Affirmation

There is some pretty straight teaching here in Titus.  Be an affirmation of what you believe. To affirm means to attest to the truth of something. In court you can be put on the stand by affirming that what you say it is the truth.  In verse 8 of Titus chapter 3 we see this exact word. “This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men.”  We “affirm constantly” and the reason is in the rest of the verse-“be careful to maintain good works.”

Affirmation is looked at in various ways by the religious world.  To some it is a ritual. We teach that one must believe on the Lord for salvation. The affirmation comes in how we live. It’s putting faith into practice, a visible showing of faith for the good of others who need to know Jesus as Savior.

Our own possession of salvation is broken down here and affirmed as a daily practice. When verse 8 says constantly affirm “these things” it is referring to maintaining good works. Show it!  How? We do it by understanding what we believe.  We do the right thing.  It is not good deeds. Anyone can do a good deed. It is good works.  Understand that we are not saved by any work or deed, only by the one deed of Jesus when he died for us on the cross. Good works is doing right by your own salvation. It does no good to say you are saved if your life does not affirm it. Just as a fruit tree bears what is within, we will. It points to who we are within. By that Christianity is proven to the world. It is of supreme importance that the world sees Jesus, and we have to show him to them. Because God is “in here,” that is in our heart, we can put him “out there” into the world. We’re important to the Lord because we’re important to the unsaved.

The first way we affirm is by ceasing what we were. In verse 3 Paul wrote “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.” We were these at one time. In this context, when it comes to our Christianity we are to be “were people” not “are people” in regard to our old sinful life. We can mess up, act foolish, be disobedient, and give into lusts and pleasures. We can have malice and mean harm to someone. We can be hateful. When we “are” what we “were” we should feel the wrong in it. We practiced these things  before salvation. Sin ruled. We are not to practice them now. When we do sin, we are to ask the Lord for his forgiveness. When we don’t, we do not affirm Christianity. This puts us in constant disobedience to God. We become a stumbling block. Stop.  Put it away. Remember what you are now. I don’t have to be mean and hateful, and you don’t either. There should be guilt. Paul said we die daily. Move to correct the wrong, control the temper; don’t be too proud; be humble and admit sin. We become a snare on salvation when we let these things creep in and do nothing about them. We have a choice. We can live in the Spirit and not the flesh.

The second way to affirm is to have a right view, attitude and approach to God’s Word. Verses 9-11 say “But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject; Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.”

Don’t turn salvation into religion. It’s not something to ritualistically follow. Don’t approach the Bible from a solely intellectual standpoint. Don’t be a debater of the Word. The Bible is discerned spiritually not intellectually. People can get hung up on things. The mysteries of God are the mysteries of God. Don’t major on the minors. God ever reveals his Word to us. He feeds us from the same Bible. Being intellectual about the Bible and the Lord does not equate to heart knowledge.  This type of thing is discouraging to others. It becomes like the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They had a time tearing each other down. Jesus was just who he was.  It’s not up to us to know it all, but it is up to us to know the ONE who knows it all.

Debating is a haughty, non-spiritual approach, and you can lose faith when you look at Christianity in this respect.  One can become a heretic.  This is someone who departs from the faith he once believed. He professes Christianity and ceases to acknowledge the Bible as the inerrant, infallible Word of God. He professes Christianity and doesn’t believe the blood is essential to salvation. He puts faith in ceremony or just flat out denies what he used to believe. Departing from the faith leads to apostasy. To believe and practice this is to be a heretic. We do not pick and choose from the Bible.

We must have a personal relationship with God to live a life that is an affirmation of God’s principles. When we deny this and thereby become heretic, the Bible says that “after the first and second admonition” we are to reject that person. He is perverted in his ways and has condemned himself. May our life ever be an affirmation of salvation through the grace of God in his ONLY son Jesus Christ.

Next week we’ll look at verses 4-7.

“4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, 5 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; 6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; 7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

How do we transform these points of our faith into visible practice?