Classic Friday: The Greatest Rescue Mission Of All-Time - [Titus 3:1-8]

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

A Rescue Mission Illustration from Dunkirk and Mussolini

We�re not going to be an axe this morning, not because I do not want to be an axe, but because it seemed wise to us to not have to split that message in pieces, so take that for what it�s worth. That�s a spoiler alert.

If you think about great rescue missions in history, what comes to mind, and you know, I�ll just, here�s another spoiler alert. I like spoiler alerts, I don�t know what the deal is. But when I thought about that, my mind went back to a few years ago, I think it was four years ago, Janet and I were in London, and the movie Dunkirk came out.

And I thought, what a unique opportunity we have to see Dunkirk in London. We�ll be sitting with a bunch of Brits, watching this rescue of Brits. This will be great, and it was pretty good. Over 300 ,000 men, mostly British, were saved in that operation.

It took, I believe it was eight days. But I thought, that�s just too easy, it�s too easy to go for, you know, 300 ,000 plus good guys getting rescued. How about one really bad guy getting rescued? One really awful human being being rescued.

And specifically, that person was Benito Mussolini. How many of you are familiar with Benito Mussolini? Older folks should be, younger folks, talk to your teachers, I don�t know what�s going on there.

Mussolini was kind of Adolf Hitler�s sidekick, he ran Italy. He was a fascist dictator, a bad man. He made the trains run on time, but he also made his political opponents go away, if you.

Know what I�m saying.

When the Allies invaded Sicily in 1943, and started working their way up through Italy, it�s odd to me, but this is true, there was still a king in Italy. And there was a parliament in Italy, even though they didn�t have much influence.

Well, the people, the parliament, the king, they all pretty much had enough of Mussolini. So the king replaced him as prime minister, and they put him in, basically you could say house arrest. But they didn�t put him in a house, they took him way up into the mountains, way up into the mountains, in this place that used to be a castle, but it was really kind of a converted hotel.

They put 200 troops all around this place, and it was virtually impregnable, and Mussolini wasn�t exactly going to run out on 200 armed troops. So Hitler, he had a lot of faults, but he was a little bit loyal.

He wanted to rescue Mussolini, I mean he was a wicked man, let�s be honest. He wanted to rescue Mussolini from this place called Gran Sasso, the Gran Sasso Hotel, castle.

Thing.

And he started asking his officers for ideas, and one of them said, you know what, there�s a flat place next to this castle, this resort, maybe we can parachute in. They looked at it a little bit, and they decided that wouldn�t work.

But what they could do was land some gliders there. So they landed about, I think it was about 150 troops there, and the Italians were so surprised that eventually they surrender and they rescue Mussolini.

In fact, this was a great public relations coup for the Nazis who were desperate for any kind of victory, and Churchill called it a mission of great daring. But this was really the last bit of, or probably one of the last pieces of good news that the Germans had in World War II.

But interesting how much they were willing to risk to rescue a very bad man. And then Hitler put him in charge of some little area in northern Italy, and eventually, I mean the story doesn�t end well because when the Italians get a hold of him, of course they hang Mussolini, but he did get rescued from that mountain, that mountaintop thing.

In our text today, we�re going to see the rescue of bad people by a good God for his.

Glory.

The Grace and Rescue of God in Titus 3:1-8

Let�s turn to Titus chapter 3, verses 1 to 8, and we�re going to see the glory of the triune God on full display today in Titus chapter 3. Let me read our text. �Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and lovingkindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The 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. These things are excellent and profitable for people.

Now Titus was likely a Gentile, meaning a non-Jewish convert. I mean, I don't want to just speak technically here. He was a non-Jewish convert to Christianity who'd been converted early on in Paul's ministry.

He accompanied Paul on his second and third missionary journeys as he's, I almost said wandering around, as he's purposely traveling through Asia trying to, preaching the gospel, establishing churches, trying to make converts.

Paul probably writes this letter to Titus, this personal letter to Titus, but it's interesting,.

Right?

I mean, how would you like it if you got a personal letter and that letter was intended to be read to the church? It's kind of a little dichotomy there. But this is a letter from Paul written probably in Macedonia and sent to Titus who's in Crete.

