The Nurturing Power of Prevenient Grace

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When parents bring their first child into the world, they often are overcome with a terrifying thought: “This beautiful, helpless, writhing little baby is completely dependent on me for survival!” If the parent does not provide food, clothing, warmth, and protection (not to mention innumerable changes of diapers!), the newborn will not survive. And yet an even more overpowering emotion also accompanies the experience: a deep, profound love for this new creation who has not done a thing to earn that favor.

Perhaps this experience can help us to understand one of the most important distinctives of Wesleyan theology: prevenient grace. This “grace that goes before” provides the answer to an otherwise impossible conundrum. If human beings are so tainted by original sin that they cannot turn toward God of their own accord, then how can anyone possibly be saved? Genesis 3 describes the consequences of the sin of Adam and Eve—not only are they cursed, but they are cast out from the Garden of Eden, that place where they had lived in perfect harmony with God. Indeed, in Romans the apostle Paul describes the impossible situation of all human beings, who are “under the power of sin” (3:9). No one is exempt; “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23) and experience “slavery to sin” (7:14). As a result, humans are utterly incapable of turning to God on their own. We are worse than helpless infants who cannot feed or clothe ourselves—we consistently turn away from the only One who can truly offer us life.

But God gives prevenient grace to all humans, partially reversing the effects of original sin. In this sense alone, prevenient grace is irresistible: all humans receive an enabling to respond to God. Ken Collins describes this irresistibility as “the reestablishment of those faculties that constitute responsible personhood and accountability” (The Theology of John Wesley: Holy Love and the Shape of Grace, Abingdon, 2007, 81). Further grace for salvation, however, is resistible. God does not force salvation upon us, but gives enough grace that we are enabled to choose whether to accept or reject God. Apart from this grace, our sinful nature could only choose to turn away. This distinctive of Wesleyan theology is starkly different from Reformed theology, in which God chooses some to receive salvation (which Calvinists believe is irresistible) and leaves others in their depraved state. Brian Shelton describes the distinction:

The theologies of Wesley and Arminius are not to be characterized by a sustained condition of total depravity, but instead they maintain that prevenient grace comes to all people in a general sense to allow them to believe. This means that a new human condition exists, in which all people are not totally depraved but capable of exercising faith to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the subjective activity of the Spirit on individual hearts. Thus, salvation flows from the gracious enabling that precedes but accompanies faith in Christ. For the Calvinist, God must and does predestine the individual because of his or her complete depravity; for the Arminian, God allows a graciously effected free will to lead to salvation (Prevenient Grace: God’s Provision for Fallen Humanity, Francis Asbury Press, 2014, 7).

Thus, prevenient grace empowers believers to cooperate with what the Holy Spirit is already working in a person’s life. John Wesley described this “preventing grace” as “all the drawings of the Father; the desires after God, which, if we yield to them, increase more and more;—all that light wherewith the Son of God ‘enlighteneth every one that cometh into the world;’ showing every man ‘to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with his God’” (Sermon, “The Scripture Way of Salvation”). Wesley makes it clear that an Arminian understanding of salvation is not a “work” that earns salvation; rather, faith is a response to the grace of God already present in a person’s life.

Prevenient Grace and the Abundance of God’s Love

One of the strengths of the doctrine of prevenient grace is that it takes seriously those passages of Scripture that describe the love of God for all humanity. The Gospel of John declares that “God so loved the world that he sent his only Son so that everyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (3:16). Jesus demonstrated this truth in his ministry, which reached out to Jews and Gentiles, men and women, children and adults, rich and poor, healthy and disabled. No one was excluded. Anyone who responded to him in faith received the blessings of the Kingdom.

The whole trajectory of Scripture points to a God who begins by choosing one special people—Israel—to be a blessing to the rest of the world (Gen. 12:3). This is a God of love for all people. The Holy Spirit continues to fulfill this goal in the book of Acts, when Gentiles as well as Jews are welcomed into the community of faith. By the time we get to Revelation 7:9, the throne room of God is filled with people “from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” 

Reformed theology tends to emphasize God’s predestination of some people from every tribe and nation—that is, all tribes and nations are represented in those who are predestined for salvation. To be clear, Wesleyans are not universalists—John Wesley did not believe that every human being would be saved, as some will resist the grace they have received. But unlike Reformed theologians, Wesley believed that everyone has the opportunity to believe as a result of the mitigating effects of prevenient grace on our sin nature. After all, God does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). God’s abundant love is for all people. 

Prevenient Grace and Human Responsibility

The doctrine of prevenient grace also has the advantage of taking human responsibility seriously. By giving humans partial restoration of their faculties, and thus the opportunity to respond to God’s grace and love, humans can enter a genuine love relationship with their Creator. And this we are called to do in Scripture: exhortations to repent and believe abound. These would be meaningless apart from a genuine ability to respond. As Shelton states after exploring these biblical calls to return to the Lord, “The formula is simple: God’s generosity invites sinners to repent and accept his gracious invitation” (Prevenient Grace, 53).

Yet we are not under compulsion to follow the Lord. Grace is not irresistible. Enabled by grace, we can choose to follow God or remain in our sinful state. C.S. Lewis famously declared, “The doors of hell are locked on the inside.” In other words, we can resist God to the end and thus choose our eternal separation.

