The Order of Salvation

The Order of Salvation

https://www.facebook.com/notes/10217725639988230
Mar 25, 2011

1. It is helpful to separate the various elements in the order into DISTINCT and LOGICAL categories:
- Redemption purposed...
- Redemption accomplished...
- Redemption applied...
- Redemption experienced...
- Redemption glorified...

2. In the redemption purposed, there are:
- Election by the Father...
- Foreknowledge...
- Predestination by the Father...
- Christ appointed as their Mediator...
- etc etc.

3. In the redemption accomplished:
- Incarnation, the eternal Word made flesh, perfect sinless life, substitutionary death, resurrection, etc
- LEGAL justification: all the sins of all that God the Father has given to Christ, were imputed to Christ, and Christ suffered for them fully; Christ righteousness was imputed to each and every one of them - whose names had been written in the Book of Life before the foundation of the world. (I know you will jump and rave at this... let me just remind you that the condemnation of sin in Adam's sin was EVEN SO / SIMILARLY imputed to all he represented at the fall.)
- JUSTIFICATION BY BLOOD is different from JUSTIFICATION BY GRACE and is different from JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH... See the dazzling multifaceted jewel called 'justification' unfolds...

4. In the redemption applied:
- It is HERE that sinners become PERSONALLY affected. What was LEGAL for the whole elect is now APPLIED personally to each individual.
- When redemption is applied upon an individual, he is dead in trespasses and sins. He is in enmity against God. He is ungodly. He is a child of wrath. He is a rebel, etc. In such state, the sinners ACTED UPON by God's act of applying eternal salvation is ABSOLUTELY PASSIVE. They are utterly unable to aid or cooperate or assist in the application of accomplished redemption to them PERSONALLY.
- When redemption is applied, God FREELY and EFFECTUALLY calls a sinner who is by nature in the state of SIN and DEATH to that which is GRACE and SALVATION. It must be FREELY - if there is any condition imposed, it would be disastrous, none could ever be met.
- In effectually calling a sinner out of the state of sin and death to that of grace and salvation, God by His free and sovereign grace and power must execute these gracious acts - in these exact number and LOGICAL ORDER.
- Justification to remove the condemnation... by APPLYING the righteousness of Christ to the individual elect personally. This JUSTIFICATION BY GOD'S GRACE gives divine warrant for the Holy Spirit to regenerate an elect dead in trespasses and sins.
- Regeneration to remove the deadness, and bring the justified to eternal life.
- Adoption of the regenerated to remove the alienation, and bring him into the family of God...
- Giving of the Spirit of adoption to dwell in the child of God, who works all the saving graces in them.
- All these, i.e. justification by grace, regeneration, adoption, and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit to dwell in the child of God happen in that LOGICAL ORDER, but chronologically, they are simultaneous.
- Effectual calling out of the state of sin and death to that of grace and salvation is an instantaneous and gracious and FREE act of God, and involves all the able distinct divine acts.
- One who is effectually called by God is fully and perfectly FITTED for eternal glory... Nothing more is needed for eternal glory.
- God sovereignly applies redemption to each and every one whom He gave to His Son, and for whom Christ died to redeem.
- This is ETERNAL SALVATION... by God's free grace PLUS nothing.

5. In redemption experienced and evidenced:
- One who is effectually called is enabled by the Holy Spirit working in him the manifold graces of salvation, including the grace of faith and repentance, works of righteousness, fear of God. Behold Cornelius, the Ethiopian eunuch, the devout Jews on the day of Pentecost, etc, etc...who were converted.
- When such a one is reached with the gospel ministry, he is able to respond to the gospel ministry. The gospel truth is ALREADY true of him... God has freely applied redemption to him. When he believes, his faith EVIDENCES the redemption that has been applied to him by God's free and sovereign grace. When he believes, his EXPERIENCES in a most personal way the love of God in Jesus Christ for him...
- The gospel ministry is absolutely important for his WELL-BEING as a child of God. The gospel ministry plays ABSOLUTELY no role in his BEING as a child of God.
- The gospel ministry INSTRUCTS and INFORMS and EDIFIES and NOURISHES a child of God.
- The gospel ministry does not play any role in giving eternal life to a sinner... But it is absolutely needful for their well-being, for their TEMPORAL SALVATION here and now in this life on earth.
- Each of God's children by His free and sovereign grace, experiences and evidences a VASTLY different degree of benefits from the gospel ministry. Some have none... others have little... still others have husk feed to them... some are well nourished under faithful gospel ministry...
- Whether more or less or none, each and every one of them is perfectly fitted for eternal glory by God's free and sovereign grace because of the effectual call.

