It is claimed that John 3:5--"Except a man be born of water and of
the Spirit," and Titus 3:5--"The washing of regeneration," teach
that regeneration may occur in connection with baptism. These
passages, however, are to be understood in a figurative sense,
as meaning the cleansing power of the Word of God. See also
Eph. 5:26--"With the washing of water by (or in) the word"; John
15:3--"Clean through the word." That the Word of God is an agent
in regeneration is clear from James 1:18, and 1 Pet. 1:23.
If baptism and regeneration were identical, why should the Apostle
Paul seem to make so little of that rite (1 Cor. 4:15, and compare
with it 1 Cor. 1:14)? In the first passage Paul asserts that he had
_begotten_ them through the Gospel; and in 1:14 he declares
that he _baptized none of them_ save Crispus and Gaius. Could
he thus speak of baptism if it had been the means through which
they had been begotten again? Simon Magus was baptized (Acts 8),
but was he saved? Cornelius (Acts 11) was saved even before he was
baptized.