The doctrine of efficacious grace

Efficacious grace is the exhale of faith in Christ through the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. So that when it says, “By grace are you saved through faith”, grace means that God the Holy Spirit gave you the ability to believe, because under the doctrine of total depravity we don’t have that ability on our own, even with the facts. All we can throw up is this weak positive signal. That positive volition is converted into faith in Christ through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Even after understanding some phase of the gospel or the saving work of Christ man is still incapable of believing in Christ. Man’s helplessness is simply the expression of his total depravity. The unbeliever with gospel understanding now needs help even to believe in Christ. Remember the man who fell down at Jesus’ feet and said, “I believe, help thou mine unbelief.” He was simply expressing that even when we are positive we need help. There never will be a time when we do not need help.

The unbeliever with gospel understanding needs help. From what source does the help come? First of all it comes from eternity past. The omniscience of God programmed into a PROM chip called “election”. Billions of years ago God knew that at a certain point we would hear the gospel. God the Holy Spirit had already agreed before man existed to function as the perceptive instrument for the facts, to enable us to understand the gospel as spiritually dead unbelievers. He knew that as a result of having the facts these weak positive signals would go up, but they are helpless. God the Holy Spirit converts them into exhale, faith in Christ. Knowing that, God called us. We respond, but we are too weak to do anything, so God the Holy Spirit gives us the necessary breath to exhale. In eternity past God the Father programmed into the computer of divine decrees the positive decision of every human being who would believe in Christ, and this PROM chip known as election to privilege is a printout of the computer of divine decrees. It is simply God’s prior knowledge of what we would do when came into contact with the gospel. Hence, the gospel understanding from common grace results in a call, kalew, the verb of election, a divine call to those with positive volition at God-consciousness. This divine call is made by God the Holy Spirit under the concept of efficacious grace. The human will of the positive believer is weak and because of total depravity and spiritual death God the Holy Spirit enables our volition to believe in Christ. Even our volition needs help. Common grace is the inhale of the gospel; efficacious grace is the exhale of faith in Christ. In both cases we have the enabling work of God the Holy Spirit. Efficacious grace is not a process but an instantaneous act of God the Holy Spirit in enabling the unbeliever to believe in Christ. If you accept the fact of doctrine that the imputation of Adam’s original sin at birth means spiritual death, then you have to recognise our total inability to believe in Christ apart from the enabling work of God the Holy Spirit.

The doctrine understanding from common grace results in a call, an invitation, kalew, the divine call to those with positive volition at God-consciousness and at gospel-hearing. This divine call is made by God the Holy Spirit under the principle of efficacious grace. But the human will of the positive believer is weak and there is where total depravity comes in again: spiritual death. Therefore God the Holy Spirit empowers the weak human volition to believe in Christ where positive volition exists at the point of common grace. Remember that common grace is the inhale of the gospel; efficacious grace is the exhale of the gospel.