I. The Definition, Essence, and Biblical Meaning of Grace
"Grace is love exercised towards the unworthy. The love of a holy God to sinners is the most mysterious attribute of the divine nature." [Charles Hodge - Systematic Theology]
"The Bible generally uses the word to denote the unmerited goodness or love of God to those who have forfeited it, and are by nature under a sentence of condemnation. The grace of God is the source of all spiritual blessings that are bestowed upon sinners." "In general it can be said, however, that grace is the free bestowal of kindness on one who has no claim to it." [Louis Berkhof - Systematic Theology]
"Much richer is the goodness of God where it is shown to such as have deserved nothing good but all evil; then it bears the name of grace," "In God it denotes his voluntary, unowed, undeserved affection, which is shown to guilty sinners and in place of the sentence of death grants them the δικαιοσυνη and the ζωη." [Herman Bavinck - Reformed Dogmatics]
"The word grace is used in Scripture and in ordinary religious writings in three senses. (1.) For unmerited love; i.e., love exercised towards the undeserving. (2.) For any unmerited favour, especially for spiritual blessings. Hence, all the fruits of the Spirit in believers are called graces, or unmerited gifts of God. (3.) The word grace often means the supernatural influence of the Holy Ghost." [Charles Hodge - Systematic Theology]
"In most of the passages, however, in which the word charis is used in the New Testament, it signifies the unmerited operation of God in the heart of man, effected through the agency of the Holy Spirit. While we sometimes speak of grace as an inherent quality, it is in reality the active communication of divine blessings by the inworking of the Holy Spirit..." [Louis Berkhof - Systematic Theology]
"God has given you grace. Grace is the rich embroidery and workmanship of the Holy Spirit; it is the sacred unction." [Thomas Watson - The Lord's Prayer]
"If we trust in our grace, we make a god of it. Grace is but a creature; if we trust to it we make it an idol." [Thomas Watson - The Ten Commandments]
II. Sovereign Predestinating Grace and Election
"We shall never feel persuaded as we ought that our salvation flows from the free mercy of God as its fountain, until we are made acquainted with his eternal election, the grace of God being illustrated by the contrast--viz. that he does not adopt all promiscuously to the hope of salvation, but gives to some what he denies to others." "The grace of God does not find, but makes persons fit to be chosen."
"This grace, which is secretly imparted to the hearts of men, is not received by any hard heart; for the reason for which it is given is, that the hardness of the heart may first be taken away. Hence, when the Father is heard within, he takes away the stony heart, and gives a heart of flesh." "How can we deny that calling is gratuitous, when election alone reigns in it even to its conclusion?" [John Calvin - Institutes]
"God, out of his mere mercy and grace, imputes and applies unto us the righteousness of Christ, as he also predestinated us from everlasting to this grace, and freely chose us in Christ, as those to whom he might in his own time apply this righteousness 'according to the good pleasure of his will,' as Paul says, (Eph. 1:5) not having been moved thereto by any goodness or holiness which he foresaw would be in us." [Zacharias Ursinus - Commentary on the Heidelberg]
"It follows, also, that regeneration is an act of sovereign grace." "If a tree must be made good before the fruit is good; the goodness of the fruit cannot be the reason which determines him who has the power to change the tree from bad to good." "According to the Augustinian doctrine the efficacy of divine grace in regeneration depends neither upon its congruity nor upon the active coöperation, nor upon the passive non-resistance of its subject, but upon its nature and the purpose of God." [Charles Hodge - Systematic Theology]
"It is a sure pledge of God's love. God may give kingdoms in anger; but wherever the kingdom of grace is set up, it is in love." [Thomas Watson - The Lord's Prayer]
III. Special Saving Grace, Justification, and Regeneration
"The teachings of Scripture respecting the grace of God stress the fact that God distributes His blessings to men in a free and sovereign manner, and not in consideration of any inherent merit of men..." "The Reformers went back to the Augustinian conception of grace, but avoided his sacramentarianism. They placed the emphasis once more on grace as the unmerited favour of God shown to sinners, and represented it in a manner which excluded all merit on the part of the sinner." [Louis Berkhof - Systematic Theology]
"Special grace removes the guilt and penalty of sin, changes the inner life of man, and gradually cleanses him from the pollution of sin by the supernatural operation of the Holy Spirit.""Special grace is immediate and supernatural, since it is wrought directly in the soul by the immediate energy of the Holy Spirit..." [Louis Berkhof - Systematic Theology]
"Every one adopts as expressing the inmost conviction of his heart, the language of the Apostle, 'Not I, but the grace of God which was with me.'" "There is scarcely a single doctrine of the Scriptures either more clearly taught or more abundantly confirmed by the common consciousness of men, whether saints or sinners, than the doctrine that fallen man is destitute of all ability to convert himself or to perform any holy act until renewed by the almighty power of the Spirit of God."
