SAVED BY GRACE

October 11

Bible Reading: Titus 3

Titus 3:3-7, “For we were once foolish ourselves, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.  But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

It is commonly and erroneously assumed by most that people are saved through human or religious effort.  We tend, in sin, to over appreciate man’s goodness and under appreciate the degree of God’s holiness.  We are all born sinners (Romans 5:12, 3:23).  “No one does good, not even one” (Romans 3:12).  No one is deserving of salvation.

Grace has commonly been defined as “unmerited favor.”  There are two elements to that definition.  There is the “unmerited” part.  No one is deserving.  There is the “favor” part.  In salvation, God imparts favor.  The full measure of God’s grace is better appreciated when we consider what we have received in view of what we deserved.

This passage speaks to both these aspects.  In a glorious revelation of that which has transpired in the life of the saved person, this passage speaks to both aspects of this.  There is a before and after aspect to the passage.  Verse 3 speaks to the “way we were.”  Verses 4-7 speak to the manifold blessings we have received.

The folks to which Paul was referring to were undeserving of salvation.  They were foolish and disobedient.  They were ignorant of the truth.  They had foolishly denied their Creator and lived in a state of rebellion (Psalm 53:1; Romans 1:20-21; Colossians 1:21).  They had been led astray.  “The devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world” was having his way with them (Revelation 12:9; Ephesians 2:2).  They were enslaved to “various passions and pleasures” wasting their days away in malice and envy.  They were hated by others, and hating one another.  There was nothing in them or about them that could deem them worthy of salvation.  They were lost sinners without God and without hope.  What was true of them is true of all in sin.  As the hymn puts it, “Guilty, vile and helpless we.”

These folks had heard the gospel and had responded to it by trusting in Jesus.  At the moment of saving faith, they became recipients of God’s grace that was manifested in them in various ways. 

In his “Systematic Theology,” Lewis Sperry Chafer speaks of the “thirty-three stupendous works of God which together comprise the salvation of a soul.”  He explains: “They are wrought of God; they are wrought instantaneously; they are wrought simultaneously; they are grounded on the merit of Christ; and, being grounded on the merit of Christ, are eternal.”

Lewis Sperry Chafer

Some of these works of grace are referred to in this passage.  This passage refers to some of these works of grace, emphasizing that they indeed constitute God’s “works of grace,” as seen in the statement “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness” (Titus 3:5). By grace, believers are born again and made new in Christ. They are cleansed from sin, filled with the Spirit, declared righteous before God, and given an inheritance. None of these blessings were deserved.  They can be traced back to their source — “the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:7) and the ministration of Christ, who because of His grace, “became poor, so that (we) by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).

How incredibly blessed we are as recipients of such grace!  We should shrink back with dread from the temptation to take any credit for that which God has done in saving us.  We are indeed God’s trophies of grace, displayed before all that they might behold the “immeasurable riches of his grace” (Ephesians 2:7).

“And I shall see Him face to face, and tell the story—Saved by grace.”

Wonderful grace of Jesus,
reaching the most reviled,
by its transforming power
making me God’s dear child,
purchasing peace and heaven
for all eternity,
for the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.