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It is common when the discussion of baptismal
regeneration comes up between Protestants and Catholics, the
Catholic is quick to point to Titus 3:5 to argue for baptismal
regeneration. The assumption given is that this passage speaks
so clearly and evenly about being regenerated by water of
baptism that it becomes the hammer in the discussion. Trying
to discuss passages that speak of regeneration being an act of
God alone outside the context of ritual becomes irrelevant. It
becomes, then, an example of arriving at one’s conclusion
before proving it.
Often, various arguments are given to
solidify the stranglehold on the passage:
- The word for washing can also be
translated water, or is used of ritual cleansing
- All the church fathers believed this,
and they were experts in Greek, Latin, etc.
And, at first light, these arguments might
sound convincing. I mean, has any Protestant ever checked
every reference of the Fathers to see if Tit 3:5 was always
interpreted as baptismal regeneration? And, even conceding
that point, does that really make a difference on what the
text actually says? This article will leave it to others to
examine the Early Church Fathers on the issue, as this is
primarily concerned with the text itself.
As one who adheres to Sola Scriptura, it is
my assertion that the text does not speak of baptismal
regeneration, and that it is a tradition forced onto Titus
3:5. If we allow the text to define its own meaning, and allow
it to speak on its own terms, then I believe that we will find
an entirely different viewpoint than what the Catholic will
hold to.
Let us look into the surrounding context,
then. Titus 3:4-7:
But when the kindness of God our Savior
and His love for mankind appeared,
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds
which we have done in righteousness, but according to His
mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the
Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through
Jesus Christ our Savior,
so that being justified by His grace we
would be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life.
When the entire sentence is read, one must
wonder where the argument holds ground in the first place. For
in the text, several things are certain:
- God is the subject. He is doing the
saving (v. 5)
- God’s mercy is given as the
motivation for the action
- There is an explicit denial of
human activity, as he has not saved us by works done in
righteousness
- The agency of the salvation is not of
human origin, as both washing of regeneration and
renewal have the Holy Spirit as the source
- The means by which we received the Holy
Spirit upon us was Jesus
So, one has to wonder the basis upon which
the Catholic feels justified to argue that baptism done by
human accomplishes spiritual regeneration.
The focal point of the argument seems to
hinge upon a singular word, which carries with it a great deal
of assumption and theological baggage. It is the word
"washing." Though it looks to be a verb, it is, in
fact, a noun. The verb-like qualities often confuse people as
to its meaning. We will deal with that term momentarily.
Titus 3:4 But when the kindness and
benevolence of God our Savior appeared,
The sentence actually begins in verse four.
Here, we see a reference to Christ’s coming. The word
translated "benevolence" is translated by the NASB
as "love toward mankind". It is as though these two
terms, kindness and benevolence, are personified in Christ.
One might make this case in that in a previous verse, we are
told that the grace of God has appeared, and in 2:13, which
certainly seems to be a reference to Christ. However, it
appears that the Father is the subject in the following
verses, since God is described as our savior, and then we are
told that he saved us. And, since Jesus Christ is mentioned as
the means by which we have been given the Holy Spirit, it is
not likely that Jesus is the subject of the verbs following,
else we would expect a reflexive pronoun.
Titus 3:5 He saved us, not on the basis of
deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to
His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the
Holy Spirit,
It is important to note that at no point in
this sentence are humans mentioned, nor is human activity ever
the subject or means of any verb. But, humans are the
objects of the main verb in this clause. He saved us. In
looking into this passage, observing these things is
important:
- Who saved? God saved.
- Saved whom? God saved us.
- Why did he save? Because of his mercy.
- By what means did he save? By the
washing of regeneration and renewal of the Spirit.
We observe from the very outset that human
activity is explicitly denied in this passage.
Certainly, if baptism were in view, we would see some
reference to at least our obedience (if, perhaps someone
wishes to separate obedience from an act of righteousness).
There would at least be some reference to our activity. There
is not, however. The phrase translated above as, "not on
the basis of deeds" is a negation of human works. To
further separate the work of salvation from human effort,
Paul uses a strong adversative (grk. alla). Thus, a strong
contrast is given here. It is not on the basis
of works (not just any works, but those done in righteousness)
but it is on the basis of his mercy. Thus, God was not
motivated to save because of a work of man, even those deeds
that are righteous (of which baptism is certainly one), but
because of his mercy. Even still, baptism is not listed as a
parallel activity, since the "washing" is not given
as a separate function from the Holy Spirit. In other words,
were one to be able to show that baptism does regenerate a
person in other passages, it still does not affect the meaning
of this passage. The meaning if this passage is
that in every respect, we are saved by God, and not by any
action on our part. It is entirely unilateral here. Therefore,
even if a person baptized another, and regeneration happened
at the same time, one could not say that the baptism performed
in anyway resulted in regeneration. Otherwise, the meaning of
the passage would be on its head, and the motivation for God
to save would, indeed, we a work done in righteousness. If,
truly, "all our righteousness is as filthy rags",
then even the greatest of our deeds does not merit eternal
life. Surely, one could never make the case that anything
less, or anything other than a righteous deed would be worthy
of merit. But, Paul denies even the righteous deeds.
A great deal of weight is placed upon the word
"washing." It is the Greek term loutron, which
certainly bears that meaning. The idea of the word is a
ritual cleansing, rather than simply a cleansing from dirt,
though that meaning is there. The practice of ritual
cleansing before service is not at all uncommon, as this was
the rite the sons of Aaron were required to practice.
