The Grace of God

This is such a simple phrase, and yet, it can be spoken in conversation where each person who hears it, understands it to mean something completely different. Using the constructs of the relationship between God, man and sin developed in the last few posts, let us see how Grace would fit into each model.

The first model we labeled Pelagian.  The key identifying feature was the denial of original sin. Since Adam’s sin was not imputed to mankind, man is capable of working his way to salvation. In this model, there is not much need of grace; in fact, I cannot see that there is any need of grace. Grace becomes nothing more than some amorphous idea of blessings. We receive grace when we receive blessings from God.

The next model is at least more interesting. In this semipelagian system, we do start with original sin in principle.  However, after Easter, all the slates of mankind are washed clean.  We are capable of making that first move towards God.  Grace then is everything that God does after we have turned towards Him.  Or maybe Grace is what Jesus did to cleanse the slates of mankind.  Perhaps it is both.  It still depends upon us, though.  All and all, this idea of grace is not all that different from the first one.  God doesn’t really do anything without an invitation.  That’s not very gracious, is it?

As we turn the corner in essentially the same place as the last two posts, we will start to see a more interesting idea of Grace.  Both the Arminians and the Roman Catholics use the term prevenient grace.  Since I am neither, I might not get these two sections right.  Understand their usage to be similar in context, but different in application.  Let’s see what that means.

The Arminian view of the sin problem is that all men are dead in sin from birth.  This is the position of the imputation of original sin to all of mankind.  The Arminian insists that man is not capable of choosing God unless the Holy Spirit gives the gift of prevenient grace to an individual.  This gift of prevenient grace essentially cleanses the free will of man who can now respond to God and cooperate with God’s grace.  There is often some disagreement whether some percentage of cooperation means semipelagian rather than Arminian, but my understanding is that the issue is not quantity but cooperation.  As long as we receive prevenient grace, we are free to cooperate with God for our salvation.

The Roman Catholic view of grace and prevenient grace is significantly more complex.  This is a very elaborate system of quantification and calculation concerning sin and grace.  The best place to start is at the beginning.  Prevenient grace has a similar meaning as in the Arminian system.  Once we have received prevenient grace, we are now ready to cooperate with God.  The Roman Catholics look at sin as having a quantifiable badness, that I’m going to call anti-grace for our purposes.  For each sin, you have to repent and then do penance of a particular value of grace to compensate.  Both sin and grace have quantifiable effects on your righteousness.  It’s sort of like a bank account.  When you are overdrawn at the time you die, you go to purgatory to work out your debt so that you can enter heaven.

Now, with the Roman Catholics, we need to introduce a new concept: the means of grace.  To some, this concept is going to sound off the wall, but it is actually very Biblical.  We receive Grace through specific means as outlined in scripture.  Now, the Roman Catholics extend the means of grace to other means as given through tradition.  Let’s look at specific examples.

The Bible discusses Word and Sacrament.  The Roman Catholics have seven sacraments, all of which have some value in dispensing grace.  Word means prayer in this context.  So, once prevenient grace has started the process, we can receive infusions of packets of grace through any of the sacraments, particular Holy Communion, and by saying prayers.  In the Middle Ages, Rome introduced monetary opportunities as well.  By gifting to a specific papal cause or project, you can receive an indulgence that is a quantifiable packet of grace.  There are also things called plenary indulgences that sort of wipe the slate clean again.  These are given for particularly large services to the church.  Pilgrimages to specific locations are often tied to indulgences as well.  Saying prayers also earns grace.  Say 5 Hail Mary’s and 7 Our Father’s, and that will be penance for that little sin you just confessed.

This was not intended to be an exhaustive discussion of the Roman Catholic system of grace, merely an introduction.  Let’s move on to the last system, one that looks at grace as the gas that makes us go.

The last system in which we have a monergistic salvation, where God does all the work, we need a lot of Grace.  By Grace, we are given the gift of faith.  By Grace, we are now able to do good works that actually glorify God.  By Grace, we are sanctified.  By Grace, we receive absolution for our repented sin.  Everything good we accomplish is by Grace alone, to the Glory of God alone.

So, it’s clear that we need a lot of Grace in this system.  How do we get it, and is it quantified in the same way as in Roman Catholicism?  The means of grace are identified by scripture alone: Word and Sacrament.  In this case, Word means the preached Word as per Paul in Romans 10.

How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?

And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:14; Romans 10:15-17 ESV)

There are only two sacraments in the Protestant world, Baptism and Holy Communion or the Lord’s Supper.  Therefore, we receive Grace when we go to church, say the confessional prayer (and mean it), receive absolution, listen to the Word read and then listen to the Word preached (correctly, we hope) and then receive Holy Communion.  That earns us a full recharging of Grace so that we can run around loving our neighbor to the glory of God until the next time we receive Grace through these means.  No, this is not a similar quantified system.  God and His Grace are infinite.  We always get a full tank of Grace through any means of Grace.  The Grace can last as long as it needs to last, but we run better with frequent replenishments.  Weekly or more hearing of the Word read and preached and weekly or more Communion are the optimal situations. 

Now, we have been beating around the bush for a couple of posts.  In the next post, we are going to start looking at some key definitions.  We are going to learn the language of Christianity.

– Troll –