Believe UNTO salvation?

[fralo4truth]

Hi friends, I'm wrestling with something and wanted to get your insight.

I have done quite a bit of examination lately in the ordo salutis, and I certainly believe that regeneration does preceed faith. Yet I know of certain ones who make an appeal to a very significant preposition in the New Testament which (atleast on the cover) seem to insinuate repentance and/or faith as preceeding regeneration. Expressions such as "repentance UNTO life" as found in Acts 11:18, for instance, or "the power of God UNTO salvation to everyone that believeth" in Rom. 1:16 potentially leave the impression that repentance/faith come first.

However, I'm not so sure that these expressions are meant to convey a certain order, either chronologically or logically, in how things transpire in our new birth. Rather, I think they are simply suggesting that repentance/faith are inseparably yoked to regeneration.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this matter.

 

[Contra_Mundum]

It would seem as though some persons try to make prepositions do much more work than they were intended to do.

 

[PuritanCovenanter]

Repentance is an outcome of regeneration. One cannot seek God without it. He will not nor will he sense a need for it without it.

 

[Willem van Oranje]

Expressions such as "repentance UNTO life" as found in Acts 11:18, for instance, or "the power of God UNTO salvation to everyone that believeth" in Rom. 1:16 potentially leave the impression that repentance/faith come first.

I take these references to "life" and "salvation" as being in the full sense of eternal life and complete salvation. You could term it the eschatological sense of "life" and "salvation." I believe it is a mistake to equate these terms as used here with regeneration, as if one repented or believed unto regeneration.