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Saved by Mercy (Titus 3:5) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. You know, usually when we talk
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about legal or financial debt, there is a basic expectation of
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proportion, right? Oh, absolutely.
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Like, imagine walking into a federal courtroom, the judge
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strikes the gavel, and you were found liable for a staggering $1
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billion in damages. Right, a totally unpayable
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amount. Yeah, and the bailiff walks over
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to collect your payment. So you reach into your pocket,
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you pull out a brightly colored stack of paper money from a
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children's board game, and you just slap it on with the solid
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mahogany table. Wow.
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The reaction in that courtroom would be, well, absolute
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silence, followed by swift and severe consequences, I would
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imagine. Yeah, right, because it's not a
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joke. No, presenting fake currency for
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a legitimate massive debt is not an innocent mistake.
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It is a direct insult to the bench.
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It shows a complete failure to comprehend the gravity of the
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ruling, the authority of the judge and the actual nature of
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the currency required to settle the account.
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It is the absolute definition of an offensive transaction.
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You are trying to satisfy a legitimate judicial verdict with
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something that possesses 0 intrinsic value.
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And we are doing a deep dive today into a topic that forces
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us to look at a very similar, yet infinitely more serious
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transaction. Which is a heavy thing to think
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about. It really is, and we are not
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looking at a standard summary today.
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We have two rigorous expository essays in front of us, and they
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are both focused entirely on a single sentence from the ancient
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world. Titus, chapter 3, verse 5.
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Just one verse. Just one our mission for you
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today is singular. We are going to investigate the
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precise mechanics of divine rescue and systematically
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dismantle the universal human instinct for self salvation.
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We are entering the highest courtroom imaginable here.
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The material we are evaluating deals with the tension between
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human depravity and divine justice.
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We are looking at the theological framework of
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monergism, which, well it places the entirety of human redemption
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squarely on the shoulders of Divine Mercy.
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Completely independent of human performance.
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Spot on, Completely independent. This is about stripping away the
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illusions we carry about our own moral standing before a holy
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God. OK, let's unpack this.
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Because that illusion of our own moral standing is universally
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pervasive, we have to start by looking at human nature today,
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right now, before we even go back to the 1st century.
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We do, yeah, because it hasn't changed.
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No, not at all. There is a startling statistic
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from a 2022 Ligonier Ministries survey included in the analysis.
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It revealed that 53% of American adults believe good deeds help
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them earn a spot in heaven. Over half the population.
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Yeah, over half the population thinks they can slide that board
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game money across the table and the judge of the universe will
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just accept it as payment for their.
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What that statistic reveals is the default religion of the end
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Regenerate Heart. It transcends specific
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denominations, cultural boundaries and geographical
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borders. It is just everywhere.
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It is everywhere. The human instinct is always
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self righteousness. It is this insidious belief that
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we can somehow construct A moral ladder, climb our way up to the
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heavens, and force the hand of the Creator to grant us a reward
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based on our intrinsic merit. Like a transaction?
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Precisely, we default to a transactional view of the
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universe. You know, do the right thing,
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perform the proper observances and gain favor.
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I mean, I find it staggering that this mindset is so
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ingrained. You would think with all the
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theological resources available today, we would have moved past
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this workspace mentality. You would think so.
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But the text makes a direct causal link from this modern
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statistic right back to the ancient context.
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This 53 is not a modern anomaly. This has always been the default
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setting of humanity across all eras.
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This is just human nature. Right.
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And to see this clearly, we have to look at the historical
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setting of our text. The Apostle Paul is writing to a
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man named Titus who is functioning as his Apostolic
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delegate on the island of Crete. And this is somewhere around the
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years 62 to 64 AD, right? Yeah, somewhere in that window.
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Placing ourselves in the Mediterranean world of the 1st
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century is crucial for understanding why Paul's letter
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was even needed. Crete was a strategic hub for
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trade, inhabited by a very mixed population and frankly notorious
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throughout the Greco Roman world for its absolute moral
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bankruptcy. Oh, it was a rough place.
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Very rough. The culture was synonymous with
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deceit, greed, and unrestrained physical indulgence.
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I mean, Paul actually quotes one of their own ancient
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philosophers, Epimenides, who gave a rather scathing
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assessment of his own people. He called them liars, evil
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beasts, lazy gluttons. Which is brutal.
