The Oscillation of the Soul:

A Theological and Philosophical Model of Human Experience Through the Analogy of Simple Harmonic Motion

Introduction

Human beings are dynamic creatures inhabiting a world of flux, motion, and transformation. We rise and fall, tremble and rejoice, despair and hope with a regularity that suggests underlying patterns to our spiritual and emotional lives. Scripture itself reflects this fundamental reality of human experience by describing the soul not as a static entity but as something capable of profound movement and change. The Psalmist cries out, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?” (Ps. 42:5), acknowledging an interior oscillation between despair and hope. Paul speaks of the believer groaning inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons and the redemption of our bodies (Rom. 8:23), while elsewhere he describes an intense interior warfare where the desires of the flesh are set against the desires of the Spirit (Gal. 5:17). Even the promise of rest carries with it the implication of prior unrest, as Jesus invites the weary and heavy-laden to find rest in him (Matt. 11:28-29), and the Psalmist declares, “I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother” (Ps. 131:2). This biblical recognition that the soul possesses dynamic qualities, that it experiences what we might call “motions” or “movements,” has deep roots in Christian philosophical anthropology. Thomas Aquinas, drawing upon Aristotelian psychology, devoted considerable attention to the passions or affections of the soul, understanding them as movements of the sensitive appetite toward or away from perceived goods and evils (Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 22, a. 1-3). For Aquinas, these movements were not arbitrary or chaotic but ordered according to the soul’s nature and its orientation toward its ultimate end in God. Similarly, Jonathan Edwards, writing in the Reformed Protestant tradition, made the affections central to his understanding of authentic religious experience. In his Religious Affections, Edwards argued that true religion consists fundamentally in holy affections—vigorous and lively exercises of the inclination and will toward God (Part I, Section II). These affections, far from being peripheral to spiritual life, constitute its very essence, representing the soul’s fundamental movements toward or away from its Creator. This essay seeks to develop and defend a rigorous analogy between the physical phenomenon of simple harmonic motion and the dynamics of Christian theological anthropology. The central thesis advanced here is that simple harmonic motion, properly understood and carefully delimited, offers a meaningful and illuminating conceptual model for understanding several crucial aspects of Christian doctrine and experience, including the nature of sin, the character of suffering, the process of sanctification, and the overall trajectory of the believer’s spiritual life.

The Physics of Simple Harmonic Motion: Foundation for Analogy

To understand how simple harmonic motion can serve as an analogy for spiritual dynamics, we must first grasp the phenomenon itself in its physical context. Simple harmonic motion describes a specific type of periodic motion found throughout nature, from the swinging of a pendulum to the vibrations of a guitar string, from the oscillations of atoms in a crystal lattice to the behavior of springs under varying loads. What unifies all these diverse phenomena is a common mathematical structure, a shared set of relationships between position, force, and time that gives rise to characteristic oscillatory behavior. The paradigmatic example of simple harmonic motion is a mass attached to a spring. When the mass is displaced from its natural resting position—whether pulled downward or pushed upward—the spring exerts a restoring force that acts to return the mass to equilibrium. This restoring force possesses a crucial property: it is proportional to the displacement from equilibrium and always directed toward that equilibrium position. This relationship is captured in Hooke’s Law, typically written as F equals negative k times x, where F represents the restoring force, x represents the displacement from equilibrium, k is the spring constant (a measure of the spring’s stiffness), and the negative sign indicates that the force opposes the displacement. The larger the displacement, the stronger the restoring force pulling back toward equilibrium. The stiffer the spring (the larger k), the more vigorously it resists displacement. When a mass on such a spring is displaced and released, it does not simply return to equilibrium and stop. Instead, the restoring force accelerates it back toward equilibrium, but the mass possesses kinetic energy as it passes through the equilibrium point, carrying it beyond equilibrium in the opposite direction. This overshooting creates a new displacement, which generates a new restoring force in the opposite direction, pulling the mass back again. The result is oscillation: repetitive back-and-forth motion around the equilibrium position. In an idealized system without friction or air resistance, this oscillation continues indefinitely with constant amplitude. In real physical systems, damping forces gradually dissipate the energy, reducing the amplitude of oscillation over time until the system eventually settles at equilibrium.

