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Course 10 · Lesson 5.4

The order of salvation across the traditions

10 minute read

Lessons in this course

Course 10 outline

Module 1: Sin and Human Nature

  1. Human beings in the image of God
  2. The fall in Scripture: Genesis 3 and Romans 5
  3. Original sin in Augustine and the Western tradition
  4. Ancestral sin and mortality in the Eastern tradition

Module 2: Grace and Free Will

  1. Pelagius and Augustine
  2. The church responds: semi-Pelagianism and the Council of Orange
  3. Luther and Erasmus on the bondage of the will
  4. Monergism and synergism across the traditions

Module 3: Justification and Sanctification

  1. Justification in Paul and James
  2. Justification by faith alone in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions
  3. The Catholic teaching and the Council of Trent
  4. Sanctification, holiness and theosis
  5. Recent ecumenical discussion of justification

Module 4: Predestination and Election

  1. Election and predestination in Scripture
  2. Augustine, Aquinas and Calvin on predestination
  3. Arminius, Wesley and conditional election
  4. Eastern and Catholic views on election and foreknowledge

Module 5: Atonement, Redemption and Adoption

  1. Atonement and its extent: for whom did Christ die?
  2. Redemption: the images of ransom, freedom and return
  3. Adoption: sons and daughters of God
  4. The order of salvation across the traditions

Module 6: Death, Resurrection and Judgment

  1. Death and the intermediate state
  2. The resurrection of the dead in Scripture and the creeds
  3. The final judgment: Christ the judge
  4. Purgatory, the Orthodox practice of praying for the dead, and the Protestant objection

Module 7: Heaven, Hell and the New Creation

  1. Heaven and the vision of God
  2. Hell: eternal torment, annihilationism and universal hope
  3. The fate of those who have not heard the gospel
  4. The new heavens and the new earth

Module 8: The Millennium and Christian Eschatological Traditions

  1. Revelation and apocalyptic literature
  2. Premillennial views, historic and dispensational
  3. Amillennial and postmillennial views
  4. Preterist, historicist and futurist approaches
  5. What the traditions hold in common about the end

All courses

Program / Course 10: Salvation and Eschatology / Lesson 5.4

What you will learn

  • Define the order of salvation (ordo salutis) and explain why traditions arrange it differently.
  • Describe the Reformed, Lutheran, Catholic, Wesleyan and Orthodox accounts in their own terms.
  • Explain the dispute over whether regeneration comes before or after faith.
  • Use the order as a tool to compare the doctrines studied in this course.

The big idea

The order of salvation is a way of listing the steps by which God brings a person from sin to glory: calling, faith, justification, adoption, sanctification and the rest. Each tradition arranges the list differently, and the arrangement shows its deeper convictions. Reformed teachers place regeneration before faith. Lutherans stress calling through the Word. Catholics begin with prevenient grace and baptism. Wesleyans describe a path from prevenient grace to perfect love. The Orthodox prefer to speak of a life in Christ, not a sequence. A list is a map, not the road.

Key terms

Ordo salutis
Latin for ‘order of salvation.’ A systematic list of the stages or aspects of how salvation is applied to a person.
Historia salutis
Latin for ‘history of salvation.’ The once-for-all events by which Christ accomplished salvation, as distinct from how it is applied to individuals.
Effectual calling
In Reformed teaching, God’s call that certainly leads the elect to faith.
Regeneration
New birth or new life given by the Holy Spirit.
Conversion
The human turning to God in repentance and faith. Traditions differ on how it relates to regeneration.
Glorification
The final stage in Romans 8:30, in which believers are raised and perfected with Christ.
Logical and temporal order
A logical order says what depends on what, even if events occur together. A temporal order says what comes first in time.

Background

The New Testament gives a few short chains. The best known is Romans 8:29-30: those whom God foreknew he predestined, called, justified and glorified. The list is compact, and it shows that Paul saw salvation as a connected work of God from beginning to end. Systematic theology, especially in Protestant scholasticism, expanded such chains into longer lists.

