Order of Salvation
(Ordo Salutis)

Before explaining the order of salvation, it is required to have a proper definition of faith. Faith is not a work. Faith is nothing by itself. It needs something or someone to believe or trust in. In salvation, that person is Jesus. So then, technically speaking, faith doesn’t save but rather Jesus saves who is the object of our faith. Jesus is our salvation. Faith is simply the means or conduit by which we get to Jesus.

All people have faith in something. The atheists have faith in molecules that have existed forever in the universe and then one day they joined together, created a big explosion and out of that progressively came everything that now exists. Islam has faith that Muhammad was a true prophet and in their god, Allah, and in their book, the Quran. There are many other religions out there that have faith in gods or a concept of god. Yet, there is no other way to eternal life except through Jesus (Acts 4:12). Even so, all people have faith in something or someone. Yet, the Calvinists will say that faith can only be a gift from God or else salvation is by works. Are they saying then that it’s possible for a person to believe anything they want, as long as they don’t believe in the One true God? Because, if they did that, it would be a work, right? So then, we find that they have the moral intuition to have faith but according to the Calvinistic system, even if they choose to place their faith in Jesus, they are not actually able to do so unless God allows them to, and God does not allow everyone to do that except for the specific people He chooses. It must be acknowledged here that the doctrine of Total Depravity is a presuppositional doctrine to believing it is necessary for God to grant faith to people to believe in Jesus. But the Calvinists must ask themselves here, why are people totally depraved when it comes to choosing to have faith in Jesus but when it comes to choosing other religions, they have enough morality and intuition to choose faith? Why would God make salvation so difficult to obtain? Doesn’t that contradict Romans 10:8?

Some might point to Ephesians 2:8-9 to say that faith is a gift. But that is an incorrect understanding of that passage because the “it” is a gift, refers back to the grace by which you have been saved. Since salvation is a gift of God and not obtained by doing any work but by simply receiving, it is all by His grace. Faith is simply the means to receiving the gift. It is saying “yes” to God. But for some reason the Calvinists see that as working or contributing to your salvation as if it’s just really hard work to receive a gift and so God has to enable you to do it so that He can get all the glory. But we must understand that salvation is Jesus Himself to come live within us. Faith is simply opening the door to salvation. But is that work? What about the Old Testament command to not work on the Sabbath? What did God mean by that? Did He mean what many Jews do today by pre-folding toilet paper the day before or having elevators open on every floor so that you don’t have to press the button because that would require “work”? At this level of definition, even putting a fork to your mouth to feed yourself would be “work.” Do you see how ridiculous this argument is to call faith a work?

Faith is about resting in Jesus—not working.

Having explained what faith is, we now come to the question: Does faith precede regeneration or does regeneration precede faith? That is, do you believe first and are then saved (given a transformed heart)? Or are you saved first and then believe? The Calvinists believe that since you are completely spiritually dead, you cannot have faith in God and therefore are required to be made alive first and be given a new heart so that you can believe. However, the Armenians believe in what is called “Prevenient Grace,” which is an enabling grace that comes before regeneration which allows faith to operate so that once faith is placed in God, you are saved. But the Provisionist position doesn’t have this doctrine of Prevenient Grace because they don’t see it as necessary. God created people with the capacity to rationalize moral and spiritual things and to come to a conclusion with their hearts and minds in where to place their faith. John 1:9 says that Jesus “enlightens every man” as the Light of the world. This light then, is sufficient for every person. It’s the gospel message and truth about God. This in itself provides the light to believe. The enabling power is built into the message of truth (Ro 1:16). But here, I will simply defend the fact that faith proceeds regeneration because that’s what the Bible says.

Notice the order of salvation here:

Mark 16:16 “He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.”

Luke 8:12 “Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.”

Acts 2:21 “And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
You don’t call on God after you’re saved but you do it before and then this leads to salvation.

Acts 16:31 “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

Romans 10:9-10 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
This is a very clear theological statement regarding the order of salvation. Confession and belief precede salvation/regeneration.

Romans 10:13-14 “for ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?”

Preachers are essential for the very fact that salvation requires understanding of the truth about Jesus. So the preachers preach the gospel, the unsaved person listens to it, then they believe, and then they call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. So then, salvation comes last, not first. Paul is literally telling us the logical order needed for salvation. He does not propose here some deeper hidden theological truth. This is it, revealed plainly. Yet the Calvinists like to call this “God’s ordained means to be saved,” and “this is just the human perspective.” But I would argue that those answers are just philosophy and not biblical exposition. I will also explain later in this article why Romans 8:28-30 is not what they think it means.

