Prevenient Grace

Some hold to a view called “prevenient grace.”  This word “prevenient” means something like “preceding” or “coming before.”  The idea is that God has provided or provides what is needed for salvation, and one can either receive it or reject it.  

According to the belief of the “total depravity” of man, and according to a particular view of “spiritual death,” there is an inability of the “natural man” to respond to God as needed in order for them to be saved.  Therefore, the unsaved needs some sort of divine enablement, either “regeneration” or something like it (some call it a "quickening") to have faith that results in salvation. This divine enablement is called “efficacious grace” or “irresistible grace.”  God has predetermined whom he wants saved, and he eventually enables them to believe the Gospel by that grace, whether by regeneration or something like it.  

The opposing view doesn’t take man’s depravity to that extent.  The prevenient view would probably say that though man is “depraved,” it doesn’t mean he is “totally” depraved in the sense that he can’t respond to God as in a total inability.  Though the unsaved is spiritually “dead,” it doesn’t mean he can’t respond to God.  It's not to be compared to someone calling out to a physically dead person at the bottom the ocean (I’ve heard it illustrated that way).   

Being “dead” means they don’t have eternal life:  they are alienated from the life of God.   The natural man’s inability to know the things of God are two-fold: 1) he doesn’t intuitively know the mind of God:  no one actually does unless God reveals it; and 2) the things revealed have a progressive apprehension to them:  one can’t discern what he’s not ready for, for even an immature believer can not receive what a mature believer can, and an unsaved person can not receive or appreciate truth that does not relate to him, such as “walk in the spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” An unsaved person cannot love God or appreciate any spiritual truth until he responds to certain things first, such as to the convicting work of the Holy Spirit, concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.

The “grace” of God can actually refer to different things.    If you look at the Hebrew word for it in the Old Testament, you will find that the word is often translated “favor,” and this is the definition Lewis Sperry Chafer gives it in his book on Grace.  The meaning should be determined by context and usage.  Grace can refer to Divine enablement, but not in every case, especially as the word is used in the Old Testament.  Spiritual gifts are referred to as a grace by Paul, and they are a kind of divine enablement.  

Grace can speak of something someone did freely.  The death of Christ is called grace in 2 Corinthians 8.9 and in Romans 5 in the text following verse 12.  I would say that the death of Christ is provisional grace:  it is by the death of Christ we can be saved, but one has to believe in him for salvation, or his death will not save you.  Some don’t like this view because they say it means Christ died in vain for many.   I just find that a pointless argument.  (There are Calvinists who believe Jesus died for all, not just for the elect—though you need to clarify if they are talking about intent or extent).  Grace seems to often speak of that which is freely done or given, like a gift, or a favor, but it is still often associated with faith being required to receive that grace.    

Grace could speak of a provision by God or Christ (like his death for sins) and then from God (like justification), but then faith is required before it benefits an individual.  The role of faith seems true even when grace is seen as a kind of divine enablement as in  some sort of divine help in the time of need:  “Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and fine grace to help in our time of need,” Hebrews 4.16.  Such grace is not automatic.   And when it comes to salvation, there must be a response to the promised provision; that provision is grace, and the divine response is grace, but until one believes, grace does not profit them.

I think instead of “prevenient” grace, it should be called “provisional grace.”  God has provided what is needed, but one must believe (in the right thing) to receive it or receive the benefit of it, depending on what’s needed, whether justification before God or help in time of need.