Justified by His Grace

Music playing... Most of us have attempted to improve our health by altering our diet or adding an exercise routine. Some people look at Christianity the same way as a lifestyle change. But today on Truth for Life we'll find out how salvation offers much more than improvement.

It's a complete transformation of everything about us. Alistair Begg is teaching from chapter 3 in the book of Titus. What is our only hope in life before a God who is both our lawgiver and our judge? How may we ever stand before God in all of his unfettered holiness? That's the fundamental question. That is the real question of life. And it is addressed for us in the Bible, and in this section here. Now, verse 3, we said, gives to us a diagnosis of the human condition. We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures.

Where else are you ever going to have this described for you? Are you ever going to go into your office someday and someone says, You know, the reason you are the way you are is because you're actually foolish, disobedient, and you're astray. You're a slave. You're a slave to yourself and to your passions and to your own desires.

No, nobody's going to say that to you. And so Paul says, You have to remember, as you seek to live your life as a Christian in Crete, that you were once this way, you were once lost, you were once foolish, you were once disobedient, and you were full of all kind of malice and so on. That makes perfect sense, doesn't it? Because we immediately jump to our defense. From the Garden of Eden, it is there. She made me do it.

It was his idea. So we have a defense mechanism that is actually as a result of the fact that we're in rebellion against God, and we are sinners, and so we want to defend ourselves even against the way in which the Bible points out to us what our true condition really is. Well, if that is the case, how can it be overcome? Because we're all of us on very good terms with ourselves, aren't we? Well, there's only one way to know that we're sinners, and that is for God to make it clear to us. And if we're going to have it made clear to us, then we have to have some kind of understanding of who God is—not a God of our own making, but the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

How will that become apparent? Well, his creative handiwork is seen in the universe, his creative power is seen in the reality of our conscience and a sense of oughtness—why do we even care about anything?—and his Word reveals to us all of his character, and his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the one in whom, according to verse 11 of chapter 2, the grace of God's salvation has actually appeared. This is the epiphany that he has stepped down into the mess of our world so that he might do for us what we can't do for ourselves. But first of all, we're confronted by our need. You see, I think most of us have such a futile view of God, such a small view of God, that there is no fear of God. And yet a fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. So if God is for us a cosmic principle, or if God is for us somehow or another wrapped up in his creation—so we're essentially pantheists—if God is a power within ourselves to which we're supposed to look, then we may disregard any and all of this any day of the week without it having really many implications at all. But if God is the Creator of the ends of the earth, before whom we will one day stand, if he is the one who gave his law, which he expects to be obeyed, and if he is the one who is the judge on the strength of his law, then we've got a problem. And the reason we have a problem is because this is the description of the human condition—foolish, disobedient, led astray.

So what are we to do? Well, it is when we see Christ that our awareness of our predicament—which demands the justice of God, for the wages of sin is death—is when we see Christ as a substitute for that sin. When I realize what I am and who I am before God, and then I see that Christ has come to deal with all of that, it's amazing. You think about it in relationship to the prodigal son—one of the prodigal sons, the one that went away and was a bad boy away, the other one was a bad boy in the back garden. They're both prodigals. But remember, when he had spent all, there arose a famine in the land, and he began to be in want, and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he fain would have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat, but no one gave him anything. And when he came to his senses, he said, I will arise, and I will go to my father. Why would he go to his father?

What took him back up the road? Not the awareness of his predicament but the prospect of mercy. Because he knew that his father would forgive. He could have stayed in the pigsty, aware of his condition for the rest of his life. That wouldn't be enough to change him. No, what changed him was when the father said, What do you mean, live at the bottom of the garden as a servant? Let's have a party.

Let's put this back together again. His need was made obvious. Mercy was made clear. And the missing piece in that story is actually in the one who tells the story, namely Jesus. For all the wonder of what happens in the lostness of the sheep, in the lostness of the coin, in the lostness of the sons, is pointing to the fact that Christ is the one who came seeking to save that which was lost.

The songwriter puts it like this, In my need Jesus found me, placed his strong arms around me, lifted me up, and brought me into the shelter of his fold. Our need of salvation. Secondly, what about the nature of this salvation? Well, Paul has been describing it, hasn't he, in a number of ways?

He's used the picture from the slave market in chapter 2. We have redemption, he says, from our lawlessness, chapter 2, verse 14. And now, as he comes into chapter 3, he saved us—you will notice verse 5—he tells us how it hasn't happened, not because of works done by us in righteousness.

