Ordo Salutis: Adoption
This subject is more near and dear to me now than ever before because of how the Lord has blessed my own family. Recently we celebrated the first anniversary of adopting our youngest son. This process was quite difficult for us, and I have written about those difficulties here and here. And I am not the only one of us at The Gospel Forum who can testify to the power of this process in revealing the heart of God and displaying his sovereign grace. For myself, throughout this process, the Lord has taught me more intimately of the importance of this reality of adoption.
Ordo Salutis: Justification
In our world today, we often hear the victims of horrible crimes declaring, “We want justice, that’s all we want.” This is understandable, as human beings who have been created in the image of God (Gen.1:27), we have a natural desire for justice to be done. When we witness injustice, we are disgusted, we shake our heads in disbelief. We tend to see the retaliation of victims as justified and deserving of accolades rather than punitive action.
Ordo Salutis: Conversion
Conversion is the process in which a sinner turns from sin to God in repentance and faith, as a result of regeneration. Put even more simply, conversion is “the turning of a sinner to God.”
Ordo Salutis: Regeneration
Biblical regeneration is referring to that supernatural work of the Holy Spirit in which the spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1) elect sinner is brought to spiritual life (Ephesians 2:5). In the process, the totally depraved sinner has their heart of stone replaced with a heart of flesh, so that he is washed, born from above (Titus 3:5) and now able to repent and trust in Christ as a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). It is important to understand that man is entirely passive in this act.
Ordo Salutis: Election
God’s own divine intervention in this messy, sin-ridden world by the incarnation of the Son was no Plan B. He did not look down into the future and pick the best among us to represent him. If anything, he has chosen some of the worst. He has chosen the fools and the rejects, the abnormal and the too normal. But if we are honest in ourselves, we are all the same. We are not all as bad as we can be, but we are as bad off as we can be.
Salvation from First to Last: A Discussion on the Ordo Salutis
While there remains mystery in the work of salvation, and while our hearts may never fully scan the infinite depth of God’s mercy, he has given us a picture of this magnificent work. God has given us a clear message: good news of salvation through Jesus. This gospel is sufficient to save, even if our understandings fail.
WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN?
You would think such a straight forward question would be relatively simple to answer. However, that is not the case. When the question has been posed to a variety of people it is amazing at the amount of significantly different answers or non answers have been provided. Some of the responses I have heard or read about have included the following.