Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

via Passage: titus 3.1-7 (ESV Bible Online).

Benedict Pictet, like many other Reformed teachers, taught a “twofold justification”–the justification of a sinner and the subsequent justification of a righteous man.

One argument trotted out against the justification of a righteous man is that Paul told Titus that even our “works done by us in righteousness” are not means by which we are ever justified.

Is there any way to find that in what Paul writes to Titus? He is plainly talking about our conversion and saying that it is by God’s mercy we were justified “while we were still sinners” (to quote from Romans 5). This is not a comment on whether subsequent righteous works can, in any sense, be said to justify. Rather, it is a statement that before we were regenerate we never produced any such righteous works.