According to his mercy

S SEKOU ABODUNRIN

4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
5 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 3:4,5

The apostle Paul in his letter to Titus, himself a minister, makes these most revealing of statements and in the process presents a truth worthy of our consideration. This is damaging to the slant of the human mind in its natural reasoning. It seems that the intelligence behind these verses defies human logic. One can easily relate to it if Paul had said … not by evil works, which we had done, … but Paul sets Titus’ mind on a course that keeps him in tune with divine facts. We tend to loose sight of this, and this is the very reason why the Apostle thinks it important to tell a fellow minister like Titus and the Holy Spirit thought it important enough to be recorded for all eternity. Think about it, the human has a tendency to over estimate our goodness or “works of righteousness”.

There are two operations of the Spirit highlighted by the Apostle here – the renewing of the Holy Ghost and the washing of regeneration. These two operations are of God and not of man; by faith, we are the thankful recipients of both.

The Lord said through the prophet Ezekiel -

25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36: 25,26

The significant “I” in that place is the living God. He uses the symbol of water to represent the Spirit of God in his workings. I want you to notice that man needs to be clean – both God and most men are agreed on this point. God is certain that the man in need of cleansing cannot cleanse himself. Man disagrees with this, for man nurses the ambition of self-deliverance. God undertakes this sprinkling with “clean water” that separates man from sin. This beautifully illustrates grace – this cleansing is all of God, the man is required to submit himself to this divine operation. It is beautiful; God declares, “I will cleanse you”. The cleansing with water is the means by which man will be given a new spirit. This is the new birth.

This cleansing with water according to Ezekiel is the washing of regeneration spoken of in Titus. When Paul therefore says that the washing of regeneration and renewing are of the Spirit and not of man, he is uttering divine truths.

You’d most likely have heard about the tree of knowledge of good and evil from the genesis account. It holds some keys for us that will help us in understanding the truths presented to Titus. Man has eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The fruit of this tree is knowledge, a knowledge lacking in divine insight. He possesses a skewed and distorted perspective of things for this knowledge is apart from God. Prior to eating of this tree the knowledge that man functioned by flowed from fellowshipping with God. This means that all of the goodness that man related to flowed from God in the beginning. Asides from the goodness that was in God, Adam acknowledged no other type of goodness.
Man learnt another source of “good” when he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There are lessons we can learn from God’s instruction to Adam in the garden – man is not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Eating the tree symbolizes partaking of the flesh.

The flesh represents another form of intelligence imparting a knowledge that is enmity against the true knowledge of God. It operates from two areas of strength. This is represented by “good and evil”.

The implication of this is that every man will respond to the flesh by having a visible outflow of evil or good. Stated simply there are “bad sinners” and “good sinners”, but sinners all the same! Without struggle you can more readily accommodate the good sinner for he is less of a menace. We often concentrate our reconciliation efforts on the “bad” sinner exclusively because his need is more discernable. Truth is no one wants a good sinner in hell. The reason we do this is because we mostly fail to see that salvation had nothing to do with man’s good or bad works.

We are trained through norms and customs to shun the flow of evil that originates in the flesh – rightly understanding that this is not good. The trouble starts when custom judges that there are actions originating in the flesh that are considered “good” – this is where the biblical revelation deviates from what natural man is willing and ready to accept. According to the word of God, no product of the flesh is truly good. Man measures his “good” against “evil” and considers that his estimation is correct. This is the error of the knowledge of good and evil.

18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing:… Romans 7:18a

The more you grasp of the grace of God, the more aware you become of this distinction between these two forms of goodness – flesh inspired goodness and divine goodness. While most men can relate to “good versus evil”, the point communicated through the grace of God is the subtle danger of reliance upon the goodness of the flesh. The goodness of the flesh is as deadly spiritually as the evil of the flesh is, for both flow from death.

Fleshy good is rooted in pride; you see this when you present the gospel to a man that is of good behaviour. He is convinced that it is the other notorious fellow that needs the gospel, for his own good deeds has met God’s standards and secured his eternity. You will find this stated in some form or another by all such men. The end result is a resistance to God’s grace. Sometimes the problem is with the fellow presenting the gospel; he is also as confused about the real issues.

True goodness is of a divine origin and is a gift received into the human spirit for expression in this world.

The “good” of the flesh is acceptable to the human mind and is not shocking as the evil of the flesh is, but all products of the flesh are shocking to the divine mind and logic. Fleshly good could not cleanse man. It produces morality and not spirituality. While morality itself is not bad, you discover that it represents a stronger resistance to receiving the grace of God than almost any other product of the flesh. The moral man devoid of divine revelation is often puffed up not realising that he is in dire need of help. Unconsciously the moral man looks to the goodness of his flesh, convinces himself that his good outweighs his bad and judges himself complete wanting nothing – he is deceived. It is the utter failure of this fleshly good that warranted God undertaking to cleanse man by himself. When a man shuns the revelation of this divine goodness, he relies on the goodness of his flesh – this is the reason for and the origin of religion. Flesh is the force sustaining all forms of religion. God presents kindness and mercy sustained by his own nature and life.

It seems that the last frontier we cross is an awakening out of the confusion of not distinguishing the false goodness of the flesh, from the true goodness that flows from God’s nature alone. Like you are engaged in the battle of good vs. evil, you need to recognise the subtler, but more damaging battle of good vs. good!

… to be continued