“By this I know that You are well pleased with me …” (Ps. 41:11, NKJV)
Love is the marker of the divine nature. It is spelled out in absolute terms in the following Scriptures – ponder each one carefully, trying to get beyond their familiarity, to recognise what strong statements are being made:
- “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8).
- “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1 John 4:20).
The key to the unfolding of this “perfect love” (1 John 4: 18) is that it is implanted in our being. 1 John 4:9 reads: “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” But in almost all translations, as is also the case in the NKJV, an inaccurate preposition is used, except in the case of the Mirror Bible, which foregrounds this mystery: “The love of God is unveiled within us in the Son …”
This particular love, in Greek also referred to as agapē love, is derived from agoo (to lead) + pao (to rest), thus, to be led toward the perfect rest of God. In fact, it is the Sabbath, or then, in our New Testament understanding: to be in your position in Christ! This agapē love of God that is planted within you gains a richer dimension when you become born again, if we read this against the grain of Titus 3:3-6. Verse 3 notes that earlier we were also on the wrong path, with our sinful nature we lived an evil life, and hated one another. But according to verse 5 there occurs a specific intervention by God in the life of man, namely that He “saves” man. We read this verse in too simple terms, as we equate this to a mere choice to receive the grace of Jesus, as that which opposes man’s being lost on the basis of sin, that which we commonly refer to as conversion, that following accepting the gospel of salvation (Eph. 1:13). But being saved means so much more. The Greek word for saved in this context means “to save, that is, deliver or protect (literally or figuratively): – heal, preserve, save (self), do well, be (make) whole” (Strong).
God’s mechanism for making man completely whole occurs, according to verse 4, through his love for man that is set into action. It is interesting that the word that is used here for love is not the word agapē, but the word that can be translated as philanthrōpía, which means “a lover of mankind”. In common currency philanthropy is exclusively linked to a humanitarian love displayed by men toward greater humanity, an action from man to man that is marked by goodwill toward man in general, regardless of faith, ethnicity, or other markers of identity. This philanthropy is to a large extent completely divorced from a spiritual prerogative. Even in The Complete WordStudy Dictionary the Godly-initiated love of God is not seen as philanthrōpía, while it is clearly born from God’s agapē love: “Philanthrōpía, which is transliterated in Eng. as ‘philanthropy,’ is that disposition which does not always think of self, but takes thought for the needs and wishes of others. It denotes that apparent and ready goodwill usually manifested in a friendly, considerate demeanor, and (especially in the practice of hospitality) readiness to help, tenderheartedness, cherishing and maintaining fellowship. The philanthropist serves his fellow citizens, protects the oppressed, is mindful of the erring, gentle to the conquered, and self-renouncing in reference to his rights.” Ponder all of this for a moment from the perspective of God’s favour and goodwill toward you. And then ponder it as something directed not only toward you, but also toward all other people in the world.
Transposed to God as Philanthropist we can draw from a manifold similar statements from the Bible that positions God as the Original Philanthropist. A few to illustrate how we can know that “You are well-pleased with me” (Ps. 41:11):
- “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
- “The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.’” (Jer. 31:3)
- “I have loved you,” says the Lord. ‘Yet you say, ‘In what way have You loved us?’” (Mal. 1:2)
- “I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love …” (Hos. 11:4)
- “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14)
- “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10).
- “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32)
Back to Tit. 3:3-6 – in verses 4 and 5 of this section Paul then explains that “the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared” (or was revealed), and that “the measure of his mercy” (BBE), became a reality for us. This all happens “through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit”.
Let us look at these two expressions in closer terms. We need to pay special attention to the expression “the washing of regeneration”, which refers to the baptism with water, which according to our previous teachings is clearly one of the elements brought about by the process of being born again. [Do you remember? Baptism with water + baptism with Spirit = becoming born again.]
The Greek verb washing (loutrou) is found only twice in the New Testament – here, and in Eph. 5:26: “He sanctified the church after He “cleanse[d] her with the washing of water by the word”. What is foregrounded here is the literal action of ablutions, a washing away of filth. This is not Acts 22:16’s “arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins”. Baptism as such does not point to the washing away of sins – it is the blood of Jesus that does that: “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). [Also see John 1:29; 1 Cor. 6:11; Eph. 1:7; Heb. 9:14; and 1 Pet. 1:19.] It’s important to understand that the baptism is not what cleanses; the blood of Jesus is all that can cleanse us. The washing away of sins, as was said to Paul, only points to the fact that through the process of baptism there may be a certain level of cleansing that takes place, but it should only be linked to baptism in an emblematic manner, as 1 Cor. 6:11 for instance spells out: “you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God”. In 1 Pet. 3:21 the following statement is made by the apostle: “There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God) …” The word saves here should not be translated in a way that would make it seem as if salvation lies in the baptism, but rather in the sense of being saved from something, to be rescued, as Thayer defines it: “keep safe and sound, to rescue from danger or destruction”. There is thus a very strong sense of protection that is nestled in the baptism of the believer. Selah.
We can thus see more clearly that “the washing of regeneration” refers to only that, that there is a perpetual process of renewal of the mind (Rom. 12:2) that takes place, and thus a continual washing, with continual renewal. Therefore Tit. 3:5 specifies “the renewing of the Holy Spirit”. It thus does not point to the baptism with the Holy Spirit in this case. The Complete WordStudy Dictionary explains it as: “a renewing or a renovation which makes a person different than in the past”. The Mirror Bible presents it in especially beautiful terms: “Our minds were thoroughly cleansed and rebooted into newness of life.” (Tit. 3:5).
Becoming born again is thus, in other words, not a once-off event that takes place with the baptism with water and the baptism with the Spirit, although THESE RITUALS ARE INDEED PART OF THE PROCESS. After this there is a perpetual cleansing of the Word that takes place, as Jesus made clear in John 15:3: “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.” Earlier He explained it to Peter in these terms, when Peter asked to again be cleansed: “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean …” (John 13:9-10). By way of speaking Jesus means that as those whom are cleansed we might at times walk in the dust of the carnal nature, and that Adamic thoughts do still take up space in our minds, and thus we don’t need to be baptised again, but rather symbolically wash our feet, to wash away the finitude and death that clings to us. In short – we are sanctified through the truth of His word (John 17:17).
To then conclude Tit. 3:6 – God poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior”. The rich preposition through that is used here, implies that we received the Spirit through Jesus, the Son. Please also read it as that the Son came through the Spirit. Thus the Lord Jesus is now with us, merely in a different guise – the Spirit, or “the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18)!
If one then brings 1 John 5:1 into this unfolding argument, there are interesting implications: “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.” Here another definition is offered for the process of being born again, which we usually, rather simplistically, derive from John 3:3 and 5: you must believe that Jesus is the Christ. In other words, you must understand and believe that Jesus increased Himself in the Christ by becoming the Head of an anointed Body, and thus you need to believe that every person who is part of the incarnation of God in him/her, is part of the Christ. If you believe THIS, you are regenerated, or then, as we’ve been calling it in this discussion, born again. The regeneration of your thoughts occurred through receiving the seed of Christ (Gal. 3:16), but the continual regeneration of your thoughts in the beginning takes place through the washing of the water of the word, which leads to a new understanding. And based on the bedrock of love that God has implanted into you, the external sign of being born again, or of your regeneration, is that you will love all who are born from Him. Love here is, ironically enough, no longer a choice, but a manifested state of being truly born again, the marker of the divine nature.
- Selah: Make the pressing link between love and the process of becoming born again.
- Read: 31-39
- Memorise: 32:7
