Whenever one engages in the study of the ordo salutis, that is the order of salvation; two general points must be emphasized. First, the different parts must not be viewed as separate progressive stages of salvation in the believer's life. The ordo salutis is a way for us to study and better understand the whole work of God in our salvation Second, one must distinguish between the parts which God exercised in bringing about salvation, and the parts that effected by the Holy Spirit which appear in the believer's life.

Faith and Repentance: Two Side of One Coin

In this article the subject of repentance will be addressed. It is helpful, however, to begin this discussion by noting that repentance is half of what is referred to as conversion. The other half is faith. As such, it is very difficult to speak of repentance without immediately tying it to saving faith. This will become evident as the work of conversion is better understood.

In last month's article, the discussion of regeneration was defined as the beginning of God's work of salvation in the new birth and conversion. For some, regeneration and conversion are often combined-as referring to the same thing, or erroneously reversed in order. There is, however, a fine distinction that can be made between the two that will then benefit our discussion of repentance. The distinction is this: regeneration is the power that drives the process of conversion.

If these two aspects are broken down they can be seen as two sides of the same coin. One side depicts the working of God and the other side the effect which that work effects in the recipient of God's grace. This is an important point that must be made within reformed doctrine, for often the accusation is made that Calvinism teaches that man is passive in his salvation, as though man was totally uninvolved. Often such a charge appears to have merit as the proper emphasis is made on the sovereignty of God in His application of irresistible grace. Too often, however, this emphasis stands alone and the flip side of the coin, which is man's activity, is not considered. The sovereignty of God is the decree which brings God's power to bear in one's salvation, but man's repentance and turning to God in faith are the process.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate how these two come together is found in Philippians 2:12-13 where Paul offers the challenge to, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. Note how Paul here puts emphasis on our responsibility to apply ourselves to the process of our own conversion. The Heidelberg Catechism likewise emphasizes in questions 88 through 90 that in the conversion process true repentance involves the new man nurturing a heartfelt sorrow and hatred for sin, causing him to turn from it, and a heartfelt joy in God causing him to take delight in living according to the will of God in all good works. In other words, some visible change in the life of the recipient of regeneration becomes evident as the individual makes choices for God based on the new will he has been given through the power of the Holy Spirit. The individual becomes committed to the process of his or her salvation as a result of the power of God being implanted in him by way of regeneration enabling them not only to do the will of God, but perhaps more importantly to desire to do the will of God. One Reformer once said that we act consistently with the will that we have-whether in bondage to sin or set free.

Repentance and Conversion

What then is to be understood by conversion? As the Heidelberg clearly states, it is the change in our desires that brings about a change in our actions. It is to forsake a love for one's self and the things of this world, and to turn toward a love for God and to do those things that are pleasing to God.

The first part of conversion is true repentance. Repentance is a biblical concept that literally means a turning of the mind. One way this concept is illustrated confronts us when we are driving down the road and realize we are heading south and want to go north. In every block there is a repentance sign in the form of a U-turn sign. So repentance is to come to that point in your life where you recognize your life is headed in exactly the wrong direction from where you want to go-hell bound instead of heaven bound.

The reality of the contrast is declared in the words of Romans 6:23, "for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." It is the distinctiveness of this two-world only reality that sets the stage for the declaration of the gospel. Many people think they are on their way to heaven. In fact, polls indicate that the vast majority believe God will let them into heaven. But when you probe into the basis upon which they believe God will accept them into His heaven, the answer often focuses on the actions of the individual not being so bad-the good in their lives outweighs the bad, because they try their best to be a good husband or wife, treat their neighbors well, etc. This is not surprising from the unbeliever, but what is amazing is how common such an answer is from those who go to church.

