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Originally Posted by Richard Tallach  I've been looking at some NT passages that use the word grace (charis). It seems clear that there is a grace/grace according to the NT that falls short of saving grace.
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (Jude 4)
This passage is particularly interesting in that it explicitly mentions reprobation. Yet it still calls God's goodness to these men "grace" and says that it was their fault and responsibility for turning grace into lasciviousness.
Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; (Heb. 12:15)
In the KJV margin we have "lest any man fall from grace", so it is clearly not saving grace. So we must call it something else, and Reformed people call it "common grace"
Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace? (Heb 10:29)
This shows that common grace extends further than outward things such as milk and honey/food and clothes and also includes the actings, warmings, convictings and drawings of the Spirit of God, short of salvation itself. These things are portrayed as good spiritual gifts and the God the Holy Spirit is characterised as acting in His capacity as "the Spirit of grace". It is because such influences are gracious gifts that the sin is so wicked and the punishment will be even sorer.
More later.........
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Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. (Galatians 5:4)
The grace that these Galatians had experienced must have been short of saving grace otherwise they could not have abandoned the faith. Paul doesn't offer the backsliding of truly saved Christians here.
Continuing backwards through the NT...
I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. (Gal 2:21)
Paul speaks of a grace that can be frustrated. Clearly it cannot be the irresistible saving grace.
We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (II Cor 6:1)
Paul speaks of a grace that can be received in vain. Clearly not salvation, which when received cannot be lost. |
Sorry, but your conclusion does not follow from the premises. What you have done is a good example of eisegesis, that is reading your conclusion into the texts of Scripture rather than demonstrating that your conclusion is a good and necessary consequence of the texts.
In each example you have cited, the word grace can refer to the full extent of saving grace when the term is meant doctrinally rather than experientially. It is the doctrine of saving grace that is twisted to derive lascivious conclusions about Christian practice (Jude); the true doctrine can be professed with the lips but not believed in the heart by a false professor (Hebrews 12) or disavower (Heb. 10, Galatians 5, 2 Cor 6) as the result. Since the subject of Gal 2. is the Apostle Paul referring to something he is not doing with reference to true saving grace, that Scripture is not relevant to a discussion of whether common grace exists or not; in fact none of these passages speak to the question of common grace.
The idea behind "grace" is that its giver gives something given to someone who doesn't deserve it, or to someone who deserves the contrary of what is received. If the reprobate (as a class) receive anything from God which they do not deserve, or anything from God that is contrary to what they deserve, than they have received, some form of a "grace" from God.
What all sinners deserve to receive from God is death (Gen 2:17, Rom 6:23a) and that immediately (Gen 2:17). If God allows the reprobate to experience anything other then immediate death for sin commited, he is giving them something they do not deserve and, in fact contrary to what they deserve.
Whatever God's long term reasons for giving the reprobate what they do not deserve may be, or whatever the long term effects of these gifts in the lives of the reprobate may prove to have, those reasons do not change the fact that the reprobate who do not experience death immediately after sinning are experiencing some level of blessing from God, and that blessing is not what they deserve.