Paul’s letter to Titus is about salvation and how we ought to live as Christians. It also talks about our attitude toward unbelievers and how we should respond to them. Unless we work in a church or some other place that is Christ-centered, we’re going to be spending more time around people who do not believe than we are around people who do believe. Indeed, it’s often a rare treat when we encounter a fellow Believer that the experience resonates within us long after the encounter. What does Paul say to Titus in this letter about salvation and unbelievers?
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.
Titus 2:11 (NIV)
Paul tells us that the grace of God has made salvation available to everyone. Does this mean everyone will be saved? No, it does not.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16 (NIV)
In this, one of the most well-known verses of the Bible, we see only those people who believe in Jesus will not perish but have eternal life.
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
Romans 10:9-10 (NIV)
for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans 10:13 (NIV)
Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites be like the sand by the sea, only the remnant will be saved.”
Romans 9:27 (NIV)
Paul further clarifies in Romans that not everyone will be saved because not everyone will call on the name of the Lord and believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. Paul also points out something Isaiah said about the Israelites. There are a lot of them, and only a remnant will be saved. Jesus also has this to say in Matthew.
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)
Therefore, we know few people are going to be saved. How do we respond to this as Christians? Do we look at the world around us, and deem it unworthy of salvation when we see how people behave? Do we look in the mirror and expect the people in this world to follow us? Believing we are the example for people to follow? After all, doesn’t Jesus tell us we are the light of the world?
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Matthew 5:14-16 (NIV)
We don’t have salvation by the things that we do. It’s by the grace of God that we are saved. Paul writes this in Romans.
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
Romans 7:18 (NKJV)
Because of God’s grace and His Spirit within us, we have the mind of Christ and the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us into all truth. We have the choice to listen to the Spirit and do what He says. When we do good things in this world, it’s because we are directed by God. The light of the world is the light of Christ that shines in us. Jesus tells us the world will see our good deeds and glorify God.
Therefore, people should see Christ in us and want to follow Him. If someone wants to credit us for the good, then we need to point to God and tell them, “He did this.”
What do we see when we look at the world?
At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.
Titus 3:3 (NIV)
This is what we see in the world, and when we see it, we need to understand that we were just like this at one time. What changed in our lives then, to change us?
But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.
Titus 3:4-5 (NIV)
How was the kindness and love of God shown to you? It was shown to me by Christians who loved God, and even though they saw me, steeped in the sin of this world, showed His kindness and love to me! In 2001, some people first met the unsaved me and started praying. Five years later, in 2006, I knelt before the Lord. Some of those people had given up on me, but they didn’t give up on God.
Although Paul knew only a remnant of Israel would be saved, his desire for them all to be saved didn’t leave him.
I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel.
Romans 9:2-4 (NIV)
This is my heart for all of those who are not yet saved. Perhaps I am a fool, sitting here, my heartbreaking and tears streaming down my face, thinking of myself being lost. What if the people had stopped praying for me? What if they had given up and believed that I was beyond God’s salvation?!
I know that not everyone will be saved. The Bible tells me this, and I understand it. However, I will not stop striving for those who are unsaved. For those, the Lord has brought into my sphere of influence. I pray to God that I will never forget who I was before I came to Christ. My prayer is that you too, remember who you once were before the kindness and love of God saved you.
Do you know God? God knows you, and He loves you. He sees you as significant because you are. No one is insignificant to Him. He’s with you today, right now, and He wants you to know Him. Jesus died for your sins and mine so we could be free of guilt, be freed from death, and live eternally with Him. Eternal salvation is just a prayer away.
Pray this prayer with me to accept the gift of salvation today:
Lord Jesus, forgive me for all my sins. I repent from my ways. Wash me in your blood and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. I believe that you died on the cross, were buried, and on the third day, God the Father raised you from the dead. Right now, Lord Jesus, I open the door to my heart, and I receive you into my heart as my Lord and personal Savior. Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, then congratulations! You are on the first step of a brand new life. Allow me to be the first to welcome you to my family, the family of God. There are abundant resources available online for new Christians. You can visit here for more information on what to do next. You can also leave me a comment, and I’ll do my best to help you on the next step of this incredible journey.
Four-Calendar Café 
1Co 3:5 Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
1Co 3:6 I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
1Co 3:7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
1Co 3:8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
1Co 3:9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
1Co 3:10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
1Co 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
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Dear friend, you have stated from: ” Romans 9:2-4 (NIV) I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel.”
Yet, Paul wished for Israel’s salvation, and grieved so, nevertheless the following scriptures reveal Paul’s understanding that not ALL who stated they were of “Abraham” were of Abraham’s “seed”.
Rom 9:4 Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises;
Rom 9:5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.
Rom 9:6 Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel:
Rom 9:7 Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children: but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.
Rom 9:8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
Rom 9:9 For this is the word of promise, At this time will I come, and Sara shall have a son.
Rom 9:10 And not only this; but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac;
Rom 9:11 (For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth;)
Rom 9:12 It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger.
Rom 9:13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
Which supports your statement “Therefore, we know few people are going to be saved. How do we respond to this as Christians?”
We as believer’s need to understand, we will be a light to the world, we just testify of the Love Of God shed in our hearts, through the Power of the Holy Spirit, by testifying the particular sins He saved us from. We just speak the truth, and leave the rest up to the Lord. We can rest in the fact, that the Lord may send someone to water what we may have planted, it is up to the Lord to bring the gift of repentance.
