August 6, 2007 1:01:06 PM GMT+07:00
Dear Brother,
Thanks for the conversation on the phone. You certainly do ask interesting questions. I am actually so thankful to our Lord that you are asking them... it is an indication that you are searching and wanting to grow in the knowledge of the faith.
You asked: What is the order of salvation?
Here a few principles to bear in mind.
1. There is ONE and ONLY, and the SAME ORDER of eternal salvation for every elect of God.
So there is no exception whatsoever. It is the same with Adam... and to the very last elect to be saved by God. Any one who speaks of exception betrays a serious misunderstanding of the doctrine of salvation by God's free and sovereign grace alone.
Each elect is conceived in sin, i.e. under condemnation, spiritually dead, and alienated from God. Every elect begin his existence in time in EXACTLY the same spiritual condition, i.e. under condemnation, spiritually dead, and alienated from God. In such a state, an elect is ABSOLUTELY unable to do anything to commend himself to God. Total depravity is a biblical truth.
The Triune God ALONE can (his ability) and shall (his decree) and must (necessity) bring each and every elect OUT of that state of condemnation and spiritual death and alienation which they are IN by nature.
The Triune God ALONE does this by his SOVEREIGN and FREE grace in the act of effectual call. Please note that effectual calling IS NOT the same as regeneration.
Effectually calling an elect out of the state of condemnation, spiritual death and alienation to that of grace and salvation in Jesus Christ requires more than regeneration.
Effectual calling OUT OF the state of condemnation, death and alienation INTO the state of grace and salvation requires all those divine acts to reverse the state of condemnation, death, and alienation.
Effectual calling NECESSITATES justification (to deal with condemnation), regeneration (to deal with spiritual death), and adoption (to deal with alienation.)
2. God the JUDGE freely justifies an elect in a condemned [i.e. unjustified] state:
- based SOLELY on the righteousness of His Son Jesus Christ. Those who bring in their faith into the equation in any way whatsoever are woefully blind concerning the truth of their justification BEFORE God the Judge.
Justification of life (Rom 5:18) MUST logically precede regeneration. Until and unless the condemnation of death is removed by the application of the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of Christ has no warrant to regenerate a condemned person. The Father and the Holy Spirit work in unity and harmony. The Holy Spirit never 'potong jalan' the JUDGE, i.e. regenerating someone who is still under the condemnation of death, whom the JUDGE has not justified.
Regeneration MUST logically precede adoption. That which is not yet born can't possibly be adopted in a real sense. It is the Spirit of God that regenerates an elect who is spiritually dead. The Spirit of Christ regenerates based solely on the righteousness that has been imputed by the Father. The righteousness of Christ ALONE secured the right to life... and that life is imparted by the Spirit's work of regeneration.
Adoption logically follows regeneration. It is God the Father that adopts. In adopting an elect, God the Father brings a justified regenerated elect into the number of God's children, and to ALL the privileges belonging to the children of God. The chief and foremost privilege is the gift of the Holy Spirit to dwell in them. The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of adoption; at adoption, the Father gives the gift of the Holy Spirit to the adopted. The Holy Spirit himself is the very gift; "which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." Eph 1:14. "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." Ro 8:9 The indwelling of the Spirit is the SEAL of our divine sonship. "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." Ro 8:15
Justification, regeneration, and adoption are logically in that order. Chronologically, they are one simultaneous event in time at the effectual calling out of the state of condemnation and death to grace and salvation in Jesus Christ.
Because of the effectual call and this gift of the Spirit dwelling within, there is a great change in the inner life of the child of God. He is a changed person from within... even though he is still WITHOUT the gospel knowledge concerning his eternal salvation by God's free grace. He fears/reverence God from his heart; he worships the God of heaven in sincerity, with the little light that he has. He works righteousness - he fears and trusts and loves God, he loves his fellow-men, despite the fact that some superstitions and traditions that still cling on to him. All these even though he is so ignorant of the glorious truth of his eternal salvation by God's free grace. Take a close look at Cornelius or Lydia.
The gospel ministry is appointed by God to seek out His children, to instruct and to enlighten them concerning the details of their glorious salvation, to BRING TO LIGHT, to make manifest the eternal life and salvation which God has sovereignly and freely bestowed through the work of the effectual call. This work is entrusted to the Church of Jesus Christ.
3. The Spirit of adoption, and the outpouring of the Spirit
Every child of God possesses the gift of the Holy Spirit; the Spirit of God dwells in them. This is true of every single elect at effectual calling, from Adam onward to the last elect to be effectually called out.
This is VERY DISTINCT from the outpouring of the Spirit which we read in Acts 2 (Pentecost), Acts 10 (the official gathering of the Gentiles into the new covenant church), and Acts 19 (correction of the misguided disciples of John Baptist). This pouring out of the Spirit is something UNIQUE; it was to mark the coming end of the OLD covenant and the beginning of the NEW covenant.
The OT prophesied of the age of the new covenant, the beginning of which is marked by the Spirit of God being poured out. See Joel 2. This was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Apostle Peter quoted from the prophecy of Joel.
On the day of Pentecost, many devout Jews from the known world were found in Jerusalem. "And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven" Acts 2:5. These are children of God in whom the Spirit of God dwells. These were no godless Jews. These children of God - regenerated - were CONVERTED when they heard the gospel truth preached by apostle Peter.
