The Apostle Paul’s letter to Titus, chapter three serves to answer all three questions in verses four through seven. This text says,
“But when the goodness and loving kindness 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 out 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.”
In contrast to the vileness and futility of man’s fallen deadness, Paul highlights God’s goodness and loving kindness. These attributes are ascribed to God in a phrase that is unusual in the Pauline corpus, τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν θεοῦ (the Deliverer of us, God). This phrase is used by Paul in two other places within the book of Titus and once more in 1 Timothy 2: 3. From the immediate context, it seems to be that Paul is making reference to the Lord Jesus Christ as the embodiment of God’s goodness and kindness but with the overtly explicit notion that even in His incarnation and humanity, Christ was still no less God. The purpose of this exclamation should be obvious; God has acted out of His good pleasure to initiate the salvation of souls paying the divine price to stem holy wrath against sinful rebellion. Paul further expands upon this idea in verse five as he says, “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy…” Once again Paul is clear in his assertion; what God has done to initiate the regeneration of the dead soul is out of His own mercy. Simply put, God has not moved on the sinful human heart in response to something meritorious within the individual. Rather, any action taken by God to initiate this regeneration is prompted by God’s will and love alone. For the ardent opponent of God’s monergistic salvation who would claim that God responds to the so called “saving faith” of the enlightened sinner, one must not overlook how Paul couches what God does not respond to; specifically “he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness…” Here, righteousness (δικαιοσύνῃ) means those things that are understood as being required by God; or good works. Who Paul seems to have in view are not the pagans of the gentile world who would not be considered to possess any form of righteousness but rather the religious who would prop up their self righteousness as a justification of salvation. More specifically, the spiritually dead person’s self righteous work of choosing God for salvation. Acceptance of Scriptures depiction of fallen man should be sufficient to prove that fallen man is incapable of such a choice and this truth coupled with Paul’s clear declaration that it is God who takes the initiative in regeneration should be more than enough to nail down the point; any work of regeneration within the human heart must begin with God and nothing else. However, in Romans 3: 23 – 28 Paul gives yet another discourse on the regeneration of the sinful heart solely at the initiation of God. Here Paul says,
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.”
Verse twenty-three is used by many in modern evangelism to demonstrate the sinfulness of man. At times the laxity with which this verse is quoted however, approaches the statement, “Sure, no one is perfect,” but on closer examination what Paul is declaring is that all are in danger of condemnation incurred as a result of sinful rebellion. The phrase translated “fall short” is actually the Greek word ὑστεροῦνται which means to lack or be deficient. The grammar here is a present passive indicative indicating that the lost sinner is without doubt lacking in anything that would empower him to accomplish anything righteous or spiritually good. In short, all fallen man can do is rebel in various degrees to God’s commands; a far cry from “No one is perfect.” Not only is fallen man not perfect, he is completely imperfect and not fit for anything good that God may provide. In the balance of Paul’s discourse here he is explaining how such pitiful sinners have any hope of being reconciled to a holy God. Accordingly, Paul quickly specifies that fallen man is justified by the grace of God given freely through the redeeming work of Christ. This forceful expression of God’s grace in salvation comes so quickly on the heels of all sinning and falling short that one should question whether man’s inherent sinfulness is the point of the passage at all? None-the-less, the overwhelming purpose of this passage seems to be the declaration of God’s grace in the saving of sinner in such a way that all human boasting is excluded which is the conclusion Paul himself arrives at in verses twenty- seven and eight. If God then moves upon the sinful hearts of fallen men, when does this transaction occur? Does saving faith result in regeneration as some would assert? Or is regeneration prerequisite to the expression of what is called saving faith? To these questions attention will now be turned.
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