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That is a brutal cultural assessment coming from one of
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their own. To call someone a Cretan in the
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ancient world was actually a recognized slur.
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Yeah, it literally meant to lie or to cretize.
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Wow, so this is a society marked by complete societal rot.
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It is existing as this dark hedonistic canvas.
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You have people indulging every base instinct operating without
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any moral compass whatsoever. What's fascinating here is that
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the gravest threat to the believers on the island of Crete
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was not the Pagan hedonism raging outside the church doors.
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Wait, really? Really.
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The external culture was hostile, certainly, but the
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lethal danger was an internal one.
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The church was being viciously assaulted from within by false
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teachers. The historical analysis
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identifies these individuals as the circumcision party.
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Right, the Judaizers. Yes, Judaizers operating as
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proto Pelagian heretics. I want to stop and define that
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term really quick because it sounds incredibly academic.
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When we say proto Pelagian, we are talking about people who
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were trying to smuggle human effort back into the equation of
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salvation. That is a great way to put.
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It because Pelagius was a later figure who you'd humans have the
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natural ability to fulfill the law without divine grace.
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These Judaizers were like the early version of that.
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They were looking at the grace of God and saying yes, but.
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They always had the but. Yeah, they demanded adherence to
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ceremonial laws, genealogies and human traditions.
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They were teaching that faith was sufficient.
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You know you had to add your own moral resume to the pile.
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They failed to recognize the distinct administration of the
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era they were living in. The false teachers were
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attempting to drag the believers back under the yoke of a defunct
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covenantal system. They couldn't let go of the old
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ways. No, they couldn't.
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They failed to distinguish between the physical ordinances
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given to the national entity of Israel in the past and the
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spiritual reality of the Church age.
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They were turning salvation back into a wage to be earned rather
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than a gift to be received. Which changes everything.
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It changes the entire gospel. They were telling the Cretan
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believers that Jesus was a good starting point, but ultimate
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justification required their own sweat equity.
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Which makes total sense of why Paul writes such a definitive
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statement in Titus chapter 3. You cannot just extract verse 5,
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isolate it from its surroundings and slap it on a coffee mug.
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No, you lose all the context. Exactly.
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And I mean you lose the entire weight of it.
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To feel the weight of the rescue, you have to look at the
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verses immediately preceding it. We need to direct your attention
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to the dark portrait painted in Titus chapter 3, verse 3.
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Verse 3 functions as the black velvet backdrop against which
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the brilliance of God's intervention is displayed.
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It articulates the condition of total depravity with devastating
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clarity. Devastating is the right word.
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It states that humans, apart from divine intervention, are
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foolish, disobedient, LED astray, slaves to various
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passions and pleasures, passing their days in malice and envy,
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hated by others and hating one another.
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I want to focus on that phrasing for a second.
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Slaves to various passions, passing days and malice.
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It is bleak. Very bleak.
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The text insists that humanity is not just walking around with
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a slight spiritual cold, needing some theological vitamins or a
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bit of moral assistance. It is not like a swimmer who's
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just tired and needs a life preserver tossed to.
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Them right, they are not just struggling.
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No, we are talking about a condition where the human will
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is in total bondage to a fallen nature.
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The analysis uses the imagery of a spiritual corpse.
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A person in this state possesses 0 inclination toward
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righteousness and absolute hostility toward the Creator.
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This is the fundamental anthropological starting point.
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If you misdiagnosed the disease, you will prescribe the wrong
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cure. That makes a lot of sense.
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If humanity is simply sick, then behavioral modification or a
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therapeutic approach might suffice.
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You could coach them into better habits.
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But if humanity is spiritually deceased, as verse 3 argues,
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then what is required is a resurrection.
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Because a dead body can't do anything.
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Right. A dead body cannot respond to
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coaching. It cannot grab a life preserver.
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It requires outside life to be breathed into it.
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And then we hit the mass of literary pivot in verse 4.
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But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior
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appeared. The aversive turn is huge.
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It is, but I have to ask a pointed question here.
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If humanity is in total bondage to a fallen nature, if we are
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entirely enslaved to malice and completely unresponsive to
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spiritual things, possessing no inclination toward
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righteousness, how does God's intervention actually reach them
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without violating His own infinite justice?
