"BY BELIEVING you may have life in his name"

[Kim G]

John 20:30-31--"Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."

I had someone tell me that regeneration cannot precede faith because of the above verse. He said: "John 20:31 . . . seems to give us a very different ordo salutis. If we take the regeneration before faith position we must assume that we are dead then receive some sort of spiritual life in order to believe and then receive another sort of spiritual life in order to be saved. This all gets pretty confusing because this distinction of different spiritual lives are both talked about in the Gospel of John but the distinctions do not seem to be clear."

What say ye, my wise PB friends?

 

[Devin]

Your friend would first have to prove that life in this context refers only to regeneration. If it refers to more than regeneration, then an order isn't clearly provided by this verse. I believe, since life is unqualified in this verse, it may refer to the whole of salvation rather than just one part.

If someone could provide more on John's specific use of life, that would be most helpful.

 

[Barnpreacher]

Sounds like your friend is trying to rest on a "proof text" of why regeneration precedes faith is not true instead of looking at what the whole of Scripture has to say on the matter.

Gill puts it well:

believers have their spiritual and eternal life through Christ; their life of grace, of justification on him, of sanctification from him, and communion with him; the support and maintenance of their spiritual life, and all the comforts of it: and also their life of glory, or eternal life, they have through, or in his name; it lies in his person, it comes to them through him as the procuring cause of it; it is for his sake bestowed upon them, yea, it is in his hands to give it, and who does give it to all that believe: not that believing is the cause of their enjoyment of this life, or is their title to it, which is the name, person, blood, and righteousness of Christ; but faith is the way and means in which they enjoy it; and therefore these signs are written by the evangelist for the encouragement of this faith in Christ, which is of such use in the enjoyment of life, in, through, and from him.

 

[Kim G]

Another friend put it this way: "God unilaterally, sovereignly, and effectually enables man to believe, and as a result of his belief gives him life. So I think mankind is utterly dead until God effectually calls him and enables belief. Some people call it regeneration. I don't."

So are we just dealing with an issue of semantics?

 

[Pergamum]

Life in his name means the whole package of salvation, not just a single component of the ordo salutis. Even if regeneration is the cause of beleif, belief is necessary for salvation (life in his name).

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Kim,
You are going to heaven because...

right now, you are believing, Not "I believed three, thirteen, thirty years ago." But now, today you are holding on to Christ, who holds on to you with a much surer grip. How do you know this? Because you believe what he said. You believe it right now.

Believing is the only way to HAVE (present tense) life. It is the only way you have ever HAD life. It is the only way you will HAVE life in the future, even forever. Salvation (as we experience it) is BY FAITH alone.

Salvation broadly considered is:
effectual calling--->glorification. (and I've left off the election part, since that is prior to our life of faith)

"By believing you may be having life in his name."