Defining Grace is a touchy subject I will handle it with as much care as I can. This is not a debate, it is just a post to help establish a footwork.
There have been recent upheavals in our Christian faith about grace and its extent to humanity. Conservatively grace is the undeserved forgiveness of our sins. There is nothing we can do to earn this. There is nothing we have done to deserve this. God just bestows grace on… There in lies the argument. Who did Christ die for?
Grace is viewed in one of three basic ways, but there are many different formulas for each of these.
- God chose those He was going to give grace to before they or anyone else was born. Everyone else was chosen to go to hell. (Calvinism)
- Jesus died for the salvation of everyone and we must chose to have faith in Him in order to be saved. (Arminianism)
- Jesus died so that everyone who ever lived is saved. (Universalism)
I have always made the argument that if we are going to be Christians and the only place we believe that God has revealed himself to humanity is through the bible, we need to go to the bible to form our theology. The bible says that, “No man (or woman) will stand before God except through salvation found in Christ Jesus.” (John 14:6) It also says, ” we have to confess with our mouth “Jesus is Lord” and believe in our hearts God raised him from the dead.” in order to be saved.
Like I said at the beginning I just want to give a reference point on grace. You can visit the links and decide for yourself which part you want to believe. The one thing I am sure of is that God will judge everyone, and He is the only one who knows exactly who will be saved in the end.
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Great post! Hopefully it stirs some discussion. For my part, I would add a fourth concept which is a form of inclusivism. “Inclusivism, asserts that while one set of beliefs is absolutely true, other sets of beliefs are at least partially true.” – We can all agree with this in that if a religion says that red is red, we would all agree with that while at the same time being able to disagree with its other tenents.
So Christian Inclusivism would state that someone who has never heard the name of Jesus, if he understands his weight of sin, and understands his need of a Savior – he can call out to that unnamed Savior and be saved. The question being – Does the person need to know the need or the name? I say just the need.
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