Wesley's explanation of grace can be both simple and confusing for us. Grace in general can be a hard topic, but it is so often dismissed in our accomplishment driven lives. Salvation that is a gift that is to be accepted, not earned, is sometimes hard to swallow.
Often when I try to explain grace in new membership classes I use the image of a house. It is not a perfect image, but it gives us a place to start. Prevenient grace is the foundation that is laid before the house can even be built. If the house does not have a solid foundation, it will surely fail. Yet, once people move into a house, they don't usually think about the foundation and all of the hard work that was laid before the house could even come to be. Prevenient grace as a foundation is all of the work God put in before we even knew that we needed God. The folks who prayed for us. The people who taught us about Jesus. All of which is vitally important.
Justifying Grace is the thresh hold of the house between the porch and the living room. Its that moment when we choose to cross inside of the house of the love of God. We may not know exactly what is compelling us to go inside, but we make a free choice to enter. This is usually described as a conversion moment or when we realize that we have been following Jesus all along.
Sanctifying Grace is when we are free to explore the house in its entirety - moving from a mere acquaintance with God who would be welcomed into one part of the house to someone who can go anywhere in the home. We do this by growing deeper in love with God, and having a salvation that simply moves from our head into our heart.
How would you describe grace in your life? What images are helpful to you?
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