This is may be an indication of what a poor job the church has done in explaining God's plan of salvation and especially the doctrine of repentance. How does God use repentance in the process of salvation? The answer is, He uses it right up front. One of the first things that must take place in the process of salvation is an awareness that one needs to be saved. But saved from what? The Bible is brutally clear on this point. Man is a sinner. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

At the heart of the gospel, "which is the power of God to salvation for all who believe" (Romans 1:16) is that eternal life is the free, unmerited gift of God. You cannot earn it and you do not deserve it. God gives it freely through the redemptive work of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To those who would still seek to place their trust in what they are doing, God does hold out His minimal standard for obtaining heaven by one's own actions. He says, "therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." Since this is God's minimal standard of righteousness, it clearly eliminates all people from having any ground to trust their own goodness to gain heaven. Yet, the sinner must be convinced before he will let go of trusting in himself.

This is where God uses repentance. In the process of regeneration the Holy Spirit brings about the first resurrection in the believer's life (cf. Revelation 20:6) when the soul of the believer is raised to new life spiritually. At that moment of being made alive, the new believer looks back and understands the deadness of his soul before that moment (Ephesians 2:1). Led by the Spirit of God, the sinner suddenly sees his own spiritual poverty that renders him without the ability to approach God because of the pollution his sin has brought upon him.

The significance of the Gospel's call to repent and to be baptized is its emphasis on the sinfulness of man that can only be counteracted through the cleansing work of God in spiritual baptism. Thus, "key aspect in the conversion process must be a genuine and deep sorrow for sin that is sensed when the glory of God is opened for one to see. Even for one who is considered righteous, the glory of God serves to leave one with a deep sense of remorse for their uncleanness. Consider Job who cries out, "but now my eye see you. Therefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Think too of the prophet Isaiah and the beloved disciple John, who when lifted up to the throne room of God to behold His glory, fell down with a deep sense of their own uncleanness.

A Deep Sense of Sin

This deep sense of one's sin is a necessary element for salvation that seems to get little attention in today's environment of self-esteem. Nevertheless, to come to a true understanding of the gospel of salvation, the sinner will come to a keen sense of his own sin as God seeks to drive any inkling of self-trust from the individual in preparation for him to turn completely in trust to God for his salvation.

Notice the balance: God drives the sinner to this realization. The realization of the sinful-self is at the heart of repentance. When the power of God in regeneration lays hold of the sinner, he is given the mind of Christ (1Cor. 2:16). This simply means that God completely changes the way we think so that we no longer put ourselves and the world first, but now we see all things through the eyes of God's Word. Cornelius Van Til effectively used this statement: "we think the thoughts of God after God."

The emphasis up to this point has been on the negative side of considering one's sin. The positive side is what the sinner turns his focus to. Namely, seeing no hope of acceptance before God on the basis of his own goodness, the sinner transfers his trust from self to faith in the finished work of the resurrected and living Savior Jesus Christ as his only hope for eternal life. This will be the second part of our consideration of conversion as the topic of saving faith is addressed in the next issue.

Historical Background Leading Up to Pentecost

To understand the true empowerment with which the Church has been equipped, one must take the time to thoroughly understand the significance of what happened on the day of Pentecost just after Jesus' ascension into heaven.

A good starting point in any study is to recognize that with God nothing happens by chance. God's plan of redemption is historically and progressively revealed throughout the Old Testament, reaching its fullness with the first advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. As such no detail should be overlooked but studied with the understanding that the providence of God is operative at every point in the Bible's revelation of the plan of salvation.

With this in view, the study of what happened in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, when the promised gift of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit was realized, begins with an appreciation for the origin of the festival and its significance for God's covenant people.

The term Pentecost literally means the fiftieth day and thus began fifty days after Passover on the first day of the week. In Exodus 23:14-16, Pentecost, also known as the feast of weeks or harvest, is listed as one of the three great feasts in which all of the men were to appear to offer worship to God. The one day Pentecost feast in particular was observed to celebrate the end of the barley and wheat harvest season. The first-fruits of the harvest were to be brought into the temple as a thank offering for God's provision.

The feast is actually tied to the offering on the third day, the first day of the week after the Passover, when the first harvest sheaves were offered, marking the beginning of the harvest season. But none of the fresh harvest was to be eaten until after the Pentecost offering when the season for the thank offerings for God's blessing began.

