Perseverance Within An Ordo Salutis -- By: Ján Henžel

Journal: Tyndale Bulletin
Volume: TYNBUL 60:1 (NA 2009)
Article: Perseverance Within An Ordo Salutis
Author: Ján Henžel


Perseverance Within An Ordo Salutis

Ján Henžel

Summary

Even the most exhaustive definitions of distinct elements of salvation cannot provide a comprehensive picture unless they are set in relationship to each other. In the following, we shall seek to put these distinct elements in an order. We shall do that with the initiating elements of the spiritual life, which will then enable us to link them with the progress of the believer’s life. That in turn will prepare the ground to redefine the doctrine of the perseverance of believers within such a revised order.

1. Perseverance Within An Ordo Salutis

Order of salvation (Lat. ordo salutis) is a category with a long history understood in a number of different ways. It may be defined in the wider sense as encompassing the whole history of divine salvation beginning with the divine eternal decree followed by Christ’s accomplishment, the Spirit’s application and culminating in the eschatological consummation of salvation. It has become more common to define ordo salutis in the narrower sense as encompassing the historical application of Christ’s redemption to particular persons by the Holy Spirit. Speaking about ordo salutis in this article we shall use it in the latter narrower sense.1 We want to affirm the orderliness that is emphasised in the definition of the Scottish theologian S. B. Ferguson:

When applied to the application of redemption, ordo salutis denotes the orderly arrangement of the various aspects of salvation in its bestowal on men and women. In particular it seeks to answer this question: “In what

ways are the various aspects of the application of redemption (such as justification, regeneration, conversion and sanctification) related to each other?” Discussions of ordo salutis thus attempt to unpack the inner coherence and logic of the Spirit’s application of the work of Christ.2

Even ordo salutis understood in this sense requires a much more detailed definition which we shall give later.

First at least a sketchy development of the idea is appropriate here. The early apostolic and church fathers were preoccupied by objective salvation. Augustine’s teaching on internal grace made a substantial contribution to the doctrine of subjective salvation. Although he speaks of different movements of the Spirit, he left ordo salutis quite undeveloped. He used terms like regeneratio, vivificatio, renovatio and sanctificatio as synonyms for j...

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