Titus 3:4-7 - Epiphany Reveals God's Kindness and Love - January 16, 2022

In every nation and culture that has ever existed, kindness and love have been seen as positive virtues, as qualities to be nurtured and encouraged and praised. But there’s a problem with kindness and love; two of them actually. First, these virtues are invisible; you can’t tell that someone is kind and loving just by looking at them. This is true of humans, obviously; but it’s also true of God. We can’t know what’s in God’s heart unless and until he reveals it to us. Second, as a result of sin, our world has perverted the virtues of love and kindness to justify truly evil behaviors. Euthanasia, abortion, same-sex marriage and, more recently, encouraging even children to identify as the opposite gender are all evils that are justified by perverted ideas of kindness and love. We’re not blameless either. How many times have we used kindness or love to justify not saying something to the friend or family member who is caught up in sin or unbelief? If we are honest with ourselves, don’t selfishness and a desire for recognition and glory taint even our kindest and most loving words and actions? Since sin has so ruined our concept of kindness and love, we need a refresher course from the One who is love and kindness (1 John 4:8). As we continue the season of Epiphany, Paul says that God has revealed his kindness and love to us and for us in three very real ways.

Epiphany comes from the Greek word epiphaino which means “to reveal or to appear.” It’s the word Paul uses in verse 4: when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward mankind appeared. This is profound: when Jesus appeared, both in Bethlehem as a baby, and in the Jordan River as the Savior of sinners, he revealed something about God that we could never have discovered by ourselves (Matthew 11:27): namely, that he is kind and loving. It was kindness because Jesus didn’t come for his own benefit, but for ours; not to gain anything for himself but to give up everything in order to gain salvation for us. And Jesus’ appearance reveals God’s love – a very specific kind of love. The word Paul uses here is philanthropia (our word philanthropy) – in that out of all the various parts and pieces of creation, God sent his Son not to save dogs or dolphins, but humans.

Now, it’s easy for us as Christians to take God’s love and kindness for granted – since we are reminded of them every time we open our Bibles, every time we hear the absolution, every time remember our Baptisms or receive Holy Communion. But God’s love and kindness stand in stark contrast Paul’s description of mankind in the verse preceding our text: at one time we ourselves were also foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by many kinds of evil desires and pleasures, living in malice and jealousy, being hated and hating one another. He’s not just describing what the world was like – that is, what unbelievers and pagans and idolaters were like – but that’s what we – Christians, believers – were like. Since it’s so tempting for us to exaggerate how kind and loving we are – God reveals the truth to us. We were not – and often are not – kind and loving. In fact, apart from him we were the complete opposite: foolish, disobedient and filled with hate. That’s what makes Christmas and Epiphany so astounding – not that they came from God, for he is love (1 John 4:8) – but that God loved us; poor, miserable, rotten creatures. Creatures who don’t deserve even an ounce of kindness or love.

That’s what Paul is emphasizing in his next statement: he saved us – not by righteous works that we did ourselves, but because of his mercy. It’s not just that God had to overlook those few times when we didn’t do the right thing, it’s not that we were good most of the time and only failed here or there – no, God didn’t save us because of any of the righteous things we had done…because there weren’t any. Isaiah says that all of our righteous acts look like filthy rags to God (Isaiah 64:6). Hebrews says that apart from faith, we can’t do anything good in God’s eyes (Hebrews 11:6). Therefore, the primary cause for God to send his Son into this world was not in us, but in him; not in our righteous works, but in his mercy. Mercy is pity or compassion in action for those in a hopeless condition. Our condition was hopeless: we were doomed to a short and miserable life here on earth and an eternity in hell. That’s why God stepped in and in his mercy sent his Son into this world. That’s why Christmas is not just a nice, heart-warming story and Jesus’ baptism is not just a interesting detail from his life. From Bethlehem to the Jordan to Calvary, Jesus’ time on this earth was not a leisurely vacation but the most dramatic rescue mission in human history.

Perhaps this gives us a better appreciation for the structure of the Christian church year. In Advent, we prepared to receive God’s Christmas gift. On Christmas we received God’s Christmas gift once again. But imagine if you received a gift and weren’t allowed to open it. That’s what the Epiphany season is about: unwrapping, unpacking, and understanding God’s Christmas gift to us. As we move from Epiphany into Lent, we will view firsthand Jesus’ path of suffering up to and on the cross – which was the price it cost to pay our debt of sin and earn our forgiveness. And then we leave Calvary to stand outside the empty tomb, where we see proof positive that the appearance of Jesus demonstrates God’s kindness and love which offers salvation to lost sinners (Romans 4:25).