We do not save ourselves. It is Jesus who saves us. How does he save us? According to his own mercy. Mercy is an attribute of God. He is by nature merciful. He's merciful because he is merciful, but his mercy as an attribute is revealed in actions and is revealed here finally and savingly in the person of Jesus.

He has appeared. The goodness and lovingkindness of God our Savior has appeared. It is according to his own mercy. It is a free act of God. It is a gift of his grace. Faith is not a meritorious work. If God rewarded us for having faith by giving us salvation, then we would actually be earning our faith, wouldn't we? No.

That's not happening at all. Because grace is free. Mercy's free. Salvation is free. We don't bring anything to it at all, except the outstretched hands that say, Help me. Save me.

Get me out of here. Now, the way in which he drives this home is by means of two words, one of which we've noted—I'll just remind you of it—and one to which we come. In verse 5, I should say, the word there is regeneration. Regeneration. And we noted that what is being described here is a radical and complete transformation of the soul.

Okay? A radical and complete transformation of the soul of man. T. C. Hammond defines regeneration as, quote, an act of God whereby a soul undergoes a spiritual resurrection into a new sphere of life.

A spiritual resurrection into a new sphere of life. In other words, it's a spiritual birth. It's a spiritual birth. And when a child is born, he or she is either born or they're not born.

And there's no question about it. I went in at a certain time, and she wasn't born, and then they came out and said, at such and such a time, she was born. How do I know she was born? She started crying. She started sucking. She then started crawling.

And she loves resting. Okay? How do you know you're born again? You cry. Before you were a Christian, you used to use Jesus Christ's name as a swear word.

You missed a pot. You invoked the deity. Not in a way that would do anything other than invoke his wrath.

You find yourself saying, I don't want to do that anymore. Why? Jesus Christ is my all and all. Father. Prayer. We cry.

We feed. Our friend said to us, Why do you read the Bible all of a sudden? I didn't think you read the Bible. I mean, you used to go to church every so often, but I never saw you read the Bible. No, you read the Bible. Why are you reading the Bible?

You might say to the person, you know, it's a mystery to me. It's like I have a hunger I never knew I had. What happened to you? God made you a new person. He transformed you. Changed you from the inside out. You've regenerated.

You're born anew. And you've been crawling, haven't you? Crawling into worship. Crawling through worship. Crawling through fellowship.

Doing all kinds of crawling. And you rest, don't you? Isn't it lovely the way little ones rest? In the security of the arms?

They're just there? What is your only hope in life and in death? That you rest in what? In righteous things you've done?

No. Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of what you are. I am finding out the greatness of your loving heart. My only hope is in you, Jesus. But you know, there is a dreadful possibility, isn't there? It's one of the saddest things, pastorally, that I've dealt with in all the years I've been a pastor.

And you know what it is, don't you? To have a child that is stillborn. A stillborn child. Says Packer, not every churned-up soul becomes a live birth spiritually. Not every churned-up soul becomes a live birth spiritually. In other words, we may be agitated as a result of the preaching.

We may resolve to turn over new leafs. We may want to make additions to our lives to fix certain things. We may want to make alterations that apparently are in line with the Bible, and yet we may actually not be renewed by the Spirit of God at all. So John covers it perfectly in his Gospel. He makes it clear that there are no spiritual activities without regeneration. That's why Jesus says to Nicodemus, listen, unless a man is born anew—born again, regenerated—unless a man is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

You get that? So there is no spiritual activity apart from regeneration. And when Paul writes his first letter, he then turns it around the other way, and he says, And I want you to know that there is no regeneration unless there is spiritual activity. There's no regeneration unless there is spiritual activity. Spiritual activity—crying, feeding, crawling, resting—gives evidence of the fact of what God has done. Has God made you a new person? Or is your Christian experience one of addition or one of superficial alteration?

That's perfectly possible. But it's not what is being described here. What is being described here is something that God does, not something that we do. Now, the final word is the word justification, and that is in verse 7, you will notice, so that being justified by his grace… Now he changes things around. To be justified means to be declared righteous.

When the judge justifies somebody, he is pronouncing in justifying the opposite of the sentence of condemnation. The opposite of the sentence of condemnation. That's why in Romans, by the time you get to chapter 8, where Paul has said, all of us are in a sinful mess, the righteousness of God has been revealed, made possible through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Living with peace with God means dealing with our own sinful proclivities. But even when we're most fiercely aware of the good that we don't do and should do and the bad that we don't want to do and end up doing, he says, let's just remember that there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Now, why is there no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus? Because justification is in our union with Christ Jesus. It is not a legal fiction when the Bible tells us that Jesus kept the law in its perfection, that he dealt with all of its precepts perfectly, and that in his death he bore the punishment that sin deserves, so that all who are placed into Christ are then the beneficiaries of all that he has done. You can read that for yourselves in Romans chapter 4 later on. And he argues it the same way from Adam. As in Adam, everyone is in this predicament, so all who are in Christ are now made new.