Romans 10:17 “so faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”
Hearing the gospel comes first and then faith comes as a response to that. Paul does not say that God zaps you with a gift of faith to be saved but rather, intellectual assent and understanding come prior to faith. This is why Paul spent his time reasoning, persuading, explaining, and giving evidence to people (Acts 17:1-4, 10-12, 22-34; 18:19). Their hearts and minds needed to be persuaded prior to salvation.

2 Thessalonians 2:10 “…those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.”

Ephesians 1:13 “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise”
First listening, then believing, and then the salvation of the Holy Spirit.

2 Timothy 3:13-15 “But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”
Salvation comes through faith as a result from wisdom and things that have been learned and that the mind has been “convinced of.”

1 Peter 1:8-9 “and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.”

John 12:40 “…so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.”
Seeing and perceiving leads to conversion and this bring about regeneration.

Acts 2:37-38 “Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brethren, what shall we do?’ Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”
They heard the gospel, they were convicted by the Spirit, they responded by asking what they should do, and then Peter tells them to repent (change their minds/to change their belief), then after this comes forgiveness and the indwelling Holy Spirit in salvation.

Acts 15:9 “and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith.”
Faith is what is used to cleanse the heart (regeneration). It is therefore impossible for the cleansing of regeneration to proceed faith if faith is first necessary for the cleansing to happen.

Romans 5:1-2 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.”

Romans 11:15 “For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?”
Acceptance in the truth of Jesus brings about life from the dead.

John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name”
To receive Him is to believe in Him and after this occurs, people are given the right to become children of God and the salvation of new birth happens.

John 3:15 “so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.”

John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”

John 5:40 “and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.”
Their unwillingness and rejection of Jesus and refusal to come to Him is what was the cause of them not having life. You are not made alive first so that you can then be willing or to come to Jesus. People have their own will to choose.

John 20:31 “but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”
The Scriptures and gospel have been written so that people may come to understand it to believe and this belief is what brings about life in Jesus.

The Scriptures are quite clear regarding the order of salvation. The gospel message comes first, then being convinced in the heart and mind with the Holy Spirit illumining and convicting, then belief and confession come (conversion), and finally salvation.

“Some Calvinists will argue that the order of regeneration and faith is a logical order not a temporal one, meaning that the two happen simultaneously within time. They teach that at the moment a person is born again he will come to faith. The moment he is regenerated he also places his trust in Christ. It all happens in an instant of time. Yet logically as we think about this transaction, we must put a causal order to it. Does the Bible indicate that a person must be regenerated so that he can believe or does the Bible teach that a person must believe in order to be regenerated? Do we need life in order to believe or do we need to believe in order to have life? That logical order is what is in dispute.” ~ Leighton Flowers

“Are we washed prior to admitting we are unclean? Do we have to be cleaned up to admit that we were unclean before? Do we have to get a new heart to admit that we had a bad heart before? That’s to put the cart before the horse, according to the Scriptures. It’s backwards. You’re not washed to admit you were dirty. You admit you’re dirty in order to be washed.” ~ Leighton Flowers (source)

Again, it must be understood, salvation is not some objective reality outside ourselves. It is the indwelling presence of Christ which transforms us. Faith is our free-will trusting and believing in Jesus to allow Him to come in, and then He begins to cleanse the heart. There is no salvation apart from transformation and there is no transformation apart from salvation.

In Calvinist doctrine, there is an inward call and an outward call to salvation. Anybody is given the outward call to salvation through the message of the gospel but only those God chooses are given the inward call to salvation from the effectual drawing of the Holy Spirit. In this way, they distinguish between the invitation to come and the allowance from God for that person to come. That is, if they received an outward call but not an inward call, then they are not allowed to be saved; and it is only possible to be saved from an inward call and that call will always be effectual. With this internal and external call doctrine, Calvinists have managed to reject the plain reading of Scripture and the order of salvation listed above.

