3:4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5 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, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. ~ Titus 3:5
One aspect of a new year is that one can put what happened the last year behind them. Do not get me wrong. Mistakes often follow, and we must deal with the consequences. Consequences do not stay jailed in the previous year. Also, hurt, pain, and grief may remain buried in our hearts, yet as they ease up over time, periodically, they will rear their ugly heads. So, a new year does not diminish those significant phases of our life.
However, a new year gives us perspective. We come out of the Advent and Christmas calendar, where we are inundated with lessons and sermons about the first incarnation of our Christ. We are reminded of a season of His glorious birth, a new baby to new parents with all the joy and fear that brings. As they looked ahead then, a new year allows us to look ahead now. The question is, “to what do we look ahead?”
Paul gives Titus some excellent teaching in chapter three as he reminds Titus of the kindness and goodness of our God. This word from Paul to Titus is good because of the mistake we often make. Although we must continue to deal with consequences and pain, we tend to look inside ourselves to understand and respond to those experiences. That is a result of our sinful hearts. Notice how Paul begins this verse with the conjunction “but” as he contrasts the depravity he described in the previous verses. Someone has called these conjunctions God’s roadblocks on man’s way to hell.[1]
Notice what Paul tells Timothy to focus on, Christ. God’s tender concern provides us with what we can never provide for ourselves. This condition is not only the starting point for our salvation; it is the crucial piece for the progress of our salvation. God’s kindness in providing Christ, “his love for mankind,” is not only God’s work to bring us debauched sinners to Himself once but is His means to keep bringing us to Himself over and over again. Arthur W. Pink states, “The great mistake made by most of the Lord’s people is in hoping to discover in themselves that which is to be found in Christ alone.”[2]
Paul makes this thought abundantly clear in verse five when he says that our salvation is not due to “the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness.” The original language literally reads, “not out of works.” This phrase is placed first in the sentence, meaning it has prioritized emphasis. In other words, Paul emphasizes that we must never forget this truth. Before we were saved, we needed to understand our works did not save us, but even after we are saved, we need to be reminded it is not our works that now merit God’s favor.
Many Christians have the misconception that once we are saved, our righteous works will have some merit before God. Also, we erroneously believe that our salvation is one and done and that we do not need God anymore. We walked the aisle, asked Christ into our hearts, got baptized, and that is that—“see you on the flip side, Jesus.” However, Paul’s point is simple but profound. We Christians are under grace when we are born again; we are born again by faith because we believed and were justified by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8, Rom. 3:24); we continue to live this supernatural life under grace by faith until the day we die, or Jesus returns; and we trust in God’s Spirit to supply the supernatural power to live like Christ (1 John 2:6; 1 Peter 2:21, 1 Cor. 11:1). This is our progressive sanctification, which is a daily walk with Him by grace through faith.
We are called to this sanctification progress and are assured that we do not have to go at it alone. Note the second part of verse five and all of verse six, “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.”
Think about God’s mercy for a moment. Strong defines mercy as “the self-moved, spontaneous, loving kindness of God which causes Him to deal in compassion and tender affection with the miserable and distressed.”[3] Guy King has suggested that grace is needed for every service, mercy for every failure, and peace for every circumstance.[4] Someone else has said, “Grace to the worthless, mercy to the helpless, and peace to the restless.”[5] Paul tells us that God’s grace and mercy are a part of our initial salvation and continue with us for the rest of our lives. It does so through the work of the Holy Spirit—initially washing, continually renewing.
Discussing our progressive renewal is what I want to conclude for this post. In Greek, there are two words for “making new,” kainos and neos. Neos means to make new at a point in time. Kainos means to make a new point of character or nature. Suppose I baked a cake. When I pulled it out of the oven, that was neos. The cake became new and freshly baked neos at the sound of the timer. Neos describes our regeneration. When the Holy Spirit makes our dead hearts alive (Ezek. 36:25-38, Col. 2:13), we are born again at neos, at a certain point of time (John 3:3; 2 Cor. 5:17). Also, our justification in Christ occurs at neos (Gen. 15:6; Rom. 5:1, Gal. 2:16).
What we Christians now understand is that God is not through with us. He does not “zap” us at neos and, “poof,” we are perfect. He does so much more for us. This continuous work is the kainos part of our salvation. Those of us who were once sinners and saved by grace at neos now are on the way to being a saint by kainos, a mercy created by the Holy Spirit as well. John Stott states that this Holy Spirit’s effecting “refers to the process of moral renovation or transformation which follows the new birth.”[6]
As believers, we are always looking ahead to God renewing us. We cannot make ourselves new. It is a supernatural divine work of God’s Spirit. The main work of the Holy Spirit is to change us into new, holy people who know and love the will of God. “The Holy Spirit fills us with Christ, His character, and His immeasurable love (Gal. 5:22-23; Eph. 3:14-19). God’s Spirit educates us from the Holy Bible regarding God and His Gospel, revealed and filled in Jesus Christ, along with implications for our worship transformation, obedience, and influence (2 Tim. 3:15-17).”[7] What a glorious grace and mercy we get to look forward to God’s miraculous work in our lives this year.
[1] I do not remember where I heard this and do not have a reference for it.
[2] A.W. Pink, The Doctrine of Sanctification (Swengel, PA: Bible Truth Depot, 1955).
[3] Strong’s Lexicon on eleos accessed on January 6, 2023, at 10:45 AM. https://www.studylight.org/lexicons/eng/greek/1656.html
[4] Guy H. King, To My Son: An Expositional Study of 2 Timothy (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1971).
[5] I do not remember where I heard this and do not have a reference for it.
[6] John R.W. Stott, Guard the Truth: The Message of 1 Timothy and Titus (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001).
[7] Brian Courtney Wood, “Beholding the Glory of Jesus: How a Christ-Centered Perspective Restores in Us the Splendor of God’s Image,” in Redeeming the Life of the Mind: Essays in Honor of Vern Poythress, eds. John M. Frame, Wayne Grudem, and John J. Hughes (Wheaton: Crossway, 2017), 281-282).
Andrews PCA 