In Romans 5:12-14, Paul writes about Adam’s sin, which spread to all men. In verses 15-17 he relates it to the “free gift” and the “abundance” or “overflow of grace.” In Romans 5:17, we read,
“For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ.” (ESV)
“If by the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive the overflow of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.” (CSB)
Here we have another important verse that confirms the universal provision of God’s grace in Christ. Paul is stating clearly that all persons have set before them an abundant “provision of grace.” (NIV) This is because, as we have seen, grace has been provided in Christ (John 1:14-17). Grace is not God’s choice of some to be saved out of all undeserving sinners; rather, because of what God did in Jesus Christ, we are made the objects of God’s grace. Surely, as the whole context up to this point supports, “those who receive” refers to the potential for all men to either appropriate God’s provision of grace or reject it. John puts it this way,
“But to all who receive him, who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…” (Jn. 1:12, ESV)
When Paul writes “those who receive the abundance of grace,” it is hard to think that he is only describing the experience of a limited, predestined elect. By the phrase, “those who receive,” the Calvinist would intend us to understand “those who are predestined to salvation evidenced by their reception of God’s abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness.” But on what interpretive contextual grounds can it be shown that the passage is merely descriptive of the spiritual experience of an elect, as if to limit or transform the meaning of “those” to “the elect?” That surely is to read Calvinist theology into the text. Rather, taken in a straightforward sense, the passage is speaking about God’s “abundant provision of grace” and the “gift of righteousness” that can be had by anyone who will receive it by faith. The metaphor of a “gift” as applied to righteousness is clear. Gifts are freely given and require reception on the part of those to whom the gift is offered. Gifts must be received. “Those who receive” can only be taken in an unrestricted sense in this context. It refers to all and any sinner. To whomever the gift is offered in the gospel, it may be received or rejected.
Thus, the Calvinist equates God’s “grace” with his eternal predestinating decision to save some out of all sinners, none of whom deserve to be saved. But that is incoherent with Paul’s thought here in Romans 5. In contrast, biblically speaking, God’s grace is the divine undeserved favor expressed in an action of God who purposed and planned the way of salvation for all undeserving sinners “in Christ.” This purpose and plan of God also included the means by which salvation is appropriated by the sinner, that is, by faith. The fact that this salvation is “good news” to those who hear, and not based on any merit, status, or work of the sinner to earn God’s favor, makes faith the only appropriate response of the sinner to God’s saving grace found in Christ. Precisely because God has linked this saving grace to the response of faith, it is available to all. Faith is the God ordained means by which that saving grace is appropriated by the sinner to themselves. God’s grace is therefore found “in Christ.” It is grace that is not hidden in God but expressed in time and space in Jesus Christ. As such, it is received by believing. Christ is the revelation of God’s love and the provision of his grace to us. It is not an “irresistible grace” necessitated by an eternal decision of God to save only particular individuals and not to save all others. That Calvinist theology is christologically deficient. It does not require an “effectual call.” What is required is the proclamation of the “good news” of salvation in Christ, which is the expression of God’s grace. Hence, Vernon C. Grounds describes the nature of grace as God acting in Christ to bring about our salvation,
“… grace is God redemptively in action through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. Personal through and through, grace, let it be repeated, is God acting. John 1:14 stresses the Christocentric personalism of grace: ‘And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”[34]
On Calvinism, the gospel would then lack the nature of a proclamation of “good news” in the sense of a universal invitation to sinners to be saved. Biblically speaking, certainly God decided something. But in contrast to Calvinist “grace” as a deterministic exclusivism, what God decided was to be gracious to all “in Christ” through whom he accomplished the way of salvation for all undeserving, helpless sinners. Furthermore, the Bible is clear that what God also decided to do as part of this gracious salvation is to design it so that it is offered to us based on faith alone. Faith is perfectly suited as a response of the sinner, as a sinner, to appropriate God’s salvation. It is the only response that allows for the free decision of the sinner to be involved in receiving salvation, yet without involving anything on the part of the sinner that would result in having to merit that salvation or lead to boasting. The response of faith is void of all such self-recognition, self-exaltation, or self-salvation, yet it makes salvation available to all. Faith dismisses anything and everything about a person that, from our human point of view, might foster a claim to an advantage with God or over another person in the eyes of God. All may exercise simple trust and believe “in Christ.” Salvation is not granted upon any human device, economic or social status, religious devotion or works, or even being of the heritage of the people of God, that is, being a Jew – those God himself chose, established, and called his own! One’s saving relationship to God always was and still is based upon the sinner’s response of faith in the God of our salvation (see Gen 15:6; Rom. 4). In fact, salvation is by faith so that now even the Gentiles (all the other people in the world who are not among the chosen people of God (i.e., the Jews), can be reckoned among the people of God! It is by faith so that salvation may be had by all! (Rom. 11:32) Now that’s a gospel that can be proclaimed as truly “good news!” What a wonderful salvation! (Rom. 11:33-36) Furthermore, this understanding engenders no incoherence with the biblical texts and best accounts for the full scope of the biblical witness. That’s a good hermeneutic!
Chapter 14 – The Nature of Grace in Scripture
The Truth of the Gospel 