Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Titus · About this commentary
The Washing of Regeneration
Titus 3:4-7
4 But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love toward mankind appeared, · WEB
The hinge of the letter: what we were is answered not by what we did but by what appeared — kindness, mercy, and a washing.
But when. Verse 4 turns the whole letter on two words, and what interrupts the ruin of verse 3 is not effort but an appearing — the same verb again: the kindness of God our Savior, and his love toward mankind, appeared.
Verse 5 is emphatic about what did not cause it. Salvation came not by works of righteousness which we did, but according to his mercy. The means was a washing — loutron G3067 — of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. And palingenesia G3824, regeneration, occurs only twice in the New Testament. The other is the Lord's word for the renewal of all things at his throne Matthew 19:28. One word joins a believer's new birth to the remaking of the world, so this washing is not a private repair. It is the first instance of a general renewal.
Verse 6 pours the Spirit out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Verse 7 states the outcome: justified by grace, and made heirs of the eternal life that Titus 1:2 promised before time began. The letter has come back to where it started.
settled What this mark means