PRESENT SALVATION: ITS SOURCE. Titus 3:5: “He saved us, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.”

The agency of the Holy Ghost in the work of salvation, from its inception to its consummation, is clearly revealed in the Scriptures. It is He that awakens, renews, and sanctifies the soul. Hence salvation is Pentecostal in its whole progress; that is, it is by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. While the atoning blood is the meritorious or procuring cause of salvation, the Holy Ghost is the efficient cause. We are saved through the blood, but by the Spirit. Paul, in writing to Titus, says: “He saved by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he abundantly shed on us.” The apostle here attributes the whole work of salvation to the agency of the Holy Ghost — namely, by his regenerating and his renewing power. The Divine method of grace is to save the soul from sin by two distinctive operations of the Spirit: First, by the regeneration of the Holy Ghost; second, by the renewing of the Holy Ghost.

That is, the work of salvation is commenced by the Spirit in regeneration, and is consummated by the Spirit in the full renewing of the Holy Ghost.

This method of grace for saving — by two distinctive spiritual epochs — is presented in the Scriptures in various ways. 1 . They discriminate between being born of the Spirit and being baptized with the Spirit.

The apostles had been born of the Spirit antecedent to Pentecost, but then they were filled with the Spirit. Jesus, in his teachings. had recognized them as knowing and having the Spirit, yet said to them: “He shall be in you.” He breathed on them and said: “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (himself). Then, when the Pentecostal effusion was given, the record is, “They were all filled with the Holy Ghost,” implying that they had had antecedent manifestations of him, and had possessed a measure of his power and blessing, but now they had the full manifestation of his presence and his saving power without measure. The apostle, in the text just given above, from the Epistle to Titus, distinguishes clearly and emphatically the regenerating effusion and the renewing effusion of the Holy Ghost. He characterizes the renewing of the Holy Ghost by associating it with the Pentecostal outpouring, in saying, “which he abundantly shed on us. The Scriptural designations for the Pentecostal measure of the Holy Spirit are abundance, fullness, etc. 2 . They discriminate between Christ as Sacrifice and Savior, and Jesus as Another or Baptizer with the Holy Ghost.

When John stood with two Of his disciples and saw Jesus passing, he said, pointing to Jesus: “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world.” Here he called attention to Jesus as Sacrifice and Savior.

Presently John added: “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” Now he presented “Jesus as Baptizer and Anointer,” thus indicating that Jesus holds a twofold office in the work of salvation in which he is to be successively recognized in order that the saving work may be fully actualized to the soul. He is first to be received as Sacrifice, in order to the washing of regeneration; and, second, as Baptizer, in order to the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Hence Paul, in his comprehensive statement of the process of salvation by the agency of the Holy Ghost given to Titus, says, “Which he [Jesus] abundantly shed on us;” recognizing Jesus as the source of the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Jesus said: “I will send Him unto you.”

Jesus must be received both as Savior and as Anointer in order that the work of salvation shall be perfected in the soul. 3 . They discriminate between the work of the Spirit begun; and the work of the Spirit consummated in the records of experience which they give.

Paul, in writing to Titus, had doubtless in mind their own personal Pentecosts when he wrote, “which he abundantly shed on us.” Who can doubt but Paul’s heart as he wrote those glowing words was recalling the visit of Ananias in Damascus, when he laid his hand on him and said: “The Lord Jesus hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost?” As he thought of the flood of light that came to his darkened vision, and the flood of glory that came to his darkened soul, he could but write, “which he abundantly shed on [me].” Certainly the filling with the Holy Ghost of Paul, under the teaching faith and laying on of hands by Ananias, was epochal and distinctive from all antecedent manifestations of grace. His experience on the Damascus road had been wonderful. He had surrendered and received the Lord Jesus as Sacrifice and Savior. But on the street called Straight he received Jesus as the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost, and was filled with the Holy Ghost. He could not forget it. It stood out well defined in his life. He directly and indirectly speaks of it in his letters to Timothy, to Titus, and to the Churches. Henceforth Christ is formed in him the hope of glory. He lives, but not he; Christ lives in him. Thence he can write, “Where sin abounded, grace doth much more abound;” “Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity;” “Being made free from sin we have our fruit unto holiness;” “Wherefore he is able to save unto the uttermost all them that come unto God by him.”

Thereafter his tongue is resonant, and his pen aflame with heralding a full salvation by the power of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. His closet hours breathe with such enlarged desires and mighty supplications as these for his brethren: “To be strengthened with might by his Spirit;” “That Christ may dwell in your hearts;” “That ye may know all the fullness of God.”

Surely a salvation which gives such testimonies, offers such prayers, and hives such a life, is a full, a Pentecostal salvation. It is wrought by nothing short of the baptism with the Holy Ghost.

Now, while the Scriptures thus teach that the saving work is carried forward and consummated by a twofold manifestation of the Spirit — one the birth of the Spirit, the other the filling of the Spirit; one effecting the washing of regeneration, and the other the renewing of soul in the full image of Christ — yet they nowhere intimate that these two distinctive manifestations must necessarily be long apart. Indeed they plainly reveal that they may and ought to succeed one the other very soon.

We regard Paul’s case a typical case. Within three days after he surrendered to and received the Lord Jesus he was filled with the Holy Ghost. So soon as he received instruction from the disciple Ananias as to the will of God concerning himself, he at once consented to and received both his sight and the baptism with the Holy Ghost.

We believe the normal order is, that new converts rightly instructed may be led into the fullness of the Holy Ghost, experience cleansing from all sin, be filled with love, and empowered for Christian service. The converts at Samaria, according to the best commentators, were filled within a few weeks after they had become believers. Let the Church but recognize the New Testament order for the gift of the Holy Ghost, and regenerated souls will not wander in the wilderness, but, soon reaching Kadesh-barnea, they will, without the severe crisis of a Jordan crossing, pass definitely but easily into the Canaan of the fullness of the Spirit. The maturest thought of Mr. Wesley in the last fifteen years of his life, as indicated by the records in his journals, of cases brought speedily from conversion to full salvation, was that it is God’s plan, when rightly understood, to follow the washing of regeneration early with the renewing of the Holy Ghost.

Some of the choicest saints now living are those who received the gift soon after conversion. There was but a very little appreciable lapse of time between their regeneration and entire sanctification.