Herman Bavinck on Regeneration in Christ

I recently finished reading Herman Bavinck's Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 3: Sin and Salvation in Christ. His treatment of Christ's person and work is biblically insightful, theologically orthodox and spiritually enriching. Bavinck places his discussion of christology (the doctrine of Christ) and soteriology (the doctrine of salvation in the context of the covenants of redemption and grace (see here). He constantly draws attention to the trinitarian dimensions of God's saving grace. "All the benefits of salvation that the Father has awarded to the church from eternity and the Son acquired in time are at the same time gifts of the Holy Spirit." (p. 593).

Towards the end of the final chapter of Volume 3, entitled The Order of Salvation, Bavinck touches on the relationship between regeneration and union with Christ (p. 591f). There is sometimes a lack of clarity on this issue in Reformed Theology. Some argue that the Spirit's work of regeneration, or at least effectual calling, of which regeneration is a component, is what unites us savingly to Christ. John Murray argues for that view in his Redemption Accomplished and Applied, p. 165. Robert Reymond hardly says a word about regeneration and union with Christ in his New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, p. 708-710. He concentrates almost solely on the proper ordering of regeneration and faith in the process of salvation. With more insight, others insist that regeneration is the work of God by which sinners are made alive in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Consider the words of Sinclair Ferguson 

"Every facet of the application of Christ's work ought to be related to the way in which the Spirit unites us to Christ himself, and viewed directly as issuing from personal fellowship with him. The dominant motif and architectonic principle of the order of salvation should therefore be union with Christ in the Spirit." (Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Holy Spirit, Contours of Christian Theology, IVP, 1996, p. 100).   Continue at Exiled Preacher