Grace in Reformed Theology
Article Series - What is Grace?
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This is the second post in my response to Henry Thomas’ post asking what Grace was. My first post tried to look at how Catholic theologians looked at grace. Like that post, this one draws off of Gareth Reese’s book, New Testament Epistles:Romans.
In a nutshell, in Reformed theology, grace is something that God does to a person to save him or her. However, there are several distinctions that need to be made in regards how the process of a human receiving God’s grace works out.
The first distinction that needs to be made is between Common grace and Special grace. Common Grace is something that God grants to all persons. It refers to the blessings and favor that God shows mankind. Outworkings of this type of grace are to be found in our good deeds, our art, our philosophy, among other things. This grace allows humans to live in harmony to each other. It needs to be noted that this grace does not affect human’s need to be saved; it is merely a blessing, or favor that God shows us out of His love for us. Calvin saw our depravity as something that completely affected humans and due to this, we could do nothing correctly. In addition to this, saving grace was particular to the elect. Still, humans did, on occasion do good works and build great societies. Therefore, there must be some action on God’s part that allows humans to do these things. Common grace is the answer.
Next there is Special Grace. This grace only affects the “elect”. Special grace has several attributes, it is:
- Prevenient ” allows one to want to respond to God, without this, no human on earth even wants to seek God.
- Efficacious ” the grace that is given works, it cannot fail. If God gives one this grace, the grace produces the effect it was intended to effect.
- Irresistible - the giving of the grace cannot be rejected.
- Sufficient ” the grace is enough, it is adequate for the believer. Those that are called and do not believe are therefore not given this grace, they are merely called.
There is no synergism, or co-operation here. The act is done completely and solely by God. The person who is elected is a passive recipient to this grace. Grace precedes belief. Grace enables one to believe. Reformed theologians find evidence of this in the lines of Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” They see this as evidence that 1) Grace comes before and is a causal agent in the belief of the elect and 2)that absolutely nothing can be done on a human’s part or that would be a work that saved a person.
If I have erred in this sketch, please let me know. I’ll make corrections as needed.
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Comments
Thanks, I was really worried about misrepresentation. Let me ask you a question. Are there just the two types of grace, common and special, or are there multiple levels of grace contained in the special grace category? That was something that I was not sure of.
Grace: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:While we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Rom.5:8 What is do complicated
about grace? God gives one his love in, thro-
urh Christ; Without Christ no one can receive
this grace. All that God has is in Jesus Christ. To say that one can come or take part
of anything of God without Jesus Christ is being nothing more than a humanist, etc, etc.
Darsee,
While I would not necessarily disagree with your statements about grace, I would add additional questions that need to be answered:
- How does one know that they have grace?
- What effect does grace have on a person?
- Exactly how is grace transmitted to a person?
- Does grace enable faith or is it received by faith?
- If the natural state of the human condition is a love for evil rather than good, then how can one explain the great many good works that humans have done?
That is where the question of Grace’s nature is complicated.
Grace: Let me continue on with Rom.5:9-10.
“Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Christ!For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to God througth the death of his Son…shall we be saved through Christ”s life!” Again, one can not come to God with out Christ. There is only one grace, one redemption, etc. etc. and to have what is God’s YOU need Christ.
There is only one saving grace, the one described by Paul in Romans 5:8-10. But then there is the text in Matthew 5:45 where God sends the rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. He provides food for the sinner and the saint. But this does not save the man, it only puts food in his belly, clothes on his back, and a roof over his head, and oxygen in his lungs. It is here that most make a distinction in God’s grace. The grace that saves through the finished work of Jesus, it is special because it saves, and the grace that is there but isn’t saving grace, it is common to all man. I hope that this might help. Otherwise sorry for making the water more muddy.
Looks like a good rough sketch of a Reformed view on grace.