Today's scripture verse comes from the book of Titus chapter 3. This is a small, three chapter letter that Paul wrote to his brother Titus with little "nuggets" for the church. The theme of this epistle is to emphasize the connection of doctrine committed to faithful men with godliness of life. Grace, as the great doctrine of salvation is emphasized in this letter.
I wanted to quote a couple of verses in chapter 3 and they are verses 5-7 which say, "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 the renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
Years and years of study has been invested in this idea of grace over works and the doctrinal issue could become quite complex if you allow it to however, the bottom line is in His grace because if He chose not to be graceful then you could do works until you were blue in the face, and still not reach a level of "goodness" for the sake of salvation. We cannot, of ourselves, reach God based on the things that we do, because there is always a counterbalance with mankind. Don't misunderstand me here; "a tree is known by it's fruit". We were born with a sin nature and it is a natural thing for us to react to the prompting of sin. What is "unnatural" is for us to allow God to cover us in His grace, to KEEP us away from sin. You have to recognize this each time you are confronted about sin prior to the action of that sin.
And as verse 5 clearly states "He saved us according to His mercy and not based on our deeds." How did He do this? By the "washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit." And when was this accomplished? On the cross at Calvary. When Jesus hung there between heaven and earth, held only by His will (not the nails), the process of "washing of regeneration" began as He took, upon His shoulders, the sins of the world. Not only the past sins or the sins He would witness while here on earth, but the sins you will commit today. God commanded that those be placed on Christ for the sake of salvation.
And when his process was completed at the cross, the Holy Spirit could be released to dwell among mankind, convicting and convincing each one of his sin allowing for repentance.
And He "justified" us as being righteous (you can get a very good understanding of justification in the book of Romans) before an Almighty God by His grace and made us "children of the king" all of those who would accept Him as Savior and Lord. Long, long ago someone said to me "that word justified means 'just as if I'd never sinned'"! That sounds good to me.
So no matter how dirty I think I make myself, when I turn my face toward God, He sees nothing more than Jesus who is covering my sin and making me righteous before a Holy God. What a deal! I know of no other place on earth or away from earth where you can get such a deal as that. And this coming Sunday, we will all come together and celebrate, not only the "washing of regeneration" but Jesus Christ as he "walks out of that tomb" ALIVE for the sake of all mankind. Kind of make you want to tell somebody, huh?
Dave
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