Titus 3:1-2—”Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men.”
Divorce, love affairs by married people, drug or alcohol use, and so on. Are these a list of things we read as headlines from the world? No, they do happen and are reported as headlines but may also include people from churches. Before knowing the truth and being saved, we also were foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. It may not be something only as drastic as mentioned above but would include milder things that took us off God’s will. Defying rulers and authorities, disobedience, unholy work, speaking evil of others, arguing and fighting, forcefulness and harshness, or pride.
How did we get to where we are today? If we go offtrack, can we get back to where we are today or get even closer to God? It is only the Kindness and Love of God our Savior toward man that allowed this change to happen in us. We did not have any part to play by doing works of righteousness, which we may have done. But it is only God who saved us because of His mercy. God the Father is God our Savior. 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 Jesus Christ. The spring of it is the kindness and love of God to man. Love and grace have, through the Holy Spirit, great power to change and turn the heart to God. Through washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that we have been justified by His grace. We have thus become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
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.
Therefore, having received this beautiful gift from our loving God we must constantly believe in God and carefully maintain our good works. These things are good and profitable to us and more importantly, keep us in God’s will and make us do things which are pleasing to God.
Here is the outward sign and seal, in baptism, called therefore the washing of regeneration. However, the work is inward and spiritual. The worker within is the Holy Spirit of God – the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit we mortify sin, perform our duty, walk in God’s ways – all the working of the Divine life in us. The Holy Spirit and His saving gifts and graces, come through Christ as a Savior, whose undertaking and work are to bring to us grace and glory. Justification is when a sinner gets free forgiveness and is accepted as righteous through the righteousness of Christ received by his or her faith faith. God has promised us an eternal life; the Holy Spirit works in us faith and hope of that life. Faith brings hope nigh and fills it with joy in the expectation of it.
