The God Who Saves: The Order of Salvation
Think of a time you were lost.
I remember leading my isolated platoon deep in a maze of side streets in the Iraqi city of Amarah. Night was falling and we knew insurgents were close, intent on a kill or, possibly worse, a capture. I’ll never forget the rising fear as it dawned on me that I had lost track of our exact location. I’ll also never forget the relief when my map made sense again. We completed the patrol without casualties.
Or to change contexts wildly (bear with me—I was reading this story to my children just this morning), imagine what it was like for the Minotaur’s victims, summoned to Crete every nine years by King Minos. I can see them creeping around the dark corridors of the disorienting Labyrinth, hearts pounding and ears straining for the terrifying man-bull stalking them.
One year that group included Theseus. In the Greek myth, King Minos’ love-struck daughter slips him a ball of magic string as he enters the maze. The string unravels in front of him, leading him to where he can slay the monster before guiding him safely out again.
Our world can sometimes feel like a maze of side streets in enemy territory. Or the Labyrinth, with monsters lurking in shadowy corners, ready to pounce as we pass. As Jesus promised, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33 NIV).
In fact, sometimes the abuse, the death of a child, the cancer, the debt, the state of the marriage, the loneliness, the depression, can make us wonder if Theseus had it easy with just a Minotaur.
And so we do our best. Side-streets, labyrinth—pick your analogy—but we try to navigate a world in which we may be ambushed at any turn, whether by our own self-destructive sin, the sin of others against us, Satan and his malevolent demons, or the tragedy-triggering fallenness of creation in general.
Of course, this portrayal of life isn’t the full picture. Life can be full of laughter and happiness. In fact, for the person whose identity is in Christ, there is deep confidence and joy available in all circumstances. “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content” said the Apostle Paul (Phil. 4:11).
But as a pastor, I look out over my congregation each Sunday and am reminded of the myriads of suffering and trouble that are part of the human condition. Joy and tears are not mutually exclusive. (Younger readers, if in doubt give it a few more years. You’ll see what I mean.)
So what is to be our roadmap through the side streets, the string to guide us through the labyrinth, our source of direction in life?
The Bible’s answer for us is a stage-by-stage roadmap from eternity past to eternity future. It’s a pathway marked out for us by God consisting of multiple steps, some sequential and some simultaneous. No matter how wild or random life may seem, this is the trail along which He is leading us. It will ultimately guide us home to unimaginable joy.
In this devotional, we’ve selected thirty of the stages on this pathway. Think of them as aid stations lining the route of a marathon, or pitons hammered into a mountainside leading to the summit. They reassure us that we’re on the right path and secure us along the way.
The core elements of this pathway are what theologians call the Ordo Salutis (Order of Salvation). The term Ordo Salutis was coined by Lutheran theologians in the mid-1720s, but the order by which God saves His people has always been on display in His Word. Christians have framed it in various ways, but we can outline it like this:
Election
Calling
Regeneration
Conversion
Justification
Reconciliation
Sanctification
Perseverance
Glorification
These truths form the spine of the thirty entries in this devotional. Don’t worry if any of them are new or unclear to you. In the daily entries that follow, we’ll be exploring what God’s Word has to say about each. “Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them” (Ps. 111:2).
Note that while some of salvation’s stages occur in the believer’s life in turn, others happen simultaneously. However, even when we can’t speak of a chronological sequence, there is still a causal, logical sequence presented by Scripture (for example in stages 2-6 above). When I backed my car into a neighbor’s vehicle, the impact and the dent occurred simultaneously, yet the impact had to happen for the dent then to happen.
It’s also worth noting that every stage of the journey on which we’re about to embark is centered on Jesus Christ. It doesn’t move us “from” Christ or even “to” Christ. Nor is Jesus a staging post at a point on the journey, like the cross or my conversion. Any part of the process is incoherent apart from Christ.
As J. I. Packer points out, “the entire Ordo Salutis . . . is bound to the mystical union with Christ. There is no gift that has not been earned by him” (An Introduction to Covenant Theology). Calvin says likewise: “So long as we are without Christ and separated from him, nothing which he suffered and did for the salvation of the human race is of the least benefit to us. To communicate to us the blessings which he received from the Father, he must become ours and dwell in us” (The Institutes of the Christian Religion, 3.1.537). If the Ordo Salutis is linear like a railway journey, with the different stages like stations along the route, Christ is the ever-present, unchanging and essential rails. In Paul’s words, “All the promises of God find their ‘Yes’ in him [Jesus]” (2 Cor. 1:20).
One final, practical note: the doctrines we’re about to dive into are so deep and rich that I would recommend you allocate to each, if possible, not one but two days. Spiritual truths take time to sink into our hearts. I have tried to saturate my explanation of each doctrine in Scripture, and to provide avenues for further meditation in some of the footnotes. In the journey ahead, dwelling unhurriedly on each truth in turn will repay your patience.
Let’s now allow God’s Word to show us the order of His salvation. This will give us a deeper understanding of where we have been, where we are, and where we are going. It will open to us great reservoirs of comfort and confidence as well as a deeper knowledge of our Savior, as we travel His pathway through this world and beyond. In the Psalmist’s words, “From everlasting to everlasting, you are God” (Ps. 90:2).
Welcome to your biography.
Prayer: Sovereign God of order, in the midst of this turbulent world I praise you for the path of life. In the weeks ahead, allow me to come to know you, what you have done for me, and what you will do for me more deeply than ever before in my life. Grant me joy, confidence, comfort and deep, lasting life-change as a result. In the name of the Christ who is your power and wisdom, Amen.
The following is an excerpt used with permission from From Everlasting to Everlasting: Every Believer’s Biography by Will Dobbie published by Christian Focus, which you can order at Amazon or Christian Focus. The foreword is written by Benjamin Vrbicek, the general editor for GCD.
Will Dobbie went into full–time ministry in 2006 after serving in the British Army. He moved to London to plant a church in 2013. In 2021, he moved to the US to plant again. He enjoys running and reading. He is married with two boys.