One of the pitfalls of detailing the order of salvation is that the various links in the golden chain of salvation can be unfairly isolated and abstracted from the organic whole. It is also important to remember that the order of salvation is a logical ordering and not a temporal one. Much misunderstanding can happen when, for example, justification is isolated and abstracted from the organic whole of salvation, especially the doctrine of sanctification. So, also, the vital connection between calling and regeneration must be maintained.
In this reflection, I would like to discuss how regeneration is inseparably connected to effectual calling. In the first place, just as effectual calling is worked out by the Holy Spirit, regeneration is also an operation of the Spirit. With respect to regeneration, Paul writes in Col 3:10 (ESV) that the “new self” “is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” Note that “being renewed” is a passive participle. Nobody is the agent of their own renewal; nobody can be the agent of their own rebirth. Renewal comes from outside of us and is worked upon us, just like effectual calling. Moreover, Scripture testifies that the Holy Spirit is the agent of regeneration, just as the Spirit is the agent of calling. Jesus made this point with Nicodemus in John 3; one must be born of the Spirit to enter the kingdom of heaven. So, both calling and regeneration are operations of the Holy Spirit and are therefore inseparably connected.
But there’s more that can be said, especially with respect to the visible effects of both effectual calling and regeneration. Just as effectual calling is an unseen, mysterious, sovereign operation of the Spirit, in which the gospel call may be resisted a thousand times and then suddenly received gratefully, so also regeneration begins as an unseen, mysterious, and sovereign operation of the Spirit that inevitably breaks forth into the fruit of faith and repentance. Again, Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus in John 3 is instructive for us. While the wind blows where it wills and we know not where it comes from or where it goes, nevertheless you hear its sound and see its effects all around you. So it is with regeneration, it is unseen yet always marked by fruit. The Canons of Dort helpfully summarize this idea: “The will thus renewed is not only actuated and influenced by God, but in consequence of this influence, becomes itself active. Wherefore also, man is himself rightly said to believe and repent, by virtue of that grace received.” These comments connect with and expand on the idea in the Canons of Dort that the Holy Spirit does not treat men as “senseless stocks and blocks” as he applies the gospel call to the hearts and wills of the elect to make them ready and willing to receive the implanted word.
A few weeks ago, we considered the thief on the cross in connection with union with Christ. With that third, we encounter the connection of calling and regeneration. Something unseen worked in the soul of this man so that he went from blaspheming Jesus along with the other thief to confessing faith in Jesus and offering a rudimentary repentance for the sins that had nailed him to his own cross. When Paul says that the gospel is the power of God for salvation, he means that nobody who is truly affected by the gospel can hide that fact. So, God’s effectual call and regeneration of his people are both unseen yet always bear fruit.
To summarize, we must say that regeneration cannot be isolated from the calling that precedes it, for both are works of the one Spirit of God. And, while this isn’t the point of the reflection, it should be noted to round things out that regeneration “cannot be isolated from the process it starts,” as Robert Letham points out.[1] There is no regeneration if there is no faith nor repentance to some degree. Moreover, because regeneration logically precedes justification and sanctification, as it is the origin of the new life in Christ that benefits from the judicial, locative, and existential aspects of salvation, it is also vitally and inseparably connected with the acts and works of God that follow it.
[1] Robert Letham, Systematic Theology (Wheaton: Crossway, 2019), 664.
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