The New Birth (7) - Its Order

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.

 

[Continued]

The reader will notice that I have sneaked Sealing, Adoption and Sanctification into the list. Strictly speaking, they need not concern us at this point because they are results of the New Birth rather than ingredients of it, but we will deal with them briefly so as to tidy up the Ordo Salutis. The most important thing is to remember that each and every operation here is a sovereign act of God. As we saw in Chapter Three, unregenerate sinners have no power or inclination in themselves to turn towards God in any way at all. It is God the Holy Spirit who must awaken us to the things of eternity; it is He who must set our sinfulness in front of us and open our eyes to see how loathsome and repellent it is to a holy and righteous God, and it is He who must open our eyes to see that Jesus Christ has done everything necessary to reconcile us to Him.

We may regard justification as the pivotal point in the Ordo Salutis. The biblical term justify ( Hebrew tsadaq; Gk. dikaioo) has a judicial connotation, meaning to declare righteous. When His people come to Him in true repentance and faith, God declares them to be righteous, since Christ has paid the penalty for their sins; even more wonderful, God actually sees no sin in His redeemed folk, judicially speaking (Psalm 103:10-13; Isaiah 43:25, Jer. 31:34, Rom. 8:33f). The Lord Jesus has taken it all away. As Father, of course, God lovingly corrects and chastens His people (Heb. 12:5ff), but as Judge He says, “….. I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more”.

Sealing, adoption and sanctification all flow immediately from justification. In ancient times, when a king placed his seal on a document or decree, it meant that whatever was written therein was law and could not be revoked (Esther 8v8). Even today, in Great Britain a law is not considered finally passed until it has received the Royal Assent, and the Queen places her seal upon it. In the same way, God places His seal upon us when we believe, as a mark to show that we are His. We are sealed by ‘the Holy Spirit…..for the day of redemption’ (Eph. 4:30), but in Eph. 1:13 we learn that the Holy Spirit actually is the seal which God sets upon us (2). God’s seal upon us means three things: firstly, we are His property, and no one can ever steal us from Him (John 10:29). Secondly, ‘there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1). In Rev. 7:1ff, we see four angels preparing to bring judgement upon the earth; but before they can do so, another angel appears, ‘having the seal of the living God ………saying, “Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads”’ (cf. also, Ezek. 9:4ff). The world is heading for judgement, but the true Christian, whatever hardships he may have to face in these present evil days, is assured of salvation (1Thes. 5:9; Rev. 7:13ff). Thirdly, since it is the Holy Spirit who is the seal, we will gain great assurance if we can see and feel the Spirit working and witnessing in our lives (Rom. 8:16).

Adoption is a wonderful doctrine that flows directly from Justification. It is as if a judge, having pronounced a prisoner, Not Guilty, removes his wig and gown, goes into the dock and embraces the defendant, declaring, “This is my son. I want the world to know that today I am adopting him into my family and granting him full inheritance rights along with my natural Son.” No wonder John exclaims, ‘Behold what manner of love the father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!’ (1John 3:1). We are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Rom 8:17) and our heavenly father will withhold from us nothing that is for our good (Matt 7:11). Even the most severe suffering and chastisement can be endured if we know that it comes from the hand of a loving Father (Heb 12:3-11) and will work ultimately for our good (Rom 8:28).

