The Cretans had a reputation for certain vices, yet Paul well understood that all believers once were sinners and had lived far from God (Ephesians 4:17-24). Paul never forgot the change that God had made in his life, beginning with his experience on the Damascus road (Acts 9:1-22). Paul included himself, Titus, the believers in Crete, and all believers across the world in the list of past rebels.
Foolish is used here as it is in Proverbs for those who arrogantly rebel against God and go their own way. Instead of being submissive, obedient, and ready to do good, they were disobedient toward God because of sin, and misled by false teachers so that they became slaves to many wicked desires and evil pleasures. Without God, all unbelievers are enslaved to their passions and desires. Left alone, human nature can only go from bad to worse. Instead of avoiding slander and quarrels, being peaceful, considerate, and humble, their lives were full of evil and envy. No matter how much “love” the world tries to create without God, the overriding power of sin produces a greater amount of hatred. Thus there is no hope for sinful humanity apart from the intervention of the holy God, our Creator.
Fortunately for us, God intervened. God’s kindness and love appeared in the human form of Jesus Christ. By his death, he saved us from our deserved punishment for disobeying God. He offered this salvation because of his mercy alone, not because we deserved it by doing good things. Paul summarized what God does for us when he saves us. God washed away our sins. As Paul explains the transaction, when believers receive this washing of rebirth, all sins, not merely some, are washed away. We gain new life with all its treasures. The process is complete. We can experience what we have in new ways, but we have received the whole package! We live a “new” life because of the Holy Spirit, whom he generously poured out upon us because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did.
From Adam we inherited guilt, a sinful nature (the tendency to sin), and God’s punishment. Because Jesus took the punishment we deserved for sin and made us right before God, we can trade punishment for forgiveness. We have been declared not guilty. We can trade our sin for Jesus’ righteousness. When we do that, we know that we will inherit eternal life. Eternal life began the moment we gave our life to Christ, but there is more to come! Our experience now is only a foretaste of what God has guaranteed to us in the future!
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
The Bible says we're saved by grace, that the only way to heaven is through the doorway of Grace. If you're going to get to heaven that's the only way you're going to get there. You can't earn it, you can't work for it, you can't buy it. It's just by God's grace. Ephesians 2:8-9 says,, "For by grace you are saved through faith and even that is not of yourself it is the gift of God, not of works so no one could boast." If you could work your way to heaven, can you imagine how boring heaven would be? Everybody would be bragging about how they got there. The Bible says that we're simply saved by grace.
Not only that, we're forgiven by grace. The Bible tells us in Isaiah 43 "I forgive your sins for My own sake." We don't deserve it but God says, "I forgive you."
The Bible says we're sustained by grace. Philippians 2:13 says "God is always working in you to give you the will and the power to do what He's called you to do." God will never ask you to do anything that He doesn't give you the ability and the power to do. And that power and ability is called grace.
Then the Bible teaches that we're healed by grace. He heals our broken hearts and binds up our wounds. The Bible says we're liberated by grace. We talked about how we don't have to live under the rules and regulations of legalism. Jesus said, "Come to Me if you're tired and weary and I will give you rest." Not a bunch of chores to do but rest. If your Christian life is not a life of resting in Christ, then you're moving back into that legalistic background.
The Bible says we're given talents by grace. God has given each of us the ability to do something well and we're to use it for Him. Scripture tells us in Romans 12, "God uses us by grace."
And we're transformed by grace. The Bible says we're transformed by the renewing of our mind. We also mature by grace. The Scripture says in 2 Peter 3:18 "Grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus." The more you grow in grace, the more you're going to grow spiritually.
The bottom line really is this, it's all by grace. Everything that God does in you, for you, through you, He does by grace. Robert Louis Stephenson said, "There's nothing but God's grace. We walk upon it. We breathe it. We live it and we die by it. It makes the nails and axles of the universe."
Everything is by God's grace. We wouldn't even have our own lives if it weren't for God's grace.You say, "This sounds like a good deal. I want to be saved, forgiven, sustained, healed, liberated, given talents, used, kept saved, transformed and matured. How do I get it? How do I receive the grace of God?"
The Bible says in three simple words: By trusting Christ. God made it so simple that nobody could say it was too hard to understand. It's not 23 steps and four pathways and eight guide roads and thirty-two rituals to go through. He just says, By trusting Christ. That's it. It's just as simple as putting my faith in Him.
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