Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Prevenient Grace

Prevenient grace is grace that God gives to begin the process of drawing a person to Himself. Its purpose is to prepare the heart of the non believer to respond to the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. Because of the sinful nature, no person seeks after God on his own. The Holy Spirit convicts a person of sin, shows him his need for the Savior, and urges the person to repent. Prevenient grace is universal, given to all. It is resistible - a person can spurn it to his own detriment. It works in combination with the hearing of the Word. It shows the non-believer that he has a further need for salvation. It results in saving grace when a person positively responds and perseveres in faith.

Describing prevenient grace, Thomas Oden writes:
Prevening grace antecedes human responsiveness so as to prepare the soul for the effective hearing of the redeeming Word. This preceding grace draws persons closer to God, lessens their blindness to divine remedies, strengthens their will to accept revealed truth, and enables repentance. Only when sinners are assisted by prevenient grace can they begin to yield their hearts to cooperation with subsequent forms of grace.
Prevenient grace has some commonality with the Calvinistic teaching of irresistible grace. Both attempt to explain how God draws the non-believer to Himself. Thus, Arminians and Calvinists often appeal to the same passages when explaining their concepts of drawing grace (John 6:44, for example). The two primary differences between prevenient grace and and irresistable grace are scope and resistability. Arminians believe that God draws everyone to Himself, while Calvinists believe that He draws a limited number. Arminians believe that drawing grace can be rejected, while Calvinists believe that drawing grace is always effectual.

Does scripture teach the concept of prevenient grace? There is no one passage that lays out a systematic definition of it, however, the concept becomes apparent throughout the overall tenor of scripture. Here are some passages that refer to the different aspects of prevenient grace:

Prevenient Grace Draws:
John 6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.

John 12:32 And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.

Prevenient Grace is Universal:
Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.

John 1:9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

John 16:7-8 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:

Romans 1:18-19 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.

Revelation 3:20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

Prevenient Grace Convicts the Non-Believer:
Acts 16:14 One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.

Acts 16:29-30 The jailer called for lights, rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

Prevenient Grace Works in Combination with the Hearing of the Word:
Acts 2:37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"

Romans 10:17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Prevenient Grace is Given Generously:
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?

Romans 2:4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

Acts 17:26-27 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

Prevenient Grace Can be Rejected:
Matt. 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.

John 5:34,39,40 Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved...You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

Acts 7:51 You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit!

Heb 4:2 For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.

Heb 10:29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

Prevenient Grace Results in Saving Grace when it is Accepted:
Ephesians 5:14 For it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: "Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."

Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.


Recommended Resources for Further Reading:
The Transforming Power of Grace (book), by Thomas Oden
A Brief Consideration of Prevenient Grace (online article), by Dennis Hartman
Prevenient Grace (online article), by Jeff Paton


14 comments:

A.M. Mallett said...

This is a great post that I am going to bookmark. I ended up re-reading Paton's article on grace
Thanks.

Kevin Jackson said...

Hi AM, glad you found it useful. Paton's article is excellent.

New Wineskins said...

Is prevenient grace given in equal portion to all people?

Kevin Jackson said...

New Wineskins,

No, I don't think so. Although I have heard of Calvinists interpret it that way. Most Arminians would state that prevenient grace is given to everyone in sufficient quantity, but not equal quantity.

First, PG works in combination with the hearing of the word. Those who have heard the good news definitely have an advantage over those who have not.

Second, PG is a form of drawing grace. If a person rejects it, he risks losing the opportunity to respond to it as a result of his hardened heart.

New Wineskins said...

So, can there be a rejection of PG and a seperate rejection of the Word? In other words, are PG and the Word distinguishable? I've read that PG can come days/weeks/months before the actual hearing of the Word. I'm very new to the concept of PG, so please bear with me. Thanks.

Kevin Jackson said...

Good question. I think that the hearing of the Word is both a phase and a form of PG. So hearing the Word is always PG. However, PG is not limited solely to hearing the Word. The forms of PG that are not specific to the hearing of the Word will point to the Word if they are received.

For example: Sam is a non-believer. He sees the life of John who is a Christian. Sam admires John. It comes to Sam’s mind to approach John, and ask him why he is happy.

In this example, Sam receives PG when he has the thought to approach John. If he asks John questions, John will share his faith in Jesus, and Sam will receive additional PG in hearing the Word. If Sam decides not to approach John, he misses out on that particular opportunity to hear the word. If Sam approaches John but then rejects what John has to say, then the fact that he initially accepted a form of PG becomes largely irrelevant because he rejected the Word when he heard it.

The principle here is that PG leads to saving grace when it is not rejected. Yet the fact that one embraces a particular form of PG does not guarantee that he will be saved, if he rejects a more explicit form of down the road.

I hope that makes sense. :)

Jnorm said...

Great post!


Keep up the good work.






Jnorm888

Shane Dodson said...

Your use of Revelation 3:20 is taken out of context. That passage is specifically written to the church at Laodicea. If you continue reading the rest of the passage, you will notice that last verse of the chapter...
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."
That verse was NOT directed to everybody in the world, as you are suggesting it is.

Kevin Jackson said...

Hi Shane, thanks for your comment.

We always need to be aware of context, but there is no inherent reason to reject the teachings of a passage simply because it has a specific audience in mind. The question to ask is does the passage teach a universal principle or not? Rev 3:20 does indeed teach a universal principle. "If anyone hears my voice and opens the door..."

The fact that the text was originally directed to the Laodicean church doesn't invalidate the principle that it teaches to us.

And would you not also agree that the American church has much in common with the Laodicean church? Neither hot nor cold, rich, self sufficient, etc. That passage is very applicable to us today.

Also keep in mind that nearly everything in the Bible was written to specific audiences (Romans 1:7, Ephesians 1:1, 1 Corinthians 1:2, James 1:1, etc.)

One need not be a first century Roman to benefit from the book of Romans, even though Paul had that specific audience in mind. That's because the principles taught in the Bible are timeless and transcend original audience.

God bless!

B. P. Burnett said...

If prevenient grace is universal in te way it is, what does that say about those persons who never hear the Gospel in far off lands?

Peter said...

Very interesting article! But I have a few questions:

Has PG been around since the time of Adam or did it come into play when Christ was lifted up? (John 12:32)

If it was around from the beginning of human history how do you explain John 12:32?

If it came into play when Christ died, how were individuals in the old Testament able to seek God--Abraham, Isaiah, etc?

Christopher de Vidal said...

As a Christian with Calvinistic leanings, I appreciate an exegetical, rather than a logical, defense of a doctrine. So I appreciated this article. Yet I don't see how Matt. 23:37 supports the doctrine; it is not the leaders who resist for themselves but for the children. If anything this passage teaches providence and lends itself to sovereign election. Please explain.

Kevin Jackson said...

Hi Christopher, sorry I don't check this blog often, it has been moved to wesleyanarminian.wordpress.com.

I don't understand where you're coming from on Matt 23:37. Explain?

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing."

Anonymous said...

I think Christopher's point is that in Mat 23:37, it is not saying that Christ tried to give grace to the Jewish leaders, but they resisted, but rather, Christ "would have gathered YOUR CHILDREN" (not YOU), but the Jewish leaders were not willing.

In other words, it reads this way:

"I longed to gather YOUR CHILDREN (Group A), but YOU (different group B) were not willing"

Not:

"I longed to gather YOU, but YOU were not willing"

Rather than be a verse that talks about God's grace being defeated, it is a condemnation of the Jewish leaders who did not desire or will for people to be gathered by Jesus.