Q: What is grace and how does it work?
A: Grace is indeed a free gift from God, since God is sovereign and all powerful, and nobody can force God to give it to them, by any means.
Grace comes in two “flavors”:
“Actual grace” empowers. David slew Goliath by the grace of God, yet the grace David received was not capable of getting David (or anyone else) into Heaven.
“Sanctifying grace” is a share in God’s own divine life. As such, sanctifying grace is capable of transforming sinners into saints and making them adopted children of God, but only if the sinner chooses to “cooperate” with it.
Sanctifying grace is necessary for salvation, and without it, no one can enter Heaven.
Sanctifying grace was obtained by the work Jesus Christ did for us during his time here on earth, work which came to its’ fruition on the cross, at Calvary.
Since Jesus is man, the grace he obtained for us accrues to the benefit of all mankind.
Since Jesus is God, the power and the effectiveness of the grace he obtained for us is both infinite and eternal.
The Church that Jesus personally founded, authorized, constituted, and empowered, while he still walked the earth, is the primary distributor of all God’s grace.
Grace is proof that God desires all to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of his truth.
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