We’re going to go back to our Titus series and finish it off by looking at Chapter 3. So if you have your Bibles, you can turn there. We’ll be reading verses 3-8.
As you’re turning there, I’ll give you a little refresher since it’s been about a month since we were here last. Titus Chapter 1 starts on a hard note. Basically, what Paul instructed Titus was to not let the wicked culture around him infiltrate his church, and even correct those who are wrong, not to be mean or argumentative, but to sway them towards the truth. In fact, we looked at Chapter 3 a little bit––the portion after today’s set of verses––which says, “9 But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. 10 Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. 11 You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned.”
In other words, Paul says to put a limit on how often you have to correct someone. If they don’t listen, if they’re set in their ways and they just want to argue, then you’re wasting your time and energy. You’re better off to just avoid them. Love them, but avoid them if you can.
Then, in Chapter 2, we segued from rebuking false teaching to making sure we stay grounded in sound teaching. Making sure to teach sound doctrine, and to make sure we read and listen to sound doctrine. To be able to know what’s true when we hear it, and to be able to know what’s false when we hear it.
And it isn’t just our teaching that’s important, but also how we are to live. We are to live apart from The World and as people of God––heart, soul, mind, and deed.
Titus 3:3-8
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
Paul is stressing to Titus again on how to live. To remember the way in which we used to live, controlled by sin. And to remember that we live differently now because God saved us. God saved us from our slavery to sin. And He didn’t do it because we deserved it or were good people and so he gave us a boost to become better, but he did it because of His love and grace.
And because God suffered greatly to give us eternal life to become heirs of His kingdom and His righteousness, we must not take that for granted. We must devote ourselves to God and by doing that, there’s a cost to us. Salvation is free, Jesus paid the cost for that, but following Christ comes at a cost. As Jesus said, we must die to ourselves daily and take up our own cross and live for Him, no longer for ourselves. For we are His, not our own.
If we go back to verse 3, you’ll notice that Paul uses the word, ‘we.’ Paul was the greatest of apostles and the most inspired writer of the New Testament. He wrote 13 of the 27 books of what became The New Testament. Yet, Paul is not placing himself exempt. He knows full well what kind of sinner he was and the redemption that happened because of the love and grace of God.
Paul knows and understands how he lived before Christ came into His life.
We sing the Hymn, “Since Jesus Came Into My Life.” And there are plenty of songs written just within my lifetime that speak of the testimony of how Jesus changed that songwriter’s life. And usually, those songs invite others to accept Jesus into their life.
Before Christ came into his life, Paul was the most profoundly, deeply religious person there could be. He knew scripture, he knew the laws of Moses, the extended laws of the Pharisees, he practiced them, he was without fault to everyone around him. Yet, he had plenty of fault with God.
Paul called himself ‘the chief of sinners.’ He was filled with hatred, as he described here. In his letter to Timothy, Paul called himself a former blasphemer, persecutor, and violent man (1 Tim. 1 12-13).
The book of Acts tells us that when “they dragged [Stephen] out of the city and began to stone him, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul” (Acts 7:58). This Saul himself soon regularly breathed “threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1). Saul’s hostility toward the Christians was because of his commitment to protecting God’s honor (psjn.org).
So in his zealousness for being religious, Saul was actually doing the complete opposite of living a Godly lifestyle.
Verse 4 says, “4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared…”
That’s the entirety of verse 4. It’s not even a full sentence. But it’s the whole testimony of a sinner saved by grace. You could condense it down even further with just two words by saying, “But God.”
How many of you have a testimony that hinges on those two words, “But God.” I think we all do. Whether the testimony is our salvation, or an answer to prayer, something we were too powerless to overcome, something that we might have almost given up hope in. A particular sin or sins that we were a slave to and couldn’t rescue ourselves from. “But God.”
Paul said it was the ‘kindness and love of God’ that appeared. It wasn’t the mighty, strong, powerful God of judgment and righteousness. But the kindness and love of God. The gentle shepherd that appeared.
The word for ‘love’ here in the Greek, the actual word that Paul used is philanthropia. Sounds familiar? It’s where we get the word philanthropy from. Translated more literally, this would read, “His philanthropy for mankind shined forth.”
Paul is describing to Titus the kind of love that God has for us. Philanthropia means benevolence or a friendly disposition toward people (friendliness). It describes an affectionate concern for mankind.
Precept Austin, a sermon source I go to quite frequently, said that In the present context philanthropia describes God’s compassion, especially the eagerness to deliver someone from pain, trouble, or danger. It involves more than mere emotion and always finds a way to express itself in some form of helpfulness. It is God’s uninfluenced and unearned friendly disposition, affectionate concern for and interest in mankind.
