Romans 5:6-11 and the Ordo Salutis

This week, our Sunday School class took a cue from Romans 5:6-11–particularly 5:11–to look at what is known as the ordo salutis, or “order of salvation.” This is a list of the various components that go into our salvation. When we say that Christ saved us, what does that mean? Well, it means Christ died for my sin, I repented, I was reborn, I was made right with God, and God is continually working in my life to conform me to the image of Christ until I die and I am glorified in heaven. The Bible also teaches that we are foreknown and elected by God, called by God, and adopted by Him. Do these things all happen at once? Are we elected before we are regenerated, or regenerated before we’re saved? To help understand this, theologians, both Reformed and non-Reformed, have tried to list each item in some kind of sequence. There are, of course, aspects of our salvation that happen outside of time, which is why we should consider this more of a logical sequence than a time-line.

Since our church follows the Reformed tradition, this is what the ordo salutis looks like for us (with notes that will be explained after the list):

1. Foreknowledge: past, objective
2. Predestination/election: past, objective
3. Calling (outer and inner): temporal; objective and subjective
4. Regeneration/faith (deposits of the Holy Spirit): temporal; objective and subjective
5. Atonement: temporal; objective
6. Repentance: temporal; subjective
7. Justification: temporal; forensic; objective
8. Sanctification (definitive and progressive): temporal; objective and subjective
9. Mortification: temporal and subjective
10. Perseverance/preservation: objective and subjective
11. Glorification: future; subjective

Again, this list is not supposed to be temporal (‘this happened, then this, then this…”). To use a mathematics analogy, it’s like an order of operations. There are variations of the list depending on which theologians you read, but most have 9 or 10 items. The list above is useful because it is fuller, so it is a little more detailed. Once more, this list represents things that happen when we come to Christ. Romans 5:11 indicates that there is some kind of order (“we have now received reconciliation…”). Let’s take each item in turn and explain the notes.

The first two items, foreknowledge and predestination/election, occur in eternity past, which is a concept difficult for our finite and temporal minds to grasp. And that’s okay, because it helps us remember that this order is not meant to be strictly temporal. These things are also “objective,” which here means that God did it and we contributed nothing. God foreknew us and chose us without any input from us whatsoever.

The third, calling, is temporal in that there is a point in time when this happens. There are two aspects to this: the outer call, which is when we hear the gospel message, and the inner call where the gospel message strikes our heart and elicits a response. We may go for years hearing the outer call, but repentance and salvation only occur when the outer call is coupled with the inner call. God is the one who does the calling, so from that point of view it is objective. However, the call–especially the inner call–is something we feel and we respond to, so it is also subjective. Because the inner call is effectual (i.e., it cannot fail to bring about faith), our response will always be to repent and turn to Christ. But despite this, it is still a response we make, so it is still both objective and subjective.

Regeneration and faith are both deposits of the Holy Spirit. That is, it is at this point that the Holy Spirit works in our hearts to give us spiritual life and give us the faith to believe and respond positively to the call. The Holy Spirit isn’t mentioned much in these lists, but his work shouldn’t be underestimated. He comes into the believer’s life here, and this is an event that is both objective (God does this to us), and subjective (we experience the Holy Spirit, even if it’s just by the fact we believe and proclaim Christ as our Savior).

In Romans 5:6-11, the word for “reconciliation” is sometimes translated “atonement.” Are the two concepts interchangeable? Do they mean the same thing? If we break down what happens when we are reconciled to God, we might come up with something like this: 1) God turns to us; 2) We turn to God; 3) God accepts us; 4) We live our lives for Him. When we look at atonement in Scripture, however, it seems to be speaking more of Christ’s work, and not so much our response. For that reason, it is perhaps better to speak of atonement here and reconciliation elsewhere. We might put reconciliation after justification, since it is once we are justified that we are no longer guilty before God and His wrath against us has been satisfied. The atonement was something that happened in time (Christ died on the cross once for all time at a particular point in history), and he did it for us–he didn’t ask our opinion, and he didn’t need our assistance.

