Calvin's Consensus Tigurinus Formulation of the Ordo Salutis

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Charles Johnson

Puritan Board Junior
Can anyone make sense of the italicized portion of Section III of the Consensus Tigurinus?
"We must hold therefore that Christ, being the eternal Son of God, and of the same essence and glory with the Father, assumed our flesh, to communicate to us by right of adoption that which he possessed by nature, namely, to make us sons of God. This is done when ingrafted by faith into the body of Christ, and that by the agency of the Holy Spirit we are first counted righteous by a free imputation of righteousness, and then regenerated to a new life: whereby being formed again in the image of our heavenly Father, we renounce the old man."
I don't understand how both faith could be considered the sole instrument of justification, and the regeneration that gives faith be placed after the free imputation of Christ's righteousness in the Ordo, seeing as how the imputation of Christ's righteousness is equivalent to justification.
 
Can anyone make sense of the italicized portion of Section III of the Consensus Tigurinus?
"We must hold therefore that Christ, being the eternal Son of God, and of the same essence and glory with the Father, assumed our flesh, to communicate to us by right of adoption that which he possessed by nature, namely, to make us sons of God. This is done when ingrafted by faith into the body of Christ, and that by the agency of the Holy Spirit we are first counted righteous by a free imputation of righteousness, and then regenerated to a new life: whereby being formed again in the image of our heavenly Father, we renounce the old man."
I don't understand how both faith could be considered the sole instrument of justification, and the regeneration that gives faith be placed after the free imputation of Christ's righteousness in the Ordo, seeing as how the imputation of Christ's righteousness is equivalent to justification.
Regeneration here, means sanctification. Calvin and some of the early Reformers used that language before it was used as a technical term that we have all come to know.
I hope that is what you are asking...
 
Regeneration here, means sanctification. Calvin and some of the early Reformers used that language before it was used as a technical term that we have all come to know.
I hope that is what you are asking...

This is a good point. It should also be noted that union with Christ was usually seen by Reformed theologians as accomplished in effectual calling. As such, while justification follows regeneration in the Ordo, the union with Christ which is the ground of that justification is instantiated prior to regeneration in the usual conception of the Ordo Salutis. I think Calvin's point here is more general, that the federal precedes the renovative. We are given the right to the benefits of salvation through our union with Christ before we actually given those benefits.
 
Regeneration here, means sanctification. Calvin and some of the early Reformers used that language before it was used as a technical term that we have all come to know.
I hope that is what you are asking...
Thanks. I had forgotten that Calvin used the term "sanctification" that way.
 
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