The answer lies here: the motive and purpose behind doing what is good.
When I was little, I always thought that heaven is like a great scale where each person's name will be called, our good doings are measure on one side and our so-called sins on the other. If my goods doings are heavier than my sins, then I go on to live forever in heaven, this place people believe to be a paradise, where there is no more sorrow, no more tears. But, if my sins are heavier, I will also live forever in the room of torture, where you wish you could die but can never will.
Naturally, this is what we think of why we ought to do good. Our doings decide our rewards and punishments. In fact, this is what we experience is life: you study hard, you would get a rewarding grade, you work on your interview, you would most likely get the job. But in order to weigh ourselves, we must consider the definition of sin itself. Sinning means to miss the holy target. Holiness is pure, blameless, no compromises, disgusted by anything that is associated with the unclean. This would mean, no thinking about what to do next after worship, no perverted thoughts, none of these. And truly, none of us is free from sins. In fact, the ten commandments are not written so that each of us could fulfill them, God knows well that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)". The commandments were made so that we are aware of how incapable we are to achieve perfection and how much we need a greater power outside of us to shield us from the condemnation on the day of God's wrath
Titus verse 3-5 said, "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. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 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, [...]"
These verses were talking about forgiveness, something all of you would probably have guessed at the first place. But there are two important points that lie under forgiveness that we must acknowledge: Justification and Sanctification. Justification is the act of God working FOR us. He accepted us as righteous in his sight for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. This doesn't mean that our sins have been considered right, but we are justified by God despite our sins. But usually, even mere Christians stop at the idea of justification. "As long as I confess with my mouth that Jesus Christ is my LORD and Savior, I will be saved. If you doubt it, you've sinned, because you're lacking faith." This statement is true, but we must continue to the second point: Sanctification. Sanctification is the act of God working IN us. It is a process in which we leave our past lives, sins, indulgent, and earthly desires to follow Christ. Think of the day or the moment you truly accepted Christ as your Savior and how you decide to learn so much more about Him and about living for, to, through, and in Him. Your life was (or is) a Christ-centered life. This whole living and learning about Him is a really long process, a whole lifetime process. In fact, in the eternal life, we will continue to learn better about Him, and if you've studied Calculus, this knowledge will keep on approaching the True Knowledge, yet will never reach it. Think of your first lover you broke up with. It did not take a week or two to forget him, to forget her. It takes months or years for some of us. It's natural. And naturally, for all of us, our first love was the sin. We all have sinned and I tell you that sin is the sweetest thing on earth. As one of my friends once said, "If you don't feel good when you sin, then you're doing it wrong".
Both justification and sanctification are under God's unconditional forgiveness for us. If you can confess that Jesus Christ is our LORD and Savior with our whole heart, then it is none of our doing, but God's. As what I Corinthians 12:3 said, "Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit". And every single good changes in our lives is none of our doing. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9)". I think the word 'reborn' itself is straight-forward. When you were being born, out of your mother's womb, did you contribute anything of you being delivered? No. Your mother did all the works for you: the pushing, the panting, the hours of pain. That is a physical birth, and I believe a spiritual birth is the same. It's not your feelings that make you feel peaceful in God, it's not our prayers, sighs, or tears that bear our loads. Not what our hands have done, but His.
Do you now see the inconsistency of Paul's letter here? He mentioned that it is the kindness and love of God who saved us as if we do not contribute anything to our salvation.
That is no doubt true. God does not need us to be good people to be saved, God does not need us to do good for Him, he does not need your offering, your contribution to the church, God does not need everything you do, God does not need you, He can be as perfect as ever without your existence. Then why did Paul tell Titus in verse 1 to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable, and so on? Is it not useless? It would be just like fooling ourselves to think that we are pleasing God, but in all actuality, He is not a needy God at all, then why should be good to people? Why are there rules? Why do we even go to church? Why do all these matter? Well, there is something that God needs. He needs to want, He's not a dead, stone-cold God who does not have any wants. He loves us so much, and it breaks His heart to know how holy He is and how evil His beloved ones are. In order to love us, sinners, He must deny His own holy attribute. It breaks His heart to know that the only way to be a loving God, He must murder the unholy. So He sent His Son, the heart of His own heart, putting Him in between us, the sinners and Him, the holy. Then He declared His wrath, but those who have faith to hide behind that cross were saved and justified. This means that when we come before God's holy presence, we would no longer be seen as disgusting beings, but as the righteous.
On verse 8, Paul said, "This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone". Now that we have been justified, we must follow the next step: sanctification. God did not save us because He needs to, but because He wants to out of love. The same thing goes for us. Us being good is not the reason of why we are saved, but the effect after we have been saved. We should do good out of love for others and for Him who have saved us through His unconditional grace."If you love me, keep my commandments (John 14:15)".
