Systematic Theology, by Louis Berkhof - New Leaven

Word of God, I Pet. 1:23. These and similar passages indicate the relation of the various
movements of the redemptive work to one another, and thus afford a basis for the
construction of an ordo salutis.
In view of the fact that the Bible does not specify the exact order that applies in the
application of the work of redemption, there is naturally considerable room for a
difference of opinion. And as a matter of fact the Churches are not all agreed as to the
ordo salutis. The doctrine of the order of salvation is a fruit of the Reformation. Hardly
any semblance of it is found in the works of the Scholastics. In pre-Reformation
theology scant justice is done to soteriology in general. It does not constitute a separate
locus, and its constituent parts are discussed under other rubrics, more or less as disjecta
membra. Even the greatest of the Schoolmen, such as Peter the Lombard and Thomas
Aquinas, pass on at once from the discussion of the incarnation to that of the Church
and the sacraments. What may be called their soteriology consists of only two chapters,
de Fide et de Poenitentia. The bona opera also receive considerable attention. Since
Protestantism took its start from the criticism and displacement of the Roman Catholic
conception of faith, repentance, and good works, it was but natural that the interest of
the Reformers should center on the origin and development of the new life in Christ.
Calvin was the first to group the various parts of the order of salvation in a systematic
way, but even his representation, says Kuyper, is rather subjective, since it formally
stresses the human activity rather than the divine. 4 Later Reformed theologians
corrected this defect. The following representations of the order of salvation reflect the
fundamental conceptions of the way of salvation that characterize the various Churches
since the Reformation.
1. THE REFORMED VIEW. Proceeding on the assumption that man’s spiritual condition
depends on his state, that is, on his relation to the law; and that it is only on the basis of
the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ that the sinner can be delivered from the
corrupting and destructive influence of sin, — Reformed Soteriology takes its starting
point in the union established in the pactum salutis between Christ and those whom the
Father has given Him, in virtue of which there is an eternal imputation of the
righteousness of Christ to those who are His. In view of this precedence of the legal over
the moral some theologians, such as Maccovius, Comrie, A. Kuyper Sr., and A. Kuyper
Jr., begin the ordo salutis with justification rather than regeneration. In doing this they
apply the name “justification” also to the ideal imputation of the righteousness of Christ
to the elect in the eternal counsel of God. Dr. Kuyper further says that the Reformed
4 Dict. Dogm., De Salute, pp. 17 f.
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