grace, mercy and peace

Text: Titus 1:1-4

I’m so excited because this passage is all about unity!

Paul loves Titus and he points out five things they share in common. These are the things that all Christians share in common, and it thrills me to think that we She Reads Truth girls have all this in common, too. It makes me want to hug you.

1. Close Relationship
Paul calls Titus his own son. This “sonship” comes from one person leading another to Christ. It is a sacred kinship of the spiritual life. Think of all the dear people who lovingly pointed you to Christ. Now gather them like family around the table at Christmastime. That’s the feeling I’m looking for. Our hearts rise up in loving celebration of this dear bond.

2. Common Faith
Titus and Paul were brothers in a common faith, just as we are sisters in a common faith because we believe the same truths and the same fundamentals. We agree there is one God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—and one mediator, Jesus Christ our Savior. We receive our faith as a gift from God, and He is the tie that binds us together.

Our faith is like a shining jewel that we carry in our chest, and we are drawn together with others who carry that same jewel. We cling to same hope, and it will produce the same results in our eternal souls. That certainly gives me a reason to shake hands with you.

3. Mutual Benediction
Paul asks for grace, mercy and peace for Titus. And we all want that grace, mercy and peace for each other. I want it for you, and you want it for me. Here’s why:

We need Grace to help. To protect us from the dangers of comparison. No one looks as good as they seem on Instagram, and all eyes are occasionally wet with tears. Everyone’s life needs grace, and everybody’s toilet needs scrubbed. Seriously. We’re all in the same boat.

We need Mercy to forgive. Perhaps the more leadership and more authority you have, the more mercy you need.

And we need Peace to comfort. We all long for the comfort of peace of mind, restfulness of heart, and quietude of spirit. And we can all agree at the delicious sweetness of peace!

4. Common Source of Blessing
We are one in the source of our blessings. When the wagons of blessing come, one may stop at your door and one at mine, but they all have the same owner and left from the same depot.

Whatever grace, mercy and peace come to us, they come from the same place! We all eat bread baked in the same oven, you know? The same sacred blood mark of our Lord Jesus Christ is on every blessing, whether it comes to me or my sister in China.

5. United by Jesus
You know how we are all united at night by looking at the same moon? In a similar way, when we all look to the Savior, our eyes meet. Except it is more than that: Christ is our common reality; we are joined together in His life.

Christ is OUR Savior. He is not just a savior as in “a savior is born to us in Bethlehem” (Luke 2:11), or my savior as Mary sang “My spirit has rejoiced in God my savior” (Luke 1:47). But He is also our Savior. There is a blessedness in the communal “our.” We have a great reason to be knit together in love. We share Christ.

Let us keep close together with our eyes on Christ, shoulder to shoulder, darlings. And may we continually ask God for that blessed Grace, Mercy, and Peace for each other!

These five points are based on a sermon by C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892).