And it's called a pastoral epistle like first and second Timothy because it contains an apostolic admonishment and encouragement instruction to a pastor, namely Titus, whom Paul calls my true child in a common faith.

Now this morning, like I said, the heart of this message, we're going to see a number of things, but really what I want you to focus on, the heart of the message is this, that God rescues sinners. He rescues the ungodly.

He saves those who have absolutely no claim on salvation. And in our text this morning, I'm going to put forth four trues, four trues, our obligation, our debt, our rescuer, and our gratitude. There's a paradigm that I've learned over the years and it goes like this, guilt, grace, gratitude, right?

That's kind of the gospel. We explain to people their guilt, then we explain to them the grace of God, and ultimately what do they do? If they believe, they express gratitude to God for saving them. Well, this morning's passage is kind of like that, a little bit different though.

I just laid out the four points I'm going to use, but we could also explain it this way, gratitude, guilt, grace, gratitude. So there's gratitude in the beginning, gratitude in the end, and then we have guilt and.

Grace.

Christian Conduct Toward Government and Others

So first, our first point, first truth, our obligation, our obligation. What are believers to do? How are we to live? And we are ultimately to show Christ to unbelievers. How do we do that? And I have two specific instructions here from the text.

First, I had an alternate title for this whole thing, but I changed it. It was too much Mike. So I changed it. First, be good, right? Mike says what? It's good to be good, and it's nice to be nice, or it's nice to be nice, and it's good to be good, either way.

Be good, specifically, Paul says, obey governments, obey governments. Look at verse one, remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient,.

To obey, right?

Well, why was Titus to remind the church in Crete to be obedient, to be submissive to.

Rulers and authorities?

I mean, we know this, right? As believers, as Christians, we know that we're supposed to be submissive to the government. Why do we need to be reminded? Because we're prone to wander, right? We forget these things.

Scripture says over and over again, remind, remind, remind.

Why?

Because we forget, or we act like we forget. And the people of Crete seem to have a specific problem with obedience. Titus one, verses 10 to 13 says this, I mean, Paul's talking about the church here.

So if this is the church in Crete, just think about what the greater population's like. Chapter one, verse 10 through 13, for there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.

They must be silenced since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own said, listen, this is how you describe the people of Crete, this little island in the Mediterranean, just off the coast of Greece.

Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true, Paul says, therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. The culture of Crete was one of laziness, of gluttony, and ultimately of rebellion.

In fact, historians tell us that Crete was a constant source of irritation to Rome. This was not a submissive little island that they didn't have to worry about. We need that same reminder. Even if the Cretans were renowned for rebellion, guess what?

Rebellion resides in our hearts too, it resides in your heart. Jesus said this in Matthew 22, verse 21, and you know it well, render to Caesar, what? The things that are Caesar's. He was talking about taxation.

Come April 15th or May 15th or June 15th or whatever month they move it to this year, it's kind of confusing to me. I still don't understand why some of our returns aren't back yet, but I digress. What was the broader scope of Jesus's life?

If he said to Peter, you know, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, what did he do consistently? He obeyed the government. Even when the government was wrong, he did the right thing. The only other thing I will say about government and submission to government is this, the government has its authority bounded by the authority of God, the authority of Jesus Christ.

John MacArthur recently wrote this, he said, Christ, not Caesar, is the head of the church. Conversely, the church does not in any sense rule the state. In other words, there are different spheres of authority.

Neither church nor state has any higher authority than that of Christ himself, who declared in Matthew 28, 18, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. So we want to be good. Our goal is not to conform the world to honor and obey the Lord.

We want to evangelize them. But for us, we want to be obedient subjects of the government. So we do, or we need to be good, but that's our first obligation. Our second is to do good, to do well. Verse two, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.

Now I can give you a full laundry list of do's and don'ts, examples of do's and don'ts, but I wanted to simplify this a little bit. I mean, we know that it's very easy to quarrel, to be harsh, to be rude.

And unlike when Paul was writing Crete, we have extra opportunities, I'll put it that.

Way.

