The "Logical Difficulty" II

Union With Christ Precedes All

If this proposition is true, then justification, regeneration, renewal, and sanctification all follows union. Even those who differ on the order of these things nevertheless are almost universally agreed with this proposition. They all affirm that union with Christ must take precedence. I too believe this because it is so pervasively the teaching of scripture. It is the view of the Reformers, of most Calvinists, and many Arminians. 

This being true, it only remains to determine how union with Christ is effected. I believe, like most others, that faith is the medium of union on our part. 

Syllogism

1. Union with Christ precedes all aspects of salvation

2. Union with Christ is by faith

3. Union with Christ by faith precedes all aspects of salvation

The "logical difficulty" that those who promote the regenerated (born again) before faith view is thus apparent. 

Those who promote this view agree and affirm that - Union with Christ is the foundation of all salvation's aspects. Yet they also inconsistently affirm:

1. Union with Christ is by faith

2. Regeneration is before faith

3. Regeneration is not by faith union

But, if this is true, then logically regeneration is before union with Christ. Thus, regeneration is not the result of union, being that which precedes union. So, those who say "union with Christ precedes all" must either affirm that it does not in fact precede all, or deny that union is "by faith." When they affirm that union precedes all and that union is by faith, they cannot then consistently affirm that regeneration precedes faith.

Further "logical difficulty" is seen because in such an ordo salutis regeneration is before justification and makes regeneration to not be sanctifying. 

In "The Order of Justification and Regeneration" (here) the editor takes issue with the late Dr. Gordon Clark (a generally good writer) on the ordo salutis and writes as follows (emphasis mine):

"Editorial Note: We here reprint a statement sent to us in 1973 by the respected evangelical and Reformed scholar, Gordon H. Clark. It was published in the "Letters" section of our previous issue of Present Truth Magazine together with a brief editorial comment which we made at that time. This editorial comment is also reprinted here at the conclusion of Dr. Clark's statement."

Gordon Clark argued that the Reformers taught that regeneration preceded faith and justification. But, the editorial critique shows that Clark was wrong. I will be citing from the one critiquing Clark.

The editor in response to Clark's defense of regeneration before faith wrote:

"Thank you, professor, for your stimulating comments. We are aware that some later Calvinists have tended to place regeneration before justification. As for Calvin, he declared, ". . . justifying grace is not separate from regeneration although these are distinct things. —Institutes, Bk. 4, chap. 2, sec. 2. In fact, in a certain passage in the Consensus Tigurinus, Calvin very decisively places justification before regeneration, not in temporal but in logical sequence. He writes, "Dum fide inserti in Christi corpus, idque spiritus sancti virtute, primum iusti censemur gratuitae iustitiae imputatione, de inde regeneramur in novam vitam."—Cited by Francois Wendel, Calvin: The Origins and Development of His Religious Thought, tr. Philip Mairet (New York: Harper & Row, 1963), p.256."

This is exactly what many of us Calvinists have been saying to those who say "Calvinists believe regeneration precedes faith." This is not the case historically. 

The author says further:

"A further comment: Surely you are not unaware that the whole Lutheran stream of the Reformation very decidedly places justification before regeneration. The Formula of Concord distinctly says that "the renewal . . . follows justification" and "succeeds the righteousness of faith" (see Book of Concord, p.253). John Wesley did not follow Luther on everything, but he certainly followed Luther on the order of salvation. We would like some Lutheran scholars to comment on this letter."

In a previous article we showed how both Luther and Calvin taught that regeneration followed faith and justification. 

Said the editor further:

"All those who stand in the tradition of the Reformation believe that justification and regeneration are closely related and that one cannot and will not be present without the other. However, there has been some sharp disagreement as to their logical order, if not their temporal order. There is no question about Calvin's placing justification before regeneration in the order of logic (see Institutes, Bk. 3, chap. 11, secs. 6,11). G.C. Berkouwer also acknowledges this in his Faith and Justification, pages 29, 30. The systematic Calvinists of the seventeenth century, however, reversed Calvin's order and put regeneration before justification. This was the result of moving the doctrine of an arbitrary predestination to the center and starting point of their theological thinking." 

Bob Ross used to have to correct Calvinists and others on this point, showing them that not all Calvinists have put regeneration before faith and justification, that the first Reformers did not do so, it being a later phenomenon, by those Calvinists who were leaning to Hyper Calvinism.

Said the editor further:

"There are several grave difficulties with this order of salvation:

1. It reduces the great regenerating work of the Holy Spirit to a secret act of divine grace which is subconscious in whom it is inwrought. Wesley's insistence on a very conscious experience of renewal by the Holy Spirit helped to correct the arid intellectualism and incipient antinomianism in this idea of a secret, subconscious regeneration. 

2. It tends to elevate regeneration over justification. 

3. It turns Paul's doctrine of the justification of the ungodly (Rom. 4:5) into justification of the reborn. This is a Romanizing tendency and bears a remarkable resemblance to the decree of Trent which says that "if they [men] were not born again in Christ, they would never be justified" — "Decree Concerning Justification," chap. 3. 

4. It has regenerating grace creating immediately —i.e., apart from the means of grace, which is the preached Word of God. According to the words of Jesus in John 3, the uplifting of Christ is the means of the new birth. Peter declares that the new birth is accomplished by the Word of God (1 Peter 1:23). The Holy Spirit comes to men only in and with (but not apart from) the preaching of the gospel. What is the justification, therefore, for saying that the Holy Spirit regenerates men even before and quite apart from hearing the gospel? 

5. The claim that men already possess eternal life before they are justified (see Clark's comment on John 5:24) turns the work of justification by faith into an empty formality. Clearly, if a man is unjustified (i.e., prior to his justification), he is condemned, and the wrath of God abides on him until the moment he is justified in the verdict of the Judge. Justification itself is the verdict of life (see Rom. 5:18). In his Apology of the Augsburg Confession Melanchthon is quite right when he keeps referring to justification as "justification unto life eternal." John 5:24 is not saying that a man has eternal life before he hears and believes but that, as a believer, he will not come into judgment (condemnation at the last day) because he has already, by faith, passed from death unto life. Just as there is no personal justification without faith, so there is no personal salvation and possession of eternal life without faith. And there is no faith without hearing the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). Dr. Clark asks how it can be that dead men can hear the Word of God. But Jesus declares, "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live" (John 5:25). True, our Lord is speaking in the context of the physical resurrection, but even this illustrates the resurrection to spiritual life by the Word of God. Calvinism is to be faulted when it proposes that God's grace imparts eternal life apart from the means of grace in the preaching of the gospel. For further discussion on this matter of regeneration and human freedom, see the article, "The Legal and Moral Aspects of Salvation" (Part 3), in this issue of Present Truth Magazine." 

It is not Calvinism that is at fault, however, but only one branch of it. Many Calvinists do not put regeneration before faith and justification.