What is Prevenient Grace?
The word prevenient is a Latin word that means something happening beforehand. So when we are talking about prevenient grace in theological circles, it is making reference to the grace that God grants to those who He will save in time. This grace is distinct from the common grace everyone receives every day in the form of the air we breathe, and the daily provision God provides. Whenever God decides to save someone, He will use the instrument of the gospel message to inform the sinner why they must repent of their sins. Once the gospel has been effectively preached, God will open the heart and mind of the person so they understand and hear the truth, respond in faith and be saved (Acts 16:14; Luke 24:45). The grace, of course, has to be granted by God before the sinner can respond positively to the gospel message. This grace is the power or enablement that God must give to the sinner or else one can never believe unto salvation.
There are many that believe that God's grace does not always lead to salvation. Why? Because man has a free will and can resist the power of God to convict him of sin so that he repents, believes and becomes saved. To believe this way is to say that God's power to save ultimately lies within the person and not God to save them. In other words, God's prevenient grace removes the depravity of man, but it still does not guarantee that he will repent and believe the gospel.
There have been centuries of debate regarding the matter of what prevenient grace can do. The writer believes the debate exists because you have those that teach that God saves all those He elects or the limited atonement view, or you have the majority report, those that teach unlimited atonement. Limited atonement teaches that God the Father sent the Son to die for the elect alone. Whereas unlimited atonement teaches that Christ died for everyone who will ever live. There are intense debates on both sides. For those who are in what is called the Arminian camp (named after James Arminius 1560-1609), their definition of prevenient grace says that God grants the sinner this benefit, but it does not always lead to salvation. In the Reformed or what many call the Calvinistic camp (named after the Reformer John Calvin 1509-1564), God's prevenient grace always leads to salvation.
So, we must ask the questions, did the Father send Jesus to die just to make all men savable, but guarantee the salvation of no one? Or did the Father send the Son to actually save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21)? You see why there has been and will continue to be such intense debates between evangelicals? I just listened to a podcast last week where a minister said that for Jesus to die just the elect or chosen is "ridiculous"! Why would he say that? Because he is convinced that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). John 1:29 says, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." Those are pretty straightforward texts, right? They mean what they say and they say what they mean. The word world always has to be qualified and defined by the context which many fail to do.
Now here is the question the writer must ask, "If God's sovereign prevenient grace only makes men savable, meaning the grace removes some type of evil restraint from him so that he is in some moral neutral state - his heart is open to receive the gospel, but he still does not repent and believe, how powerful is God's grace if it does not lead to actual salvation? Let me say it another way. Let's view it from the divine perspective. Since God knows all things before they happen because He created the end from the beginning decided in eternity past to send Christ to suffer and die for sinners, what makes more sense, and more importantly what view is Biblically supported, Christ dying and paying for all sins of everyone that will ever live yet most of humanity perishing in hell for their own sins due to unbelief, or Christ dying for the sins of those whom the Father chose in eternity past for Christ to come to earth to redeem? Remember Jesus' words in John 6:37, "All the Father has given to Me will come to Me (emphasis added), and those that come to me I will in no wise cast out."
If one believes that Christ died for the sins of all men but ultimately leaves the final decision to man to determine whether salvation is successful or not, then His death was in vain and God's rescue plan failed. Why? Because natural man will not seek God on his own (Romans 3:11). God must pursue man first. (Luke 19:10). I have written about this in times past, but it bears repeating, God has nor will He ever leave His salvation plan in the hands of evil men to determine whether it succeeds or fails. God in eternity past predetermined the success of salvation before He created the universe! We have nothing to do with it. Man is strictly a beneficiary of God's divine grace when he believes. He is never the cause of salvation becoming a reality.
I would submit to the reader that a prevenient grace that does not lead to salvation is not grace at all. What good is a grace that does not save? Remember the words of Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace through faith you have been saved. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast." Paul knew that God's grace is what saved him. It is that same grace that saves all those who place their trust in Jesus' complete atoning work on the cross.
So, we must ask the questions, did the Father send Jesus to die just to make all men savable, but guarantee the salvation of no one? Or did the Father send the Son to actually save His people from their sins (Matthew 1:21)? You see why there has been and will continue to be such intense debates between evangelicals? I just listened to a podcast last week where a minister said that for Jesus to die just the elect or chosen is "ridiculous"! Why would he say that? Because he is convinced that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world (1 John 2:2). John 1:29 says, "Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world." Those are pretty straightforward texts, right? They mean what they say and they say what they mean. The word world always has to be qualified and defined by the context which many fail to do.
Now here is the question the writer must ask, "If God's sovereign prevenient grace only makes men savable, meaning the grace removes some type of evil restraint from him so that he is in some moral neutral state - his heart is open to receive the gospel, but he still does not repent and believe, how powerful is God's grace if it does not lead to actual salvation? Let me say it another way. Let's view it from the divine perspective. Since God knows all things before they happen because He created the end from the beginning decided in eternity past to send Christ to suffer and die for sinners, what makes more sense, and more importantly what view is Biblically supported, Christ dying and paying for all sins of everyone that will ever live yet most of humanity perishing in hell for their own sins due to unbelief, or Christ dying for the sins of those whom the Father chose in eternity past for Christ to come to earth to redeem? Remember Jesus' words in John 6:37, "All the Father has given to Me will come to Me (emphasis added), and those that come to me I will in no wise cast out."
If one believes that Christ died for the sins of all men but ultimately leaves the final decision to man to determine whether salvation is successful or not, then His death was in vain and God's rescue plan failed. Why? Because natural man will not seek God on his own (Romans 3:11). God must pursue man first. (Luke 19:10). I have written about this in times past, but it bears repeating, God has nor will He ever leave His salvation plan in the hands of evil men to determine whether it succeeds or fails. God in eternity past predetermined the success of salvation before He created the universe! We have nothing to do with it. Man is strictly a beneficiary of God's divine grace when he believes. He is never the cause of salvation becoming a reality.
I would submit to the reader that a prevenient grace that does not lead to salvation is not grace at all. What good is a grace that does not save? Remember the words of Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace through faith you have been saved. It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast." Paul knew that God's grace is what saved him. It is that same grace that saves all those who place their trust in Jesus' complete atoning work on the cross.
Comments