What or Who is Grace?
As I was learning Reformed theology over two decades ago, certain views were dogmatically affirmed as Reformed in print and online, but my own reading of Reformed sources seemed to differ at times from what was being alleged by those who were deemed experts. What was especially concerning to me was that I was told that certain views were not Reformed, and yet many Early Modern Reformed theologians held to some of the views that were apparently wrong. I could give several examples: hypothetical universalism, presumed seed faith in infants of believers, the necessity of good works for salvation, judgment according to works, etc. But one other one has caught my eye recently as I’ve been writing a book on grace.
In our Reformed world, we have had such a preoccupation with soteriology that the doctrine of God and Christology have not always been well understood (How else could the serious errors of ESS creep in?). This is quite obviously the case when we ask the question: What is grace?
If your answer to that question doesn’t begin with the doctrine of God and of Christ, then you are bound to understand grace in a certain way, probably differently from our illustrious Reformed forefathers (e.g., Polanus, Junius, Burgess, Ball, Owen, Davenant).
In brief, in Post-Reformation Reformed systems of divinity, theologians spoke of the grace of God not only in the sections on salvation, but also in their doctrine of God.
When we affirm that God is gracious, we mean that grace resides in God (Ps. 103:8; 111:4; 112:4). God may “give” grace, but more importantly, he is grace. He is grace itself. God is “pure act,” so he is purely and unchangeably grace. Grace is an essential property; he is in and of himself gracious so that whoever else is gracious has that grace solely from God.
The supreme virtue in man is to be full of grace and truth, as our Lord Jesus was and still is (John 1:14; Ps. 45:2). Whoever is full of grace must inevitably be full of love and goodness as well. Grace must necessarily be in God if it resides perfectly in the God-man, since he is the image of the invisible God; and grace must be in Christ if it is in God.
This leads to a further point that might raise some eyebrows, but is orthodox and sound if you hold to a Reformed Christology, namely: Jesus received grace from God. If that statement causes you some anxiety, it is, I am afraid to say, a testament that we are weak on Christology today.
Eternal generation means that God is Giver, Gift, and Giving. He does not merely “give grace,” but he is grace, and he communicates this grace. The Father, Son, and Spirit all share in this attribute because the Father necessarily gives all he can give to the Son and the Spirit. But Jesus also received grace according to his humanity. As God-man, he is infused with grace beyond measure.
Jesus received grace from the Spirit; at the instant of conception, he was filled with all grace. In an extremely important section in John Owen’s work on Christ and the Spirit, he says:
“His nature, therefore, as miraculously created in the manner described, was absolutely innocent, spotless, and free from sin, as was Adam in the day wherein he was created. But this was not all; it was by the Holy Spirit positively endowed with all grace. And hereof it was afterward only capable of farther degrees as to actual exercise, but not of any new kind of grace. And this work of sanctification, or the original infusion of all grace into the human nature of Christ, was the immediate work of the Holy Spirit; which was necessary unto him: for let the natural faculties of the soul, the mind, will, and affections, be created pure, innocent, undefiled,—as they cannot be otherwise immediately created of God,—yet there is not enough to enable any rational creature to live to God; much less was it all that was in Jesus Christ. There is, moreover, required hereunto supernatural endowments of grace, superadded unto the natural faculties of our souls. If we live unto God, there must be a principle of spiritual life in us, as well [as] of life natural. This was the image of God in Adam, and was wrought in Christ by the Holy Spirit…Hence, from his conception, he was…radically filled with a perfection of grace and wisdom, inasmuch as the Father “gave him not the Spirit by measure” (Works, 3:168-69).
Christ acted and exercised grace as a man; his growth in grace was part of his work. He did not waste God’s good gift, but “co-operated” in a wondrous manner to redeem us and yet do so in a way where he could give thanks to his Father for his own faithfulness. Jesus was not a successful Pelagian.
We must distinguish between grace that is above or elevates nature, though it is not opposed, and grace that is against sinful nature. Whether in the case of sinless man (Adam) or sinful man (us), the former is always required for faithful living towards God for supernatural ends. Grace elevates and perfects human nature. Even sinless human nature is not perfect and requires superadded grace to reach heavenly things. Many today understand grace as that which cures sinful nature, so they can’t possibly understand grace in Adam or Christ or the angels.
If you do not first locate grace in God as an attribute and then grace in Jesus, who is “doubly” gracious (as God and as God-man), you will find it odd when you read the old theologians speaking about Adam receiving grace and Jesus receiving grace. Reading Early Modern Reformed comments on Luke 2:52 (“…kai chariti…”) is crucial (see also Phil. 2:9, “…kai echarisato…”).
Why is this important? Because the Father gives all he can give to the Son, and the Son gives all things he can give to his Bride. If the Father did not gift Jesus with grace, then he would have been a poor Father indeed to have withheld from his Son such a preeminent gift. The grace given to Christ was not in vain. We are recipients of grace because we are recipients of Christ himself, who is grace and is full of grace.
We too are full of grace and truth (and goodness, Rom. 15:14), appropriate to our state, and shall one day be full of grace and truth, appropriate to our state, because Christ (grace) is in us, the promise of glory.