Though repentance is a gift from God–we can’t repent of sin unless He enables us to by breaking our heart over our sin through regeneration–God doesn’t repent for us. It is something we do, so it is both temporal, and subjective.

When God elects us, we are not automatically saved. There comes a point in time when we hear the gospel, respond to the inner call, and we repent. At this point, God declares us justified on the basis of the finished work of Christ. It is a legal declaration, since we still have remaining sin, but God accepts Christ’s sinless, perfect self-sacrifice on behalf of our sin. This declaration is not something we ask for, or that in which we co-operate with God, so it is objective.

Adoption is when we are brought into the family of God, we are called His children, and He becomes our father (e.g., John 1:12-13). Again, we have no active role in this; it is something that is done to us, so it is objective. It also happens at a point in time (we are not called “children of God” from eternity past), so it is temporal. And it is a legal declaration made based on the work of Christ, dying on our behalf and making us acceptable before God. Since we are reconciled with God, we can be a part of His family.

Sanctification happens in time as we go through life and are gradually conformed to the image of Christ. There are two aspects to our sanctification, the definitive and the progressive. The Bible tells us that those who are in Christ are already sanctified. That is, our sanctification is a done deal. This is definitive: we have been set apart (the root meaning of the term) by God for an eternity in His presence. But this is also progressive–something we are working on day by day for as long as we walk this earth. So it is temporal, and both objective and subjective.

The term “mortification” simply refers to our dying to sin, which may be considered part of sanctification. Indeed, some don’t include this in the list for that reason. However, it is good to remember that this is part of our salvation, and something we should expect as the result of God’s sanctifying work in our life. Naturally, this is temporal and subjective since it is not something God does for us (though we couldn’t do it without the aid of the Holy Spirit, and without Him first regenerating us).

When we discussed the Five (or Six) Points of Calvinism, we talked about “Perseverance of the Saints,” and how some prefer to use the term “preservation,” since it reminds us that God is the one who keeps us in the faith. However, the old term is still useful because we still need to actively persevere. One way to think about this is that we persevere because God preserves us. In other words, because God has saved us, and He is active in our lives to keep us, we are able to continue daily walking and living for Christ. So perseverance is both objective (God preserves) and subjective (we persevere).

Finally, the ultimate promise for the believer is glorification. This is our future hope. There is a time coming when our mortal flesh will be changed to immortality, our temporal state will become eternal, and we will dwell in heaven with God sinless and sanctified. This is glorification, and it is, therefore, future and subjective (it is something we experience).

There are Christians who fail to see the value in this kind of list. To them, this is merely a string of theological terms. However, we believe this is the kind of thing that should excite the believer, since it is nothing short of an examination of what God has done, and is continuing to do, in our lives. Perhaps there are certain concepts here that really move or thrill us (election because it affirms that God is responsible for everything, perseverance because it assures us that we’re going to make it to the end, or perhaps adoption and the idea that we are part of God’s family though we don’t feel we deserve to be). That is a good and appropriate reaction for the child of God.

The items on this list are all biblical terms that help us unpack the gospel. When we are first saved, we don’t suddenly know and understand the ordo salutis. In fact, there are very few things we need to know and understand to be saved. But as we grow in the knowledge of Christ and in our understanding of Scripture, we will want to know exactly what happened to us when we were saved. This is where the ordo salutis is extremely helpful.

We indicated earlier that not every version of this list will be identical. The version we are using is the Reformed version. The Lutherans have a slightly different order. The Arminians order these items very differently, as you might imagine. But in that, we see how our theology, and our view of salvation is affected by our understanding of the ordo salutis. If we put repentance before election, then we are making our repentance the factor that causes God to choose us, for example. Indeed, the Arminians would put the outward call first, prior to foreknowledge and election, because they believe that while man is sinful, he is still able to choose whether he wants to be saved.

We might touch on the ordo salutis again when we reach Romans 8:28-30, since we there have a classic example of such a list. Next week, we will return to Romans 5.

Thought from the class: which item in the ordo salutis means the most to you?