Regeneration with John Piper, “Through the Washing of Regeneration,” Part 2, 12

Jesus said unless you're born again you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven and the reason is because hearts like verse 3 don't go to heaven.

God won't let that kind of heart in his heaven. That kind of heart will not be in heaven which means you must be born again.

And then comes in verse 4 like so many times in the Bible that glorious and most precious of all phrases perhaps, but God.

But when the goodness and loving -kindness of God, but when the goodness and loving -kindness of God appeared,

God saved us. It's exactly like the logic of Ephesians 2, 3 to 5, isn't it?

Listen to those great words. We were carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved.

We were dead but God made us alive by grace you've been saved. Exactly the same logic as we have here in Titus 3, 3 and 4.

So there's the what of regeneration. This first installment of this universal renewal is happening right here when

God does it in us and it's because we were so foolish and so hated and so hating and so wicked, so selfish.

And we knew that our hearts as they are could never be in heaven. There has to be a renewal called the new birth.

Now we turn to the question, how? How does it happen?

How did God do it, this regeneration? It's amazing to me that Paul here speaks in the same pattern as Jesus did in John 3.

You remember in John 3 he said unless you're born of water and the Spirit you cannot see the kingdom of God.

Water, Spirit, water, Spirit. And here we have in verse 5,

God saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the

Holy Spirit. Washing water, renewal by the

Spirit, Spirit. That's really important I think to see what

Paul is doing here. Jesus said, verse 5 of John 3, unless you, and the easy way to remember it is 3 5 and 3 5.

John 3 5, Titus 3 5. Unless one is born of water and the

Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now I argued nine sessions ago that Jesus was getting those categories of water and Spirit from Ezekiel chapter 36 which goes like this.

This is the new covenant promise which Jesus says is now here. It's happening. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses and all your idols.

I will cleanse you and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes.

So Ezekiel is saying that when the new covenant is fulfilled in and through the

Messiah, the blood of the new covenant as Jesus called it when he held up that cup, this cup is the new covenant in my blood.

When that new covenant is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the newness that we're going to experience will be experienced in terms of cleansing and in terms of renewal by the

Spirit. And we argued both of these are absolutely crucial. If you only spoke in terms of renewal you'd think, am

I the same person I was before I was born again? Or am I not John Piper then?

And this one says, no, no, no. You are the same because I cleaned you. I cleaned you.

It's the same you who was pre -born again and the same you after, only clean.

And then this one says, and a new nature. Because as you move into the future you're not just moving with the same resources you had, only clean.

You now got new resources. Your nature is new. You have the Holy Spirit empowering you, renewing you.

And so that's the same thing we have here, I think. Namely, a washing of regeneration and renewal in the

Holy Spirit. Now the question is, how does that happen?

Start, but when the goodness, verse four, 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. Salvation is a big overarching term. He saved us.

Regeneration is one part of the way He's doing it in this verse.

But the key how words are goodness, loving -kindness, and mercy.

You see, those when the goodness and the 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.

So those are the three words I'm fastening on. Goodness, loving -kindness, and mercy.

Let's take those one at a time. This is how it happened. Goodness.

This word here is kindness. Kindness. It's the word that Paul used in that magnificent...

I know Tom loves this verse in Ephesians 2 -7. I've seen him come back to it again, and again, and again.

God made us alive so that in the coming ages, God might show

His immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

It will take an eternity for you to know how kind God is.

In order for the word kindness in the deity to land on us with something like its appropriate force, we have to enlarge our picture of God.

Because little weak people we expect to be nice, and we associate kind with nice.

So let yourself just enlarge God. He created the universe.

He numbers the stars. He holds the world in being. He runs everything in the universe.

He is down to the details in terms of whether a bird falls out of the tree, or whether one of your heads hair turns gray or not.

He's down to the details in His involvement in the universe, and He's never taxed in any of this effort.

And that great God is kind. He's kind.

And so if you stand in front of the mirror with the gospel between tonight, and say,

I'm saved. I'm saved. My sins are forgiven.

I'm a new person, not the person I was before. I believed in before the

Holy Spirit came into my life. I'm new. I'm saved. I'm born again. Let that reality bear witness to this.

God is kind. Because that's the only reason you can say it. When the kindness of God appeared,

He saved us through the washing of regeneration. That's number one.

Number two, translated here, loving kindness.

It's not a common word. It's not a common word. In fact, it only occurs here in the

New Testament. And if I told you the Greek, you'd know the English.

Philanthropia. Philanthropia. Philanthropy is divided into two parts.

Phil, love. Anthropos, man. Humans, love of humans.

God's the ultimate philanthropist. He's the ultimate lover of humans.

He likes to make things go well for humans. He likes to found hospitals and cures to diseases, and so on.

And when His philanthropia appears, He saves through the washing of regeneration.

It's amazing. Appears. That's an important word.

When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, if He had been kind in His nature, and if He had been a philanthropist in His nature, and it never appeared, that would do us no good.

It's the arrival. It's the going public. It's the appearing.

It's the manifestation on the planet that saves. So what is that?

When did that happen? When and how did the kindness and the philanthropy of God our

Savior appear? Now there's, you don't have to just answer that theologically. Oh, I know what it refers to.

