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redeems us from the power of sin. And the third flows to us by the preserving, guiding, and
sealing work of the Holy Spirit as the earnest of our complete redemption, and delivers us, body
and soul, from the dominion of misery and death. The first group anoints us as prophets, the
second, as priests, and the third, as kings. In connection with the first we look back to the
completed work of Christ on the cross, where our sins were atoned; in connection with the
second we look up to the living Lord in heaven, who as High Priest is seated at the right hand of
the Father; and in connection with the third we look forward to the future coming of Jesus
Christ, in which He will subject all enemies and will surrender the kingdom to the Father.
There are some things that should be borne in mind in connection with the ordo salutis, as it
appears in Reformed theology.
a. Some of the terms are not always used in the same sense. The term justification is generally
limited to what is called justification by faith, but is sometimes made to cover an objective
justification of the elect in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the imputation of the
righteousness of Christ to them in the pactum salutis. Again, the word regeneration, which now
generally designates that act of God by which He imparts the principle of the new life to man, is
also used to designate the new birth or the first manifestation of the new life, and in the
theology of the seventeenth century frequently occurs as synonymous with conversion or even
sanctification. Some speak of it as passive conversion in distinction from conversion proper,
which is then called active conversion.
b. Several other distinctions also deserve attention. We should carefully distinguish between
the judicial and the recreative acts of God, the former (as justification) altering the state, and
the latter (as regeneration, conversion), the condition of the sinner; — between the work of the
Holy Spirit in the subconscious (regeneration), and that in the conscious life (conversion); —
between that which pertains to the putting away of the old man (repentance, crucifying of the
old man), and that which constitutes the putting on of the new man (regeneration and in part
sanctification); — and between the beginning of the application of the work of redemption (in
regeneration and conversion proper), and the continuation of it (in daily conversion and
sanctification).
c. In connection with the various movements in the work of application we should bear in mind
that the judicial acts of God constitute the basis for His recreative acts, so that justification,
though not temporally, is yet logically prior to all the rest; — that the work of God’s grace in the
subconscious, precedes that in the conscious life, so that regeneration precedes conversion; —
and that the judicial acts of God (justification, including the forgiveness of sins and the adoption
of children) always address themselves to the consciousness, while of the recreative acts one,
namely, regeneration, takes place in the subconscious life.