We have extra opportunities to be rude, to fight. But how do those come about via technology? I mean, at least on Crete, they didn't have Facebook or Twitter or, I mean, I can't even keep up with all the social media platforms, but social media generally, I mean, it's a way to keep up with family and friends, right?

And it's also a way to just insult people you don't even know. And I think as I look at it, you know, I follow some people on Facebook, not anybody here I'm talking about, but if you follow any kind of political accounts, it's interesting, the number of people I've blocked, right?

I just look at the comments they make and I go, I don't want to see any more of what they have to say. Just block, block, block. It's like my list, I probably set a world record for blocks. Pretty proud of that.

We have so many opportunities to sin today. Social media has made it so easy. I would like to give this a little bit of advice from Proverbs, Proverbs 10, 19, when words are many, transgression is not lacking.

In other words, it's easy to sin when you talk a lot, but whoever restrains his lips is prudent. And I would add this, whoever restrains his keyboard, his fingers is wise, right? That's what it means to be prudent.

Restrain yourself, scroll by, give him a friendly wave as you're going by on the internet.

You don't have to do anything, right?

How about email, texting? All these different little media ways we have of talking with one another. And before you put somebody on blast, right, who knows what that means? For those my age and older, probably not.

What does it mean to put somebody on blast? It just means to, you know, slam them, to insult them via electronic means. Imagine yourself this way, you know, it's easy to put somebody on blast, to insult them or whatever, but imagine they write back and go, you know, I've noticed on your profile that you say you're a Christian.

Could you explain how what you just said to me is consistent with what you just wrote? What's your response to that? I have no response. Ephesians 4, 29, you know, is what I'm writing right now helpful?

Is it edifying? Is it necessary? Good things to ask ourselves. Another thing that the Cretans didn't have to worry about was driving. I'm sorry, we live in Massachusetts. And I say this often, but I don't think many people in the state know the laws of driving.

I just don't, sorry, I just don't think they do. And in fact, if you look at surveys generally, you know, I mean, we should take a little bit of a bow. Two of the top cities repeatedly in surveys year after year after year are Boston and Worcester for the worst drivers.

So as you're driving around, you know, the struggle is real, right? It's easy to get mad. It's hard to just kind of restrain yourself. We need to think about these things. We want to be right. We want to honor the Lord in how we think and how we talk.

Commentator Hendrickson made this comment, and I thought it was brilliant. On verse two, he said, showing some mildness toward some people might not be so difficult, nor showing all mildness to some people or some mildness to all people.

But to show all mildness to all people, it's pretty much mission impossible apart from God's special enabling grace, right? We have to restrain our hearts, and God gives us the grace to do that. Another thought that I found helpful for Burke Parsons, who's the pastor now at St. Andrews down in Florida, took over for R .C. Sproul, he said this, he said, a person with an increasingly grateful heart is one with a decreasingly complaining mouth.

As our gratitude to the Lord increases, our complaining decreases. I thought that was helpful. So what are you to do? Show Christ to unbelievers, both to be good and to do good. That's our obligation.

Human Sin and the Need for Grace

Secondly, our debt. Or you could say gratitude first. You know, out of gratitude we do these things, but that is ultimately our obligation. That's the command that Paul gives here. Secondly, our debt.

Our debt. Why does Paul think it's vital, anyway, to be reminded of these things, and especially as we're going to see, to be reminded of the gospel, to tell Titus to remind the church of their debt of sin.

And it's because of who they were and because of who we are, right? How it's easy for us to forget our past. It's easy for us to forget who we were before salvation. And that's why I'm here reminding you today.

Look at verse 3, how Paul reminds Titus. And notice he includes himself in this. For if we ourselves, or I'm sorry, now there's no if there. For we ourselves were once foolish. And I thought it would be fun, I said yesterday to the guys, I said at the Machen meeting, I said, you know what?

Word studies, or I was talking to somebody there yesterday, I said, word studies are often not very helpful. But I found this one helpful. If you look up the word foolish, you'll find out that it means unintelligent, basically.

Dumb, helpful.

Why is that helpful? For we ourselves were once dumb. We acted wrongly. We acted stupidly. I read an internet meme, and you know, a lot of the times they're worth every penny that.

