Grace: What It Is and What It Does

Two kinds of grace

Sanctifying grace stays in the soul and makes it holy; it is supernatural life. Actual grace is a transient supernatural push acting on the soul to move the will and intellect to seek and keep sanctifying grace. Our souls by nature are not fit for heaven. If we die with sanctifying grace we can live in heaven, perhaps after purification (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:12-16). If we die in mortal sin, spiritually dead (Galatians 5:19-21), we face eternal separation from God (Ephesians 2:1, 5; 4:18).

Mortal and venial sin

We obtain supernatural life by yielding to actual graces: God moves us to repent, we go to confession, our guilt is remitted (John 20:21-23), and we receive sanctifying grace. We can lose it by mortal sin (1 John 5:16-17), which says "No" to God and cannot coexist with grace. Venial sins neither destroy nor lessen supernatural life, but they weaken us. Once lost, supernatural life cannot be regained by natural acts; we need actual graces enabling acts of faith or repentance.

Really cleansed

Most Reformers held that God does not wipe away sin but covers the corrupt soul with a cloak. Catholics believe the soul is truly cleansed by an infusion of supernatural life. We still face temptation (concupiscence), as a washed child may get dirty again, but our sins are removed and our wills receive hope and charity.

Justification and sanctification

We were washed, sanctified and justified in Christ and the Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:11). Protestants hold justification is merely a legal declaration, with sanctification following but not deciding salvation. That would make God declare untruth, but what God says accomplishes its purpose (Isaiah 55:11). Romans 6:7, rendered in standard translations "whoever has died is freed from sin," literally says "justified from sin" (dikaioo), in a context about breaking with sin in our behavior (Romans 6:1-2, 12-13). So for Paul justification involves real freedom from sin, with no rigid wall between justification and sanctification. Both are ongoing: Christ perfects those who are being sanctified (Hebrews 10:14), and Abraham's justification advanced on three occasions (Romans 4:3 with Genesis 15:6; Hebrews 11:8 with Genesis 12:1-4; James 2:21-23 with Genesis 22:1-18).

Can justification be lost?

Calvin said it cannot; Luther said only through unbelief. Catholics hold that grave sin destroys supernatural life, so one ceases to be justified and would go to hell if he died so. But we can be rejustified by responding to actual grace, such as an inner nudge to go to confession (John 20:21-23); if we ignore one, God sends another (1 Timothy 2:4). Once in grace, we increase it by every supernaturally good act: Communion, prayer, works of mercy. The minimum is enough for heaven but easily lost, so we must keep responding to grace and work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for God works in us both to will and to work (Philippians 2:12-16).