Gifts For You From The Lord God

Titus 3:4-7

Christmas is the day when Christians celebrate the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ.  Young children can hardly wait to get up on Christmas morning in order to open their presents, and oftentimes adults are eager, too, to see what awaits them under the Christmas tree.  New toys, new clothes, books, and items related to our favorite hobbies are gifts we eagerly open. On Christmas morning God gave us the greatest gift of all, His Son, Jesus Christ. Along with the gift of His Son, there are many other gifts that come with and through Him.  As we take a close look at our Scripture passage today from Paul’s letter to Titus, we can see some of those gifts given to us from the Lord.

Wrapped up in the package of His Son, Jesus Christ, we see the gifts of kindness and love, mercy, cleansing from sin, regeneration and renewing through the Holy Spirit, justification, grace, becoming an heir, and of course, salvation and eternal life.  Let’s take a quick look at these gifts we receive from God.

Paul mentions in verse 4 that we receive kindness and love from God.  Both of these virtues are part of God’s character. Jesus is kindness and love incarnate, appearing in human form.  Everyone wants to have kindness shown to them, and certainly we all yearn to be loved. These are gifts that God bestows upon His children.  Kindness makes God’s goodness accessible to us. It is the patient love of God that is shown when He humbled Himself and came to earth to save us.

Mercy is withholding deserved punishment from someone when it is due.  Because of our many sins, we deserve eternal damnation. However, God showed us mercy when He sent His Son Jesus, to pay the penalty with His Blood for our sins (vs. 5).  There is absolutely nothing we could ever do to earn God’s love and salvation. He offers us salvation because of His mercy and grace which was shown on the cross. Salvation is not achieved by works.  It is a gift from God which we need to accept and receive.

When we accept the gift of salvation from God, given through Jesus Christ, we also receive cleansing from our sins, a thorough washing.  When we accept Jesus as our Savior He thoroughly washes us from our sins (vs 5-6). This isn’t like a quick wipe-down with a damp washcloth.  We are completely washed from the stain of our sins. All of our sins are washed away, not just some of them. We also receive a new life which is generated, empowered, and protected by the Holy Spirit.  God, Himself, indwells us through the Holy Spirit. Regeneration and renewal refers to the new life that we receive as a gift from the Lord when we receive as Savior. We are moved from a life full of sin to one led by the Holy Spirit.  It is His love for us that gave us the gift of a new nature and eternal life.

The gift of salvation is through justification by faith alone (vs. 7).  This is another gift that God has given us, but one that we each need to personally accept before it will be of any good for us.  When a sinner repents and puts their faith in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, God will declare them just, imputing the righteousness of Jesus to him.  They are given eternal life because of the substitutionary death of Jesus, which paid the penalty of our sins.

At salvation we also receive another gift, which is becoming a child of God, and a joint heir with Jesus (vs. 7).  We are no longer orphans, but a part of God’s own family. We are no longer outcasts. One of the privileges a child has is that they are heirs to what belongs to the family.  We have become joint-heirs with Jesus. We receive all the blessings of heaven as a child of God.

These are all some of the gifts that God has bestowed upon us.  Have you accepted these gifts that the Lord gave us through His Son Jesus, whose birthday we celebrate at Christmas?  When we accept His gifts and are saved, we are abundantly blessed beyond measure.