The ordo salutis or order of salvation

As we have seen, theologians have a tendency to summarize biblical teaching in orderly lists. When we look at the order of the decrees, it is supposedly a summary of the order of God's thoughts in his eternal plan for creation.

In the supralapsarian version of the list, the first item is God's pactum salutis, the covenant between the Father and the Son to secure blessing for an elect people to be created. Then come the decrees to create, to permit the fall, to send Christ to atone for sin, and so on.

Infralapsarians suggest a different order, and there are other proposals. Rather than accepting as self-evident the legitimacy of this project and criticizing individual proposals, I ask whether Scripture authorizes us to tabulate the contents of God's mind in this way.

Many theologians also group the blessings of the application of redemption into an ordered list, called the ordo salutis or “order of salvation.” However, there are problems with this order that are similar to the problems with the order of the decrees.

The Order of Salvation

One is the fact that none of these orders are mentioned in the Bible. Another is the fact that the Scriptures themselves show no interest in organizing these events into an orderly list.

The idea of ordo salutis is sometimes based on Romans 8:29-30: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

And whom he predestined, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.”

We are tempted here to place all these divine acts in an ordered list: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, glorification. Paul's ordering of calling, justification, and glorification agrees with the order of these acts in the traditional theological list.

However, Paul's list does not include some items of the traditional ordo (regeneration, conversion, adoption, sanctification, perseverance) and adds the events of foreknowledge and predestination, which are not usually included in the ordo of theological systems.

Most importantly, the text of this passage does not emphasize which aspects of the order are in the list. All the passage states is that God gave these five blessings to the same people.

These are the people who have been “called” (Rom. 8:28), for whom “all things work together for good.”

Paul assures them that if they have been called by God, they will certainly experience all the other blessings mentioned in the passage. Paul does not encourage those who are called to meditate on the order in which these blessings come.

Furthermore, if a Christian were to meditate on the order in which God's blessings come, what kind of order would he have in mind?

As indicated in the order of decrees, there are different types of order, such as temporal, causal, conditional, pedagogical.

And, as with the order of decrees, no single order determines the traditional list. Note:

1. Vocation comes before regeneration both temporally and causally.

2. Regeneration comes before faith in a causal way, but many theologians consider them simultaneous.

3. Faith is prior to justification, but not causally or temporally. Most theologians describe the relationship as “instrumental.” However, instrumental priority is only relevant to these two items on the list.

4. Justification precedes adoption and sanctification, but neither does it precede it causally or temporally. It might be better to say that justification provides the legal and forensic basis for adoption and sanctification, but the legal-forensic category is only used here in the list.

5. There is no obvious reason why adoption should precede sanctification, or vice versa.

Therefore, in my view, the “order” of the ordo salutis does not reflect an objective organization of God’s redemptive provisions. There are various types of order throughout the list, as I indicated above, but there is no general order that applies to the list as a whole.

Final Considerations on the Order of Salvation

Despite this, I think the ordo has value as a pedagogical tool. It is edifying for a teacher to guide students through the traditional list, explaining the meaning of the terms and the various relationships that connect the items in the series.

Theologians need to pay more, not less, attention to pedagogy, and the ordo is an effective pedagogical tool that emerges from the theological tradition itself.

So that you can delve deeper and continue your studies, read our next article, for a more accurate view of the subject I recommend the book “Systematic Theology” by John Frame which gave rise to this article. God bless you, until the next text.