“Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men. For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:1-7 NASB1995)
I am not going to focus this writing on being in subjection to rulers, but I will say that we are only to be subject to people in authority over us as long as it aligns with God’s full will and purpose for our lives. In other words, we never have to subject ourselves to doing anything evil. We never have to comply with any commands to lie, to cheat, to steal, or to do anything immoral and contrary to God’s New Covenant commands. And we should be testing all people in authority over us so that we don’t end up following their lies.
Now what instructions are we given here as to how we should be living if we are true followers of Christ? First we must die to sin (repent) and then we must now walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in practice. And then we should do good to others, and not evil. We should malign no one. And the following should describe who we were (past tense), but who we should not be in the present. For we were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts, spending our lives living for self-pleasure, etc.
And that doesn’t mean that all of us did all those specific things, or that we did any of them all the time, but that before we trust in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of our lives, we are born with sin natures, dead in our sins, bound for hell, without hope, without salvation. And when we believe in Jesus, if our faith is of God, we then die to sin so that sin is no longer our practice, and now we follow the Lord in walks of obedience to his commands, in holy living, by the grace of God, in the power of God, via our cooperation.
Now, the following is being misconstrued by many people today in order to say that how we live will not impact our salvation from sin nor our eternal life with God once we profess faith in Jesus Christ. Yes, not one of us is saved from our sins via our own human effort and our own “good deeds” of our own nature. Not one us will ever be good enough, in and of ourselves, to receive salvation from sin and eternal life with God. By God’s grace we are saved through God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing – not of the will nor of the flesh of humans.
Even the faith to believe in Jesus comes from God and is gifted to us by God and is persuaded of God, and is not of our own flesh. And what does he persuade us to do? He persuades us as to his holiness and righteousness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need, by faith in Jesus, to die with him to sin and to now walk with him in obedience to his commands in daily practice. Just because we can do nothing in our own flesh to be acceptable to God, it does not mean that God has no requirements of us who believe in him.
So, it is true that we cannot be saved on the basis of our own deeds and our own righteousness. It is only by God’s grace that any of us can be saved from our sins and have eternal life with God. But we are saved out from underneath our slavery to sin so that we can now live holy lives, pleasing to God, in walks of obedience to him, and no longer in addiction to sin, by his grace, in his power. But if nothing changes, and we don’t deny self and we don’t die to our sins and we disobey our Lord, in practice, then we don’t have salvation from sin, and we will not inherit eternal life with God.
Why? Because our salvation is not just forgiveness of sins and the hope of heaven when we die! If our salvation is of God, then it involves us dying to sin and obeying his commands, in practice, of the Spirit, by the Spirit, and not of our own human flesh. That is why the above says that we once were that whole list of sins. We should no longer be that. For Jesus died to free us from addiction to sin, and he lives to empower us to live for him and to do his will and to walk in his righteousness, in his power, for the glory of God.
[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]
As the Deer
By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1
As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You
You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You
Caution: This link may contain ads
According to His Mercy
An Original Work / April 20, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love
