Las Vegas, Nevada Church
Affiliated with the Intercontinental Church of God and the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

 
 
 Survey of the Letters of Paul:  Titus 3:5
  
                                                                                                                                                                                    
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Titus 3:5
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost [Spirit];
 
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This section has 5 verses.
 
Titus 3:3-7
3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost [Spirit];
6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
 
We will begin with the Barclay commentary.

THE DOUBLE DYNAMIC

First, the paraphrase of verses 3-7:

For we too were once senseless, disobedient, misguided, slaves to all kinds of desires and pleasures, living in maliciousness and envy, detestable ourselves, and hating each other. But when the goodness and the love to men of God our Saviour appeared, it was not by works wrought in righteousness, which we ourselves had done, but by his own mercy that he saved us. That saving act was made effective to us through that washing, through which there comes to us the rebirth and the renewal which are the work of the Holy Spirit, whom [God] richly poured out upon us, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. And the aim of all this was that we might be put into a right relationship with God through his grace, and so enter into possession of eternal life, for which we have been taught to hope.

THE dynamic of the Christian life is twofold. It comes first from the realization that converts to Christianity were once no better than their non-Christian neighbours. Christian goodness does not make people proud; it makes them supremely grateful. When Christians looked at others, living life by the standards of Roman society, they did not regard them with contempt; they said, as the Methodist George Whitefield said when he saw the criminal on the way to the gallows: ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’

It comes from the realization of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. Perhaps no passage in the New Testament more concisely, and yet more fully, sets out the work of Christ for us than this. There are seven outstanding facts about that work here.

(1) Jesus put us into a new relationship with God. Until he came, God was the King before whom people stood in awe, the Judge before whom they cringed in terror, the Ruler whom they could regard only with fear. Jesus came to tell men and women of the Father whose heart was open and whose hands were stretched out in love. He came to tell them not of the justice which would pursue them forever but of the love which would never let them go.

(2) The love and grace of God are gifts which no one could ever earn; they can only be accepted in perfect trust and in awakened love. God offers his love to us simply out of the great goodness of his heart, and Christians never think of what they have earned but only of what God has given. The keynote of the Christian life must always be wondering and humble gratitude, never proud self-satisfaction. The whole process is due to two great qualities of God.

It is due to his goodness. The word is chre¯stote¯s and means graciousness. It means that spirit which is so kind that it is always eager to give whatever gift may be necessary. Chre¯stote¯s is an all-embracing kindliness, which produces not only warm feeling but also generous action at all times.

It is due to God’s love to men and women. The word is philanthro¯pia, and it is defined as love of someone as a human being. The Greeks thought much of this beautiful word. They used it for the kindliness of good people to their equals, for a good king’s graciousness to his subjects, for a generous individual’s active pity for those in any kind of distress, and especially for the compassion which made someone pay the ransom for another who had fallen into captivity.

Behind all this is no human merit but only the gracious kindliness and the universal love which are in the heart of God.

(3) This love and grace of God are mediated [removal of misunderstanding] through the Church. They come through the sacrament of baptism. That is not to say that they can come in no other way, for God is not confined within his sacraments; but the door to them is always open through the Church. When we think of baptism in the earliest days of the Church, we must remember that it was the baptism of grown men and women coming directly out of the ancient idolatrous religions. It was the deliberate leaving of one way of life to enter upon another. When Paul writes to the people of Corinth, he says: ‘You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified’ (1 Corinthians 6:11). In the letter to the Ephesians, he says that Jesus Christ took the Church ‘in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word’ (Ephesians 5:26). In baptism, there came the cleansing, re-creating power of God.

Quoted verses:
1 Corinthians 6:11 ...but I will read from verse 9
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Ephesians 5:26
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

In this connection, Paul uses two words.

He speaks of rebirth (paliggenesia). Here is a word which had many associations. After baptism, converts who were received into the Jewish faith were treated as if they were little children. It was as if they had been reborn and life had begun all over again. The Pythagoreans [puh-tha'guh-REE-uns] used the word frequently. They believed in reincarnation and that people returned to life in many forms until they were fit to be released from it. Each return was a rebirth. The Stoics used the word. They believed that every 3,000 years the world was destroyed in a great fire, and that then there was a rebirth of a new world. When people entered the mystery religions, they were said to be ‘reborn for eternity’. The point is that when we accept Christ as Saviour and Lord, life begins all over again. There is a newness about life which can be likened only to a new birth.

