“But unbelievers have no saving faith and they certainly are not given God’s grace. ...We all start out DEAD. It is God who breaths life into us by instilling us with saving faith through His grace. “
False.
Why do I say that?
Well, undoubtedly unbelievers have no saving faith. By definition. If they had, they would be believers.
But are they not given God’s grace? At all?
“44But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” - Matt 5
“19For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
Let me repeat: “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them...So they are without excuse.”
We are to imitate God by doing good to believers and unbelievers both, for God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” And the unbelievers have no excuse, because God has shown [what can be known about God] to them.
Unbeliever’s DO receive good things from God, and that IS God’s grace. He also has revealed Himself, in sufficient detail (”plain to them”) that they “are without excuse”.
Paul says “although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him” - explicit revelation that men know enough about God to make a choice.
What else did Paul reveal?
“28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”
“they did not see fit to acknowledge God”. I don’t know how it can be made clearer than that.
Unbelievers are dead, in the sense of being totally alienated from God, but if they remain that way, they have no excuse - “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.”
I’ve discussed dead many times, and pointed out it is just one of the words used to describe us. Others include blind, captive, slaves, and sick. But does an unbeliever have a conscience?
You betcha!
“13For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. 14For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them 16 on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.” - Romans 2
To repeat for emphasis:
“the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them”.
When an unbelieving man loves a woman and cares for her, forsaking all others, he shows God’s law has been revealed to him - written on his heart.
They have a conscience.
“This saving faith is dispense with God’s gift of grace:
Eph 4:7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.”
Actually, it says grace was given us - not faith. There are no verses saying saving faith is a gift given us by God to allow us to live. None. Jesus “found” faith or unbelief - he did not give it.
We believe to live. We do not live to believe. Calvin was wrong, although his commentary on individual verses often conflicts with his systematic theology. All men have a conscience. All men have enough knowledge about God revealed to them by God to have no excuse. God’s law is written in the hearts of man, although when men utterly reject God, he often utterly rejects them. But not, according to Paul, before they knew him. “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”
I forgot to repeat, and it is significant, this:
“Though they know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.”
Again: God has revealed His law to man. We are not so dead we cannot know God’s law, for God reveals it even to those who reject Him.
Would you show me where you get grace from that? I see knowledge that there is a God but no grace from God.
False. Why do I say that? Well, undoubtedly unbelievers have no saving faith.
??? I say it because it's true. And I think you agreed-maybe...perhaps...
But are they not given God’s grace? At all?
"For by grace you have been saved..."
If they were given God's grace they would have been saved.
Unbeliever’s DO receive good things from God, and that IS God’s grace.
Good things from God is not God's grace. They are good things. Grace is given to us for our justification.
Rom 3:24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,