Wow. Never did I state or imply that salvation precedes faith. The only way you could come to that conclusion is to think that "saved" only has one meaning. But it can be used as regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.
So to be made alive is regeneration. Those who are alive are considered saved in scripture. But to be alive, you must be made alive first.
You said earlier, "Scripture states that we are either alive, or dead. And as far as I know,
being alive equates to being saved. So being regenerated means you are alive."
Saved -does- only have one meaning; delivered, or more properly to rescue out danger and into safety.
It has many aspects (deliverance from sin, the imputed righteousness of Christ which justifies us in the sight of God, death to self, deliverance unto God, life by the Spirit, etc.) It is not synonymous with sub-aspects, for each only shows a part of the deliverance of God. Yet one cannot possess any of those sub-aspects without being saved, so possession of any one aspect would mean one possesses all the others as well.
That is -
Premises:
S {R, J, Sc, G...}
If no F, then no S
If F, then S
Conclusion:
No F, then no R, J, Sc, or G;
If F, then {S: R, J, Sc, G}
No part of our personal salvation precedes faith, for we are saved only through faith (Eph 2:8, Heb 10:39, II Tim 3:15, Mk 16:16, Rom 10:10, etc.) When we place our faith in Christ, we are made alive and hold eternal life.
"And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith...And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins...But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive." I Cor 15:14-22
We are made alive through our faith in Christ.
"And
having been buried with Him in baptism, you were raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead. When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions..." Col 2:12-13
"We, therefore, were buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
we too may walk in newness of life....For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin...." Rom 6:3-7
We are raised (made alive) with Christ through faith! That is how we have new life!
We aren't regenerated by the Spirit and made alive so we can then crucify our not-bound-to-sin flesh and then rise with faith and be made alive again - Scripture shows no such sequence, and it would be nonsensical. If we were already free from sin, why would we need to die again to have Christ to free us from slavery to sin?
