John 3:5. ‘Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”‘
The next question which might be asked concerning the New Birth is whether there is some process through which every Christian goes, regardless of his or her experience. This brings us to the Ordo Salutis or ‘Order of Salvation,’ which has exercised the minds of theologians for many centuries. We have seen that every new Christian experiences repentance and faith, but what about justification and sanctification? In what order do they occur, and do they come before or after regeneration or new birth? Almost every writer on this subject has had his own idea of what this order should be, and so with great diffidence, I offer my own below. Our Lord did not speak of this matter to Nicodemus. Our starting point, therefore is Romans 8vs29-30:-
‘For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son………Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified’.
Now Paul’s purpose in this passage is not really to give us an order of salvation, but rather to tell us that God’s plan of salvation stretches from eternity past to eternity future and therefore cannot possibly fail. However, it is possible to take these five words, Foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification and glorification and try to fit in the other words around them in the right order. The word, foreknowledge means a lot more than that God was aware of us before we were born; rather it is that wonderful biblical use of the word know, meaning to know with love, as in Gen. 4:1 and Amos 3:2. Foreknowledge and predestination, then, belong to the time before the creation of the world, when God, foreseeing that mankind would fall into sin, set His love upon certain men and women, whom He gave to Christ who has redeemed them with His own blood (cf. John 17:2,6,9; 1Peter 1:18-19).
Everyone who is predestined is effectually called by God at some time in their lives. A large congregation may listen to a gospel sermon, but perhaps just one or two are affected by it; or someone may hear a portion of scripture, or perhaps just look at the beauty of nature and it sets him on a train of thought which will eventually lead him to Christ. This is the effectual call (1). It is the first movement of God upon the unconverted Spirit and as such it is entirely sovereign and monergistic. The subject, the unconverted person has no part in it. It may be thought of as the moment of conception of the New Birth, the implantation of spiritual life.
This call leads to awakening or quickening, when men and women begin to think seriously about the things of God for the first time. Conviction is a further step along the road, when awakened souls come to see themselves as sinners under the just condemnation of God. Now conviction is not just having a bad conscience or a sense of shame- many unsaved people have that. Those who are truly convicted by the Holy Spirit see their sin as God sees it- in all its vileness and wickedness in rebellion against the Creator, and they come to understand the justice of God in sending sinners to hell.
Then, finally, they come to understand from the word of God (whether preached or read) that Jesus Christ has done everything necessary to reconcile them to God and is standing ready to receive them. They repent and believe, whereupon God justifies them (that is, He judicially declares them righteous since Christ has paid the penalty for their sin upon the cross) and glorifies them by seating them with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:9; Col. 3:3). [This may seem mind-boggling, but that is where God sees Christians as being, even while they are still on Earth. See the next chapter for a fuller explanation]
Does repentance always come before faith? Not necessarily; as we have seen, people’s conversion experiences differ widely. In days gone by, when preachers used to preach on hell and judgment much more often that they do today, men and women would become conscious of their sin before (sometimes long before) they found peace with God through Christ. Today, however, the doctrine of sin and repentance is preached less and less frequently, and many people ‘accept’ Christ but only later (if at all) come to see themselves as sinners. What is certain is that no one is truly born again unless both faith and repentance have taken place. You cannot have Christ for your Saviour if you will not also have Him also for your Lord (Luke 6:46ff). It is better to see faith and repentance as two sides of the same coin. Our faith in Christ must be a repentant faith, and our repentance a turning from sin to follow Christ. Although repentance and faith are human actions, they have a Divine origin (Acts 11:18; Ephesians 2:8). Salvation is all of God.
So we now have a list which reads, Foreknowledge, predestination, calling, awakening, conviction, repentance/faith, justification and glorification. So just where does regeneration fit in to this scheme? Some theologians, most notably John Murray (2) have placed it right after calling, on the grounds that, if the call is effectual, regeneration must have taken place. This view, however, leads to difficulty. There are several scriptures which speak of people who have gone some way along the road of salvation and then turned back (eg. Matt. 13:20f; Heb. 6:4ff). Nicodemus himself might be described as ‘awakened’ since he took the trouble to seek out Jesus; but his conversation with the Lord (John 3:4, 9) shows that he was a long way from ‘seeing’ the Kingdom of God. A natural birth begins at conception and nine months or so must pass before it is completed. In the same way, it appears that someone can become interested in Christianity, be concerned about his sin and even be quite intrigued with the Gospel, but later lose interest and fall away completely. Such people cannot have been born again since true conversion is a work of God and as such cannot be lost (John 10:28-29), and yet there seems to have been some work upon their hearts. Moreover, if we think of regeneration as an instantaneous event, then preaching the Gospel becomes superfluous; either people are regenerate, in which case they are saved already, or else they are spiritually dead and cannot respond to the Gospel call. A better way of viewing regeneration is to see it as a process which commences with God’s call and ends with His pronouncement of justification, up to which point it is possible for someone to fall away, but after which they are saved forever (3).
So we now have an Ordo Salutis which looks like this:-
Foreknowledge
Predestination
Effectual Calling___________________________________
Awakening
Conviction REGENERATION (NEW BIRTH)
Repentance & Faith
Justification_______________________________________
Sealing
Adoption
Sanctification
Glorification
With this understanding of regeneration, a preacher can preach the Gospel trusting that some in his congregation will be those whom the Holy Spirit has awakened to the things of God, so that the gospel sermon, by His grace, can bring them to conviction, repentance and faith.
