Good News In A Nutshell
Titus 3:4-7 NKJV
4 But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
The phrase, in a nutshell, means to put simply or in short. In these few verses to Titus, Paul puts the good news of what Jesus did for us in a short, succinct way that is very much worth paying extra attention to.
Paul had just told Titus to remind the people to remember where they were before the gospel came into their lives. This reminder was to help them govern how they treated people, especially those who were without God.
Then Paul reminds Titus of what God had done for humanity through Jesus. His kindness and love was revealed not because of our righteousness and goodness but because of His mercy. That’s something we need to constantly remember. There is a tendency to forget that we did not earn what Jesus did; it was all based on God’s love and mercy, not our goodness.
Paul then uses terms we don’t use much, washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. In everyday terms, regeneration means washing that generates a spiritual rebirth of the human spirit. And renewal of the Holy Spirit means renewing qualitatively or making someone a different person than they were in the past. I like how the NLT translates these verses “When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.” Salvation in a nutshell.
Paul continues to reveal God’s goodness toward us, revealing that the Holy Spirit was poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Maybe because we don’t feel His presence, it’s too easy to assign the Holy Spirit’s being poured out as a theological truth, not a real present experience. But it’s a good thing to acknowledge the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives. He is a very important third person of the Trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He is such a help and blessing to us!
And because we have been made right in God’s sight, we are heirs of all God has promised in Christ. There is so much in these short verses, and it’s all good news. Good news in a nutshell.
Prayer
Thank You, Lord, for Your mercy and kindness. Thank You for making me brand new and washing away my sins. Thank You for the confidence I have in You and Your promises to me.