The loving kindness of God

Heavenly Father, thank you that you have spoken to us in the Scriptures. Help us now to hear your voice, to believe it, and to learn to obey it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

The loving kindness of God. That’s what we’re thinking about this evening from a passage in the apostle Paul’s Letter to Titus. Please have that open in front of you. It’s Titus 3.1-8 on p 998. These verses talk about the way a new Christian’s life is transformed. It’s so encouraging to hear those stories from our brothers and sisters baptised this evening. In my own experience, this transformation began when I was in my early teens. God used a school Christian Union group that I started going along to, and also a series of talks –rather like the talks at the Newcastle University Events Week that’s just happened. In one sense, nothing very dramatic. But looking back, my life was utterly changed.

What is that causes this transformation? It is God’s gift of his Holy Spirit. It is a free gift – no purchase required, like for a free coffee from Waitrose. But what exactly is the nature of the transformation that the Holy Spirit makes in the Christian’s life? These verses in Titus 3 give a summary of it, and I want to look at what they have to say under three headings. 1. Life without the Holy Spirit is bad. 2. The Holy Spirit makes us new. 3. Life with the Holy Spirit is good. Before we get into that, though, just a little bit of background. This is a letter from the apostle Paul to Titus. Who is he? He was a Christian who had been converted to Christ through Paul’s own teaching. Paul calls him in Titus 1.4:

…my true child in a common faith.

Titus used to travel with Paul on his church-planting team. They must have worked together in Crete, because Titus has been left there by Paul to get the communities of new Christian converts established and on their feet. So Paul writes to Titus (Titus 1.5):

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you…

These young Christians were facing two main issues. For one thing, there were already amongst them people who were leading them away from Jesus with lies. (Titus 1.10):

For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers…

And for another thing, these young Christians were used to a lifestyle that was no good for those who now belonged to Christ. Titus 1.12:

One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true.”

Nothing if not blunt! So Paul is telling his co-worker Titus to keep reminding them of the gospel – and how to live in the light of it.That’s the background. And the truth is we need exactly the same reminders, which is what makes this passage so valuable and exciting for us. If you like to think of yourself as an ex liar, evil beast and lazy glutton, then this is right on the button for you. So – we can see three things about life in these verses:

1. Life without the Holy Spirit is bad

Maybe your reaction to that is ‘Well, it’s not as bad as all that’. If so, you’re up against God’s perspective on what life is like without him. Look at what God says through Paul here in Titus 3.3:

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

‘I was like this!’ Paul is saying, ‘And you were like this too’. So there’s no sense of any kind of moral or spiritual superiority in this analysis. He makes crystal clear in Titus 3.5 that the transformation of the Christian’s life was, as he puts it:

…not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his [God’s] own mercy…

In other words, unless God had acted, we’d still be like this. If things have changed, it’s no thanks to us. It’s thanks to God alone. How does this Godless life seem to those who are living it? It seems to me it would appear to those in the thick of it to be a life of independence, and a life lived in pursuit of appealing passions and pleasures. It’s a life of independence in the sense that we say to ourselves ‘I don’t need anyone telling me what to do, thank you very much. It’s my life. I can do with it whatever I want.’ The word Paul uses for that kind of attitude is disobedience. We do need God telling us what to do. He knows best what’s good for us. And our life does not belong to us. It belongs to God, who made us and gave his Son for us. And as for our passions and pleasures (the things we want above all else, the things our minds dwell on, and that consume our energies) we think we choose them and have them under control, but no, says Paul, they enslave us. They control us, not the other way around. And this is a life, says Paul, that is shot through with hatred. As he puts it in Titus 3.3, we pass our days:

…in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.

It’s a life without contentment – because our pursuit of passions and pleasures never satisfies us. It’s a life without freedom – because we’re enslaved. It’s a life without direction – because we reject God’s guidance. It’s a life without wisdom – we’re foolish. It is, in short, a bad life. And what’s more, we can’t see it, because Satan blinds and deceives us. I heard an ex-soldier talking about his wartime experience. He described how in the thick of battle he suddenly fell and found he couldn’t move and he thought he’d been hit but he couldn’t feel anything. He struggled to move and after a while as he looked down to where his feet should have been he realised that half of one of his legs had been shot away. It didn’t hurt at all. He was desperately wounded and all but bleeding to death, but at first he didn’t even realise it. And even when he did, unable to move, with the battle raging but no one near, he couldn’t do anything at all to help himself. Life without the Holy Spirit is a bit like that. Our situation is critical but we don’t feel it. We don’t see it. We think we’re relatively OK. But we’re not. We’re dying. Life without the Holy Spirit is bad.

It’s often only after we’ve been given the Holy Spirit that we realise how bad we are. I remember something my mum said to me soon after my faith in Jesus came alive. She’d asked me to help with something around the house, and in my usual way I was making some excuse about why I couldn’t because what I wanted to do was so much more important than helping her. My mum was usually amazingly tolerant. But on this occasion something snapped inside her and she blurted out, “Jonathan, you’re so selfish!” It was like a dagger to my heart, because I instantly knew she was right. And as you can see, I’ve haven’t forgotten that moment to this day. God used my mum to lay bare before me the real me. It wasn’t a pretty sight. It was bad. Life without the Holy Spirit is bad.

