition of our sinfulness. The picture of verse 3 describes a life separated from God; a life lived in rebellion against God. So, His saving work delivers us from such a life and its day-to-day effects in the way we relate to God's will. God's saving work affects us morally so that we have the new capacity and ability to behave differently. He explains this more in the words "regeneration and renewing," which we'll consider more in depth in the next study. But the kind of life that he calls for these believers to live, as stated in verses 1-2, as well as 2:2-10, depends upon the saving work of God in His kindness. In this sense, salvation has a present dimension in that the effects are experienced in the now, changing our disposition and behavior.

 

Second, the ultimate consequence of a life of sin and rebellion against God is God's judgment. In this sense, as R. C. Sproul has put it, "God saves us from God." He delivers us from His own wrath by bearing that wrath Himself in His Son. He removes the eternal judgment and condemnation that weigh upon us through the act of saving by His Son bearing it away. The particular work of Jesus Christ at the cross, "so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life," points to the past when at the cross, those whom Christ would save were "justified" or declared righteous before God. In this sense, salvation has a past dimension in that he has saved us through the past action of Christ on the cross.

 

Third, the saving work of God has permanence to it. He does not save us temporarily but eternally, and thus the many references in the Scripture to the quality and quantity of this life being eternal. Here he puts it that this saving work of God has made us heirs "according to the hope of eternal life." In this sense, salvation has a future dimension in that what God in Christ has done for us has eternal benefits.

 

2. Divine motivation

 

Why would God save sinners? Is it that He saw some good in mankind? Paul retorts, "There is none who does good, there is not even one."  I was talking with a friend from high school a number of years ago. He was not a believer when we were classmates but professed faith in Christ several years after our graduation. He commented to me on a visit as we talked about his conversion, "I guess the Lord saw some good in me and so He saved me." But on the contrary, the Lord saw nothing good in him; that's why he needed grace and not a helping hand.

 

Could it be that God foresaw potential in certain ones to help with the kingdom of God's progress? That would put the self-existent and self-sustaining God in dependence upon man. Paul told the Athenians, "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things" (Acts 17:24-25). Whatever good that man can do it is only because God has given it to him. Even the good works that Christians do have been ordained by God that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10).

 

Notice that the text makes it very clear. "He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy." Paul dispels the notion that God helps us toward saving ourselves or that He merely adds assistance to man's own ability to achieve righteousness. The Greek text is emphatic, "not out of works, the ones which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy He saved us." So it is not some effort on our part to achieve a certain level of goodness or morality or personal righteousness that qualifies us for salvation. I would imagine that there are some among us that inwardly struggle at this point. You think that if you can just achieve a certain level of goodness then you will be able to ask God to save you. What that level is, you're not sure, but you just know that it is there. My friend, see what God has spoken in this passage. It's not what we have done; it's not our good deeds or service or charitable actions or religious practices that qualify us to be saved. There's nothing that qualifies us for salvation except that of being sinners.

 

So, what motivated God to save us? God's own nature motivated His saving action in Christ. Paul identifies four attributes of God that moved Him to act with such decisiveness in saving sinners: "the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind... according to His mercy... by His grace." God's "kindness" refers specifically to His goodness or generosity. In this case it is divine benevolence toward the undeserving sinner. "His love for mankind" is one word in the Greek, philanthropia, from which we get the word philanthropy. It points "to the kindness one has for someone in distress" [Mounce 447]. God's "mercy" implies that He acts on behalf of those that can do nothing for Him and for those that do nothing to deserve His kind attention. As we've already noted in previous studies, "His grace" refers to God's action on our behalf done wholly out of His love and eternal purpose. God motivated God to save us!

 

Salvation, therefore, is from God alone. I think that many struggle at this point. Some want to think that they are not so bad that they really need mercy, only a little help to improve the way they live. Others are so self-dependent that the idea of depending wholly upon the grace of God in salvation goes against their natural bent. Surely there is some work for them to accomplish to receive salvation from God. They are like the Syrian captain Naaman, who when told by the Prophet Elisha to wash seven times in the Jordan River and he would be cleansed from his leprosy, balked at doing such a thing. His soldiers told him that if the prophet had asked for some great deed to first be done, then he would gladly have done so in order to earn God's healing. But it came by grace. To do something to earn what God has promised would mean sharing the glory that belongs only to God. And that is the apostle's point by the use of these attributes of God, to show that salvation flows from God's own gracious disposition toward His sinners.

 

3. Trinitarian involvement

 

This work of salvation involves the Godhead. We see the affirmation of the Trinity by the movement from one divine person to the other, with equality and economy within the Trinity displayed. It begins with "the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind" taking action to save us. The Father's intention due to His disposition of love and mercy toward sinners established the basis for our salvation. The opening verse of the Epistle speaks of "those chosen of God," i.e., elected by His grace. Elsewhere we see God's foreknowledge and foreordination of a particular people whom He would redeem out of humanity. "For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren." Paul continues to explain this, showing the certainty that those whom God set apart for salvation, He would also call, justify, and glorify (Rom. 8:29-30). So the Father chooses a people for Himself, but the divine election was not enough to secure the elect. God's enemies must be reconciled to Him, and that does not take place merely by divine intention to save. It requires that He send forth His Son to accomplish the work of redemption through His death on behalf of sinners.

 

God the Son, Jesus Christ our Savior, represented the Godhead and the elect as Mediator. "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time" (1 Tim. 2:5-6). Here Paul explains, we are "justified by His grace," through Christ as Mediator, so that "we would be heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Justification is a legal term that refers to the declaration of God counting us righteous through the obedience and death of Christ on our behalf (more on this in the next study). It has to do with our standing before God so that He accepts us even as He accepts His Son.

 

Paul also identifies the work of the third person in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and His work in our salvation. "He saved us... by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He [God the Father] poured out upon us richly [i.e., poured out the Holy Spirit] through Jesus Christ our Savior." Because we are enslaved to sin and hopelessly affected with a sinful disposition, in order for anyone to be saved the Holy Spirit must bring the mind and affections to life through regeneration and recreate us through His work of renewing (more on this in the next study too).

 

The economy of the Trinity is seen in each member accomplishing a particular aspect of our salvation. The unity is found in the way the Father, Son, and Spirit work together for the same purpose and end. And we are the objects of such kindness by our God!

 

Conclusion 

 

As we see that the Father has provided us salvation through giving His Son on our behalf, and sending His Spirit to bring us to life and recreate us in Christ Jesus; then we can ask the question, "What must I do be saved?" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Put your confidence and trust in Jesus Christ who mediated the way to God for you through His death at the cross.

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