Tit 3:5 he saved us, ......., by the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
Just to keep our discussion flowing without having to backtrack this answer refers to your comment below.
Regeneration is the bringing of the spirit, dead in trespasses and sins, to life again and the giving of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
To which I asked you where it said that? To make it even more clear, before that you had asked me what I thought regeneration was and I replied.
The Holy Spirit changing the heart of a person, a new and soft heart, who does not reject the things of God but hears and believes them.
And you told me I was not even close and gave your definition above. Which by the way. separates people into independant parts when they are a whole being of which their body is included. Our mind's/ heart's may be what motivates a choice to sin, but our bodies do the sinning.
Titus 3:5 is the middle of a sentence that began in verse 4 and ended in verse 7. This is not how we are meant to arrive at any doctrine or belief and not how we are meant to support what we are saying. Even if we begin in chapter 3 verse 1, it is not enough, for that is only a small part of the body of the letter Paul is writing to Titus. If we start with the beginning of the body of the letter where Paul states his purpose in writing, we find that he is instructing Titus concerning churches in Crete where he had left Titus. Titus 1:5-6
This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every in every town as I directed you---if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery of subordination.
Paul then gives further instructions and in 3:3 he gives a brief reason for why those appointed should do and be as what he says in 1-2. And in verse 4 further reason that relates to our position before God as His children and how we came to be in that position. So when we come to "
by the washing and renewal of the Holy Spirit" we are seeing what was done for us, the washing and renewal of the Holy Spirit, but are not being given a description of how that is done by the Holy Spirit or the order in which it is done. It does not work as a proof text for what you say it does. "Proof texts" seldom do.
To find out the order of this occurrence if you will, and thereof what regeneration is, the easiest place to go is John 3 because this is the place that Jesus had this very discussion with Nicodemus. I will pull out the highlights pertinent to the subject to save space. It is available for all to read in its entirety.
In verses 1-2 we have Nicodemus coming to Jesus with not a question at all but a statement, acknowledging that Jesus was a teacher come from God. Jesus responded to this in a way, considering what followed, that in the mind of Nicodemus, as was the case with those of Abraham's natural descent, it was human status before God that mattered and being of Abraham was the way into the kingdom of God, because His reply was,
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Then we have the question of Nicodemus, still thinking in human terms, and not understanding what the Law and the Prophets taught, as a teacher of the Law himself, he should have known, which Jesus later chastised him for;
"How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
So Jesus explains further.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." He was not speaking of a physical rebirth but of a spiritual rebirth. And He further explains
"Do not marvel that I said to you, "You must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." This shows that this new birth is invisible and is done by the will of God through the Holy Spirit, and no human knows where it comes from and where it goes. Definite selection by God.
Nicodemus as a teacher of the Law and Prophets (OT) should have known what Jesus was referring to when He said "born of water and the Spirit" because it was a direct reference to OT scriptures in the Prophets on that very thing and was a reference there to cleansing by the Holy Spirit, which was at that time signified by the washings in the Law.
Having said all this, Jesus makes a dramatic statement of who He is, what He came to do and how He was going to do it in verses 13-14. His announcement to Nicodemus that the One who stood before Him was the promises suffering servant, the Messiah, the Redeemer, who was promised in the Law and Prophets, not merely a teacher of the Law, as Nicodemus had begun this conversation affirming.
And then we come to verse 16 which tells us the why of it, and the how of it as applied to those mentioned in verse 8, and is almost always removed from this context and used to prove what the context does not say.
"For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." In doing this they forget all about Jesus speaking of the new birth, and the fact that that is entirely in God's hands as to where it goes, and that no one can either see or enter the kingdom of God unless that occurs. And turn what Jesus said completely on it head by focusing on one word, and that being "whoever", and determine that word indicates a choice by the person that causes the Holy Spirit to rebirth them in Christ. Even though Jesus Himself had just said the opposite.
That is how one finds out what regeneration
is.
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