Does the Bible teach Prevenient Grace? - R. C. Sproul
As the name suggests, prevenient grace is grace that �comes before� something. It is normally defined as a work that God does for everybody. He gives all people enough grace to respond to Jesus. That is, it is enough grace to make it possible for people to choose Christ. Those who cooperate with and assent to this grace are �elect.� Those who refuse to cooperate with this grace are lost. The strength of this view is that it recognizes that fallen man�s spiritual condition is severe enough that it requires God�s grace to save him. The weakness of the position may be seen in two ways. If this prevenient grace is merely external to man, then it fails in the same manner that the medicine and the life preserver analogies fail. What good is prevenient grace if offered outwardly to spiritually dead creatures?
On the other hand, if prevenient grace refers to something that God does within the heart of fallen man, then we must ask why it is not always effectual. Why is it that some fallen creatures choose to cooperate with prevenient grace and others choose not to? Doesn�t everyone get the same amount?
Think of it this way, in personal terms. If you are a Christian you are surely aware of other people who are not Christians. Why is it that you have chosen Christ and they have not? Why did you say yes to prevenient grace while they said no? Was it because you were more righteous than they were? If so, then indeed you have something in which to boast. Was that greater righteousness something you achieved on your own or was it the gift of God? If it was something you achieved, then at the bottom line your salvation depends on your own righteousness. If the righteousness was a gift, then why didn�t God give the same gift to everybody?
Perhaps it wasn�t because you were more righteous. Perhaps it was because you are more intelligent. Why are you more intelligent? Because you study more (which really means you are more righteous)? Or are you more intelligent because God gave you a gift of intelligence he withheld from others?
To be sure, most Christians who hold to the prevenient grace view would shrink from such answers. They see the implied arrogance in them. Rather they are more likely to say, �No, I chose Christ because I recognized my desperate need for him.� That certainly sounds more humble. But I must press the question. Why did you recognize your desperate need for Christ while your neighbor didn�t? Was it because you were more righteous than your neighbor, or more intelligent?
The question for advocates of prevenient grace is why some people cooperate with it and others don�t. How we answer that will reveal how gracious we believe our salvation really is. The $64,000 question is, �Does the Bible teach such a doctrine of prevenient grace? If so, where?�
We conclude that our salvation is of the Lord. He is the One who regenerates us. Those whom he regenerates come to Christ. Without regeneration no one will ever come to Christ. With regeneration no one will ever reject him. God�s saving grace effects what he intends to effect by it.
You are correct about common grace, that is the label man has given it. Mans doctrine has so many kinds of grace I lose track of what kind is what for I normally do not deal in different kinds of grace, but only One Grace to all mankind.
James, I think the confusion in all of this is you think accepting Christ is a 'work' and therefore a potential boasting point. Even if it were, works count for nothing, we all agree on that. The truth is accepting Christ is not a work that merits favor from God, rather it is a work that reveals the inner nature of a man. It is true our election does not rely on our works, on this we both agree. However, your answer to election is reason, of God's good pleasure, to this we still both agree. Yet I see the Bible revealing even deeper into the truth; that God seeks people that please Him, and there is 'something' in man that either pleases Him or displeases Him, and for lack of a better word I call this the inner nature of man, granted it is a poor word to use, however you own doctrine says 'a man is not as evil as he could be'
71 said: James, I gave you a couple verses in my last reply that answers your question. When Jesus said "follow Me", some chose to follow Him and some didn't. Some were willing to deny self, giving up all for Christ, and some weren't. That's a Scriptural fact as shown in the verses I provided. Nothing has changed since then. We either give our lives to Christ and follow Him, or we reject His offer to follow Him and don't. This is why one can be saved and another not. It a choice that is individually made. It has nothing to do with being "smarter" or a "better person" than your neighbor because you chose to follow Christ and they didn't. It has to do with the willingness to give up your life and trust the Lord with it. Some like their lives as is and don't want to give up any part of it. Sin is fun. They want to have fun.
James replies:
Oh. I phrased it "you are better OR smarter than you neighbor" and you have just plainly said that you are better AND smarter than your neighbor!
Well you DO have plenty to boast about!
God did not give you faith like it says in Eph.2:8,9, you already HAD faith in you!
And you weren't saved because of God's grace, YOU were saved because you were "willing to give up your life, and trust the Lord with it".
And you were certainly smarter than your neighbor because YOU understood that although "sin is fun", it is only temporary in this short life.
Of course the Bible contradicts all that.
Eze 36:26-27 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
John 6:63-65 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) 65And he said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father."
James wrote - "Oh. I phrased it "you are better OR smarter than you neighbor" and you have just plainly said that you are better AND smarter than your neighbor!"
Whatever, James. You are good at creating false arguments and accusations to fatten your ego and lift you higher on your pedestal. If responding to the call of Christ and choosing to follow Him makes one smarter or better in your mind, then have at it.
James wrote - "Well you DO have plenty to boast about!"
In your mind, James. But hey, God made you for salvation and made your neighbor for destruction. So when your neighbor who is made for destruction wonders why you and not him, God must love you more, eh? Something to boast about?
James wrote - "God did not give you faith like it says in Eph.2:8,9, you already HAD faith in you!"
Again.. another conceived thought in your Calvinistic mind that anything that doesn't agree with your Calvinistic doctrine must be the works of man.
James wrote - "And you weren't saved because of God's grace, YOU were saved because you were "willing to give up your life, and trust the Lord with it"."
And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency [is] of God; -2Corinthians 3:4-5
James wrote - "And you were certainly smarter than your neighbor because YOU understood that although "sin is fun", it is only temporary in this short life."
You have a real problem, James. You will take anything and twist it to say what you want it to say for your own gain, whether it be people's words or Scripture. How many times in your replies to me have you twisted everything I've said to make a point that had nothing to do with what I actually said? How many times, instead of addressing any Scripture I present, do you instead go off and invent something and then argue what doesn't even exist in my posts? Does it bring you some sick joy to be so condescending? Feed your pride? And it's not just me you patronize. I've seen it in your replies to others. You do a wonderful job of being arrogant.
Pride [goeth] before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
