Efficacious grace----eureka?

[MarcoPolo]

So I was reading Jimmy Akin’s The Salvation Controversy, the chapter on Calvinism. I am wondering if I had an epiphany of sorts.

He mentioned how even accepting the grace of salvation requires the capacity to accept, which in itself due to grace. Sooooo…Grace #1 - given to all persons and capacitates them to say yes or no to God. Everyone is given the opportunity to follow God’s will to the best of their ability. No one can refuse this enabling grace. Having this grace neither means the person will be saved nor will not be saved. Is this the grace that gives man free will to begin with, making him in the image of God? Perhaps.

Grace #2 - then at some point in his life is presented the saving grace of Christ, presented in some form that the person is prompted to turn away from sin and to God. This grace can be refused or accepted by the free will of the person. Hence, we must cooperate in order to be justified, giving the assent of faith working through love.What do you think? Holes in this explanation?

 

[James224]

So I was reading Jimmy Akin’s The Salvation Controversy, the chapter on Calvinism. I am wondering if I had an epiphany of sorts.

He mentioned how even accepting the grace of salvation requires the capacity to accept, which in itself due to grace. Sooooo…
Grace #1 - given to all persons and capacitates them to say yes or no to God. Everyone is given the opportunity to follow God’s will to the best of their ability. No one can refuse this enabling grace. Having this grace neither means the person will be saved nor will not be saved. Is this the grace that gives man free will to begin with, making him in the image of God? Perhaps.

Grace #2 - then at some point in his life is presented the saving grace of Christ, presented in some form that the person is prompted to turn away from sin and to God. This grace can be refused or accepted by the free will of the person. Hence, we must cooperate in order to be justified, giving the assent of faith working through love.
What do you think? Holes in this explanation?

I think it’s true. Acts 17:26-27 says, “And hath made of one, all mankind, to dwell upon the whole face of the earth, determining appointed times and the limits of their habitation. That they should seek God, if haply they may feel after him or find him, although he be not far from every one of us.” This means we are all given grace to say yes or no. This is actual grace. When we say yes and receive the sacraments we receive sanctifying grace which saves us. “Actual grace is a supernatural help of God which enlightens our mind and strengthens our will to do good and to avoid evil.” (Baltimore Catechism #113) *For it is God who of his good pleasure works in you both the will and the performance. (Philippians 2:13) *

 

[Ron_Conte]

There are two types of grace: actual grace and habitual grace (i.e. sanctifying grace).

According to St. Thomas, actual grace is “a movement of the soul” and sanctifying grace is “a quality of the soul.” (Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I-II, Q. 100, A. 2.)

Catholic Encyclopedia: “Actual grace…is granted by God for the performance of salutary acts and is present and disappears with the action itself. Its opposite, therefore, is…habitual grace, which causes a state of holiness, so that the mutual relations between these two kinds of grace are the relation between action and state….” (newadvent.org/cathen/06689x.htm)

1. Habitual grace (sanctifying grace) is the grace to be good. It is the grace given at Baptism (or when a person receives a baptism of desire). All persons who are in a state of grace have habitual grace (sanctifying grace) continually. Only an actual mortal sin can cause the state of grace to be lost.

The initial justification of a person by sanctifying grace is prevenient; it occurs by God operating, without our cooperation, ordinarily in the Sacrament of Baptism (but possibly in a Baptism of desire or of blood). Subsequent to justification, the person cooperates with the state of grace by living a life of love of God and neighbor.

1. Actual grace is the grace to do good. Persons who are in a state of grace, and persons who are not in a state of grace, even persons who are in a state of unrepentant actual mortal sin, are all recipients of actual graces.

There are two types of actual grace:

a. prevenient grace, also called operating grace - this is the grace given by God to enlighten our intellect and to enable our will so that we are able to freely choose to cooperate with subsequent grace, or to freely refuse to cooperate with subsequent grace.

There is no cooperation of the free will with prevenient grace; God is operating (acting alone) on the will, prior to any possibility of cooperation. All persons receive prevenient actual graces innumerable times in their lives, such that no one can say about any sin that he lacked the grace to freely choose not to sin, or not to repent from past sin.

b. subsequent grace, also called cooperating grace - this is the grace given by God to work with our free will to do good. God’s grace is infallible and all-powerful, so how can his grace seem to fail in some persons, such that they do not choose to do good? It is because our all-powerful God humbly submits himself to our free will, so that our good acts will be truly free. Every good act in cooperation with grace is in essence an act of love of God and neighbor. But love is not truly love unless it is truly free. So God does not work His grace in such a manner that no one is permitted to sin in this life. Rather, he allows us the free choice.

 

[MarcoPolo]

So in short, everyone gets actual grace that enables them to say yes or no to sanctifying grace given to them. A Calvinist would say there is no actual grace, and that no one can refuse sanctifying grace given to them. Right?

 

[Ron_Conte]

So in short, everyone gets actual grace that enables them to say yes or no to sanctifying grace given to them. A Calvinist would say there is no actual grace, and that no one can refuse sanctifying grace given to them. Right?

Everyone receives prevenient actual grace, which enables them to be truly free in deciding whether or not to cooperate (to say yes or no to) subsequent actual grace.

For those who are not baptized as infants, cooperation with subsequent actual grace leads the person toward Baptism (at least a Baptism of desire), which bestows sanctifying grace (the state of grace).

For all the Baptized, cooperation with subsequent actual grace keeps the person in state of grace. All who die in a state of grace will have eternal life.

Calvinists believe that free will plays no decisive role in salvation. God predestines to salvation those whom He wills to predestine, and He passes over the rest. In the Calvinist view, grace is irresistable, such that free will cannot say no. Salvation depends therefore on God’s choice alone.

But the Catholic view incorporates free will into the very definition of predestination:

Catechism of the Catholic Church: “To God, all moments of time are present in their immediacy. When therefore he establishes his eternal plan of ‘predestination’, he includes in it each person’s free response to his grace….” (CCC, n. 600).

We often call God’s knowledge of who will be saved and who will not be saved ‘foreknowledge.’ And so it is from our point of view. But God is beyond all time. He knows all truths all in one timeless eternal act.