Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Titus 3:5

"not by works [done] in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit," — Titus 3:5 (ASV)

(5a) “He saved us” simply records the historic fact of his saving work in all who have accepted salvation in Christ. We now possess his salvation, although it is still incomplete, awaiting its consummation at Christ’s return.

The basis of this experienced salvation is never due to personal merit but to God’s sovereign grace. The negative clause repeats Paul’s well-known denial of salvation by works (Romans 4:4–5; Galatians 2:16–17; Ephesians 2:8–9). Our salvation did not arise out of works that we ourselves had performed in righteousness, for as sinners, we were not able to perform any righteous deeds. Positively, God saved us “because of his mercy” (GK 1799). In our wretchedness he graciously withheld deserved punishment and freely saved us.

(5b-6) God’s salvation was mediated to us “through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.” “Washing” (GK 3373) denotes an act that cleanses us from the defilement of sin. This washing is the means of our "rebirth” (GK 4098), the spiritual regeneration of the individual believer. Most commentators take the washing as a reference to water baptism. But if water baptism is the means that produces the spiritual rebirth, we then have the questionable teaching of a material agency as the indispensable means for producing a spiritual result (but cf. Matthew 15:1–20; Romans 2:25–29; Galatians 5:6). Thus the washing is properly a divine inner act, although the experience is symbolically pictured in Christian baptism. In the NT the inner experience is viewed as openly confessed before people in baptism.

The expression “through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” is open to two interpretations grammatically. (1) Both “rebirth” and “renewal” may be regarded as dependent on “washing” to form one concept. Then the washing of rebirth is further described as a renewal wrought by the Spirit. (2) The other view holds that the preposition “through” must be repeated with “renewal.” This view sees two separate aspects of salvation, in which case the washing is viewed as producing an instantaneous change that ended the old life and began the new, while the work of renewal by the Spirit, beginning with the impartation of the new life, is a lifelong activity in the experience of the believer. In Ro 12:2 this renewal is viewed as a continuing process; in Eph 5:26-27 the act of cleansing of the church is followed by the work of sanctification until no spot or wrinkle remains. This process of renewal in the believer is the work of the Holy Spirit. He alone can produce a new nature that finds active expression in an entirely new manner of life.

“Whom he poured out on us generously” stresses that God has made ample provision for the development of this renewed life. “Poured out” (GK 1772) had its primary fulfillment at Pentecost, but “on us” marks the pouring out as individually experienced at conversion (Romans 5:5). The Spirit’s work in each believer as a member of the body of Christ is a continuation of the Pentecostal outpouring. Every faulty or inadequate experience of renewal is always due to some human impediment, never to God’s inadequate provision. “Through Jesus Christ our Savior” states the channel through which the Spirit’s renewing presence was bestowed—a bestowal based on the finished work of Christ as Savior (15:26; Acts 2:33). The “our” is again confessional. Our acceptance of Christ as Savior is the human condition for the bestowal of the Spirit. Note the Trinity in vv.5b-6: “the Holy Spirit,” “he” (the Father), and “Jesus Christ.” Each member of the divine Trinity has his own special function in the work of human redemption.