⁴But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, ⁵He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, ⁶whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

All Scripture is inspired and profitable, but some passages contain a saturation of wonderful truth that exudes praise and worship. We must let the matrix of doctrinal keywords and themes in our reading today marinate in our souls as we contemplate its depths. Where do we begin?

We find here words such as kindness, Savior, love, righteousness, mercy, regeneration, renewal, justification, grace, and hope. But understanding Scripture is more than doing word studies and making detailed observations. These are the building blocks for weaving together wonderful truths that we not only learn, but live by.  For example, here we see the Trinity emerging in God’s saving love for us, as the Holy Spirit is poured out richly on us, and this through Jesus Christ our Savior.

We see the order that Paul uses in laying out these truths as significant: God’s movement in redemption begins with His kindness. Paul asserts this clearly when he writes: “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” (Rom. 2:4). Is it any wonder Paul includes kindness in the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22), being central to all our relationships? Imitating God, we should be kind toward others just as our Lord was and is kind toward us.

Salvation is not based on our good deeds, and it follows that salvation cannot be lost because of our lack of good deeds. It is not based on our righteousness, but on God’s mercy. Mercy, by definition, infers of our guilt and applies God’s kindness that we don’t deserve. His kindness and mercy result in regeneration, a literal generation again. This is what Jesus meant when He proclaimed to Nicodemus, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). The analogy is one of washing our sins away, and out of that arises a new man who is renewed by the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is lavishly given to us (the imagery is that of pouring out water without concern about spillage or overflow). At the core of all this is God’s grace, by which we are justified—and the assurance that what is His, will also be ours in eternal life. That is our motivational hope.

Lord, I will contemplate how wonderful You are toward me.