Our faith and our certainty of salvation always start there – with the objective facts of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection – but it doesn’t end there. Paul goes on to explain how those facts apply to us: he saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. What is Paul describing here? Washing…rebirth…poured out. He’s talking about baptism. In no uncertain terms, Paul is stating that sinners are saved from hell when they are baptized with water and the Word. Rebirth and renewal are the two results of this washing. The first time you were born, what did you inherit from your parents besides your eye color and lame sense of humor? Sin and death. From the moment you took your first breath you were destined to fight against God’s will for you each and every day until your death. But when you were baptized, you were reborn – not in the image of your parents, but in the image of Jesus (Romans 6:3-5). Baptism is where everything Jesus did – his perfect life and his innocent death – become your personal possession. And along with rebirth, God worked renewal by the Holy Spirit in your Baptism. What is renewal? Well, do you know how every once in a while, one of your devices becomes corrupted and you need to restore the default factory settings. That’s the idea of renewal: the Holy Spirit restores the default settings he had originally given to Adam and Eve, so that we once again want what God wants (Romans 6:4). Through the renewal that God gave us in Baptism, we are again able to be kind and loving; to live not just to serve ourselves, but to serve God and others.

Now, not everyone believes what the Bible says about baptism. Some people think that baptism is something we do for God. They think of baptism as an act of obedience or an outward symbol of an inward commitment they have made. But listen again to Paul’s description of baptism – who is the doer, the active one in baptism? He saved us through the washing of rebirth and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are the active ones in baptism. He reaches into the dead, godless, lifeless hearts of all ages and creates faith in them and enables them to live for him. If it were up to us, even just a little; we would ruin it. But Epiphany reveals God’s unearned, undeserved kindness and love through the washing of Holy Baptism.

Finally, what is the end goal of all of this – why did God put so much effort into sending his Son into the world and giving us new birth and renewal in baptism? Paul concludes: so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs in keeping with the hope of eternal life. Contrary to what many believe and teach today, Jesus didn’t come to this earth so that we could all be rich and happy. He didn’t come to earth merely to give us advice on how we might have healthier marriages and families. He didn’t come to fulfill all of our dreams or so that we would have our best lives now. Everything that Jesus did he did for one reason: so that when we die, we wouldn’t be condemned to hell but instead inherit heaven. Usually, an heir receives an inheritance when someone else dies – but for us, as baptized believers – the inheritance of heaven is what we receive when we die.

This has a profound impact on our worldview, our entire outlook on life. Most people in our world today view life as something to be cherished and enjoyed to its fullest because, well, this is all there is (this pandemic has revealed this in a stark way: it has people behaving in all sorts of irrational and utterly panicked ways because they have no hope of eternal life). Many in our world live by the mantra You Only Live Once. Even Christians can get sucked into making a long and satisfying retirement in which they can check off all the things on their personal bucket lists as the ultimate goal of life. But as Christians, we know (or at least we should know) that this life is nothing more and nothing less than preparation for eternal life (Psalm 90:12). For Christians, the grave doesn’t mark the end of the story, but the beginning – for only when we have finally been freed from our slavery to sin, death and the devil will we truly begin to live life as God intended it to be.

Our hope as we walk out those doors to continue the daily war against Satan and every evil is that we are already victorious; that eternal life is ours. And this hope is not tenuous or uncertain – it’s not like the hope we have that the weather will warm up or that a particular football team will win this afternoon. No. Our hope of heaven is rock solid and certain. It is certainty that is grounded on the appearance of Jesus in this world to live, suffer and die as our perfect substitute. It is certainty that becomes ours when God applies his Son’s work to us personally in the sacrament of Holy Baptism. It is certainty that is sustained and strengthened by the countless promises our Father has given us in his Word, my favorite of which is this one from Isaiah: even if the mountains are removed, and the hills are overthrown, my mercy will not be removed from you, and my covenant of peace will not be overthrown, says the LORD (Isaiah 54:10). Amen.