Grace, Nicodemus, and Jesus
From original sin and free will, let’s turn to grace. Regarding grace, Augustine wrote, We are truly free when God orders our lives, that is, forms and creates us . . . as good men, which he is now doing by his grace, that we may indeed be new creatures in Jesus Christ. For Augustine, salvation comes only from God’s grace. In regeneration the will is repaired and changed by grace so that man can obediently respond to God’s call. “For the Almighty,” says Augustine, “sets in motion even in the innermost hearts of men the movement of their will, so that He does through their agency whatsoever He wishes to perform through them.” Therefore, “the human will does not attain grace by freedom but rather attains freedom by grace.”
In the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus, Nicodemus repeatedly asks what he can do. To which Jesus responds that when it comes to entering into relationship with God, man can do nothing. Jesus’ message to Nicodemus was that regeneration, the rebirth of fallen man into a child of God, is a gift. God does it all by grace. The grace that alone can save us is always particular, one might even say that it is discriminatory, for, as Augustine noticed, it is not given to all. Biblically we know that if we are to be saved it is wholly the work of God’s grace. Why then does God not save all? Augustine’s answer: The reason why one person is assisted by grace and another is not helped, must be referred to the secret judgments of God. Augustine preferred ignorance to presumption by citing Romans 11:33: Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
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