– 11 Min Read
We see at the very center of this graph by Perkins is this “Christ-spine”. Everything the elected saint gets to enjoy throughout his ordo salutis, is because of his union with Christ. Perkins has wed the two ideas together in one oculus catechism. Here we see the maintained notion that all the “movements”, as Berkhof put it, in our salvation are still a simultaneous work and, as Calvin would say, because of our union with Christ.
There are all these little lines connecting the ordo salutis to the “Christ-spine”. Perkins has a note at the bottom left of the page called the ‘A’ lines, which show us how “faith apprehends Christ and all his benefits and applies them to the believer for their justification & sanctification.” And this does not harm Calvin’s understanding, for we see on the graph that above ‘Faith‘ is first the mediatorial work of Christ for the elect. ‘The Effectual Calling‘ of the elect is seen through faith but flows from Christ and downstream from ‘The Love of God‘ to the ‘Elect in Christ‘. (see below)
Perkins’s blue line first comes over into the life of the sinner from ‘The Love of God‘ to the ‘Elect in Christ‘ through ‘Christ the Mediator‘. What Perkins is saying is that God cannot love someone outside of Christ and His election. Therefore it is based entirely on the sinners’ union to the Son. For without Christ as the mediator for the elect, the Father’s love cannot rest upon them. What is meant by this is that the Father’s love and the mediation of the Son were both simultaneous in eternity past.
This is the harmonious work of the Father and the Son. They have never once, in all of eternity, not been on the same page. We read in Revelation 13:8 that before the foundations of the world were laid there was already a “book of life of the Lamb who has been slain”. This hints at the fact that the Son is not “developing” or “changing” for God does not change or develop. The Son has always been the Lamb who was slain and the Son has always been the mediator of God’s elect. Perkins explains this in his exposition on the Apostles Creed concerning the claim that Christ was “made” in 1 Cor 1:30;
“Christ is said to be made not because there was any beginning of His Godhead or any change or alteration in His person, but because in the eternal counsel of the Father He was set apart before all times to execute the office of a mediator…”
– William Perkins [1]
Though the Son did enter into His creation in real time to accomplish this work, it should not be confused or mixed with His eternality or immutability. The Father’s love and the Son’s mediatory work are simultaneous. For the Father cannot love outside the Son. This would be noticeably different from John Bunyan’s graph, A Map Shewing the Order and Causes of Salvation and Damnation, which does not have a “Christ-spine”. Sinclair Ferguson observes;
“In the case of Perkins’s Golden Chaine the central significance of Christ and union with him is obvious; in Bunyan’s chart this is not so. In Perkins every spiritual blessing is related to Christ; benefits are never separated or abstracted from the Benefactor. In Bunyan’s map, in fact they are.”
Sinclair Ferguson [2]
What we see here from Perkins is an ordo salutis that accounts for union in Christ. Contrary to Berkhof’s thinking that ordo and union are pitted against each other, Perkins united them together in this golden chain. While showing that there is a logical order of salvation in the life of the Christian, he is still supporting the fact that it all is based upon our union with Christ from start to finish. Apart from Christ we are not foreknown, apart from Christ we are not elected, apart from Christ we cannot be loved by the Father for he hates sin, apart from Christ we are not called, apart from Christ we are not justified, apart from Christ we are not adopted, apart from Christ we are not sanctified, and apart from Christ we are not glorified.
According to John Calvin, our union with Christ is of the highest degree of importance concerning our salvation. It seems that William Perkins has the same understanding. The phrase “in Christ” is used 87 times in the New Testament. The idea of our identity as Christians is that of being in Christ. We are in Christ, that is who we are.
We are predestined in Christ (Eph 1:5), we are created in Christ (Eph 2:10), we are made alive in Christ (Rom 6:11), we are a new creature in Christ (2 Cor 5:17), we are justified in Christ (Rom 8:1), we are given eternal life in Christ (Rom 6:23), we die in Christ (1 Cor 15:18), we are sanctified in Christ (1 Cor 1:2), we are infants in Christ (1 Cor 3:1), we are God’s sons in Christ (Gal 3:26), we are united together as one body in Christ (Rom 12:5), and we are seated in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph 2:6). Part of this reality of being in Christ is that Christ is also in us.
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”
– Galatians 2:20
Because of our union with Christ, He lives in us and we in Him. The Father also lives in us because of our union with Christ;
“Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”
– John 14:23
The argument against having an ordo salutis is that we break up the blessings of Christ into steps, phases, or spheres. That, therefore, we are breaking up Christ into bits and pieces along with it. For if we partake of Christ, we have the whole of Him and we receive all the blessings and privileges to be had in Him. But this idea does not contradict Perkins’s ordo salutis because at every point all of the blessings are traced back to our union in Christ. Though they are certainly drawn out in an order, they are all still traced back to the one single event that takes place, being united to Christ. We see from John Murray that there has to be a logical order, otherwise, it begins to become confusing.
