The Pulpit Commentary — Titus — Section 53

II, THAT REDEMPTIVE MEBOY BAB BEEN VOUOHBAFED TO US, AND TBBBEJ'OBE WP: MAY DE SAVED. "According to his mercy he saved us." Observe: 1. The special work of this redemptive mercy. What is the work? (1) Cleansing. "The washing of regeneration," or the" )aver of regeneration," as some render it. Bin is represented as a more.I defiler, and deliverance from sin, therefore, is a cleansing. (2) Renewal. "Renewing." Sin is represented as death, and deliverance from it is, therefore, a ouickening, a renewal. 2, The Divine Administrator of this redemptive mercy. "The Holy Ghost." No agency but that of God can either morally cleanse or renew. That Divine Agent which of old brooded over the face of the deep can alone morally recreate. 3. The glorious Medium of thi, redemptive mercy. "Through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Christ our Saviour is the Medium. Through him the Spirit came, by him the Spirit works, in him the Spirit is abundant. 4. The sublime result of this redemptive mercy. "That being justified by bis grace, we should [might] be ma.<le heirs according to the hope of eternal life." The word "justified" means to be made right-right in heart, right in life, right in relation to self, the universe, and God. What is it to be made right? To be put in possession of that spirit of love to God which is the spring of all "works of righteousness." This rectitude: (1) Inspires with the highest hope. "Hope of eternal life." What a bles~ing is hope! But the "hope of eternal life," what hope like this? (2) Inaugurates the highest relationship. "Heirs." We are "heirs of Uod, and joint heirs with JeMUS Christ."-D. T. Vere. 7, B.-Justi.fication; faith; works. "That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs," etc. There are three subjects .in these verses of vital interest to man which require to be brought out into prominence and impressed with indelible force. I. THE MORAL RECTIFICATION OF THE SOUL. .. Being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." This means, I presume, not that being pronounced right, but that bl::ing made right. Forensic justification is an old theological fiction. '!'hose who have held it and who still hold it have ideas of God incongruous and debased. They regard him as such a one as themselves. "To be justified" here means to be made right. There are three ideas here suggested in relation to this moral rectification of the soul. 1. .All souls in their unrenewed state are unrighteous. We do not require any special revelation from God to give us this information. Man's moral wrongness of soul is revealed in every page of human history, is developed in every scene of human life, and is a matter of painful consciousness to every man. We have all "erred and strayed from the right like lost sheep." 2. lte,;toratfon to righteousnes.< is the merciful work of God. "Being justified by hi• grace" -" bis gractJ, 11 his boundless, sovereign, unmerited love. Who but God c~n put a morally disordered soul right? To do this is to resuscitate the dead, to roll back the deep flowing tide of human sympathies into a new channel and a new direction, to arrest a wandering planet and plant it in a new orbit. He does it and he alone, He does it by the revelation of his Son, by the dispensations of life, the operations of con- science. "Lo, e.ll these things worketh God oftentimes with man, to bring back his suul from the pit, to he enlightened with the light of the living." 3. There ill the heir- ship of eternal good. " Being justified by his grace, we should be made heinl according to the hope of eternal life." Eternal life must mean something more than endless existence; for mere endless existence, under certain conditions, might be an object of dread rather than hope. It might mean perfect goodness. Goodness is eternal, for G.od is eternal Goodness is blessedness, for God is blessed. A virtuoua hope is no, hope for happiness, but a hope for perfect goodness. He whose soul is made morally right becomes an heir to all goodness. This heirship is not something added to this inner righteousness. It is in it as the plant is in the seed; Man's heaven ia in righteousness of soul and nowhere else. No man can be happy who is merely treated as righteous if he is not righteous. Such treatment, even by God himself, would only enhance his misery. To be treated ·as righteous if you are not righteous, is ao outrage on justice and a revulsion to moral nature. II. THE ESSENTIAL FOUNDATION OF ALL TBUB FAITH. "And they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good sod profitable unto men." 'l'he basis of o.11 true faith is faith ln God. In him, not in it.  68 THE EPISTLE TO TITUS. [ou. ID. 1-16.