Category Archives: Ordo Salutis

Ordo Salutis

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I am sure at some point you have seen video images of crash dummies in a car as it hits a wall, and from several different angles, cameras record the event to note precisely how the collision impacted both the vehicle and the dummies inside. The videos are slowed down dramatically and observations are made which reveal a great deal. As any new car is introduced into the car market, car companies (as well as outside agency safety inspectors) conduct these kind of tests to measure the level of safety for drivers as well as front and back seat passengers.

With this idea in view, I want us to take a fresh look at salvation from several angles. We will note that although many of the things happen in an instant, if we could slow the camera down (so to speak) we will see that one thing occurred before the other, just as the car had to hit the wall before the dent in the car could be observed. In referring to a sequence with regards to time we also speak of logical and causal order, for the simple reason that although (in time) two things seemed to occur instantly, logically speaking, one thing had to happen before the other – one thing was the cause of the other thing.

Someone might ask, “what is the point of such a study? What is its practical use?” I would reply that the conclusions we come to on these issues have a profound impact on how one views God, the gospel, and the Bible as a whole.

The Bible compares spiritual growth with natural growth, revealing that when we are converted, we are much like spiritual babies who need to grow in our knowledge of God and His word. As we progress in spiritual maturity, things become less fuzzy as we gain a more precise understanding of what the word of God teaches. Hopefully, this will be true for each of us as we study the logical sequence of events regarding salvation in Scripture. Theologians have done this for centuries and employ a specific term for this, namely Ordo Salutis – a Latin phrase which means “the order of salvation.”

THE ORDO SALUTIS

  1. ELECTION– God’s choice of a people to be saved took place before the world was made. To the saints at Ephesus Paul wrote, 1:4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world.
  • PREDESTINATION – Election is God’s choice, and predestination is the pre assigned destination marked out for those He chose, that destination being salvation and full glorification in heaven.
  • GOSPEL CALL (or the outward call of the gospel – outward in that it happens outside of us “ the preaching of the gospel, heard with the physical ear)

The meaning of the words “call,” “called,” or “calling” can be determined by the context in which the words are found. For instance, Jesus said “many are called but few are chosen.” These words make sense when we understand that He is referring to the outward call of the gospel.

God uses means to achieve His ends. The ends are the salvation of His elect people; the means being the proclamation of the gospel. The elect will come to Christ, but they do so by the means of exposure to the gospel.

Romans 9:14 How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

  • INWARD CALL (where God the Holy Spirit speaks life to the elect’s dead human spirit, even as they hear the outward call of the gospel)

As we examine the writings of the Apostle Paul, it would seem that he uses this word called or calling to describe the inward call that brings the sinner to spiritual life.

1 Cor 1: 22 – For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called (inwardly called), both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

The cross is seen either as a stumbling block or as foolishness to all, except the called. This inward call always results in…

  • REGENERATION (just as Jesus cried out with a loud voice ‘Lazarus come forth’ before Lazarus came to life, logically speaking, number 4 (the inward call) has to come before number 5 (regeneration) the inward call has to come before spiritual life (regeneration or being born again or born from above) is imparted.

Jesus – John 3:3 – unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

2 Cor 4:3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

  • CONVERSION (repentance and faith) – we repent, we put faith in Christ, so this is human activity, but is the result of Divine activity. The old nature (with a heart of stone) is incapable of true repentance and faith (John 6:44; 65; Rom. 8:7,8). Regeneration precedes (comes before) faith.

John 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

1 John 5:1 – “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.” In the original Greek, the verb tenses in this verse are very revealing. A literal translation reads as follows: All the ones going on believing (pisteuon, a present tense, continuous action) that Jesus is the Christ has been born (gennesanta, perfect tense – an action already complete with abiding effects) of God. The fact that someone is presently going on believing in Christ shows that they have first been born again. Faith is the evidence of regeneration, not the cause of it. Since both repentance and faith are possible only because of the work of God (regeneration), both are called the gift of God in Scripture (2 Tim. 2:24-26; Eph. 2:8, 9; Phil. 1:29; Heb. 12:2).

  • JUSTIFICATION – God’s declaration that a person is just (or right) in His sight. All those who put their trust (faith) in Christ for salvation are justified. Logically then, first there is faith, then there is justification.

Romans 5:1 – Therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  • ADOPTION – Given the full rights and privileges of sonship in the Father’s house – now and forever.
  • SANCTIFICATION – set apart to God – an on-going process in this life, but perfected the moment we step from this life into the next (1 Cor 15:50-55).
  1. GLORIFICATION – the believer is made fully conformable to the likeness of Christ, given a new body, incapable of sin – see Rom 8:28-30 – the Golden Chain of Redemption has 5 links – foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified.

The Ordo Salutis – Election > Predestination > Gospel Call > Inward Call > Regeneration > Conversion (repentance and faith) > Justification > Adoption > Sanctification > Glorification

Faith and Repentance by Sinclair Ferguson

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Article: Faith and Repentance by Dr. Sinclair Ferguson (original source here)

When the gospel is proclaimed, it seems at first sight that two different, even alternative, responses are called for. Sometimes the summons is, “Repent!” Thus, “John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand’” (Matt. 3:1–2). Again, Peter urged the hearers whose consciences had been ripped open on the day of Pentecost, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38). Later, Paul urged the Athenians to “repent” in response to the message of the risen Christ (Acts 17:30).

