Titus 3:1-11
I was once an enemy of God. I was unable to please God. I was foolish, disobedient, led astray and a slave to the selfish ambitions of my heart. This state of my soul had no hope in an eternity with a just and righteous God. There was no peace between my spirit and the spirit of God.
“But”- what a great word. But when God looked down on humanity his compassion overflowed the boundaries of heaven. His goodness invaded our sinful world in the person of Jesus. The wages of sin is death. The penalty for my sinfulness is eternal subjection to the wrath of a holy God. But in God’s goodness, he sent his son Jesus to absorb the wrath of God that was justly meant for me. Not only did Jesus agree to substitute his death for my death and to take the penalty for my sin, but he overcame it. Jesus overcame death and in doing so, he raised me up from the dead with him!
You and I, child of God, are now pardoned from the wrath of God if we have believed in Jesus as the only means of our reconciliation to God. Our salvation is not the results of our works but solely based on the good will of God our father, through the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus and by the gracious revelation of that truth to us by the Holy Spirit.
You and I have been “justified by the grace of God that we might become heirs according tho the hope of eternal life. This saying is trustworthy and 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.”
Celebrate the goodness of God, the person of Jesus, in you life today through the pursuit of holiness. Rejoice in the work of God in your life.
