But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Titus 3:4-7
We read a quote in our study guide last week from R. C. H. Lenski who said, “To add anything to Christ as being necessary for salvation, say circumcision or any human work of any kind, is to deny that Christ is the complete Savior, is to put something human on a par with him. That is fatal. A bridge to heaven that is built of 99/100 of Christ and even only 1/100 of anything human breaks down at the joint and ceases to be a bridge.” I’m not familiar with Mr. Lenski, but I like that statement! It is affirmed by our text today, especially v. 5: “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us…” I don’t know that there is a verse which makes it any clearly concerning our salvation. Salvation is solely based on Christ’s work and not my own. He alone did that which was fully pleasing to God, not failing in even one point, and so all who trust in Him may be justified forever before God because His payment for sin, his sinless sacrifice, was acceptable to the Father.
We have been studying Act 15 for the last several weeks as the apostles and elders deliberated over the question of what things were necessary for salvation. The particular “thing” that had been asserted by some of the Jews at that time was that, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” (Act 15:1) It is the last part of that statement that should be emphasized in our minds. They were trying to add to the requirement for salvation, but as Peter noted in v. 7, the Gentiles only had to do one thing before God acknowledged their salvation by giving them the Holy Ghost. Peter said he was chosen by God first to preach to the Gentiles so that they “should hear the word of the gospel and believe“. Belief was the one issue, i.e. faith in Christ. Period! This fact agrees exactly with Paul’s response in the next chapter to the Philippian jailer when he asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Paul’s response was simple and required nothing more than, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Act 16:30-31) That’s the simplicity of the gospel in a nutshell, church! The requirement is low enough that any may enter. If we add even good things to it–for example baptism–some men are shut out. The thief on the cross is without hope! But if all he needed to do was believe, he was indeed with Jesus later that very day in paradise!
Some may argue that to present such a simple salvation to souls is to encourage sin. “If they only have to believe, then they can believe in Jesus and do whatever they want!” To think such a thing is to misunderstand true belief. True faith in Christ will always produce good works! In fact, I purposely stopped short of the next verse in our main text today so we could read it now. After having made sure we clearly understood that salvation was based solely upon the work of Christ and not our own “works of righteousness”, Paul wrote to Titus, “This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.” (Tit 3:8) True belief always yields good works! As James wrote, “faith without works is dead”. (Jam 2:17-26) The issue with works is making sure they are in the right order. Works do not precede salvation, but they will without a doubt follow. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:8-10)
Jamie
All we simply must do to be saved is have faith and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. If we truly believe and love our Saviour we want to do right and not evil. Thank God for His love and mercy which I do not deserve.
Amen! Thank God that He made a way of acceptance through Jesus Christ so that all who desire to do so may come to Him for deliverance because “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”!!