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Does ‘Washing of Regeneration’ Refer to Baptismal Regeneration Titus 3:4–7, Part 5 · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is session number five on Titus three four through seven.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: But when the kindness and benevolence of God, our Savior, appeared,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: he saved us. That's the big picture. Everything else here
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: is how not because of works done by us in righteousness.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: So our own doing, even doing the right things, does
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: not provide the decisive means by which we are set
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: right with God. Not because of works done by us
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. Mercy stands
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: over the whole act. God is the kind of God
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: who is mercifully disposed toward needy, helpless people. If we
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: cry out to him and help in seeking his help,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: he is inclined to help us, but according to his
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: the Holy Spirit. Father. As we try to understand these
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: two phrases, I pray that the miracle that's involved in
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: regeneration and renewal would become real for people who are
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: working with me on this text. I pray that all
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: of us would live in the purity of this washing
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: and in the rich outpouring of the Holy Spirit for
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the sake of renewal and new birth. Pray this in
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Jesus' name Amen. Regeneration is a long fancy word for
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: born again, re generation, generation, born birth, giving, rise to
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: and re again. Paul's usual way of talking about how
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: human beings become new through the mercy of God is
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: to speak of new creation. For example here in Ephesians too,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: by grace, you have been saved through faith. This is
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: not your own doing. It is the gift of God,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: not a result of works. So that no one may boast,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. That's
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: the new birth. But it spoken in terms of creation
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: rather than birth. We are recreated. That's a miracle that
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: happens to us. God takes the initiative and brings a
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: new person, a believing person, into being. Nevertheless, I don't
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: want to give the impression that Paul doesn't speak like
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: this anywhere else. Here's Galatians for where he speaks of
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: being born of the spirit. Now you brothers like Isaac.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: So he's contrasting Isaac and Ishmael. Remember that Abraham and
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: Sarah were old and she was barren. God had promised
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: them a son. Abraham took it into his own hands
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: to get a son. He had sex with Hagar his handmaid,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: and so Ishmael was born, and that was a son
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: of the flesh, meaning he did it by his own power.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: And Isaac was then born by a miracle to an
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: old man and a barren woman. To show that God
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: brings about the children of God through miracles, now through
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: human agency. Now you, brothers like Isaac, are children of promise.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: It was a promise that secured Isaac's miracle birth. But
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: just as at that time he who was born according
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: to the flesh, as Ishmael persecuted him who was born
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: according to the spirit, so also it is now so
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Paul thinks in terms of being born again now of
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: all Christians by the spirit. And of course all of
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: that is rooted most immediately in the teachings of Jesus.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, and Jesus said, truly, truly,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: I say you, and less one is born again, he
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  Speaker 1: cannot see the Kingdom of God. You must be born again, Nicodemus,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus goes on, truly, truly, I say to you, unless
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: one is born of water and of the spirit. So
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: now born again becomes born of water and born of
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: the spirit. He cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: which is born of the flesh. That's exactly the way
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Paul was talking about it. In other words, our first
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: birth born according to the flesh is flesh. All we
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: are is flesh. We're not spiritually alive if we're just
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: born the first time according to flesh, what humans can do,
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  Speaker 1: and that which is born of the spirit. If you
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: have God causing you to be born, than you are spirit,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: meaning you have spiritual life. Do not marvel that I
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: said to you, you must be born again. Here it
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: is again. The wind blows where it wishes. You hear
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: the sound of it. You do not know where it
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: is born of the spirit. In other words, it happens
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  Speaker 1: as a miracle from God. You don't manage it, you
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  Speaker 1: don't cause it. It is a gift. Now, water sounds
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  Speaker 1: like washing, washing of regeneration. What does the washing of
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: regeneration mean? What did Jesus mean when he said you
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  Speaker 1: must be born of water and the spirit. I think
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  Speaker 1: this is rooted in Ezekiel, where the promise goes like this,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares
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  Speaker 1: the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness
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  Speaker 1: before their eyes. I will take you from the nations
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  Speaker 1: and gather you from all the countries and bring you
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  Speaker 1: into your own land. And I will sprinkle clean water
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  Speaker 1: on you, and you should be clean from all your
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  Speaker 1: uncleanness and from your idols. Now, notice the water. Here
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: is a picture of God's spiritual cleansing, because what they're
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: being cleansed from is idolatry. You can't wash idolatry off
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  Speaker 1: with water. This is a picture. Water is a cleansing agent,
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  Speaker 1: and it is a metaphor here for spiritual cleansing from
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: all moral uncleanness and all spiritual idolatry. I will cleanse you.
