First Sunday after the Epiphany – January 10, 2010

Titus 3 - ⁴ But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

What is it that amazes you? Perhaps you agree with me when I tell you that the human body amazes me. I mean, just look at the way a child is born or how much stress a body can take and still survive. I would also have to say nature is amazing. Did you know that a hippopotamus can eat up to 100 pounds of grass in a single night? Or that a giant panda is smaller than an ice cream cone when it is born? What about technology? That you can make a telephone call with your computer and see the person you’re speaking to, even if they are in Hong Kong, that’s amazing.

No doubt there are hundreds, if not thousands, of other things that our infinitely wise God has given to us that are downright amazing. Yet, when it comes right down to it, there is nothing more amazing than our salvation. So I ask you, as we study the words of God before us, to look at God our Savior and be amazed! Just look at why he saved us; look at how we receive his blessings; and look at the results.

“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” Right away Paul brings us into contact with something amazing. “God our Savior saved us, not because of anything we have done.” Just think about that for a moment! That is totally contrary to the way we think. If we expect to get paid by our employer, we better work. If I want milk and food on my table I better go to the store. If we want someone to like us and be kind to us, we better be kind to them and earn their favor. But this isn’t the way it works when it comes to our salvation.

In fact, Paul rules out anything on our part, and he couldn’t say it any clearer. Twice, first in a negative way and then in a positive, Paul says we have no part: “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done,” “He saved us…because of his mercy.” How fortunate for us! You see, in the verse immediately before this one, Paul described what we were like. “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another” (Titus 3:3). Let’s face it, that’s how we were. I know it isn’t a pleasant thing to think about, but you need to. Before we came to know and believe in the Lord Jesus we were foolish. We thought we could do something to save ourselves. But we were without Christ. And when a person is without Christ, they are “disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures” (Titus 3:3). This leads to nothing but “malice and envy, being hated and hating one another” (Titus 3:3). If we had to wait for God to grant us salvation only after he saw something righteous in us, we would never be saved. How miserable it would be if God left us to ourselves! But he didn’t.

And that’s what makes it so amazing! It isn’t just the fact that God saved us; it’s the fact that he was kind, loving, and merciful to a people who were despicable, wicked and undeserving. I mean, suppose you were summoned and chosen to sit as a juror for a mass murderer or serial rapist. After two weeks of listening to the gory details of the crime, you and your fellow jurors find him guilty and he is sentenced to life in prison. Would you then be moved to sympathy and compassion over the fate of the criminal that you would go to him and say, “Let me serve your sentence?” But this is just what God our Savior did.

All one has to do is look at Jesus and we see the Father’s love and kindness in action. God looked down at our wretchedness and he was moved to pity. Not because we were so cute. Not because he couldn’t help but chuckle at our impotence. Not because of anything in us. Only because of kindness and mercy! “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).

So in his kindness, God the Father sent his one and only Son to live among people who hated him. That’s amazing! In his mercy, God the Son willingly humbled himself and came down from his perfect throne in heaven to be born in a stable. Jesus’ birth pointed to the very moment our gospel lesson highlighted today – Jesus baptism. It was there that Jesus began his public ministry. It was there he was anointed with the Holy Spirit and power, so that he might perfectly and fully, without fail, carry out his ministry and serve our sentence, die a terrible death on the cross, suffer the agony of hell, and then rise victorious from the grave. He was there in the Jordan to take our place, so that when his saving work was done, God could say, “You are free; your punishment and your guilt have been transferred from you to Jesus Christ.” That’s amazing! And why did he do this? What moved him? Nothing but his mercy, kindness and love! Dear Christian friends, that’s God our Savior. Look at him and be amazed!

But maybe you say, “How can I, a miserable sinner, hope to receive the amazing gift of forgiveness of sins?” After all, it’s one thing for Jesus to win forgiveness but another to benefit from his victory. This brings us to the next thing we want to look at and be amazed – how we receive the blessings won for us by Jesus.

We find the answer to this “how” question in Jesus’ words to a man named Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3). After Jesus spoke these words Nicodemus was puzzled, so Jesus continued by explaining, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5). Echoing that same thought, Paul says to Titus, “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.”

This is the washing that takes place in Holy Baptism. Now, there seems to be some confusion in our world about just what Baptism is and does. Many portray it as nothing more than a sign or symbol and say it certainly is not a way by which an individual obtains salvation. Others will disregard baptism all-together, saying there is no value in it at all. Still others will reserve it only for those who have already experienced the power of Jesus in their life, and thereby teach it as merely an act of obedience, an outward testimony of what is already in the heart, or a rite of membership.

But is that what God says through Paul in our verses? By no means! Throughout Holy Scripture, God repeatedly comes to us and spells out with painstaking detail how serious the nature of sin and unbelief is; of just how destitute we were “at one time.” In Ephesians he tells us, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1,3). Again he says, “The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so” (Romans 8:7). And in the Old Testament David says, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). All people need the forgiveness of sins. All people need to become God’s children. All people need saving.

And as we saw in verse 4, this salvation is 100% the doing of God our merciful Savior. God alone is the one who produces new birth in us. So what we need is faith to receive the blessings Christ won. This too is the work of God, and faith comes from hearing the message of Jesus Christ in the Word of God, the gospel. When this gospel is connected to the waters of Baptism, the one baptized is brought into a faith relationship with Christ. In Baptism God incorporates us into his family – “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ” (Galatians 3:26,27). In baptism God gives forgiveness of sins, “And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name” (Acts 22:16). Through Baptism God produces a new birth in us and saves us – “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” That’s amazing!

And now, look at the results. This faith created in baptism, and (and this is a very important and) this faith kept alive by the Holy Spirit through your constant connection to the gospel, assures you that you have been declared not guilty and that you are indeed an heir of heaven. In the Word, God your Savior meets you and says to you, “I know the pain of your soul, for I have suffered body and soul for you. I know your desperate loneliness, for I was forsaken by my Father for you. I know you, for I had you in my heart when I gave up my spirit on the cross. All is forgiven. I have paid the price for your sin. I have opened the door of eternal life for you.”

As a result of our baptism and (once again that is a very big and) our continued dependence and instruction in the Word, we know we have a God who doesn’t remember our sins anymore. It’s like the make believe story of the woman who claimed to have a vision of Jesus. She decided to go to a pastor and tell him. The pastor decided to test her truthfulness and ordered that the next time she had a vision she should ask Christ what the pastor’s primary sin had been before he became a pastor. Some months later, the woman returned and the pastor asked if she had asked Christ the question, to which she affirmed that she had. “And what did he say?” the pastor asked apprehensively. “Christ said…” and the woman paused a moment…“He said, ‘I don’t remember.’”

How would you like to have a God like that? Well, we do! He says, “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more” (Isaiah 43:25). God our Savior has done it all. In his mercy and kindness and love he sent his Son to take our place, even though we were completely undeserving. And he did! In his mercy, kindness and love Jesus took our place, suffering our punishment and winning our forgiveness. Then, through the gospel message in the Word and through that gospel message connected with baptism he brought us to faith so that the forgiveness of sins Jesus won could become ours. Now it is! As a result, where there is forgiveness of sins, there is new life and salvation.

Now tell me, is there anything more amazing than that! Amen.