Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Paul is writing to Christians in Crete, and he's writing about a very specific problem that they were having. You had, basically, two different kinds of people.
Some people were teaching that believers needed to follow a bunch of rules in order to be accepted by God. Those were dietary restrictions. Those were certain days needed to be observed, certain times needed to be observed. You had that group, and then you had other Christians, other believers that were saying, no—we are accepted in Christ. These works are an outworking, but we're already accepted. We're not justified by that. We're not trying to please God by that so that He'll save us.
Paul is addressing that problem, and he cuts right through to the heart of the Gospel in this verse, because what many were believing there was turning the Gospel on its head. It was this idea: I obey and therefore I am accepted by God. There's a lot riding on my obedience. There's a lot riding on my performance. You see, people were seeing it in two different ways.
Two Groups of People
Paul cuts right through and says that there are fundamentally these two groups of people—and one's right, essentially, and one is wrong. To those who have a pure heart, they understand that the works that they do are to please God and to honor Him, not to earn salvation—but for those who have an impure heart, they're actually unbelievers because they don't understand the Gospel.
It doesn't matter how many good works they do. They will not please God because they couldn't please God because they have an impure, unbelieving heart.
Pride or Despair
That kind of thinking—that I please God and I'm saved by God if and only if I follow certain rules—is a trap. It'll either lead to pride if you're doing well at following the rules, or it will lead to despair if you're struggling to keep the rules.
But the believer—and I hope this is you—the Christian who has a pure heart, a Christian who understands the Gospel, knows that I am not saved by my works. I am saved by the work of Jesus Christ.
Everything Changes
What that means is I see everything differently in the world, and I receive everything that God gives me as a gift. That means that I can eat with gratitude. I can engage culture with gratitude, though with discernment. I don't need external rules to prove my worth because my worth is secure in Christ.
A Practical Example
To make this real and practical, let me just tell you about two people who sit down to watch a movie one night. One of them sits down to watch the movie—and this is usually how I would sit down to watch the movie—and they enjoy the movie. Maybe it's at the end of a long day of hard work and you make the popcorn, you get the movie on, and I can sit for a couple hours and I can enjoy that, and I can say, thank you, God, for this gift right now.
The other person can't sit still. They can't enjoy the movie. They feel guilty for all the things they're not doing while they're watching the movie, and they feel the judgment of God. That is someone who's operating out of not the Gospel, but a belief that I'm justified by what I do, not what Christ has done. That's the distinction that Paul points out here.
The Heart Must Be Changed
One commentator said this, and it's about those works that unbelievers try and do to please God. They don't please Him, he said, "unless the heart be well purified. So our heart needs to be changed by God. Although men consider works to have great splendor and a sweet smell, yet with God they will excite disgust by their abominable smell and by their filthiness."
The Gospel is: I have been accepted by God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and now I obey—not I obey, and therefore I'm accepted. That thinking is offensive to God.
Examine Your Heart
Where are you living by rules today, rather than living by grace? Where might you need to make an adjustment? Maybe to examine your heart and not just your behavior, to see if your heart understands the Gospel and is truly pure? Because Titus chapter 1, verse 15 says: "Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure, but nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted."