Verse 4-7 should be our motivation to do the good works and to obey the Sovereign God. We often as children (or at least myself) are legalistic people. By this I mean we ought to have clear explanations, hints from the Gospel, and miracles in order for us to obey God. It reminds me of scientists who are trying to look for evidence to prove the meaning or life or the existence of God. No earthy matters, no science, can ever, ever explain the greatness of God. He is too mighty, too great to be squeezed and be fit in our little box of science. And this is coming from a scientist (me). CS Lewis said in the book Mere Christianity, that the job of science is to conduct experiments, observe and describe facts. And remember that the universe and everything that lives in it are mere facts. And science cannot observe what is above the facts nor claim if somethings exist or not. Even humans can never know this something above the universe unless it reveals it to us in a certain way. In the real world, it is never science who conclude these claims. It is usually the journalists or writers who gather fragmented pieces of science and use it to describe something far beyond it. One of my friends from my previous college asked me, "How could you possibly be a Christian and a scientist at the same time?", I said, "Why not?", "Well, I assume that you don't believe in evolution and the big bang theory". I replied, "I believe in science and I believe in Christianity. But I don't believe how science (which belongs to the mortal world) can figure out for us the meaning of the universe and the existence of God (which belongs to the immortal unimaginable world)".
Back to the main point, faith is believing in something we cannot see, we cannot fathom, and at times, we cannot understand. Of course, knowledge is important in faith, but it's not everything there is. And that's the beauty of trusting and obeying the LORD. Not to be saved, but because we have been saved.
In fact, in repenting, we have to know (the intellectual understanding of what our sins are), believe (an emotional guilt of sinning), and also the will to avoid the sins. You cannot say that Jesus is great without saying that your sins are great as well because then you will think that His grace is cheap. Faith also consists of the same three elements: know, believe, and will. But in faith, the understanding part sets our vision to Christ, and not our sins. The believe part is the belief that we need Jesus, the belief that Jesus did all these. The will to actually trust in Him as your Savior and not just another help option to consider.
How do all these relate to our lives?
First, we have to be reminded of the true meaning of Doxology, which means all glory to God. If you know the Gospel well, then you know that we don't deserve all the things that God has done for us. Which then should lead to a never-ending doxology and praises. How many times in our prayer do we give thanks to God? In fact, it should be the very first thing in your prayer. Think of all the little sins you have done every day and how holy God is. We say the word God all the time that the word God probably doesn't tremble us anymore. God is the purest, the holiest, the highest of all, worthy of all the praises in our existence, who cannot tolerate the tiniest bit of sin, who grudges over sins, who wishes to destroy sins, and guess what, we are covered by sins! Give thanks to God, give Him praise we never deserve to give or even think of giving. If you don't live in adoration, I'm afraid you haven't been truly been born again. I don't know about you, but for me, praising Him brings me a great delight. In fact, His chosen ones are going to praise Him ceaselessly every day.
How do we stay consistent and obedient in working out our salvation?
1) Cultivate the right environment
Our environment shapes us. We are unaware of this, this is something we neglect. But it shapes us without our knowing. Pharisee: confessing that they're good, measuring up with insincerity. Don't compare with each other. Trusting, loving although in the midst of temptation, etc. Christianity is not about sharing with everyone that we got it together. The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. Christianity is about acknowledging our sins, the church is about humility: accepting that we are disabled and in need of God's interference in our lives.
2) Effort
Paul didn't say work in your salvation or work for your salvation, but work out your salvation. You have been given the grace, now be engaged in the grace that you've received, and exercise it. Work out the redemption, the salvation, the benefits that you've received. We often hear the saying work things out. It means to settle a tension, a form of reconciliation and resolution towards peace. There is such tension with each and every one of us too. It is between our heart and our mind. Whether it is flesh or earthly indulgent that have been pulling you away from doing what is right. Workout this tension within you. And we are not always consistent, and so we stumble. Like being inconsistent with your new year's resolution of getting fit and going to the gym. Sometimes we don't even bother with our inconsistency. But we are always called again and again: Work it out.
3) Check yourself if you are ceaselessly in fear and trembling, in reference and awe.
Philippians 2:12: "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose".
Worship is not meant to be fun and entertaining but in profound reference. And this reference is not before God only, but also before one another. How do we do this, knowing each other's weaknesses and inconsistencies? Each individual is the image of God and each person has an inner core being that takes a part of the Glory of God. Do not see who we are, but who we are spiritually.
To close, we often consider God's holiness rather insignificant, especially living in the modern era. If Barack Obama is to sit among us right now, how would you change the way you act right now? Same thing, if you know that God is really sitting here in this room right now, how different would you act, how careful would your thoughts be?
God is responsible for us being alive. We were all unresponsive corpses. But we were called, regenerated, in which we were reborn again. These are all no doing of ours, but they definitely give us the power to repent and be diligent in faith. And our conversion through repentance and faith is where we have to take part. Christ doesn't repent for us, He doesn't believe for us. He died and resurrected for us so you can repent and have faith. This is something we cannot do for ourselves. We are faithless, but He will remain faithful, for He has made a promise, an oath to be faithful, for he cannot disown Himself (2 Timothy 2:13).
We gain our salvation, not because of the virtue of our own righteousness, but the virtue of the righteousness of God. We are one with Christ, in union with Christ. What's His is yours. God gave Christ a Name above all names. We are not given a name above all names. But we are given a new name.
I'd love to close this discussion with Ezekiel 36:26:
"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh".
Alice
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