Grace and Free Will in our Personal Lives

One of the requests in our Suggestion Box was an article explaining the relationship between Grace and Free Will in our lives. As I’ve argued before, we have free will which allows us to reject God However, we also require grace from God in order to believe (much less obey), so how is this possible? The mystery of these two seems to suggest that you either receive grace from God and are justified or you are never given the grace from God, which condemns you, but this is incorrect. So here I’m attempting to explain the relationship between grace and free will as clearly as possible.

First, what is grace? The Catechism says it best:

(1996) Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.

I must be clear that grace from God is absolutely required in order for us to believe.

John 1:12-13. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

By saying this, it seems to require predestination, but this is not so. For we have free will and because of this we can reject the Grace God offers us:

Acts 7:51. “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.

The Holy Spirit confers grace upon us that allows us to accept God, but we can reject that grace upfront and refuse to believe. So basically when the Holy Spirit offers us the initial grace required to believe in God, we can reject it. Our other option is to either not reject it or to succumb to the powerful grace of God. This is the first step towards salvation.

However, grace is required virtually continually to keep us on the path; in short, we can do nothing without the grace of God. But we can, at virtually any time, choose to reject that grace and fall away from God:

Hebrews 6:4-6. For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then commit apostasy, since they crucify the Son of God on their own account and hold him up to contempt.

This Scripture is dealing with the unforgivable sin, but clearly articulates that some will reject the grace of God (the Holy Spirit) after initially accepting this grace. Our free will allows us to fall away, or essentially to not finish the “race” by rejecting God’s grace at some point in the future.

There are additional complexities in the relationship between grace and free will, but I’m attempting to create a concise explanation here - I can expand upon pieces of this to answer specific questions. To sum it up: we have free will to accept or reject God. However, without the grace God freely offers us no one would be able to choose to accept God - it is too difficult. Grace is a required pre-condition, a gift from God that gives us the ability to choose to believe. Grace is also required to keep us on the path toward God and to grow us in holiness. But at any time we can reject God’s grace by using a free will to do so.

God desires that all men be saved, so He works to prepare us for the offer of grace. In other words, God prepares us to accept His grace, although He never forces us to make this decision. Each person chooses to accept or deny this grace at some point in their lives:

(CCC 679) By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one’s works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love.

God bless,
Jay