Yet, on other occasions, the appropriate response to the gospel is, “Believe!” When the Philippian jailer asked Paul what he must do to be saved, the Apostle told him, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

But there is no mystery or contradiction here. Further on in Acts 17, we discover that precisely where the response of repentance was required, those who were converted are described as believing (Acts 17:30, 34).

Any confusion is surely resolved by the fact that when Jesus preached “the gospel of God” in Galilee, He urged His hearers, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:14–15). Here repentance and faith belong together. They denote two aspects in conversion that are equally essential to it. Thus, either term implies the presence of the other because each reality (repentance or faith) is the sine qua non of the other.

In grammatical terms, then, the words repent and believe both function as a synecdoche—the figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole. Thus, repentance implies faith and faith implies repentance. One cannot exist without the other.

But which comes first, logically? Is it repentance? Is it faith? Or does neither have an absolute priority? There has been prolonged debates in Reformed thought about this. Each of three possible answers has had advocates:

First, W. G. T. Shedd insisted that faith must precede repentance in the order of nature: “Though faith and repentance are inseparable and simultaneous, yet in the order of nature, faith precedes repentance” (Dogmatic Theology, 2.536). Shedd argued this on the grounds that the motivating power for repentance lies in faith’s grasp of the mercy of God. If repentance were to precede faith, both repentance and faith would be legal in character, and they would become prerequisites for grace.

Second, Louis Berkhof appears to have taken the reverse position:

“There is no doubt that, logically, repentance and the knowledge of sin precede the faith that yields to Christ in trusting love” (Systematic Theology, p. 492).

Third, John Murray insisted that this issue raises

an unnecessary question and the insistence that one is prior to the other is futile. There is no priority. The faith that is unto salvation is a penitent faith and the repentance that is unto life is a believing repentance … saving faith is permeated with repentance and repentance is permeated with saving faith. (Redemption—Accomplished and Applied, p. 113).

This is, surely, the more biblical perspective. We cannot separate turning from sin in repentance and coming to Christ in faith. They describe the same person in the same action, but from different perspectives. In one instance (repentance), the person is viewed in relation to sin; in the other (faith), the person is viewed in relation to the Lord Jesus. But the individual who trusts in Christ simultaneously turns away from sin. In believing he repents and in repenting believes. Perhaps R. L. Dabney expressed it best when he insisted that repentance and faith are “twin” graces (perhaps we might say “conjoined twins”).

But having said this, we have by no means said everything there is to say. Entwined within any theology of conversion lies a psychology of conversion. In any particular individual, at the level of consciousness, a sense of either repentance or trust may predominate. What is unified theologically may be diverse psychologically. Thus, an individual deeply convicted of the guilt and bondage of sin may experience turning from it (repentance) as the dominant note in his or her conversion. Others (whose experience of conviction deepens after their conversion) may have a dominant sense of the wonder of Christ’s love, with less agony of soul at the psychological level. Here the individual is more conscious of trusting in Christ than of repentance from sin. But in true conversion, neither can exist without the other.

The psychological accompaniments of conversion thus vary, sometimes depending on the dominant gospel emphasis that is set before the sinner (the sinfulness of sin or the greatness of grace). This is quite consistent with the shrewd comment of the Westminster Divines to the effect that faith (that is, the trusting response of the individual to the word of the gospel) “acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof [of Scripture] containeth” (WCF 16.2).

In no case, however, can real conversion take place apart from the presence of both repentance and faith, and therefore both joy and sorrow. A “conversion” that lacks all sorrow for sin, that receives the word with only joy, will be temporary.

Jesus’ parable of the sower is instructive here. In one type of soil, the seed sprouts quickly but dies suddenly. This represents “converts” who receive the word with joy—but with no sense of fallow ground being broken up by conviction of sin or any pain in turning from it (Mark 4:5–6, 16–17). On the other hand, a conversion that is only sorrow for sin without any joy in pardon will prove to have been only “worldly grief” that “produces death” (2 Cor. 7:10). In the end, it will come to nothing.

This, however, raises a final question: Does the necessity of repentance in conversion constitute a kind of work that detracts from the empty-handedness of faith? Does it compromise grace?

In a word, no. Sinners must always come empty-handed. But this is precisely the point. By nature, my hands are full (of sin, self, and my own “good deeds”). However, hands that are full cannot hold on to Christ in faith. Instead, as they take hold of Him, they are emptied. That which has prevented us from trusting Him falls inevitably to the ground. The old way of life cannot be retained in hands that are taking hold of the Savior.

Yes, repentance and faith are two essential elements in conversion. They constitute twin graces that can never be separated. As John Calvin well reminds us, this is true not only of the beginning but of the whole of our Christian lives. We are believing penitents and penitent believers all the way to glory.