Dead or Alive? The Ordo Salutis

Closing Thoughts

Some of my readers are likely to object,

“Well, your presentation of the Ordo Salutis in this article is ‘your interpretation’ but it is not mine!”,

to which I respond: The intellectual retreat to the old and tired “interpretation defense" is careless, irresponsible, misguided, wrong-headed, lazy and very wicked!

It is one of the Apollyon's favorite lies. I speculate that it is his most effective lie within professing Christianity.

If you actually took the time to read, seriously consider and obey/believe the texts marshalled in this article, you’ll see that they summarize the truth of the Bible accurately. If you do not accept them, then your obstinance and disobedience is identical to the OT Jews to that same Word of the LORD.

[How well did that work out for them? Have you ever read the history of the Jews in the OT? Did not their disobedience to the revealed Word of God always turn out badly for them? You also should seriously consider—personally—the warnings of Heb 6 and Heb 10.

Ignoring the revealed Word of God is always dangerous.]

If you have not seen the gracious truth of the Ordo Salutis by now, then you need to seriously consider the meaning of this NT warning:

1 Cor 3.12-14
Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work.

The context here is that it is a warning to those who serve as stewards of the Word of God. The Apostle’s argument here assumes that the servants of which he spoke were genuine believers, although some, apparently, were very careless in their ministries. If this warning applies to believers—and it does!—then imagine what awaits the professing “Christian” (that is, the one who is in reality a “false” convert) when he/she attempts to enter the kingdom (using the metaphor of the parable in Mat 22) without the proper garments:

Mat 22.11-13
“But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

There will be no second chances, no appeals, no objections, no legal arguments or clever maneuvers, no attorneys, no defenses or defense lawyers and no delays. The LORD sets the rules of His gospel and they are not negotiable. You believe either the Word of the Cross in the gospel or you believe the lie.

This is why the proper understanding of the Ordo Salutis is vital and why I maintain that those "churches" which imply and/or state that a person initiates his/her salvation are under Divine Judgment and will be condemned in the time to come!