Remember Jesus was sent by the Father to do the Father’s will, Joh 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me. Also these scriptures confirm that Jesus came to only do the Will of the Father, which sent Him, Jesus did as His Father desired:
: Joh_5:19, Joh_8:28, Joh_8:42, Joh_14:10
Jesus preached, healed, and delivered people in many “individual” ways. Some actions of the Lord were done in Private, one on one, other’s were before great numbers of people. Jesus only spoke to those whom the Father sent Him to, this also pertains to the Apostles, THEY WERE SENT, by the Holy Spirit, and where they were sent the Lord’s will and purpose was accomplished. Did all get saved when Christ was on the earth? Were all healed of sickness or delivered from demon’s? How about the Apostles? Were all healed or saved? No, but this also may help you to see how that it was the Lord that added new believer’s to the Body of Christ. Act 2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Act 2:47 Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
What we need to understand, is that Jesus came at the right time, at 30, when the Father deemed He should appear. At first it was in “secret”, then when the Father deemed it, Jesus then went very public. Jesus had to grow from a babe into maturity, like wise so did the Apostles, they were physically in Jesus presence for three years, He was their teacher, but yet they were not converted, not until the Holy Spirit came with Power, being sent by the Father and Jesus, after His accession to the Father.
Paul took many years, before he even met with the other Apostles:
Gal 1:15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
Gal 1:16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
Gal 1:17 Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.
Gal 1:18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.
Gal 1:19 But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.
Gal 1:20 Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.
Why am I stating this? Because they needed to be trained before being used of the Lord, to know His Ways, not after man’s teaching. Paul made this perfectly clear, by stating in the 1st verse in Galatians: Gal 1:1 Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)
So you see, your struggle is to understand, that the Lord can save person’s without the immediate help of other believer’s, He the Holy Spirit by the Lord’s will can save without another human being present, without a Bible and without the “sinner’s prayer”. “For it is the Goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance”.
What I have learned is that there is NO set method, on how to lead a man or woman to Christ, we need to lean upon the Lord for His will to be done by and through the Power of the Holy Spirit. Also there is no set method on how the Lord will sanctify His Children, it is all based upon the individual dealings of and by the Lord to each new believer according to His Will and purpose for their lives. The present standard amongst the Main Stream Government run churches is they teach “method’s” which is not supported by scripture, everything must be done by and through the working Unction of the Holy Spirit, anything less is the unlawful working through the fleshly self will. And trust me, our fleshly self-will is more alive than you can realize. And you in an about way confirmed that by using Paul’s writing from Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
However Paul is writing about the struggle that is occurring in the Redeemed believer, that we are still in this carnal flesh, and that the depth’s of our fleshly self will is more powerful than we realize. That is why the Lord wants us alone with Him, so that He can reveal to us the depth’s of wickedness He did save us from. And only through the Power of the Holy Spirit can it be dealt with, that is why Paul stated at the end of that chapter
Rom 7:24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
The closer we grow in our relationship to our Lord, the more we shall realize how “worthless” we are, how insignificant, and how we are but “worms” that did not deserve His Grace to be saved. That makes the miracle of His Salvation to such wretch’s that we are so humbling, for we are nothing, and He is Everything. Because HE does it all!
I pray the Lord grant you rest in the knowledge of His will, our God is in no hurry……everything is pre-planned, and He is in Control, no matter how many shall fail us, or reject us…..He is faithful to the end.
The Lord bless you…..
In His Love…….always….
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Amen! Hallelujah! God’s timing and His way are perfect! God bless you!
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My dear friend in Christ, it’s my pleasure to share what the Lord has taught me, not just for my good, but for the good of other disciples of Christ. We do minister one to another, so I am blessed by just allowing the Lord to guide me, and assist me in putting forth what I have learned, and the Lord will bless it to whom ever HE desires it too bless for their good, and what is most important for His Glory!
For I have learned we are changed from Glory to Glory, and according to the measure of faith which He grants us as Paul has taught:
Rom_12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
2Co_10:15 Not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men’s labours; but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly,
Eph_4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
The more I’ve learned about the Lord and His ways, I have found there is so much more for me to learn, I many times tell the Lord, at times “it’s all too wonderful for me”, oh….please assist me by the Holy Spirit how to apply or how and when to use it, and help me to remember it!
I will tell you, I was a terrible student in school, I could barely concentrate on my studies, I failed two grades my 5th, and my 11th, and did not finish high school. I was too busy living in a fantasy life, so I could live from day to day……..it was terrible, I felt so stupid, so useless, and rejected because I was always bullied by students and by male teacher’s.
But I am what I am now all by the Grace of the Lord, so He get’s all the glory……
Do I read everyday, not really, I try and journal everyday, but that comes and goes in spurt’s, because there are times, I just can’t take anymore in, and I’m so dreadfully afraid of gaining so much spiritual knowledge I would get puffed up……..the Lord knows all……
Anyway, I’ve said all this because it is a blessed pleasure to share, I learned a long time ago, everything He reveals to me, by making His Word alive by spiritual revelation(understanding) that I offer everything back up to Him so I do not use it for just my good…….I offer all upon the alter unto Him, as Abraham offered up his son, because our Lord desires us to know everything He gifts us with is for His purposes and not for our personal usage!
The Lord bless you…….abundantly
In His Eternal Love…..
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God bless you, my brother!
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God is good! His timing is always perfect. We just have to learn to be patient in the waiting.
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Amen!
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