God's grace

📎 Augustine's teaching that only God's grace, his generous love, can overcome sin and the rebellious will to achieve the greatest good (summum bonum) Nicknamed 'Dr. Grace', Augustine argued that God's grace was the cure for the sinfulness of the human condition. He was adamant that humans cannot be reconciled with God through their own efforts, but, that the only way in which humanity could redeem itself with God was through the grace of God. By this, he means, through the generous giving of God's love to people, despite the fact that they do not deserve it.

Augustine felt that the sacrifice made by Jesus' death paid the price for Adam and Eve's sin and it is through this, that redemption is possible.

For Augustine, grace is understood as:

• The love and mercy of God
• Something which no human can obtain on their own merit
• A quality which gives moral guidance to the lives of Christians
• That which can overcome human pride
• That which can be seen in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and in the gift of the Holy Spirit working in the Church.

Augustine realized that people would continue to sin even after they had accepted the grace of God, but, that God would still allow some of them into heaven. Augustine argued that this was evidence of God's goodness; everyone is tainted by original sin, but, God is still prepared to allow some of them to go to heaven after death.

✔️Like many others, Augustine wrote of the summon bonum, the highest good. He argued that the highest good is only available to those who have set their hearts on God and who, importantly, God has elected through his grace.