Is repentance a divine gift?

[Corrgc69]

A Calvinist book I am reading states repentance is a gift not a work on mans part. It’s in a paragraph on Irresistible Grace and quotes Acts 5:31. Is this a sound interpretation of scripture? I thought Mans repentance was a response to Gods grace. Is repentance only given to a chosen few?

 

[CapitalistCatholic]

That’s a little bit like this:

“Come and repent all sinners! Unless I don’t want you to repent. If so, you’re out of luck ”

 

[ltwin]

Even Catholics believe in what is called prevenient grace–the grace that goes before. This is grace that prepares us to cooperate with God’s grace. As the Catholic Encyclopedia points out:

The Fathers of the Church bear witness to the reality of preventing grace in their very appropriate formula: “Gratia est in nobis, sed sine nobis”, that is, grace as a vital act is in the soul, but as an unfree, salutary act it does not proceed from the soul, but immediately from God.

Calvinists just take this further, in line with their views on predestination and unconditional election. Essentially, according to Calvinists, repentance only takes place after God has unilaterally regenerated us and brought us from spiritual death to spiritual life. Because of “total depravity”, humans are incapable of turning to God on their own since the will is held captive to sin. They have to be regenerated first, and then they are free to repent and turn to God.

 

[HopkinsReb]

A Calvinist book I am reading states repentance is a gift not a work on mans part. It’s in a paragraph on Irresistible Grace and quotes Acts 5:31. Is this a sound interpretation of scripture? I thought Mans repentance was a response to Gods grace. Is repentance only given to a chosen few?

Yes, repentance is a divine gift.

No, it is not only given to a chosen few. However, not all accept the gift.

 

[mcq72]

That’s a little bit like this:

“Come and repent all sinners! Unless I don’t want you to repent. If so, you’re out of luck ”

Or even worse, God may harden your heart, like Pharaoh.

My post is a misrepresentation of God, as is yours about Calvinism

 

[CapitalistCatholic]

I suppose I am exaggerating a little bit. Though, about the Pharaoh, his heart was allowed to be hardened. God didn’t actually force him to act in the way he did.

 

[mcq72]

I thought Mans repentance was a response to Gods grace.

yes it is, and yes is it a graced work of God.

Can any man boast ? (and why should we be told not to, if in fact we could not ? we can definitely be tempted to boast). I believe carnal man wants to hold on to the last smidgen of inherent righteousness, but it is vanity.

Baptism is not about reformation but about renewal, of something totally new. Not a reformed, repented creation, but a new creation, by the Holy Ghost…even enough for a representative name change for some. The old man dies, to the last smidgen.

 

[mcq72]

Is repentance only given to a chosen few?

This perception or emphasis I disagree with, and i think some Calvinists are wrong on this. For sure only the saved have been given this, that is the ability to accept it. But I would say equally as operational is the fact that God wishes that all should be saved, even though not all are saved, that Christ died for all.

We are chosen.

We are to choose this day whom we will serve.

Free will is in the mix of both those realities.

 

[po18guy]

Are you interested in Calvinism? If so, you might want to surf on over to www.calvin2catholic.com, the site of Dr. David Anders - a Calvinist who sought to debunk Catholicism and, of course, ended up become Catholic. He notes that “Calvinism” today bears almost no resemblance to the actual teachings of Calvin.

Repentance is a grace, but Calvin believed that (certain) grace was irresistible. Once God granted it to you, it was as if you were a robot and automatically responded. The elect could not resist the grace necessary for salvation - but how to know if you were “the elect”? The reformation, in general, had big problems with the concept of free will. Far easier to explain personal sin away if you do not possess a will of your own.

 

[tgGodsway]

I think the answer is yes and no. In one sense, only God can show us the need to repent. Until and unless that need is shown, man will not see the need on their own. But in another sense, every man is responsible to answer the call to repent. Generally speaking, repentance is a call to a narrow group of people who are “in Christ.” re" =go back… pent=… the highest place

 

[Wesrock]

The Calvinists get man’s role in it wrong. No man can come to God without God moving him to do so. However, man can choose to cooperate or not without that prompting.

 

[tgGodsway]

Fallen man is under the power of Satan through natural birth. His fallen nature has no capacity to make such a wise and spiritual choice, until or unless he is born again.

 

[Wesrock]

Fallen man is under the power of Satan through natural birth. His fallen nature has no capacity to make such a wise and spiritual choice, until or unless he is born again.

Precisely why man cannot do so on his own, but only when moved to do so by God, who gives him the capacity to choose to cooperate.

 

[ltwin]

Far easier to explain personal sin away if you do not possess a will of your own.

Who is “explaining sin away”? Certainly not Protestants. While the will is in bondage to sin, it is still our will, and we are still morally responsible for the sin because we choose sin. We are not robots mindlessly sinning, but we are fallen creatures made in the image of God whose rebellious natures and tendency inclines us to sin.

So, there are really two definitions of freedom at work here. There is the everyday definition of freedom (are my choices and preferences my own) which Protestants can say yes we all have this freedom.
Then there is the biblical definition of freedom which is freedom from preferring the self-destructive over that which is the greatest good (i.e. God). Paul said in Romans 6:17-18, “Thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.”

This (being freed from slavery to sin and now being slaves of righteousness) is true biblical freedom. And this freedom only comes from knowing Christ (John 8:32).