Theological Term of the Week: Ordo Salutis
Wednesday, February 8, 2023 at 2:30AM 
“The order of salvation, or the way we are brought to salvation by the Holy Spirit and kept there. It encompasses effectual calling, regeneration, faith and repentance, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, and glorification, all of which are received in union with Christ.”1
- From scripture:
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified (Romans 8:29-30 ESV).
- From Salvation Belongs to the Lord by John Frame, page 183:
We should be flexible as to what goes into the ordo and what does not. The Bible itself doesn’t use the phrase ordo salutis… And Scripture does not include anywhere a list of all the events theologians typically include under that label. Myself, I think that the ordo is mainly a pedagogical device. As you go through the various items on the list, there is no consistent principle of ordering. Some items precede other items because the first comes earlier in time, the other later. That is the case with effectual calling and glorification. Other items on the list precede others because one is a cause, the other an effect, as with regeneration and faith. Still others come before others not because of temporal priority or causal priority but because of what theologians call instrumental priority, as in the relation of faith to justification. And still other pairs of events are simply concurrent or simultaneous blessings, like justification and adoption. So the order means different things: sometimes cause and effect, sometimes earlier and later, sometimes instrument and object, sometimes mere concurrence. Nevertheless, the order does bring out important relationships between these events, relationships that the Bible does set forth.
- From Systematic Theology by Robert Letham, page 613:
Paul provides a clear order in Romans 8:29-30. He moves from foreordination to calling, justification and glorification. Assuring his readers of the unbreakable chain of salvation, he stresses that those whom God has foreordained to salvation will be brought to this goal. Foreordination is based on foreknowledge—not the foreknowledge envisaged by Arminius, which is simply God’s knowledge of the future actions of his creatures, but rather his knowledge of persons. The verb [proginosko] is used not so much for advance knowledge of this or that but as the equivalent of electing love. Such people are called powerfully into fellowship with God’s Son, are justified, and are certain of glorification.
In Ephesians 1:3-14, Paul explains how our whole salvation is in union with Christ. He begins with election in eternity (v. 4), moves to foreordination to adoption (v. 5), and advances to redemption through the death of Christ (v. 7) and then the sealing by the Holy Spirit (vv. 13-14). While the underlying leitmotif is Trinitarian and consists in union, there are clearly discernible aspects that Paul treats in progressive order.
Learn more:
- Simply Put: Ordo Salutis
- Tim Challies: Visual Theology — The Order of Salvation
- Louis Berkhof: The Ordo Salutis
- Derek Thomas: The Order of Salvation
- Kim Riddlebarger: Basics of the Reformed Faith: The Order of Salvation
- Derek Thomas: The Ordo Salutis Lecture Series
Related terms:
1 From Systematic Theology by Robert Letham, page 945.
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