In Western Christian beliefs, grace is God's favor, and a "share in the divine life of God". It is a spontaneous gift from God – "generous, free and totally unexpected and undeserved" – that cannot be earned."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." In the Eastern Orthodox Church, grace is the uncreated energies of God. Among Eastern Christians generally, grace is considered to be the partaking of the divine nature described in Fr. Tadros Malaty, The Divine Grace PDF and grace is the working of God himself, not a created substance of any kind that can be treated like a commodity.Gregory (Grabbe), Archbishop. The Sacramental Life: An Orthodox Christian Perspective. Liberty TN: St. John of Kronstadt Press, 1986
As an attribute of God, grace manifests most in the salvation of sinners, and Western Christianity holds that the initiative in the relationship of grace between God and an individual is always on the side of God.
The question of the means of grace has been called "the watershed that divides Catholicism from Protestantism, Calvinism from Arminianism, modern theological liberalism from theological conservatism".Ryrie, Charles C. The Grace of God. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1963), pp. 10–11. The Catholic Church holds that it is because of the action of Christ and the Holy Spirit in transforming into the divine life what is subjected to God's power that "the sacraments confer the grace they signify": "the power of Christ and his Spirit acts in and through [each sacrament], independently of the personal holiness of the minister. Nevertheless, the fruits of the sacraments also depend on the disposition of the one who receives them."
Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Protestants agree that grace is a gift from God, as in Ephesians 2:8: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." Lutherans hold that the means of grace are "the gospel in Word and sacraments." That the sacraments are means of grace is also the teaching of John Wesley,What is a sacrament? who described the Eucharist as "the grand channel whereby the grace of his Spirit was conveyed to the souls of all the children of God".John Wesley, "Sermon on the Mount—Discourse Six", III.11, quoted in "This Holy Mystery: A United Methodist Understanding of Holy Communion"
Calvinists emphasize "the utter helplessness of people apart from grace". But God reaches out with "first grace" or "prevenient grace". The Calvinist doctrine known as irresistible grace states that, since all persons are by nature spiritually dead, no one desires to accept this grace until God spiritually enlivens them by means of regeneration. God regenerates only individuals whom he has predestined to salvation. Arminians understand the grace of God as cooperating with one's free will in order to bring an individual to salvation. According to Evangelical theologian Charles C. Ryrie, modern liberal theology "gives an exaggerated place to the abilities of people to decide their own fate and to effect their own salvation entirely apart from God's grace".
Old and New Testaments of the Christian Bible Grace is the English translation of the Greek () meaning "that which brings delight, joy, happiness, or good fortune."Roetzel, Calvin J., PhD. The HarperCollins Bible Dictionary, Paul J. Achtemeier, General Editor. HarperCollins, 1996. Pp. 386–387
Old Testament The Septuagint translates as the Hebrew word () as found in Genesis 6:8 to describe why God saved Noah from the flood. The Old Testament use of the word includes the concept that those showing favor do gracious deeds, or acts of grace, such as being kind to the poor and showing generosity. Descriptions of God's graciousness abound in the Torah/Pentateuch, for example in Deuteronomy 7:8 and Numbers 6:24–27. In the Psalms, examples of God's grace include teaching the Law (Psalm 119:29) and answering prayers (Psalm 27:7). Another example of God's grace appears in Psalm 85, a prayer for restoration, forgiveness, and the grace and mercy of God to bring about new life following the Babylonian Exile.
Catholic Church
In the definition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "grace is favour, 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". Grace is a participation in the life of God, which is poured unearned into human beings, whom it heals of sin and sanctifies.
The means by which God grants grace are many.Catholic Bishops' Conferences of England & Wales, Ireland and Scotland, One Bread One Body , p. 7 They include the entirety of revealed truth, the sacraments and the hierarchical ministry, while in a Christian marriage, "husbands and wives are cooperators in grace and witnesses of faith for each other, their children, and all others in their household".Second Vatican Council, Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity (Apostolicam Actuositatem), section 11, published on 18 November 1965, accessed on 4 May 2026 Among the principal means of grace are the sacraments (especially the Eucharist), prayers and good works.Matthew Bunson, 2009 Catholic Almanac (Our Sunday Visitor 2008, ), p. 143 The sacramentals also are means of grace.Brennan (1894), p. 337 The sacraments themselves, not the persons who administer or those who receive them, are "the means of grace", although lack of the required dispositions on the part of the recipient will block the effectiveness of the sacrament.