It is important to see that the churches seldom claim that these steps occur in strict time sequence. In many cases they happen together. The order often expresses logical dependence, answering a question such as ‘What must come first, so that the next can follow?’ This lesson sets out each tradition’s list and its reasons. It also reviews topics from the earlier modules in a single frame.

Step-by-step explanation

Step 1: The Reformed order

The Westminster Confession treats these topics in sequence: effectual calling (Chapter 10), justification (11), adoption (12), sanctification (13), saving faith (14), repentance (15), good works (16), perseverance (17) and assurance (18). Many Reformed writers place regeneration at the beginning, just before or with effectual calling, and before faith. Their reason is that a person dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1) cannot believe until God gives life. Faith and repentance are the fruits of that new life.

The Reformed also stress that the elements are bound together by union with Christ. Each benefit comes from being joined to him, and none can be had without the others.

Step 2: The Lutheran order

Lutheran theology places the Holy Spirit’s work through the Word first: calling, enlightenment, conversion (in which the Spirit creates faith), justification, and then renewal and sanctification. Lutherans say that regeneration and faith are given together, and do not accept the Reformed claim that regeneration comes before faith in a separate step. The Spirit works through means, the Word and the sacraments, and especially baptism, which is a washing of regeneration (Titus 3:5). They teach that a believer can lose faith.

Step 3: The Catholic way

Catholic teaching describes the Christian life as beginning with the call of God and the movement of prevenient grace, followed by faith, hope, repentance and baptism, by which a person is justified and receives sanctifying grace. After baptism, the person grows in grace through the sacraments and good works. Those who lose grace by mortal sin are restored through penance. At death a person may undergo purification and then enters glory. The Catechism’s account is not set out as a numbered list. It follows the pattern of the sacraments and the life of grace.

Step 4: The Wesleyan way

Wesley described a path: prevenient grace, which awakens conscience; conviction and repentance; justification and the new birth, which come together when a person believes; and then a growth in holiness toward entire sanctification, the fullness of love. He spoke of the way of salvation as a staircase or a house with a porch, a door and the inner rooms: repentance is the porch, faith the door and holiness the house. Arminians generally hold that a believer can fall away and that final perseverance requires continued faith.

Step 5: The Orthodox approach

Orthodox theology does not usually produce a numbered order of salvation. It describes a life in Christ that begins at baptism and chrismation, is nourished by the Eucharist and is deepened by repentance, prayer, fasting and love. The goal is theosis. The East treats justification, sanctification and adoption as aspects of one process, not as separate stages. Its objection to the Western lists is that they can suggest a series of legal transactions. Its alternative is a picture of a path of growth in communion with God.

A student comparing the five lists can ask three questions: where does each begin, what is the role of the sacraments, and where does the human response come in? These questions bring out the differences better than a table of steps.

  1. Why does the Reformed order place regeneration before faith?
  2. What does the Lutheran emphasis on the means of grace add to the order?
  3. What is gained by describing salvation as a path, and what is lost?
  4. Is it possible to hold an order of salvation without claiming a strict time sequence?
  5. Where does each tradition put the human response?
  6. Which lists place the sacraments at the center, and which do not?

Examples

A short chain

A teacher writes Romans 8:29-30 on the board: foreknew, predestined, called, justified, glorified. She asks the class which of these is past, present or future in the experience of a believer. The students see that all are spoken of in the past tense, even glorification, and conclude that Paul sees the whole work as secure in God’s purpose.

The house of religion

Wesley compared the Christian life to a house: repentance is the porch, faith is the door, and holiness is religion itself. A visitor from a different tradition says that the picture is useful for describing the road, but he prefers to speak of the Father’s house, where the Christian is already at home. They agree that both images describe something true. (A constructed conversation.)

