#DailyDevotion The Father & Jesus Are Our God and Savior
Titus 34But when God our Savior showed how kind He is and how He loves us, 5He saved us, not because of any good works we did but because He was merciful. He saved us by the washing in which the Holy Spirit gives us a new birth and a new life. 6He poured a rich measure of this Spirit on us through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7to declare us righteous by His grace so that we may be heirs according to the hope of everlasting life.
When did God our Savior show us how kind he is an how he loved us? Actually, my first question is which person of the Trinity is Paul speaking of here? He says, “God our Savior.” Now it could be the Father. Salvation does have our source in him. Just in the last chapter, Paul designated Jesus as “our God and Savior.” (which is a big deal I should have talked about some more then) Yet in Paul’s writing the Father himself is also referred to as “God and Savior.” Yet in this passage, it seems Paul is working a Trinitarian angle on our salvation, which is right and good. For here we have “God and Savior,” “Jesus Christ,” and “Holy Spirit.”
The fact that Paul in the previous chapter calls Jesus “God and Savior” and now addresses the Father as “God and Savior” is a magnificent demonstration of the teaching of the Holy Trinity and that Jesus Christ is truly God. As in our baptismal formula “of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” shows the oneness, the unity, the singularity of God and the interpenetration of all their attributes, so too here as Paul addresses God the Father as “God and Savior” and Jesus as “God and Savior” he demonstrates their oneness of being, glory, honor, and purpose. This is the mystery of Christmas, that the second person of the Trinity becomes one of us while also remaining truly God.
Now it is time for the Christmas present. The rest of verses tell us what it is. God’s kindness and love is shown in that he saved us, “not because of any good works we did but because He was merciful.” Can there be any other good news. God doesn’t save us, doesn’t give us grace, because we’ve been good but because he is merciful. How does he save us (now here he is speaking of the mode in which we get saved today)? He does it by baptizing us with the water and the Word (the name of God). As the water and the word is poured upon us the Holy Spirit accompanies that word. The Holy Spirit gives us birth from above and gives us the eternal life of Christ Jesus. The Father pours upon us the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, “our Savior (equating Jesus with the Father),” even as the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus at his baptism. In this washing we become one with Jesus and through him, one with God the Father and one with the Holy Spirit.
In this washing, where we receive the Holy Spirit, the Father declares us righteous, justified as we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ Jesus in our oneness with him. If we are clothed with Christ’s righteousness then we are also heirs of the hope of everlasting life. For the new life we have received is Christ eternal life (testified to numerous times in John’s Gospel). All this is from the mercy of God and not from anything within you or what you did. It is his gift.
Heavenly Father, continually give us your Holy Spirit that we may glory in your mercy, kindness and love shown to us in Christ Jesus, your only Son our LORD, who lives and reign with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.