Important for our study are the words
“he saved us . . . according to his mercy, through (dia, by) the water (loutron,
washing) of rebirth and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” This describes the means
God used to rescue the Cretans out of paganism. It is hard to imagine that
Titus and the Cretans would have thought water/washing (loutron)
referred to anything other than baptism. Similar language is used in other baptism-related
passages: “Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling
on his name” (Acts 22:16). In another situation, after describing their former
life of debauchery, Paul reminds the Corinthians, “And this is what some of you
used to be. But you were washed . . . in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:9-11). Likewise, Paul’s declaration
that “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, in order to make her
holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word” (Eph
5:25-26). The term “word” should be understood as “the proclamation of the
gospel, which is the basis of baptism.” In similar fashion, the writer of
Hebrews issues a twofold command to his readers: “Let us approach with a true
heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil
conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to
the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is
faithful” (Heb 10:22-23). The terms “washed,” “confession,” and “cleansed”
point to baptism.
Next we ask, does Paul understand
the link between “the washing of rebirth” and “renewal of the Holy Spirit”
(Titus 3:5) as two “distinct operations” or two “different aspects of one
operation”? If “through” (dia) were used before “renewal” and before “the
water of rebirth,” then salvation would be a two-step process involving: 1) “washing”
(loutron), i.e., water
baptism that leads to new birth; and 2) the “renewal of the Holy Spirit,” i.e.,
Spirirt baptism that follows and leads to the restoration of God’s people. If
this is the case, the phrase “Spirit that has been poured out on us” (vv. 6-7)
is our guarantee of a future resurrection and inheritance in the eternal
kingdom.
However, dia appears only once in the
text before “water/washing.” This means the phrase describes a single operation
with the washing referring to the “activity of the Holy Spirit” that includes
both rebirth and renewal.
It is impossible to be definitive
on the matter. Water baptism and Spirit baptism are inexorably linked to conversion,
justification (forgiveness) and regeneration (new birth). The Cretan believers,
who were once characterized as “liars, vicious brutes, lazy gluttons” (Titus
1:2), have now “renounce[d] impiety and worldly passions” and have begun “to
live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly” as they “wait for the
blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior,
Jesus Christ” (2:11-13).
The trifecta of resurrection,
kingdom, and baptism found in this pericope is consistent with the pattern in
the other authentic and disputed letters of Paul. (R. Alan Streett, Caesar
and the Sacrament—Baptism: A Rite of Resistance [Eugene, Oreg.: Cascade
Books, 2018], 143-45, italics in original)
