The Salvation of God

(Titus 3:4-7 – The Salvation of God)

From the time that Adam and Eve were thrown unceremoniously out of the garden, the whole world has been awaiting the salvation of God. The world and indeed the whole universe was subjected to a process of wearing out. And all people were subject to death as we awaited the salvation of God.

Even though sin separated man from God, God never left man alone. There were many times He disciplined and destroyed sinful mankind, but His promise of salvation existed from the beginning.

The salvation of God finally came, in the person of Jesus Christ. The will of God was for man to live a life free from sin, as he was made. But it required the intervention of God to enable man to come back to Him. And the salvation of God has nothing to do with what we might do. It is purely by the grace of God that we have this chance to find the salvation of God.

Finding the Salvation of God

The scripture today gives us a great insight into finding the salvation of God. This is what it says:

4 but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, 6 which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:4-7)

First, we must realise that we are saved, not by or on the basis of anything we have done. We are saved on the basis of grace, given to us by a loving God.

Anything that we may have done that we think is a righteous deed has no bearing on the salvation of God. We cannot earn, work for, buy, or do anything to receive the salvation of God.

So, what do we do to receive the salvation of God? We simply believe in the one whom God has sent t be our Saviour: Jesus Christ. That is the full sum of what we need to “do” to receive the salvation of God. We simply need to have faith and believe.

Your salvation and mine is based upon faith. God wants people to believe He exists and that He rewards those who do believe (see: Hebrews 11:6) Then God tells us to listen to and believe in the death and resurrection of His Son. It is through these things that we will be saved.

How are we saved?

First, it is through faith by the grace of God, as already mentioned.

But that is just the beginning. Salvation is given to us at that point, but we need to grow and learn the will and the ways of God.

To that end, God washed us in the waters of baptism for regeneration. We became new creations in Jesus Christ, born of God rather than born of this world. We now come to God in the Spirit rather than in the flesh.

And God provided for us to be able to learn and understand His ways by giving us the Holy Spirit. He gave us the Holy Spirit to teach, guide, comfort, and much more. The Holy Spirit has the task of transforming us into the image of Jesus Christ. And by that transformation, God gives us the victory over the flesh, over sin , and over the devil.

Justified for the salvation of God

As part of the salvation of God, He has justified us so that we can stand before Him.

To be justified is to be made righteous, as He is righteous. As mentioned at the start of this post, nothing we can do can make us righteous. But God can declare us righteous when we believe.

And because we are justified or made righteous by God, it is on the basis of His grace.

One of the most revealing scriptures regarding this justification by grace process for me is this:

23 But the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, 24 but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him that raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, 25 who was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification. (Romans 4:23-25)

When you read the scriptures just prior to these words, we see Paul was referring to Abraham.

Abraham was justified or reckoned righteous by faith. And this occurred only because of the grace of God.

He was given something very specific to believe. Abraham was told that he would be the father of many nations and peoples who would outnumber the stars of the sky or the sands by the sea. And these many peoples would be born through his wife, Sarah.

But, Sarah was barren, well past menopause, and she had a physical condition preventing her from falling pregnant.

Abraham ignored all of these impediments and just believed God could do anything. And so they had a son, Isaac, and thus began the fulfilment of God’s word to Abraham. Also, because Abraham believed, despite the impediments to such a thing being possible, God declared him righteous.

The salvation of God is also based upon faith. But it is not a blind faith. We too are given something very specific to believe, and when we do God will reckon us righteous too. We are required to believe that God can and did raise Christ from the dead.

Such a thing is impossible for a man to do, but not for God. Likewise, having children from a woman who was barren, past menopause, and physically incapable of bearing a child should have been impossible too. But God proved it was in His power to do anything. And it is also in His power to raise the dead.

This is why we can see that Jesus “died for our trespasses,” and thus became the expiation and perfect sacrifice for sin. And when God raised Jesus from the dead and we believed He did this, we were justified and declared righteous by believing what God did through Christ.

This faith leads to the salvation of God. It is through this faith that we will become heirs in hope of eternal life.

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