What Does
God Think of Me?
But after the
kindness
and love of God our Saviour
and love of God our Saviour
toward man
appeared …
Titus
is one of Paul’s short letters written between I and II Timothy to his “own son
after the common faith.” Paul addresses
Titus with the proper Hebrew and Greek greeting of Grace and Peace, and he
adds Mercy in as well. God is forever
giving us more than we can ask or think.
Paul
wrote the letter for a purpose, not only to Titus, but also to those who know
Him through the saving grace of Christ. Amidst instructions for life and
Christian experience, in chapter three Paul gives Titus the requirements and
then he reminds all of us of our characteristics in times past; in other words,
just what (or who) we used to be—foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving lust
and pleasure, living wickedly. Ouch! We were all those things and so much more.
We must have His mercy. We cannot walk this journey without Him.
I
often think about how intensely and immensely God loves us. Of how He has thoughts concerning us. Of course, He
does. He made us and then bought us, reconciling us to Himself based upon the
death of the Cross. He thinks upon us in ways we cannot understand except
through eyes of faith.
He
has given precious promises. It is not what or who we are, though He sees
us as perfect in Christ and He is perfecting us (maturing
us) daily as we walk with Him. We have not attained by any stretch of the
imagination. We look at that perfecting
in light of eternity. It will be completed when we see Him face to face.
And
He has made us profitable to the ministry. “Ye are the salt of the earth,” he
said in Matthew 5:13. We speak for Christ. We are salt and light to a lost and
dying world. Before Christ returned to the Father after His death, burial and
resurrection, He left us the Comforter, the built-in Bible Teacher, the Holy
Spirit who indwells every believer and equips us for service.
Four
things we can take away today and when night falls, pillow our heads upon His
promises, knowing that “His mercies are new every morning. Great is His
faithfulness …” (Lamentations 3:21-25).
(1)
His
promises are precious. “Whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious
promises that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having
escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (II Peter 1:4).
(2)
His
promises are perfect—past, present, future. “… being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7)
(3)
And
because of His promises, we are privileged. “But after that the
kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared … (Titus 3:4)
- He appeared bringing salvation.
- He appeared bringing forgiveness.
- He appeared bringing instruction.
Finally,
we are profitable. There were times in the Apostle’s life when he
spoke of men who were profitable to him in the ministry (Mark, Onesimus). He
said in
(1)
I
Timothy 4:8 “… godliness is profitable to all things, having promise of the
life that now is, and of that which is to come.” Not only profitable, but more
of those privileges—life now and in heaven, too!
(2)
There
is a bottom line here. It is not what or who we are. It is who Christ
is within us. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the
Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5).
Grace,
Peace and Mercy to you,
Victor
W. Baugh, Sr., Th.D., Ph.D.
Pastor,
St. Luke AME Church
Havana,
AL
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