The harvest festivals served as a symbol of God's grace in bringing the Hebrews into the promised land, and giving to them the fruit of a land for which they had not labored. The celebration was to be in view over the course of the seven weeks, ending in the Pentecost celebration in which the people acknowledged that God had provided the fruit from the harvest. In other words, it was a picture of God's grace in giving them all that they had, particularly in the context of deliverance from exile into the promised land and life, spiritually of redemption and resurrection unto life.

Pentecost's Effects Today

For the Christian church, Pentecost marks the day when the promise of the Father spoken of in Acts 1:4 is realized. Jesus' final recorded words before His ascension into heaven declared that the promise of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit was going to happen within the next few days in Jerusalem. This promise of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit was not a new concept for Israel. Peter points to Joel 2:28 as the promise being fulfilled before the festival participants gathered in Jerusalem and witnessed this epochal event in redemptive history.

The promise of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit was prominent in Jesus' own ministry. In Acts 1:4, He instructs the disciples to remain in Jerusalem until the promise of the Father, which you have heard from Me has happened. That promise Jesus explains is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

On several occasions Jesus' had made promises to the disciples about the coming of the Holy Spirit. It is of no little importance that upon the event of Jesus' own baptism by John the Baptist, marking the beginning of Jesus' ministry that John declared, "I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." (Luke 3:17) This baptism of the Holy Spirit, however, is not part of Jesus' three year ministry. Rather it is to be the fruit of His obedience and redemptive sacrifice for which He was anointed by John.

Throughout Jesus' instruction there are numerous times that He declares the promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit in a greater and more distinct way. He speaks of His sending, or the Holy Spirit being sent by the Father in His name, to teach, comfort and lead the disciples (Luke 12:2, John 14:26, 16:13). But that this was to wait until after Jesus' earthly ministry is apparent from John 16:7, where Jesus declares, "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you."

Keeping this in mind then, up to the day of Pentecost, the Spirit is essentially a future promise yet to be realized in the minds of the disciples. But after Pentecost the emphasis turns to the present reality of the gift of the Holy Spirit poured out and active in the church, enabling the saints to do the work of missionary outreach to all the nations.

Pentecost and the Mission of the Church

So in asking the question of what happened at Pentecost, the focus should not be so much on the individual recipients of the gift, but on the centrality of the One who is giving that gift as the enjoyment of the fruit of His work of redemption and the significance of His resurrection and ascension.

The Pentecost event can only be rightly understood when viewed through the thematic purpose laid out for the New Testament church by our Lord just before He ascended into heaven. In Acts 1:8, Jesus declares, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." As such Jesus' declaration is intimately tied to the great commission in Matthew 28, where our Lord states, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. . ." The point being that this particular pouring out of the Holy Spirit as the promise of the Father was specifically to equip the church to carry out the grand calling to evangelize the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ as the only name by which sinners can be saved.

As such, the focus of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit is not to be on the "gifts" of the Spirit, but on the "gift" of the Holy Spirit poured out on the whole church represented by the disciples gathered together as a whole in Jerusalem. The "gift" of the Holy Spirit is designed to bring the body of Christ together with a unified purpose to effectively carry out the mission of the church in proclaiming to the gospel to all nations.

The unique ability to speak in other or foreign tongues was not for the benefit of the individual speaking in a foreign tongue, but for the purpose of proclamation of the gospel to those from other nations as a demonstration that salvation was no longer to be only of the Jews. Pentecost was an expression of God's intention to open the church up at this time to include not only Jewish believers but ultimately the Gentiles as well.

All of this is accomplished because Christ, as the head of the church, sends His life-giving Spirit to dwell within the believer and enjoin him to the church and its mission. The Spirit then is the presence of Christ in the midst of His church. As such, the New Testament church is the continuation of the ministry of Christ here on earth until the final day of judgment. In this sense, what happened at Pentecost is the baptism of the church with the Holy Spirit as the crowning achievement of Christ's work. It is our Lord Jesus Christ's joy in the harvest of all for whom He has died and to all to whom He imparts the gift of eternal life. Thus, Jesus is the first-fruit of the resurrection of all that He will raise up on the last day.

