Commentary on Titus 3:4-7
Once more, we see the author of the letter to Titus focusing on God’s gracious generosity not in an abstract way, as if it were simply a disposition on God’s part, but as a concrete event: God’s lavish kindness and charity (philanthropia) have taken place or occurred (epephanē) through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and his giving of the Holy Spirit.
Here the author refers to his readers having been “saved.” In the totality of Paul’s correspondence, this is unusual. More typically, Paul speaks of salvation in the future tense: “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely, therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God” (Romans 5:8–9, emphasis added). As he puts it memorably toward the end of Romans, “Salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers” (13:11).
Notwithstanding this dominant emphasis, Paul does speak occasionally, as here in the Titus passage, of salvation as a past experience: “In hope we were saved” (Romans 8:24, emphasis added; compare Ephesians 2:4, 8). And he speaks of salvation in the present as well: “the good news … through which also you are being saved” (1 Corinthians 15:2, emphasis added). For this reason, New Testament scholar G. B. Caird has summarized Paul’s (and the wider New Testament’s) view like this: “Salvation is expressed as a threefold act of God: an accomplished fact, an experience continuing in the present, and a consummation still to come.”1
Regardless of whether he speaks of past, present, or future salvation, Paul is equally clear that it does not depend on human initiative or achievement: “not because of any works of righteousness that we had done.” At the beginning of his ministry, such a statement was primarily Paul’s way of warning Gentile believers that if they tried to become observers of the Jewish law in order to show God their worthiness, they would be turning away from grace (Galatians 5:2–6). But as time went on and more and more believers from Gentile communities had less and less familiarity with Jewish traditions, Paul’s focus on the danger of striving for merit widened to consider virtuous actions in general.2
If Christians are tempted to think that any of their actions, from keeping the Jewish law to acquiring a certain social status to maintaining a given moral standard, are in any way the basis of God’s acceptance of them, they have taken a wrong theological turn. God is always the first giver, and human beings are always recipients. Salvation is always “according to [God’s] mercy,” never the reward for our good track record.
And yet, human action remains important as the channel by which God shows his mercy. This is why the passage speaks about salvation occurring “through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” This is, almost certainly, a reference to the sacrament of baptism. God’s promise of grace is free and unconditional—and, at the same time, it “happens” or “takes place” when a priest or pastor pours water over our heads (or dunks us fully into a pool!) and announces God’s word of promise to us: “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.”3
Because of that baptismal sealing, believers may now confidently relate to God the Father through Christ, with whom we’ve been buried and raised to new life, and through their Spirit who has been poured out lavishly into our hearts. We are no longer slaves or strangers to God’s promises but members of the divine household, “heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”
December 25, 2024