I’m going to sidestep for a moment, just because I’ve felt led to. Sometimes God comes through for us in an instant. When we were saved, God was there right in that moment. We sensed it, we felt it. We knew that God had intervened and we didn’t leave that altar as the same person we came to it as.
Other times, God takes his sweet old time. We don’t understand why, we don’t know why God doesn’t rescue us in the same instantaneous way he did at salvation. Sometimes it may take months or years before we see God part the seas or make a way in the wilderness.
We see God’s provision and blessing along the way, but it’s not the same as being rescued. Maybe we have to take steps that we don’t want to take in order to be rescued from sin. Maybe there’s counseling that needs to be done, and God works through that. Maybe financial freedom comes through discipline and not through a sudden open door that leads to a change in career.
You know, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about ‘God the master sculptor.’ Back in July, I wrote a blog post about it, and reshared it this past week. Our historical society had hired someone to restore a statue that we have in the museum, and it took a lot longer to restore than expected. The statue had been painted over with an enamel and it started chipping. So the restorer had to painstakingly chip away all of the enamel, and he used a very fine, delicate tool to do it.
The chipping was little, tiny bits at a time. And the statue was over five feet tall, so it took a long time to finish. Eventually, though, when it was completed, it was worth the wait. And God, the master sculptor, is like that with us.
Okay, getting back on track, verses 5-7 say: “5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”
Again, Paul stresses God’s mercy. There was not anything we could have done. If we’re a slave, we can’t do anything about it. We’re a slave. We must be set free. And only someone benevolent can do that. If we’re trapped and we can’t rescue ourselves, someone else has to rescue us. And only someone benevolent can do that, too. That’s why we often admire our volunteer firefighters and EMTs. They do this voluntarily. And even those who get paid to do it, chose this career not because it pays a whole lot, but because it’s the type of person that they are.
Police choose their careers because they have a sense of rescuing people. Foster parents often want to rescue children who have been in an abusive or neglected home. These children couldn’t rescue themselves. They had to have someone come in and rescue them.
There was a story in Our Daily Bread about a headline in The Grand Rapids Press that read, “Conversion to Hindu Faith Is Torturous.” The article went on to say that, “A West German businessman has completed his conversion to the Hindu faith by piercing himself through the cheeks with a one-quarter-inch thick, four-foot-long steel rod, and pulling a chariot for two miles by ropes attached to his back and chest by steel hooks… Others walk through twenty-foot-long pits of fire, don shoes with soles made of nails, or hang in the air spread-eagle from hooks embedded in their backs.”
What a contrast to the reality of Christianity. The teaching of salvation by grace, through faith, apart from human works, distinguishes Christianity from all other religions of the world. The conversion experience of a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is not “completed” through acts of self-torture. We may have to suffer for the cause of Christ, and good works should always prove the genuineness of our faith, but neither suffering nor serving save us. Paul wrote, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (see note Ephesians 2:10). Self-inflicted torture is completely foreign to everything the Bible teaches about salvation.
We are not saved on the basis of what we can endure; rather, our hope is in what Christ has already endured for us on the cross. The Christian way is not conversion by torture—it’s salvation by grace.—R. W. De Haan (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)
There’s another story of a military chaplain who said:
“The living Christ has given me what no court, no psychiatrist, no probation officer could give me—the consciousness of sins forgiven… The joy of a loving wife, two children, and a happy and secure home has shown me that through the living Christ even one who, like myself, was once described by a magistrate as a ‘social menace’ can be more than just tolerable. That is something of the difference that Jesus Christ has made and continues to make in me.”
When we see our need for God’s forgiveness and believe in Jesus, our sins are washed away and the Holy Spirit makes us new people (Ti. 3:5). Then, as we walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:25), He continues to work in us to make us more like Christ.
Here’s another little sidestep. Just a short one. Did you notice that all three members of the Trinity participate in our salvation? God’s forgiveness is given to us by the Holy Spirit through the redemptive work of Christ on the cross? All three members of the Trinity or the Godhead (as some describe it) are involved because the whole of God loves us. It’s not like Jesus died because He loved us and well, God the Father––our hanging judge––sees that ‘we’re with Him, so okay you can go.’ And then The Holy Spirit is kind of there off and on. But is mostly off and away.
No, the whole of God participates in our salvation. All of God or all members of the Trinity individually love us so much that they each have a part to play in rescuing us. And as we know, but cannot fully comprehend, they become as one in their love for us and our redemption.
