Live 4 The LORD

 God Chooses who to give predestination to the rest he lets reject grace

The Distinction: Foreknowledge vs. Causal Basis

So, when you say "God takes account of their free refusal in His immutable and eternal plan," you are correct that God knows it. However, the key distinction is that this foreknowledge is not the reason or cause for God's decision to not predestine them to glory.

• For the elect: God's decision to predestine is based on His own gratuitous mercy and goodness, and He provides the grace that ensures their free acceptance.
• For the non-elect: God's decision to not predestine them to glory is not because He foresees their refusal and then decides not to give them grace. Rather, He permits their refusal, which originates from their own will, and justly punishes them for it. The "choice" is asymmetrical: God actively causes salvation through grace, but He only permits damnation, which is caused by human sin.

This is why the Catechism states that God's eternal plan of "predestination" includes "each person's free response to his grace" 1. It means God's plan is comprehensive, encompassing both His divine initiative and human freedom, without one negating the other. The mystery lies in why God chooses to give efficacious grace to some and permits others to fall, while still desiring the salvation of all 12.

 

God Chooses who to give predestination to, so he gives the efficacious grace to some and the other he allows to reject

 

You've accurately summarized a core aspect of the Catholic understanding of predestination, particularly from a Thomistic perspective: God indeed chooses whom to give predestination to, which includes granting them efficacious grace, while for others, He permits their rejection of grace. This highlights the asymmetrical nature of predestination and reprobation.

Let's elaborate on this point:

God's Choice in Predestination

• Divine Initiative: Predestination is fundamentally an act of God's free and gratuitous will 1, 2. It is not based on any foreseen merits or human initiative 3, 1. God's love is the cause of goodness in creatures, meaning that any greater goodness in a creature signals a greater love from God in the form of a limited predestination 4.
• Efficacious Grace: For those whom God predestines, He provides "efficacious grace." This grace is truly effective in moving the will to choose good and persevere in it 5. It is a gift that infallibly, though freely, constitutes communion with God 6. This grace is not merely a help to do more easily what could be done on one's own; it is necessary for every dimension of adherence to the good profitable for eternal salvation 7.
• Infallible Effect: Predestination most certainly and infallibly takes effect 3. The predestined are those who persevere to the end by virtue of a unique grace that carries them through 8. This certainty does not, however, destroy free will; rather, the effect of predestination has its contingency, meaning it occurs through free human choice 3.

Reprobation: God's Permission of Rejection

For those not among the predestined, the situation is different:

• Permission of Defect: God does reprobate some, meaning He permits them to fall away from the ultimate end of eternal life 9. This is part of His providence, which allows for certain defects in creation 9.
• No Positive Will to Sin: God does not positively will evil or sin 10. He does not predestine anyone to evil or damnation in the same way He predestines to glory 11. Instead, He wills to permit evil to be done 10.
• Human Responsibility for Refusal: If someone is not predestined, it is a consequence of their refusal of God's call, for which they bear responsibility 12. God abandons and rejects those who, as He sees from all eternity, take the first initiative in the final refusal of His prevenient grace 12. Their sins are from themselves alone 12.
• Justice in Punishment: Reprobation includes God's will to permit a person to fall into sin and to impose the punishment of damnation on account of that sin 9. This is an act of divine justice 9.

The Asymmetry

The key is the asymmetry:

• Salvation is from God: All good, including the will to believe and persevere, comes from God's grace 13, 11, 2, 14. God works in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure 2.
• Sin is from Man: Sin and the refusal of grace originate solely from the human will 13, 11. God permits this refusal but does not cause it 9, 10.

This means that while God's choice to grant efficacious grace to some is unconditional and primary, His "choice" regarding the non-elect is a permission of their self-chosen path of refusal, leading to a just consequence. This preserves both God's sovereignty and His justice, as well as human freedom and responsibility. The ultimate reasons for this distinction remain a profound mystery of divine wisdom 15.

 

all of man is under reprobation, god gives grace to all to not sin, god gives grace to some for salvation, god lets others reject grace and stay reprobate

 

The mystery lies in why God grants efficacious grace to some and only sufficient (but resistible) grace to others, while still genuinely desiring the salvation of all. This is often understood as a manifestation of both God's infinite mercy (in predestination) and His perfect justice (in permitting and punishing sin).