I am willing to admit that the Holy Spirit draws people to salvation. This would be the Spirit’s illuminating and convicting work. I would also acknowledge that the gospel message often falls on deaf ears because of people’s stubbornness, love for sin, and spiritual blindness because of ignorance and the distractions of this world. But their eternal death would be the result of their own choices and failure to heed the gospel message, having had sufficient illumination to respond and draw nearer to God to then believe but they didn’t. However, I do not believe that their eternal death is the result of God failing to draw them into salvation. Otherwise, they would not be responsible for their own blindness but God would be responsible. I’m not sure how this calling works but it would seem to me that for most people, the drawing of the Holy Spirit through illumination and conviction may not activate until the person has drawn close enough to God in humility to be able to receive salvation. After all, the field cannot be harvested until it is ripe and not everyone is ripe for the picking. There’s too much resistance in them so that if the Spirit were to draw them, they would continue to resist. Even Stephen acknowledged that people resisted the Holy Spirit so as to not be saved (Acts 7:51). Though he preached a message full of the Spirit, people didn’t believe. They were stuck in their old ways.

Romans 8:28-30 Interpretation

The passage Calvinists use to defend this inward effectual call would be in Romans 8:28-30 which says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”

Leighton Flower’s interpretation and paraphrase of this text is: “Christians, don’t worry. We know (from past experience) that God always works out everything for those who love God and are called to follow Him. If you want proof, look at those God previously knew, loved and called in the past, He determined them to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that His Son would become the firstborn of many brethren.”

In this way, those who were foreknown are those who had already been saved in the past, previous believers. These believers were then put on the path to be conformed to the image of Christ. It was their destiny pre-selected for them and which is the future plan for all believers. So then, foreknown is not about unbelievers becoming believers but about believers progressing in sanctification. These people, God already had a relationship with. All those “in Christ” are chosen, predestined to be sanctified. These people who were predestined to be sanctified were also “called” like all people are called unto salvation. But these specific people now in Christ have also been justified by God and also glorified (past tense). Because it is in the past tense, Paul is describing a previous group of people who had been saved and already glorified to give assurance that God still does this. The Aorist active indicative verb tense here indicates something that has already taken place not something that will deterministically happen in the future or in every future. Also, verse 17 mentions glorification, “and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.” Romans 8 mentions every basis for the inclusion into God’s family. In this verse, it is in accordance with suffering with Christ which then leads to glorification. Notice also it speaking about being heirs with Christ and how this connects to verse 29 about the firstborn of many brethren.

Another way to look at this passage is that the word “foreknew” could be in reference to all those known to be in Christ through faith in a corporate sense so this would be about corporate election. In this kind of election displayed in the Old Testament, there is a corporate head over the group to represent them (e.g. Abraham, Moses, the High Priest). But here, the corporate head would be Christ who represents the plan of salvation for all and all who are “in Him” receive the benefits and blessings of Him. Since He rose from the dead, we can be assured that we also will be raised to life after we die. We have been saved for the purpose of reaching all the way to the end of our glorification where our bodies will be like Christ’s resurrected body. It is through the whole work of Christ that we have all of salvation. But if we are not in this group because we are not “in Him,” then we won’t be on the train to make the destination.

These alternative interpretations to the Calvinistic understanding should be considered, especially because they are consistent with all the other passages of Scripture regarding the order of salvation that faith brings about justification. Contrary to the Calvinistic interpretation, I do not believe that “foreknown” is about any kind of foreknowledge that is deterministic as foreknowledge does not necessitate determinism. Also, predestined just means that the path has already been corporately preselected for those who believe in regard to sanctification and applies to all those “in Christ.”

The word foreknown can simply mean to know before. It doesn’t necessarily mean to know across time. Notice how Paul uses that word in Romans 11:2, “God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.” This is about past knowledge within time not across time. Ben Witherington points out the connection regarding God’s previous knowledge of people and says that even before they were saved, God loved them and, in this way, He knew or foreknew them. Before they knew God, God knew them. And so, He set His love upon them and called them to salvation. This fits within the context of Paul encouraging the believers in the face of suffering.

The “whom” in which God foreknew is in reference to the believers in verse 28 and their love for God and the following verses are to show that God works things within His providence to bring about good outcomes for all those in Christ, culminating in glorification. It must be noted that the word “His” in “according to His purpose” is not in the Greek text and so the text is open to interpreting this as those who are called to salvation and have a purpose. This is different to the Calvinistic understanding which sees this as being called by God’s purpose deterministically. So then, this open interpretation leaves room for those who reject the universal call to salvation and does not require a deterministic understanding.

