Life Before Faith: The Biblical Order of Salvation

"Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him." 1 John 5:1

    Everyone who believes the truth concerning the death of Jesus Christ for the sins of the elect is interested in what the Son of God has done on behalf of those who believe. One's believing does not enable him to attain the spiritual life provided for him, but his God-given faith enables him to experience the life Christ provided for him at Calvary. Attaining and experiencing life differ. Therefore, the subjective spiritual life causes the regenerated person to hunger and thirst for objective spiritual life, which is experienced by believing the objective message concerning the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. Spiritual life must be imparted in the passive sinner before he can experience the objective life of Christ's work at Calvary.

    Being born from above and believing in Christ are completely different aspects of eternal life: (1) Regeneration is subjective; conversion is objective. (2) Regeneration is righteousness imparted in God's elect; conversion is belief by the regenerated one in imputed righteousness. (3) Regeneration is actual apart from the person's consciousness of it; conversion is his conscious experience of believing in judicial righteousness. Being born from out of the Spirit is life in the subjective sense. Faith in Christ is life in the objective sense.

    This is the most common but unscriptural statement made today: "The sin of unbelief is the only hindrance to one's salvation." Unbelief is caused by the sin of depravity. Unbelief, although a negative word, is positive. It issues from a positive cause. Thus, the direct cause of one's unbelief is his own depraved will. Furthermore, if he is not one of Christ's sheep, he will never believe; thus proving that the experience of salvation is not left to the ability of depraved people to determine whether or not Christ shall have any objects of love. People are not believing because they are not Christ's sheep: "You are not believing, because you are not from My sheep" (John 10:26).