.
. . Paul also says that the washing is a work of ‘rebirth and renewal of the
Holy Spirit’. The word ‘rebirth’, or ‘regeneration’, is only used twice in the
whole of the New Testament, here and in Matthew 19:28. The Greek word, palingenesia
is a sandwich of two other words ‘beginning’ (genesis) and ‘again’ (palin),
and it means something like ‘new beginning’ or even ‘new birth’. The word ‘renewal’
has a very similar meaning. It does not refer here to a gradual process
of renewal but refers to a decisive restart—going back to ‘new’. In other
words, both are very similar to what Jesus says in John 3 about being ‘born
again’.
The
way Jesus uses ‘regeneration’ in Matthew 19:28 also gives us some insight into
what Paul means in Tutus 3. Jesus says:
Truly
I tell you, at the renewal of all things [i.e. the regeneration], when
the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, and you who have followed me will
also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (Matt. 19:28).
Jesus
uses the term ‘regeneration’ to refer to the new world or new creation that He
will establish in which He will rule together with His disciples. That hope is
anchored in the Old Testament hope of a world put right. For example, God says
through Isaiah:
See,
I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be
remembered, nor will they come to mind. (Isa. 65:17).
That
new world will be a world of unparalleled goodness such that no one will remember
the sadness of this contorted world. So too, the lives of people in that world will
be full of joy and peace:
‘They
will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their
fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and
others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my
chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor in
vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortunate; for they will be a
people blessed by the LORD< they and their descendants with them. Before they
call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the
lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will
be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy
mountain,’ says the LORD (Isa. 65:21-25)
God’s
plan to put the world right involves a new beginning for the whole world and
the whole creation.
But
the catch is that, in order for you and me to be part of that new creation, we
need to become new creations too. (Karl Deenick, Washed by God: The Story of
Baptism [Ross-Shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, Inc., 2022],
56-57)
The
relationship between washing, rebirth, renewal and the Holy Spirit is
grammatically tricky. It could be ‘through the washing-of-rebirth and (through
the renewal-of-the-Holy Spirit’ or ‘through the washing of re-birth-and-renewal
of the Holy Spirit.’ But the fact that rebirth and renewal mean almost the same
thing and that washing is generally a function of the Holy Spirit, suggest that
whatever the precise grammatical relationship, thematically, washing, rebirth,
renewal and the Holy Spirit’s activity all continue one singular work .of God
(cf. Philip H. Towner, The Letters to Timothy and Titus, New International
Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006), 782-84 and
George W. Knight, The Pastoral Epistles: A Commentary on the Greek Text,
New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992),
342-44). (Ibid., 56 n. 18)