1. We are using Rom 8:28-30 as the framework on which to construct a biblical ordu salutis. These verses give us a panoramic overview of God's saving grace which spans eternity past [His purpose, foreknowledge and predestination]; thru present time [called, justified], and on into eternity future [glorification].

2. We began to fill out the arrangement of God's saving grace and to insert other blessings into this foundational order. We considered the relationship of calling to regeneration, or the new birth. We learned that we are called by our Father in the gospel and that His Word is life-giving. His Spirit uses the Word of the gospel to regenerate us, thereby enabling us to hear and to respond to the gospel call. We will examine our calling in greater detail later. At this point we are attempting to see the skeletal structure of the ordu salutis and we will then look at each blessing in greater detail.

3. We are also focusing in on our experience of salvation. We know that our salvation has been planned in eternity by our Father and accomplished by the Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We are now focusing in on how the Spirit applies salvation to us and our experience of salvation.

4. We have this arrangement thus far: calling, regeneration, then justification, and glorification.

A. The Relationship between Regeneration and Faith

1. The doctrine of total depravity, when rightly understood, means that regeneration must come before faith. The unregenerate who is dead in their sins and trespasses, cannot initiate salvation or do something which obligates God's response. God must take the initiative.

i. Eph 2:5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved). Our condition at the point when we are made alive, regenerated, is one of death, not of faith or acting in any way that deserves God's grace.
ii. Rom 8:7,8 the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

2. Jesus teaches us that the new birth must occur before we are able to exercise faith. Jn 3:3-10

i. Men who are dead in sin must first be brought to life if they are to respond to the summons of the gospel. Before a sinner believes he must be made spiritually alive. When he believes, his act of believing is the evidence that he has been made spiritually alive by God. Our God is the God who raises the dead. When He regenerates dead sinners, He then gives them the gift of faith and repentance, enabling them to respond to the gospel, to trust and follow Jesus.
ii. Jesus is speaking with a religious teacher, Nicodemus, but Nicodemus is yet unconverted and spiritually dead. Jesus tells him that he needs to be born again.
iii. "Born again" means to be born from above, to be birthed by God, to be given life from the Originator of life: God Himself. In other words, Jesus is telling Nicodemus that he is spiritually dead and God alone can give him spiritual life. Only when he has been born again will he be able to enter the kingdom.

a. vs 3 - unless we are born again, we cannot see. Spiritual life precedes spiritual sight. What is that spiritual sight? Faith. Faith is how a sinner sees the kingdom of God.
b. vs 5 - unless we are born again, we cannot enter the Kingdom. Spiritual life precedes entrance into the Kingdom. How does man enter the kingdom? By faith. Faith is how a sinner spiritually walks into the kingdom.

iv. Jesus is teaching this religious teacher about spiritual life, life in His kingdom. He tells Nicodemus what God must do if he is to see and enter the kingdom. He must be born again.
v. It is crucial that you understand that vs 7 is not a command. Jesus is not telling Nicodemus to go and give birth to himself?! This is a statement of fact. Jesus is stating what is necessary. There is no imperative, no command, given to Nicodemus. Jesus is stating what this teacher should already know.

a. Jesus is not commanding but stating truth: it is necessary that one be spiritually alive in order for him to see and enter the kingdom.
b. Note vs 9. Nicodemus understood that Jesus was stating a fact about what is necessary. He does not ask, "What must I do?", but he asks, "How can these things be?" His question concerns the nature of the kingdom life and how it is that one must be born again if he would see and enter the kingdom.
c. In v10, Jesus asks why Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel, does not understand these things.

vi. Will there be certain effects and indicators of the new birth in the life of a sinner? Yes. Vs 8. The effects are compared to those made when the wind blows.

a. If you want to see if it is windy, you do not look to see the wind itself, but at the things which are moved by the wind: leaves, grass. You hear the sound made by the blowing wind and see things moved by the wind. You know that the wind is blowing by what is effected by the wind. Do don't see the wind itself. You see its effects, what it moves.
b. So too, when man is born again by the Spirit of God, he begins to move in certain ways. You do not see the Spirit Himself, but you see what the Spirit effects in the man who has been given life from above. The dead sinner now begins to move in a way that indicates that he has been made alive by the Spirit of God.
c. What movement is that? It is the movement of faith. The once spiritually dead sinner now sees and enters the kingdom. In other words, he believes and follows Jesus! He begins to live the life of faith. What explains this new life? The regenerating work of the Spirit! When the Spirit gives life to a dead sinner, there will be definite evidences of that life, as sure as the leaves move when the wind blows!
d. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God (Jn 3:21). Wrought means: to produce by work. When a man comes to the light, to Jesus, that is because God is working in him. The verb is a perfect passive participle. God has acted on the man and God's work has produced an effect: he comes to the Light and practices the truth. Like a leave moving can only be explained by the wind blowing; a sinner who comes to the Light and practices truth can only be explained by the sovereign work of God the Spirit who is working in him and moving him. Therefore, we do not congratulate him. No, we praise the God of grace who raises the dead and has given him new life!

vii. When we see a sinner who is believing in Jesus, we should understand that his faith is the result of a supernatural work of God's grace in him. 

