Based on Titus 3:3-7

Who are you? How do you see yourself? Maybe by your rank. Maybe by your spouse’s rank. Maybe you identify yourself by the things that you’ve done and the places you’ve been. And I know what happens. One of my friends who’s in the military says, “As soon as another military member walks into the room, you start sniffing each other out like dogs to see where you stand and where that other person stands.”

Is that you? Is that really you? What you’ve done, where you’ve been, your rank, maybe your spouse’s rank? You might think that you’re something. But look at what God says about you and me in our reading in Titus chapter 3. In it, the apostle Paul writes to Pastor Titus and says that God’s kindness and mercy saved us.

So it’s really not about us, what we’ve done, or who we think we are, but it’s all about God and who he is and what he’s done for us that makes us who we are.

But maybe that’s not you. Maybe you would answer that question “Who are you?” by looking at yourself in the mirror and saying, “Yeah, who am I? I’m a nobody. I’m nothing. I haven’t been able to promote as quickly as I’d like to. I haven’t been places or done things that my peers have done. I’m a nobody because of my past faults and failures.”

Look at some of the things that Paul lists in Titus chapter 3. He says, “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” (verse 3). You look at that list and say, “Yeah, that’s kind of the person that I am.” And the devil will try to convince you of that—that this is who you are. You’re less than nothing in God’s sight, and why should he pay attention to the likes of you?

But keep reading. The apostle Paul then begins to list the beautiful descriptors of who God is. He says that he is a Savior who saved you and me, as Paul writes, “not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy” (verse 5). That’s right. You are who you are because of who God is—kind and loving and merciful, the God who saves us and who saves us from ourselves.

And Paul answers the question, “Well, how did he save you and me?” in Titus chapter 3: “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior” (verses 5,6). He saved you by washing you. He is, of course, talking about your baptism. In the waters of your baptism, God caused you to be reborn, as Paul says, which means you have a new life—a life that is no longer controlled by your sinful nature. You’ve been set free to live for Christ and to live with Christ and to live in Christ. In a life renewed, you no longer live for yourself but live for others. That’s who you are.

And there’s more. The apostle Paul goes on to say, “So that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life” (verse 7). All that you and I think that we are, even when we think we’re something, is really nothing. God makes us who we are because he justifies us by his grace, not because of what we’ve done.

And grace is one of those words that means “God’s undeserved love.” It’s God’s grace, his undeserved love, that moves him to justify us in the first place. And to justify means that as the judge, God declares you and me to be innocent, not guilty, of all those faults and failures that we listed before. You’re innocent. That’s who you are.

And there’s more. The apostle Paul goes on to write, “so that we might become heirs, having the hope of eternal life.” This is who you are. You have a spiritual bank account that has more wealth in it than Warren Buffett, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos combined. Because of your baptism, you have everything that Jesus has. He owns the universe, which means you do too. He owned the devil and the grave, which means you do too. You have a resurrection from the dead. You have eternal life in heaven. That’s who you are.

So when you look at yourself in the mirror tonight before you go to bed, or when you wake up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror, say out loud, “I am a baptized child of God. I am justified. I am reborn. I am renewed. I have an eternal inheritance because of who God is and what he has made me to be.”

My friends, live in your baptismal identity today and every day.

Prayer:
Father in heaven, at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, you proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit. Keep us who are baptized into Christ faithful in our calling as your children, and make us heirs with him of everlasting life.

Today, Father, we thank you for our military members who are currently deployed in response to humanitarian aid. So often we forget that our military doesn’t just provide a show of force or to seek and destroy the enemy or to defend our United States. But our military also provides help to those who are in need around the world. And so we ask, Father, that you keep them safe as they travel. Bring them joy as they bring aid to people who need it. Bring peace to those places of the world where people are without their daily bread, so that stable governments may bring aid to their own people. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Written and recorded by Rev. Paul Horn, WELS National Civilian Chaplain to the Military, San Diego, California.

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