He speaks of a renewing. It is as if life were worn out and, when someone discovers Christ, there is an act of renewal, which is not over and done with in one moment of time but repeats itself every day.

(4) THE grace and love of God are mediated to men and women within the Church, but behind it all is the power of the Holy Spirit. All the work of the Church, all the words of the Church, all the sacraments of the Church have no effect unless the power of the Holy Spirit is there. However well a church is organized, however splendid its ceremonies may be, however beautiful its buildings, all is ineffective without that power. The lesson is clear. Revival in the Church comes not from increased efficiency in organization but from waiting upon God. It is not that efficiency is not necessary; but no amount of efficiency can breathe life into a body from which the Spirit has departed.

(5) The effect of all this is threefold. It brings forgiveness for past sins. In his mercy, God does not hold our sins against his sins. ‘Man,’ said Augustine, ‘look away from your sins and look to God.’ It is not that we should live our lives without being perpetually repentant for our sins; but the very memory of our sins should move us to wonder at the forgiving mercy of God.

(6) The effect is also new life in the present. Christianity does not confine its offer to blessings which shall be. It offers us here and now life of a quality which we have never known before. When Christ enters into our lives, for the first time we really begin to live.

(7) Last, there is the hope of even greater things. Christians are men and women for whom the best is always still to be; they know that, however wonderful life on earth with Christ may be, the life to come will be greater still. Christians are people who know the wonder of the forgiveness of past sins, the thrill of present life with Christ, and the hope of the greater life which is yet to come. ~Barclay Commentary

Now to the other commentaries where we go from the general to the specific. We will begin with the Matthew Henry Main. It covers verses 1-8. We will jump in where verse 5 is discussed.

(4.) False grounds and motives are here removed: Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us; not for foreseen works of ours, but his own free grace and mercy alone. Works must be in the saved (where there is room for it), but not among the causes of his salvation; they are the way to the kingdom, not the meriting price of it; all is upon the principle of undeserved favour and mercy from first to last. Election is of grace: we are chosen to be holy, not because it was antecedently seen that we should be so, Ephesians 1:4. It is the fruit, not the cause, of election: God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, 2 Thessalonians 2:13. So effectual calling, in which election breaks out, and is first seen: He hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling; not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, 2 Timothy 1:9. We are justified freely by grace (Romans 3:24), and sanctified and saved by grace: By grace you are saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, Ephesians 2:8. Faith and all saving graces are God's free gift and his work; the beginning, increase, and perfection of them in glory, all are from him. In building men up to be a holy temple unto God, from the foundation to the top-stone, we must cry nothing but Grace, grace unto it. It is not of works, lest any man should boast; but of grace, that he who glorieth should glory only in the Lord. Thus the true cause is shown, and the false removed.

Quoted verses:
Ephesians 1:4
According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

2 Thessalonians 2:13
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:

2 Timothy 1:9 [see Lesson]
Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

Romans 3:24
Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

Ephesians 2:8
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

(5.) Here is the formal cause of salvation, or that wherein it lies, the beginnings of it at least - in regeneration or spiritual renewing, as it is here called. Old things pass away, and all things become new, in a moral and spiritual, not in a physical and natural, sense. It is the same man, but with other dispositions and habits; evil ones are done away, as to the prevalency of them at present; and all remains of them in due time will be so, when the work shall be perfected in [in the Kingdom]. A new prevailing principle of grace and holiness is wrought, which inclines, and sways, and governs, and makes the man a new man, a new creature, having new thoughts, desires, and affections, a new and holy turn of life and actions; the life of God in man, not only from God in a special manner, but conformed and tending to him. Here is salvation begun, and which will be growing and increasing to perfection; therefore it is said, He saved us. What is so begun, as sure to be perfected in time, is expressed as if it already were so. Let us look to this therefore without delay; we must be initially saved now, by regeneration, if on good ground we would expect complete salvation in [the Kingdom]. The change then will be but in degree, not in kind. Grace is glory begun, as glory is but grace in its perfection. How few mind this! Most act as if they were afraid to be happy before the time; they would have [the Kingdom], they pretend, at last, yet care not for holiness now; that is, they would have the end without the beginning; so absurd are sinners. But without regeneration, that is, the first resurrection, there is no attaining the second glorious one, the resurrection of the just. Here then is formal salvation, in the new divine life wrought by the gospel.

