Deo Gloria
Sermon for January 12, 2025
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Titus 3:4-7
Theme: God Saved Us!
- The motive
- The means
- The purpose
“Saving Jessica Lynch”—did you see the movie? OK, it wasn’t exactly a blockbuster like Moana 2 or Wicked, but I would guess you probably heard about her amazing story, about her daring rescue. After being captured by Iraqi soldiers when their unit was ambushed after taking a wrong turn near the town of Nasiriya, and after spending 9 long days in captivity, Private Jessica Lynch was rescued on April 1, 2003 by American special operations forces. On the day of her homecoming she said she was thankful to her family and friends and to all the people who had prayed for her. She also said she was especially grateful to the American soldiers and the Iraqi citizens who helped save her life.
In a way you and I can relate to Private Jessica Lynch because we feel the same way. We too have been rescued—not by a team of American special ops forces, but by God himself. God saved us. As we examine these verses this morning from Titus ch. 3, we’re going to see God’s motive for saving us, the means he used to save us, and his purpose. God saved us!
In these verses we find four different words that describe God’s motive for saving us. The first two are found in the very first verse. Paul writes, “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared.” Do you know someone who is kind, someone who is tender-hearted and compassionate, someone with a sympathetic nature, someone who is always willing to help other people? That’s what God is like. He is compassionate and understanding and sympathetic. He is always willing to help. God is kind.
He is loving too. The word Paul uses literally means “love of people.” Our word philanthropy comes from this word. God has a great love for people. He cares about people. He cares about their hurts and their troubles, about their hopes and their fears. And he wants to help. Jesus talks about God’s great love for people in John ch. 3. You remember his words: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son.”(v. 16).
That’s how the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, isn’t it? That’s how they became visible, how they were revealed to the world. They appeared in a manger. They became visible in a stable in a little town called Bethlehem. The kindness and love of God were revealed when God sent his Son to be our Savior, a Savior who would be our substitute, a Savior who would take our place. We see that already at the time of his baptism, don’t we? Jesus wasn’t sinful. Jesus didn’t need to be baptized, but he was. Jesus allowed himself to be baptized so that he might identify with us, with sinful human beings, that he might be our substitute. Jesus took our place on the cross as well, suffering the punishment that you and I deserved on account of our sins. He took that awful punishment and died that horrible death so that we might be spared, so that we might not die, but live. This is how the kindness and love of God appeared. It was revealed in Jesus Christ our Savior.
The third word Paul uses to describe God’s motive is mercy. “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done,” Paul says, “but because of his mercy”(v. 5). Mercy is what many people have shown to the people in North Carolina and Tennessee whose lives were absolutely devastated by Hurricane Helene. They have sent money and food and blankets and clothes and tents. Some have even gone there themselves to help with the relief efforts—all to help these people in their time of need. Mercy is what is displayed by doctors who travel to 3rd world countries like Nigeria and Nicaragua and offer their services free of charge to the poor and needy. Mercy is compassion for the helpless. Mercy is what God showed us, people who were hopelessly lost in sin and doomed to death. It was his mercy that moved him to save us.
The fourth word appears in the last verse, v. 7. It’s the word grace, a word that means “undeserved love.” You and I were undeserving. We didn’t deserve to have God come to our rescue. We were the ones who had sinned. We were the ones who had gotten ourselves into trouble. We were the ones who had ignored God’s directions and taken a wrong turn and gotten lost. We were the ones who disobeyed direct orders from God and wandered into enemy territory and wound up being captured. We didn’t deserve any help from God. If anything, we deserved to be court marshaled for insubordination. But God came to our rescue anyway. His love for us is undeserved. It was his grace that moved him to save us. That was his motive.
Next let’s look at the means. “He saved us,” Paul states in v. 5, “not because of righteous things we had done.” Let me repeat that: “He saved us not because of righteous things we had done.” So many people think that their good works are going to help them get to heaven. They think that by doing good things and helping other people, they’re earning God’s favor, and that on Judgment Day God is going to look at all the good things they have done and say, “OK, you’ve been such a good person and done so many good things—OK, you get in. I want good people like you in heaven.” But those people are badly mistaken. The Bible says our good works contribute nothing to our salvation, nothing at all. The Bible says that all our righteous acts are nothing but filthy rags.(Isaiah 64:6) We are saved “not because of righteous things we had done.”