"Every man who is brought to Christ is so brought that it is revealed to his own consciousness, and openly confessed by the mouth, that his conversion is of God and not of himself; that he is a monument of the election of grace; that he, at least, was not chosen because of his deserts." [Charles Hodge - Systematic Theology]
"Even if it is the case, then, that grace, which works regeneration, is rightly called irresistibilis or better still insuperabilis, because it overcomes all resistance of sinful man; even if it is a gratia operans, which works in man without any cooperation of his will; yet it is and remains a potentissima simul et suavissima operatio, which does not work in men as in stocks and blocks, does not take away the will and its properties nor compel it with violence, but makes it spiritually alive, heals, improves, and bends it in a manner that is sweet and at the same time powerful." [Herman Bavinck - Reformed Dogmatics]
"The only will which yields obedience being the will which grace itself has made." [John Calvin - Institutes]
"Justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight..." "God doth justify us by an act of free grace." [Thomas Vincent - The Shorter Catechism]
"it is not true to say we are justified by grace, if works contribute in any degree to our justification." "The apostle undoubtedly had not forgotten himself in declaring that justification is gratuitous, seeing he argues in another place, that if works are of any avail, 'grace is no more grace,' (Rom. 11:6)." [John Calvin - Institutes]
"Forgiveness of sin is purely an act of God's free grace." "God forgives—not because we are worthy—but because he is gracious." "Free grace does not find us worthy—but makes us worthy!" [Thomas Watson - The Lord's Prayer]
"Salvation, therefore, from beginning to end is of grace; not only as being gratuitous to the exclusion of all merit on the part of the saved, but also as being carried on by the continued operation of grace, or the supernatural power of the Spirit." [Charles Hodge - Systematic Theology]
"The perseverantia is not an act of man but it is a gift of God." [Herman Bavinck - Reformed Dogmatics]
"A saint's perseverance is built upon the covenant of grace." [Thomas Watson - The Lord's Prayer]
IV. Common Grace and the Preservation of the World
"He developed alongside of the doctrine of particular grace the doctrine of common grace." "This is a grace which is communal, does not pardon nor purify human nature, and does not effect the salvation of sinners." "It curbs the destructive power of sin, maintains in a measure the moral order of the universe, thus making an orderly life possible, distributes in varying degrees gifts and talents among men, promotes the development of science and art, and showers untold blessings upon the children of men."
"The distinction between common and special grace is not one that applies to grace as an attribute in God. There are no two kinds of grace in God, but only one. It is that perfection of God in virtue of which he shows unmerited and even forfeited favour to man."
"Common grace, on the other hand, never removes the guilt of sin, does not renew human nature, but only has a restraining effect on the corrupting influence of sin and in a measure mitigates its results."
"It is due to common grace that God did not at once fully execute the sentence of death on the sinner, and does not do so now, but maintains and prolongs the natural life of man and gives him time for repentance."
"It is due to common grace that man still retains some sense of the true, the good, and the beautiful, often appreciates these to a rather surprising degree, and reveals a desire for truth, for external morality, and even for certain forms of religion."
"To common grace man further owes all the natural blessings which he receives in the present life. Though he has forfeited all the blessings of God, he receives abundant tokens of the goodness of God from day to day." [Louis Berkhof - Systematic Theology]
"The grace of God thus after the flood steps forth much more powerfully than before that time." "To it is due the existence and the life of humanity, the expansion and development of the peoples, the states and societies, which have gradually formed, the religion and morality, which even among the most savage peoples have not wholly perished, the arts and sciences, which have risen high; everything, which after the fall also in sinful man still is good in every domain, the whole justitia civilis, is fruit of God’s general grace."
"This grace is distributed in a twofold form, as common grace for restraint, as special grace for renewal." "Both have their unity in Christ, who is king in the regnum potentiae and gratiae..."
V. The Covenant and Means of Grace
"The essential nature of the covenant of grace therefore consists in this, that it flows forth from God’s special grace and has as its content nothing but grace, unmerited and forfeited blessings." "It does not rest in any work of man, but only in the good pleasure of God, in the work of the Mediator, in the H. Spirit, who remains eternally. It is dependent on no condition of man, it bestows no gift on any merit, it does not wait for any fulfillment of the law on man’s side. It is from and through and unto grace." [Herman Bavinck - Reformed Dogmatics]
"It is called the covenant of grace, because it is an unparalleled revelation of the grace of God, and because man receives all its blessings as gifts of divine grace." "This covenant may be called a gracious covenant, (a) because in it God allows a Surety to meet our obligations; (b) because He Himself provides the Surety in the person of His Son, who meets the demands of justice; and (c) because by His grace, revealed in the operation of the Holy Spirit, He enables man to live up to His covenant responsibilities."
"The covenant originates in the grace of God, is executed in virtue of the grace of God, and is realized in the lives of sinners by the grace of God." [Louis Berkhof - Systematic Theology]
"It was a covenant of grace in reference to the elect, whom Christ did represent; since hereby the obedience was accepted at the hands of their representative which the covenant of works required of themselves." [Thomas Vincent - The Shorter Catechism]
"Strictly speaking, only the Word and the sacraments can be regarded as means of grace, that is, as objective channels which Christ has instituted in the Church, and to which He ordinarily binds Himself in the communication of His grace." "God has appointed them as the ordinary means through which He works His grace in the hearts of sinners, and their wilful neglect can only result in spiritual loss." [Louis Berkhof - Systematic Theology]
VI. The Recompense of Grace vs. Human Merit
"Hence all thoughts of merit on our part must be abandoned as inconsistent with the grace of God, and as a denial of it; for the mercy and grace of God constitute the sole cause of each form of the application of the righteousness of Christ." "No creature, performing even the best works, can merit any thing at the hand of God, or bind him to give any thing as though it were due from him, and according to the order of divine justice." "God was not bound to create us; nor is he bound to preserve those whom he has created. But he did, and does, both of his own free-will and good pleasure." "This recompense, however, is not due; for we can add nothing to God, neither does he stand in need of our works." [Zacharias Ursinus - Commentary on the Heidelberg]
"There cannot be a doubt, that every thing in our works which deserves praise is owing to divine grace, and that there is not a particle of it which we can properly ascribe to ourselves." "I ask, what need was there to introduce the word Merit, when the value of works might have been fully expressed by another term, and without offense? It is certain that, being a high sounding term, it can only obscure the grace of God, and inspire men with pernicious pride." [John Calvin - Institutes]
"Every link in the golden chain of salvation, is wrought and interwoven with free grace." "If God would show mercy only to such as deserve it—He would show mercy to none!" [Thomas Watson - The Ten Commandments]