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The author is going to discuss a portion of the Reformed/Calvinist Ordo Salutis [order of salvation], which asserts that one must be born again before one can be saved. We covered this recently, but because of some unique claims we shall dive in again.
The author is going to discuss a portion of the Reformed/Calvinist Ordo Salutis [order of salvation], which asserts that one must be born again before one can be saved. We covered this recently, but because of some unique claims we shall dive in again.
So that the reader understands, the Ordo places "regeneration" before faith [conversion]:
But there is no Scripture that tells us this, despite the author's various appeals to the Bible. In fact, when read in context, his proof texts demonstrate the exact opposite.
A quick survey of the Bible yielded a number of Scriptures that seem to presume salvation without the supposed prerequisite regeneration:
Ro. 6:7 ...because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
We see here that the unregenerate man is put to death in the new birth, which means he is forgiven (freed from sin). He does not experience rebirth in order to be saved.
1Jn. 5:11-12 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Here we discover that eternal life is equated with salvation. It is clear the new birth is the beginning of eternal life, which of course must presume a concurrent salvation. That is, saved is born again, and born again is saved. They are the same thing.
But more to the point, what difference does it make? If we are born again then saved, or saved then born again, what does it matter? Why is it important?
First, let us get our vocabulary straight. There are many words that are used both in the Bible and in normal Christian vocabulary to refer to the new birth. These are words like “born again”, “born from above”, “born of the Spirit”, “given birth to”, “made alive”, “regenerated”, and so on. They all refer to the matter that we are dealing with in this article.
The New Birth Secures Conversion
The new birth is an act of God whereby he infuses spiritual life into spiritually dead sinners. It is this spiritual life that enables sinners to sense the danger they are in (i.e. the wrath of God) and to see the sufficiency of the Saviour to save them from sin. These two realities become as true to them as the physical world that they see around them. (This is the premise, that one must be born again in order to be able to believe and receive forgiveness from sin. Let's see if the author can demonstrate this.)
When a person senses his danger and sees the sufficiency of the Saviour, he subsequently repents from sin and calls upon the Lord Jesus Christ to save him. (So a born again person is not a saved person.)
So, in the order of salvation the new birth precedes conversion (i.e. repentance and faith). Rather, it secures conversion, which is something we do. We repent. We believe.
The Bible also says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions…For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (see Ephesians 2:1-9).
This must be obvious. ("Obvious?" Paul was teaching a rather simple concept. Once we were dead in sin, but God made us alive despite being dead in sin. Then Paul equates being made alive with being saved through faith.
The Bible also says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions…For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (see Ephesians 2:1-9).
This must be obvious. ("Obvious?" Paul was teaching a rather simple concept. Once we were dead in sin, but God made us alive despite being dead in sin. Then Paul equates being made alive with being saved through faith.
That's what's obvious to us.
It seems that one must come to this Scripture with a doctrinal preconception. That's what the author is doing, leading with his doctrine to interpret Scripture.)
Apart from this act of God, we cannot believe the gospel. “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). A man must have the Spirit first in order to accept the gospel message. This happens in regeneration. (Once again the author leads with his doctrine. But when one reads the entire thought Paul was presenting, he was contrasting two things, the fleshly man vs. the spiritual man. Just a little later he wrote:
1Co. 3:1 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly — mere infants in Christ.
So he was not talking about salvation at all, he was talking about worldly Christians.
Sigh... The author is supposed to be a Bible teacher...)
In the Gospel of John, the Bible says, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (John 1:12-13). Notice the order. The ones who were given the legal right to become children of God are those who received Jesus Christ and believed in him. Yet, they were not born by a human decision. They were already born by a divine decision. They were born of God. (Sigh... the author appeals to "the order" in this passage but actually reverses the order.
What do we actually see here?
- to all who received him
- he gave the right to become children of God
- they are born of God
Received first, which gained the right, which means being born of God. So simple.)
The Analogy of Physical Birth
The use of the word “birth” in the Bible should be sufficient to convince us of this order, that the new birth precedes conversion and is not a product of conversion. (So this is the first time the author presents the "other side" of the equation, and it's a matter of which thing comes first.)
Even in the physical world, we do not do something in order to be born. (Being saved and receiving new life is not "doing something.")
It is our parents who do something that results in our conception and our birth occurs nine months later. (A spectacularly bad analogy. When we are conceived we are not the product of stages. Conception marks the beginning of a new life that lacks nothing in status but the time to develop and then be born.)
It is because a baby already has life that it cries for oxygen upon being given birth to. We call it “the cry of life.” This cry is inevitable because the baby is already alive. If a baby does not cry at birth it means that it is born dead. It is not the cry of life that gives it life. It is because the baby is already alive that it cries.
This is why when Nicodemus asked whether he should enter his mother’s womb in order to be born again, Jesus said that the new birth is not something a human being does. Jesus said, “Flesh can only give birth to flesh. It is the Spirit that gives birth to spirit” (John 3:6). The new birth is something you experience, not something you do. (Who has claimed that being born again is something someone does?)
