Lessons #67 and 68
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual exposition not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GWT = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Reasons to be considerate of others (Titus 3:3-7)
3 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. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 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, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
We are concerned in this passage with the reasons we are to be considerate of unbelievers as we deal with them. The first reason we have considered for being considerate of unbelievers as we interact with them is because when we were unbelievers, we use to behave badly as they do. Consequently, we considered six things that remind us of how badly we behaved as unbelievers. The first is spiritual insensitivity. The second is life of disobedience. The third is experience of deception. The fourth is preoccupation with passions and pleasures. The Fifth concerns a behavior that is mean-spirited and resentful towards a person because of the individual’s possession or advantage in life. The sixth concerns a life of hatred. Hence, we proceed to consider the second major reason to be sensitive in dealing with unbelievers.
A second reason we should be considerate or sensitive to unbelievers is that although we use to be like them, but we are now saved. In effect, we should remember that although we use to behave like they do but our status has changed in that we have eternal life and the Holy Spirit lives in us. The presence of the Holy Spirit in our souls makes all the difference between our conduct as unbelievers and now as believers. You see, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul reminded us how we use to be as unbelievers by providing us the six things we listed previously that are proofs of how badly we use to behave. However, it is expected that we should no longer behave badly so that there should be no difficulty of distinguishing believers from unbelievers. Anyway, the apostle conveys there is a difference in status between us and unbelievers. It is this difference that is introduced with the conjunction but that begins verse 4 in nearly all our English versions. The translators of the CEV omitted it probably because they considered the Greek conjunction (de) used as merely a conjunction that is used to continue the thought presented in verse 3, in which case, it is permissible to leave the Greek conjunction untranslated. This approach notwithstanding, it is preferable to begin verse 4 with the conjunction “but” or “however” to indicate the apostle intended for us to recognize that what is stated beginning in verse 4 contrasts what was given in verse 3. For both verses contain elements of time that unless we recognize that there is contrasting idea will not make much logical sense. Verse 3 in the Greek contains a phrase that literally may be translated for formerly and verse 4 contains a Greek phrase that may be translated but when. So, there is the sense that a comparison is being made between the spiritual status stated in verse 3 and that stated beginning in verse 4. It is for this reason that it is better that verse 4 should begin with a contrasting conjunction so there can be no doubt that the intent of the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul is to contrast between what believers were prior to their salvation and what they are after being saved. In any event, the apostle wants to convey that the reason we should be tolerant or sensitive to unbelievers is because we are now different from them in the sense that we are saved.
The focus of the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul in verses 4 to 7 of the third chapter of Titus is our salvation which is conveyed in the first sentence of verse 5 he saved us. The apostle in using the pronoun us includes himself along with all believers in Crete, Jews and Gentiles, as the recipients of God’s salvation. In effect, the pronoun us although technically, because of the context, refers to Paul and believers in Crete, includes every believer in Christ both when the apostle wrote and now.
What does the apostle mean when he wrote he saved us? This may sound to be a trivial question. But is it? My answer is that it is not, not only because the apostle has much to say about salvation in the passage before us but because quite often we think we know what something means until we find it difficult to explain what it is that we think we know. This may be the case for some of us in that we may say that we know that we are saved but may not know what it all means other than we know we are going to heaven because we have believed in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit recognized this that He directed the apostle to write about our salvation in the passage before us. But before we get to that, we should be certain we understand what it means when a person says the individual is saved.
To answer the question of what it means to be saved, let us consider the word “saved” used in our passage. It is translated from a Greek verb (sōzō) that is used both in physical and spiritual senses. In a physical sense, it refers to preservation or rescue from natural dangers and afflictions so means “to save” with several nuances. It may mean to save in the sense of being delivered from physical death as the word is used in the taunts of the Jews towards Jesus when He was on the cross, as we read in Matthew 27:40:
and saying, “You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!”
To save means to free from disease or to be restored to health as it is used in James 5:15:
And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.
The sentence the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well is more literally the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick. To save may refer to bringing out someone safely from a situation that is fraught with mortal danger, as the word is used to describe the deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, as stated in Jude 5:
Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.
The verbal phrase delivered his people out of Egypt is literally having saved the people out of the land of Egypt. In a spiritual sense, the word refers to the deliverance from eternal death or eternal destruction or deliverance from everything that leads to eternal death such as sin. It is in the spiritual sense of deliverance from eternal death that the word is used to describe the expected final fate of the believer placed under discipline in the church in Corinth, as stated in 1 Corinthians 5:5:
hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.
