“If
we take this in its utmost extent, it will include all that is wrought in the
soul by what is frequently termed "natural conscience," but more
properly, "preventing grace"; --all the drawings of the Father; the
desires after God, which, if we yield to them, increase more and more.”
In
the above quotation from his sermon The Scripture Way of Salvation, John
Wesley defines the first of three types of Grace that God provides us. Preventing,
or more commonly Prevenient Grace is the pull, or push, toward God. This
constantly flowing grace comes to us through various conduits and pushes us
toward that moment of Salvation and then beyond. If we picture a journey,
traveling from birth through spiritual awakening to new birth and onward.
Prevenient grace is the constant tail wind that helps us along. This grace is
always flowing toward us through conduits, what Wesly termed the means of grace,
such as the Sacraments, Scripture, good works (ours and others), other people,
coincidence and many more. Basically, anything or anyone can be a conduit for
God’s Prevenient Grace.
The
second type of Grace, sometimes called saving grace, is Justifying Grace. This
is the grace that when it reaches us prompts us to cry out to God. Whereas
prevenient grace awakens us to sin in our lives, justifying grace is the activation
of our faith for the forgiveness of those sins. It is the grace which instills
in us the understanding that the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ
is the price by which salvation was procured and is offered to us. This type of
grace also reaches us through various conduits, in my case through a song,
“This Blood” by Carman.
The
third type of grace is Sanctifying Grace. This grace begins to flow into our
lives at the very moment of justification. From this new birth through the rest
of our lives, we are slowly being shaped into the image of Christ, building
toward Christian perfection, by the working of God’s grace in our lives. His sanctifying
Grace again comes through many different conduits. Well different from each
other but could possibly be the same conduits through which the other types of
grace have flowed or are flowing.
Each
type of grace fuels our faith and draws us into a deeper relationship with God,
through Christ Jesus by the working of the Holy Spirit. They act individually
and corporately in our lives to draw us closer to God and to each other.
Next
time we will look at Justification in more detail.
¹ John Wesley, Sermon 43: The Scripture Way of Salvation, Sermons, on Several
Occasions (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1999).
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