Bible Question:
Put the following events in order of occurance. Which one precedes the other. And which event comes first, second, etc. etc. Repentance Regeneration Salvation Faith Holy Spirit's convicting the sinner I put the above events in random order, not the order I personally believe they occur. New Creature |
Bible Answer: I've been watching the growth of this thread and have been reading the posts with interest but I noticed there seems to be a couple of items missing. I realize I'm not going to be in agreement with a few of you but I would like to throw in my two cents' worth. I only want to put as much emphasis on this point as the Lord has done in His Word. In my mind, baptism is every bit as important a step in this Process of Salvation as any other. We see many examples of God's Gift of Salvation given to several different people throughout the NT but the best examples are in Acts, one of them being at the establishment of the church in Acts 2. First we see the "convicting the sinner" upon their hearing the Gospel Message, that Christ is the Son of God and that He died for our sins, being the Perfect Sacrifice and Ransom for our souls. Next we see their faith and repentance after they ask Peter what should they do. The next step also seems to be missing since we want to be thorough and "cover all the bases." That is confessing that Jesus is indeed the Son of God like Peter did in Matt 16:16 and Paul describes in Rom 10:9. Next in Acts 2:38, we see how important it is to be baptized for the remission of our sins. I would compare this act to that of Naaman in the story of his healing from leporsy, 2 Kings, Chapter 5. We see that Naaman didn't get what he was looking for until AFTER he dipped himself in the River Jordan a full seven times. Of course it didn't sense and he said as much. He had much cleaner rivers in his own country. And what about the business of being dipped seven times? What possible logic could be in such a silly requirement? Where's the power and majesty of God Almighty in that? Don't you see, that's God's point!! He showed off His power and majesty with the creation of this universe. Now, He wants us to show off our humility and total submission to His Will, His Terms and Conditions of His Son's Last Will and Testament. Now Regeneration is a different matter. That would come AFTER generation which is done by God. According to Titus 3, "washing, renewing and regeneration" is a process that God performs on us as His children. We see this process a little clearer in 1 Jn 1. You see we can't have any part in this process, this is all God's doing. That's NOT to say that we don't have our part...we do as cited in Phil 2:12. We must "work out our salvation with fear and trembling." What work must we perform? We must imitate Paul and all the other fine examplels we see in the NT as cited in 1 Cor 11:1. We shouldn't look at this as if we could earn our way to Heaven for Paul says Rom 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors--not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. I do hope all of this is clear, but as always, I'm interested in your response. God bless. Rowdy |