GOOD WORKS. Titus 3:1-7 There is a need for effective leadership among God's people wherever they are located around the world. No matter where I live, I am responsible for being a positive influence among believers in public. I am also accountable for teaching others the right principles, both regarding our obligations to the government and to the citizens of the society in which we live and work. Additionally, I must live righteously and maintain good works both publicly and privately. Willing submission to authority is not an innate trait of human beings. By our old nature, we desire to have things our way, for our use, so that we can be independent and do our own will. "Up with man!"; "No fear!"; "My way or the highway!" are slogans that reflect the natural man.
However, we now have new reasons to pursue a godly life. When God saves us by His grace, we enter His kingdom through new birth, and He gives us a new nature that matches the new creation He has made of us. Now we live a new life with a fresh allegiance to Jesus, our new Lord. His kindness and love shown to us when He saved us were freely given, not because we deserved them, but because of His mercy, He has preserved us. Our lives have shifted from a state of sinfulness to death, and when He gave us new life, He cleansed us from sin and, through the new birth, made us alive in Christ by the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. Christ has saved us by righteously fulfilling the demands of sin and paying the price of our redemption with His blood when He sacrificed His life on the cross. The Father has forgiven us because of what our Lord Jesus did for us, and the Holy Spirit has given us this new life, sealing us as children of God.