The clause so that the sinful nature may be destroyed is literally for the destruction of the flesh/body. The saving of the spirit refers to deliverance from eternal death.
It is in the spiritual sense of deliverance that the word is used in Titus 3:5. This being the case, the simplest answer of what it means to be saved is that a person is delivered from eternal death that involves permanent separation from God and anything good that comes from Him. There is more to what it means to be saved that the apostle described in the passage we are considering but for the moment we want to present to you the simplest explanation of what it means to be saved in the sense of deliverance from eternal death and from permanent separation from God.
By the way, the Greek tense (aorist) the apostle used in the sentence he saved us in Titus 3:5 implies he considered salvation as an act of God that took place in the past implying that once that takes place it cannot be undone or repeated. Of course, the apostle presents salvation as an event that involves three phases regarding time, that is, past, present, and future. The past phase is completed in the sense of permanent state of deliverance from separation from God. The apostle presents salvation as still ongoing, that is, the present phase of salvation. It is in this sense that he used the Greek word that means “to save” in 1 Corinthians 1:18:
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The present phase of salvation involves continual deliverance from sins since salvation is concerned with deliverance from sin, as indicated in the declaration of Matthew 1:21:
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
The last phase of salvation is in the future so that the apostle could present salvation as something that is yet to take place, according to Romans 5:10:
For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
This final salvation means that we will ultimately be delivered from the power and presence of sin as well as from God’s judgment or wrath. Although we are saved but we still succumb to sin and so draw God’s judgment but when the final salvation takes place we will no longer be under the control and power of sin and so there will no longer be any possible punishment for us. Because these three phases of salvation are important to understand, we will repeat them before we end our consideration of Titus 3:3-7. In any event, the point we are emphasizing is that there is more to the sentence he saved us of Titus 3:5. In other words, the Holy Spirit through the apostle provided for us six facts we should understand regarding our salvation.
A first fact about our salvation is that it happened with the appearing of goodness of God our Savior. It is this fact that is given in Titus 3:4 in the clause when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared. The sense of time in this clause is given in the adverb “when” that is translated from a Greek adverb (hote) that refers to a marker of a point of time that coincides with another point of time hence means “when” as it is used by Apostle Paul to indicate that we are a step closer to our ultimate salvation compared to the time when we believed, as recorded in Romans 13:11:
And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.
The word may mean “while, as long as,” when it is used as marker of a period of time coextensive with another period of time, as the apostle used the word to describe the period of time, we were unbelievers in 1 Corinthians 12:2:
You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.
In our passage of Titus 3:4, the apostle used it as a marker of time that coincides with another point of time. In other words, the apostle used it to describe the time that salvation planned by God, became a reality in an undeniable manner. By this we mean, that there is a specific period when the concept of eternal salvation was made clearer on this planet.
Apostle Paul makes references to this concept of specific period when the concept of eternal salvation was made clearer. He refers to the right or proper time God chose for Christ’s death on the cross for us in Romans 5:6:
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.
He referred to the same concept with respect to the incarnation in Galatians 4:4:
But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law,
When we think of time, we generally mean the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues. This is not the sense in both passages; instead it refers a period when something happens, that is, occasion. The concept of time is for human benefit but from God’s perspective, it is the concept of events that are most appropriate. In other words, God has several events in His plan that must take place before the event related to the clearer revelation of the concept of salvation through the coming of Jesus Christ into the world. First, Israel had to be enslaved for a period of four hundred years according to the words of the Lord to Abraham concerning his descendants. Second, the law had to be given to Moses to supervise the conduct of mankind and to bring the sense of condemnation to mankind because of sin. Third, the land of Canaan must be conquered so that the world would begin to learn that there is a true God who does not tolerate idolatry. Fourth, Israel would establish itself as a dominant force in history as a nation whose God is the Lord. Fifth, Israel had to go into captivity to teach it and the world that God punishes those who reject Him in favor of idolatry. Sixth, the Jews had to return from Babylonian captivity and once more be established in Jerusalem. Seventh, the Hebrew Bible had to be translated into the Greek (the Septuagint). This had to happen because of the influence the Hebrew Bible would have in the Roman world. Eighth, the Roman Empire had to become the dominant Empire in the world. For it was at this time that the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. Thus, there are several events in God’s plan that had to have been fulfilled before the clearer revelation of the concept of eternal salvation.
