What is salvation through Spirit?

The doctrine of the new birth is therefore taught by our Lord in connection with the cross. A new birth is inseparable from new life; that new life is here defined to be not temporal, but eternal, and as flowing only to us from God, through the death of Christ, and that to every one that believeth. Therefore our Lord told Nicodemus, that to be born again of water and of the Spirit, he must take the place of a ruined, perishing sinner before the Son of God, who was crucified, and thus he would receive eternal life, and stand no longer as one condemned, but as having pardon and acceptance with God. This, indeed, is being born of God. The Holy Spirit always directs the soul to the person and work of Christ. The Holy Ghost does not say, Look at me for salvation, look to my operations for peace, look to my gifts for assurance. Oh, no! He is the Glorifier of Christ, therefore He saith, Look to Jesus lifted up, look to the Lamb slain, the Saviour of sinners; believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved; and if we be led of the Spirit, we shall surely testify of Christ. Were I merely to preach, Ye must be born again, it would be no message of glad tidings, no balm for the weary and heavy laden, no comfort for the anxious enquirer; but when we connect with the doctrine of the new birth the blessed truth, that Christ crucified is an ocean of boundless love, an overflowing fountain of living water, a well of everlasting life to every sinner that believes, we announce good tidings of great joy.

New birth is clearly the work of the Spirit of God. A man must be "born of water and of the Spirit" (John 3:5). The water, figurative of the Word, is the instrument or vehicle: the Spirit, the Agent or Power. In 1 Peter 1:22-25 the same great truth is referred to, only the emphasis is rather laid upon the Word of God which is living and abiding, and which presents itself to us today in the Gospel which is preached to us, and the Spirit of God is referred to as Him by whom we have purified our souls in obeying the truth. In John 3 the chief emphasis is laid upon the Spirit's operation, and it is declared that He begets His like — "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

The end of the chapter brings before us the grace bestowed in connection with the Spirit of God. It is through the Spirit that our souls have been purified, being born again by the living and abiding word of God. The new birth is a work wrought in us and not for us, the Spirit being the Operator and the word of God the agent which He uses; but all of it is the fruit of the grace of God.

In Titus the grace of God that carries with it salvation to all men has appeared; and, “According to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” It has often been remarked that the only other place where we get the word “Regeneration” is in Matthew 19:28, and there it is introduced in connection with the kingdom of the Son of man. It is a new order of things, brought about by His assumption of the throne of the world. We enter now into this regeneration in a moral and spiritual way. It is spoken of as the washing of regeneration, and answers, I think, to “Born of water and the Spirit,” and baptism may be associated with it. It answers to translation into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. We are brought into a new order of things, and the Holy Spirit, Who has been shed on us abundantly, is the power by which we enjoy such a sphere of light and blessing. Paul was told to arise and be baptised, calling upon the name of the Lord; and whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. The doctrine of God our Saviour, even the slave was privileged to adorn. He was to be a witness of the power of the grace of God to deliver man from the thraldom of sin.

Salvation then, according to verse 5, is not according to our works of righteousness but according to God's mercy, and the means of it are "the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." In John 3 where the new birth is in question we have the Spirit of God as the Agent or Operator and the "water" as the instrument producing it. Here too we have the Spirit and the water, only the latter is alluded to under the term "washing." But we must note that the word, "regeneration" in our verse is not exactly the equivalent of the new birth. The only other place in the New Testament where the word is used is in Matthew 19:28, and it indicates the new order of things which is to be established in the day of Christ's glory. We have not got that new order of things yet but we have come under the washing, the cleansing, the moral and spiritual renovation which is in keeping with that day.

For our own salvation was not by works of righteousness, but by God's mercy, His meeting us in our circumstances of sin and shame, and having compassion. The washing of regeneration implies the communication of new life, but emphasizes the moral change that new life brings with it, for it is a cleansing process. And the Holy Spirit has renewed once and for all every soul who has received this mercy. The "old man" has been forever put off, and the "new man" put on.

We have seen that the "renewing of the Holy Ghost" is not a thing to be repeated, but has been done once as to every believer: this has renewed the believer in the spirit of his mind; for the Spirit has been poured on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. 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 Savior, He to whom all the riches of God have been given, and who delights to share unstintingly with His saints.

And this is accomplished by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. The washing (or bath) of regeneration is the new birth. Of this our Lord spoke to Nicodemus (John 3) and also to His disciples when He washed their feet. "He that is washed (bathed) needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit; and ye are clean, but not all" (John 13:10). He spoke in these words of the fact that His disciples, except Judas, were born again, and therefore they were clean every whit. The washing has nothing whatever to do with water-baptism; water-baptism cannot save nor help in the salvation of a sinner, nor produce regeneration. What is the renewing of the Holy Spirit? It is distinct from regeneration. The Holy Spirit is the active agent in the new birth; imparts the new nature and then indwells the believer, and as such He does His blessed work by renewing the inward man day by day (2 Cor. 4:16). He is shed upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour, and gives power to all who walk in the Spirit. On the fact that the word "regeneration" is found only once more in the New Testament (Matt. 19:28) the late F.W. Grant made the following interesting comment in connection with this passage.

Connected with this is "the renewing of the Holy Ghost." The Spirit acted in our new birth, as John 3 shows, but this renewing is produced by the Spirit being "shed on us abundantly," as the fruit of which we have that more abundant life, of which the Lord spoke in John 10:10. We have been saved from all the folly and moral filth, of which Paul had just spoken, by the new birth and the renewing effected by the indwelling and work of the Spirit of God. Thus saved and also "justified by His grace," according to the redemption previously mentioned, we are "made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." All this sets before us an outline of "sound doctrine."

This new birth the Spirit and the Word combine to effect. A man is born of water and of the Spirit, the water here, as the symbol of purification, taking the place that the seed of the Word does in the parable elsewhere. As the apostle Peter tells us, we are "born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God... and this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you" (1 Pet. 2. 23, 25). And so the apostle of the Gentiles explains Christ's purification of His Church to be "with the washing of water by the Word" (Eph. 5: 26).

In God’s purpose there was an entirely new scene before Him, new heavens and new earth, in which righteousness would dwell; but He also purposed to have a new family of men among whom He could dwell for evermore, finding His rest in the new creation. The new birth that brings men into this new divine family is the work of the Holy Spirit, even as the Lord Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). In the new birth there is divine cleansing from the state inherited from Adam, and the formation of the new nature that gives the capacity for entering into things that are spiritual and divine.