Many of you will have seen makeover shows on Telly – shows like Ten Years Younger – where a person is transformed from someone looking old and tired into someone looking much younger.
At the end of the programme they show you a before and after – the amazing transformation the person has gone through, albeit after lots of surgery and dental work.
These verses of Paul to Titus really summarise the make-over that God does to those who turn to him in genuine repentance and humility. It’s not so much a physical make-over but rather a spiritual makeover.
Thus initially in verse 3 Paul summarises the human condition – the ‘before’ condition that all human beings live in prior to finding a relationship with God – and the condition we need to be saved and rescued from.
But then in the remaining 4 verses, Paul summarises the Christian gospel – which is the antidote to this condition, and which transforms us into new people.
So before telling us the good news, Paul reminds us of the predicament we were all in as unbelievers before we came to know Christ. We were in a very bad way. We were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved.
We were foolish, that is in a state of folly, because we had not yet made our peace with God, and we had failed to recognise that we were desperately in need of God’s forgiveness and mercy.
We were disobedient because we were in a state of rebellion against God and had failed to recognise His sovereignty over us.
We were deceived because our minds were blinded to truth about God and salvation. Paul tells us in his letter to the Corinthians that Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of Christ.
And we were enslaved by our sinful natures which caused us to sometimes to be malicious and envious and hateful, and from which we could not escape.
Many people seem to think that we are born as children of God but as Paul makes clear here, this is not what the bible teaches. For this to happen we need a spiritual makeover.
The truth is that we are born with sinful natures which rebel against God. We go our own way in life without reference to God and seek to please ourselves and to satisfy our worldly desires.
As James teaches in his letter, we therefore become enemies of God, and there is an onus on us to recognise our sinfulness and rebellion and to seek to make peace with God in order to become his children.
This is what repentance is about. It’s about changing direction in life and seeking to please God rather than ourselves.
It’s about recognising our desperate need for God’s mercy and forgiveness and really wanting him in our lives.
I like the story of the Prodigal Son as it illustrates the process of repentance very well.
The son initially rebels against his father and goes his own way in life – seeking to live for his own pleasure.
However when times get hard he starts to reflect on how foolish he’s been and he has a change of heart. He repents.
He decides he wants to return to his Father even if it means living like a servant or a hired help. As he heads for home his loving Father spots him and goes running up to him and emabraces him and welcomes him home.
The father has been waiting anxiously for his beloved child to come back to him but before a reconciliation could take place the son had to decide he wanted to return home.
It’s the same with us and God.
Even though we are foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved, God wants more than anything for us to be reconciled to Him, so that he can save us and make us into new people.
Hence there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 people who do not need
to.
As we genuinely repent and turn towards God he saves us from the predicament we were in, and the second part of this passage from Titus about salvation, becomes a reality in our lives as we are transformed into new people.
This salvation first of all is not because of any good deeds we’ve done but because God loves us and wants to be merciful towards us.
Good deeds, going to church, giving money to charity – none of these things can achieve salvation for us.
None of these things will rescue us from being foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved or make us clean in God’s eyes.
There is nothing we can do to earn or deserve salvation.
Salvation is a gift from God. It’s something he gives to us when we repent and turn towards him in humility, acknowledging our sin and rebellion.
What does the bible teach about God’s gifts?
Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that they’re irrevocable. This means unchangeable.
When God gives you a gift he won’t take it away again. It’s yours. Isn’t that good news.
The whole reason that God came into the world in the person of Jesus was to save us. As Pauls says Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
God’s greatest desire is to save human beings, because he loves us and because we are precious to him.
Our salvation is achieved through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.
On the cross Jesus did everything necessary to save us completely and forever.
He bore our sins in his own body on the cross – that means every sin we will ever commit past present and future.
And where we sinned and fell short of the glory of God – as in an arrow falling short of a target – Jesus never sinned and offered his perfect life to God on our behalf. Figuratively speaking he hit the bulls eye.
When we become Christians, God therefore no longer sees us in the light of our failures but in the light of the perfect life that Jesus lead.
The punishment that brought us peace was upon him.
Jesus was punished in our place so that God would no longer have a reason to be angry with us.
On the cross Jesus dealt with everything that separated and alienated us from God.
Every sin was atoned for and every debt paid so that we can be free from condemnation and the fear of judgment.
This is the Good News – that in Christ Jesus God was reconciling the world to himself and not counting men’s sins against them.
Paul says in this passage to Titus that God saves us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
When we repent and accept Jesus into our lives, the old person we used to be, the foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved person dies, and we are re-born as children of God.
This re-birth has a cleansing effect, and we are made clean in God’s eyes.
There’s an interesting passage in John’s gospel where Jesus washes his disciples feet.
Typically Peter asks Jesus to wash his hands and head as well, not just his feet.
Jesus replies; “A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet. His whole body is clean and you are clean.”
When we accept Jesus’ sacrifice we become clean in God’s eyes.
We will still need to wash our feet as we walk in the world, but essentially we are clean.
The blood he spilt for us on the cross makes us clean.
Our sins are washed away and we are justified.
Some people define justified as ‘just as if I’d never sinned.’
We are no longer foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved. We become holy beloved children of God.
This renewal Paul says is by the Holy Spirit, whom God pours out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour.
The Holy Spirit – the spirit of Jesus comes to live in us and brings us alive to God.
He is the one who opens our spiritual eyes so that we can recognise who Jesus is.
And he is the one who enables us to live as children of God.
Furthermore Paul tells us that the Holy Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance.
When you intend to buy something you leave a deposit as a sign that you will return and complete the transaction.
God does the same with us,
He leaves his spirit with us as a sign to us that he will one day complete our salvation.
If the spirit of Jesus is living in you God will complete your salvation.
Isn’t that good news.
In the final part of this passage Paul says that having been justified by his Grace, we become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
Grace is sometimes represented as God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense.
Grace is God’s unmerited favour. It is God showering his blessing on those who have done nothing to deserve it.
Having been put right with God through the sacrifice of Jesus, having all our sins atoned for, having been cleansed and re-born as God’s children, we become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
We become heirs of heaven with the hope one day of living eternally with God.
And this hope isn’t like human hope which often disappoints us and is no more than a dream.
Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans that this hope does not disappoint us.
If you are a child of God hoping one day to get to heaven – you won’t be disappointed.
Again isn’t this good news.
So the question we need to ask today is which condition are we in?
Are we still foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures or has the
kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared to us?
Are we because of our foolishness and disobedience still living in rebellion against God or have we made our
peace with Him?
Have we had a spirtual make over or are we still in desperate need of one?
The good news of course is that if we haven’t yet made our peace with Him, like the Father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, God is eagerly waiting for us to return to him.
He is waiting for us to have a change of heart, to repent and to start walking towards Him.
He longs to embrace us and welcome us home.
He longs to clothe us in a robe of righteousness and to save us and make us new.
That’s why he died for us.
Let’s pray.
Perhaps you didn’t realise that to become God’s child and to receive the gift of salvation you needed to turn towards him and to say sorry for having gone your own way in life.
But perhaps you would like to turn towards him now and ask him to save and rescue you, to show you his kindness and to make you new.
In a few moments of quiet thank Jesus for dying on the cross for you and then in your own words express whatever is in your heart to God.
Amen
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