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  Speaker 1: And then he adds, and I will give you a
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  Speaker 1: new heart, a new spirit. I will put within you.
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  Speaker 1: I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh.
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  Speaker 1: I will give you a heart of flesh. I will
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  Speaker 1: put my spirit within you and cause you to walk
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: according to my statute. So there's a new spirit, and
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: there is a cleansing with water spiritually. And so I
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: think when Jesus says back here, unless you're born of
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  Speaker 1: water and the spirit, meaning unless you experience the kind
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  Speaker 1: of cleansing that Ezekiel was talking about, and the kind
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  Speaker 1: of new life by the old heart being taken out
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  Speaker 1: and a new heart being put in. In my spirit
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  Speaker 1: being put within you, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: So washing of regeneration, I think means God causes you
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  Speaker 1: to be born again. He gives you new spiritual life.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: He takes out the heart of stone, puts in the
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: heart of flesh, and in that he causes you to
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: be clean. So this comes first and causes this. And
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: one of the reasons I think the o here means
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  Speaker 1: washing caused by regeneration is because this is parallel washing
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  Speaker 1: of regeneration renewal of the spirit. I think these two
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  Speaker 1: oves here have the same function. Renewal of the Holy
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  Speaker 1: Spirit means the Holy Spirit brings about the renewal. Renewal
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  Speaker 1: doesn't bring about the Holy Spirit. So this of here
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: means the renewal is caused by the Holy Spirit. And
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: so I think it's right to say that the washing
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: is caused by the regeneration of That's important. And one
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: of the reasons this important is this. Sometimes, for example,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: Roman Catholics will speak of baptismal regeneration and what they
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: mean by that is when you are baptized, the very
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: act of baptism, the sacrament of baptism, cause this is
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the regeneration. Now that's not true. It's backward. Regeneration causes
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: the cleansing, not the other way around. My first argument
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: for that is the of the second argument is He's
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: already said He saves us, not because of works. If
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: you try to say that getting baptized causes you to
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: be born again, you are falling right into the trap
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: of getting saved by a particular work. It's like saying,
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: what must I do to have salvation or to be saved?
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  Speaker 1: And the answer comes back be baptized apart from faith. Now,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: baptism is a right expression of faith, and so baptism
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: in that sense is one of the means by which
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  Speaker 1: God saves. He saves in the sense that the baptism
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: expresses our faith. It is an appeal to God for
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: a good conscience on Peter three twenty one. But there's
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: another reason why I say regeneration here is not caused
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  Speaker 1: by the washing, but the other way around. Look at
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  Speaker 1: John one, to all who did receive him, so everybody
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  Speaker 1: he came to rejected him, but to all who did
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  Speaker 1: receive him, who believed in his name, He gave the
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  Speaker 1: right to become the children of God. So becoming a
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: child of God happens through believing somehow. And then he says,
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  Speaker 1: who were born not of blood, nor of the will
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  Speaker 1: of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
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  Speaker 1: of God. So those who believe were born of God.
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  Speaker 1: And thus God, through faith causes becoming a child of God.
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  Speaker 1: Look at first John five to one. Everyone who believes
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  Speaker 1: that Jesus is the Christ. Everyone who believes, has been
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  Speaker 1: born of God. So first there is the new birth.
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  Speaker 1: Then there is faith, and through that new birth and
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  Speaker 1: faith there is cleansing, there is washing. So it's not
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  Speaker 1: right to say that this is a reference to so
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  Speaker 1: called baptismal regeneration, meaning get baptized and by that sacrament
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  Speaker 1: you will be made a new person. We are made
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  Speaker 1: new people through new birth, which brings about faith, which
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: leads us to be baptized, and in that process the
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  Speaker 1: result is our filthiness is washed away. Or here it
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  Speaker 1: says we are being made new. We'll get that next
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  Speaker 1: time a little more fully.