Finally, we come to Sanctification. The Greek word hagiasmos has the meaning, set apart for holy purposes. In the Old Testament, we read of all sorts of different items- places, days, pots and pans as well as people- being sanctified, signifying that they had been consecrated for God’s service (cf. Gen. 2:3; Exod. 40:10-13). In the same way, those whom God has ‘appointed to eternal life’ (Acts 13:48), He has also sanctified. In other words, He has set them apart for His service (Eph. 2:10). This has already happened to everyone who has been born again. Thus Paul can write ‘To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who are [i.e.‘have been’- Perfect Tense] sanctified in Christ Jesus (ICorimthians 1:2; cf. Jude 3, AV or NKJV), and again in 1Cor. 6v11, he writes, ‘But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God’. So sanctification occurs, like sealing and adoption, flows immediately from our Justification at the moment of rebirth. Perhaps the distinctions between these terms can be illustrated by looking at the parable of the lost son in Luke 15. In verse 20, the father hugs the lost son and kisses him; this might represent justification when God pronounces us righteous and restores us to His favour. In verse 22, the father calls out, “Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand”. The robe reminds us of Isaiah 61:10; ‘For He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness’ (cf. Zechariah 3:4), and signifies sanctification whereby we are made fit for God’s service. The ring, which signified that the son was indeed accepted by the Father as a member of His family, speaks of the sealing of believers by the Holy Spirit and their adoption by the father. All three of these things, hug, robe and ring, happened at the time of reconciliation and tell us of the completeness of the salvation we have in Christ when we are born again.

The sanctification that we have been considering is called by theologians positional sanctification and is the possession of everyone who is ‘in Christ’, no matter how young or how weak the Christian may be. The word is used, however, in another way, which is called experimental sanctification, which means quite simply that Christians need to grow in grace throughout their lives. Heb 10:14 speaks of those who ‘are being sanctified’ (4). When the Lord Jesus prayed for believers that God would, “Sanctify them through Your truth” (John 17:17), He was asking God to make His people more holy and pure, fit indeed for Heaven. Although the believer’s sanctification is genuine, it nevertheless has to be worked out in practice and, as we shall see in the next chapter, the Christian still has his old nature to battle against. The life of new believers is not an easy one; they find themselves at once attacked by the world, the flesh and the devil. Some churches teach that Christians can attain to a completely sinless life, but the Bible (1John 1:8ff) and experience teach otherwise. James 3:2 tells us that, ‘we all stumble in many things’. The Christian has to work out his sanctification progressively. But as we deny the remnant of our old sinful natures, take up our cross and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23), we can be sure that, ‘He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ’ (Phil. 1:6). Pause now, before reading the next chapter, and read the first twelve verses of 1Thess. 4.

Notes

(1) Many theologians call this, Regeneration. There is no problem with this is so long as regeneration is treated as being the first part of the New Birth and not synonymous with it.

(2) John Murray, Regeneration, Accomplished and Applied (Banner of Truth, 1961. ISBN 0-85151-040-X).

(3) Peter Masters argues for a similar position to this in his book Physicians of Souls (Wakeman Books, 2002. ISBN 1-870855-34-5). He claims that it was the position of the Puritans and produces considerable evidence to support him.

(4) Unfortunately the A.V. mistranslates, ‘…are sanctified’ which suggests the Perfect tense and a completed happening in the past. The tense in the Greek is Present, signifying continuing action.

 

It won't surprise you to learn that I disagree.
Ephesians 2:8. 'By grace you have been saved, through faith.......' First the grace, then the faith.
But what the part of my post that you quoted was intended to show:
Effectual Calling___________________________________

Awakening

Conviction REGENERATION (NEW BIRTH)

Repentance & Faith

Justification_______________________________________
is that awakening, conviction, repentance/faith and justification are all part of the new birth.
I'm sorry if that wasn't clear.

 

No one is saved until he repents and trusts in Christ, But God's grace precedes faith, just as God granted repentance to the Gentiles (Acts of the Apostles 11:18) and He opened the heart of Lydia to heed the words spoken by Paul (Acts of the Apostles 1614). Read also Titus 3:3-7. Salvation did not originate in the faith of Paul and Titus, but in 'the kindness and love of God.'

 

I did answer, and have answered the same question several timees. No one is saved until he repents and trust in Christ, but by grace' precedes are you saved.' God's grace and almighty power must open the heart of a sinner irresistibly(cf. Acts of the Apostles 7:51) before he will believe otherwise he will reject the Gospel (John 19; 1 Corinthians 2:14 etc.). When God opens his heart he repents and believes and is justfied by faith (Romans 5:1) but also justified by grace (Titus 3:7) because but for God's grace we would never have believed.

 

Where exactly do you think we disagree?