The Bible is clear in placing Spirit-given life BEFORE the exercise of faith. We must pay attention to the verb tenses to learn that spiritual life is given by God to the sinner before the sinner exercises saving faith. 

3. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (Jn 1:12-13).

i. those who believe [pisteu,ousin] (vs 12). The verb is a present active participle: those who are presently believing. Believing is their present activity. What characterizes them? Faith.
ii. They are then further described as those who were born of God [evk qeou/ evgennh,qhsan] (vs 13). The verb is an aorist passive indicative.

a. aorist tense speaks of past completed action.
b. passive voice tells us that the believing man was acted upon; he was not the actor, but he was passive. He is now believing because God acted on him.
c. indicative mood describes the actual state of things.
d. Those who are presently believing do so because in the past, God acted for them and in them. God's past action in them caused them to be spiritually born again - not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

4. The fact that the new birth precedes and issues into faith and explains the nature of the Christian life, is seen in how John uses the perfect passive of the verb "to birth" in his first epistle. The Christian life of faith is explained as being subsequent to his having been born again.

i. 1 Jn 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him (evx auvtou/ gege,nnhtai). The Christian life is a life of practiced righteousness. Such a life is explained by the perfect passive indicative is born. The perfect tense speaks of an action that occurred in the past which has issued into a present state. The one practicing righteousness evidences a life effected by having been born again in the past.
ii. 1 Jn 3:9 No one who is born (gegennhme,noj: perfect passive indicative) of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God (o[ ti evk tou/ qeou/ gege,nnhtai: perfect passive indicative). Rienecker & Rogers, p. 790-791: "The perfect tense marks not only the single act of birth, but the continuous presence of its efficacy (Westcott). The verb indicates that it is the abiding influence of 'His seed' within everyone who is 'born of God', which enables John to affirm without fear of contradiction that 'he cannot' go on living in 'sin'. Indeed, 'if he should thus continue in sin, it would indicate that he has never been born again' (Scott)."
iii. 1 Jn 4:7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born (gege,nnhtai: perfect passive indicative) of God and knows God. Again, the perfect tense indicates the ongoing results of the past birth. The passive voice indicates that the Christian is acted upon by God. The indicative mood indicates that this is reality - this is actually what occurs in the experience of those to whom God gives new life - they love the brethren and thereby evidence that they have been born again and have saving knowledge of God.
iv. 1 Jn 5:1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born (gege,nnhtai: perfect passive indicative) of God; and whoever loves the Father (literally: “the One who gave birth” - to.n gennh,santa: aorist active participle) loves the child born of (gegennhme,non: perfect passive participle) Him. Whoever believes is a present active participle. The action is present and is continuously being done by the man. We do the believing. The believing man is presently in that believing state because God has acted upon him in the past and he was passive when God gave new life to him. In the past, before he came to his present state of believing, God acted upon him and gave him life. The past act of God, when God regenerated him, explains present activity of believing. In the Greek, John does not use the term “Father,” but describes God as our Father with the words, “the One who gave birth.” John repeated use of the verb genna`w [born] emphases that the new birth is foundational to the Christian life.
v. 1 Jn 5:4 For whatever is born (gegennhme,non: perfect passive participle) of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith. Having been truly born of God, the Christian is brought into the life of faith which overcomes the world. Here we see the essential connection between regeneration and living the Christian life, overcoming. Regeneration is the basis of sanctification, a life of holiness.
vi. 1 Jn 5:18 We know that no one who is born (gegennhme,noj: perfect passive participle) of God sins; but He who was born (gennhqei.j: aorist passive participle) of God keeps him and the evil one does not touch him. The verbs here indicate not only the past completed and ongoing, present results of the new birth, but also that that past action occurred once in the experience of the Christian. We are born again only once. Note as well that there is a cause and effect relationship between the new birth and the life of sanctification; the one who has been born again is brought into a life of holiness. Those born of God will grow in holiness.

5. This survey of texts helps us to construct a biblical ordo salutis. We see that regeneration precedes man's exercise of faith. Spiritual life must be first given by God to the sinner and then the sinner comes to believe and starts to live the life of faith. He must first be born again and then he can believe. He does not first believe and then get born again.

6. Our arrangement is now: effectual calling; regeneration, faith, justification, glorification.

B. The Relationship between Faith and Repentance

1. Repentance and faith are always found together in the experience of the Christian. Repentance is inseparably bound with faith. Although the two can be distinguished in their respective operations in the soul and conduct of man, they are never given separated or isolated from each other. If a man is truly believing, he is also repenting. If a man is truly repenting, he is also believing. The experience of the one necessarily involves the experience of the other. Saving faith is a repenting belief, and saving repentance is a believing repentance.

2. When it is asked what response is required by God in response to the gospel, on some occasions the answer is "believe", on other occasions the answer is "repent".

i. Acts 16:31 Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household.
ii. Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, "Repent, and let each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

3. Paul's ministry emphasized the dual nature of the saving response to the gospel when he recalled his labors in Ephesus - Act 20:21 testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He couples faith and repentance again recalling the response of the Thessalonians: how you turned [by faith] to God [by repentance] from idols to serve a living and true God (1 Thes 1:9).

4. We will consider these two graces separately later, but at this point we can construct the ordo salutis as follows: calling, regeneration, repentance and faith, justification, glorification.