E.M.B. Green on Baptism in Titus 3

What happens when we thus trustingly put our hand in the hand of God, and entrust ourselves to his saving mercy? The Holy Spirit of God comes into residence in the life of the believer, and he is then baptized. The two results are brought together in Tit. 3.5, 6. “He saved us through the water of rebirth and of renewal by the Holy Spirit.” Despite a certain ambiguity in the Greek expression it is clear that two things are in Paul’s mind, the rite of baptism and the gift of the Spirit to the believer. These two are juxtaposed equally naturally in Gal. 3.26, 27 where entry into Christ is said to be by faith and by baptism, and it identified, earlier in the chapter, with receiving the Spirit by faith (3.1-3). The New Testament saw no tension between salvation by faith and salvation by baptism; they are properly regarded as belonging together . . . (E.M.B. Green, The Meaning of Salvation [London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1965], 170)