Different perspectives

Reformed

God’s electing love is applied through effectual calling, regeneration, faith and repentance, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance and glorification. The order is logical rather than strictly temporal. All benefits come through union with Christ by the Spirit.

Lutheran

The Holy Spirit works through Word and sacraments to call, enlighten and convert. Faith and new life are given together. Justification is by faith, and renewal follows. Baptism is a gift by which God works, and the believer lives daily from it.

Catholic

The life of grace begins in God’s call, is received in faith and baptism, grows through the sacraments and good works, and is perfected in glory. It can be lost by mortal sin and restored by penance. The Church is the community through which grace is given.

Arminian and Wesleyan

Prevenient grace enables a response. Repentance and faith lead to justification and the new birth. Sanctification follows and can reach entire sanctification in love. Final salvation depends on continuing in faith, by grace.

Orthodox

Salvation is a life in Christ, beginning in baptism and growing through the sacraments, prayer and repentance toward theosis. The Orthodox avoid dividing the process into legal stages. They speak of healing, illumination and union, in which grace is always first.

Why it matters

Putting the doctrines in order is a way of seeing the whole. It shows how convictions about sin, grace and free will become a map of the Christian life. It also helps a reader avoid mistaking a tradition’s order for the whole of its teaching, or mistaking a logical order for a calendar. The fair comparison asked for at the end of this course depends on understanding these maps.

Common misunderstandings

Misunderstanding: Every Christian tradition has a numbered list of salvation.

Correction: Reformed and some Lutheran teachers do. Catholic, Orthodox and Wesleyan writers speak of a pattern or a path, and the Orthodox avoid a legal sequence.

Misunderstanding: Regeneration before faith means a person is saved before believing.

Correction: The Reformed explain that regeneration and faith occur together in time, and that the order is logical. A person is not saved without faith.

Misunderstanding: Wesleyans and Calvinists agree on the order.

Correction: They share justification by faith and the need for sanctification, but differ on the role of prevenient grace, the place of regeneration and perseverance.

Misunderstanding: The Orthodox have no doctrine of salvation because they have no ordo salutis.

Correction: They have a full doctrine, expressed in worship and the language of life, healing and theosis.

Knowledge check

What is the ordo salutis?

It is a systematic list of the stages or aspects by which salvation is applied to a person, such as calling, faith, justification, adoption and sanctification. It begins from short biblical chains such as Romans 8:29-30. Traditions differ in how they arrange the list and whether they treat it as logical or temporal.

Why do Reformed teachers put regeneration before faith?

They hold that the unregenerate person is spiritually dead and cannot believe until God gives life. Regeneration is therefore the logical beginning of faith. They add that the two occur together in time, and that the order is one of dependence, so no one is regenerate without believing.

How does Wesley describe the path of salvation?

He describes prevenient grace awakening the conscience, repentance, and then justification and the new birth by faith, followed by growth in holiness toward entire sanctification. He used the image of a house, with repentance as the porch, faith as the door and holiness as the house. He taught that believers can fall away.

Why do Orthodox writers prefer not to use a sequence of stages?

They worry that a list can suggest a series of legal transactions and separate aspects that Scripture holds together. They describe salvation as a life in Christ, from baptism through the sacraments, repentance and prayer toward theosis, with justification, sanctification and adoption as aspects of one process.

Think it through

  1. Which map of salvation helps you most to understand your own experience, and why?
  2. Do you think the order matters for how a church preaches? Give an example.
  3. What could a Catholic learn from the Reformed concern for regeneration, and what could a Reformed Christian learn from the Orthodox concern for the whole path?

Independent assignment

Five maps, one table

In your notebook, create a table of about 400 words. List in order, for each of the five traditions, the main stages of salvation as that tradition describes them, using its own terms. Add a column showing where it places faith, where it places the sacraments, and where it places assurance. Below the table, write a paragraph on one difference that you think is mostly a matter of arrangement and one that goes deeper.

Further study