The next question which might be asked concerning the New Birth is whether there is some process through which every Christian goes, regardless of his or her experience. This brings us to the Ordo Salutis or ‘Order of Salvation,’ which has exercised the minds of theologians for many centuries. We have seen that every new Christian experiences repentance and faith, but what about justification and sanctification? In what order do they occur, and do they come before or after regeneration or new birth? Almost every writer on this subject has had his own idea of what this order should be, and so with great diffidence, I offer my own below. Our Lord did not speak of this matter to Nicodemus. Our starting point, therefore is Romans 8vs29-30:-
‘For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son………Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified’.
Now Paul’s purpose in this passage is not really to give us an order of salvation, but rather to tell us that God’s plan of salvation stretches from eternity past to eternity future and therefore cannot possibly fail. However, it is possible to take these five words, Foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification and glorification and try to fit in the other words around them in the right order. The word, foreknowledge means a lot more than that God was aware of us before we were born; rather it is that wonderful biblical use of the word know, meaning to know with love, as in Gen. 4:1 and Amos 3:2. Foreknowledge and predestination, then, belong to the time before the creation of the world, when God, foreseeing that mankind would fall into sin, set His love upon certain men and women, whom He gave to Christ who has redeemed them with His own blood (cf. John 17:2,6,9; 1Peter 1:18-19).
Everyone who is predestined is effectually called by God at some time in their lives. A large congregation may listen to a gospel sermon, but perhaps just one or two are affected by it; or someone may hear a portion of scripture, or perhaps just look at the beauty of nature and it sets him on a train of thought which will eventually lead him to Christ. This is the effectual call (1). It is the first movement of God upon the unconverted Spirit and as such it is entirely sovereign and monergistic. The subject, the unconverted person has no part in it. It may be thought of as the moment of conception of the New Birth, the implantation of spiritual life.
This call leads to awakening or quickening, when men and women begin to think seriously about the things of God for the first time. Conviction is a further step along the road, when awakened souls come to see themselves as sinners under the just condemnation of God. Now conviction is not just having a bad conscience or a sense of shame- many unsaved people have that. Those who are truly convicted by the Holy Spirit see their sin as God sees it- in all its vileness and wickedness in rebellion against the Creator, and they come to understand the justice of God in sending sinners to hell.
Then, finally, they come to understand from the word of God (whether preached or read) that Jesus Christ has done everything necessary to reconcile them to God and is standing ready to receive them. They repent and believe, whereupon God justifies them (that is, He judicially declares them righteous since Christ has paid the penalty for their sin upon the cross) and glorifies them by seating them with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:9; Col. 3:3). [This may seem mind-boggling, but that is where God sees Christians as being, even while they are still on Earth. See the next chapter for a fuller explanation]
Does repentance always come before faith? Not necessarily; as we have seen, people’s conversion experiences differ widely. In days gone by, when preachers used to preach on hell and judgment much more often that they do today, men and women would become conscious of their sin before (sometimes long before) they found peace with God through Christ. Today, however, the doctrine of sin and repentance is preached less and less frequently, and many people ‘accept’ Christ but only later (if at all) come to see themselves as sinners. What is certain is that no one is truly born again unless both faith and repentance have taken place. You cannot have Christ for your Saviour if you will not also have Him also for your Lord (Luke 6:46ff). It is better to see faith and repentance as two sides of the same coin. Our faith in Christ must be a repentant faith, and our repentance a turning from sin to follow Christ. Although repentance and faith are human actions, they have a Divine origin (Acts 11:18; Ephesians 2:8). Salvation is all of God.
So we now have a list which reads, Foreknowledge, predestination, calling, awakening, conviction, repentance/faith, justification and glorification. So just where does regeneration fit in to this scheme? Some theologians, most notably John Murray (2) have placed it right after calling, on the grounds that, if the call is effectual, regeneration must have taken place. This view, however, leads to difficulty. There are several scriptures which speak of people who have gone some way along the road of salvation and then turned back (eg. Matt. 13:20f; Heb. 6:4ff). Nicodemus himself might be described as ‘awakened’ since he took the trouble to seek out Jesus; but his conversation with the Lord (John 3:4, 9) shows that he was a long way from ‘seeing’ the Kingdom of God. A natural birth begins at conception and nine months or so must pass before it is completed. In the same way, it appears that someone can become interested in Christianity, be concerned about his sin and even be quite intrigued with the Gospel, but later lose interest and fall away completely. Such people cannot have been born again since true conversion is a work of God and as such cannot be lost (John 10:28-29), and yet there seems to have been some work upon their hearts. Moreover, if we think of regeneration as an instantaneous event, then preaching the Gospel becomes superfluous; either people are regenerate, in which case they are saved already, or else they are spiritually dead and cannot respond to the Gospel call. A better way of viewing regeneration is to see it as a process which commences with God’s call and ends with His pronouncement of justification, up to which point it is possible for someone to fall away, but after which they are saved forever (3).
So we now have an Ordo Salutis which looks like this:-
Foreknowledge
Predestination
Effectual Calling___________________________________
Awakening
Conviction REGENERATION (NEW BIRTH)
Repentance & Faith
Justification_______________________________________
Sealing
Adoption
Sanctification
Glorification
With this understanding of regeneration, a preacher can preach the Gospel trusting that some in his congregation will be those whom the Holy Spirit has awakened to the things of God, so that the gospel sermon, by His grace, can bring them to conviction, repentance and faith.
