Grace…amazing grace!
We love others because He first loved us.
Titus
Although Titus contains only 46 verses, it covers a wide range of topics. It contains one of the clearest statements about God’s grace in all of the New Testament. It explicates the significance of Christ’s first. The book contributes to our understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in salvation and the Christian life.
2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
3:3-7 For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Christ’s appearance on earth—including His life, death, and resurrection—manifested God’s grace and made possible salvation. The foundation of Christian hope is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. By anticipating His return, the believers in Crete acknowledge that He lives and has victory over death. In setting themselves apart for God, they reveal for unbelievers a glimpse of life in God’s kingdom—life in the age to come. Paul reminds the believers in Crete of the price and purpose of God’s redemption. The Greek word used here, lytroō, means “to release” or “set free,” especially from slavery. Good deeds are not a means to salvation; rather, they are the appropriate response to God’s redemptive work in Christ.
Paul and the believers of Crete were once like these unbelievers. Those now saved must not forget the means of their salvation: the mercy of God. God appeared to rescue humanity from its dire situation. The progression of sin in this verse begins with foolishness and disobedience and culminates in a breakdown of relationships. It mirrors Paul’s description of the progression of godliness, which begins with sound doctrine and culminates in good works. In both cases, one leads to the other. God’s kindness and love appeared in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. In His saving work, Christ models the kindness and love that believers must show all people. The transformation of the corrupt human nature is by the Holy Spirit. Jesus described salvation in similar terms, emphasizing God’s radical work within a person. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, believers experience a rebirth from a state of spiritual death. The presence of the Spirit enables them to live in a manner that pleases God. The washing here denotes an inner, spiritual cleansing.
We are declared righteous in God’s sight—not by human merit, but by His grace. Justification represents God’s pardoning and acceptance of sinners who express faith in Jesus Christ (and God’s faithfulness shown through Him). Christ’s death and resurrection are central to justification because they demonstrate God’s justice and mercy. God did not ignore sin and forsake His justice; rather, He condemned sin and satisfied the demands of His justice through the death of Christ. Likewise, God did not ignore the sinner and abandon His mercy; instead, He granted sinners righteousness and life through the resurrection of Christ—both of which the law could not provide. After being justified by Christ, believers do good works as evidence of their salvation. Believers inherit eternal life. Believers become part of God’s family and receive the blessings promised to His children.
Faithlife Bible.
Twice in this context Paul speaks of Christ’s appearance in history. The first time Christ came in grace to save men from their sins; the second time He will come in glory to reign. The appearance of the grace of God is to produce two results in the lives of believers: First, we are to resist the evil temptations of this world, living godly lives in this present age. Second, we are to look for Christ’s return. Paul reminded Timothy that there is a special crown awaiting “all who have loved His appearing.” Great God and Savior Jesus Christ is one of the strongest statements of the deity of Christ in the NT. Redeem means “to purchase.” With His death on the Cross, Christ paid the price to release us from the bondage of sin to which every unbeliever is a slave. God’s purpose in redeeming us is not only to save us from hell; He also wants to free us from sin so that we can produce good works that glorify Him.
Paul provides another motive for good works by explaining the rationale for the Christian life. The believers were supposed to treat others the way God in His grace had treated them when they were involved in the ungodly activities noted in this verse. Since Paul has been exhorting Titus to emphasize good works in his ministry with the Cretans, he wants to make it clear that such works have no value in saving a person. Rather, it is solely on the basis of God’s mercy that we are delivered from the penalty of our sin. Regeneration refers to the work of the Holy Spirit, who in a moment makes a person new by the cleansing of regeneration (the new birth). This new nature is the ground for living the Christian life and performing good deeds. The continual process of Christian living is enabled by the Holy Spirit, resulting in growth in character and good works. God justifies believers so that they might become coheirs with Jesus Christ in His coming reign.
NKJ BIble.
Matthew Henry Connebtary
Spiritual privileges do not make void or weaken, but confirm civil duties. Mere good words and good meanings are not enough without good works. They were not to be quarrelsome, but to show meekness on all occasions, not toward friends only, but to all men, though with wisdom, Jas 3:13. And let this text teach us how wrong it is for a Christian to be churlish to the worst, weakest, and most abject. The servants of sin have many masters, their lusts hurry them different ways; pride commands one thing, covetousness another. Thus they are hateful, deserving to be hated. It is the misery of sinners, that they hate one another; and it is the duty and happiness of saints to love one another. And we are delivered out of our miserable condition, only by the mercy and free grace of God, the merit and sufferings of Christ, and the working of his Spirit. God the Father is God our Saviour. He is the fountain from which the Holy Spirit flows, to teach, regenerate, and save his fallen creatures; and this blessing comes to mankind through Christ. The spring and rise of it, is the kindness and love of God to man. Love and grace have, through the Spirit, great power to change and turn the heart to God. Works must be in the saved, but are not among the causes of their salvation. A new principle of grace and holiness is wrought, which sways, and governs, and makes the man a new creature. Most pretend they would have heaven at last, yet they care not for holiness now; they would have the end without the beginning. Here is the outward sign and seal thereof in baptism, called therefore the washing of regeneration. The work is inward and spiritual; this is outwardly signified and sealed in this ordinance. Slight not this outward sign and seal; yet rest not in the outward washing, but look to the answer of a good conscience, without which the outward washing will avail nothing. The worker therein is the Spirit of God; it is the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Through him we mortify sin, perform duty, walk in God’s ways; all the working of the Divine life in us, and the fruits of righteousness without, are through this blessed and holy Spirit. The Spirit and his saving gifts and graces, come through Christ, as a Saviour, whose undertaking and work are to bring to grace and glory. Justification, in the gospel sense, is the free forgiveness of a sinner; accepting him as righteous through the righteousness of Christ received by faith. God, in justifying a sinner in the way of the gospel, is gracious to him, yet just to himself and his law. As forgiveness is through a perfect righteousness, and satisfaction is made to justice by Christ, it cannot be merited by the sinner himself. Eternal life is set before us in the promise; the Spirit works faith in us, and hope of that life; faith and hope bring it near, and fill with joy in expectation of it.
Ephesians 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
Ephesians 2:9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
1 Timothy 2:3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
Titus 1:2 in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began,
1 Peter 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
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