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That is the big hurdle. Because you can't just ignore
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the crimes committed by these people.
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God is a righteous judge. He cannot look at a rebel and
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simply sweep the treason under the rug.
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He would cease to be just if he did that.
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Right, so how does he do it? The answer lies in the
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explanatory engine of verse 5. Verse 5 provides the precise
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mechanics of how the goodness and loving kindness mentioned in
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verse 4 are practically applied to the wretched individuals
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described in verse 3. It reveals the unilateral
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sovereign intervention required to bridge the gap between a holy
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judge and a guilty offender while maintaining absolute
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justice. Let's guide everyone into the
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actual syntax of this verse, because this is where the
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argument becomes incredibly precise.
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The first begins with a negative exclusion.
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It starts by clearing the field entirely, not because of works
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done by us in righteousness. The syntax here is incredibly
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specific. In the original Greek, the
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phrase utilizes the preposition eke, which denotes source or
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origin. Ek Ek.
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Yes. By using this specific
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preposition, the text permanently shuts out human
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merit from ever serving as the origin of our salvation.
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It annihilates the concept of human synergy.
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And synergy is that cooperative idea.
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Yes, the idea that salvation is a cooperative business venture
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between human effort and divine grace.
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Paul shuts that down. I want to highlight a striking
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nuance that comes out of the text here.
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Paul does not say we are saved despite our sins.
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That is a key distinction. We all know we have sins.
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The murderer, the thief, the liar.
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They know they have a debt. What Paul actually says is that
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we are not saved by our righteousness.
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It is our supposedly good deeds that are being explicitly
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disqualified here. That is a completely different
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paradigm. It really is.
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It forces us to re evaluate what we consider to be good in the
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first place. The analysis references the
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prophet Isaiah, specifically Isaiah chapter 64, verse 6,
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which describes our righteous deeds as polluted garments.
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Yeah, that imagery is intense. The Hebrew imagery there is
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actually quite graphic, referring to discarded defiled
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rags. That is a staggering concept for
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the human mind to grasp. We assume that our philanthropy,
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our religious attendance, or our moral reforms carry weight in
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the heavenly courtroom. We think we are bringing gold
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coins to the judge. But we aren't.
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No, the text is arguing that when these things are offered as
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a bribe to a holy God, when we attempt to use our flawed,
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self-serving good works to leverage justification, they are
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actually offensive to His Holiness.
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They are the monopoly money on the judges table.
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That is a perfect way to picture it.
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They have no purchasing value in the economy of heaven because
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they are tainted by our pride and our demand for recognition.
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When you realize that even your best moments are stained by
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selfish motives, the illusion of earning your way to heaven just
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shatters. This negative clause is designed
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to crush self righteousness entirely.
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It leaves the individual with nothing in their hands.
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Absolutely nothing. The human ego desperately wants
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to contribute something, even if it is just 1%, so it can claim
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some portion of the glory. Paul says the human contribution
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is 0. Which brings us to a massive
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thematic transition. Once the text strips away that
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illusion of human cooperation, it doesn't just leave a vacuum.
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It immediately replaces the false motive with the true
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motive of the Almighty. It brings us to the core action.
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We encounter the strong adversity of conjunction.
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Allah translated as but followed by the preposition kata, meaning
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according to OK. So but according to.
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Yes, the entire weight of salvation pivots off of human
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performance and lands squarely on the impeccable character of
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God, the text says. But according to his own mercy.
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His own mercy. The Greek word is O2.
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Right. Yes, O2.
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It originates entirely within God.
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It's the unilateral decision. That is the essence of
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unconditional mercy. It is not evoked by foreseen
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faith or foreseen potential in the individual, no.
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Because, as we established from the dark portrait in verse
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three, there was absolutely nothing good to foresee.
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Right. Just malice and envy.
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If God looked down the corridor of time at the human heart, all
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He would see is the malice, envy and rebellion described earlier.
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The motive for rescue arises exclusively from the gracious
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character of the rescuer, not the attractiveness or
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preparedness of the one being rescued.
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Let's zero in on the grammatical center of the entire verse,
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because everything else revolves around this short three word
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phrase in English. He saved us.
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When we analyzed the Greek verb Essen, we find it is in the
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aoras, tense, the active voice, and the indicative mood.