2. The Holy Spirit makes us new

Paul has delivered his damning indictment of rebellious, godless human nature – his own included. And then comes one of these glorious Biblical ‘buts’. Because the astounding good news is that God saves us. He rescues us from this bad, hell-bound life. From Titus 3.4-6:

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Saviour 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 Saviour…

This is what those ex liars, evil brutes and lazy gluttons needed to be reminded of again and again. And so do we. Paul answers four questions here: Why does God save us? How does God save us? What happens to us when God saves us? And when does God save us? So:

i) Why does God save us? Because of his love and his mercy, that’s why. His love won’t let us go. His mercy won’t give us what we deserve. And it’s not because of anything in us. Maybe you know you’re not yet a Christian, but you now believe Jesus is the Son of God risen from the dead. You know you need to get straight with him. Maybe you’re saying to yourself ‘surely there’s some good in my past life that’s to my credit that I can draw to his attention as evidence that I’ve tried. Surely he’ll take that into account.’ If that’s you, Paul says don’t even think of it. Titus 3.3 is the truth about your past life. You’ve lived for yourself, not for Jesus. We’ve all done it. We’re all in the same boat. Why does God save us? It’s because of his love and mercy from beginning to end.

ii) How does God save us? Well, it happens in two phases. Phase One: God the Father sends the Son, who died and rose again for us, breaking the power of evil once for all, and paying the full penalty for our sin. So the apostle talks about Jesus Christ our Saviour. Phase Two: The Son sends the Holy Spirit, who was poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. The cross and resurrection is the once for all objective saving act. And it is the Holy Spirit, who enters our hearts and applies to our lives all that Jesus has done for us. How does God save us? One: His Son. Two: his Spirit.

iii) What happens to us when God saves us? It’s there in Titus 3.5:

…the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit…

We experience a regeneration – a rebirth which is symbolised in baptism but which is the work of the Spirit within us. We are born again. We are made new. Regeneration and renewal are really two words for the same thing. And it’s the giving and sustaining of that new life which is the work of the Holy Spirit in every Christian.

iv) When does God save us? One good answer would simply be ‘when he chooses to’. But I want to draw your attention to another answer, which is actually embedded here in Titus 3.8. In that verse Paul is concerned:

…that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

When does God save us? When we believe in God. When we put our trust in him. You can’t have the Holy Spirit without believing in God. You can’t trust God without the Holy Spirit in your life. Trusting God is the bread and butter of a life made new by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. For me (as I was saying before), I was in my early teens when the Holy Spirit took hold of me. Outwardly it was undramatic, but inwardly, my whole focus shifted from myself to Jesus, crucified and risen. A fire of love for Christ and for his word the Bible began to burn inside me. And it’s never gone out. Life without the Holy Spirit is bad. The Holy Spirit makes us new. Finally and:

3. Life with the Holy Spirit is good

Life with the Holy Spirit is good because for the past, we have forgiveness. (Titus 3.7) we are justified by his grace. Life with the Holy Spirit is good because in the future we have eternal life. Titus 3.7 again – we:

…become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

I heard those two things well put in a kind of gospel riddle, which goes like this ‘Born once: die twice. Born twice: die once.’ Hell is averted and heaven opened to us when the Spirit gives us new life. Nothing could be better than that. But life with the Holy Spirit is also good because of the experiences he gives us in the present. Paul talks about them here. We know ourselves to be children in God’s family. We are heirs of all God’s riches in Christ – and we have the life-changing hope of that royal, eternal inheritance. We get wisdom in place of folly; direction in place of disobedience; truth instead of deception; freedom in place of slavery; contentment rather than envy; and love in place of hatred. The challenge to us is not to leave those gifts unwrapped, neglected and unused. But every believer has them. It is an amazing thing to have God’s Spirit within you.

Paul tells Titus to remind the Cretan believers that life with the Holy Spirit is good. How does he want the Cretans to respond? In a nutshell, this is what he says: With the Holy Spirit, life is good, so be good, and do good. Titus 3.1:

Remind them to be…ready for every good work…

For me, the whole direction of my life was changed. I’d been headed towards a life as a civil engineer in the family business. But instead the Lord changed my direction and took me down a path that brought me here. As for being good – with the help of the Holy Spirit I’m still working on it! Each of us is very different. I wonder what’s the plan for doing good that God has for your life? Titus 3.8:

I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

So what have we learned? Life without God is bad. But God is good and gracious. By his Holy Spirit he makes us new. So be good and do good. Let’s pray:

Heavenly Father, we acknowledge that without you we’re lost – slaves to sin. But we praise you that you came to us in the person of your Son our Saviour. And we praise you that as we put our trust in him, your Spirit comes and lives within us. Teach us to trust Jesus. And so change us that we will devote the rest of our lives to doing good – for the sake of a lost world, and for your glory. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.