Grace

Common grace denotes God's beneficent operations toward all humanity without discrimination, restraining sin's full expression, enabling civic virtue, and bestowing temporal blessings upon the just and unjust alike. This universal favor, while not redemptive in effect, demonstrates divine goodness and renders all men inexcusable before their Creator.

Through common grace, God mercifully restrains the full manifestation of human depravity, preventing society from descending into absolute chaos and enabling civil order to persist. This divine restraint operates through conscience, human government, social structures, and providential circumstances, holding back the floodgates of wickedness until the appointed time.

Common grace enables unregenerate persons to perform acts of relative righteousness in the civil sphere—acts that benefit society and reflect remnants of the divine image, though falling short of true spiritual goodness. These civic virtues, while commendable in their external manifestation, remain tainted by sin's corruption and cannot merit divine favor or contribute to salvation.

God's self-disclosure through creation and conscience constitutes general revelation, rendering all humanity aware of divine existence, power, and moral requirements. This universal knowledge, sufficient to condemn yet insufficient to save, leaves every person accountable to worship the Creator while demonstrating the necessity of special revelation for redemption.

Effectual calling represents God's sovereign, irresistible summons whereby the Holy Spirit inwardly illuminates the mind, renews the will, and draws the elect infallibly to Christ. This internal call, distinguished from the external gospel proclamation, never fails to accomplish its intended purpose of bringing the chosen to saving faith.

The grace of God in salvation proves ultimately irresistible to the elect, overcoming all human resistance and effectually accomplishing the divine purpose. While sinners may temporarily resist the external call, the internal operations of the Spirit inevitably triumph, transforming recalcitrant rebels into willing servants who come to Christ both freely and necessarily.

Salvation operates monergistically—God alone accomplishes the work of regeneration without human cooperation, for spiritual death precludes any capacity to contribute to one's resurrection. The sinner remains wholly passive in regeneration, though subsequently active in conversion, as divine sovereignty produces what human inability cannot—life from death, faith from unbelief.

Regeneration necessarily precedes and produces saving faith, for the spiritually dead possess no ability to believe until made alive by the Spirit. God imparts new life to His elect prior to their exercise of faith, thereby enabling what nature rendered impossible—the believing reception of Christ and His gospel.

The covenant of grace, though administered diversely across redemptive history, remains singular in substance—the gracious promise to save sinners through the mediatorial work of Christ. From the protoevangelium in Eden through the Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and New Covenants, God's redemptive plan unfolds progressively while maintaining essential unity in Christ.

God unfolds the covenant of grace progressively throughout Scripture, each successive administration adding clarity while maintaining continuity with previous revelations. The shadows of the old covenant find their substance in Christ, as types, prophecies, and promises achieve their intended fulfillment in the gospel age.

The covenant of redemption constitutes the eternal, intratrinitarian pact wherein the Father appointed the Son to accomplish salvation and the Son voluntarily undertook the work of mediation. This covenant of peace between the divine persons precedes temporal creation and grounds the covenant of grace extended to the elect throughout history.

God graciously provides covenant signs and seals—circumcision in the old administration, baptism and the Lord's Supper in the new—to strengthen faith, ratify promises, and distinguish His people. These sacramental ordinances, when received by faith, confirm covenant blessings while serving as visible manifestations of invisible grace.

God's election of specific individuals unto salvation proceeds from His sovereign pleasure alone, unconditioned by foreseen faith, works, or worthiness in the chosen. This discriminating love, exercised before the foundation of the world, ensures the certain salvation of the elect while demonstrating divine justice toward the non-elect who receive their deserved condemnation.

Christ's atoning death accomplished certain redemption for the elect specifically, securing not merely the possibility of salvation for all but the certainty of salvation for those given to Him by the Father. The sufficiency of His sacrifice extends to all humanity while its efficiency applies particularly to the chosen, guaranteeing their complete redemption.

Divine election flows from God's absolute sovereignty, exercised according to the counsel of His own will rather than human merit or decision. This sovereign choice humbles human pride, magnifies divine mercy, and establishes salvation upon the immutable foundation of God's eternal purpose rather than fickle human will.

Far from breeding uncertainty, the doctrine of election provides believers their firmest ground of assurance, for salvation rests upon God's unchangeable decree rather than human constancy. The evidences of election—effectual calling, faith, repentance, sanctification—confirm one's membership among the chosen and afford confidence in final perseverance.

The perseverance of the saints rests not upon human resolution but divine preservation—God's almighty power maintaining His elect in grace through every trial and temptation. The same sovereign power that effected regeneration ensures glorification, keeping believers from final apostasy through the Spirit's indwelling presence and Christ's continual intercession.

True believers, being eternally chosen, effectually called, and sealed by the Spirit, possess absolute security in their salvation, which cannot be forfeited through sin, doubt, or even temporary unbelief. This security, grounded in God's immutable decree and Christ's finished work, provides confident assurance while never licensing presumption or careless living.

Scripture's warnings against apostasy and exhortations to perseverance serve as ordained means whereby God preserves His elect, stimulating vigilance and prompting continued faith. These admonitions, rather than contradicting eternal security, constitute the very instruments through which God accomplishes the preservation of the saints, keeping them from the dangers warned against.

Those who utterly and finally fall away demonstrate thereby that they never possessed genuine faith, for true believers, being born of incorruptible seed and sealed unto redemption, cannot experience total apostasy. Temporary backsliding differs categorically from final apostasy—the former characterizes genuine believers being chastened, the latter exposes false professors never truly regenerated.

Scripture stands as the preeminent means of grace, through which the Holy Spirit ordinarily works to convert sinners, edify saints, and conform believers to Christ's image. The proclaimed and read Word accomplishes God's purposes, serving as the Spirit's sword to convict, instruct, sanctify, and sustain the people of God throughout their earthly pilgrimage.

Baptism and the Lord's Supper constitute divinely instituted sacraments wherein Christ communicates grace to believers through visible signs accompanying His Word. These holy ordinances, when received with faith, strengthen assurance, nourish spiritual life, and seal covenant promises, serving as means whereby God sustains His people in grace.

Prayer operates as a vital means of grace, the appointed channel through which believers receive divine blessings, experience spiritual growth, and maintain communion with their heavenly Father. Through this discipline, God has ordained to bestow what He has purposed to give, making prayer both a privilege of sonship and a duty of discipleship.

The gathered assembly of believers constitutes an essential means of grace wherein God meets His people through Word, sacrament, prayer, and mutual edification. Corporate worship, far from being optional, provides the ordinary context for spiritual nourishment, as the body of Christ functions together for the strengthening of individual members and the glorification of the triune God.