Faith for Salvation

The Washing of Regeneration and Renewal of the Holy Spirit

February 1, 2025 by M. Stephanie Zeller

“Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His mercy He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:5-7 NKJV)

Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” (John 3:3, ESV) He further explained, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:5-8, ESV)

Jesus is clear. We will not be able to see or enter the kingdom of God until we are born again in our spirit. So, how is this change in our spirit to occur? As with the analogy of the wind, we may not fully comprehend the “how” of rebirth, but we will be able to sense the change in our spirit when we are “reborn.” This change in our spirit is the “washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” (Titus 3:6) It is a profound change in our identity.

Holman’s Dictionary of the Bible defines “regeneration” as “the radical spiritual change in which God brings an individual from a condition of spiritual defeat and death to a renewed condition of holiness and life.” You may recall from the first chapters of Genesis that when God made man, he gave mankind free will, including the freedom to sin and to doubt God’s character. Man exercised this freedom poorly and in the process, he disconnected himself from God—essentially severing his “spiritual umbilical cord” that was connected to God. In doing so, man exchanged his god nature for a sin nature. When we are “reborn,” our spirit is reconnected to God’s spirit.

This reconnection of our spirit to God’s spirit is the coming alive of our spirit—the regeneration of our spirit. Holman’s Dictionary explains that “regeneration occurs when the Holy Spirit takes the truth of the gospel message and allows the individual both to understand it and to commit oneself to it. There is a divine initiative through the Holy Spirit. There is a human responsibility in the response to the Spirit's urging.”

The Apostle Paul in his letter to the congregation at Ephesus spoke of our human responsibility “that, in reference to your former way of life, you are to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” (Ephesians 4:22-24, NASB)

In his letter to the congregation at Rome, Paul writes: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Romans 10:9-10, ESV) According to the New Testament Greek Lexicon—King James Version, the word “HOMOLOGEO,” translated “confess” here, is to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, to assent. The word “confess” as used here is more than the saying of words with our mouth. Rather it is the making of covenant with our hearts.

A key point is that becoming “born again” is not difficult because the God of creation desires that all will be saved. “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9, ESV) “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9, NIV)

If there is a formula to being “born again,” it is this:

desire to know and believe the truth of the gospel as revealed in the Bible
receive the truth: (1) that God has created all that has ever been created, (2) that He came to earth in human form, as Jesus, so that He might reveal to us the true nature of God, (3) that Jesus died on the cross for all our sins and defeated death forever by rising from the grave and (4) that by making Jesus Lord of our life, we invite the Holy Spirit to abide in our human spirits and transform us into the image of God.
repent of having fallen short in our love walk
receive the joy and liberation of forgiveness for our sins and our new fellowship with God.
The good news is our path to salvation is paved by the grace (unmerited favor) of God. We walk that road by faith, and even our faith is a gift from God. We simply begin with the desire to know Him and our openness to truth.
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Where scripture translations neglect to capitalize pronoun references to God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit, we have taken the liberty to do so.