Tag Archives: Grace

The Justification Transposition

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Breaking Bad - Justification TranspositionIn the last post I shared some of my thoughts on the sequence of events in salvation. I compared these events to a chemical reaction in which a person that is condemned to death is transformed into a person that is reconciled and made alive.

Dead & Condemned → Alive & Reconciled

This process is started when grace is applied, giving us the Grace Reaction.

The last post also presented the chain reaction as it is understood in Reformed theology. That reaction looks like this:

Dead → Grace → Regeneration → Faith → Justification → Reconciliation

Examining the equation above we were left with the question: is it possible for someone to be born again (regenerated) prior to having their sins forgiven (justification)?

While the various aspects of salvation occur faster than the combustion of methane/oxygen (see video in last post), it can be helpful to slow things down and evaluate the steps based on their logical order.

Faith and Justification

There is little debate that faith logically precedes justification.  In Romans 4:1-5, Paul explains that Abraham was justified (credited as righteous) based on having faith. Continue reading →

The Grace Reaction

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Breaking Bad - Grace Reaction - EditA chemical reaction is a process that transforms the starting substances so that they have properties that are different than those prior to the reaction. These reactions can be graphically represented using a chemical equation.

As an example, methane and oxygen after the chemical reaction of combustion produces carbon dioxide and water. This is represented by the following equation:

CH4 + 2O2 → CO2 + 2H2O

The arrow in that equation represents numerous steps that occur before we end up with our two final products.

This is what that looks like:

Can you tell that school has started?

Interesting, but you might be wondering what this has to do with theology? Recently, I have been thinking through salvation, particularly on the sequence of events that allow a sinner condemned to death to experience reconciliation and new life. The more I thought on this, the more I started to see it as the Grace Reaction. Of course in theology this concept is more commonly known as the ordo salutis. Continue reading →

Watson: On Grace

Aside

Richard Watson (1781-1833) was an Arminian theologican. This is the entry on Grace in his Dictionary. 

This word is understood in several senses: for beauty, graceful form, and agreeableness of person, (Proverbs 1:9; 3:22). For favour, friendship, kindness, (Genesis 6:8; 18:3; Romans 11:6; 2 Timothy 1:9). For pardon, mercy, undeserved remission of offences, (Ephesians 2:5; Colossians 1:6). For certain gifts of God, which he bestows freely, when, where, and on whom, he pleases; such are the gifts of miracles, prophecy, languages, &c, (Romans 15:15; 1 Corinthians 15:10; Ephesians 3:8, &c). For the Gospel dispensation, in contradistinction to that of the law, (Romans 6:14; 1 Peter 5:12). For a liberal and charitable disposition, (2 Corinthians 8:7). For eternal life, or final salvation, (1 Peter 1:13).

In theological language grace also signifies divine influence upon the soul; and it derives the name from this being the effect of the great grace or favour of God to mankind. Austin defines inward actual grace to be the inspiration of love, which prompts us to practise according to what we know, out of a religious affection and compliance. He says, likewise, that the grace of God is the blessing of God’s sweet influence, whereby we are induced to take pleasure in that which he commands, to desire and to love it; and that if God does not prevent us with this blessing, what he commands, not only is not perfected, but is not so much as begun in us.

Without the inward grace of Jesus Christ, man is not able to do the least thing that is good. He stands in need of this grace to begin, continue, and finish all the good he does, or rather, which God does in him and with him, by his grace. This grace is free; it is not due to us: if it were due to us, it would be no more grace; it would be a debt, (Romans 11:6); it is in its nature an assistance so powerful and efficacious, that it surmounts the obstinacy of the most rebellious human heart, without destroying human liberty.

There is no subject on which Christian doctors have written so largely, as on the several particulars relating to the grace of God. The difficulty consists in reconciling human liberty with the operation of divine grace; the concurrence of man with the influence and assistance of the Almighty. And who is able to set up an accurate boundary between these two things? Who can pretend to know how far the privileges of grace extend over the heart of man, and what that man’s liberty exactly is, who is prevented, enlightened, moved, and attracted by grace?