Titus 3:1-7 Live Like This: Christ Appeared
The Text
Titus 3:1–7 (CSB)
1 Remind them to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work,2 to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people.
3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another.
4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared,
5 he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
6 He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior
7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
The Meditation
1 Remind them to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work,
2 to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people.
Christ Appeared: God Loves Us
For
1 Timothy 2:1-4 (CSB) First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, 2 for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
And
Romans 13:1 (CSB) Let everyone submit to the governing authorities, since there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are instituted by God.
And
1 John 4:7 (CSB) Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
You are like, "Joseph, these things are not tied together. One is called to submit to governing authorities and the other is to love another. How are they related." But Paul relates them:
2 for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
And
to slander no one, to avoid fighting, and to be kind, always showing gentleness to all people.
Paul wrote to the churches of Timothy and Titus and exhorted them to submit to godly-given authority. I don't care where you are at politically. Daniel 2:21 applies to both Donald Trump and Joe Biden: "... he removes king and establishes kings." This and all of the leaders of the land is God given authority. We submit but we go one step further--we pray for them. If we pray for them, I promise you they--whomever you think your political enemy is--will cease being your enemy. You will grow in love and affection for them. Not just politically in all aspects of lift.
Why do we live this out? One, because love is of God and God is live (1 John 4:7-8) and remember who we were before God saved us:
3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another.
Perhaps by God's grace, you were not as bad as this full list. By God grace, we were not as evil as we could be. In other words, not every unbelieving grandma is Hitler.
Sometimes Christians want you to remember your old selves as though that will make you "extra saved" and you will repent even more. But that is not what God told us to do. That is not the power of the gospel.
Here is the gospel:
The Gospel
4-5a But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us--
Christ Appeared: He Saved Us
John 1:16–18 (CSB)
16 Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness,17 for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.
And
Matthew 1:21 (CSB) She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 (CSB) He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Do you see the perfect work of Christ? Do you see that Jesus Christ, Son of God who is God, and by the very definition of God, does all things good and perfect? And when he appeared as a little bitty baby in the Bethlehem, Christ "saved his people from their sins". Because that little babe, although "grew in stature and in wisdom" (Luke 2:52), will perfectly spend the next 33 years making a beeline to the cross in order that the Father could give our Christ our sin so that God would give his righteousness to us.
The fact that Christ appeared, showed up, arrive was a lock for our salvation. People in the OT couldn't have known but they saw foreshadows because the prophecies of the Messiah. People during the time of Christ didn't know until the Spirit of God dwelled in them. We, today, now know because of the indwelling of the Spirit who opens our eyes, exchanges are dead hearts for alive hearts, and renew our minds so we can understand the words of God.
God does this because God is kind and he is love and his affections were set upon us because He loved us "before the foundations of the world".
“The best proof that He will never cease to love us lies in that He never began.”
Geerhardus Vos. Redemptive History and Biblical Interpretation: The Shorter Writings of Geerhardus Vos.
5b not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy
Christ Appeared: He Does Everything For Us
Again and again, Christ calls you, encourages you, exhorts you, preaches you, invites you, commands you not to work harder. For Christ knows we are from dust (Psalm 103) and it is a impossible task to obey the law of God perfectly. You and I cannot. And we have a history of obeying the laws of God that are easy for us and the ignoring the laws of God that are too difficult for us to obey.
No! Christ commands you to give up, give in and rest in him.
Matthew 11:28–30 (CSB)
28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.29 Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
God has the sweetest rest for the soul. Will you take it? Or are you going to keep trying harder to gain the love of God who already loved you because he sent his Son to live and die for you some 2000 years ago. Or to further break your back, crush your soul, and break your heart: go and try to please the world. You will never stop working and it will be for nothing.
Take this gift of God's sweet loving rest. It is yours because you are in Christ and Christ is in you.
5c-6 —through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. He poured out his Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior
The Father sends the Son to do what we could not do and to die in our place. But Christ said this of himself:
John 16:7 (CSB) Nevertheless, I am telling you the truth. It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send him to you.
God himself will dwell in the hearts of men. He does so by sending His Spirit to come and dwell in the hearts of his people--not temporarily like we saw in the Old Testament--but forever. By the almighty power of the Triune God, he gives you his heart, his Spirit, makes his home in you and gives you peace and righteousness.
From there, you are saved. No second baptism of the Holy Spirit. No waiting around for the filling of the Holy Spirit. God from the day he saved you went to work in you to conform you to the image of his son:
Romans 8:29 (CSB) For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Zechariah 13:8–9 (CSB) In the whole land— this is the LORD’s declaration— two-thirds will be cut off and die, but a third will be left in it.
I will put this third through the fire; I will refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’, and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’ ”'
Isaiah 48:10 (CSB) Look, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
See what God has promised. See what God has done. See what God has done. He has told you and me to rest in his Son. Are there sins we must repent? Everyday. But God gave His Son, His Spirit and as a result, the gift of repentance to turn away from sin and death and to turn to him that is life, fullness of joy, and pleasures evermore.
That work in you to conform you to the image of His Son. That is a promise of God. Do we obey? Yes, but that is because God dwells in you. But God promises, He will finish it. All the promises of God are yes and amen.
Philippians 1:6 (CSB) I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Hebrews 12:1-2 (CSB) Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Christ is the perfecter and finisher of our faith. He will do the work. Trust in him. Rest in him alone.
7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we may become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
Christ Appeared: He Glorified Us
Romans 8:30 (CSB) And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.
If Christ perfectly saved us, sanctified us because He is God and He is perfect and He cannot lie and He cannot break promises, then in that promise it is not bad English for Paul to write down these words:
those he justified, he also glorified
But you might be saying, "Joseph, how can that be? We are not in the end. We have not yet entered into 'joy of the master.' How can this be?"
Because God is perfect. God doesn't break promises. God does not lie. What God began, he will finished. His great grace and love will bring us all the way home. For:
Romans 8:38–39 (CSB) ... no any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You might think, "I feel so far from him. How can this be?"
My sweet child, you cannot see the finish line because you are limited. But Christ sees the end because he is already there. Right now, already there. Next week, he is there with you. Fifty years from now, there. He is Jehovah-Shammah "The God Who is There" (Ezekiel 48:35)
God is going to bring you home--whether you have great or little faith. God is going to bring you all the way home. And you will look like his son--perfect, splendor, radiant, glorious... glorified. And one day, we will get to hold his loving face, kiss him with a thousand kisses because he saved us. Right then, our faith is satisfied, our hope is fulfilled because we are now our Beloved and he is with us forever.