Thank you for this very clear lesson on the order of salvation. I have found that there are many people who are confused about this. They put faith first! They say saved BY faith, but it is saved BY grace alone—God’s Holy Spirit regenerating us spiritually dead sinners so that we are enabled to believe, THROUGH faith, as an instrument that grasps CHRIST like an empty hand, grasps the object of salvation, AFTER we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, so that we trust in Christ alone. I fear there are many people, who by putting faith first, make it the condition of salvation, so that they conclude, I believed and therefore I am saved. They make their own act of believing the cause of salvation, rather than the grace of God in regeneration, when they put faith first! But faith is a consequence, a fruit of God’s grace in regeneration.
Thank you for this very clear lesson on the order of salvation. I have found that there are many people who are confused about this. They put faith first! They say saved BY faith, but it is saved BY grace alone—God’s Holy Spirit regenerating us spiritually dead sinners so that we are enabled to believe, THROUGH faith, as an instrument that grasps CHRIST like an empty hand, grasps the object of salvation, AFTER we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, so that we trust in Christ alone. I fear there are many people, who by putting faith first, make it the condition of salvation, so that they conclude, I believed and therefore I am saved. They make their own act of believing the cause of salvation, rather than the grace of God in regeneration, when they put faith first! But faith is a consequence, a fruit of God’s grace in regeneration.