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This grammatical reality is highly significant for how we
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view our standing before God. OK, I'm going to need you to
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translate that into plain English for me.
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When I hear Aerist active indicative, my eyes glaze over.
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What does that actually mean for the person listening right now?
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Fair enough. The aerist indicative points to
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a punctiliar definitive completed act in the past.
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Punctiliar meaning, like a specific point in time.
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Yes, a single point. It means the action is already
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finished. It is an action accomplished by
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the subject God upon the objects of us.
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It is not a process that is currently ongoing and hanging in
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the balance. It is a sealed historical
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reality. So it is not a hypothetical
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offer. It is not God throwing a rope
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down a well and saying I hope you have the strengths to hold
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on while I pull it is an accomplished rescue.
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Precisely. We most explicitly contrast this
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definitive completed act with theological systems that view
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salvation as a precarious, lifelong process.
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Like which systems? Well, the historical and
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theological analysis explicitly rejects concepts like infused
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righteousness. Infused righteousness is the
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idea that God pours a substance of grace into you, and then it
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is your job to cooperate with that grace to eventually become
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righteous enough to be saved. So you have to maintain it, yes.
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The analysis also rejects the idea of relying on a treasury of
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merit built up by Saints. In those systems, salvation is a
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tightrope walk. You are constantly trying to
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maintain favor through continual exertion, terrified that one
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slip will send you plummeting to destruction.
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It is exhausting. It has to be.
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But Paul is presenting a finished, irrevocable decree of
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rescue. The gavel has already fallen.
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The debt is paid. The transaction is complete.
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This raises an important question.
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If salvation is this completed unilateral act of God, what is
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the actual mechanism he uses to awaken a deceased human soul?
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That is a mystery. Right.
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We know the motive is mercy and the action is a completed
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rescue. But how does it happen
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mechanically? How does a person who hates God
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suddenly turn around and love him?
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Well, the text introduces an instrumental phrase to explain
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the mechanism by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the
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Holy Spirit. We had to do a lexical dive here
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into an exceptionally rare Greek word used in this phrase,
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palangenesia, translated as regeneration.
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This word is almost non existent the rest of the New Testament.
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I love looking at how words were used in the broader culture to
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get a sense of their weight. The analysis highlights that to
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understand the magnitude of Palangenesia, we have to look at
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how it was used in a broader Greco Roman world.
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Specifically by the Stoic philosophers.
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The Stoics used Palangenesia to describe the cosmic restoration
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of the entire universe. In their cosmology, the universe
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would periodically be destroyed by a universal fire and then
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undergo a massive cosmic rebirth, a new genesis.
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It was the most expansive, earth shattering word they had for
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total recreation. So Paul takes this massive
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apocalyptic cosmic term, a word used to describe the rebirth of
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the entire universe, and he commandeers it to describe what
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the Holy Spirit does to a single human soul inside the body of a
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believer. It demonstrates the immense
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scale of the internal miracle. Regeneration is not a minor
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moral adjustment is not turning over a new leaf or deciding to
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be a slightly better person or attending a seminar on ethics.
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No, it is way bigger than that. It is a resurrection level
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recreation. The old order of spiritual death
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gives way to a completely new creation.
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The fundamental nature of the person is altered.
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The sources are also very clear about what this washing of
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regeneration is not. We need to clear away the
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misconceptions because people read the word washing and
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immediately jump to physical water, Which?
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Is a very common mistake. 1st the analysis firmly rejects the
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concept of baptismal regeneration.
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This is the idea that the physical act of applying water
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and baptism actually imparts the Holy Spirit or causes the new
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birth. The text focuses on the inward
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reality, the divine initiative performed by the Spirit, not a
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ceremony performed by human hands.
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Equating the physical water with a spiritual regeneration would
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contradict the entire preceding argument that human works
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contribute nothing to the source of salvation.
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That makes total sense. If a human priest or pastor has
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to administer water for you to be regenerated, then salvation
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is contingent on human action. Paul has already ruled that out
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with the phrase not because of works.
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The analysis also rejects the idea that this renewal with Holy
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Spirit is some kind of mystical second blessing that results in
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chaotic sign gifts. There are movements that teach
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you are saved 1st and then later you get a second baptism of the
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Spirit evidenced by speaking in tongues or dramatic emotional
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displays. But the focus here isn't on a
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later dramatic external display. It is on the initial, quiet,
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miraculous reality of raising a dead soul to life.
