God's Justice: The Gift of Faith

Allegory of Faith

Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc

(Image from Wikipedia)

Yesterday, I questioned an aside in which Robert Koons claims that "Calvinists, [by asserting] that Christ has died only for believers, ... make faith into a human work that merits salvation." I questioned this claim because it makes no sense to me from my (admittedly minor) knowledge of Calvinism. If anybody knows where Koons presents an argument to support this claim, please let me know.

Today's question concerns a different sort of statement, or series of statements:

If all the world is justified by Christ alone, does this mean that all will be saved? No, because not all are in a position to benefit from Christ's redemption. In order to be able to benefit from our objective justification, we must undergo an internal transformation that enables us to enjoy eternal life with God. Eternal life in God's presence would be no benefit to a sinful man, whose heart and mind are at enmity with God. C.S. Lewis illustrates this fact beautifully in his masterpiece, The Great Divorce. Unregenerate people would find heaven more intolerable even than hell. (pdf, page 41)

Koons is here rejecting universalism, the view that everybody, willy-nilly, ends up in God's presence because God ultimately extends grace to all. Koons cites C.S. Lewis to the point that unregenerate people would find hell more tolerable. I'm familiar with Lewis's interesting point, but doesn't it miss Koons's point? How so? Because if grace were extended to all, willy-nilly, then all would "undergo an internal transformation ... [enabling them] to enjoy eternal life with God." All would be regenerate. This doesn't happen. Why not? An argument must be lurking here. Koons only obliquely addresses the point:

How does this internal transformation take place? It begins with faith, which is itself a free gift of God, dependent on no prior works or merits. However, merely believing God is not sufficient for being able to enjoy communion with God: faith must reach its natural end or completion, in the form of the love of God. Only when, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we begin to love God are we in a state in which we can begin to enjoy the benefits of Christ's redemption. It is true, of course, that we never love as we ought, but neither do we ever trust as we ought. The process of sanctification is a long and gradual process: the attainment of perfection is not a prerequisite of friendship with God, but the natural result of that friendship. (pdf, page 41)

I presume that on this point, Koons is expressing his own view rather than a specifically Lutheran or Catholic one, but his view may be common to both ecclesiastical traditions. Anyway, the regeneration process is set into motion by God, who gets the ball rolling through the free gift of faith -- free in the sense that God suffers no obligation to grant the gift. The recipient, however, is under an obligation to reciprocate by learning to love God, which occurs through another gift, i.e., God's Holy Spirit, given to believers.

I have two questions on this point, and they are not specific to a particular Christian tradition. I just want to know. Does Koons think that faith is given to all but not acted upon by all? What is the role of human agency in the regeneration process?

If individuals have a choice, then I can understand God's justice, but if some are excluded from receiving the gift of faith (or perhaps the subsequent gift of the Holy Spirit?), then God's justice is rather harder to comprehend.