The Catholic Church holds that "by grace alone, in faith in Christ's saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works." Both the Council of Orange (529) and the Council of Trent affirmed that we are "justified gratuitously, because none of the things that precede justification, whether faith or works, merit the grace of justification".
The Council of Trent declared that the free will of man, moved and excited by God, can by its consent co-operate with God, who excites and invites its action; and that it can thereby dispose and prepare itself to obtain the grace of justification. The will can resist grace if it chooses. It is not like a lifeless thing, which remains purely passive. Weakened and diminished by Adam's fall, free will is yet not destroyed in the race (Sess. VI, cap. i and v).
The joint declaration between Catholics and Lutherans on the doctrine of justification affirms:
Sanctifying and actual grace According to a commonly accepted categorization, made by St. Thomas Aquinas in his , grace can be given either to make the person receiving it pleasing to God () – so that the person is sanctified and justified – or else to help the receiver lead someone else to God (). The former type of grace, , in turn, can be described as sanctifying (or habitual) grace – when it refers to the divine life which, according to the Church, infuses a person's soul once they are justified; or else as actual grace – when it refers to those punctual (not habitual) helps that are directed to the production of sanctifying grace where it does not already exist, or its maintenance and increase it where it is already present. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
The infusion of sanctifying grace, says the Church, transforms a sinner into a holy child of God, and in this way a person participates in the Divine Sonship of Jesus Christ and receives the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. For this reason, sanctifying grace is also called deifying grace and sanctification is deification.Catechism of the Catholic Church 1999
Sanctifying grace remains permanently in the soul as long as one does not reject one's adopted sonship by committing a mortal sin, which severs one's friendship with God. Less serious sins, venial sin, although they "allow charity to subsist, they offend and wound it." However, God is infinitely merciful, and sanctifying grace can always be restored to the penitent heart, normatively in the Sacrament of Reconciliation (or Sacrament of Penance).
Augustine versus Pelagius
In the early 5th century, Pelagius, an ascetic who is said to have come from Britain, was concerned about the moral laxity of society that he witnessed in Rome. He blamed this laxity on the theology of divine grace preached by Augustine of Hippo, among others. He strongly affirmed that humans had free will and were able to choose good as well as evil. Augustine, drawing on the exaggerated statements of the followers of Pelagius rather than on Pelagius' own writings, began a debate that was to have long-reaching effects on subsequent developments of the doctrine in Western Christianity. Pelagianism was repudiated by the Council of Carthage in 418, largely at Augustine's insistence. However, what Pelagius taught was likely what has come to be called semi-pelagianism.
In semi-Pelagian thought, both God and the human person always participate in the salvation process. Humans make free will choices, which are aided by God through creation, natural grace, "supernatural" grace, and God's restrictions on demonic influences. God continually brings the human person to real choices, which God also aids, in the process of spiritual growth and salvation. Semi-Pelagianism involves synergism, which is the traditional patristic doctrine. John Cassian, in continuity with patristic doctrine, taught that though grace is required for persons to save themselves at the beginning, there is no such thing as total depravity, but there remains a moral or noetic ability within humans that is unaffected by original sin, and that persons must work together (synergism) with divine grace to be saved.Cassian, Inst. 12, Conf. 3, Conf. 13 This position is held by the Eastern Orthodox Church and by many Reformed Protestants,Pomazansky, Protopresbyter Michael. Orthodox Dogmatic Theology. Platina CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1984. LCCN 84-051294, pp. 257–261.Kallistos (Timothy Ware). The Orthodox Church. London: Penguin Books, 1963. pp. 226ff. . and in the Catholic Church has been especially associated with the Society of Jesus.
Catholic versus Protestant In 1547, the Council of Trent, which sought to address and condemn Protestant objections, aimed to purge the Roman Catholic Church of controversial movements and establish an orthodox Roman Catholic teaching on grace and justification, as distinguished from the Protestant teachings on those concepts. It taught that justification and sanctification are elements of the same process."Controversies on Grace"; "Sanctifying Grace". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1909. The grace of justification is bestowed through the merit of Christ's passion, without any merits on the part of the person justified, who is enabled to cooperate only through the grace of God. The grace of justification may be lost through mortal sin, but can also be restored by the sacrament of Penance. The sacraments are, together with revealed truth, the principal means of the grace, a treasury of grace, that Christ has merited by his life and death and has given to the Church. This does not mean that other groups of Christians have no treasury of grace at their disposal, for, as the Second Vatican Council declared, "many elements of sanctification and of truth are found outside of (the Catholic Church's) visible structure".
Jansenists versus Jesuits