“When we think of the application of redemption we must not think of it as one simple and indivisible act. It comprises a series of acts and processes. To mention some, we have calling, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, glorification. These are all distinct, and not one of these can be defined in terms of the other. Each has its own distinct meaning, function, and purpose in the action and grace of God.
– John Murray [3]
God is not the author of confusion and therefore he is the author of order. There are good and conclusive reasons for thinking that the various actions of the application of redemption, some of which have been mentioned, take place in a certain order, and that order has been established by divine appointment, wisdom and grace. It is quite apparent to every one that it would be impossible to start off with glorification, for glorification is at the far end of the process as its completion and consummation, and it is scarcely less apparent that regeneration would have to recede sanctification. A man must surely be born again before he can be progressively sanctified.”
Yet, in the second to last chapter of Murray’s book, Redemption: Accomplished and Applied, we see Murray confess that it is our union with Christ that is at the center of everything;
“Union with Christ is really the central truth of the whole doctrine of salvation not only in its application but also in its once-for-all accomplishment in the finished work of Christ. Indeed the whole process of salvation has its origin in one phase of union with Christ and salvation has in view the realization of other phases of union with Christ.”
– John Murray [4]
Here, Murray summarizes all that we have wrestled with articulately. Salvation is seen in the union with Christ in one phase, but there are many phases inside the work of salvation which are all enjoyed because of union. If it sounds paradoxical, I understand, but I assure you that it is not. Union with Christ is the summarization of the totality of salvation. Salvation can be seen in an order or sequence of movements that show the many phases that take place in our union with Christ. It is as if we can place salvation and its order under the umbrella of union with Christ. And underneath that umbrella, we see all the many realities, truths, and phases of salvation which can all be attributed to union with Christ. Here is Michael Horton on this;
“The choice that is pressed between union and justification involves a category mistake. Union with Christ is not actually an element of the ordo salutis but the umbrella-term (equivalent to the “great exchange”) for the ordo as a whole. It makes as little sense to treat union as an alternative to justification as it does to see it as an alternative to election, redemption, effectual calling, sanctification, or glorification.”
– Michael Horton [5]
All of this to say, Perkins’ graph is the visual aid to the summary of John Murray’s thesis on the relationship between union with Christ and an ordo salutis. This is also expressed by Perkins in A Golden Chain when discussing The First Degree of the Declaration of God’s Love for the sinner seen in the process of the effectual calling of the sinner;
“A faithful man first of all and immediately is united to the flesh or human nature of Christ, and afterward by reason of the humanity to the Word itself or divine nature. For salvation and life depends on that fullness of the Godhead which is in Christ, yet it is not communicated to us but in the flesh and by the flesh of Christ. “Except ye eat the flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him” (John 6:53).”
– William Perkins [6]
Perkins continues;
“This union is made by the Spirit of God applying Christ to us, and on our parts by faith receiving Christ Jesus offered to us. And for this cause it is termed a spiritual union.”
– William Perkins [7]
Perkins also believed that this union with Christ brings us to a union with the whole Trinity;
“The Lord has united all His elect and dear children to Christ by His Spirit and by a true and lively faith. And by reason of this union, they are after a sort united to the whole Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Yea, hence it is that we are partakers of Christ’s benefits.”
– William Perkins [8]
This fits so well with John 14:23. We are indwelt by the Holy Spirit along with the Father and the Son for they both have made their home in us.
Read Next: William Perkins and The ‘Ordo Salutis’ Part 5: So, What is the Order?
Works Cited
[1] William Perkins, The Works of William Perkins: Exposition of the Creed, (Edited by Joel Beeke and Derek Thomas, vol. 5, Grand Rapids, MI, Reformation Heritage Books, 2017. 10 vols) 111.
[2] Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ, (Wheaton, IL, Crossway, 2016) 61.
[3-4] John Murray, Redemption: Accomplished and Applied, (Eerdmans, 1955) 82, 171.
[5] Michael Horton, Justification, (vol. 2, Grand Rapids, MI, Zondervan, 2018. 2 vols) 449.
[6-8] Perkins, William. A Golden Chain: or, the Description of Theology: Containing the Order of the Causes of Salvation and Damnation, According to God’s Word, in The Works of William Perkins Volume 6 (London, 1608. vol. 10), 173, 285.