God’s Gift of Grace

In my first two posts, it was established that humanity is sinful and needs Christ’s justification, which is the fact that unites Christians of all groups and denominations. This post will focus on how God’s grace makes justification available and for whom it is available. While most Christians will agree with most of what I said in the first posts, the doctrines of grace and faith (this post and next month’s post) tend to be more divided. The reason for this largely stems from differing interpretations of Scripture. The Gospel message is simple as stated in Ephesians 2:8-9, making it clear that salvation is available. Yet the nuances of interpreting the deeper meanings of these verses raise many questions about how the process of salvation works. The main question I will address is: “Is God’s grace prevenient and irresistible?” By grace, I am referring specifically to the grace of Salvation. By Prevenient Grace I am referring to a doctrine that claims that human sin has made people so depraved and so separated from God that they are unable to even understand or respond to God’s call to them. Prevenient Grace is believed by most Calvinist and Arminian groups within Christianity to be a supernatural act of God that changes the state of people’s hearts to allow them to respond to God. However, the question of the irresistibility of grace is one of the key divides between proponents of Calvinist theology and non-Calvinist theology.

Calvinists are those who have adopted and expanded upon the teachings of John Calvin, a leader from the Protestant Reformation around the 16^th Century [7]. I am not going to go into a full breakdown here of church denominations and their differences, but Calvinist churches are often part of the tradition that calls themselves “Reformed.” Not all churches using that term follow the teachings of John Calvin or his successors, but many do. The position of those following the tradition of Calvin is that God’s grace is irresistible for those whom God calls to Himself. In other words, only those that God chooses will be offered saving grace. According to Calvinists, this choice is completely up to God’s sovereign will and is not reliant on any human input, decision, or action. They do not make a free decision to follow Christ of their own volition, rather it is all God causing those He picks to follow Himself. Calvinists believe that before people can follow Christ, God must work miraculously in their hearts and change them so that they are able to respond to God. This miraculous grace is necessary due to the idea in Calvinism that sin not only removes people from God’s grace, but it also completely removes people’s free will and ability even to approach the truth. This  Calvinist point of view on Prevenient Grace is that people are so spiritually dead and corrupt that they are completely unable to respond to the call of God unless He hand-picks them and changes their hearts [7]. A few Scriptures that they use to support their interpretation of irresistible grace are John 6:44 and Romans 8:30 [5]. In the passage from Romans, many Reformed and Calvinist theologians interpret the word “predestine” to refer to individuals God has set aside as the “elect.” To summarize their position on grace and salvation: God offers grace to those He hand-picked before the Earth was created, and the rest are left to their just demise due to their sin. We will go into more points on Calvinism in the post about faith, but this covers the basis of their beliefs sufficiently for this post.

There are many non-Calvinist groups, including the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, but we will focus on the teachings of Arminianism and Provisionism. Arminianism, named for Jacob Arminius, arose in the early 17^th century as an opposing view to Calvinism among Protestant churches [6]. Most non-Calvinist groups believe that the salvation offered by God’s grace is a gift that must be accepted. Rather than God electing certain chosen people to Salvation, they say Scripture teaches that God calls all people to Him, and only those who choose to put their faith in Him will be saved. Those who follow Arminianism say that John 6:44 is speaking of God’s Prevenient Grace in a different way than Calvinists. They agree with the Calvinists that all mankind is totally corrupt and unable to even respond to the call of God without God’s intervention, but they say that God is supernaturally working in the hearts of all people rather than just a few elect individuals. This supernatural work of the Holy Spirit enables people to respond to God, but those people must choose to follow Him. It is not a matter of destiny for those who God picks, but rather a gift that can be accepted or rejected [4]. Some churches that hold to the Arminian set of beliefs are certain Baptist churches, Methodists, Pentecostals, and other churches stemming from the Holiness movement, and many Lutherans [3].

The third set of beliefs that I mentioned is more recently termed “Provisionism.” It stems largely from the Southern Baptist churches, but it is becoming more widespread. Provisionists agree with many Arminian beliefs, but they differ on the doctrine of Prevenient grace. Provisionists agree with Arminians that human have the free will to accept or reject Christ, thus denying the doctrine of irresistible grace.  They do not believe (as Calvinists and Arminians do) that Adam and Eve’s sin destroyed mankind’s free will. They believe that sin removed all people from God’s grace, which is clear in Scripture, but they believe that people are not guilty before they sin themselves. This does not mean they deny our sinful nature, just that they do not believe God is passing judgment on all of humankind without offering a choice to every individual. They also do not believe that there is a mysterious, unfathomable work of grace that God uses to call people to Himself. Instead, they believe that the Bible shows that God has had a plan since the beginning to provide a way of Salvation through the work of Christ as laid out in the Gospel message (hence the term Provisionism) [2]. With regards to John 6:44, Provisionists believe that the drawing to Christ is done through the Gospel message that Christ called the Church to spread throughout the world in Matthew 28:19-20. Where Calvinists believe the predestination mentioned in Romans 8:30 to refer to God’s selection of the elect, Provisionists believe that the predestination simply refers to the destiny of all who would choose Christ [1]. They use verses such as Hebrews 4:12, 2 Timothy 3:15-16, and Romans 10:17 to support their belief that it is the Gospel message that draws men to God.

I understand that this post contains a lot of very deep, condensed information, so I would like to conclude here by summarizing my belief and understanding of these doctrines. First, I disagree completely with the Calvinist/Reformed beliefs on grace. I do not believe that God is arbitrarily deciding who will make it to Heaven and who is condemned to Hell. Scripture points to a loving God that has given people free will and a choice of whom they will serve. For example, see Joshua 24:15 in the Old Testament, where Joshua calls the Israelites to make their own decision what God/gods they will serve. In the New Testament, I think the idea that all people can come to Christ is stated very clearly in 2 Peter 3:9. Now on the Arminianism/Provisionism divide, I think that this is a very deep, almost hair-splitting topic. However, I tend to lean towards the doctrine of Provisionism. This is because I do not agree with the Arminians and Calvinists that sin has destroyed free will. It has separated them from God (Romans 3:23), but there is not necessarily some extra work of grace that must “re-enable” people’s free will to choose. I believe that the death and resurrection of Christ is sufficient for salvation. The Gospel message in Scripture is what God will use to convict and draw people to Him for salvation (2 Timothy 3:15-16). The only thing that I feel is underplayed by Provisionists is the work of the Holy Spirit. I believe that God does work in mysterious ways to draw people down the path of His will, even drawing unbelievers to Him. But that call is not changing or overriding free will, it is the still small voice of God that these people must choose to respond to or not. That call will always point them to the Gospel, where they can choose who their master will be.

For any who may disagree with me, please do not take any part of this series as an attack on your beliefs. I consider the topics of understanding salvation to be “family disagreements.” It does not separate us as true Christians from our brotherhood in Christ, we simply disagree on some very deep and difficult doctrines.

If there are any questions, comments, or suggestions for future topics, feel free to comment below or contact us at Unearth the Word using the form on our Contact page. I hope this post has encouraged and educated you, and hope you will return to read the final post in this first series next month, where we will be covering the Doctrine of Faith.

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