6. In redemption glorified/consummated
- You fill in the blank... if you can... it is too wonderful for me too express it in words.

This is the only order of salvation I have learned from the Scriptures. This is not to deny that men have come up with many DIS-orders <grin>.

==================

Some comments

Michael Gowens
I sing the praises of Sing's Ordo Salutis! 🙂

Khai S. Ng
Praise God for his wondrous truths summarized by our beloved Pastor Sing F Lau as they are revealed to us in this truth-less generation. A believer who is convicted of such truths and experience the peace of God's redemption, yet lives a puffed up, stiff-necked life of pride is clearly an oxymoron. May God grant us mercy to act upon his truths...

Mark Thomas
Wonderful statement! Amen and Amen!

Gene Thomas
By all means, make a copy of Sing's article and share it with as many as you can. It is worth reading and re-reading.

Michael Lim
Thank you, Lord, for being merciful in showing us the truth we are not privileged to have in the first place. May we continue to live godly lives as we continue to seek You in spirit and truth l.

Bill Taylor
Powerful! Truth! Consolation! Thank you Brother Sing. Please continue to set the Gospel table with such rich food!

Sing F Lau
Truth is stranger than fables!

What is treasured as truth is despised by many 'reformed' people as rank heresy on the Monergism group.

< 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.>

Fables are mistaken and embraced and defended as truth!

4:1 ¶ I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; 
2 Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Mark Thomas
The time has come and long since come for "itching ears". God spare us from the "fables".

Michael Lim
I once asked my younger brother about the word "sound doctrine" but he is not aware and doesn't strike him there... I understand charismatic churches are loving...i appreciate the love there, but there is not much truth together also...fables are indeed scary! It brings u away from the truth, no use loving if not accompanied by the truth...

Mark Thomas
Just lovingly instruct your Brother. Perhaps he will come to understand Bro. Lim.

Mark Thomas
I do agree that if not accompanied by truth by Divine means first, such efforts will fail.

Dallas Eaton II
Amen Brother Sing. Amen.

Dallas Eaton II
Sharing on my FB and another place as well.

The Old, the New, and the Biblical Perspectives

 

https://www.facebook.com/sing.f.lau/posts/10216580906250602
May 25, 2020

#New_Perspective
#Old_Perspective
#Bible_Perspective

The Old and the New Perspectives

I was reading an article that presents the conflicts between the so-called New Perspective in contrast to the Old (actually Protestant) Perspective.

If the popular Old Perspective of "justification by faith alone" is bad, the things advocated by the New Perspective are even further from the truth. The Old is deficient and inconsistent; the New is much worse, it repudiates the gospel doctrine of imputation.

Having read, and studied it over several times, I conclude with these few lines.

Two Perspectives, whether the New or the Old;
Neither is as the perspicuous Scriptures has it told!
Both the old Protestants and the new Wrights;
Are in the ditches, the Old in the left, the New right!
The new wrights righting the wrongs of the Old,
End up drifting further into the errors' fold.

What are your thoughts?

I plan to write a commentary on that article - pointing out the common errors of both perspectives. Both have wrongly divided the word of truth. Correcting errors with new-fangled ideas drive folks further into errors!!!

Essentially, they are ignorant of :
1. The biblical distinction between eternal salvation by the free and sovereign grace of God alone and temporal salvation through the works of obedience by God's children.

2. They are oblivious of the distinct aspects of justification. This explains the endless confusion and inconsistencies and contradictions in both the Old Perspective (Protestant) and the New Perspective (Wright).

http://www.religionfacts.com/.../new-perspective-on-paul

Sonship and discipleship

 

https://www.facebook.com/sing.f.lau/posts/10211544666787763

May 5, 2018

Sonship - a condemned dead alien sinner being justified, regenerated and adopted into the family of God - is by God's free grace alone, completely monergistic; it is God's work alone, man being dead in trespasses and sins is completely passive. It is God's free and sovereign activities of producing His children.

