Salvation is from the Lord

Welcome back! I'll post our focus passage here again:

Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ to further the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— in the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, and which now at his appointed season he has brought to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior, To Titus, my true son in our common faith:

Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. (Titus 1:1-4)

Our discussions have been focused on how we Christians can live holy lives in the midst of a pagan world.

We've already discovered in these verses that step one is to be saved! Well, that makes sense, right? And Paul is very interested in his readers understanding that salvation is from the Lord - it's not due to anything good that we have done, nor anything good within us. It's a gift from our Creator.

Now, Paul states that our faith and the knowledge of truth (from our study of His Word) rest upon the hope of eternal life. Hmmmmm, hope could be understood in one of two ways . . . it may refer to our hope in God's promise of eternal life. Or, it may refer to the "hope which is eternal life." By that, the scholars say, we mean that God's promise of eternal life is in itself a hope-filled promise. Only God can promise and fulfill that gift of eternal life.

Eternal life is our hope.

But this hope is not uncertain. It's not like when we say, "I sure hope the team wins tonight."   It's not like when we tell someone, "I certainly hope I get that job I applied for." 

Biblical hope is absolutely certain -- but not yet realized. That absolute certainty rests on God's character. It is He Who promises; He is the God Who cannot lie. We have many verses in both the Old and the New Testaments which tell us:

God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be greatly encouraged. (Hebrews 6:18)

He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.” (I Samuel 15:29)

if we are faithless,
    he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself. (II Timothy 2:13)

 He is incapable of lying. He ALWAYS speaks the truth. 

Think what a startling concept that would be for the Cretans, to whom Titus was ministering as pastor. The people of the island of Crete were notorious liars! 

Jesus is the Truth, and He always speaks the truth. Jesus called Satan the "father of lies" in the gospel of John (John 8:44). Way back in the weeds and in the mists of the early earth, Satan duped Eve with the lie that God's Word was not true. He told her (and she fell for it) that if she ate of the forbidden fruit, she would actually be like God. Not gonna die, he said. And it's Adam and Eve who fell for the lie and the human race was plunged into sin. And alienation from God.

Ever since that time, people have fallen for the lie that they can find happiness and eternal life apart from the true, living God. Paul says that God gave this promise "long ages ago." In other words, He planned our salvation even before the foundation of the world. (Ephesians 1)

The promise was there even before there were people who needed it. Our hope of eternal life is secure, because it is rooted in God's eternal promise! God alone is the author of life: when He created the world, He breathed life into every living creature, and then created man and woman as living beings, created in His image.

When Adam and Eve fell, they died spiritually. Spiritual death means separation from the life of God. Spiritually dead people cannot will themselves into spiritual life. They can't force it to happen. No matter how hard they try, or how creatively they try to make it happen. Salvation in Jesus is nothing less than God's hand, reaching down to us and raising us from death to life.

So, Paul is telling his readers that salvation comes from God. Man has nothing to do with it. So then, how does God's salvation come to lost sinners?

I'm glad you asked . . . . we will start there next time.