Titus 3:6

which he poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

As Lenski said, "This is not a reference to Pentecost... but to baptism and the Spirit's outpouring in it."[18] Thus the Pentecostal emphasis of "repent, be baptized... and ye shall receive the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38,39) is identical with what is revealed here. The gift in view here is the gift ordinary, the earnest of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit of promise, the indwelling Spirit which is received by every true convert to Christ. See in my Commentary on John, pp. 83-87, for more complete discussion of the twin elements in the new birth. Baptism (the birth of water) is the element for which man is responsible for the doing of it (despite the fact of baptism not being the work of any man); nevertheless God required even of Saul of Tarsus that he "have thyself baptized." [19] This is every man's responsibility. Although baptism is exclusively a work of Almighty God, the Lord will not perform it upon any person who does not seek it through faith and repentance. On the other hand, "the renewal of the Holy Spirit," here and in the preceding verse, is the element of the new birth which is performed by God through Christ, it being appropriate to say that the Spirit is sent both by the Father and by the Son.

[18] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 936.

[19] W. E. Vine, An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1940), p. 97.