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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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