You can answer it textually, because there's a clue here.

And the clue is that in verse 4, God is called our

Savior. And in verse 6, Christ is called our

Savior. When the goodness and loving kindness of God our

Savior appeared, in verse 6, whom He poured out, the

Spirit poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. God our

Savior came, and His name was Jesus, our

Savior. God our Savior is kind and philanthropical, and it appeared, and His name was

Jesus. That's clear. The only reason we're saved is not simply the fact that God is a certain way.

Regeneration, remember, is not some vague spiritual thing disconnected from history.

It's rooted in objective reality as the Spirit moves in on my life, and it happens as I am brought into union with the

God -man, Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, who is life. And that's the only way

I have life. It's not some vague kind of, God is good, and God is philanthropical, and so if you just somehow relate to God, you'll be born again.

No, no, no. That goodness, that kindness, that philanthropy appeared, and it appeared in a person who had to die for my sins, and who invites me to come to Him to have what

He offers me. And if I will come, then it all counts for me.

Number three, the last one, mercy. So kindness, philanthropy, and mercy.

Verse five, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy by the washing of regeneration.

If you're born again, it's owing to God's mercy. God is merciful.

We were dead, and He made us alive. God being rich in mercy when we were dead in our own trespasses,

God made us alive. Being rich in mercy, He made us alive. God is kind,

God is loving toward humanity, and God is merciful, and that's how the new birth comes about.

Now, He could have stopped right there. That would have been great. There's three big sources through which it happens.

Kindness, love of humanity, mercy. He could have just stopped right there, stayed positive.

People like people to be positive, and not say anything negative, but He didn't.

Negations and denials are absolutely essential. Only asking people what they believe will not show you what they believe.

I've done it too many times in too many conversations. You must ask them what they do not believe.

Then it becomes clear what they believe when they say what they believe. And Paul operates that way.

So we read, He saved us, not.

He's got people in mind here. He's got error in mind here. He's got devastation and damnation in mind here that come from these kinds of mistakes, and He loves these people, and so He negates as well as affirms.

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness.

So why does He do that? He does it because He knows the way. John Piper is wired, and He knows the way you're wired, and I'll tell you how you're wired, unless you're really unusual, like divine.

You're wired like this. When something really wonderful happens to you, your mind defaults,

I must have done something good. That's the way we're wired.

When something really good happens to you, you think, I must have done something right.

And Paul, with this massive negation, is saying, now listen, all you wired up folks, when it comes to salvation through regeneration, do not think that way.

That's what he's saying. Because we're wired to think, okay, gotta do something, gotta do something.

Or if you're already a Christian because the great thing has already happened to you, the devil and your own nature, your own wiring, day by day, is whispering a little in your ear saying, was owing to you.

Was owing to you. It was owing to you. It was owing to you.

You got it right. They didn't. You did. Mark this,

He does not say, He saved us not because of deeds done by us in legalism.

He is not saying, it is your worst deeds and your worst motives that I am excluding from having any causality here.

It's not what he's saying. He's saying, I am excluding your best deeds and your best motives from having any causality here.

That's what he's saying. Let's read it again. He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness.

Not legalism. Your best work, your purest motive, was irrelevant when you were born again.

And the alternative that he puts over against those best of all deeds and motives?

Mercy. Mercy. He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own sovereign, free mercy.

Just like Romans 9, 16. Was not your willing or running, but of God who has mercy.

This is one reason, in closing, why I say the washing of regeneration does not refer to baptism.

You go read the commentaries, 80 % of them say it refers to baptism.

And here stands little Piper. I don't think so. I have strong feelings about sacramentalism.

If I use the language I feel, I would get emails. You were not born again through your baptism.

The washing of regeneration is a spiritual reality affected by the Holy Spirit, not a physical or spiritual reality affected by the deeds done in righteousness by a pastor on your body or your own deeds done in righteousness.

Neither circumcision under the Old Covenant nor baptism under the New Covenant is the means by which regeneration is effected.

It is free. It is not under the management of anybody's hands or water or words.

How many people are in hell today because they thought I was born again when

I was baptized? That's tragic. So you can see why

I feel strongly about it. And I reject it for numerous reasons.

I gave about five of them in John 3. The one I'm adding is, He saved us through the washing of regeneration, not by deeds done by us in righteousness, but by mercy.

So I close with this benedictory longing. May God give you eyes to see that nothing could make you humbler and nothing could make you happier than the truth that your new birth was owing to nothing that you ever done, but owing entirely to the mercy of God.

May God give us eyes to see and enjoy that.

Let's pray. Father in heaven, there are some in the room who are not yet born again.

It has to be so in a group this size. I don't know who they are.

You see them crystal clear. It is your kindness and your philanthropy and your mercy that brought them here tonight.

To hear Shy Lynn take them back to the climax of history.

To watch us symbolize the glory of the death and resurrection of Jesus at the communion table.

To let them see this congregation rise in song to the greatest news in the world, that Christ came into the world to save sinners.

And to hear this message about how the new birth is brought about by kindness, love of humanity, and mercy.

And I pray that this truth would simply take them and make them your own.

So that they would believe in you and enjoy you forever and ever.

Thank you for the mercy in Jesus name.