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The imagery of washing and newness actually has deep roots
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in the Old Testament. We can look back to the prophet
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Ezekiel, specifically chapter 36, verse 25.
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Just that one, say. There God makes a unilateral
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promise to Israel. He says I will sprinkle clean
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water on you, and you shall be clean from all your
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uncleannesses and from all your idols.
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I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new
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spirit I will put within you. So it is God doing the work.
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Completely. The supreme miracle of the Holy
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Spirit in the current era is this silent sovereign
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resurrection of a dead soul to eternal life.
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He reaches in and replaces the heart of stone with the heart of
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flesh. Here's where it gets really
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interesting. When you look at the modern
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landscape, the analysis points out how this ancient text
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totally dismantles modern seeker sensitive church models.
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It really does. These models often operate by
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treating the unregenerate person as a consumer.
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The goal becomes offering an uplifting message, better life
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habits, an amazing light show, or an engaging coffee bar to
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secure a decision for behavioral modification.
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Those methods operate on a fundamentally flawed
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anthropology. If the human condition is
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spiritual death, as verse 3 asserts, then a consumer driven
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approach is completely mismatched to the reality of the
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situation. You are essentially offering a
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corpse, a cup of coffee and a self help book.
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That is a stark way to put it. But yes, a spiritual corpse does
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not need a better environment or a more engaging presentation.
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A spiritual corpse requires a resurrecting savior.
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The mechanism of change must be the unilateral supernatural
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intervention of the Holy Spirit, not clever human marketing or
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psychological manipulation. OK, so we have the Holy Spirit
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performing this cosmic resurrection inside the soul.
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He changes the nature of the person, but this brings us to a
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massive legal hurdle that we touched on earlier.
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We have to look at the Christological engine of this
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whole operation, the concept of federal headship.
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Which is vital to understand. We transition to how the Holy
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Spirit's work is actually legally permissible in the
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courtroom of heaven. Let's read ahead to verse 6,
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which says the Holy Spirit is the one whom he poured out on us
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richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.
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This connects the entire operation to the Trinity.
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The Father initiates the rescue according to His mercy.
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The Spirit applies the regeneration.
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Acting is the mechanism of new life, but the Spirit is poured
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out exclusively through the mediation of the sun.
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We cannot bypass Jesus Christ in this transaction.
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Because we run straight back into the problem of infinite
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justice. The analysis cites Proverbs
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chapter 17, verse 15, which states that he who justifies the
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wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike and
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abomination to the Lord. God cannot just wave a magic
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wand. No, a good judge cannot simply
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let a guilty murderer go free because the judge feels
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merciful. Today, that makes the judge
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corrupt. It makes him an accomplice to
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the crime. So how can God justify the
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wicked Cretan in the 1st century?
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Or are you listening right now without compromising his own
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infinite justice? This is the absolute the crux of
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the gospel. God's mercy is just exclusively
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because of the substitutionary work of Jesus Christ.
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The analysis outlines 2 vital facets of this work, Christ's
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active obedience and his passive obedience.
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Both are absolutely necessary for the transaction to be
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legally binding. Let's break those down, because
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I think a lot of people only understand half of the equation.
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Let's start with active obedience.
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Active obedience refers to the reality that Christ lived a
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flawless, law abiding life on this earth.
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He fulfilled every single requirement, every jot and
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Tuttle of God's holy law that we perpetually failed to keep.
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He never slipped up once. Never.
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He loved God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength, and he
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loved his neighbor as himself perfectly every second of his
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life. Through his perfect life, he
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earned the merit of absolute righteousness.
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So he generates the infinite positive balance in the Ledger.
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If you think about it financially, it is not enough to
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just have your debts forgiven. If you owe a billion dollars and
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someone forgives the debt, your bank account is at 0.
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Right, you are debt free but broke.
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Yeah, you aren't in debt anymore, but you are still
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completely broke. You can't get into heaven with a
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0 balance. You need perfect righteousness.
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Christ's act of obedience provides that positive deposit.
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That is a highly accurate way to view it.
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Then we have His passive obedience.
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This refers to His voluntary submission to the cross.
