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Ordo Salutis - Circle or Line

In our study of the Westminster Confession we've been sharing our conversion stories. Conversion narratives bring home God's work and grace in saving us. We've used the Ordo Salutis to highlight each part of God's plan of salvation. In doing this we've struggled to narratively explain that regeneration precedes faith, that faith and repentance go together and are two sides of one coin, that justification, regeneration, and effectual call are instantaneous. It all gets rather confusing - but it's important that we see each part - as we relate the whole.
Paul Helm gives a helpful illustration at Helm's Deep::

Let us take an illustration. The ordo salutis (Rom 8.28 etc.) is a sequence, part of the grand narrative of redemption. But the concepts introduced into our understanding of that sequence, and the distinctions between them, between regeneration, conviction of sin, penitence, faith, assured faith, the external call, effectual calling, justification and sanctification etc. are logical distinctions. Do they all also record temporal distinctions as well? Is justification an event? And is sanctification another, coupled to the carriage of justification and pulled along by it? Is the carriage of justification in turn pulled along by the carriage of faith? Where does adoption fit in? Has it to be squeezed in somewhere between regeneration and faith? Or between faith and justification? Or is adoption simply another description of one or more of these elements? And what about union with Christ: is this also part of the temporal sequence of separately-identifiable occurrences? If so, can we find a gap for it, a spare carriage for it to occupy? Is the decree of God, eternally foreknowing the redeemed, also an event?

Later he quotes from Geerhardus Vos:

In Biblical Theology the principle is one of historical, in Systematic Theology it is one of logical construction. Biblical Theology draws a line of development. Systematic Theology draws a circle.

The Ordo Salutis for each of us is a circle with a our line of narrative drawn through it. Helpful illustration.

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Posted by Christine at June 1, 2007 9:48 AM