The order of salvation

A chain in Scripture

Salvation is one gift, but Scripture describes it in many words: calling, new birth, faith and repentance, justification, adoption as God's children, sanctification and glory. Theologians have asked how these belong together under the Latin heading ‘ordo salutis’, the order of salvation. The starting point is Paul's chain:

For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.

Romans 8:29-30

Titus likewise says that God saved us "through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5), "so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:7). All of these blessings are found in Christ, "who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption" (1 Corinthians 1:30). Each part of salvation flows from union with Christ.

How the church set it out

John Calvin taught that by sharing in Christ through faith we receive a ‘double grace’: reconciliation with God through Christ's righteousness, and sanctification by his Spirit Calvin, Institutes 3.11.1. From the late sixteenth century Reformed and Lutheran theologians set out the parts of salvation in order, and the topic gained its own place in theology. The Westminster Shorter Catechism traces the flow this way:

The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling.

Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q. 30

The catechism goes on to say that the effectually called share in justification, adoption and sanctification, and come at death and resurrection to glorification. In this scheme justification, new birth and adoption happen together in a moment of time; the order shows which rests on which.

Where the traditions differ

Reformed theology holds that in effectual calling the Spirit first renews a dead heart, so that regeneration logically comes before faith. The Wesleyan tradition teaches that prevenient grace, given to all, awakens people and enables them to respond, and that new birth and sanctification begin at the very moment a person is justified by faith Wesley, The Scripture Way of Salvation. Lutherans stress that the Spirit calls and creates faith through the means of grace, the word and the sacraments.

The Catholic and Orthodox churches do not set out salvation as an order of this kind. The Catholic Church describes a life of grace that begins in baptism and grows through the sacraments; the Orthodox churches describe a lifelong path of theosis. Within Reformed theology, too, how the order of salvation relates to union with Christ has long been discussed. Every tradition agrees that salvation is God's grace from first to last. See also What does it mean to be saved? and the lesson New birth and the indwelling Spirit.