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SALVATION: FROM HERE TO ETERNITY: Titus 3:4-8
By Ted Schroder,
March 30, 2014
Salvation is God’s action to save us, to rescue us, to deliver us from danger. What is the danger we are in? The Bible describes humanity as being in a state of separation from God who is love, and light, and goodness. This state is a form of spiritual death in this life. Each individual self is viewed as being at the mercy of a self-centered sinful nature, dominated by the standards of culture and society, and blinded by the spiritual forces of evil that oppose the work of God. We become afflicted by the fears and frustrations of which the contemporary world is too well aware (as reflected in our movies, novels, news reports and magazine articles), lack of meaning and purpose, absence of a sense of significance, a yearning for acceptance and loving relationships, and with our lives spoiled by bad habits which we are powerless to alter. These are the things from which all of us to varying degrees need to be saved. These are our deepest needs. And it is from these needs that God himself has come to save us. As an example of these needs, the 1953 movie From Here to Eternity, based on James Jones’ novel, won eight Oscars for portraying the jealousies, cruelties and violence of human relationships and war. The New Testament spells out how salvation comes to rescue us from here to eternity.
“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying.” (Titus 3:4-8)
Here we see:
The motivation of Salvation: the kindness and love of God
The justification of salvation: the mercy of God in Christ
The method of salvation: the work of the Holy Spirit
The result of salvation: inheritance of the assurance of eternal life
Firstly, the motivation of salvation. God is motivated by his essential character. He reveals himself to us in his kindness and love for us and the whole world. What does that mean to us to perceive God in that light? What does it mean to us to realize that the greatest power in the universe is kindly and lovingly disposed to us? What does to it mean to you that God wants to be kind to you, loving to you, to want only the best for you? His motivation is not to harm you, to diminish you, to use you, to ignore you, to dispose of you or to sidetrack you, to get you out of the way of his purposes, but to be kind and loving to you. How does that understanding of God who is spirit and truth, the Father of all creation, make you feel? Does it make you trust your Maker and Savior? You know that he is motivated for your benefit, for kindness and love is inherently unselfish. Kindness and love is caring for the other above oneself. His motivation is to bless you, to do what is best for you.
That motivation becomes ours also in relation to others. What God is for us we become for others. What motivates our Father is the family characteristic of his children. The more we become like our heavenly parent the more we become kind and loving to others if we are saved. Our motivation in our relationships with others is not to harm them, diminish them, use them, or ignore them but to love them as God our Father loves us.
Secondly, the justification of salvation. The reason God saves us is not because of anything we have done to deserve it, for we can never claim that God is in our debt. We owe everything to him and not vice versa. He does not owe us anything. “In him we live and move and have our being. For from him and to him and through him are all things.” (Acts 17:28; Romans 11:36) We may have accomplished many great and praiseworthy things, but we were able to do so only because of what God enabled us to do. No, the reason God saves us is because of the mercy of God in Christ. God has appeared to us in Christ and revealed his grace. “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men… the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, to redeem us from all wickedness, and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” (Titus 2:11, 14)
That justification becomes ours in relation to others. The reason we love others and wish to do them good is not because of what they have done to deserve our attention but because of the mercy we have received which we pass on to them. No one has a claim on us that is greater than the claim God has on us. The more we realize God's mercy to us in Christ giving himself to us to redeem us, the more we will give ourselves to others. We are eager to do them good because God in Christ has redeemed us.
Thirdly, the method of salvation. “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.” Salvation is accomplished in us through the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit of Christ. It is not accomplished by anything that we do except to welcome and receive – which is the meaning of faith.
What happens when we trustingly put our hand in the hand of God, and entrust ourselves to his saving mercy? The Holy Spirit of God comes into residence in the life of the believer, and he is then baptized… Faith, then, is sealed by the outward and visible sign of baptism, and the inward and spiritual grace of the Holy Spirit received into the life. This marks the beginning of a new life. (Michael Green, The Meaning of Salvation, p.170f.)
We are spiritually reborn, our minds are renewed, and we are given a new heart. The promise of Ezekiel is fulfilled in us. “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.” (Ezek.36:25-28) What we are incapable of doing consistently in our own strength– loving other people – the Spirit enables us to do. “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:5) It is poured out upon us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior. We receive as much as we need, as much as we are willing and able to receive. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him. By this he meant the Spirit whom those who believed in him were later to receive.” (John 7:37-39) This new life of the Spirit is given to us to save us from all that would prevent us from becoming all that God wants us to be.
This method of salvation is the means by which we become agents of salvation in the world. It is not by our might, our power, our will, that we can accomplish anything of worth but through the Spirit of Christ (Zech.4:6; Acts 2). It is the fruit of the Spirit not of the flesh. We seek to be filled with the Spirit, led by the Spirit.
Fourthly, the result of salvation. We inherit the sure and certain hope, the assurance of eternal life. We enter into the eternal life of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are promised the knowledge of the hope of the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in the saints, an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for us (Ephesians 1:18; 1 Peter 1:4).
This result of salvation, this inheritance of the hope of eternal life, should give us confidence in the future. It is a trustworthy saying, something we can count on, so that dying and death need hold no terrors for us.
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