The time or occasion of this fuller revelation of God’s salvation is the incarnation as implied in what the apostle wrote to the Galatians. It is this occasion or time of incarnation that the apostle was concerned when he wrote in Titus 3:4 when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared. We contend that this clause is concerned with incarnation. For one thing, God’s kindness and love have been shown to Israel in different points in their history so that what the apostle had in mind is a demonstration of the kindness and love of God of the type that has not been previously understood. This being the case, we need to establish that the clause is indeed concerned with the occasion or event of the incarnation when the Son of God took on human flesh and came into this world to die for our sins.
To establish that the clause when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared is concerned with incarnation, we need to examine the key words in the clause. The word “kindness” is translated from a Greek word (chrēstotēs) that may refer to an event or activity which is useful or benevolent hence means “useful, good” as in Romans 3:12:
All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good,
not even one.”
Another meaning of the word is “kindness” as the quality of being helpful or beneficial, as it is used of God in Romans 2:4:
Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?
The meaning “kindness” is used to describe the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
In the Septuagint, our Greek word is used to translate a Hebrew word (ṭûḇ) that means “goodness” in Psalm 31:19:
How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you.
Thus, God’s goodness is a concept known in the OT time since it is presented in this psalm as that which God dispenses to those who honor Him. In our passage, it is God’s kindness in the sense of being considerate and sympathetic that the word is used in Titus 3:4.
The word “love” in the clause of Titus 3:4 when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared is translated not from the usual Greek word (agapē) that means “love” but from a Greek word (philanthrōpia) from which we get our English word “philanthropy”; it pertains to affectionate concern for and interest in humanity used only twice in the NT. In its other usage, it is in the sense of showing kindness or friendliness by the islanders of Malta that welcomed Apostle Paul and those with him that the word is used in Acts 28:2:
The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold.
It is in the sense of “affection for people” or “love” that it is used in Titus 3:4 regarding God’s concern to do something about humanity that is marred by sin. Nonetheless, the Greek word translated “love” in the NIV was probably used to explain the first Greek word translated “kindness” since both words have the common meaning of kindness. The second word translated “love” in the NIV, as we have stated, is used to emphasize the goodness of God and His concern to do something for mankind that is marred by sin.
The word “appeared” is translated from a Greek word (epiphainō) that may mean “to illuminate, to shine upon”, as in Zechariah’s song regarding God’s action in Luke 1:79:
to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
The word may mean “to appear” as the apostle used the word regarding the grace of God as it pertains to our salvation in Titus 2:11:
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
It is in the sense of “to appear” that the word is used in our passage.
Humans are capable of kindness or affection for others that the apostle wanted to ensure that the kindness or love that he is concerned is that from God hence the phrase of God our Savior. It is God our Savior that acts in loving kindness towards us so that we should not doubt of God’s kindness or love towards us. This loving kindness is from the Godhead since the apostle used the phrase God our Savior. We use the term “Godhead” because the apostle did not provide an immediate description that will indicate he was concerned with a specific member of the Godhead although it is possible to make a case for the phrase our Savior to refer to God the Father based on what the apostle writes in the fact that the apostle later makes references to God the Holy Spirit and God the Son. However, there is no other example of the apostle applying the phrase our Savior to God the Father instead such a phrase is applied to Jesus Christ when God the Father is referenced as in Titus 1:4:
To Titus, my true son in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Furthermore, the apostle had used the phrase God our Savior for two members of the Godhead, the Father and the Son in a way to convey that Jesus Christ is God in Titus 1:3:
and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,
We asserted that the phrase God our Savior refers to the Father and the Son here in Titus 1:3 because the apostle elsewhere indicates that he was commissioned by God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in Galatians 1:1:
Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—
Of course, the apostle used the phrase God our Savior to indicate he was commissioned by the Lord Jesus in 1 Timothy 1:1:
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,
In any event, it is our assertion that the phrase God our Savior in Titus 3:4 is used as a reference to the Godhead without specifying any member of the Godhead. Our salvation is indeed the work of the Godhead although specific functions are specified as belonging to each member of the Godhead but when we think of salvation, it is the joint work of the members of the Godhead.