Christian Anthropology: The Soul’s Designed Equilibrium

Having established the physical framework of simple harmonic motion, we now turn to the task of developing systematic correspondences between its components and key concepts in Christian theological anthropology. This process requires careful attention both to what the analogy illuminates and to where it must be qualified or limited.

Humanity’s Equilibrium: Rest in God

Augustine famously wrote: “Our hearts are restless until they rest in You” (Confessions I.1.1). This is not poetic exaggeration—it is theological anthropology. Humanity was created for communion with God (Gen. 1:26-27). Peace with God is the intended equilibrium (Rom. 5:1). The soul knows rest only in God (Ps. 62:1, 5; Matt. 11:28-29). Equilibrium is thus not arbitrary; it is the human telos, the purpose for which we were made. Just as a spring’s equilibrium is determined by its physical properties, the soul’s equilibrium is determined by its created nature as the image of God. This equilibrium is not a state of mere absence of disturbance but the positive presence of right relationship. A physical spring at equilibrium simply experiences no net force. The soul at its designed equilibrium experiences the fullness of communion with God, the complete alignment of knowledge, affection, and will with divine truth, goodness, and beauty.

The Fall: Disconnection From the Restoring Force

The fall (Genesis 3) severed humanity from God, leaving the soul spiritually dead and disconnected (Eph. 2:1, 12), unable to return to God by autonomous will (Rom. 3:10-11; John 6:44, 65), and captive to sin’s gravitational pull (Rom. 7:14-23; Eph. 2:3). Calvin describes fallen humanity as incapable of spiritual good: “Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation” (Westminster Confession 9.3, echoing Calvin, Institutes II.1.8, II.3.5). Augustine articulated this as non posse non peccare—“not able not to sin.” In the SHM model, this means the spring (soul) has lost its connection to the restoring force (saving grace). Without this connection, there is no oscillation toward equilibrium. The soul cannot move toward God. Only downward descent under sin’s gravitational pull remains. This aligns precisely with Paul’s description of the unregenerate trajectory in Romans 1:18-32 and Ephesians 2:1-3.

Regeneration: Reattachment of the Soul to God

Regeneration (John 3:3-8; Titus 3:5; Ezek. 36:26-27) reconnects the soul to the restoring force of saving grace, reorients the heart’s affections toward God, and restores the possibility of movement toward equilibrium. Grace becomes active, not merely latent. “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). “He restores my soul” (Ps. 23:3). “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). Regeneration is the sovereign, unilateral, effectual work of the Holy Spirit—reconnecting what the Fall severed.

Agency Within the Analogy: Cooperation, Not Generation

A mechanical spring is passive; the human soul is not. This raises a crucial question: does the analogy inadvertently eliminate human agency and moral responsibility? The answer lies in distinguishing between generating force and cooperating with force. The soul does not generate grace (which would be Pelagianism), nor does it generate sin’s gravitational pull (which is inherited through the Fall and universal human corruption). But the soul does respond to these forces through active cooperation or resistance.

For the Believer: Willing Cooperation With Grace

The regenerated will experiences grace as compelling, beautiful, and desirable. Cooperation with the restoring force is willing, even eager—though imperfectly so, because remaining indwelling sin continues to pull downward. The oscillation of the Christian life reflects this internal war. Grace pulls toward God (upward, toward equilibrium). Indwelling sin pulls downward (away from equilibrium). The believer’s will—inclined toward grace but not yet perfected—struggles between them (Rom. 7:14-25; Gal. 5:17). Paul captures this precisely: “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate... For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin” (Rom. 7:15, 22-23). This is oscillation—movement toward equilibrium (delighting in God’s law, willing what is good) countered by displacement (indwelling sin pulling downward).