And if you want a verse to summarize it, we go to our favorite verse, 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21, that he who had no sin became sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Now let me just finish by saying a word about the benefits of this. The benefit that is made clear here in Titus is that we have become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

We'll come back to that, but let me just give you two others. Peace, freedom, and hope. Peace, freedom, and hope. Romans 5, therefore being justified by grace, we have peace with God. That is the great need on a vertical axis, alienated from God on two fronts—one by our rebellion against him, and two on account of his wrath revealed against sin. How, then, can God be just and let sinners into his heaven?

How can he be loving and yet punish? The answer is, in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mercy there was great, and grace was free, and pardon there was multiplied to me. Peace. Freedom. Freedom.

Let me give you your homework. Mark chapter 5, read the story of the demoniac, the man who was screaming and enslaved. When you read that story again in Mark chapter 5, you will be reminded of the details of it—that he tore all his clothes off, he was isolated from the community, he cried out in the night.

But here's the message of the gospel in this. The reason that the demoniac was clothed was because Jesus was unclothed. The reason the demoniac found an answer to his cry was because Jesus cried out from the cross. If you like, the story in Mark 5 is the story of the weight of sin borne by Christ in order that the naked, the enslaved, the helpless may be set free.

They crucified him naked, alienated from his friends, alienated from God, crying out for the forgiveness of those who were his persecutors. Do you see that this is the gospel? That Christ dies in our place? That he bears the weight of our sin? That all that is represented in the deadness and darkness of our own foolish enslavements has been born in himself?

Peace, freedom, hope. Hope errs according to the hope of eternal life. That doesn't mean the possibility of, it means the certainty of. Why would it be certain? Because the justifying sentence of judgment—the judgment of the last day—has been brought into the present tense.

And it is a final verdict, and it is not going to be overturned. Do you know that peace? Have you found that freedom? Do you know that hope? Have you cried to God? Do you feed on his Word? Are you crawling after him? Are you resting in him? Because, you see, there is a hope that extends beyond our walks in the park. But there is also a higher throne.

And at that throne, when we stand there, as we will, we will have something to say, either. I trusted in your Son, Father, and what he did for me. When I realized the magnitude of my predicament and the wonder of his love, it broke my heart. And I said, I need a Savior, and I want you to be my Savior. Are you going to tell him, yeah, I heard that stuff.

I never felt for a moment that it had anything to do with me at all. I really can't make it much clearer than this. Jesus mercifully seeks the lost, and he saves all who trust in him. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. Alistair will be back momentarily to close with prayer. Our program often ends with Alistair praying, and you're always invited to pray along to make the prayers your own. Alistair actually wrote a book about prayer called Pray Big. In the book, he examines the prayers prayed by the Apostle Paul so that we can learn from him how he prayed, the things he asked God for.

In this book, Alistair draws from Paul's model to give us a pattern for how we can enhance our own prayer lives. Today, the book Pray Big is available as an audiobook, and you can download it for free. It comes with a free digital study guide. You'll find both the audiobook and the study guide online at truthforlife.org slash pray big. And if you've not yet requested the book we've been talking about recently, titled Know the Truth, you'll want to get a copy of that today as well. You may have heard me mention this is a practical guidebook that explains Christian beliefs. It's a terrific resource to have in your library as a reference for biblical truth. You'll see the book Know the Truth online when you give a donation to support Truth for Life at truthforlife.org slash donate.

And if you'd rather mail your donation along with your request for the book, write to Truth for Life at PO Box 398000, Cleveland, Ohio, 44139. Now, here's Alistair. As some of us are here this morning, because we've been here months and months of mornings, and we as yet are outside of Christ. Despite the fact that we've managed to marshal this information fairly well over time, we realize that Calvin was right when he said, All that Christ has done for us is of no value to us, so long as we remain outside of Christ. If you're searching for a way to call out to him from where you're seated, then you might use these words and make them your own. Lord Jesus Christ, I admit that I am weaker and more sinful than I ever before believed, but through you I'm more loved and accepted than I ever dared to hope. I thank you for paying my debt, bearing my punishment, and offering me forgiveness. And I turn from my sin and receive you as my Savior. Father, hear our prayers and let our cries come unto you. For Jesus' sake. Amen. I'm Bob Lapeen. If our good works don't help us earn our salvation, then why bother doing them? Find out when you join us tomorrow. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.