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On the cross, Christ acted as the substitute, absorbing the
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unmitigated infinite wrath of God that was rightfully due to
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the guilty Sinner. He exhausted the penalty.
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He drank the cup of God's justice down to the dregs.
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So the passive obedience cancels the billion dollar debt.
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He takes the punishment, the act of obedience, credits the
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account with perfect righteousness, the debt is paid
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and the positive righteousness is credited.
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That is federal headship. He represents us in the
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courtroom, taking our penalty and giving us His perfect
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record. And the analysis also points out
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a highly relevant redemptive historical distinction here
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regarding the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament economy,
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the Holy Spirit would come upon individuals temporarily for
23:50
specific tasks. You see this with a prophet
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delivering a message or a king leading a battle or stamps and
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displaying immense physical strength.
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The Spirit empowered them for a time and a purpose.
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But here in the New Testament church age, the Spirit takes up
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permanent, continuous residence within the believer.
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Which is an incredible upgrade in the history of redemption,
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but why is that permanent indwelling possible now when it
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wasn't before? If we connect this to the bigger
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picture, it explains why the Spirit's permanent indwelling is
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legally permissible now. The substitutionary atonement of
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Christ is the sole legal ground upon which the Holy Spirit can
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be poured out to permanently regenerate a depraved Sinner.
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Because the debt is fully handled.
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Exactly. I mean that is spot on.
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The Father's mercy can flow freely to the Sinner because the
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Son's blood completely satisfied the demands of justice.
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The Son purchased the Spirit who then awakens the believer.
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God is both just and the justifier of the one who has
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faith in Jesus. So we have this massive,
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airtight theological framework. It is brilliant.
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But the text demands that we bring this theology down to your
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daily reality. We need to look at modern idols,
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the concept of assurance and how this changes the way we actually
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live on a Tuesday morning. The application must be direct.
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We often talk about repenting of our sins, and rightly so.
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But the logic of this text demands that we also repent of
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our righteous works. We must abandoned any confidence
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we have in our own moral achievements.
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We have to stop bringing the Monopoly money to the courtroom.
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Think about the things we use to try and gain leverage with God
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today. The analysis notes that people
25:27
try to use all sorts of modern metrics to prove their worth.
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Such as Well, it might be your adherence to a specific brand of
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conservative politics. It might be your precise
25:36
theological orthodoxy, knowing all the right answers to the
25:39
theological trivia questions. It might be your flawless church
25:42
attendance record or your consistent financial piping.
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And those aren't bad things in themselves.
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No, but when you trust in those things as the basis for God
25:50
accepting you, you are engaging in the exact same proto Pelagian
25:54
heresy as the Judaizers in Crete.
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The analysis compares trusting in these things for salvation to
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attempting to sew together grave clothes and present them as a
26:04
wedding garment. It is a devastating critique of
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religious pride. It completely levels the playing
26:09
field, but simultaneously this text offers unfathomable comfort
26:15
for the bruised Reed. It speaks directly to the weary
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individual who is acutely aware of their failures, who
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constantly battles indwelling sin, and who wonders if God has
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finally given up on them. Because if your salvation was
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not initiated by your performance in the 1st place,
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then it logically follows that it cannot be lost by your
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subsequent stumbling. Your security does not rest on
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your unstable willpower, your fluctuating emotions, or your
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daily moral scorecard. It rests entirely on the
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immutable, unchanging mercy of God.
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He saved you according to His mercy, not according to your
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consistency. However, this brings up a
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massive and frequent objection that has been raised against
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this theology for centuries. If our works contribute
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absolutely zero to our justification, and our security
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is entirely based on God's sovereign mercy, how do we avoid
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falling into antinomianism? So that is the word for
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lawlessness, yes. Let me push back with that
27:08
specific question. If it is all free, if my good
27:12
works don't save me and my bad works don't condemn me, why
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should I bother being good? Why not just live however I
27:18
want? How do we avoid lawlessness,
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apathy, or the mindset that says I'm saved by grace so my
27:25
behavior no longer matters? Doesn't this entire system just
27:28
breed lazy Christians? That is the natural human
27:31
assumption, but it reveals A fundamental misunderstanding of
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what the washing of regeneration actually does.
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The resolution to this tension lies in understanding the
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difference between the root and the fruit.