For the Unbeliever: Willing Cooperation With Sin’s Gravity

The unregenerate will experiences sin’s gravitational pull not as bondage but as freedom, not as corruption but as autonomy. In choosing descent, the soul acts according to its nature— freely, willingly, culpably. Jesus captures this in John 3:19: “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” The unbeliever’s cooperation with sin’s downward pull is active preference, not passive victimization. Though bound by nature to choose sin, the choice is nonetheless the soul’s own and bears full moral responsibility. Jonathan Edwards articulated this in Freedom of the Will: the will always acts according to its strongest inclination, yet the act is free because the soul wills what it wills. The Fall did not eliminate freedom; it enslaved the will’s inclinations. Regeneration does not override freedom; it liberates the inclinations to desire God. Thus, in our analogy, sin as gravity represents the corrupted inclination of the fallen will. Grace as restoring force represents the renewed inclination of the regenerate will. Agency is expressed through willing cooperation with one’s dominant inclination. Moral responsibility remains intact because the soul authentically wills its trajectory. The spring’s motion, therefore, is not mechanistic determinism but a model of compatibilist freedom: the soul acts according to its nature, yet genuinely acts. The believer cooperates with grace (though imperfectly); the unbeliever cooperates with sin (wholeheartedly, until regeneration).

The Inefficacy of Conscience in Arresting Spiritual Descent

A potential objection to our model asks: does common grace—particularly the work of conscience (Rom. 2:14-15)—provide any upward force or resistance to descent for the unregenerate? The Reformed answer is no. Conscience may produce external moral conformity, but it does not reverse or even slow the soul’s trajectory away from God. We must distinguish between two planes of motion. Vertical (spiritual) concerns the soul’s relationship to God, measured by proximity to saving knowledge, love of God, and spiritual life. Horizontal (behavioral) concerns the soul’s external moral performance, measured by civic virtue, social conformity, and ethical restraint. Conscience operates horizontally. It may prevent a man from murdering his neighbor, stealing from the poor, or descending into total libertinism—but it does nothing to arrest his spiritual descent away from God. As Calvin writes: “However much the natural man may excel in the practice of virtue, yet, so long as he wants the principal thing, he differs nothing from a marble statue” (Commentary on Titus 1:15).

Scripture Confirms Progressive Degradation

Romans 1:18-32 describes an escalating trajectory, not a restrained one. Futile thinking (v. 21), God giving them up to impurity (v. 24), dishonorable passions (v. 26), debased mind (v. 28), final approval of evil (v. 32). This is not restrained descent but accelerating collapse. Ephesians 4:17-19 describes the unregenerate as “darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God... having become callous, they have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” The word “callous” denotes progressive hardening, not stabilization. Genesis 6:5 reveals humanity’s condition before the flood: “Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” This is total and constant corruption, unimpeded by conscience. Far from providing lasting restraint, conscience itself degrades under sin’s gravitational pull. What begins as an accusatory voice (Rom. 2:15) becomes increasingly silenced until it is “seared as with a hot iron” (1 Tim. 4:2)—nonfunctional, unresponsive, dead. In our model, this means the unregenerate soul experiences unimpeded vertical descent toward total separation from God. Conscience may create horizontal friction that affects the manner of descent (producing a “moral pagan” versus a “debauched libertine”), but both trajectories end at the same point: death, alienation, and wrath (Eph. 2:1-3). There is no upward motion, no slowing, no approach toward equilibrium. The spring remains disconnected from the restoring force, and gravity—sin’s relentless pull—draws the soul downward without effective resistance. As R.C. Sproul writes: “The unregenerate are not merely sick; they are dead. And corpses do not climb toward God” (Chosen by God, p. 118).

Integrating SHM and Theology: The Motion of Belief and Unbelief

With the foundational correspondences established and the question of agency addressed, we can now examine how the model illuminates the contrasting experiences of believers and unbelievers, showing how presence or absence of the restoring force determines fundamentally different spiritual trajectories.

Believers: Oscillation Progressively Reduced Through Sanctification

When saving grace reconnects the soul to God, displacements occur (trials, temptations, suffering), but the restoring force draws the soul back toward God. Over time, oscillations become less violent (Heb. 12:11). The believer settles closer to equilibrium (2 Cor. 3:18; Phil. 1:6). Edwards describes this process as the “increasing conformity of the affections to God” (Religious Affections, Part III, Section I). The soul progressively experiences greater stability under trial, deeper peace in God’s presence, less extreme swings between spiritual highs and lows, and more consistent obedience flowing from transformed desires. Thus the believer oscillates, but sanctification reduces oscillation amplitude until the soul increasingly rests in God. This does not mean the believer never experiences displacement. Trials remain real (John 16:33). Temptation persists (1 Cor. 10:13). Indwelling sin continues to war against the Spirit (Gal. 5:17). But the trajectory is clear: progressive conformity to Christ (Rom. 8:29), progressive stability in God (Ps. 112:7), progressive approach to perfect rest.