The common statement that confession is good for the soul is considered by the world as a means by which one can clear their guilty conscience and once again feel good about themselves. This concept, however, holds an entirely different perspective for the Christian. Confession is a natural aspect in the life of the believer giving evidence of the new birth that brings faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

It is not in the sense of confession of sin but confession of faith that is in view here. It is not understood as a clear conscience but a complete submission to God that brings peace to the sinner. Jesus makes it clear in his response to Peter's confession that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God. That confession of faith is the heart and soul of what the church is built on. Jesus is the object of the believer's faith and the church is built upon Him, but it is expanded as the church confesses her faith in the world.

As the Apostle Paul points out in Romans 10:9-10, "if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

The act of confessing what one believes concerning God has been a necessary reality expressed in the Old Testament in the expression the "the Lord our God is one God," and was further developed in the New Testament baptismal formula-I believe in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The rise of creeds and confessions is a natural outgrowth of the Christian's need to express and confess his or her faith. The most common of the post-Apostolic confessions is the Apostles' Creed which is known as one of the Ecumenical Creeds of the church. It bears the oldest credentials of the formal creeds of the church. It is recited by the church as a confession of those truths foundational to what the Christian is taught in the Bible about God.

It is helpful to understand that the word "creed" comes from the word "credo", meaning, "I believe." In exploring the origin of the Apostles' Creed, it is important to recognize that the creed presupposes faith. The confession of and by the church flows from the inner testimony of the Holy Spirit that produces the unified faith of the Church . It bears witness to that faith before the world in the evangelistic mission of the church's proclamation of the gospel.

While many of the creeds and confessions were formed as a result of doctrinal controversies addressed by church councils and Synods, the church still has her creeds independent of controversy as a natural fruit of her faith in the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Philip Schaff, in his thorough work on the Creeds of the Church, puts it succinctly, "Where there is faith, there is also profession of faith. As ‘faith without works is dead,' so it may be said also that faith without confession is dead."

Turning our attention to the origin of the Apostles' Creed, it should be seen as arising naturally from the need for the early Christian Church to give expression to what she believed concerning her God and Redeemer.

One might assume from the name that the Apostles' Creed must have been written by the Apostles, but such an assumption would be wrong. B. K. Kuiper in his excellent work, The History of the Church, writes, "The creed that came out of the Church's struggle with Gnosticism and Montanism is known as the Apostles' Creed. It is so called not because it was composed by the apostles, but because it is a summary of the apostles' teaching."

While it may be that the Apostles' Creed was finally compiled in a form similar to what we have today as a result of doctrinal error confronting the church, evidence shows that it originally had its origin as a baptismal confession among the churches in various but similar forms. The common factor was that these early confessions, which were foundational to what became the Apostles' Creed, were Trinitarian in form, confessing God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in conformity to Jesus command in Matthew 28:19. The expressions contained in these baptismal formulas became known as a "Rule of Faith" by which catholicity could be tested. The expression "Rule of Faith" is now commonly assigned to the Word of God.

The earliest form of the Apostles' Creed, in which the churches unified their various expressions into one unified common expression appears sometime around 140 AD, shortly after the Apostolic period of the church came to a close. Thus, it is understood that in its earliest form, a form eventually known as the Old Roman Form, was designed to preserve those elements of the Christian confession that the Apostles had taught were fundamental to the Christian faith.

The form of the Apostles' Creed that the Church today is familiar with and employs in her confession of faith is known as the Received Form. This form is an expanded form of the Old Roman Form common in the early church. The origin of the Received Form is very difficult to trace as the enlarged form did not come into being all at once, but evolved at different times and for various reasons during the sixth century.

The phrases "Maker of heaven and earth," "He descended into hell," the word "catholic" in the article on the church, "the communion of the saints," and "the life everlasting" all appear in the Received Form over the course of the sixth century. All of these phrases, however, can be traced to much earlier origins in other church creeds that paved the way for the phrases to eventually be recognized, gain popularity, and be included in the Apostles' Creed.