Another way to see the order of progression here would be: foreknew, called, justified, predestined, and glorified. The reason predestined is listed in the very beginning in the actual text is because the predestined is in reference to sanctification which all believers go through, being conformed to the image of His Son. So then, upon this condition of those who are believers predestined to sanctification, these people have already been called, justified, and will be glorified. In this way, Paul is not saying that God deterministically calls people to salvation yet His call was effectual for all those who have already been destined to sanctification since they are already believers. These are those “who love God,” which is directly connected with “those whom He foreknew.” But it’s not saying that God only foreknew the Christians and no one else. He knows everyone beforehand and loves them all. But in this specific context, those who love God as the believers, Paul is indicating to them that God loved them first to encourage them and that God appointed them to be sanctified and glorified. God had also called them and justified them. This is again meant to be an encouragement to them so that they see how intimately God is involved with their lives and with the salvation process.

For all the reasons listed above, it is worth studying over again and deeply reflecting upon to consider that maybe the Calvinistic interpretation of this passage is wrong. At the very least, I have pointed out various depths as to what the real interpretation could be and so it would be wise to not have this text as the main foundation for the Calvinistic order of salvation. Instead, take the clarity of all the passages I listed earlier which show a repeated pattern of the order of salvation that faith precedes regeneration.

What about necessary grace and Bible passages that seem to indicate regeneration as a complete work of God?

What about Lydia, the seller of purple fabrics?

It says that she was a worshipper of God, so she already believed in Yahweh but now to be convinced of Jesus, she listened to what Paul said “and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul” (Acts 16:14). This is simply describing the Holy Spirit illuminating the truth to her about Jesus being the Messiah and it says she responded positively to that so that she was baptized. This passage does not support the idea that God regenerates the heart so as to believe. It gives more support to the exact opposite: that she heard the message of truth, she was convinced through her heart and mind, and because she was humble and cooperative to receive it, the Lord illumined her heart to understand and respond to what Paul spoke. But this is more about transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, not about renouncing false gods or repenting from sin so as to be saved.

What about being “born again”?

In John 3, Jesus is telling a Pharisee name Nicodemus that in order to see the kingdom of God, one must first be born again. The Pharisaical tradition had become so focused on circumcision and other good works for God as the way into the kingdom that they lost sight of faith. To be born of the Spirit is to receive a regenerated heart, so this was a work of God. It was not something you could work for or get into to by human effort like Pharisaical law-keeping. It was only something that could be received through faith as Jesus explains later (v. 16-21). The new spiritual birth of regeneration is a work of God and faith is the participatory act to receive that new birth through our willingness and belief. We must not separate the beginning of John 3 with the latter part of John 3 by taking faith out of the equation. It’s part of the whole context to understand being born again and it is the answer as to by what means someone becomes born again.

Some Calvinists may have a problem with this though because they think faith is a work and they want God to get all the glory and so it is a reprehensible idea to them for faith to be any kind of cooperation with God. They might say I believe that salvation is synergistic but I don’t believe that. Salvation is all a work of God but since faith precedes salvation, it is not part of salvation. It is simply the means for receiving so that God will then come in to do the work. But I say, let their own words judge them by this question: Is sanctification synergistic or monergistic? (Phil 2:12-13). We do cooperate with God, right? Or is everything just automatic and we are here along for the ride and we don’t have to do anything? But if sanctification is not monergistic, then how does God get all the glory? You see, the argument falls apart here. They can’t have their cake and eat it too. So then, maybe these words of synergism and monergism are not that helpful to use after all. I uphold that both regeneration and sanctification work through faith. God does the work through us by faith. Yet God gets the glory because He’s the one doing it through us—He’s the one lifting the heavy weights. A sail is useless without wind. We are the sail and the Spirit is wind. He moves us but we first need to have a sail to move. This idea of faith does not rob God of any glory.

What about Matthew 11:25-27 & Matthew 16:17?

At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”

In these passages, the Father has given spiritual insight to the disciples to see that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah. When the Father indicated to Jesus what disciples He should choose, He chose those who were not the most highly esteemed in society, the “infants,” because God delights to show things to those who are humble. These specific disciples were not just believers but were called to be apostles, so God’s choice of them was to use them to serve Him in a special role. But the Father did not choose any of the Scribes or Pharisees for this role. Therefore, this calling and choosing of the disciples was a calling for service and along with that came revelation from God to understand who Jesus was so that they could serve God. They knew about the true nature of Jesus before most anyone else did and this was information Jesus often told to keep to themselves until the time was right (Mt 8:4; 16:20; 17:9; Lk 8:56).