So now, to quote Francis Schaeffer, “How Should We Then Live?”
Paul sums it up in verse 8: “This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.”
In other words, trustworthy, steadfast, or faithful is the word that Paul uses to express his complete confidence in the soundness of the doctrine that he has stated in the verses that we’ve read today (v. 3-7). And Paul says to Titus, “I want you to stress these faithful, trustworthy and (as we talked about in Chapter 1), solid doctrinal teachings.”
Why?
Going back to a few things I found on Precept Austin:
The thrust of Paul’s argument is that Titus should continually affirm and insist that believers engage in good deeds. Sometimes believers neglect to engage in good deeds, instead assuming a “who cares” attitude (since we’re saved and we think we’re good) but Paul insists this must not be so. Titus should stress these things in order to promote godly behavior in his listeners. The only evidence the unsaved world has that we belong to God is our godly lives.
The root of their new birth should bring forth appropriate fruit. Belief is not a matter of theory or of speculation but of practice as demonstrated by good deeds.
Paul uses another phrase here I want to look at. He said that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. “May be careful.” That’s an interesting phrase. In other words, Paul really wants us to take the time and effort to be intent on, to take careful thought, or concentrate on doing what is good.
In other words, even though our salvation is not by works, it should result in good works. How do you know a person is saved? Like a tree or a plant, you can tell if it’s good by the fruit it produces. Greg Laurie said, in other words, those who have spiritual longevity are those who embrace this truth and produce fruit. If you are a Christian, then people should be able to look for—and find—fruit in your life. Why? Because a disciple of Jesus Christ will produce spiritual fruit. Jesus said, ” ‘My true disciples produce much fruit. This brings great glory to my Father’” (John 15:8 NLT). Jesus also said, “‘By their fruits, you will know them’” (Matthew 7:20 NKJV).
What does this fruit look like? Galatians 5:22 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control . . . ” (NKJV). A Christian’s life should be characterized by these things. You’ll notice it’s the complete opposite of what Paul described at the beginning of today’s verses––the complete opposite of the type of fruit we bore in our sins: foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
Jesus said, “‘A good person produces good deeds from a good heart, and an evil person produces evil deeds from an evil heart.’” (Luke 6:45 NLT).
And in the Gospel of John, Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me, you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” – John 15:18
When we are saved, we are given a new conscience. A Holy Spirit-led conscience. And as we grow in Christ, perhaps another fruit metaphor, we bear a new kind of fruit. A fruit that is excellent and profitable for everyone. But we must yield to the master gardener. We must yield to the work of The Holy Spirit. It’s a daily choice we must make. And when I spoke about God taking His time earlier, think about how long it takes a seed to sprout and produce fruit. Think about how long it takes for a gardener to prune. It’s a process, just like the statue restoration. It’s a process.
I want to ask you a few questions as we close today.
Have you thought of salvation as something earned? Have you thought you had to earn your way to Heaven? There are some in the Christian tradition that believe that. Salvation is not earned or rewarded. It is a gift of God, paid for by Jesus. Gifts are given for free, that’s what makes it a gift. The giver had to pay for it. As a newer chorus says, “Jesus paid it all.”
Here’s another question, have you been saved but content with where you’re at spiritually? Have you looked at your life and thought, “I’m good, thanks.” Or have you looked at your life and thought, “boy, there’s still so much.” Maybe you haven’t thought about it. Maybe it hasn’t even been on your radar to think about having a deeper sense of holiness in your life. As the old hymn says, “Just a closer walk with thee.”
The closer we get to Christ, the more he’ll prune. The closer we get to Christ, the more he’ll talk with us. The closer we get to Christ, the more he’ll show us the type of fruit we bear.
God wants us to be conscious of bearing good fruit. He wants us to think about it, he wants us to be intent on bearing good fruit and lots of it. Where are you today? What kind of fruit are you bearing and how much of it are you bearing?
Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for your word. Thank you for your promise of salvation. Thank you that it is a free gift. If it wasn’t, not one of us would be able to stand before you on judgment day. Heaven would be empty. But because of the work of The Trinity in salvation, Heaven is going to be filled with (as Paul said) heirs. Heirs of your kingdom. Thank you, Lord.
And I pray that you would work in us so that we would produce better fruit and even more fruit. I pray that you would help us to be more conscious and thoughtful to live holier lives. I pray that you would help us to become people who live lives that are excellent and profitable for everyone.
In Jesus name, amen.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on First Baptist Church of Watkins Glen
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