Still a little skeptical? I still wanted to dig deeper myself, so here is a bit more evidence on the subject to leave no doubt.
Let’s look at John 3:5 – “Jesus answered, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Again, seems pretty self-explanatory. The phrase ‘born of water’ obviously means we must be physically baptized with water for salvation. Or does it? For this, we must go back to the original text, as well as to parallel Scriptures to back it up further.
Here, the term “water” actually refers in parallel to the Word of God and its cleansing qualities. (examples of this parallel text are found in John 15:3, Ephesians 5:26, and 1 Peter 1:23) In each of these instances, the same Greek phrases are used, however in English they are translated as “water”, “Word of God” and “the word.” Knowing this, it all comes together. We parallel to Titus 3:5, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” Highlight the word ‘regeneration’ here. ‘Regeneration’ in the original text means ‘to become again.’ Here, the concept has to do with personal regeneration. At the moment a person exercises repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ, he is born again in the context of “being born from above” (parallel to John 3:3). It is the Holy Spirit that makes us a new creation which is received upon true faith/belief in Christ (Acts 1:5, 2:38, 10:47)
