Salvation Summaries

In my last two blog entries on the book of Titus, I answered several questions about salvation.  In this entry, I’ll address two final questions.

Can a person have assurance of eternal life? 

The answer to this question varies between Catholics and Protestants, and even among some Protestant denominations. Each has their own set of verses they use to answer this question.  Or, maybe another way of saying this is that, at least with regard to some verses, each has their own interpretation as to what these verses mean, and this interpretation can be traced back to a founder of the particular denomination or certain church fathers, who were different people with different biases.

My approach is to try to understand each verse about salvation, in each book of the Bible, without consulting the interpretation or views of any particular denomination.  If the verse(s) is difficult to understand, or I simply want more information about it, I will then use one or more commentaries and/or Bible dictionaries.

Since I am only reviewing the book of Titus as of now, my answer to this question will only be from this book.  That does not mean that my answer will be completely different when I review a different book of the Bible, for the Bible, at least when originally written, had no errors, and even with varied translations, there is consistency on issues among the various books.

The answer to this very important question is found in the book of Titus.  The verse is Titus 3:7, though I’ve included several preceding verses for context.  Also, as in my last blog entry, I am showing two different Bible translations.

• Titus 3:4-7   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. (NIV)

• Titus 3:4-7  4 But then God our Savior showed us his kindness and love.  5 He saved us, not because of the good things we did, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins and gave us a new life through the Holy Spirit.  6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us because of what Jesus Christ our Savior did.  7 He declared us not guilty because of his great kindness. And now we know that we will inherit eternal life.  (NLT)

Verses 4-6 show us why God saves others (because of His kindness, mercy and love), and how He saves a person (forgives their sins, gives them the Holy Spirit, and declares them not guilty).

The second part of verse 7…“we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life” seems to be the grande finale in this three-part play, and answers our question as “yes,” as it provides assurance of one’s salvation (“And now we know that we will inherit eternal life.”).  

Is there a relationship between being saved and performing good deeds?  

The short answer is “yes”, but before I provide the details to support this, I want to tell you a little story.  The story is true, and it relates to my answer.

Several years ago, when our oldest son, who was in 8th grade, was playing basketball, we attended an out-of-town basketball game.  During the game, the referees were not that good, and some of the parents from the Christian school where our son attended let the referees know that. On one particularly bad call, which was against a player on the other team, these  same parents did not object to the call; in fact, they didn’t say anything.  A lady parent of the home team though, who was apparently keeping the books for her team and sitting at the scorers table, strongly disagreed with the call (I had assumed at the time that it was her son who had been called for a foul).  She then became quite upset at the Christian parents, and yelled at them  to point out their inconsistency.  I don’t remember her exact words, but they were something to the effect of “how can you agree with that call” and then she blurted out “you’re supposed to be Christians!”  Clearly, how Christians behave, and the deeds they perform, do not go unnoticed by unbelievers.

Titus was charged with appointing elders and preaching to others in a very difficult environment on the Greek island of Crete.  Paul quoted someone from the island who described the people there as “liars, evil beasts and lazy gluttons.”  Paul added that there were many rebellious men, who were “empty talkers, deceivers and who upset entire families.”  Because of this, Paul wanted Titus to teach sound doctrine to others so that they would live godly rather than ungodly lives, and thus positively influence others on the island (“…so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.” Titus 2:8).

But the need to live in a godly way, and to perform good deeds, went beyond the desire to positively influence others.  It was a responsibility of the believers too.  Why?  Titus 2:12 says that Christ instructs us “to deny ungodliness, and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly.”  And why does Christ instruct believers to do this?  The answer is in verse 14 (he) “gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” In short, Christ died not only to redeem us from our sins and sinful lifestyle, but to purify us too for the purpose of what?  Performing good deeds.

To summarize, Christians are to receive sound teaching to help them live in a righteous and godly way, which includes performing good deeds.  They are to live this way to positively influence others who are not believers in Christ.  Jesus not only instructs Christians to do this, it is one of the reasons why He died.

CONCLUSION

This concludes my review of Titus.  In it, we learned answers to some very important questions about salvation. We learned how a person is saved (or becomes a Christian), what three things happen to a person when that person becomes saved, and whether a Christian can have assurance of eternal life (of going to heaven). We also learned that it is possible to know whether another person is saved (though we didn’t learn how), and whether there is a relationship between being a Christian and performing good deeds.

If I were to briefly summarize what Titus says about salvation, I would say this:

“Not saved by doing good things, but saved to do good things.”

I plan to review 1  Timothy next.  I hope you will continue to follow along with me as I uncover more and more of what the Bible has to say about this most important topic of salvation.