external that is complementary to the inward work of the Spirit, not to John’s baptism or to Christian baptism or to the waters of natural birth, as some have supposed, but rather to the cleansing aspect of inward renewal as such, as that is pictured in Ezekiel 36:25–27. (No problem then arises from the nonmention of water in verse 6, for the water was never more than an illustration of one aspect of the Spirit’s renewing action.) It is also familiar ground that Paul calls this process “regeneration” (Titus