Prevenient Grace, the Reliability of Scripture, and the Trustworthiness of God

If prevenient grace were not true, this would raise serious questions about the reliability of Scripture. John 1:9, for example, declares that “The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.” If this enlightening were only for some (the predestined, as Calvinists would argue), then the plain meaning of Scripture must be called into question. Those passages that describe the love of God for all people (e.g., John 3:16, 2 Peter 3:9) would be deceptive.

Wesley strongly argued against predestination, in part because he believed it called the trustworthiness of God into question:

Our blessed Lord does indisputably command and invite ‘all men everywhere to repent.’ He calleth all. He sends his ambassadors, in his name, to ‘preach the gospel to every creature.’ He himself ‘preached deliverance to the captives,’ without any hint of restriction or limitation. But now, in what manner do you [Calvinists] represent him, while he is employed in this work? You suppose him to be standing at the prison-doors, having the keys thereof in his hands, and to be continually inviting the prisoners to come forth, commanding them to accept the invitation, urging every motive which can possibly induce them to comply with that command; adding the most precious promises, if they obey, the most dreadful threatenings, if they obey not; and all this time you suppose him to be unalterably determined in himself never to open the doors for them! Even while he is crying, ‘Come ye, from that evil place; For why will you die, O house of Israel!’ ‘Why?’ might one of them reply, ‘because we cannot help it. We cannot help ourselves; and thou wilt not help us.’ Alas! My brethren, what kind of sincerity is this, which you ascribe to God our Saviour?”  (Predestination Calmly Considered).

Prevenient grace, on the other hand, demonstrates the love and fidelity of God as described in Scripture. God is sincere when he declares that he desires all people to draw near, and prevenient grace is the means by which humans are enabled to do so.

Prevenient Grace and the Complexity of the World

Another important but often overlooked aspect of prevenient grace is its restraining power on the sin that arises from total depravity. Although the Reformers refer to “common grace” in this regard, Wesley’s understanding of prevenient grace includes the idea that the world is not as ugly as it would be apart from God’s intervention. Perhaps this is difficult to believe given the currently volatile situations in Ukraine and the Middle East. But we should consider that apart from God’s action in the world, the entire planet would have been consumed entirely by violence long ago.

The reverse is also true. Any good that exists in the world is the result of God’s provision of grace to humanity. As Wesley declared, “For there is nothing we are, or have, or do, which can deserve the least thing at God's hand. ‘All our works, Thou, O God, hast wrought in us.’ These, therefore, are so many more instances of free mercy: and whatever righteousness may be found in man, this is also the gift of God” (Sermon, “Salvation By Faith”). 

Thus, the complex state of the world—in which sin is partially restrained and goodness is empowered—can be explained.

Prevenient Grace and the Impact of Sin

Prevenient grace not only preserves the idea of justification by faith—since it acknowledges that our faith is not a work but a response to God’s work in us—but it also takes sin seriously. If sin is as ubiquitous as depicted in scripture—pervasively impacting both our desires and our thinking—then prevenient grace is necessary to equip us to draw near to God. We simply cannot approach God on our own; we have a natural bent toward sinning as a result of original sin. Because God is just, he must deal with sin rather than look the other way; because God is loving, he does not want any to perish. Yet left to our own devices we will perish, because we do not have the capacity to approach God on our own.

For a just and loving God, then, the beginning of the answer to the effects of sin is prevenient grace. God’s love is demonstrated in that while we were yet sinners—enemies of God—he sent his only son to pay the penalty for our sins (Rom. 5:6-8). God sends grace before we are able to respond in order to empower us to respond to such great love.

One of the stanzas of Charles Wesley’s beloved “And Can It Be” demonstrates well this movement of prevenient grace:

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night;
Thine eye diffused a quick'ning ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free;
I rose, went forth and followed Thee.

God empowers, we respond. All is the result of grace.

Implications for Ministry

The blessing of prevenient grace should remind us that God is already at work in the lives of unbelievers. Those for whom we care deeply are not simply part of the reprobate; rather, God is in the process of wooing them into the Kingdom. Our calling is to cooperate with what God is already doing. Our preaching matters. Our prayers matter. We should be working to help others see the ways in which God is already present in their lives. Indeed, our own testimonies should include more than the date we were saved, but a recalling of the ways in which God was at work in our circumstances before we came to know Christ.

Prevenient grace also reminds us to look beyond the singular moment of an altar call. God doesn’t give up on those who don’t respond, but continues to provide graceful opportunities to draw near. And for those who do experience the first inklings of God-enabled conscience—that first awareness of wrongdoing—God continues to pour forth grace, enabling the possibility of future response. God’s love is both patient and abundant.

Ultimately, we are the restless infants in desperate need of sustenance, without which we will not survive. We have done nothing worthy of the care God gives us. Simply because God is love we receive the nourishment of prevenient grace, strengthening us so that we can turn toward our God and continue to receive the life that he offers. Wesley’s optimistic, hopeful picture of abundant grace provides the foundations for a life of humble response to a truly loving Savior.

Suzanne Nicholson is Professor of New Testament at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky. She is an Elder in the Global Methodist Church and serves as Assistant Lead Editor of Firebrand.