North Athens Baptist Church

What in the world is an ordo salutis?  If you had one would you know it?  Why do theologians have to use Latin phrases anyway?  Well, I’m no theologian but I do read works on theology and this term simply means, “order of salvation.”  In the discussion about original sin and free will the question arises: what is the relationship between regeneration (the new birth) and faith?  Is the new birth a monergistic or synergistic work?  In other words is the new birth a work of God’s grace upon the sinner or does the sinner work with God to produce his regeneration?  Does a person have to believe on Jesus Christ in order to be born again or does a person have to be born again in order to believe?  These are important questions and what you believe about original sin and free will determines how you answer them.  If man is born innocent and is not a sinner until he chooses to commit sin, as Pelagius taught, then without the assistance of grace he can choose to obey God.  Theoretically, in this system of thought he could be sinless as Jesus was, since everything is dependent on his choices and not God’s grace.  If man is free to believe (as Arminius taught) and is capable of receiving the gift of salvation from God by his own will then he is born again after he believes.  But if man is dead in his sins (Eph 2:1) and incapable of seeking God (Rom 3:11) because he is by nature a child of wrath, then he will not and cannot believe unless God enables him to do so by sovereign grace.  In our experience regeneration and faith happen instantaneously but regeneration is a logical necessity to faith.  How can dead men believe?  How can those who are spiritually unresponsive respond?  In John chapter 3 Jesus met a ruler of the Jews, a man who was deeply religious and told him that unless he was “…born again” (or from above) he could not see the kingdom of God.  Jesus said in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…”  In the original language it means “no one is able to come to me.”  This implies that no human being in the world, on his own, has the moral and spiritual ability to come to Jesus unless the Father gives him the desire and the inclination.  It is clear that a sinner must believe the gospel to be saved but I think the Bible clearly teaches that God must graciously enable the sinner to believe.  That makes salvation completely monergistic and totally a work of grace.  It also means that all the glory for our conversion goes to God alone.