Because of the progressive development and later inclusion of some phrases in the Middle Ages there arose some controversy about the use of certain phrases in the creed. Perhaps the most controversial is that of Christ's descent into hell. There was discussion about removing the phrase by the Reformers. The controversy was finally settled and the article rightly defined and explained as addressing our Lord's bearing of God's divine wrath in his soul, literally the suffering of the torments of hell, up to and while upon the cross. This is evidenced in the answer to Heidelberg Catechism question 44.

The employment of such creeds as the Apostles' Creed should not be viewed as adding to the Word of God, but rather as the natural expression of what Scripture teaches is common to the Christian faith concerning the person and work of God. In particular, the Apostles' Creed is not intended to be used so much as a doctrinal statement as it is a profession by the church of a living faith and saving truths.

Editor's Note:

The portion of the Apostles' Creed which reads, "He descended into hell" has a long and storied history. It was not in the older Roman creeds, but appears first in 390 A.D (creed of Aquileia). We find it again in 590 A.D. (Creed of Venantius Fortunatus). The issues surrounding this article are: (1) what is meant by the word "hell" (the spirit-world of the dead, the place of torment, or the suffering of condemnation); (2) the placement of this article (did Christ descend into "hell" before or after His death). The words Sheol and Hades (place of the dead) or Gehenna (place of punishment) are often just translated "hell" in some English Bibles. That leads to some of the confusion. We know that after Jesus died he entered Paradise (Lk. 23:43), so He did not go to the place of burning fire. Because of the controversy surrounding the meaning of this article, the Book of Common Prayer allows this article as optional for the minister to use or not.

The origin of our English word "hell" appears to have a Germanic origin. Otto Thelemann in his book, An Aid to the Heidelberg Catechism (p. 169), tells us that the English word "hell" is derived from the German "Hel" or "Helle", the goddess of the infernal world in German mythology.

The church historian, Phillip Schaff in Vol. 2 of the Creeds of Christendom defines the three different positions commonly held by the Church. Schaff says, "The clause has been explained in three different ways: 1. It is identical with sepultus (Rufinus), or means ‘continued in the state of death and under the power of death' till the resurrection (Westminster divines, WLC #50). This makes it a useless repetition in figurative language. 2. It signifies the intensity of Christ's sufferings on the cross, where he tasted the pain of hell for sinners (Calvin and the Heidelberg Catechism, HC #44). This is inconsistent with the order of the clause between death and resurrection. 3. An actual self-manifestation of Christ after the crucifixion to all the departed spirits . . . . As such the descent is a part of the universality of the scheme of redemption, and forms the transition from the state of humiliation to the state of exaltation. This is the historical explanation, according to the belief of the ancient Church, but leaves much room for speculation concerning the object and effect of the descent."

We hold to the explanation given in the Heidelberg Catechism where this article summarizes all the sufferings of Christ, "on the cross and before" in which He bore the curse of condemnation for us. The suffering of hell was finished at His death.

The influence of the theology of John Calvin upon the church since the Reformation has elevated his work to an authoritative status among theologians that is second to none. However, when one comes to inquire about eschatological questions in Calvin's Institutes, the surprise is to find only one brief chapter devoted to the final resurrection and general eschatology.

That is not to say that Calvin was not concerned about the doctrine of last things, for in Calvin's presentation we do not find eschatology completely summed up at one point. Instead this point of doctrine is developed through his expounding on the creed and his exegesis of Scripture, which becomes a progressive witness to the Christ who finishes His saving work and whose actions form, in the last resort, one unique event.

In the movie National Treasure, the characters are driven by a desire to find a treasure so vast, so rich, and also so elusive that it has taken over their lives for years. As they pursue this hidden treasure they must use all their understanding and education to solve numerous clues and riddles, each one bringing them one step closer to the prize. With each stage of discovery their zeal and commitment becomes all the more intense, taking over their whole lives.