And, as if that was not enough, Jesus went on to say that in this matter God is totally sovereign. We cannot predict whom he is going to give the new birth to. “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).
It is because a baby already has life that it cries for oxygen upon being given birth to. We call it “the cry of life.” This cry is inevitable because the baby is already alive. If a baby does not cry at birth it means that it is born dead. It is not the cry of life that gives it life. It is because the baby is already alive that it cries.
This is why when Nicodemus asked whether he should enter his mother’s womb in order to be born again, Jesus said that the new birth is not something a human being does. Jesus said, “Flesh can only give birth to flesh. It is the Spirit that gives birth to spirit” (John 3:6). The new birth is something you experience, not something you do. (Who has claimed that being born again is something someone does?)
And, as if that was not enough, Jesus went on to say that in this matter God is totally sovereign. We cannot predict whom he is going to give the new birth to. “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).
The Instrumentality of the Word
The means that God uses to bring about this new birth is the word of God, the gospel of our salvation. Thus we read in James 1:18, “He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first fruits of all he created.” It is a sovereign act of God (“he chose”) but it is through the instrumentality of “the word of truth.”
This is not something that only James taught. The apostle Peter says, “For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God…And this is the word that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:23-25). (It appears that the author is referring to the Bible. But here "word" is lógos, which is not Scripture. It is used with regards to a person sharing a message (discourse, "communication-speech"). 3056 (lógos) is a broad term meaning "reasoning expressed by words."
So our birth by "the word of truth" was accomplished by the Living Voice.)
Nothing can be clearer than that! (Indeed...)
Even an Arminian (Undefined term.)
like Charles Wesley believed and taught this when he wrote in his famous hymn, O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing: (!! The author appeals to hymn? What?)
He speaks, and listening to his voice,New life the dead receive,The mournful broken hearts rejoice,The humble poor believe.
Notice the order. (If Wesley was an "Arminian," and if that means Arminians believe something different than the author, then Wesley most certainly did not write a hymn that bolsters the author's doctrine. The author sees an "order," as if Wesley was outlining a step-by-step process.
But since we've descended to the level of deriving doctrines from hymns, let's quote the previous verse to find out Wesley's "order:"
He breaks the power of canceled sin,He sets the prisoner free;His blood can make the foulest clean,His blood availed for me.
So if we're supposed to notice "the order" of how salvation occurs according to Wesley, then we find that in the hymn salvation precedes new birth.
But most obviously, a non-biased reader would look at these lyrics and not see a "order" at all, but rather a wholistic statement about salvation.)
Jesus speaks. (Previously the author claimed that the word of God is the instrumentality of our new birth. Apparently he now agrees with us, that we hear the voice of Jesus.)
New life comes into sinners. We rejoice and believe. This is why salvation is all of grace. It is because God makes us alive while we are dead—and cannot do anything for ourselves. Then as a result of this being made alive we are enabled to repent and believe. Salvation is the work of God and not of ourselves.
Implications for Preachers
Since God uses his word as an instrument in his regenerating work, it does not render preaching irrelevant. We do not sit back as preachers and say, “Well, since God regenerates those whom he wills and whenever he wills to do it, there is no need for us to preach the gospel.” No. We pray to him before and after we preach that he may use the preached word to give life to the dead. (Why? The author simply makes a base denial and asserts the necessity of preaching.
If God does what He wants and saves who He wants, why should there be an imperative to preach? The salvation is going to happen no matter what.)
When he does so, we know they will believe.
As Paul puts it, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).
Again, since the new birth is a sovereign act of God, it keeps those of us who preach the word of God from using tricks—dimming lights, playing music that can cause a rock to shed tears. (???? His church has no music?
As Paul puts it, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6-7).
Again, since the new birth is a sovereign act of God, it keeps those of us who preach the word of God from using tricks—dimming lights, playing music that can cause a rock to shed tears. (???? His church has no music?
If it's true God saves those He has chosen to save, why are "tricks" a problem? The author needs to explain himself.)
As Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 4:1-6, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not use deception. Nor do we distort the word of God.
On the contrary, we know that:
On the contrary, we know that:
- Our gospel is veiled to those who are perishing because the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel; (2Co. 4:4)
- It is God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who makes his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2Co. 4:6)
2Co. 3:16 But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
How does the author explain away this one?)
So, all we do is to preach the gospel faithfully, pleading with sinners to be reconciled to God. God will infuse life into those whom he pleases to save. (The author exhorts us then immediately disarms his exhortation. Very strange.)
Conrad Mbewe is the pastor of Kabwata Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia and is a Council member of The Gospel Coalition Africa. Conrad is the Founding Chancellor the African Christian University in Lusaka and currently serves as the Dean of the School of Divinity at ACU. He and his wife, Felistas, have six adult children.
Conrad Mbewe is the pastor of Kabwata Baptist Church in Lusaka, Zambia and is a Council member of The Gospel Coalition Africa. Conrad is the Founding Chancellor the African Christian University in Lusaka and currently serves as the Dean of the School of Divinity at ACU. He and his wife, Felistas, have six adult children.
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