You pay for them.

They're free. And they're not, you know, they're not worth much more than that. But I thought this one was valuable. It said, if you can look back in your life, and not think you were stupid, you still might.

Be.

And as you look back on your life, and you think, I was dumb. What if God hadn't intervened? What if he hadn't changed me? What if he allowed me to just go on in that trajectory? What if I just kept going?

How would that have turned out? And the answer is, not very well. What would Paul have been doing if God didn't interrupt him? Philippians chapter three, he says, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also, if anyone thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more circumcised on the eighth day of the people of Israel, the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law of Pharisee, as to zeal, a persecutor of the church, as to righteousness under the law blameless.

So what would have been his trajectory? Confident in himself, confident in his good works, confident in his obedience, trusting that persecuting the church, even putting Christians to death was the right thing to.

Do.

He looks back, and what does he think? Not just stupid, but guilty, guilty, guilty. Do you think he's thinking, I wish God would have left me alone?

No.

And if you know yourself, and if you're honest, and you look back, you think, praise the Lord that he intervened in my life. So there's foolish. There's also disobedience. Typically we can think of several areas in which we might have been, might have been, I say again, disobedient to the government, thinking about taxes, speed limits, building regulations, you know, all the ways that we used to be disobedient, and we no longer struggle with those things.

Nobody speeds anymore. Disobedient towards government, disobedient towards God, in what sense? Well, setting our own standards, deciding what was right and what was wrong. Disobedient at work, do you ever struggle with a boss, with a co-worker, did you ever think how block-headed they were?

Not you, them. Disobedient to parents, for you kids. It's a sin, in case you were wondering. Sinful to be disobedient to your parents, to dishonor them. Some of these things, some of that little list I just gave, had no effect on us at all.

We didn't think they were wrong at all, and then what? God intervenes and opens our eyes. He shows us the reality of our sin, and we think, you know, on a whole, I wasn't so bad. No, we're horrified. We're horrified.

Because we know that before a holy God, we stand condemned. He goes on, he says, led astray, which means to be misled or deceived. In what ways could you be led astray before you are saved? Well, I think about my own life, led astray into a cult, and then into some weird form of agnosticism that I just made up on my own.

How about the idea that life is ultimately meaningless? Because, you know what, we're just a cosmic accident anyway, right? The universe exploded into existence, and then plants just kind of grew, and the plants changed to this, and that, and the other thing, and the next thing you know, we're walking around talking to each other.

That makes sense.

How about some other lies that we're misled into believing, like sexual sin is harmless. It's meaningless. Or that truth is malleable, that truth shifts, that truth changes. Or that God is just a construct, a social construct, a useful social construct to keep us under control.

All those things are misleading. They're wrong ideas.

They're lies.

Paul also says we're slaves. We were slaves to various passions and pleasures. It's really interesting, because the idea, the concept of moral slavery, of being driven by passions, of being ultimately chained to these sins.

Well, how can that happen? Because those sins, in particular, bring a certain enjoyment, euphoria, a rush of endorphins. And what happens to somebody who's addicted, I'll use that word, we could say enslaved to that kind of sin, they want to experience it again.

And that's what psychologists label addiction, and so how do they resolve that? They want to give you a drug to take away your addiction. But you're enslaved, the Bible says. And it's not just sensual lusts, it's not just sexual sin, it's also pleasures that we let get out of control.

I mean, I know that there are people, and I'm not talking to anybody here, but I know that there are people who watch TV 12, 15, 16 hours a day. That TV's on from the time they get up till the time they go to bed.

There are people who play Xbox, not just once in a while, but constantly. And they're usually in their 70s, sure. Hoarding, consuming food, all these things that, in and of themselves, aren't necessarily sinful, right?

I mean, it's not sinful to watch TV, necessarily. It's not sinful, I mean, some of you would say, well, what about the Lakers? Okay, different topic. It's not sinful to eat food, it's not sinful to play Xbox, it's not sinful to have things, but when they become an all-consuming passion, that's the problem.

Paul goes on to say, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. Of course, the picture here is of envy, jealousy, hating to see others do well. There are TV shows about this, right?

