He saved us… according to His mercy
Titus 3:4-7 We are justified through grace, but our works share that message of hope with the world.
“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 by 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.”
Titus 3:4-7 NASB1995
For a lesser-known epistle attributed to Paul, the Epistle to Titus has some surprisingly powerful verses in its three short chapters. Paul starts off verse 4 of Chapter 3 with the two conjunctions “But when…”, indicating to Titus and the countless readers since then that he is making a delineation between what we were as fallen descendants of Adam and who we are now in Christ.
As fallen humans, we were saved by the love and kindness of God for mankind. We did nothing to deserve salvation; good works, rote repetition of liturgy, responding to an altar call, tithing faithfully, going to church weekly, and even baptism didn’t save us. God’s mercy saved us.
You might think that the washing of regeneration refers to baptism, and many pastors and some Bible commentators have used these words to place an emphasis on the sacrament of baptism. But Paul would have probably used the word βαπτίζω (baptizó, meaning immersion in water) in this verse if that’s what he meant. Here, the word used is λουτροῦ (loutron), more associated with bathing or cleansing than baptism.
Loutron is only used in one other place in the New Testament, in Ephesians 5:26 (“so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word”, where “her” is the church) where it refers to the spiritual (not physical) cleansing of believers through faith.
One thing that stands out to me in today’s verses is that this is one of the few places in the New Testament where the entire Holy Trinity is mentioned in one paragraph: “The kindness of God our Savior,” “regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,” and “poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” It’s as if Paul is providing a refresher course in Christianity to Titus; a reminder that everything comes from God the Father, through His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit.
The verses end with the promise of our faith, that “justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life”. We are justified through grace, but our works share that message of hope with the world. I’ll close with a short quote from evangelical Christian author Stuart Briscoe that sums up these verses of the Epistle to Titus: “The theology of Christianity is based on grace; the ethics of Christianity are based on gratitude.”1
Heaven On Wheels Daily Prayer:
Father in Heaven, we worship You with grateful hearts, knowing that Your love and kindness towards us are beyond our comprehension. We were once lost, foolish, and disobedient, but You saved us in Your infinite mercy. We were born again through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, and we praise You for the gift of Jesus, who died for our sins and was resurrected for our justification. We pray that we can honor Your holy name by demonstrating grace and love to a hurting world. In Jesus’ name, AMEN.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org.
Briscoe, Stuart "Purifying the Church: What God Expects of You and Your Church - A Topical Commentary on Titus" (Glendale, California: Regal Books, 1987)