Titus 3:5–7

God rules out a man's works as a ground for salvation, and how merciful that is. By nature we stood before God as unrighteous. How could an unrighteous man do works in righteousness? There is indeed one work done in righteousness, and it is infinite. Christ, the Righteous One, came to do God's will and did it all perfectly. As He said when dying, "It is finished."

The Holy Spirit begins by excluding all works of righteousness of our own, for these could not change the nature of a Cretan, nor of any other son of Adam. Mercy would come down to us where we were; there was divine pity and compassion for such wretches.

In Scripture salvation is generally connected with a work accomplished for us... This passage, however, is an exception to that general rule. Here we are saved by a work done upon us and in us. The work in us is quite as necessary as the work for us. This is very plain if we consider the picture of Israel's deliverance from Egypt. God's mighty work for them saved them out of the land of slavery. Yet despite all the wonders done on their behalf, the vast majority of them fell in the wilderness and never reached the land of promise.

The word is used in only one other place in the New Testament, Matthew 19:28. There it points to the new order of things that God will set up in the day of Christ's glory. We do not have that new order yet. But we have come under the washing, the cleansing, the moral and spiritual renewal that fits that day.

The washing (or bath) of regeneration is the new birth. Of this our Lord spoke to Nicodemus (John 3)... The washing has nothing whatever to do with water-baptism. Water-baptism cannot save a sinner, or help save him, or produce regeneration.

The "washing of regeneration" does not refer to that inward work done in the soul when a person is born through the word of truth. That inward work comes in the next clause, "the renewing of the Holy Spirit." The washing refers instead to the new place or position into which God brings the believer through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And of this, baptism is not the means but the sign, or "figure," as Peter speaks (1 Peter 3:21).

It is not to be thought that these two things are exactly the same. The washing of regeneration looks at our old condition, and it places us outside of that condition. The renewing of the Holy Spirit looks more at that inward work which the Spirit of God makes ours.

What is the renewing of the Holy Spirit? It is distinct from regeneration. The Holy Spirit is the active agent in the new birth. He gives the new nature and then lives in the believer, and He does His blessed work by renewing the inward man day by day (2 Corinthians 4:16).

The apostle is laying down the only ground of power for a life that bears fruit. So he urges Titus to insist, always and fully, on the sure but exclusive truth of salvation by grace, in all its fullness and reality... Without it there is no readiness or power for good works. Without it the conscience is clouded and the heart hardened.

The Holy Spirit is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. The grace of this Saviour has justified us, so that we should be heirs according to the hope of eternal life. I think the word "that" in verse 7 points back to "the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit." The sentence, "which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour," is a parenthesis added alongside it. It shows us that we enjoy these things in their fullness by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Here we have three very distinct statements. First, He has saved us. Second, He saved us "by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" — that is, as in John 3, "born of water and the Spirit." This means moral cleansing, or purification, and a new life or nature. Third, "which He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Here we have more than the life-giving work of the Holy Spirit. We have the special Christian privilege, the Spirit of adoption, by whom we can call God Abba, Father. We have the gift of the Spirit, with all the fullness of spiritual blessing that comes with His abiding presence in us and with us.

The Spirit has been poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. God does not give the Spirit by measure, for the Spirit is a living Person, and not limited by human limitations. And this blessing has come through Jesus Christ our Saviour. God has given Him all His riches, and He delights to share them generously with His saints.

What we have here is not being born anew, or born of God. That, in my judgment, is common to all saints at all times. What we have here is the form and fullness that now belongs to the Christian... New birth is universal. But the new place, and the gift of the Holy Spirit in this rich way, waited until redemption was accomplished.

He does not merely work in us with real effect; He also remains with us for ever. This is of immense value. It stands in clear contrast with Old Testament privilege, where believers feel the danger of His leaving and pray against it, as we see in Psalm 51... Certainly this could not be except "through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Those words are added here for two reasons. First, so that we would imagine no other ground. Second, so that we would have the fullest assurance of abundant and unfailing grace, in the power of the Spirit Himself, through such a Saviour.

No mistake could be more damaging than to confuse the gift of the Holy Spirit with those gifts and signs and miracles which were outward proofs... The presence of the Spirit Himself, our Helper, is far higher and deeper than all the mighty deeds He worked.

Given in this way, He energises the new life we now have. He works a day-by-day renewing within us. That renewing works out a continuous and growing salvation from the old life we once lived... He has been poured on us abundantly, and so we may enjoy what really is life in abundant measure.

We may note in passing that Scripture speaks of justification in three ways, since man by nature is unrighteous. It is justified by His grace (Titus 3:7), if we speak of the source. It is justified by His blood (Rom. 5:9), if we look for the cause that obtained it in the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is justified by faith, if we ask how each soul is brought into the blessing (Rom. 5:1).

Our text, Titus 3:7, points us to the cause that produces justification. It is the grace of God, and not any merit in those who receive it. This shuts out all boasting for ever. So it is a source that never fails. It rests on Christ's work, which justifies God just as much as it justifies the repentant soul who lays hold of Christ by faith.

Here it stands as a fact, with emphasis. "Being, or having been, justified by His grace." It is already done. Now grace on His part rules out any deserving on ours... Work rightly calls for wages or reward. But what can justify the ungodly — and that is what we once were — except God's sovereign favour?

The work in us is quite as necessary as the work for us. And the work for us is quite as necessary as the work in us. Verse 7 shows this. We could not become heirs of God merely by the work of the Spirit in us. We needed to be justified before God, and the grace that worked for us in Christ accomplished that. Once we were washed, renewed and justified, grace could go further and make us heirs. But all three were equally necessary.

Some object to "heirs" standing alone; but it is all the more absolute because it does... It is not inheriting this or that but "heirs also," and, to make it rich beyond limit, "heirs of God and Christ's joint-heirs."... All is sovereign grace. It is He who made us His heirs; and we are to inherit what Christ will inherit in glory. In writing to Titus, the apostle leaves "heirs" undefined, and that makes the word all the larger.

So He has saved us by this renewing, that we may be heirs according to the hope of eternal life. It is nothing outward, earthly, or bodily. Grace has given us eternal life. There is energy, power, hope, through the rich gift of the Holy Spirit. So that we may share in it, we have been justified by His grace, and our inheritance is in the incorruptible joy of eternal life.

It is "hope," because that life does not reach its full completion until Christ comes. Then the body will be as alive with it as the inner man already is by faith. Only then does hope reach its glorious fulfilment.