Unbelievers: No Restoring Force, No Oscillation, Only Descent

This is the critical distinction. Unbelievers possess a soul (spring) with capacity for motion and have an intended equilibrium (peace with God) for which they were designed. They experience displacement (suffering, sin, moral failure), but have no restoring force (saving grace). Therefore they do not oscillate toward God at all. They drift continually downward under sin’s gravitational pull and the weight of their corruption. Scripture confirms this downward trajectory. “They became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened” (Rom. 1:21). “You were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked” (Eph. 2:1-2). “Having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12). “Evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse” (2 Tim. 3:13). This matches exactly the physical behavior of a spring disconnected from its anchor point: it does not oscillate; it simply falls.

The Meaning of Suffering: With Grace vs. Without Grace

One of the most pastorally significant applications of this model concerns the meaning and function of suffering. Why do believers and unbelievers often respond so differently to similar trials?

With Grace: Suffering Becomes Restorative

For the believer, suffering has redemptive purpose. Suffering increases displacement (x), which increases the restorative pull (–kx) toward God. The soul moves toward God more vigorously under trial. Faith and Christ-like character grow (Rom. 5:3-5; 1 Pet. 1:6-7; Jas. 1:2-4). Paul writes: “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame” (Rom. 5:3-5). Peter confirms: “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:6-7). Thus suffering is meaningful and sanctifying. It is not arbitrary pain but purposeful discipline (Heb. 12:7-11), designed by a loving Father to conform His children to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:28-29).

Without Grace: Suffering Deepens Disorder

For the unbeliever, suffering has no redemptive function. Suffering increases displacement, but without a restoring force, the soul does not return. Instead, suffering accelerates downward motion. This is exactly what Scripture teaches. “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath” (Rom. 2:5). “They must no longer walk as 13 the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart” (Eph. 4:17-18). Thus without grace, suffering has no redemptive meaning. It produces no sanctification, no spiritual growth, no movement toward God. It only increases spiritual decay, hardness, and distance from God. This conclusion is not philosophical pessimism—it is the biblical anthropology of Romans 1-3 and Ephesians 2:1-3. Apart from regeneration, the human trajectory is uniformly downward.

Why This Is Not Fatalism

This model does not promote fatalism or pastoral despair. Rather, it clarifies three crucial truths.

It Magnifies Grace

If descent is inevitable and irreversible apart from grace, then grace is not merely helpful— it is absolutely necessary. Every saved soul is a miracle, a sovereign interruption of gravity’s pull. No one is saved by moral improvement, by slowing their own descent, by cooperating with common grace. Salvation is entirely of the Lord (Jonah 2:9)—unilateral, effectual, sovereign. This produces worship, not despair.

It Explains Evangelistic Urgency

If the unregenerate are not “improving” or “seeking God” but descending toward judgment, then evangelism is not optional enhancement but rescue mission. The lost are not climbing slowly toward God; they are falling rapidly away from Him. The gospel is not a helping hand to those ascending but a lifeline to those plummeting. This produces urgency, compassion, and bold proclamation.

It Humbles the Believer

No Christian can claim credit for their salvation. They did not slow their own descent, resist gravity’s pull, or inch toward God through moral effort. They were dead, and made alive (Eph. 2:4-5). They were falling, and caught by sovereign grace. They contributed nothing to their salvation except the sin from which they needed to be saved. This produces humility, gratitude, and dependence on continued grace. Far from promoting despair, this model situates all hope where Scripture places it: in the unilateral, effectual, irresistible grace of God.

Distinguishing Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification

The concept of “equilibrium” must be carefully defined to avoid conflating distinct theological categories.

Justification: Legal Peace Established

Romans 5:1 declares: “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is positional, forensic, immediate peace—a legal declaration that the believer stands righteous before God through Christ’s imputed righteousness. This peace is complete at the moment of conversion, unchanging regardless of subsequent experience, and objective (based on Christ’s work, not subjective feeling). In our model, justification represents the reconnection of the spring to its anchor—the restoration of the relationship severed by sin. The believer is immediately and permanently connected to the restoring force.