The goodness of God as seen in His kindness and love came into specific view when the incarnation took place. In effect, as we have indicated previously, the clause when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared should be understood as a reference to the incarnation. God appeared in human form, as stated in John 1:14:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Word refers to the Son of God who is also God, as stated in John 1:1:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
When God became flesh that is the highest demonstration of God’s goodness or love for humanity. Thus, it was once Christ came into the world that it became clearer that God’s salvation is being implemented. In other words, the coming of Jesus Christ into the world signals the ultimate expression of God’s love and His absolute faithfulness to His covenant, as Apostle John stated in John 1:17:
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Some take this passage as a contrast between the Law and grace but that is not the case. The passage conveys that God gave the Law through Moses and He showed His kind love and revealed truth about Himself through Jesus Christ. In each case, God was acting. Law the Lord gave to Israel was a demonstration of His goodness towards them when we understand that the Law was for Israel’s benefit. That aside, it is the coming of Jesus into the world that signaled full revelation of God’s love and of Himself. The point we are stressing is that the clause when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared is concerned with the incarnation that signaled in a clearer way the bringing of God’s salvation to humans. The incarnation is what made it possible for Christ to eventually accomplish our salvation when He paid for our sins on the cross. Hence the first fact about our salvation is that it happened with the appearing of goodness of God our Savior, that is, it happened when the incarnation took place and the resultant work of Christ paying for our sins on the cross. God’s salvation reveals His love but His love is one that is independent of the character of the recipients. Consequently, the Holy Spirit through the apostle states the second fact we should know about salvation.
A second fact about our salvation is that it is because of God’s mercy and not our good works. It is this fact that the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul stated in the clause of Titus 3:5 not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. The apostle began with the negative that is given in an emphatic manner or that shuts down any thought that a human being could possibly have with respect to salvation through the person’s good works. We say this because the negative clause of the NIV is literally not because of works the ones in righteousness which we, we did. In the literal translation, the personal pronoun “we” appears twice which is redundant in the English but the Greek construction that warrants such literal translation is one that is intended to convey that there is emphasis on the pronoun “we”, emphasizing human effort. Thus, the apostle emphasized the fact that we ourselves are incapable of doing any good work that will lead to salvation.
The translators of the NIV rendered the literal Greek phrase works the ones in righteousness as righteous things. The apostle used the qualifiers the ones and righteousness in the Greek probably because he was aware that we humans tend to compare our works to others, as implied by the declaration of Apostle Paul in Galatians 6:4:
Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else,
Furthermore, our actions can be morally good or evil as it is used to describe Cain’s actions in comparison to those of Abel in 1 John 3:12:
Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.
Thus, it was necessary for the apostle to qualify what he meant in using a Greek word that means “work.”
The word “things” of the NIV of Titus 3:5 is a possible translation of the Greek word (ergon) used in Titus 3:5 with a range of meanings. It may mean that which is brought into being by work, hence means “product, undertaking, work.” It is in the sense of “product” that the Greek word is used in 1 Corinthians 3:13:
his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work.
Here “work” refers to “product” or “undertaking” so that the meaning “building” is possible as suggested in the standard Greek English lexicon of BADG. In fact, the NJB used the meaning “handiwork” to translate our Greek word that is translated “work” in this passage. The word may mean “action” as it is used by Apostle Paul to address the feeling of some Corinthians who felt the apostle was timid when with them but uses his pen forcefully in 2 Corinthians 10:11:
Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present.
The word may mean “deed” as in the instruction of the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul in Colossians 3:17:
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
The word may mean “task” as in the office of an overseer in 1 Timothy 3:1:
Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task.
In our passage of Titus 3:5, the Greek word means “deed.” Since we have noted that our activities could be morally evil or good, it is necessary for the apostle to qualify the deed he meant with the word “righteousness.”
The word “righteousness” is translated from a Greek word (dikaiosynē) that may mean the act of doing what God requires so that the word carries the sense of “charity, gift of mercy” as that is the sense of the word in Matthew 6:1:
“Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
The instruction Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men is more literally take care not to practice your righteousness before men/people. Righteousness that should not be practiced refers to charitable giving. The Greek word may mean “justice, fairness” as it is used in describing how God will judge the world in Acts 17:31:
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”
The phrase with justice is translated in righteousness in many of our English versions while others used the meaning “fairness” in their translation. The word may refer to the quality of upright behavior hence means “uprightness, righteousness” that believers should pursue, as in 1 Timothy 6:11:
But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
The sense of the Greek word in Titus 3:5 is that of quality of upright behavior. Thus, the apostle is declaring that even deeds that could be considered as done in uprightness of character do not earn salvation.
