This is perhaps the most frequently cited objection. And it begins with a passage that is absolutely true:
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
— Ephesians 2:8–9
By grace, through faith, not of works. This is true. But the question that must be asked is: what works?
Paul was writing to the Ephesians — a mixed congregation of Jews and Gentiles. The great controversy of the early church was whether Gentile converts had to keep the Law of Moses — circumcision, dietary laws, Sabbath observance, the sacrificial system. This is the context of Paul’s letters. When Paul says “not of works,” he is talking about works of the Law. He makes this explicit elsewhere:
“Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”
— Galatians 2:16
Works of the Law. That is what cannot save you. No amount of law-keeping earns salvation. But obedience to the commands of Christ is not the same as works of the Law. And the Scriptures make this distinction clear through examples that no honest reader can miss.
Noah — “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household” (Hebrews 11:7). Noah built the ark. He cut the wood. He sealed it with pitch. He labored for years. Was that a “work”? Did his obedience earn his salvation? Or did God save him when he obeyed?
Naaman — The Syrian commander was told by Elisha to dip in the Jordan River seven times to be cleansed of his leprosy (2 Kings 5). Naaman was angry at first — he expected something more dramatic. But when he humbled himself and obeyed, dipping seven times, he was healed. Did dipping in the river earn his healing? Or did God heal him when he obeyed?
Jericho — “By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days” (Hebrews 11:30). Israel marched around the city. They shouted. The walls fell. Did marching knock the walls down? Did shouting collapse the stone? Or did God act when they obeyed?
In every case, God required an act of obedient faith. The act itself did not produce the result. God’s power accomplished it. But God chose to act at the point of obedience. And baptism is no different. God washes away sins. God transfers a person from darkness to light. But He has chosen to do it at the point of baptism — just as He healed Naaman at the point of dipping, and saved Noah at the point of entering the ark, and brought down the walls at the point of the shout.
Obedience has never negated grace. It is the response to grace. And anyone who says that obeying Christ’s command to be baptized is “adding works to the gospel” must also say that Noah should not have built the ark and Naaman should not have dipped in the river.
The Verse That Settles the Question
If there were any remaining doubt that baptism and grace are not opposed to each other, one verse settles it completely — and remarkably, it joins both ideas in a single sentence:
“He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”
— Titus 3:5
Paul, in one breath, says both things: not on the basis of our righteous deeds (grace), but by the washing of regeneration (baptism). The same apostle who so emphatically denied works-salvation in Ephesians 2:8–9 and Galatians 2:16 names baptism here as the very means by which God saves. If baptism were a “work of merit,” this sentence would contradict itself. It does not. Paul saw no contradiction because there is none.
The phrase “washing of regeneration” points unmistakably to baptism. The Greek word for washing (loutron) refers to a bath or washing ceremony — the same concept Ananias invoked when he told Saul to “be baptized, and wash away your sins” (Acts 22:16), and the same concept behind Paul’s description of the church as cleansed by “the washing of water with the word” (Ephesians 5:26). And regeneration — being made new, being born again — is precisely what Jesus described to Nicodemus when He spoke of being “born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5).
So in Titus 3:5, the one apostle who wrote most extensively against salvation by works of the Law joins baptism and regeneration and grace in a single sentence — not as three competing systems, but as one coherent picture. God, in His mercy (grace), regenerates (new birth), through the washing (baptism). No tension. No contradiction. No “either-or.” Grace saves, and grace saves through the means God appointed.