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Like many other familiar terms the word "grace" has a variety of connotations and nuances, which need not be listed here. For the purposes of this article its meaning is that of undeserved blessing freely bestowed on man by God, a concept which is at the heart not only of Christian theology but also of all genuinely Christian experience. In discussing the subject of grace an important distinction must be maintained between common (general, universal) grace and special (saving, regenerating) grace, if the relationship between divine grace and the human situation is to be rightly understood.

Common Grace

Common grace is so called because it is common to all mankind. Its benefits are experienced by the whole human race without discrimination between one person and another. The order of creation reflects the mind and the care of the Creator who sustains what he has made. The eternal Son, through whom all things were made, "upholds the universe by his word of power" (Heb. 1:2 - 3; John 1:1 - 4). God's gracious provision for his creatures is seen in the sequence of the seasons, of seedtime and harvest. Thus Jesus reminded his hearers that God "makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matt. 5:45). The Creator's sustaining care for his creation is what is meant when we speak of divine providence.
Another aspect of common grace is evident in the divine government or control of human society. It is true that human society is in a state of sinful fallenness. Were it not for the restraining hand of God, indeed, our world would long since have degenerated into a self destructive chaos of iniquity, in which social order and community life would have been an impossibility. That a measure of domestic, political, and international harmony is enjoyed by the generality of mankind is due to the overruling goodness of God.
Paul actually teaches that civil government with its authorities is ordained by God and that to resist these authorities is to resist the ordinance of God. He even calls secular rulers and magistrates ministers of God, since their proper concern is the maintenance of order and decency in society. Insofar as they bear the sword for the punishment of wrongdoers in the interests of justice and peace, theirs is a God - given authority. And, significantly, the state of which the apostle was proud to be a citizen was the pagan and at times persecuting state of imperial Rome, at the hands of whose rulers he would be put to death. (See Rom. 13:1ff.)
It is due, further, to common grace than man retains within himself a consciousness of the difference between right and wrong, truth and falsehood, justice and injustice, and the awareness that he is answerable or accountable not merely to his fellowmen but also and ultimately to God, his Maker. Man, in short, has a conscience and is endowed with the dignity of existing as a responsible being. He is duty bound lovingly to obey God and to serve his fellows. The conscience is the focus within each person, as a being formed in the image of God, not only of self respect and of respect for others but of respect for God.
To common grace, then, we must thankfully attribute God's continuing care for his creation, as he provides for the needs of his creatures, restrains human society from becoming altogether intolerable and ungovernable, and makes it possible for mankind, though fallen, to live together in a generally orderly and cooperative manner, to show mutual forbearance, and to cultivate together the scientific, cultural, and economic pursuits of civilization.

