Which Came First?

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? In second grade, my teacher presented this problem to the class. I thought about it for days, trying to work out the logic. Chickens come from eggs, but eggs come from chickens. My mind was blown, but it's not an enigma. It's a foolish question with a clear answer. The chicken came first because God created them (Genesis 1:21). My problem wasn't a lack of logic but a wrong worldview. I thought about the question from what I could see, not from what I could know through Scripture. Thankfully, God has revealed to us things about the world, about ourselves, and about Him that we could not have otherwise known (1 Corinthians 2:9-16).

Some Christians take that "chicken or the egg" mentality to work out how the Lord saved them rather than what the Bible says about it. Let's imagine a college classroom. A guest speaker comes and preaches the gospel, and of the 100 students in the class, two were saved. Ninety-eight of the others didn't pay attention, but two were truly saved.

 The first student, a music major, thought about life through art and experience. The second student is a history major. The first student knows he needs to get to church and starts looking for one and finds one with an orchestra and an extensive music program. He goes to that church. He hears a sermon where salvation is preached in a way that seems similar to the way he experienced it. The preacher tells the sinners in the crowd to choose Jesus and do right and do good for God's approval. That's what he did in the class. He chose Jesus and all the others didn't. He says the egg came first, and says his decision saved him.

 The history major happens upon a church that is studying Romans. As the preacher expounds on God's work in redemption, justification by faith, grace, election, total depravity, the man realizes that though he repented and trusted in Christ, the Bible talks about what God did for him in salvation considers his salvation experience through Scripture. He understood, from the Bible, he had not come to Christ before because he was not born again, and when he did believe, it was because of God's grace. The music major started with the appropriation of redemption and explained salvation, starting with his experience. The history major begins with the application of redemption or how God saved his soul and applied the work of Christ by the Spirit. But both can't be right.

 Salvation is not subjective based on the believer's individual experience. God, in His Word, has explained how we are saved, why we are saved, and by whom we are saved. We are effectually called by God's grace, given life, faith, and repentance. We are justified by God, adopted into His family, progressively sanctified and preserved until our time of glorification. The Bible will tell you what came first, faith or regeneration.