What is prevenient grace?

This is grace, and like the ways of the Lord in grace, from the beginning. His answer meets the felt need of the soul. He creates the desire that He may satisfy it. When the heart desires that which is good, we may be sure that His grace is there. As there is nothing spiritually good in the natural heart, the first, as every good desire after, must come from God. "I will arise, and go to my father," was the effect of grace working in the heart of the prodigal; and he was then as safe as when he was in his father's arms, though he did not know it. So that a good desire is the fruit of grace, and, in a certain sense, the possession of all that is desired. It is like the earnest of the inheritance.

The first thing in the history of the dealings of God with souls is new birth, for without that there would be no seeking after God. This is produced by His Word, and His word of glad tidings. When this takes place the soul becomes a seeker after God. His eyes are opened, and he turns from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan to God, that he may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith (Acts 26:18). There clearly we see a work of grace in the heart previous to the soul coming to God and receiving forgiveness, and I do not think that Scripture speaks of any work done in the soul previous to new birth, indeed, the very term “born again” precludes the idea of anything previous.

This is just as true today as it was then. None but those born of God receive Christ. The Lord says: “No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent Me draw him” (John 6:44). I do not doubt this drawing is effected by the incorruptible seed being implanted in the soul. “They shall be all taught of God,” He says, and “Every man therefore that has heard and learned of the Father comes unto Me.” There is clearly a secret work of God wrought in the soul of man, which leads him to faith in Christ; that is, when he hears of Christ in the Gospel of the grace of God. Hence faith in Christ personally and in His work is the outcome of new birth.

With respect to the first of these points, it has already been discussed. The unlimited scope of the Gospel message, as preached under heaven to man, is too clear to insist on further. But, wide as the aspect of Divine grace is, it is only the receivers of its abundance who are brought within the circle of its blessing. The publication of the love of God to the world, as witnessed by the gift of His Son, is one thing — the acceptance of the grace thus preached is another and a totally different thing. The reception of grace is not an act of the natural will of man, wrought to a persuasion of good by the preaching of the word of grace. On the other hand, it is not an effect produced upon the creature, absolutely, and without his willing consent. But it is the special operation of God, who, by the Holy Ghost, quickens into life the poor dead sinner by means of the Word, and thus gives him the desire for, and imparts to him a power to receive the gift of God (John 4). God is the builder of the saint's rest. It is the abundance of Divine mercy which has not merely sent Christ into the world, and in Him provided eternal redemption, but which also begets unto Himself the children of His love. As it is elsewhere said: "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth (James 1:18; cp. 1 Peter 1:23-25). The word of truth, even though it be a proclamation of grace, is but a dead, a killing letter, unless it become the effective instrument of His power who works all things after the counsel of His own will.

I close this part of my remarks with one more quotation, leaving the historical part for further consideration. "Take two street arabs, perfectly ignorant of Christianity. Read to one of them the Gospel narrative of the Passion, and comment on it as fully as may be. Shew the other a crucifix, and tell him simply what it means. Question each a week afterwards, and see which has the clearest notions about the history of Calvary." (Page 50.) Now to say nothing of the utter pelagianism of this, the total leaving out of preventive grace, as is the case indeed in the whole of the statements furnished by this article, and, to speak only of means used, I ask what is declared by the Lord and His apostles to be the means of quickening, saving, edifying? Is it the word of truth, or pictures and crucifixes? Let not the objector talk to me of sacraments; they are not in question here. In the alternative put by the writer, he has chosen what God has not chosen; and God has chosen (what he condemns) the word written and the word ministered by men. But still, though this article be low and degraded, the same fundamental principles characterize it which are insisted on in others.

On the other hand, in our case the sad but sure alternative of God's preventing grace is sinful failure. If spiritual energy does not prevail, its antagonist is flesh; and the carnal will is sin. Weakness, however, is the natural quality which is chiefly noticed here. This is often found in the believer, apart from error of the will. Yet our weakness, though not sin itself, is born of sin; and thus it is in the grace of Jesus Christ alone that the fainting spirit finds the renovation of its strength (2 Tim. 2:1). The power of His might, who, after having been crucified in weakness for our sakes, now lives by the power of God, and lives for us for whom He tasted death, is the arm of ever-ready succour, and abidingly-sustaining strength, to the soul whose desire is to keep his way (Eph. 5:10).

There is this difference in the two cases just touched upon, that whereas with Jacob it was the breaking down and withering up the seat of energy of one strong-willed and unsubdued, in the case of the apostle of the Gentiles it was the preventive grace of God, in order to cut off the resources of nature; in Jacob it was the subjugation of natural force and will at their height; in Paul it was the anticipative prevention of divine grace; both are excellent and perfect in their time and place, like every way of our God.

Verse 4. "According as He has chosen us in Him," etc. The blessings which God bestows upon His creature are in their nature absolute. To think otherwise, would be to imagine in the creature an independent claim on the Creator. This is a clear and necessary principle, irrespective of the doctrine of redemption. But, morally considered, the blessing of God is His sanction of the state of him on whom the blessing is conferred. What God approves He blesses. It is clear that He never can bless what is at variance with Himself. Nor, on the other hand, can the creature occupy an acceptable position in the sight of God, except as the effect of His own will, who formed the creature for Himself. These essential conditions of blessing were found in the first man, Adam, before he sold himself to sin. As an unfallen creature he stood in natural perfection. But from the moment of His fall, not creation, but regenerative grace, has commended man to God as a recipient of blessing. And that grace, being in its nature free and voluntary, becomes the effective expression of the choice of Him who saves His people by its means. God was not man's choice, as we have seen, even while man was wholly free to choose. Having chosen sin he is become sin's slave, until recovered from that bondage by a mightier power than his own. Because, therefore, the will of fallen man is found to be naturally alien from God, the effecting for him of the great work of sacrificial atonement was insufficient in itself to save the objects of Divine mercy. They must be rendered personally willing to acknowledge and obey that sovereign love, which made itself manifest in redeeming grace. Power, therefore, must create effectively the vessels of that mercy which is God's good pleasure; or the gospel, although flowing in its freeness as the full river of eternal life, would invite the lips of man in vain.

The parable exhibits the difference between free grace and sovereign mercy. Grace addresses everybody, without distinction, and cries "Whosoever will, let him come." But all refuse. There is not a soul on earth that naturally desires to share in the great blessings of God. Then sovereign, elective mercy acts. The Holy Spirit works with compelling power in the souls of some, (not all), and they are thus constrained to come.

The Father has also wrought in us in having drawn us to Christ as sinners to a Saviour. It is only by the working of the Father's grace in our hearts that we have thus had to do with Him whom the Father sent. Unless the Father had specially wrought in us in this way, it is certain we should never have found our true place, as hell-deserving ones, at the feet of a gracious Saviour. It is well to have the sense of this fact constantly fresh in our souls; for Jesus said, "No man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw Him;" and again, "No man can come unto Me, except it were given unto him of My Father." (John 6:44, 65.) Thus we see that the Father's love has accomplished redemption for us, brought us into nearness to Himself, called us into the relationship of children given us the Spirit, revealed His Son to us, and drawn us to Him as our Saviour. How sweet to think of the various yet distinct actions of the Father's love! Well might an inspired servant cry out, "Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us!"