Samuel Rutherford on Efficacious Grace in Conversion

 

"God ordinarily contributes two causes to the work of conversion, one moral and one physical. These are outlined in the Examen, shortly after Rutherford asked whether God’s work of conversion is only moral, consisting merely in persuasion, invitation, promises and commands, or whether God’s work also consists in a real and physical predetermination of the will. Moral influences such as those outlined above are given by grace alone, in that the sinner does not deserve to be persuaded and invited by God, nor does the sinner have a right to hear the Gospel. In addition to this, Rutherford considered such graces to be ineffectual without a physical predetermination of the will. “It is hard to affirm,” he wrote in the Trial and Triumph of Faith, “that all who are prepared with these preparations of order are infallibly converted.” Nevertheless, such moral influences are part of God’s ordinary way of effecting the work of conversion, where moral influences are understood to act upon the mind and the will prior to God’s physical determination of the will. Whereas God’s moral influences are ineffectual and subjective, God’s physical acts regarding conversion are effectual and objective. The physical nature of converting grace may be understood in two ways. First, God’s converting grace is said to be physical, objective, and real, in that a new heart is actually given to the converted sinner and new powers are really granted to the will. Second, the physical nature of efficacious grace is emphasized by God physically predetermining certain acts associated with walking in obedience to God’s commands (Deut 8.6)........God’s efficacious grace, which predetermines physical acts of assent, belief, and will, provide the sufficient condition to which the good intentions of a converted saint may be joined." (Robert C. Sturdy, Freedom from Fatalism: Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661)'s Doctrine of Divine Providence [Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2021], pgs. 301-302)