Special Grace

Special grace is the grace by which God redeems, sanctifies, and glorifies his people. Unlike common grace, which is universally given, special grace is bestowed only on those whom God elects to eternal life through faith in his Son, our Savior Jesus Christ. It is to this special grace that the whole of the Christian's salvation is owed: "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself," Paul writes of the believer's re - creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:18). God's regenerating grace is dynamic. It not only saves but also transforms and revitalizes those whose lives were previously broken and meaningless. This is graphically illustrated by the experience of Saul the persecutor who was dramatically changed into Paul the apostle, so that he was able to testify: "By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them (the other apostles), though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me" (1 Cor. 15:10).
All is thus ascribed to the grace of God, not merely the Christian's conversion but also the whole course of his ministry and pilgrimage. For the sake of convenience, the theme of special grace will now be developed under a number of customary theological heads or aspects, as prevenient, efficacious, irresistible, and sufficient.
Prevenient grace is grace which comes first. It precedes all human decision and endeavor. Grace always means that it is God who takes the initiative and implies the priority of God's action on behalf of needy sinners. That is the whole point of grace: it does not start with us, it starts with God; it is not earned or merited by us, it is freely and lovingly given to us who have no resources or deservings of our own. "In this is love," John declares, "not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins"; consequently, "we love, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:10, 19).
God, in fact, showed his prior love for us by graciously providing this redemption precisely when we had no love for him: "God shows his love for us," says Paul, "in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us," so that "while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son" (Rom. 5:8, 10; cf. 2 Cor. 8:9). God took action, moreover, when we were helpless (Rom. 5:6), without any ability to help ourselves or to make any contribution toward our salvation. The sinner's state is one of spiritual death, that is to say, of total inability, and his only hope is the miracle of new birth from above (John 3:3). That is why the apostle reminds the Ephesian believers that salvation came to them when they were "dead" in sins, from which there follows only one conclusion, namely, that it is by grace that they were saved.
Both now and for all eternity the Christian will be indebted to "the immeasurable riches" of God's grace displayed in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus; for, Paul insists, "by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not because of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:5 - 9). But for the prevenience, or priority, of divine grace, all would be lost.
Efficacious grace is grace which effects the purpose for which it is given. It is efficacious simply because it is God's grace. What is involved here is the doctrine of God: what God purposes and performs cannot fail or come to nothing; otherwise he is not God. The indefectibility of redeeming grace is seen not only in the turning of sinners from darkness to light but also in the bringing of them to the consummation of eternal glory. "All that the Father gives to me will come to me," Jesus declared; "and him who comes to me I will not cast out; and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day" (John 6:37, 39; cf. 17:2, 6, 9, 12, 24). There is no power in all the universe that can undo or frustrate the work of God's special grace: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me," says the Good Shepherd; "and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:27 - 28).
All, as we have seen, from beginning to end, is owed to the grace of Almighty God (2 Cor. 5:18, 21). The whole of our redemption is already achieved and sealed in Christ: "For those whom (God) foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son; and those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified" (Rom. 8: 29 - 30). That the grace of God in Christ Jesus is efficacious, that it achieves now and for evermore the redemption it was designed to achieve, should be a source of the utmost confidence, strength, and security to the Christian. The fact that "God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: 'The Lord knows those who are his'" (2 Tim. 2:19) should fill him with unshakable assurance. Since the grace of redemption is the grace of God, he may be absolutely certain "that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). God's special grace is never in vain (1 Cor. 15:10).
Irresistible grace is grace which cannot be rejected. The conception of the irresistibility of special grace is closely bound up with what has been said above concerning the efficacious nature of that grace. As the work of God always achieves the effect toward which it is directed, so also it cannot be resisted or thrust aside. No doubt it is true that most persons blindly struggle against the redemptive grace of God at first, just as Saul of Tarsus fought against the goads of his conscience (Acts 26:14); subsequently, however, he understood that God had not only called him through his grace but had set him apart before he was born (Gal. 1:15), indeed that those who are Christ's were chosen in him before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4).
As creation was irresistibly effected through the all powerful word and will of God, so also the new creation in Christ is irresistibly effected through that same all powerful word and will. The Creator God is one and the same with the Redeemer God. This in effect is what Paul is affirming when he writes: "It is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness' (that is, at creation; Gen. 1:3 - 5), who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (that is, in the new creation)" (2 Cor. 4:6). The regenerating work of God in the believing heart, precisely again because it is God's work, can no more be resisted than it can come to nothing.
Sufficient grace is grace that is adequate for the saving of the believer here and now and hereafter to all eternity. As with the other aspects of special grace, its sufficiency flows from the infinite power and goodness of God. Those who draw near to him through Christ he saves "fully and completely" (Heb. 7:25, Phillips). The cross is the only place of forgiveness and reconciliation, and it is fully so; for the blood of Jesus shed there for us cleanses from all sin and from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:7, 9), and he is the propitiation not for our sins only but also "for the sins of the whole world" (1 John 2:2). Moreover, as we face the trials and afflictions of this present life the Lord's grace continues to be unfailingly sufficient for us (2 Cor. 12:9). He has promised, "I will never fail you nor forsake you." "Hence," as the author of the Letter to the Hebrews points out, "we can confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid; what can man do to me?'" (Heb. 13:5 - 6; Ps. 118:6).
The fact that many who hear the call of the gospel fail to respond to it with repentance and faith, and continue in their unbelief, does not imply that there is any insufficiency in Christ's atoning sacrifice of himself on the cross. The fault rests entirely with them, and they are condemned because of their own unbelief (John 3:18. It is inappropriate to speak of divine grace in terms of quantity, as though it were sufficient only for those whom God justifies, or as though for its sufficiency to exceed these limits would mean a wastage of grace and to that extent an invalidation of Christ's self - offering. God's grace is boundless. How could it be anything else, seeing it is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, God himself incarnate? That is why it is all - sufficient. No matter how much we draw from it, the river of divine grace is always full of water (Ps. 65:9). Quantitative notions of God's saving grace make the universal offer of the gospel unreal for those who reject it and leave them rejecting something that is not even there for them to reject.
And this in turn leaves no ground for their condemnation as unbelievers (John 3:18 again). More biblical is the distinction that has been propounded between the sufficiency and the efficiency (or efficaciousness) of special grace (though it would be foolish to imagine that this dissolves the mystery of God's gracious dealings with his creatures), according to which this grace is sufficient for all but efficient (or efficacious) only for those whom God justifies by faith.
It is important always to remember that the operation of God's grace is a deep mystery that is far beyond our limited human comprehension. God does not treat men as though they were puppets with no mind or will of their own. Our human dignity as responsible persons under God is never violated or despised. How could it be, since this dignity is itself given by God? By Christ's command the gospel of divine grace is freely proclaimed throughout the whole world (Acts 1:8; Matt. 28:19). Those who turn away from it do so of their own choice and stand self condemned as lovers of darkness rather than light (John 3:19, 36). Those who thankfully receive it do so in full personal responsibility (John 1:12; 3:16), but then they give all the praise to God because their whole redemption is, in some wonderful way, due entirely to the grace of God and not at all to themselves.
Confronted with this marvelous but mysterious reality, we can do no more than exclaim, with Paul: "O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory for ever. Amen" (Rom. 11:33, 36).