Our good God did a good deed for us

 I was born February 22, 1953 to Arthur and Wilma Schmiege. On March 22, 1953 I was baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps you remember the year and the month and the day of your own baptism. Today, as we remember our baptism or look forward to being baptized I want to raise a few questions as we look at Titus 3:3-8. Verse 3 describes what we are by nature.  ³ At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. Looking more closely at these words by searching the Scriptures we find that the word foolish is used by the Psalmist in Psalm 14:1: “The fool says in his heart there is no God.” To be foolish is not to just to do an unwise thing like ride on the hood of a car going 40 miles an hour. To be foolish is to reject God and all that he has done as our Creator and deny God’s existence. We were actively wicked but also powerless to change. We were enslaved. We wouldn’t and couldn’t do any good.  What Paul describes is cesspool of every hateful thought and action. The Apostle Paul was a uses these words to describe himself and Titus and the people of Crete.  The Apostle Paul persecuted Christians and killed them. He understood his personal enslavement to sin and hateful action. In chapter one of Titus Paul quoted one of their own prophets to point out the Cretans were liars and gluttons. Paul holds up the mirror of God’s law to our own sinful desires and passions that rebel against the will of the Lord. Those facts make verses 4-7 so precious in our lives. .

Look carefully at verses 4-7. Just who did a good deed for us when we were in this foolish disobedient enslaved condition?  ⁴ But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ 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, ⁶ whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. God did a good deed for us. But he did more than save us from an oncoming car on East Washington. Why did God save us? What moved him? As always, Paul rules out anything on our part: “not because of righteous things we had done.” How fortunate! Looking again at verse 3 we realize that we never could have done any “righteous things.” If God were to wait with granting us salvation until he saw something righteous in us, we never would be saved.

What moved God? Four characteristics are attributed to God. First are “the kindness and love of God our Savior.” “Kindness” speaks of the good will God has toward us, that he is disposed to bless us. The word for “love” used here is the same as our English word philanthropy, love of mankind. “God … loved the world,” that is, the world of human beings, mankind. In Jesus the “kindness and love of God our Savior appeared.” Look at Jesus and you see the Father’s love and kindness actively present among us. “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).Two more words tell us why God saved us. He did so “because of his mercy.” God looked with pity upon our wretchedness, with compassion that knew no limits. Our God is “rich in mercy” (Ephesians 2:4). God saved us also “by his grace.” This is God’s undeserved love. “For it is by grace you have been saved” (verse 8). Nothing in us moved God to save, only his kindness, love, mercy, and grace. That is the God revealed in the gospel. Look at him and be amazed! God did a good deed for us. He saved us.  

How can I, a miserable sinner (remember verse 3), hope to receive this amazing gift of God? Jesus told Nicodemus, “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3). To Nicodemus who was puzzled how one could be born again, Jesus explained, “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (verse 5). To Titus, Paul writes, “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” This is the “washing” that takes place in Holy Baptism, a “washing” through which our sins are washed away (Acts 22:16), a “washing” that saves us (1 Peter 3:21). Paul writes to the Galatians, “All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (3:27). By faith we now wear, are covered with, the perfect righteousness and holiness that our Savior prepared for us through his life, death, and resurrection. Baptism brings us into a faith-relationship with Christ. It brings about rebirth, spiritual life.

 

 Does verse 3 describe my life before March 22 1953 and verses 4-7 my life after March 22, 1953?  He saved me by the washing and renewal. God rescued me. God’s work was complete. Yet I still have these rebellious thoughts against the will of God to love him with all my heart and my neighbor as myself. God has saved me. But the ongoing struggle between the sinful nature and my person of faith called the new man is real until the day I die. If we don’t understand this struggle we lose sight of why God gives us the gospel in word and sacrament to strengthen our faith and our desire to do his will.  Paul describes this challenging situation in Romans 7:21-25.   ²¹So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; ²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! Paul understood the daily struggle in his life. He also understood God’s answer to that struggle. We need to understand that the struggle does not change the fact that God saved us. The struggle inside us all reminds us that we need the strength and power the God alone can give us.

 

God did a good deed for us. He saved us not by the righteous things we have done. Our focus is on God our Savior. Our faith and trust is in Jesus who saved us. The Holy Spirit brought us to trust in God. We have the hope of eternal life right now. “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” (John 3:36). We have life now and will have it forever. What blessings we have in this life! What a glorious future awaits us in eternity! But what about my life right now? Every day I struggle with the sinful nature inside me. But because of God’s good deed for me, I have to power to say no to sin in my life. By God’s grace working me I have ability to do the will of God. Paul writes to Titus that truth at the end of our text: “This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.” Good doctrine leads to good deeds. This verse goes along with Titus 2 when Paul told Titus to speak to elderly men, elderly women, young men, young women and slaves about how they were to put their Christian life or goods into action in their daily attitude and desires in the work place, at home and in all they did.

 

Just as Paul encouraged Titus to teach the Cretans so our Lord admonishes you and me to turn away from hatred, dishonesty, laziness, a lack of self-control in what we eat and drink. Turn to the Lord for lives that give glory to God in thought word and action. Whether we are young or old, male or female, employer or employee God directs us our life to cling the message that saved us as we turn away daily from our life of disobedience to God to a life of good deeds. Listen once again the words of Paul to Titus in chapter 2: “Teach the older men to be temperate, worthy of respect, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love and in endurance. ³ Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. ⁴ Then they can train the younger women to love their husbands and children, ⁵ to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.⁶ Similarly, encourage the young men to be self-controlled. ⁷ In everything set them an example by doing what is good. In your teaching show integrity, seriousness ⁸ and soundness of speech that cannot be condemned, so that those who oppose you may be ashamed because they have nothing bad to say about us. ⁹ Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, ¹⁰ and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive.”

God has specific directions for our lives. Saul, the murderer and persecutor turned away from his hateful and disobedient life to a life filled with showing loving to those who did not know Jesus and to strengthen those who did know him.. He lived the life of patience, kindness, joy, peace and self-control. He did this in the midst of the struggle of the sinful flesh and a real Satan who wanted to lead him astray. God’s power and strength for our life comes from his Word. The Holy Spirit continues to work in us the ability to do what is excellent and profitable for everyone. The good doctrine of what God has done leads to the good deeds described in the Bible. God did a good deed for all of us. He saved us. Devote yourselves to doing what is good.