What do you think reality TV is? I hate this person because they've got this and that and the other thing. I mean, I wonder why anybody watches those shows. Jealousy and greed. I mean, I think they've become to be, in society at large, kind of acceptable sins.

But among believers, it doesn't belong. And when we hate someone, what are we really saying? If we just think of what Jesus said in Matthew 22, verses 37 to 40, when he's asked, you know, what's the greatest commandment?

And he says, and he said to him, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. Listen. And a second is like unto it or is like it.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commands depend all the law and the prophets. You've got the summary of the 10 commandments toward God and toward people. And somehow it's, it's acceptable in our culture to hate other people.

God says, love them. This is the second greatest commandment. And by the way, how do you, how can you say that you love God when you hate those who bear his image? How can you say that? I hate this person.

Paul says, you can't do that. That's how you used to be. You used to be somebody consumed by malice and envy and hatred. You can't be that way anymore. Why is it important to be reminded of the gospel?

Because of who you were. Sinful, completely opposed to God. Our obligation, our debts, our past racked up a debt we cannot pay. That's the bad news, right? That's our guilt. Thirdly, our rescuer, the triune God, the triune God, father, son, and Holy Spirit.

And actually in this case, it's father, spirit, son, in that order. So first we are rescued by the work of the father. Against this dark background of sin, right? I mean, we can give this illustration that why is it that jewelers, when they want to show off how perfect the diamond is, they put up a black background.

It's so you can see the contrast. And here we have it. Against the dark background of our sin, light enters. Verse four. But, contrast. When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us.

We were wicked, sinful, hate-filled. But God is, in contrast to wicked, He is good. He's perfect. He's righteous.

He's holy.

Completely separate from sin. And He is not hate-filled, but rather filled with loving kindness. And I like that they put that all into one word, because it is one word. The loving kindness in the Greek.

Loving kindness speaks of more than simply God's love, or Paul would have used that word. It shows His affectionate concern. His affectionate concern. He is not emotive, but there's a fixed determination to do something about the pitiable state that we're in.

He sees us and He doesn't think, oh, those guys are doing great. You know, I'm going to give them a little nudge. He sees us and He goes, those people are dead. They have no hope. I have to rescue them.

And the text is clear. It says, He saved us. Hendrickson wrote, the Father rescued us from the greatest evil and bestowed upon us the greatest blessing. Rescued us from the greatest evil and bestowed upon us the greatest blessing.

Upon Paul, upon Titus, upon us. Colossians 1 .13 says, He, God, has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. That's the idea. He moves us. He transforms us.

He saves us, the text says. Now, imagine for a moment if the text just said, God, instead of God, saved us. What if it said, He made us savable? Could we save ourselves? Could we rescue ourselves? Maybe if we had enough good works, the text answers that question.

Verse 5, second half of it. Not because of works done by us in righteousness. The idea is doing works while we're in a state of righteousness. And, of course, there's a problem there. We're never in the state of righteousness.

Because of Adam's fall, we enter into the world with a sin nature. Adam fell, we're born in Adam, so we have his sin nature right from the womb. And to make matters worse, we're not only sinners by nature, we're sinners by choice.

As soon as we come into the world, we start sinning. Now, imagine for a moment, again, this idea of God making us savable. Or us doing enough to kind of attract God's affection. Imagine God was some sort of, I just came up with this concept this week, if He was some sort of spiritual Darwinist, right?

Survival of the fittest. And He looked and He goes, okay, this person is the most spiritually advanced. They're farther along on the spiritual evolution chain than anybody else. Therefore, I'm going to save this person or that person.

What would be the end result of that kind of thing? Which, by the way, is similar to how we talk about God maybe grading on a curve. But if we just think about this, if we're more sophisticated, we say, well, maybe it's some kind of Darwinistic experiment where God just looks to see who's doing the best and sort of helps those.

The answer is that if God was like that, everyone would go to hell. As I said earlier, we are utterly helpless to rescue ourselves. Elsewhere, scripture describes us as what? Dead, dead in our sins and trespasses.

