Stating the Obvious

In my study of Titus, I was reading a passage which struck me as humorous. Now, I’m not talking about the “ha-ha” kind of funny. No, it was more of how Paul stated the obvious to Titus, his son in the faith. Paul writes:
“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. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.” (Titus 3:3-5a)
Did Paul really need to write, “...not because of the righteous things we had done…”? Obviously, by looking at the qualities (vs. 3) we were before His mercy and grace appeared in our lives, it would be ludicrous to think of ourselves as close to righteous…and even more absurd to think we could save ourselves through our deeds. Although it’s an obvious statement when you step back and look at it, Paul still needed to write it because God knows our tendencies. He knows that our pride gets in the way…believing that maybe our good deeds had some sort of pull in getting us saved. No…after looking at how we were before salvation (foolish, disobedient, deceived, …), we can truly testify that our salvation is through Jesus Christ and by His amazing grace.