(6.) Here is the outward sign and seal thereof in baptism, called therefore the washing of regeneration. The work itself is inward and spiritual; but it is outwardly signified and sealed in this ordinance. Water is of a cleansing and purifying nature, does away the filth of the flesh, and so was apt to signify the doing away of the guilt and defilement of sin by the blood and Spirit of Christ, though that aptness alone, without Christ's institution, would not have been sufficient. This it is that makes it of this signification on God's part, a seal of righteousness by faith, as circumcision was, in the place of which it succeeds; and on ours an engagement to be the Lord's. Thus baptism saves figuratively and sacramentally, where it is rightly used. Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling upon the name of the Lord, Acts 22:16. So Ephesians 5:26, That he might sanctify and cleanse us by the washing of water by the word. Slight not this outward sign and seal, where it may be had according to Christ's appointment; yet rest not in the outward washing, but look to the answer of a good conscience, without which the external washing will avail nothing. The covenant sealed in baptism binds to duties, as well as exhibits and conveys benefits and privileges; if the former be not minded, in vain are the latter expected. Sever not what God has joined; in both the outer and inner part is baptism complete; as he that was circumcised became debtor to the whole law (Galatians 5:3), so is he that is baptized to the gospel, to observe all the commands and ordinances thereof, as Christ appointed. Disciple all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost [Spirit]; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, Matthew 28:19-20. This is the outward sign and seal of salvation, baptism, called here the washing of regeneration. ~Matthew Henry Main with some editing by me

Quoted verses:
Acts 22:16
And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.

Ephesians 5:26
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Galatians 5:3
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

Matthew 28:19-20
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost [Spirit]:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Here is a recap from the Biblical Illustrator:

The source of salvation
I. Salvation based upon Divine mercy. “Kindness” or goodness, “Love.” Margin “pity” Literally, “philanthropy”; that is “the love of man” (John 3:16...for God so loved the world...).

II. Salvation independent of human merit.
1. There is in the best of us an absence of good (i.e., meritorious) works.
2. Redemption can only be attained by a new creation. “Regeneration,” or “new birth.”

III. Salvation provided abundantly.
1. Abundantly—as an exhibition of abundant mercy.
2. Abundantly—as a remedy for great sin.
3. Abundantly as a provision for all who will repent.

IV. Salvation everlasting.
1. Justification a ground of hope.
2. Hope of eternal life. ~Biblical Illustrator

Now to the specific commentaries and we have time for one.

This verse is broken out in four parts:

1] Not by works of righteousness which we have done.
2] But according to his mercy he saved us.
3] By the washing of regeneration.
4] And renewing of the Holy Spirit.


Let us look at a specific commentary on the fourth phrase of the verse:

4] And renewing of the Holy Spirit.

And renewing of the Holy Ghost [Spirit] - This is an important clause, added by Paul apparently to save from the possibility of falling into error. If the former expression, “the washing of regeneration,” had been left to stand by itself, it might have been supposed possibly that all the regeneration which would be needed would be that which would accompany baptism. But he avoids the possibility of this error, by saying that the “renewing of the Holy Ghost [Spirit]” is an indispensable part of that by which we are saved. It is necessary that this should exist in addition to that which is the mere emblem of it - the washing of regeneration - for without this the former would be unmeaning and unavailing. It is important to observe that the apostle by no means says that this always follows from the former, nor does he affirm that it ever follows from it - whatever may be the truth on that point - but he asserts that this is that on which our salvation depends. - The word rendered “renewing” (ἀνακαίνωσις anakainōsis) occurs only here and in Romans 12:2, where it is also rendered “renewing;” compare Note on that place. The verb (ἀνακαινόω anakainoō) occurs in 2 Corinthians 4:15, and Colossians 3:19, in both which places it is rendered “renewed,” and the corresponding word, ἀνακαινίζω anakainizō, in Hebrews 6:6. ~Barnes Notes

Quoted verses:
Romans 12:2
And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

2 Corinthians 4:15
For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

Colossians 3:19
Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

Hebrews 6:6
If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

So, though works of righteousness are important within the salvation process, salvation, itself is a gift of God because of His love, mercy and kindness.  God saved us beginning with the washing of regeneration with baptism and placement into the saving process.  Salvation continues and is dependent upon a constant renewing of the Holy Spirit within us and an ever-forward movement to spiritual maturity and holiness.  This is the lesson of verse 5.
 



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