Apostle Peter explained to the Jews that the outpouring of the Spirit was the fulfillment of the prophecy that the age of the new covenant has COME. The Jews were given indisputable proof through the gospel preached through many tongues on that day. They heard the wonderful works of God (Acts 2:11) proclaimed in many languages. The old covenant was given specifically to God's elect among the Jews. But the new covenant is given both the elect among the Jews and the Gentiles.
That's why we have another outpouring of the Spirit in the case of Cornelius... the FIRST and OFFICIAL ingathering of the Gentiles under the new covenant. This event put the Gentiles on the same footing as the Jews under the new covenant. One is not superior, and the other is not inferior.
Then there is the case with the misguided disciples of John the Baptist in Acts 19. These were a special group of people. They were children of God and they were devout Jewish followers of John the Baptist that were scattered in many places far from Jerusalem. These are very different from the Jews mentioned on the day of Pentecost. These had missed the momentous event on the day of Pentecost and were ignorant of the momentous change that has taken place. So, they needed the indisputable evidence of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit too.
4. Jesus Christ came to establish the new covenant.
"For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." Mt 26:28 "And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel" Heb 12:24. The OT prophesied of the new covenant, " Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah" Jer 31:31 ('house of Israel' and 'house of Judah' is symbolic of the complete and total number of God's people.
Heb 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
Heb 9:10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
The time of reformation is to do away with the old covenant and the establishment of the new covenant. It is the old covenant giving way to the new covenant. So, old covenant > time of reformation > new covenant.
This time of reformation is during the 40 years between AD 30 to AD 70... between the pouring out of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and the final and utter destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, indicating the beginning of the new covenant era, and the total and complete ending of the old covenant era.
'The last days' (Acts 2:17) refers to the time of reformation... it begins with the pouring out of the Spirit of God at Pentecost... and ends with the great destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70... the last and final nail that finished off the old covenant.
During the time of reformation, the apostles, especially apostle Paul, worked so hard to convince the Jewish believers and Gentile proselytes to leave the old covenant under Moses and to embrace the new covenant in Christ. The ways of the old covenant are imposed ONLY until the time of reformation. When the new covenant has been ushered in by Christ Jesus, the old MUST GO. But so many were so used to the old ways, they had to be laboured with to leave the shadows to embrace the reality.
In summary, the pouring out of the Spirit which marked the beginning of the time of reformation is remotely related to the Spirit of adoption given to each elect at effectual call.
Cornelius ALREADY possesses the Spirit of adoption before the apostle Peter was sent to him. The pouring out of the Spirit at that event OFFICIALLY MARKED the inclusion of the Gentiles in the new covenant. It is a UNREPEATABLE event among the Gentiles, like the pouring out of the Spirit upon the Jews on the day of Pentecost.
I hope the above helps to ground you in the truth.
your brother and servant in Christ,
sing
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Dear brother,
I paste a post written some months ago...
March 25, 2007 4:13:07 PM GMT+07:00, sing wrote:
Mighty but Old Worn out Morrow,
Since you are so serious, let me tell you a story to relax your tired mind.
There lived a man with many children in an old farmhouse. Naturally, most things in the house were done in the old fashion way, and all the children were very used to the old fashion way of doing things and were generally happy. For example, to wash, they would always have to go to the backyard to fetch the needed water from the well and fill up a water trough in the house. Some of the water would have to be heated up, especially in winter. Then they would enjoy having an invigorating wash... (they bathe with mineral water!!!) They would do this week in and week out, year after year... that's the way things are done in the old farmhouse.
The time came for the man to move his children to a new mansion in town. Things in this mansion are quite different indeed... from what the children have grown up with at the old farmhouse. There is a newness about every aspect of the new mansion. For example, to wash themselves the children are told to go to the specially designed room with all the wonderful gadgets, shampoo, and even liquid soap, lotions... and best of all, you need only a push of a lever this way and that way, and the water at the preferred temperature come gushing out from a delightful spout in different jet pattern. This is a new and living way of washing in the new mansion.
Sadly, many of the children, being so stuck in their old way about washing themselves, refuse to wash themselves the new way. They protested that there no well from which to draw water... and there is no water trough, etc. The father instructed and admonished them that the old way of washing themselves has become obsolete in the new mansion... that they ought to adopt the new and better way of washing themselves in the new mansion. Yet many of his children insisted upon the old way that they have grown up with and have always known. They refused to wash themselves the new way the father has provided in the new mansion.... and the father couldn't stand their stench and uncleanness any more, and cast them out of the new mansion... thus depriving them of the comfort of the new mansion.
However, there were also newcomers (adopted sons) in the new mansion who were never brought up in the old farmhouse. They were kids picked up from the highways and byways, and slum and black holes in the inner cities and south seas... and when they were shown the way to wash themselves in the mansion, they were overjoyed to have their first royal shower.
There were many God's children among the Jews that were so stuck in their old covenant ways, they remained in unbelief; Apostle Paul was dealing with such Jews in Romans 9-11. A remnant did believe the new way. The rest were blinded by their unbelief and suffered the judgment of God.
Thanks for your exposition of Romans 10. For the last 5 Sundays, I was at Romans 10.
We sometimes forget Apostle Paul's own word, "Therefore I endure all things for the ELECT's SAKE, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." The ministry of apostle Paul was self-consciously aimed at and intended for the elect of God alone... the ministry of apostle Paul was to bring the gospel (temporal) salvation to God's children who have been given eternal salvation by God's free and sovereign grace.
If you are still tired, don't oblige to push yourself too hard.
Take a break... you would probably give me the same answers that I have read many times elsewhere... but if your mind is fresh, I would welcome your fresh thoughts.
sing
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