And dead men cannot rescue others, let alone themselves. But thankfully, the Father has mercy. Again, look at verse 5. But according to His own mercy. And again, there's a contrast here. In fact, it's underscored.

The Greek word makes it plain in the strongest contrast possible. That it is not and cannot be because of our works. Our salvation isn't because of our works. It is because of God's mercy. He rescues us.

He saves us. He acts on our behalf. He sees our pathetic condition, our helplessness, and takes pity on us and acts out of His mercy, out of His compassion. Ephesians 1 tells us that the eternal plan of God was never based on our goodness.

In fact, the goal was what? Two goals. Ultimately, that we would be made righteous. But the other goal is for the glory of God. And that glory of God is because God takes those who have nothing to recommend themselves and transforms them into the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

Regeneration, Renewal, and Justification by Grace

Now, we are rescued because of the work of the Father, but secondly, also because of the work of the Holy Spirit. Look again, the end of verse 5. By the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He, the Father, poured out on us richly.

When we see that, doesn't it just sound like baptism? And in a way, it is baptism. It's the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is almost like a picture of what we just talked about in Pentecost. The Spirit is the agent of change.

He causes us to be born again. In John 3, Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night. What does Jesus say? You must be born again. And then He goes on to say how that happens. That the Holy Spirit is the agent of change.

That He is the one who causes someone to be born again. And here, Paul is talking about how believers being regenerated, which means to be brought from spiritual death to spiritual life. When that happens, a process begins in the believer that he calls renewal.

There's regeneration, then there's renewal. What's that renewal of the Holy Spirit? Sanctification. So we're saved, and then the process of sanctification. That is, sanctification being conformed into the image of Jesus Christ.

Step by step, the Holy Spirit chiseling away at us, removing the excess, conforming us into the image of Christ. Now, when is that completed? Not in this life. Ultimately, in Heaven. We're not going to be perfect in this life.

But sanctification is an ongoing process. Salvation is a one-time event. Thirdly, we've seen rescued because of the work of the Father, rescued because of the work of the Spirit, and now rescued because of the work of Jesus.

Look at verse 6, the second part of it. Through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Now, it's interesting that Paul in verse 4 said what? That God, meaning the Father, was our Savior. And here he says, Jesus Christ, our Savior.

What can that mean? Well, it can mean this, very simply. When we think about who saves us, does the Father save us?

Yes.

Does Jesus save us?

Yes.

And ultimately, we could say, does the Spirit save us? Well, in the sense that He keeps us, yes. Through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The Father extends mercy to us. The Spirit caused us to be regenerated, to be born again. And Jesus lived and died for our justification. We're justified by His grace. To be justified means to be declared righteous.

To be declared righteous. God swinging the gavel, as it were, in His judicial robes, and saying, you know, it would be great to hear, not guilty. But that's not enough. When God brings down the gavel, He says, righteous.

Righteous. We think to ourselves, how could that be? How could we, who were foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another, how could God declare us righteous?

How could that be?

Paul told us in verse 6, through Jesus Christ, our Savior. His perfection, His complete obedience, His submission to the Father, all of that credited to us. And His death pays the price for our sin. When Jesus goes to the cross, all of our sin, the sins of all who would ever believe, are nailed to the cross with Him.

And God looks at that and is satisfied with it. He's satisfied with that payment. We contribute nothing to our salvation. It is a work of the Father, the Spirit, and the Son. Salvation is all of God, by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to Scripture alone, to the glory of God alone.

Let me just say one more word about justification. There's a lot of writing these days about, you know, there's an initial justification, where God says, you know what, you're righteous. But then on Judgment Day, there's a final justification.

I don't know if you've seen that or not. Initial justification and final justification. And they say that what has to happen there, between these two dates, right, from the day you get saved till Judgment Day, you have to have, they say, sufficient work.

Sufficient work to withstand that final justification, that final judgment. To which I just say, well, how much is sufficient? Who decides that, and where can I find that in the Bible? How can I understand exactly how much work I have to add to the finished work of Jesus Christ in order to get over the bar of final justification?

And can I give you a little secret, a little hint, a little spoiler? That idea of a final justification is erroneous.