Titus
3:4-5
4
But when the kindness of God our
Savior and His love for mankind
appeared, 5 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 by the Holy Spirit,
Where we’ve been
Keeping
the context is one of the most important rules of Biblical interpretation. When verses are allowed to be taken out of
context all manner of erroneous interpretations can result. So, as a safety to ourselves we should always
be mindful of what has come before and after the passage that we are
reading. Verse three told all about who
we were before we came to Christ. It
informed us that we were enslaved to our lusts, disobedient, and foolish, this
is also the current condition of every person who is not in Christ. We also talked about how, even as believers,
we can continue to walk in the foolish and wretched ways that we walked before
we were saved. However, Paul is about to
share the good news!
Verse 4
But when the
kindness of God our Savior and His love
for mankind appeared,
But
With
this conjunction Paul is drawing a distinction.
He is saying that verse three illustrated where we were apart from
Christ, and then he goes on to draw the distinct picture of what has happened
to us, and what is happening to us presently, in Christ. He even takes this opportunity to make sure
that the gospel of grace is clearly illustrated. The Holy Spirit clearly displays to us that
before we were weak and unable to help ourselves…and we are still weak and
unable to help ourselves. The reliance
needs to be completely on Christ!
God our Savior
Here
we see this phrase again. This little
phrase has a great deal to offer us in terms of interpretation. First of all in Roman times when the Caesar
walked down the street the people were to gather around as viewing a parade and
shout “SALVATORE” or “SAVIOR! OUR
SAVIOR!” as he passed by. This would be
especially true given the rocky history of the island of Crete Roman Empire . This is one of the many issues in Roman
culture that gave the Christians a lot of trouble!
The other thing this alerts us to is
the fact that God and Jesus seem to be interchangeably referred to as “our
Savior.” It is, by equivalence a
testament to the deity of Christ. It is
also important to know that the definite article is present before the word
Savior. Meaning that it is specific:
“THE SAVIOR of us.” He is not “one of
the ones who saved us”, nor is he “like a savior.” He is THE ONE AND ONLY SAVIOR OF US.
love for mankind
This
word, in Greek, is where we get our English word Philanthropy. It is a compound word involving the two words
phileo meaning “brotherly love” and
the word anthropos meaning man, or
mankind. So it is literally: loving of
all mankind. This verse is a rod in the
spokes of those who would be proponents of limited atonement (the idea the
Jesus only died for the elect and his sacrifice is only sufficient for those
who are chosen). Rather this verse tells
us that God’s love in sending Christ to die on the cross was one that extended
to every person even if they would reject His plans to redeem them.
Appeared
This
word is where we get our English epiphany. It has the idea of being revealed or
appearing. This word means that the love
of God for mankind has shined forth from Calvary . No one, knowing the truth, can paint a
picture of a God who is hateful or who loves to torture his creation. His love has shined through all of the lies
and misconceptions that this world may have about our Lord.
Verse 5
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 by the Holy Spirit,
He saved us
Let’s
do some basic grammar here: What is the
subject of the sentence? He.
What is the verb? Saved. What is the object? Us. We didn’t save ourselves, nor are we
responsible for any part of it. He saves
us. There is no exception. Another important point about this verb is
that it is an effective aorist. This
could be most simply interpreted as meaning that it is something that is finished,
done in the past. It doesn’t ever need
to be redone and it will not be undone.
This is a secure and finished process.
He saved us.
not on the basis of deeds
So
here we see one of the most important teachings in all of Scripture. This flies in the face of every man-centered,
work- based, system of theology ever invented.
Whether you are talking to Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah’s witnesses or
Muslims we find the same thing time and time again: People working to be saved. The Bible is clear: That is impossible! Jesus did not save us because we did good
things, nor did he save us so we could earn our salvation. It is complete and total. There is nothing that we can do to
counterbalance the bad things that we have done, and even if we could manage to
spend the rest of our lives doing good things and in the end had done more good
than bad we would find that our very nature is “hateful and hating one another”
and worthy of nothing but destruction!
but according to His mercy
This
“but” is different from the one before.
The last “but” (in verse 4) was a conjunction that denoted a change in
direction in the argument. This but is a
strong contrastive “but”. We find that
this is a black and white thing.
Salvation is not at all by works but rather it is according to the
Lord’s great mercy. This mercy is the
type that is shown unto the pitifully helpless.
We must realize that there was no
thing that we could do for ourselves. It
is like the truly poor of whom there are fewer in America than in other places. There is no way for them to escape their
poverty no matter how much they want to, or how hard they try, the money is
just not there to be earned. It is a
total and complete helplessness that leads the Lord to his great mercy.
washing
This
word washing is a word that means washing something for sacrificial use, or
even to be used in the holy temple. This
is not the word for washing that we may expect in the Church, that is the word
for baptize. But rather the word that
was used for things being washed and dedicated to holiness. This is the way in which Christ has washed us
through.
of regeneration
This
word “regeneration” is a good fit to the Greek.
Combining the prefix “re-”, meaning again, and “generation” implying
“birth.” So this is a reference to the
rebirth that comes from believing in Jesus.
It tells us that we are reborn.
Two obvious references that come to mind when considering this idea of
the “new birth” are John 3: 3: Jess answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I
say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” As
well as 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any man is in Christ he is a new
creation the old is gone, the new is come!”
Renewing
We see
time and time again that the word “new” or “renewed” as applied to the believer
is not talking about new in time (as in something that is just freshly made, or
as a used car can be “new to you” even though it’s been around for a couple of
years) it’s something that is new in kind.
Something that had never been seen before. It is this newness that has been created in
you. The world had never seen anything like what the Lord has done in the life
of the believer; it cannot be copied, or even approximated by the world.
the Holy Spirit,
And
who is the great agent of this great action?
The Holy Spirit! Here we see all
three members of the Trinity as being intimately involved in our
salvation. What an amazing blessing it
is to know that the whole Godhead works together perfectly to save us. It is not as if one of the members of the
Trinity is saying “I don’t want to but you guys won the vote!” The persons of the triune God are all in
agreement and all willing to go to the end of the imagination to save us each
and individually! Praise the Lord!
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