There’s a little story that illustrates this point so well. It goes like this:
A man dies and goes to heaven. Of course, he meets St. Peter at the pearly gates. And Peter says to him, “OK, here’s how it works. You need 100 points to make into heaven. You tell me all the good things you’ve done, and I give you a certain number of points for each item, depending how good it was. When you reach 100, you get in.”
“All right,” the man says. “I was married to the same woman for 50 years and
never cheated on her, even in my heart.”
“That’s wonderful!” Peter replies. “That’s worth 3 points.”
“Three points?!” the guys says. “Well, I also attended church all my life and
supported the work of my church with my time and my offerings.”
“Terrific!” Peter replies. “That’s worth another point.”
“One point? OK, well I also started a soup kitchen in our city and worked in a
shelter for the homeless.”
“Fantastic!” Peter says. “That’s worth two more points.”
“Two points!” the man exclaims. “At this rate the only way I’ll make into heaven is by the grace of God.”
“Bingo,” replies Peter. “100 points! Come on in.”
If you think you’re going to earn your way into heaven by what you do, you had better think again. We are not saved by righteous things we had done.
God saved us. He saved us, Paul says, “through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit”(v. 5). Obviously that is a reference to Baptism. Through Baptism God saved us. Normally we think of God saving us through Jesus our Savior and what he did, through his suffering and death on the cross as our substitute, which is true. But how do you and I benefit from what Jesus did? How does the forgiveness, life and salvation which our Savior won for us become ours? Through Baptism, through “the washing of rebirth,” as Paul calls it. Through the power of his Word working in Holy Baptism, God gives us a new birth, a spiritual birth. He creates spiritual life in our hearts. He creates faith in our hearts, faith to trust in Jesus Christ, our Savior. And through faith in Jesus we are saved.
Paul also refers to Baptism as a “renewal by the Holy Spirit.” The word Paul uses literally means “to make new again.” Through the sacrament of Holy Baptism the Holy Spirit makes us new again. He washes away the dirt and filth of our sins and makes us new again in the image of God. We are once again righteous and holy in his sight. And we have a new person inside us too, a new nature which says, “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions and which strives to do what’s right, to lead a holy and godly life.
Notice what else Paul says happens in Holy Baptism: that God gives us the Holy Spirit. “…and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior”(v. 6). Just as the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus at the time of his baptism, so the Holy Spirit is poured out on us at the time of our baptism too. God sends the Holy Spirit into our hearts, not only to create faith there, but to take up residence there as well, to make our hearts his home and to make our bodies his temple.
Amazing, isn’t it, what God does through Baptism? There is no medical procedure in the world, no doctor in the world who can do what Baptism can do: enable people to be reborn. Likewise there is no washing machine in the world or laundry detergent that can do what God does through Baptism—not Tide, not Cheer, not Wisk, not even Clorox II. There isn’t one that can wash away our sins, that can make us holy and righteous, that can make us new again, that can fill us with the Holy Spirit, that can save us. Through Baptism God saved us.
And what was his purpose? What was the goal God had in mind? Take another look at v. 7. Paul says, “…so that, having been justified by his grace….” Do you still need proof that we cannot save ourselves? God has justified us. He has declared us to be not guilty by his grace, by his underserved love. We didn’t deserve it. We didn’t earn it by our good works. God simply did it for the sake of Jesus Christ. He saved us by his grace. “So that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life”(v. 7). An heir is someone who gets the inheritance. Normally it’s a child or a grandchild or maybe a niece or nephew. Basically, though, an heir is whoever is specified in the will as an heir. God saved us. He sent his Son to take our place, to identify with sinners, to die on the cross for our sins. He caused us to be reborn through the waters of Holy Baptism. He made us new again and sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts, so that we might be listed as heirs in his will, that we might receive the inheritance: eternal life in heaven; that his place might be our place for the rest of forever. Can you believe it? The inheritance we deserve on account of our sins is eternal death in hell. But instead, because of his grace and mercy, the inheritance we receive is life, unending life in the Father’s house, because God saved us.
Saving Jessica Lynch—if you missed the movie, don’t worry. There are any number of books out there that tell the amazing story of her rescue. This morning Paul reminds us of a very similar story, the amazing story of our rescue. Moved by his kindness and love, by his mercy and grace, God saved us. He saved us through the waters of Baptism, through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. He saved us that we might be his heirs and enjoy eternal life with him in heaven. Like Jessica Lynch, we too can’t help but be grateful, eternally grateful that God saved us. Amen.