Titus 3:4–7—The Washing of Regeneration

Tit. 3:4–5. But when the kindness and love for mankind of God our Saviour appeared, not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to His own mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

Such, then, were we before faith and grace, when we lived in bondage to desires and pleasures. But now we are different—both in what we are and in what we ought to be. For grace delivered us from that bondage, renewing our nature in the font of baptism and binding us to a life according to the spirit and power of that renewal.

“Grace”, χρηστοτης,—goodness—“and the love of God our Saviour”—appeared in the economy of the Incarnation, “through the Incarnation of the Only-Begotten, when the Only-Begotten Son of God, taking flesh and becoming in all things like us” (Oecumenius and blessed Theophylact), accomplishing and ordering all that was needful for our salvation. “Appeared”—points to the ordering of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ; its application to each of us who believe, or the manifestation of its power in us, is indicated below in the words: “He saved us through the washing of regeneration”. The words “God our Saviour” refer us to God the Father: for it is said below that this God our Saviour saved us through “the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us through Jesus Christ”. “Having examined more carefully,” writes blessed Jerome, “we find in this brief passage the Most Holy Trinity most clearly expressed. The goodness and love of God our Saviour—none other than God the Father—through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us through Jesus Christ, made us righteous for the inheritance of eternal life. The salvation of believers is a mystery of the Most Holy Trinity.” The same view is expressed by Theodoret.

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done”. The economy of salvation was prompted not by our great virtues but, on the contrary, by our utter wretchedness and helplessness. The goodness of God could not endure to leave us in the grip of our fall and ruin—and was pleased to order for us a wondrous mode of salvation. The one distinction that was ours was simply that we are the creation of the all-good, all-wise, and almighty God, who does not repent of His gifts. And this it was that drew God’s goodness toward us, ordering our salvation. But not only the general ordering of salvation, but also the calling of each individual to receive this salvation, is likewise not the fruit of our meritorious deeds, but the work of God’s goodness. Of all instances of calling, only Cornelius the centurion was called because his prayers and alms had come up before God; but that was a special, providential case, to open the way for receiving into the bosom of the Church sheep who were not of the fold of Israel. The general order of calling, however, is the work of goodness—in the beginning, now, and to the end of the age. Yet one must carefully distinguish between the calling to the ordered salvation and the working out of salvation by the means through which it has been ordered. From the moment of heeding the call and taking the first step in response to it, there begins one’s participation in the working out of salvation, involving one’s own labor and effort, which proceeds hand in hand with grace until the final completion of salvation. All is from goodness; but God’s goodness does not indulge.

“But according to His own mercy He saved us through the washing of regeneration”. These words are spoken not by one who looks on the salvation of others, but by one who has himself received salvation. In the feeling of salvation he proclaims with grateful lips: “He saved.” From what did “He save?” From all the evils spoken of above, and from bondage to desires and pleasures, beneath whose yoke we were groaning. “He saved us”—whom does “us” mean? All who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. “Naming himself and the Apostles, holy Paul had in mind all who have believed in Christ, showing what they were before regeneration in the life-giving font and what they became thereafter” (blessed Jerome). How did “He save?” “Through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit”. “Alas!” cries holy Chrysostom. “So deeply were we sunk in evil that we could no longer be cleansed, but stood in need of regeneration. This was truly a new birth, the receiving of a new existence. As no one props up a rotting house or nails anything onto the old building, but tears it down to the foundations and raises and renews it entirely, so did He—our Saviour—not merely repair us but re-create us entirely. This is what the words mean: ‘and the renewing of the Holy Spirit’. He made us completely new. In what manner? By the Holy Spirit. So great is our need for grace!”

Tit. 3:6–7. Whom He poured out upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

God the Father poured out the Holy Spirit abundantly upon all believers through Christ the Saviour. Proclaiming this promise to the Apostles, the Lord said: “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter” (Jn. 14:16). Further: “But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name” (Jn. 14:26); and then: “the Comforter, whom I will send to you from the Father” (Jn. 15:26). Thus the Lord Jesus Christ mediates in the sending of the Most Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and, through them, upon all believers. It was ordained in the divine Council that the Son of God, having taken flesh and passed through the sufferings and death of the cross, should be glorified in the resurrection and ascension and thereby open the way for the descent of the Holy Spirit.

This law of the divine actions in the economy of our salvation was revealed by holy Evangelist John, who said: “for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”—the Holy Spirit whom believers were to receive in such abundance that “rivers of living water would flow from their belly” (Jn. 7:38–39). The Holy Spirit was poured out first upon the Apostles, and through them He was poured out upon all believers as well. And we see in the Acts and Epistles many instances that bear tangible witness to this. The Apostles would customarily proclaim the Gospel of salvation, baptize those who believed, lay their hands upon the baptized, and the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon them, testifying to it by manifest gifts of grace. All believers knew and experienced this, and the Apostle spoke to them plainly, face to face, that God poured out upon us—upon you and us—the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ our Saviour. The implicit meaning is: as you yourselves know and have experienced.

“So that, having been justified by His grace. — Having been justified”—not declared righteous, but made righteous, holy, and pure: such persons in whom there remains not a trace of the moral evils previously described. Grace accomplishes this. Descending upon us, it turns us away from all that is evil and inspires us toward all that is good, giving us the strength to act according to that inspiration. Acting thus, we drive out from ourselves all that is evil and plant and root in ourselves all that is good—and we thereby become in every respect pure and blameless. This is the goal of the economy of our salvation. This is the mark toward which all the labors of our action on earth must be directed. And the end that crowns these labors is “the inheritance of eternal life”.

“So that … we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life”. The hope of inheritance is an essential feature of the inner disposition of believers. This is everywhere prominently set forth by the Apostle. And by the very nature of the economy of salvation, it must be so. “Where I am, there will My servant be also”—the Lord promised. The inheritance of eternal life is secured for us. Not in the sense that perhaps we shall receive it, but in the sense that it is already ours—only the time to receive it has not yet come. “What does ‘according to hope’ mean? That is: as we have hoped, so shall we receive; or: we are already heirs of this” (holy Chrysostom). We need only not cease striving to be righteous and holy, and to advance in that. We are called to the inheritance freely, freely endowed with the strength to reach it; but it is not given freely—it is given “to each according to his works”.

“This is a faithful saying!”

These words have been connected to the following verse; but in the substance of the matter they relate to what precedes. By them the Apostle seals the truth of all that was said in verses 3–7, and especially the promise of the inheritance of eternal life. Blessed Jerome writes: “what he said—‘this is a faithful saying’—should be joined to the preceding words: ‘that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life’. For a word concerning the inheritance of God and the hope of eternal life is worthy of all trust.” So too holy Chrysostom: “since he spoke of the future, he added this as well, for confirmation. This is true, he says, and is clear from what has gone before. He who delivered us from such lawlessness and such evils will without doubt grant us the future blessings, if we abide in grace; for all things are accomplished by one and the same providence.”