Yes, it's true. Usually, you hear this phrase "common grace" when a Reformed seminarian is attempting to articulate the mind-blowing experience when a non-Christian does something incredibly nice or heroic, often to a greater degree than he would do himself. This must be explained. Of course, he can't explain it in such a way to lead one to think that good deeds could lead to salvation. He also can't attribute it to the goodness that flows from human nature as such; he's committed to the idea that human nature is corrupted in every part, such that a person cannot do anything accompanying salvation. But what he fails to realize is, this is true anyway, even if we reject total depravity. Human nature as such, even if we had not fallen, is not capable of reaching God.
If we say anything different than this, we are Pelagians. Reformed theology is so focused on human life post-Fall that it conflates nature and grace. Catholicism isn't semi-Pelagian, either, because Reformed people misunderstand semi-Pelagianism in the first place. Semi-Pelagianism proper is the idea that man makes the first move, and then God assists, not the other way around. But true Christian doctrine is clear: Man cannot ascend to the supernatural absent a gift of God which is called grace. Semi-Pelagianism is as impossible as Pelagianism.
If we say anything different than this, we are Pelagians. Reformed theology is so focused on human life post-Fall that it conflates nature and grace. Catholicism isn't semi-Pelagian, either, because Reformed people misunderstand semi-Pelagianism in the first place. Semi-Pelagianism proper is the idea that man makes the first move, and then God assists, not the other way around. But true Christian doctrine is clear: Man cannot ascend to the supernatural absent a gift of God which is called grace. Semi-Pelagianism is as impossible as Pelagianism.
Comments