Why is it that our deeds as unbelievers even when performed in uprightness of character does not earn salvation? It is because humans are spiritually dead. By saying that humans are spiritually dead we mean that humans although physically alive but they do not have spiritual life, that is, they do not share God’s life and so are completely indifferent towards the things of God. In short, humans are totally alienated from God. It is this spiritual deadness of humanity that the Lord first warned Adam would take place once he disobeyed Him, as we read in Genesis 2:17:
but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”
The Holy Spirit states to us this spiritual deadness via Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2:1:
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
Thus, the problem of humanity is that of lack of spiritual life. In other words, what any human needs is spiritual life that will enable the person to be in the right relationship with God. This being the case, it is impossible to obtain spiritual life by anything we do. Life is indeed a gift from God. We can understand this truth from our physical life. There is nothing that any human being did to become alive. God gives every human being born in this planet life as he did with the first parents Adam and Eve. We know this because it is after God created man’s body that He gave him life, as stated in Genesis 2:7:
the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Consequently, physical life is a gift from God to any human being born into this world. That life of any kind is a gift from God is also affirmed in the matter of eternal life, as recorded in Romans 6:23:
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The apostle asserts that eternal life is a gift and so a grace act of God. This means that there is no work that can earn eternal life for otherwise eternal life ceases to be a gift and becomes a payment for work done as the apostle argued in his defense of election when he wrote in
Romans 11:6:
And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
The point is that spiritual life that a person needs to have the right relationship with God or so as not to be separated from Him is a gift from Him. This alone indicates that there is nothing a person could do to earn eternal life or to be saved. Thus, because humans are spiritually dead and eternal life is a gift of God’s grace then there is no way any deeds performed in the uprightness of character will lead to salvation.
Another reason any deeds performed in the uprightness of character will never lead to a person being saved is that there is no one with uprightness of character. Bildad, Job’s friend, understood this truth, as he conveyed in Job 25:4–6:
4How then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure? 5If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, 6 how much less man, who is but a maggot—a son of man, who is only a worm!”
The psalmist understood the same truth that he asserted there is no one that is righteous before God in Psalm 143:2:
Do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you.
The fact that no human being can be pure before God on his own or is righteous before Him conveys the impossibility of doing any deed with the uprightness of character to merit salvation. By nature, we humans are flawed due to sin as that is what is also conveyed in Romans 3:23:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
We have fallen short of the glory of God in that because of sin we forfeited the likeness of God that we are intended to bear and so we have also forfeited God’s approval of us. Anyway, because there is no naturally born human that has uprightness of character means that no naturally born human can produce deeds in uprightness of character that will lead to salvation.
Another reason any deeds performed in the uprightness of character will never lead to a person being saved is that no human deeds meet God’s approval that could change a spiritually dead person to being spiritually alive. The Holy Spirit reveals to us what God thinks about our human righteousness in Isaiah 64:6:
All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
The expression “filthy rags” is literally from the Hebrew “clothing of menstruation.” This is because we have two Hebrew nouns. The first noun is the Hebrew word (běḡěḏ) that means any clothing of a general kind, from the filthy clothing of the leper to the holy robes of the high priest, the simplest covering of the poor as well as the costly raiment of the rich and noble, hence “a garment, cloak, a bed sheet.” The second noun is the Hebrew word (˓iddâ) that means “menstruation, that which applies to menstruation.” It is used for a filthy rag or a stained garment. The translation “filthy rags” adopted by most of our English versions with few exceptions, such as the CEB that used the phrase a menstrual rag, did so probably not to give offense to people but in doing so lost the shock value or impact the Lord wanted to get to us regarding His view of our human righteousness or good works. A menstrual cloth is quite offensive or disgusting to everyone who knows what it is, except perhaps the woman that uses it. My description may be causing some people some difficulty or may be making some people uncomfortable. If so, that is precisely what the Holy Spirit intends. I believe that the Holy Spirit directed the prophet to use such a disgusting description to create on us the impact of how God views our righteous acts. It is because we do not understand how offensive or disgusting our so-called morality or righteous deeds are before God that many people in their blind arrogance do not understand there is no way they can obtain salvation through their works. It is not only that God through the prophet states what He thinks of our good deeds but He illustrated the bankruptcy of human good deeds regarding salvation in the instruction given to a religious man, Cornelius, to send for Peter to give him the gospel message of how to obtain eternal life through faith in Christ. It is this demonstration that is described Acts 10:4-5:
4 Cornelius stared at him in fear. "What is it, Lord?" he asked. The angel answered, "Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. 5 Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.
Certainly, if good works were sufficient to be saved then it is hard to understand why the angel asked Cornelius to look for Peter. As the rest of Acts 10 reveals, the purpose of Peter’s visit was to declare the gospel message that salvation is possible only by way of faith in Christ. Hence, there is no way for human deeds to bring about salvation, not even observing the Law as Apostle Paul states in Romans 3:20:
Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
The point is that no human should think that by doing good deeds the individual will be saved since the fundamental problem is that of being spiritually dead. Therefore, nothing we can do to change this. It is for this reason that God offered His Son on the cross for us so that we can have eternal life.
09/29/17