WASHING OF REGENERATION
This term appears only in Tit. 3:5. “Regeneration” is not used in the Scriptures in the ritualistic sense that is given to it in certain sectors of Christianity, as can be deduced from the only other passage in which it appears (Mt. 19:28), where it evidently refers to an order still future of things.
Thus in Titus the believer is said to be saved by the washing in connection with the new order of things introduced by the work of Christ, and indicated by baptism and renewal in the Holy Spirit.
The words which speak of salvation “by the washing of regeneration and renewing in the Holy Spirit” are evidence that there is a present escape and deliverance from the world and its course, and an introduction into those things which characterize the world to come, of which the Holy Spirit is now the revealer and the power, even as Israel escaped from Egypt and its reproach through the Red Sea, and anticipated Canaan in their song of praise.