Discipleship is by the deliberate choice of God's children in rendering obedience to God's will in Jesus Christ, in response to God's grace working in them. It is synergistic, God's children are actively involved. Their carelessness and negligence can lead to a shipwreck of their faith; God's children can fall from faith, they can end up barren.

 

An entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly

(Photo: Was sent for an errand, so I diligently protected myself that a state of continued safety shall be abundantly ministered unto me and my Wifey! 

Do keep safe; may these tumultuous days be over soon. Amen)

https://www.facebook.com/sing.f.lau/posts/10216370147661769
May 2, 2020

 #An_Entrance_Abundantly_Ministered
#Experienced_Through_Your_Diligence

2Peter 1
10 ¶Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
11 For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

A few thoughts crossed my mind:

i. Apostle Peter, the apostle to the circumcision, was writing to the Jewish believers - who were strangers scattered through Roman provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia - a few years before the momentous event that would take place in 70AD, see Mt 24:21.

ii. Those Jewish believers had been deeply rooted in the old covenant with all its trappings in the earthly theocratic kingdom of Israel; they were never completely set free from those trapping, having been born into and grown up in the very system.

iii. The time has come for the complete destruction and abolition of that earthly theocratic kingdom of Israel. Apostle Peter wrote to warn the Jewish believers to move on, to make a complete break with the old, and to diligently enter the new, the everlasting kingdom established by the promised Messiah Jesus Christ.
- The unbelieving Jews, the zealous adherents to the old covenant, with the state powerful machinery behind them, had been persecuting believing Jews, as well as attempting to bring the Gentile believers under the bondage of the old covenant. Apostle Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, fought tooth and nail to protect the Gentile believers' liberty in Christ.

iv. The everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ has been ushered in by the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, the Lord and Saviour of His people - all those given to Him by the Father - thus fulfilling all that was foreshadowed by the old covenant.

v. Their faith in Jesus Christ shows that they are already made members of the everlasting kingdom of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, all by the free, sovereign, gracious activities of the Triune God.
- BUT, in the nature of things, many of them as still quite stuck with the old earthly theocratic Israel, of which the fiery end was fast approaching; that explained Peter's urgency.

vi. These Jewish believers were called to exert diligence to make their calling and election sure. Why?
- That they shall never fall...
- That an entrance shall be abundantly ministered unto them into the everlasting kingdom of their Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
- Their calling and election are wholly and completely bound up in the person and work of the promised Messiah, Jesus the Christ. He has established His everlasting kingdom.
- Making their calling and election sure, they will experience the fullness of joy, hope, peace assurance, comfort, strength, etc. in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

vii. The everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is NOT NOT NOT the same as the eternal heaven - for obvious reasons; if you don't know, inquire.  It's popular to equate the two in that manner.
- (Please don't equate everlasting as eternal! Why? Even the everlasting kingdom of earthly theocratic Israel came to an end! Everlasting means it lasts as long as its appointed time lasts. When the appointed time comes, its time is up!)

viii. As long as the old theocratic earthly kingdom of Israel existed, it was casting its MENACING shadow upon the believing Jews, and its adverse effect upon the Gentile churches. But their redemption was drawing near. In 70AD, that wicked nation was all its religious trappings were destroyed.

 

 

 

(Flowers and fruits are distinct; don't confuse them.)

https://www.facebook.com/sing.f.lau/posts/10213729900977252

May 3, 2019

The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints is popularly understood to mean "God's children shall persevere in a life of faith and holiness; those who don't were never God's children to begin with."

Read this passage from Jeremiah 6:
13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
14 They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall: at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.
16 ¶Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.

Some will be quick to retort, those addressed by the LORD are Israelites, not His children.

Are the churches in the 21st century any better than the situation diagnosed in the passage above? Sorry, I digress.

The Calvinists idea on the perseverance of the saints is a fable; an injurious lie.

The biblical doctrine of the perseverance of the saints states that those whom God has effectually called out of their native state of sin and death to that state of grace and salvation in Christ Jesus shall immutably remain in that state of grace and salvation; absolutely nothing shall dislodge them from that state of grace and salvation.

Perseverance in the state of grace and salvation is the immutable effect of the Divine purpose and activities; perseverance in a life of faith and holiness is conditional upon the obedience of God's children to His will..

Both the Calvinists and their cousins Arminians equate the two.

(Flowers and fruits are distinct; don't confuse them.)