Ordo Salutis: Definition of Salvation

The Ordo Salutis (order of salvation) commonly lists the following twelve steps:

Foreknowledge - God knows (loves, sets his love upon) some of the people he will create (though not because these people are better than those he decides not to love)
Predestination - God chooses to save these people (making them the "elect"), though again not because "likes" these people more than the ones he does not choose - there is nothing about them that sets them apart from those God does not choose
Redemptive Work of Christ - through his active and passive obedience, Christ earns the salvation of the elect
Effectual Calling - God draws an elect sinner to his Son, primarily through the preaching of the gospel, also through all the other ordinary means of grace
Regeneration - the Holy Spirit makes born again the elect person hearing the gospel, bringing him from death to life, thereby enabling him to respond to the gospel
Faith and Repentance - the elect sinner rejects his former way of thinking and living, trusting in the Person and Work of Christ for the forgiveness of his sins
Union with Christ - the believer gets included in Christ (Christ becomes his "federal head")
Justification - God forgives the new believer and imputes to him Christ's righteousness (as he was considered guilty of Adam's first transgression, so now he is credited with Christ's obedience)
Adoption - God makes the new believer a part of his family (thus the sinner is transferred from God's courtroom to God's family room)
Sanctification - the Holy Spirit progressively transforms the believer, making him more and more like Christ as the years go by
Perseverance - the believer keeps repenting and believing (because Christ, the faithful Shepherd, preserves, feeds, and protects him)
Glorification - the believer receives a resurrection body when Christ returns, and gets to enjoy living with Christ forever in the new heavens and earth

Taken as a whole, the Ordo Salutis explains what "salvation" actually is. It is a broad, comprehensive process that begins before creation and is not complete until the return of Christ.

The word "salvation" is thrown about freely by Christians, often with little clear understanding of what the term means. Frequently when a believer uses the word "saved," what he really means is "justified" or "forgiven." This creates unhelpful confusion.

Allow me to offer a challenge: because the words "saved" and "salvation" have become near-meaningless church buzz-words, do not use these terms unless you have in mind the above twelve steps of the Ordo Salutis!

Next time you say that Christ has saved you, and someone asks you what that means, promptly respond:

"I mean that God the Father predestined me, that Christ died as my substitute, and that the Holy Spirit quickened my heart to respond to the preaching of the gospel. At the appointed time the Holy Spirit made me born again, enabling me to reject my former way of life and trust in the finished work of Christ for the forgiveness of my sins. At that moment God did indeed forgive me, and adopt me as well, such that I have become a child of God. The Holy Spirit now dwells within me, and he is so changing me year by year, that not only have I been freed from sin's penalty, but I am also being freed from sin's power. And I am confident the Spirit will continue his work in me, such that at the moment of my death I will still be found one of Christ's faithful followers. When Jesus returns, God will raise me from the dead with a resurrection body like Jesus' resurrection body. And so I will live forever with the Lord."

"That is what I mean when I say Christ has saved me!"