"…(4) but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, (5) he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, (6) which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, (7)so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:4-7, RSV, Catholic Edition).

"As one who adheres to Sola Scriptura, it is my assertion that the text does not speak of baptismal regeneration, and that it is a tradition forced onto Titus 3:5. If we allow the text to define its own meaning, and allow it to speak on its own terms, then I believe that we will find an entirely different viewpoint than what the Catholic will hold to."

• "God is the subject. He is doing the saving (v. 5) "
• "God's mercy is given as the motivation for the action"
• "There is an explicit denial of human activity, as he has not saved us by works done in righteousness"
• "The agency of the salvation is not of human origin, as both washing of regeneration and renewal have the Holy Spirit as the source "
• "The means by which we received the Holy Spirit upon us was Jesus "

"So, one has to wonder the basis upon which the Catholic feels justified to argue that baptism done by human accomplishes spiritual regeneration".

"And getting into a boat he crossed over and came to his own city. And behold, they brought to him a paralytic, lying on his bed; and when Jesus saw their faith he said to the paralytic, 'Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.' And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, 'This man is blaspheming.' But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, 'Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins' – he then said to the paralytic – 'Rise, take up your bed and go home.' And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men". (Matthew 9:1-8, emphasis mine; cf. Mark 2:1-12; Luke 5:17-26).

It is important to note that at no point in this sentence are humans mentioned, nor is human activity ever the subject or means of any verb. But, humans are the objects of the main verb in this clause. He saved us. In looking into this passage, observing these things is important:

We observe from the very outset that human activity is explicitly denied in this passage. Certainly, if baptism were in view, we would see some reference to at least our obedience (if, perhaps someone wishes to separate obedience from an act of righteousness). There would at least be some reference to our activity. There is not, however. The phrase translated above as, "not on the basis of deeds" is a negation of human works. To further separate the work of salvation from human effort, Paul uses a strong adversative (grk. alla). Thus, a strong contrast is given here. It is not on the basis of works (not just any works, but those done in righteousness) but it is on the basis of his mercy. Thus, God was not motivated to save because of a work of man, even those deeds that are righteous (of which baptism is certainly one), but because of his mercy. Even still, baptism is not listed as a parallel activity, since the "washing" is not given as a separate function from the Holy Spirit. In other words, were one to be able to show that baptism does regenerate a person in other passages, it still does not affect the meaning of this passage. The meaning if this passage is that in every respect, we are saved by God, and not by any action on our part. It is entirely unilateral here. Therefore, even if a person baptized another, and regeneration happened at the same time, one could not say that the baptism performed in anyway resulted in regeneration. Otherwise, the meaning of the passage would be on its head, and the motivation for God to save would, indeed, we a work done in righteousness. If, truly, "all our righteousness is as filthy rags", then even the greatest of our deeds does not merit eternal life. Surely, one could never make the case that anything less, or anything other than a righteous deed would be worthy of merit. But, Paul denies even the righteous deeds."

"A great deal of weight is placed upon the word "washing." It is the Greek term loutron, which certainly bears that meaning. The idea of the word is a ritual cleansing, rather than simply a cleansing from dirt, though that meaning is there. The practice of ritual cleansing before service is not at all uncommon, as this was the rite the sons of Aaron were required to practice. Thus, many have gone through great lengths to somehow tie rituals of cleansing to loutron in this context. But, this is an example of what is often called "one-word exegesis". This is another way of saying that the people are practicing eisegesis, or reading into the text their assumptions. Let me explain. A single word with no context has no meaning, since it has no defining parameters to limit its meaning. To put it another way, a word with no context bears every possible meaning that a dictionary might give it, including poetic and metaphoric usage. I have often used the word "fire" as an example. With no context, the word fire can be a command (Fire!) as in an execution, an exclamation (Fire!) as in the warning of a fire, it can mean passion ( heart of fire) or anger (heart of fire). Without context, it is simply impossible to know truly the meaning of a term.

"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing (gk, loutron) of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (Eph 5:25-27).

"25. In using his authority the husband must take as his model Christ's love for the Church. 'Thou hast seen the measure of obedience, hear also the measure of love. Wouldst thou have thy wife obedient to thee, as the Church is to Christ? Take then thyself the same provident care for her, as Christ takes for the Church. Yea, even if it shall be needful for thee to give thy life for her…refuse it not' (Chrysostom). Christ's love for the Church was perfect: he delivered himself up for it. 26. And this supreme act of love had for its goal and its effect a baptism of the Church, whereby at once it is made holy. 'The laver of water' is a metaphor based on the bath of water solemnly presented by Greeks to a bride on the eve of her marriage. This Greek custom had a purificatory and religious significance. 'In the word' is best read in connexion with what immediately precedes (i.e. the laver of water). The sense, then, is that the purification-sanctification conferred on the Church by the death of Christ is a baptism of water accompanied, or conditioned by, a sacramental formula" (A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, pg. 1124 & 1125, para# 902 e).

"Simply connecting the lexical meaning of loutron to ritual cleansing without observing what the context is telling us about that term is irresponsible exegesis. In the context, we must note that though the word is rich in meaning regarding ritual cleansing, and has been interpreted as baptism (being a Christian symbol of cleansing), loutron is the work of the Spirit, and not of men. In context (v. 1-3), Paul tells us that we need to be kind, respectful, and benevolent to others, "we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another." In contrast to that, God's undeserved kindness and benevolence toward us resulted in our salvation. The sins and attributes that Paul uses to describe our lost state are grim, as Paul pulls no punches. But, works done in righteousness will not offset the ugliness of that sin. Therefore, in accordance with his mercy, he saved us, by pouring His Spirit upon us. He is the one who cleansed us, by His Spirit, as the passage clearly states."

"Whom he poured out richly upon us through Jesus Christ, our Savior.So, flowing into this next thought, having seen the meaning, we now see exactly the means of "washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit." Again, this next verse further denies human activity in that it is not the Spirit being poured out upon us in baptism, for it is not the work of man by which the Holy Spirit is poured out. God is the subject here. He poured out the Holy Spirit upon us. And, once again, neither man, nor the activity of man is the means of this activity, for it is Christ that is the means by which we have the Spirit. What we see, then, is that this passage is not speaking of water, or physical baptism. It is in fact using such language to refer to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is poured, not water, God does the pouring, not man, and water or ritual is not given as the means by which such is done, but either the Holy Spirit, or Jesus is are the means, motivated by God's mercy alone."