Restored in the Mercy of God

Titus 3:5 ~ "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."
​
Of all the considerations of life, of all the elements and achievements of mankind, there is one that is far more potent than any other: we are all sinners before a Holy God. This is the one unspoken link that binds all of humanity together. You can travel to any nation, find cultures buried deep in the hidden recesses of the earth, and there you will find sinners. And when I look in the mirror and see the man reflected back at me, he is a sinner indeed. Some might try to cover the evident truth of this with the fig leaves of philosophy or psychology, desperate to rationalize away the condition, but in the end you and I are sinners. Paul tells us this in Romans 3:10-12, "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."

Of the roughly 8 billion people that inhabit this world, and approximately 30 billion people that have passed from it, we are all unified into one dreadful state of sin before the Righteous Judge. When you consider that the entire race of mankind is unified in their desperate situation, you might find it humorous to hear of the invented divisions in humanity: nation against nation, the elites who stand aloof and believe themselves above the rabble, the strong embracing the idea that they are superior to the weak. But those are mere fabrications of identity between groups of sinners. 

Why do I belabor the fallen condition of man? Because, if anyone is going to be renewed by the mercy of the LORD, they must first understand the untenable situation they are in. When standing before God, He will not ask if you were raised in Bangladesh or in Brooklyn, the only thing that will matter at that great judgment is being found in Christ. For there is a division that mankind has experienced, but it is not the division of greater and lesser men, it is the division between us and our Creator. And that great gulf fixed between God and man is an unassailable chasm that cannot be crossed from here to there. But it can be, and has been, crossed from there to here.

Found in those first three words of our text today is the great bridge of rescue for a people separated from God: "He saved us." The rescue and redemption of mankind came not from any sinner on this earth, for there is not one righteous act we could perform that warranted God's redemption. It was concocted, conducted and completed in the LORD Jesus Christ. He built the bridge, crossed it, and will carry back all those who believe on Him (see John 14:3). And if those three words, "He saved us," apply to you, you are separated from the world and connected in joyful union with the LORD by His Spirit. 1 Corinthians 6:17 states, "But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him." The first step of our renewal is our being restored in unity with Almighty God through the salvation from Jesus Christ. 

But there is more. He did not merely put a bridge of salvation before us, but has purposed through His own mercy to wash us and renew us as well. Our text tells us that we who are born-again are washed in regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. As the father of the prodigal son, our Father in Heaven has placed His signet of identification upon us and given us new garments of holiness and righteousness to wear (see Luke 15:22). Beloved, if you are in Christ, you have been washed and restored, made new by His mercy. You were once in league with the world, united with all of mankind in sin and rebellion. But God rescued you and grafted you into Christ. You are no longer of the world any more than Christ is of the world. And though you still live here, your home is with Jesus.

So, which would you rather be: separated from the world and united with Christ or separated from Christ and united to the world? Soon Jesus Christ will gather His redeemed to Himself and cast the rest into hell and thus the final separation will be finished. Let us rejoice, dear Christian, for through His mercy we have been cut loose from the chains of sin that bound humanity and are given a new yoke--forever in union with Christ.

In His Grace,
​Pastor Michael

---