Jesus couldn’t have too many people believe in Him all at once since it was required for Him to be crucified. If He became too popular and too many people believed in Him before the appointed time, then His public death and resurrection would not have occurred. So, because of this special circumstance, God did not give illuminating grace to everyone. But after His resurrection, there would not have been this restraint except for those for whom the illuminating grace would not have been effective for because of people’s stubbornness. But what we have here is God’s judicial hardening to Israel since they already hardened their own hearts. God is simply allowing others to be and think as they are to remain in that condition. This is not necessarily to say that it’s impossible for them to believe but it would be necessary for them to humble themselves to receive the truth. So God is not responsible for their unbelief as Jesus performed many signs and wonders yet they still hardened their hearts against Jesus. Even with their great knowledge of the Scriptures, they couldn’t see the Messiah right in front of them. And as Abraham said in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead” (Lk 16:31). God had provided sufficient grace for them to see and to believe but He wasn’t going to provide any more illumination at this time than what He had already shown.

Jesus said to His Father, “You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent.” An interesting question for the Calvinists here is why God would need to hide anything from someone who is completely spiritually dead and incapable of choosing or believing in Jesus apart from God’s sovereign decree of “predestining” people? It’s quite redundant, don’t you think? The same goes for why Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables and the disciples asked, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus responded:

To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,
‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand;
You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive;
For the heart of this people has become dull,
With their ears they scarcely hear,
And they have closed their eyes,
Otherwise they would see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart and return,
And I would heal them.’

(Matthew 13:11-15)

Jesus spoke to them in parable because their hearing had “become” dull and He wasn’t about to give what was holy to dogs and swine (Mt 7:6). Their hearing wasn’t dull from birth but they developed spiritual blindness through their continual stubbornness. They themselves were responsible for closing their own eyes to the truth and if it were not for that, they would have truly seen and believed the truth so as to be saved.

Circling back to Matthew 16:17, Jesus says, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Peter was given divine revelation. It is clear from the text that this spiritual knowledge was not something Peter conjured up in his own head by his own ability and reasoning to think but the knowledge of Jesus as the Messiah was given to him and placed within his own understanding from the Father in heaven. However, this was not forced upon his understanding either. The spiritual truth was simply made clear to him so that within his own mind, he concluded that Jesus was the Messiah. It may be possible that some Arminians may see this as Prevenient Grace. But this was not about Peter’s salvation experience. The disciples had already previously confessed Jesus as God and Messiah (Mt 14:33; Jn 1:41, 49; 6:68-69). But here, Jesus specifically asked who the Son of Man is within a casual conversation without any of their emotional experiences or excitement to hype them up. Before the disciples confessed Him as the Son of God, now Jesus is asking to confirm their belief in Him to dispel any doubt and to warn them not to tell anyone who He was (v. 20). This was not about salvation but continued revelation.

But even if we made this about the illumination needed for salvation, we would agree that illumination to one degree or another is necessary to believe (Ro 1; Jn 1:1-13). Those who refuse to believe have been given illumination to one degree or another and that illumination is sufficient to be convinced so as to turn to the truth in faith to receive salvation. The main reason as to why people reject the gospel is because they have hardened themselves in their sin (Ro 1:18; Jn 3:20).

What about John 1:11-13?

“He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Salvation is wholly a work of God but faith precedes salvation. Within the context, we also have John the Baptist giving testimony to Jesus “so that all might believe” (v. 7). Those who “received Him” are those who applied faith in Him and once they did that, they were allowed to become children of God. To be born of God is simply saying that we are saved by God’s grace alone through faith. And since Jesus is the Light of the world and “enlightens every man,” He has given sufficient revelation to people of God’s life and goodness so that anyone who receives and believes that truth can be saved. Notice that to “receive Him” is not co-joined here in the text with those “who were born.” They are separated. Therefore, the phrase, “not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” points back to those “who were born” not all the way back to those who “received Him.” In this way, the text is saying that regeneration is solely a work of God. You cannot inherit this newborn life from your parents simply because you are biologically related. You cannot seek for it through sexual desire or activity. And nor can you desire it into existence in any way through your own will-power (as in a husband’s will). So basically, it is not something you are born with through human genealogy. It is not something that you can find a suitable partner to procreate. And it is not something than even comes through the seed of a man. This newborn life can only be birthed of God into you. The phrase “but of God” is not in reference to the will but in reference to those “who were born” “of God.” Life in Jesus is by grace alone and can only be received through faith.

Here is more information on Romans 8:

FOREKNOWN? Revisiting Romans 8:29-30

The REAL Meaning of Romans 8? A Scholar Breaks the Calvinist Mold - YouTube

Order of Salvation:

John MacArthur's Ordo Salutis

Does Regeneration Precede Faith?

Regeneration Does NOT Precede Faith: Response to Dr. Sean Cole