Text: Ephesians 6:17

When Paul writes to the church at Ephesus and says “take the helmet of salvation”, he is not commanding them to be saved, for they are already saved (Eph. 2:8,9), but to understanding the biblical doctrine of salvation: to know it inside out, being rooted and grounded in the truth of it. One of the best ways to do this is by gaining an understanding of what theologians refer to as the “ordo salutis” or order of salvation.

Robert Reymond’s “brief synopsis” of the ordo salutis, purchased in its entirety by Christ’s redemptive activity, commences with God the Father’s irresistible summons to the spiritually dead elect sinner, normally issued in and by the proclamation of the gospel, to enter into fellowship with Jesus Christ. The Spirit of Christ, working by and with that summons, regenerates the spiritually dead elect sinner, enabling him thereby to repent of his sins and in faith to receive and to rest upon Christ alone for salvation, in which activity he is united to Jesus Christ. The moment he believes in Christ, God forgives him of all his sins and declares him righteous in his sight, definitively sanctifies him, adopts him into his family and seals him to the day of redemption with the indwelling Spirit of adoption. The sinner, now a Christian, begins to experience the lifelong process of progressive sanctification, throughout which time he also perseveres in holiness by the power of the Holy Spirit, with the end and goal of this entire series of acts and processes being his glorification, into which state he is finally brought in the Eschaton at the return of Christ. At that point he will be fully conformed to the image of the Son of God, his summum bonum, and Christ will then be in the highest sense possible ‘the Firstborn among many brethren.’”

[Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith (Nashville: T. Nelson, 1998), 712.]

HT: Dan Phillips

“The ordo salutis, Latin for ‘the order of salvation’ is the theological doctrine that deals with the logical sequencing of the benefits of redemption as we are united to Christ which are applied to us by the Holy Spirit.”

Dr. James White speaks to the issue of a consistent hermeneutic derived from sound exegesis of the Biblical text and takes us on a journey looking closely at the constructions in 1 John 2:29, 1 John 4:7, and 1 John 5:1, then responding to comments made by Leighton Flowers which attempt to avoid the weight of what 1 John 5:1 teaches about faith and regeneration.

Starts at the 40:00 minute mark: