Sola gratia - salvation, regeneration, is by God's
grace. I bring nothing to the table that enables me to be reconciled with
God, to have faith.
Ephesians 2:8-9
- For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own
doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
I’d like to start by
laying out an airplane level view of the terrain on this topic, at least from
my perspective. Generally speaking, we
are looking at the relationship between human free will and God’s election,
human choice and God’s sovereignty. What
role, if any, do these forces play in coming to faith in God? I’m not aware of a theological tenant that is
debated more than this one. The
implications resulting from how these questions are answered are huge – what is
the scope of the atonement accomplished by Christ, and how should the message
of the cross be presented to unbelievers?
To a large extent,
protestant associations are defined by what approach or stand they take on this
issue. Some protestant denominations are
defined by NOT taking a clear stand on this issue. The Southern Baptist denomination comes to
mind. There are many positions and
nuances to differing conclusions on this issue, but primarily we are looking at
positions somewhere on a scale between 5-point Calvinism and Arminianism. While I’d love to lay both those views out in
a nutshell, it would have to be a really big nutshell. For my purposes here, it’s enough to say that
both ends of the scale believe God’s grace is the prime factor which enables a
person to come to faith. Arminians
believe this grace is available to all – prevenient grace. 5-point Calvinists believe this grace is
available to the elect – irresistible grace.
So, is the Catholic
Church’s doctrine of faith on this same scale, and, if so, where? Well, it turns out the Catholic Church only
uses the word “grace” in reference to Mary – beyond that, the Church has nothing
to say about grace. I’m sorry, that
statement is actually completely false - I just can’t resist typing bad
jokes. In truth, the Church has said a
lot about grace. The Catholic Church condemned
both Pelagianism and Semipelagianism in the year 529 at the Council of Orange
and effectively laid out a position of sola gratia a thousand years before the
Reformation. Both Calvinist and Arminian positions appeal
to the Council or Orange to support their views. So, clearly, the Catholic Church uses the
same “grace scale” as most protestant sources.
I linked to the Catholic Catechism in my last post on sola fide and pasted the whole “justification”
section. The next section is “grace”. I’m not going to paste the whole section
again, but I will hit the highlights. First,
Mary is not included in this section of the Catechism. The Catechism defines grace as “…the free and undeserved help that God
gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons,
partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life”, and references 4 New
Testament passages in support. It goes
on to say that the “…vocation to eternal
life is supernatural. It depends entirely on God's gratuitous initiative, for
he alone can reveal and give himself. It surpasses the power of human intellect
and will…”. This all seems to put
the Catholic Church on the Calvinist side of the scale. However, it goes on to say “God's free initiative demands man's free
response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with
freedom, the power to know him and love him” which sounds much more
Arminian. Beyond this initial grace, the
Catechism describes how grace is involved in the ongoing life of the Christian and
“includes the gifts that the Spirit
grants us to associate us with his work, to enable us to collaborate in the
salvation of others and in the growth of the Body of Christ, the Church.” So, where does that put the Catholic Church
on the “grace scale” – the answer is yes.
This is a very limited view of the topic. It is
very tempting to keep going and look at each letter of TULIP (or DAISY or ROSES) to see what the
Catholic Church teaches. However, I’ve
seen enough to satisfy myself for now, and I have plenty of material to come
back to. In the end, it seems almost
every doctrine or practice of faith is related to grace.
For myself, I love the
doctrines of grace, and I see God’s sovereignty as integral to the Gospel. But I also see that God created us to
participate in faith and engage our will.
So, there’s a mystery in there and I think that’s how God designed it. I also think that is precisely the position
the Catholic Church teaches.
Love,
Paul
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