Now comes the design of God. His kindness and love to man appeared in saving according to His own mercy, and with all fullness of favor at this present time: “That, having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to hope of eternal life” (ver. 7).
It is a mischievous mistake to suppose that the outpouring of the Holy Ghost on us richly is in order to our justification, as some have strangely conceived. All scripture proves that the gift of the Spirit follows faith, instead of being a preparation for justification. The effect is bad; for the Holy Ghost identifies His work with us: what He effects in and by us is ours. This accordingly would make the new work and walk of saints a means of justification, and thus grace would be no more grace. Not only does scripture else where uniformly prove the fallacy and the evil of such a view, but the very clause before us refutes it. For we are said to have been justified by the grace of God; or, as it is expressed in Rom. 8:3434Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. (Romans 8:34), “It is God that justifieth.” Certainly the believer is the last man to justify himself. God justifies, instead of laying anything to the charge of His elect, who abhor themselves before Him, owning not only their sins, but their nature as vile and corrupt. They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:2424Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: (Romans 3:24)). Here it is put as a fact emphatically. “Being, or having been, justified by His grace.” It is already done. Now grace on His part excludes desert on ours. “To him that worketh the reward is not reckoned as of grace but of debt, but to him that worketh not but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness,” and as reasoned out in Rom. 11:66And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. (Romans 11:6), “if by grace, no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.”
The grace of God assuredly produces works suitable to its source and its character. Holiness of walk follows in its train. But His grace implies necessarily that there is no good thing in us. It is therefore purely favor on His part as far as we are concerned. He has indeed taken care that there should be laid an immutable ground of righteousness; but this is in Christ and His work alone. It is in no way a question of desert in the object of His grace; who on the contrary is saved expressly and exclusively as a lost sinner. From the moment of new birth he becomes a saint and is called to walk thenceforth as such; but in this context it had been already and with precision laid down, “not out of works in righteousness which we had done, but according to His own mercy He saved us.” Christ dead and risen is the sole possible means of God's salvation; and His work of redemption is a righteous ground. For our passover also was sacrificed, Christ, Who died for our sins, having suffered Just for unjust, to bring us to God Who is glorified thereby, as never before, nor so by aught else.
But it is well to note that the apostle speaks of justification with a triple connection. In Rom. 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1), it is justified by or out of faith. There is no other principle on which it could be without compromise. We look out of ourselves to Christ, and rest only on Him raised from among the dead, Who was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification. Therefore have we peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is of faith, not of works of law; and these were the two competing principles. If any works could justify a man, it must have been the works of God's law. Works of man's device could have no value with God. Works of law would have been all well, if man could do them. The truth is that man, being now a sinner, could not possibly face them. “All sinned, and do come short of the glory of God,” which becomes the measure now that Eden is lost by sin. All his works are necessarily vitiated by his fallen condition, even if he had not been as he is powerless through sin. Works of law therefore are wholly unavailing, save to detect and manifest the ruin of a sinner. If he is to be justified, it must be through Another by grace; and therefore it can only be by faith (ἐκ π.), not by law works. That the apostle in Rom. 5:11Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1) asserts, with its blessed results for our souls toward God, past, present, and future.
But in ver. 9 of the same chapter we are told that we have been justified in (4) His blood. Here the efficacious cause comes forward. Without the blood of Christ no sin could be purged really and forever before God. But the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth from every sin, as John declares. Hence if God justifies us, it is in virtue, or in the power, of Christ's blood; and having been now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” Our sins were the great difficulty, as the believer truly felt; but now they are gone, and he is justified and to be saved. Such is the confident assurance to us of the apostle: a monstrous piece of presumption and cruel cheat, if he had not been inspired of God to declare it as righteous and true.
In our text, Titus 3:77That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:7), we are directed to the source from which justification flows. It is the grace of God, and not any merit in its objects. It is therefore an unfailing source, with a ground which justifies God no less than the repentant soul. The result is according to the mind and love of God, “that, having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to hope of eternal life.” It is difficult to conceive anything more complete than these three statements of the same apostle. The accuracy of the form too is as striking as the truth conveyed is blessed to him who believes. Indeed it is a threefold cord which cannot be broken for him who trusts God by grace.
Some object to “heirs” standing alone; but it is all the more emphatic because it does. In Rom. 8:16, 1716The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8:16‑17), we are told that we who believe are children of God; and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and Christ's joint-heirs. Again, in Gal. 4, the believer is no longer a bondman but a son, and if son, heir also through God (assuredly not through man, himself or others). Thus we learn the double truth, that by faith, not by works of law, we are heirs of God, and this through God. All is sovereign grace. It is He Who made us His heirs; and we are to inherit what Christ will inherit in glory. To Titus the apostle speaks so as to leave us “heirs” all the more largely, because it is quite indefinite.
But we have important words which accompany it: “Heirs according to hope of eternal life.” This life in Christ is the believer's now; but we have it in a body fall of weakness, compassed with infirmities, and in fact mortal. It will not be so when our hope is accomplished at the coming of Christ. Eternal life will be no longer hid with Christ in God, but manifested according to all the power of His glory, as it is even now the gift, the inestimable gift, of God's grace. So in the end of Rom. 6:2222But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. (Romans 6:22), we read, “Ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life.” The glorious future is here before us; then and there alone will the full character of eternal life be seen unhindered. But it is no less really true now, as the next verse (23) shows; for if the wages of sin is death, “the free gift of God (flowing from His favor) is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord!” This is His present gift in Christ. What a privilege for the believer to enjoy now! What a responsibility to walk accordingly and bear a true witness to Him! It is nothing less than Christ in us the hope of glory. When He comes to Israel, the glory will be possessed and manifest. We have Him as life while He is hidden in God; and when He shall be manifested, then shall we also with Him be manifested in glory.