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Titus 3:4–5
“When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”
Many American Protestants view the sacraments as merely symbolic, as simply testimonies to what God has done, not rites through which God actually conveys blessings. Classical Reformed theology, however, teaches that the sacraments exhibit and confer grace to “worthy receivers” (Westminster Confession of Faith 27.3). We will examine what constitutes a “worthy receiver” in due time. The point today is that, as Dr. R.C. Sproul states, “the sacrament is not just an empty ritual. It has spiritual significance and reality because God assigns that to it. Just as the Word of God does not return to Him void (Isa. 55:11), neither does the exercise and administration of the sacrament return to Him void.”
We know this to be true because Scripture describes sacraments as actually effecting things. For example, today’s passage speaks of “the washing of regeneration” (Titus 3:4–5). This refers not to a spiritual reality entirely divorced from the material but to water baptism. Consider also 1 Peter 3:21, which says, “Baptism . . . now saves you.” Peter describes not an abstract spiritual reality here but one connected to the application of water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in baptism. But how can Scripture speak of sacraments as effecting realities, since baptism does not save everyone who receives it, does not cleanse every recipient from sin? After all, many baptized individuals fall away from the church entirely, sometimes even joining non-Christian religions.
Westminster Confession of Faith 27.2 notes that there is a “sacramental union” in each sacrament between the sign and the thing signified. In other words, the sacramental elements of water, bread, and wine are so closely connected to the spiritual reality that Scripture speaks of these elements as doing something, for God actually mediates grace through them. The rites do not work automatically such that every partaker of the sacraments receives the grace offered therein. Faith is required. Nevertheless, the connection is so close that God communicates the benefits of salvation through the water, bread, and wine to those who trust in Christ.
For baptism, cleansing from sin is connected to the rite (Acts 22:16), though not in such a way that cleansing always happens at the moment of baptism or that no cleansing is possible for those who trust Jesus but are never baptized. Still, the grace of cleansing and forgiveness for believers is signed and sealed in baptism.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
We receive baptism only once, but that does not mean that there is no grace for us when we observe the baptism of another and do not ourselves receive the baptismal waters. Since baptism depicts cleansing from sin, we are to recall and reflect on the truth of purification whenever we witness a baptism. We are to know that just as surely as water washes dirt from the body, God washes away the stain of sin from our souls when we trust in Christ.
For further study
- Numbers 19
- Ephesians 5:25–27
The bible in a year
- Ezekiel 24–26
- James 3
- Ezekiel 27–30
- James 4–5