Titus 3:7

That being justified by his grace,.... This is another way and means, as well as regeneration, by which God saves his people; for he saves no unjustified ones; no unrighteous persons shall inherit

That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

That being justified by his grace; that, through the free love of God, having the guilt of our sins removed, and the righteousness of Christ reckoned to us for righteousness, we should be made heirs; should, through adoption, be made children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ, . According to the hope of eternal life: some think that the words should be read thus: That we, according to hope, should be made heirs of eternal life; because otherwise, the text hath no object to relate to heirs. But what should we be heirs of, but the kingdom mentioned ? Though it be true, we are no more than heirs according to hope, nor is any man otherwise an heir of an inheritance, as heir stands distinguished from an owner or proprietor.

7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Ver. 7. Be made heirs] Not purchasers; all is of free grace. Horreo quicquid de meo est, ut sim meus. Paul was a most constant preacher of grace. (Bernard. Augustine.)

(7) That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.—Here appears the glorious design of God’s salvation. We were in a hopeless and lost state, from which God’s love for man saved us by the laver of regeneration and renovation; and this was the end for which He saved us—that we should be heirs of eternal life. “Being justified,” that is, freed from the future punishment and consequences of sin, and received into the favour and friendship of God, which favour and friendship had been, through sin, forfeited. “By His grace,” by the favour and kindness of God the Father are we restored to His love and friendship. “Heirs,” see Romans 8:17, where this thought of our heirship of heaven is enlarged. “According to the hope of eternal life;” this life eternal is still for us in the future, though ever present in respect of hope; children of God we indeed are, and sharers in many a good gift of our Father, but eternal life, that glorious inheritance, is still in the far future, and as yet can only be enjoyed by us in hope, but it is a sure hope—eternal life—the hope of which is the mainspring of all Christian work and activity—though it includes it, of course, is something far more than merely endless existence. A veil, impenetrable to mortal eye, hangs between us and the many mansions of the Father’s house. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be;” we only know that then, we, in company with an innumerable host of blessed beings, shall share in the beatific vision; we only know that then “we shall ever be with the Lord;” and that with this thought and with these words are we to comfort one another. (See 1 Thessalonians 4:17-18.)

Verse 7. That, being justified by his grace] Being freed from sin; for the term justification is to be taken here as implying the whole work of the grace of Christ on the heart, in order to its preparation for eternal glory. Should be made heirs] The Gospel not only gave them the hope of an endless state of glory for their souls, but also of the resurrection and final glorification of their bodies; and they who were children of God were to be made heirs of his glory. See note on Galatians 4:6-7.

7. being justified … be made heirs] The word ‘justifying’ and ‘justification’ occur 25 times in the great group of Epistles, written 10 years before this to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, whose subject is ‘Christ the Redeemer,’ ‘Christ for us.’ It has not been used in the next great group written five years before this, to the Ephesians, Colossians and Philippians, whose subject is ‘Christ the Life,’ ‘Christ in us,’ ‘Christ our Sanctification.’ ‘Righteousness,’ however, that right relation between God and man, the restoration to which is justification, occurs seven times against 50 times in the former group. So in Ephesians 5:26 (already quoted as parallel in form and sense to our present passage), ‘the cleansing’ is the justifying, and the ‘sanctifying’ follows, as here ‘being heirs’ follows. This verse then, in its two clauses, repeats, with reference to God the Son, what in Titus 3:5 was said with reference to God the Father as to the twofold saving mercy; just as in the former ‘Gospel’ passage, Titus 2:11-14, ‘renunciation’ and ‘obedience’ are both spoken of, first as the work of God the Father’s grace (11, 12), and then as the result of God the Son’s gift of Himself (14). The justification by God the Father’s grace—the regeneration—effected potentially once for all by Christ through His death, resurrection and outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and appropriated individually by Faith (expressed or implied) in Baptism, is to be followed by a ‘life of heirship’ or ‘sanctification’; so the Latin translation of Theod. Mops. ‘ut heredes efficiamur,’ and the comment, ‘at segregavit nos in ditissimam quam nobis bonorum praestitit fruitionem,’—the third of the Baptismal Blessings, ‘inheritors of the kingdom of heaven,’ with a right and title to receive now ‘the fruits of the Spirit.’according to the hope of eternal life] (1) In A.V. and R.V. it is implied that these words are to be taken together and ‘made heirs’ left absolute; then this last clause finds an eloquent expansion in Ephesians 5:27 (see above), and ‘glorification’ crowns ‘sanctification,’ as sanctification followed justification. (2) The R.V. margin gives ‘heirs, according to hope, of eternal life.’ in this case ‘eternal life’ must most fittingly be interpreted as usually in St John, and 1 Timothy 4:8; 1 Timothy 6:12; 1 Timothy 6:19, ‘the spiritual life that is and is to come;’ ‘according to hope,’ will be as Ephesians 4:4, ‘called in one hope of your calling,’ and 1 Timothy 1:1, ‘Christ Jesus our hope,’ where this life’s state of salvation must be included in the object of hope; and ‘justification’ and ‘sanctification’ will be the only two objects named of the Spirit’s outpouring. But the phrase in Titus 1:2, as there interpreted, favours (1).

That being justified by his grace - Not by our own works, but by his favor or mercy; see the notes at Romans 3:24. We should be made heirs - See the notes at Romans 8:15, Romans 8:17.

7. That—In order that. Commentators differ as to whether it depends upon shed or upon saved. By the former (Huther, Wiesinger, and Alford) the Holy Spirit is shed upon us in order to our heirship, etc.