Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Titus 3:5
C.H. Mackintosh once told of a woman who was concerned about the spiritual condition of a man of her acquaintance. When he spoke to her of his religion, she challenged him by saying that his religion did not have enough letters. Puzzled, he asked what she meant. ‘Your religion’, she told him, ‘has only two letters, d and o. Your religion is based on what you do for God. My religion,’ she continued, ‘has four letters, d, o, n, and e. And it’s not based on what I do but on what my Lord has done.’ The woman’s remarks left an impression on the man’s mind, and he determined to find out what his friend had meant. The next time he saw her, he was able to assure her that he was no longer depending on what he was doing but on what Christ has done. He now had enough letters. And so do we.
Hymn 7 in our Believers Hymn Book, No.1 in the New Believers Hymn Book, begins with the lovely words ‘A debtor to mercy alone, of covenant mercy I sing’. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines mercy as kindness or help given to people who are in a very bad or desperate situation. The legal dictionary defines mercy as the total or partial remission of a punishment to which a convict is subject. As found in the Scriptures, the word takes on those dictionary meanings, and more. We are often told by the preachers that God’s mercy withholds from us the wrath that our sins deserve. It matches with the grace of God, which provides us with the eternal blessings that we could never deserve. That means that anyone who tells you that their salvation is based on anything other than the mercy and grace of God does not have God’s salvation. How wonderful that as we realize our own weakness and failings that we can rest on the completeness of what Christ has done for us, and not on any efforts of our own!
Our text speaks of the washing of regeneration. It reminds me of the water softener that sits in a corner of our basement. Continually, it removes the excessive minerals from the water. But when the resin in the machine becomes clogged with mineral, the regeneration cycle washes the resin in a bath of salt water, releasing the minerals into the drain. You and I received such a regeneration when the blood of Jesus Christ washed away our sins when we first trusted in Him. And that regeneration process remains in effect every day of our lives. That is our positional cleansing. There is also the practical cleansing in which we are regenerated as we remain in sweet communion with our Lord. ‘But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin’ (1 John 1:7).
God’s mercy is precious to us as we consider how much we deserved judgment and how little we deserve salvation. – Jim MacIntosh