Thus, many have gone through great lengths to somehow tie
rituals of cleansing to loutron in this context. But,
this is an example of what is often called
"one-word exegesis". This is another way of
saying that the people are practicing eisegesis, or reading
into the text their assumptions. Let me explain. A
single word with no context has no meaning, since it has
no defining parameters to limit its meaning. To put
it another way, a word with no context bears every possible
meaning that a dictionary might give it, including poetic and
metaphoric usage. I have often used the word
"fire" as an example. With no context, the
word fire can be a command (Fire!) as in an execution, an
exclamation (Fire!) as in the warning of a fire, it can mean
passion ( heart of fire) or anger (heart of fire).
Without context, it is simply impossible to know truly the
meaning of a term.
In this passage, there is no difference.
Simply connecting the lexical meaning of loutron to ritual
cleansing without observing what the context is telling us about
that term is irresponsible exegesis. In the context, we
must note that though the word is rich in meaning regarding
ritual cleansing, and has been interpreted as baptism (being a
Christian symbol of cleansing), loutron is the work of the
Spirit, and not of men. In context (v. 1-3), Paul tells us
that we need to be kind, respectful, and benevolent to others,
"we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient,
deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending
our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one
another." In contrast to that, God’s undeserved
kindness and benevolence toward us resulted in our salvation.
The sins and attributes that Paul uses to describe our lost
state are grim, as Paul pulls no punches. But, works done in
righteousness will not offset the ugliness of that sin.
Therefore, in accordance with his mercy, he saved us, by
pouring His Spirit upon us. He is the one who cleansed
us, by His Spirit, as the passage clearly states.
Whom he poured out richly upon us through
Jesus Christ, our Savior.
So, flowing into this next thought, having
seen the meaning, we now see exactly the means of
"washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy
Spirit." Again, this next verse further denies human
activity in that it is not the Spirit being poured out upon us
in baptism, for it is not the work of man by which the Holy
Spirit is poured out. God is the subject here. He poured out
the Holy Spirit upon us. And, once again, neither man, nor the
activity of man is the means of this activity, for it is
Christ that is the means by which we have the Spirit.
What we see, then, is that this passage is
not speaking of water, or physical baptism. It is in fact
using such language to refer to the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit is poured, not water, God does the pouring, not man,
and water or ritual is not given as the means by which such is
done, but either the Holy Spirit, or Jesus is the means,
motivated by God’s mercy alone.
This concept does not exist in a theological
vacuum. Indeed, the background of this passage can be found in
the Old Testament. One can easily see the parallel with
Ezekiel 36:
23 "I will vindicate the holiness
of My great name which has been profaned among the
nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the
nations will know that I am the LORD," declares the
Lord GOD, "when I prove Myself holy among you in
their sight. 24 "For I will take you from the
nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into
your own land. 25 "Then I will sprinkle clean
water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse
you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26
"Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new
spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone
from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 "I
will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My
statutes, and you will be careful to observe My
ordinances. (emphasis mine)
Despite the rebellion of this people, and
their "filthiness" and idolatry, God promises to
redeem them, to "sprinkle clean water on" them.
Surely no one can see a parallel to Baptism in this, since it
is not men who pour this water. This unilateral working of God
is truly awe-inspiring. In the vindication of his holiness,
again, actions of men are not the motive for His action
(indeed, their deeds should be cause for judgment, rather than
mercy), He cleanses his people, gives them a new heart and
spirit, removes the heart of stone, and gives them a heart of
flesh. He will put his Spirit within us and cause us to walk
in his statutes. This is the heart of the message of Titus.
God saves men, and he does so perfectly. Who can stand within
his presence and, however subtly or pretentiously humble and
declare their own helping hand? This water came from God. He
sprinkled pure water on us. He cleansed us. How could this be
made clearer?
Of course, other passages can be brought
into the discussion, such as Isaiah 44 and Joel 2. But I think
Ezekiel makes the point clear: God saves. It is not by the
washings or rituals of men wherein salvation is found, but in
the mercy and grace of our Lord. But, there is more that can
be seen in this. There is perfect and complete unity within
the Godhead in the redemption of humanity. There is no
confusion, no dissention, only the Almighty Trinity working
toward the redemption of men, to the glory of his Grace.
Indeed, when one looks very closely at Titus
at this point, one sees that magnificent sight: The blessed
Trinity involved in our salvation, a complete agreement within
the Godhead, promised long beforehand, regarding the
redemption of man. God saves, the Spirit regenerates, the Son
provides the Spirit. It is beautiful to see the perfect works
of God, united in Trinity, rather than the errant works of
men.
That, because we have been justified by his
grace, we should be made heirs, according to the hope of
eternal life.
It cannot be emphasized enough that we are
the objects of salvation, we are objects of justification, and
our efforts are utterly denied. The only verb that has man as
the subjects (the exception being "we have done" in
verse 5, where the works we have done are denied as the
motivating factor in our salvation) is "we should be
made." However, this does not do anything to the denial
or the negation of human activity since this is a passive
verb, and as such we are receiving the action of being made
heirs.
Verse seven constitutes a clause of
purpose/result. What this means is that in the mind of the
author, the purpose of the main verb in the clause not only
indicates the intention of the action, but also its sure
accomplishment. The nature of the construction, even though
the mood of the verb (a subjunctive) is called the verb of
doubt, in the context of the purpose/result clause, there is
no doubt in the mind of the author as to whether or not the
action will be accomplished.
Therefore, we can conclude very easily that
our regeneration and salvation is brought about as a work of
God, and not in correspondence to our actions. The text simply
will not allow it to be so. Further, since there is no effort,
cooperation, or rituals of men in this context, then the
responsibility of salvation and its sure completion therein,
is based solely and completely on the work of God. His honor
and integrity are placed on the line.
It is here, where we need to be humbled, and
not arrogant, as to the sovereign working of God. May our
hearts be softened so as to praise his glorious grace. |