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This is what theologians referred to as the third use of
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the law, and it points us forward to Titus chapter 3,
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verse 8, which immediately follows our passage.
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OK, so Paul addresses this right away.
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He does. Paul doesn't end the letter
27:53
after the theological explanation.
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He immediately pivots to demanding excellent behavior
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from the Cretan believers. So how does he demand good works
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right after saying works don't save us?
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Because the Holy Spirit has literally rewritten the
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believers nature through regeneration.
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He hasn't just handed them a pardon, He has given them a new
28:11
heart. Because they have a new heart,
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they now possess A genuine internal desire to pursue
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obedience. It changes their want to. 100%
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they do not pursue holiness to earn salvation, but as the
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organic inevitable result of possessing it.
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A healthy apple tree produces apples because of what it is not
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to convince the farmer to let it stay in the orchard.
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The behavior is the necessary fruit of the grace, not the root
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that produces the grace. Holiness becomes the grateful
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response to the mass of mercy received.
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The order is paramount. If you reverse it, you destroy
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the entire gospel. If you put fruit at the root,
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you are back to work's righteousness.
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When you comprehend the magnitude of what you have been
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saved from, the total ruin described in verse 3, being
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slaves to malice and envy, and when you grasp the staggering
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cost of the rescue mechanism, the active and passive obedience
29:01
of the Son of God, the natural output of the renewed heart is a
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passionate pursuit of good works.
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It just flows out of you. It is the evidence of the new
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life, not the purchase price for it.
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You obey because you love the one who rescued you.
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We have covered massive ground today.
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We started by looking at the universal illusion of self
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righteousness, that 53% of people trying to pay off a
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billion dollar debt with monopoly money.
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We stared into the black backdrop of our own total
29:29
depravity, acknowledging that we were completely unable to save
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ourselves, lying as spiritual corpses in the morgue.
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We investigated the grammatical brilliance of how Paul
29:39
systematically dismantled human merit, proving that our
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righteous deeds are polluted garments.
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We looked at the unilateral, unconditional mercy of God.
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We examine the cosmic miracle of regeneration, the Spirit
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rewriting a dead soul, all made legally possible by the active
29:55
and passive obedience of Jesus Christ, our federal head.
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The weight of Titus 3 verse 5 is designed to completely ruin our
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pride while simultaneously providing an unshakable
30:04
foundation for our assurance. It strips away every ounce of
30:08
human boasting. It shifts our gaze entirely away
30:11
from our own fluctuating performance and fixes it
30:14
securely on the completed historical work of the Triune
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God. I want to leave you with a final
30:19
provocative thought drawn from the analysis regarding the
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future. They mention the Bema, seat of
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Christ. Which is the future judgement
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where believers will stand? Right, but not to have their
30:30
salvation decided because that was settled at the cross, but to
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have their works evaluated for rewards at that future
30:36
judgement. When all illusions are stripped
30:38
away, the believers only boast will be this exact washing of
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regeneration we've been talking about.
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Everything else will remain. Everything we have accomplished,
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every good deed, every moment of obedience will be seen as the
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downstream result of the spirits initial sovereign work in our
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lives. We will realize that even our
30:56
faith was a gift. All grounds for self
30:58
congratulation will vanish entirely in the light of His
31:01
glory. Which forces us to ask a very
31:03
practical question about our lives right now.
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If your future eternal reality is stripped of all self
31:09
congratulation and based entirely on unmerited unilateral
31:14
mercy, how should that radically alter the way you treat the
31:18
people around you today? That is the conviction right
31:20
there. Especially those people who are
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currently trapped in the exact same moral failures, the exact
31:25
same malice, envy and foolishness that you once were.
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It demands a posture of true humility and gentleness.
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You can no longer look down on anyone with a sense of
31:35
superiority because you understand that the only
31:38
difference between you and the most rebellious person on earth
31:41
is the sovereign, unmerited mercy of God.
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You didn't figure it out because you were smarter.
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You were awakened by the Spirit. So what does this all mean for
31:49
you tomorrow? It means you can drop the heavy,
31:51
impossible burden of trying to earn your own justification.
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You can put the board game money away.
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I invite you to rest your weary soul entirely on the finished
31:59
work of Christ, knowing that rescue comes not from your
32:02
righteous deeds, but according to His mercy.
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Thanks for joining us on this deep dive.