5.1 The "order" of salvation (part 1)

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1. We come now to the final stage of our journey. We have mentioned most of the key biblical texts. We have looked at most of the theological elements. We have reminisced a little about the way holiness has been preached in its more and less reasonable forms. We have touched at least a little on the question of how Christians have claimed to experience sanctification in the past. How can we tie all these things together?

Wesley, of course, put it all together in an ordo salutis, an "order of salvation." [1] First, salvation begins with God. Although many of us have a tendency to throw the phrase "free will" around, Christians do not officially believe that humans have unassisted free will. Wesleyans do believe in a kind of free will but it is not "unassisted." It is not something we have in our own power.

This matches Paul's "natural" or "unspiritual" human in 1 Corinthians 2:14, who does not understand the ways and thinking of God. And it also includes the unfortunate person of Romans 7 who wants to do the good but does not have the spiritual power to pull it off. Calvinists have a term for this. Humans in their default state are totally depraved.

Wesley did not really disagree with John Calvin (1509-64) on our depravity, our inability to do good in our own power. For Wesley, we are not absolutely depraved, but we are thoroughly depraved. Sin has touched every aspect of human life to where we are "fallen" across the board. No one can be good enough on their own to deserve or earn God's favor.

The basis for this theology is of course found in Romans 3:10-18: "There is no righteous person, not even one" (3:10). "All have sinned" and are in need of God's mercy and forgiveness. We cannot earn our way into God's kingdom (Eph. 2:8-10).

2. However, Wesley differed from Calvin from this point on. For Calvin, our inability to choose God in our own power led him to see our salvation as entirely God's choice, the work of God's singular will ("monergism"). Either God flips the switch or he doesn't. We have no real part in the matter except that we are the puppet of his will. Even if we feel like we are making the decisions, we aren't. God is.

In Calvin's system, God's grace -- his unearned favor toward us -- is both unconditional and irresistible. If God has chosen you, you will be saved. You will persevere to the end.

About fifty years later, Jacobus Arminius (1560-1609) would suggest a slightly different process. Building on Augustine's notion of God's prevenient grace -- God's grace that reaches out to us when we are unable to reach out to him -- Arminius suggested that this grace made it possible for us to choose. So while Calvin's sense of grace was all or nothing, an on-off switch, Arminius (and later Wesley) saw this as a grace that empowered our wills so that we can cooperate with God's grace ("synergism" or working together).

This system goes beyond the biblical texts -- as did Calvin's system. Both approaches do their best to fill in the blanks, to stitch together the biblical texts. In the case of Arminius, he is trying to take seriously texts that indicate anyone can be saved (e.g., 1 Tim. 2:4) and that our will plays a real role (e.g., 2 Pet. 1:10). The "Wesleyan-Arminian" approach has far fewer problems, in my opinion. Ultimately, the Calvinist approach makes God too responsible for evil and sin.

3. So, the first step in Wesley's ordo salutis was prevenient grace. God makes the first move. God empowers our will to begin to cooperate with his grace. We may not even know the Spirit is drawing us. We may not know that God is lining up our circumstances. But the Spirit is plugging us in, and we are beginning to power up.

The next steps on the journey in the order of salvation are justification and regeneration. Justification is when we are legally pronounced "not guilty" because our sins are forgiven (Rom. 5:1). Righteousness is "imputed" to us legally. 

Then in regeneration, we are given new life. We are "born again" (John 3:7). We are empowered to walk in the Spirit. We can be victorious over Sin. Righteousness is "imparted" to us.

As we have seen, Wesleyans would rightly say that we undergo initial sanctification at this point of conversion as well. We are set apart to God by the Spirit (2 Thess. 1:13), and our sins are cleansed (Acts 15:9; Heb. 9:14). We receive the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). We are baptized in the Holy Spirit (Luke 3:16). We are filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:4). This is the true moment when we are baptized into Christ and become part of the people of God.

4. However, whether you are Calvinist or Wesleyan, this is not the end of the story. After this beginning in the faith, one experiences progressive sanctification. There will inevitably be areas in which you need to grow spiritually. Even though you may be victorious over temptation, you may find that it is still sometimes a struggle. 

Even more -- as we have seen -- some still find themselves in a carnal No Man's Land. They are stuck in the "evil I don't want to do I do" zone of Romans 7 even though it should not apply to the believer. Such individuals need another filling of the Spirit because their power connection is spotty. Their relationship with the Lord would seem to be defective.

Progressive sanctification is the practical necessity that many if not most Christians experience where they must continue to give the territory of their lives to Christ. It is a practical rather than theologically necessary category. In theory, we should give everythng to Christ that we know to give when we become a believer. From that point on, we would immediately give to Christ anything new as we become aware of it.

In practice, our surrender to Christ is often defective even after we have believed on him. We turn out to be babies in Christ in need of milk, not yet ready for the meat. Progressive sanctification is the growth in giving our lives to God that often still needs to take place after we have believed.

