RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Ordeal
Order of Salvation
from the beginning was turned toward the origin and development of religious acts in man. It was Calvin who grouped the conceptions of the order of salvation in a systematic way, by treating first of faith, then of repentance as regeneration and conversion which comprise the whole life of the Christian, then of justification, and finally of election. The Protestant confessions do not advance beyond this circle. Repentance, which comprises contrition and faith, is effected by the Law and the Gospel. The believer receives justification and forgiveness of sins as, on the other hand, his faith — the beginning of a new life effected by the Holy Spirit — shows itself in good works (Augs. Con., art. xii.; Formula of Concord, Solida declaratio, art. xi., §§17 sqq.). Among the older Lutheran dogmaticians and among the Reformed essentially the same order is found, but the division of the Reformed was superior to that of the Lutherans in its simplicity and its conspicuous subordination of religious conditions to divine effects. The modern development of the doctrine begins with Schleiermacher. He interpreted the different parts of the order of salvation as proceeding from Christian consciousness. Regeneration, as the fact of being received into life communion with Christ, comprises within itself the entrance into a new relation of man to God as well as the basis of a new form of life. The former is justification, the latter conversion; conversion includes penitence or repentance, which is effected by the view of the perfection of Christ, and faith as " the desire to accept the impulses of Christ." Justification consists in the experience of the forgiveness of sins and adoption, and is therefore a subjective condition mediated by conversion. The division of Schleiermacher has found followers here and there in modern dogmatics, but, on the whole, the conceptions of the old dogmaticians have b - on retained.
In spite of the fact that the earlier conceptions are still in force, there exist considerable variations concerning their explanation and connection. In the Bible there is set forth no order of salvation in the sense of later dogmatics. The Biblical conceptions may be arranged in the follow- Biblical ing manner: (1) Christ calls sinners to Teaching, repentance and saves them (Matt. ix. 13, xi. 28 sqq.). By his work Christ effects repentance (Gk. metanoia) as well as faith. Faith is an effect and gift of God (John vi. 29). It is active in love (Gal. v. 6). (2) As faith seizes the revelation of God in Christ, God declares the believer just (Rom. iv. 11, iii. 28). By the obedience of Christ, in his blood, the believers have forgiveness of sins (Rom. v. 9), reconciliation with God, etc. It is therefore God who effects faith. Faith seizes justification and is at the same time the principle of the new life of repentance. (3) The Christian is a new creature (kaine, ktisis, II Cor. v. 17); for God has regenerated him by his Spirit, the Word, and baptism (John iii. 3). Christ is the sanctification of the Christian (I Cor. i. 30). (4) The new life, as it consists in faith, love, repentance, and works, and is realized by God through regeneration, justification, and sanctification, rests simply upon the grace of God in Christ (Gal. ii. 21). (5)
Since now the Spirit of God as the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who is active and present in the congregation of believers in Christ, continues and makes effective the word and work of Jesus (John vii. 39), the new life of the Christian may be traced also to the efficacy of the Spirit (cf. Matt. iii. 11). The word of God comes " in demonstration of the Spirit and of power " (I Cor. ii. 4). It is the Spirit that effects and guides the new moral life of the Christian (Rom. viii. 4 sqq.), that brings him regeneration, renovation, and the like (Titus iii. 2 sqq.). It is therefore justifiable according to Holy Scripture also, to trace regeneration, faith, experience of justification, repentance and the new life of sanctification to the Holy Spirit as the moving cause in the congregation of the faithful.
From what has been said it is clear that the traditional scheme of the order of salvation is not found in Scripture and thus has no absolute authority. Some of its conceptions are duplicated and may be eliminated without loss; the conception of illumination, for instance, is entirely covered by that of calling (or regeneration). Moreover, the dissection of the divine activity in the soul can neither be traced to actual observation nor is it logically necessary. In an attempt at a positive construction of an order of salvation there is to be presupposed the knowledge of the work of Christ.
Redemption is realized in the con-
The True gregation of the faithful. There the
Order. Spirit of Jesus Christ is active and
present to give redemption to individuals and preserve them in it. This takes place by special means, i.e., the means of grace, primarily the Word. The question is, therefore, how the Spirit of God generates and preserves the new life in the heart. The answer can be gained only by the observation of the inner processes of Christian life as effects of God in which the Holy Spirit is manifest as the moving cause. Only in this connection can the activities of the divine Spirit in the soul be spoken of. The content may be grouped according to the following points of view: distinction must be made (1) between the religious and moral conditions of the soul, and the divine moving cause that manifests itself in them; (2) between the beginning, the content, and the continuation of the new life, and the divine effects which correspond to it. These effects, as being mediated by the Word, are in this connection always to be understood from the point of view of effectual calling. Thus there results the following scheme: (1, a) Conversion: faith, repentance, love; (b) calling as regeneration; (2, a) calling as justification, and (b) as renovation; (3) as sanctification. It is evident that (1) and (2) entirely coincide as to time, while (3) follows them; likewise, that the elaboration of (2, b) and (3) belongs to the sphere of ethics. (R. Sbeberg.)
Bibliography: E. Wacker, Die Heilsordnung, Giitersloh. 1898; W. Gass, Geschichte der protestantischen Dogmatik, i. 362 sqq., 447 sqq., Berlin, 1854; Schroder, in TSK, 1857, part 3; H. Heppe, Die Dogmatik der evangelischreformierten Kirche, pp. 367 sqq., Elberfeld, 1861; Gennrich, in TSK, 1898, part 3; H. Schultz, in TSK, 1899, part 3, pp. 350 sqq. Where the subject is treated at all in English or American theology, it appears in the works on dogma or systematic theology under " Salvation."
Ordericus Vitalis Ordination