Doctrine of Christian Wealth Part 3

Category 3: Common Grace
Blessings God provided to bring us to salvation.
8. We became the beneficiaries of a Writ of Common Grace.
a. Common Grace is the means by which God prepares unbelievers’ souls to deal with the Gospel (Rom. 1:1-4; 16-17)
b. Common Grace is essential for salvation because unbelievers are incapable of comprehending spiritual phenomena (1Cor. 1:18)
c. God manifests Common Grace by using Natural Theology to bring each member of the human race to God consciousness (Rom. 1:19)
i. God uses cosmological evidence to reveal Himself in the nature of the universe itself, which demands that there be an infinite, eternal First Cause (John 1:1-3)
ii. God uses teleological evidence to reveal Himself through the order and regularity of the universe, which demands a Designer (Job 38:4-6)
iii. God uses anthropological evidence to reveal Himself through the intellectual and moral nature of humans, which demands a Model (Gen. 1:27)
iv. God uses ontological evidence to reveal Himself in the desire of all humans to believe in a supernatural being (Rom. 1:18-19)
d. For those who exercise positive volition at God consciousness, God manifests Common Grace in convicting of the reality of sin (John 16:8-9)
e. For those who exercise positive volition at God consciousness, God manifest Common Grace in bringing them to a realization of God’s perfect Righteousness (John 16:8, 10)
f. For those who exercise positive volition at God consciousness, God manifest Common Grace convicting them of God’s judgment of sin (John 16:8, 11)
9. We received the effectual call of God (Greek: καλεω – kaleo, G2564)(Rom. 8:30; 1Cor. 1:9; 1Thess. 2:12, 5:24; Heb. 9:15)
a. We were brought by God to a conscious awareness of His existence (Rom. 1:19-20)
b. We were provided with Gospel hearing (Rom. 1:16)
c. We were convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit (John 16:8a, 9)
d. We were convicted of righteousness by the Holy spirit (John 8b, 10)
e. We were convicted of judgment by the Holy Spirit (John 16:8c, 11)
f. We were drawn to Christ by God the Father (John 6:44)
g. We were, through Grace, provided the faith to believe (Eph. 2:8)
Principle: Our positive volitional desire to know God and our decision to believe the Gospel of our Loud Jesus Christ as the only means of salvation is our free will non-meritorious response to God’s offer and provision for our redemption.
10. We received salvation faith form God (Eph. 2:8)