12 The Doctrine of Grace
The crucial point made in the church fathers doctrine of grace is that believers become children of God by grace, in contrast to Christ who is Son of God by nature. Augustine develops this doctrine further by treating grace as a gift of the Spirit to the soul, bestowing an inner delight which strengthens the will to love God. For Augustine, grace is necessary for salvation because of original sin, which makes us guilty of Adams sin and also corrupts our nature so that we cannot love God as we ought without the help of grace. Late in his career, he teaches that we cannot even pray in faith to receive the gift of grace unless grace is prevenient, which means it comes before any good will of ours, causing our free will to come to faith. This teaching leads Augustine to his controversial doctrine of predestination
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