5. Philippians 3:12-16 is often thought to give a biblical picture of this movement forward in our Christian life. The popular reading of these verses is not quite right, but it is not far off. "Not that I have already been perfected, but I am pursuing it if indeed I might take hold of that for which I was taken hold of by Christ. Brothers and sisters, I do not reckon myself to have taken hold of it, but one thing I do. Forgetting what is behind and reaching for what is ahead, I am pursuing the goal of the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus" (3:12-14)

Then, with the goal in mind, he pictures continual progress moving foward. "Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in someway you are thinking differently, God will reveal this to you. Just keep going to the measure you have already attained" (3:15-16). 

These verses present a picture of us growing in faith. As God reveals areas of growth to us, we advance in our faith. We don't lose ground but walk in faith to the degree we have already growth.

However, one aspect of these verses is also frequently read out of context. Many Christians are all too quick to point out that Paul says he's not perfect. You may have heard the slogan, "I'm not perfect, just forgiven." The interpretation fits the narrative that Romans 7 is Paul still struggling with sin.

It's also wrong. The verses before Philippians 3:12 were about resurrection. Paul is hoping he will be faithful enough for God to consider him worthy of resurrection (3:10). [2] After all, even in 3:14, he mentions the "upward call" as that toward which he is striving. 

So when he says he has not yet been perfected, he is referring to the resurrection, not perfection in his moral walk with Christ. He starts off the verse by saying, "Not that I have already received [the resurrection]." Once again, our glasses have read into Paul something that is contrary to his theology. Paul does not in any way consider himself a moral failure at this point. Indeed, he goes on in 3:17 to consider himself a model, an example for them to follow.

These verses are a model for growth in Christ and progressive sanctification. However, they are not an excuse for sin in the life of a believer.

6. In practice, this progressive surrender of our lives often comes to a head. Sin's last stand. We have already mentioned the image of progressively giving to Christ more and more of our spiritual house. Last year, we wrestled over the closet. This year, we wrestled over the attic. Each time, I came to a point of "fish or cut bait." Each time, I came to a point of crisis in which I fully surrendered another aspect of my life.

It doesn't have to be this way, of course. Theologically, I could have given God everything I knew to give from the very moment of saving faith. This is how it ideally should be. Just, for some reason, it doesn't always seem to happen that way.

Then came the Battle for the Basement. There was that one thing I wanted to cling too. Perhaps psychologically I needed to cling to it for some reason. Preachers of sanctification used to threaten (unhealthily) the question of whether you were willing to be a missionary to some remote part of the world -- back in the days when plane flight around the world wasn't nearly as common.

But what if God wasn't calling you to be a missionary to Africa? One wonders if there were ever any individuals who ended up as missionaries in those days, not because God called them, but because of some mental struggle they had over being a missionary that some preacher put on them.

Once a person has fully surrendered themselves to Christ -- signed over the deed to the property, as it were -- it is now possible for Christ to take fully hold of them, as Philippians 3 intimated. We cannot have the fullness of the Spirit if there are parts of us we are not letting the Spirit fill. So, if our part is full surrender and "consecration" of ourselves to God, God's part is our entire sanctification. "May the God of peace himself sanctify/make you holy entirely" (1 Thess. 5:23).

Then beyond that point, Wesley believed we continued to grow in grace as long as we live on this earth. Then, when we die or when Christ returns, we are glorified.

7. I'll confess that, while the above sequence makes a good deal of sense, there is still something that makes me a little uneasy about it. I think there are a couple reasons. For one, we are pressing the Scriptures into a system they were not originally part of. To some extent, we are taking the verses out of context. 

The second reason is that the path we all take as individuals is likely messier than Wesley's tidy system. To some extent, I've already tried to complexify it a little. Once upon a time, I found it helpful when Chris Bounds suggested in conversation that it may be more of a "via" salutis than an "ordo" salutis. A "via salutis" would be a way of salvation rather than an order.

What I took him to mean is that we have here the pieces, the elements of salvation. But the order in which they are experienced or the way in which we move through them may be a little different from person to person. Indeed, we likely will need to be filled with the Spirit over and over again. New things come into our lives after we have signed over the property to Christ -- like adding a room or a patio in the back. 

Old struggles may return. Perhaps the cares of life have exhausted me. Perhaps they are threatening to choke me spiritually. Perhaps I have been neglecting my relationship with Christ. Old temptations can return...

[1] See especially his sermon, "The Scripture Way of Salvation."

[2] Notice that Paul does not consider himself "eternally secure." He sees his Christian walk as one of continual striving, "pressing on" toward the goal of the upward call in resurrection.

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Preface: A Sanctification Story 

1.1 Filled with the Holy Spirit (part 1)
1.2 Spirit-fillings in Acts (part 2)

2.1 What is holiness? (part 1)
2.2 What's love got to do with it? (part 2)
2.3 What is perfect love? (part 3)

3.1 What is sin? (part 1)
3.2 All sins are not the same. (part 2)
3.3 Romans 7 is not about the inevitability of sin in our lives. (part 3)

4.1 What is the flesh? (part 1)
4.2 The oxymoron of a "carnal Christian" (part 2)