Ephesians 5:25

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of the water with the word.

The measure of love that husbands are commanded to give their wives is that of Christ's love of the church. A love that would die for the beloved! Any submission or subjection that a devoted wife might give to her husband would be more than rewarded and justified by such a love as that. Hendriksen was right when he declared, "More excellent love than this is inconceivable."[25]

That he might sanctify it ... The sanctification in view here is the original consecration of the alien sinner to God's service at the time of his conversion. Any notion of the sanctification here meaning any special state of holiness beyond that first and decisive setting apart unto God is incorrect.

Having cleansed it by the washing of the water with the word ... This is a reference to Christian baptism. "This can scarcely be anything other than baptism; that is what the language would most naturally have conveyed to the original readers."[26]

With the word ... is understood in two different ways, some holding that it means baptism in response to "the preaching of the gospel,"[27] and others supposing that it refers to the confession "with the mouth" by converts prior to and at the time of their being baptized. This prompted Goodspeed's translation thus:

Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, to consecrate her, after cleansing her with the bath in water through her confession of him.[28]

It is hard to say which meaning Paul might have intended here for both are true, in the sense of being appropriate.

It is difficult to understand why commentators became exercised about this verse, pausing after allowing that the meaning cannot possibly be anything other than Christian baptism, to include a paragraph or so affirming their repudiation of "baptismal regeneration." "Baptismal regeneration" is not a relevant Scriptural question today. As far as this writer knows, nobody in this century has believed anything even remotely resembling the theory of "baptismal regeneration." The teaching of true believers to the effect that a person must believe and be baptized in order to be saved has no connection with baptismal regeneration. Baptismal regeneration theorists believed that "the external application of water, accompanied by the appropriate words, is sufficient to bring about regeneration.[29] Since the Dark Ages, whoever believed a thing like that? On the other hand, regeneration, a work of God, takes place in the sinner at the time of, and when he is baptized. Water baptism is most certainly a precondition of receiving regeneration and forgiveness from God; and ten thousand angels swearing it is not true could not change that; but it is not water which regenerates, it is God who does so when the sinner is baptized. It is very encouraging to see a great Baptist scholar, such as Beasley-Murray, who is willing to admit that such a distinction is valid. He said:

Baptism is the occasion when the Spirit brings to new life him that believes in the Son of man[30]

If through man's failure to obey the Lord by being baptized that occasion never comes, then neither will newness of life arrive!

Hendriksen also, after the usual disclaimers regarding "baptismal regeneration," rendered the meaning of this verse thus:

Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her in order that he might by means of the rite of baptism with water sanctify and cleanse her[31]

Amen! There cannot be any doubt that such is the true meaning here. But the giving of its proper New Testament place to Christian baptism requires no disclaimers. As Lipscomb said, nothing more is attributed to baptism in this passage[32] than in many other New Testament passages, such as:

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved (Mark 16:15,16).

Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, etc. (Acts 2:38).

Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 22:16). Etc.

In connection with this verse see Titus 3:5, and discussion there.

[25] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 250.

[26] F. F. Bruce, op. cit., p. 114.

[27] Francis Foulkes, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, Ephesians (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1963), p. 158.

[28] Edgar J. Goodspeed, The New Testament, An American Translation (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1923), in loco.

[29] F. F. Bruce, op. cit., p. 116.

[30] G. R. Beasley-Murray, Baptism in the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1973), p. 278.

[31] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 251.

[32] David Lipscomb, op. cit., p. 113.