MV #2

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:3-7, ESV).

A wonderful truth is that our theology should produce a doxology, which literally means "the glory of God." It is an expression of praise to God. The theological truths in this passage definitely produces a doxology, which is why I wanted to memorize it. I can't read this without having some type of gratefulness to the Lord. These verses vividly display the process of death to life that each Christian goes through. I was so blessed by reading these verses because they make me think about how the Lord has called me out of darkness and into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9). I wanted to memorize these verses so I can continually recite the gospel to myself from scripture.

Look at the comparison:

Old Life in Sin	New Life in Christ
foolish	wise
disobedient	obedient
led astray	found
slave to passions/pleasures	slave to righteousness
spent in malice and envy	spent in compassion and care
consumed with hate	consumed with love

Isn't the "but" in this verse so sweet? I was full of sin, BUT God saved me according to his own mercy. He did this by the washing of regeneration (being born again) and renewal of the Holy Spirit. This was poured out to us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. We are justified by grace and become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Wow.

What a sweet section of scripture.