Sanctification: Experiential Approximation of Equilibrium

While justification establishes peace legally, sanctification progressively manifests that peace experientially. The believer still experiences displacement (temptation, sin, trials) but is drawn back by grace toward greater conformity to Christ, oscillates less violently over time as the Spirit works, and approaches equilibrium experientially without yet fully resting there. Sanctification is progressive (Phil. 1:6; 2 Cor. 3:18), imperfect in this life (Phil. 3:12-14), and cooperative (God works; we work—Phil. 2:12-13). In our model, sanctification is the gradual reduction of oscillation amplitude as the soul settles closer to its designed resting place in God.

Glorification: Perfect and Final Equilibrium

Glorification is the complete, permanent cessation of all oscillation. No more sin (1 John 3:2), no more temptation (Rev. 21:27), no more suffering (Rev. 21:4), and perfect, uninterrupted communion with God (Rev. 22:3-4). In our model, glorification is perfect equilibrium—the spring fully at rest, experiencing no tension, no displacement, no motion away from God. Summary: Justification equals reconnection to the restoring force (instant, complete). Sanctification equals progressive reduction of oscillation (gradual, incomplete in this life). Glorification equals perfect rest at equilibrium (final, eternal). This distinction sharpens the model and prevents theological confusion.

Limits of the Analogy

No analogy perfectly captures theological truth. This model, while illuminating, has necessary limits.

The Soul’s Agency and Relational Nature

Springs are passive objects; souls are active agents in relationship with a personal God. While the model captures dynamics of attraction and resistance, it cannot fully express the personal, covenantal nature of the God-soul relationship, the volitional and affective richness of loving God versus rebelling against Him, or the complexity of competing desires, beliefs, and affections within the soul. The model describes motion but cannot fully capture the reasons, motives, and relational depth behind that motion.

The Role of Community

The model is individualistic, focusing on the individual soul’s trajectory. It does not account for the church as the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-27), corporate sanctification through fellowship, accountability, and mutual edification (Heb. 10:24-25), or the family of God as context for spiritual growth (Eph. 2:19-22). While the model describes individual experience accurately, spiritual life is communal, not merely personal.

The Variety of Spiritual Experience

Not all Christian experience fits the “oscillation” pattern. Sudden conversions (Paul on the Damascus road), the dark night of the soul (perceived absence of God’s presence), spiritual plateaus (periods of little perceived growth), and backsliding (temporary regression) all exist. The model describes a general trajectory, not every individual experience.

The Mystery of Divine Sovereignty

The model uses mechanical language, but God’s work in the soul is personal, mysterious, and irreducible to formula. “The wind blows where it wishes... so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Rom. 11:33). The model describes effects (grace draws, sin pulls, the soul moves), but it cannot explain the ultimate mystery of how God’s sovereignty and human responsibility cohere, how regeneration occurs, or why God saves whom He saves.

Pastoral and Practical Implications

Having established the model’s theological foundations and acknowledged its limits, we can now explore its practical implications for Christian life, pastoral care, and evangelistic practice.

Oscillation Is Normal, Not Failure

Believers often experience guilt and discouragement when they face repeated struggles with sin or spiritual ups and downs. The model provides reassurance: oscillation is the expected pattern of sanctification in this life, not evidence of spiritual failure. The fact that a believer experiences displacement through temptation or trial does not indicate absence of grace; it indicates life in a fallen world while still subject to indwelling sin. What matters is not whether displacement occurs but whether the soul returns to God, whether grace’s pull is operative. As Paul writes: “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). Suffering Intensifies Longing for God The model explains why suffering, rather than distancing believers from God, often draws them closer. Greater displacement leads to greater restorative pull, which produces more vigorous return to God. This matches Scripture’s testimony. David: “It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes” (Ps. 119:71). Paul: “We rejoice in our sufferings” (Rom. 5:3). Peter: “After you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace... will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you” (1 Pet. 5:10). Pastorally, this offers hope: suffering is not wasted. It serves God’s sanctifying purposes, increasing the soul’s hunger for God and conformity to Christ.

Unbelievers Need Regeneration, Not Moral Encouragement

This model clarifies why moralism fails as evangelistic strategy. Encouraging unregenerate people to “try harder,” “be better,” or “seek God” is like telling a disconnected spring to oscillate—it cannot. Without reconnection to the restoring force, no amount of effort produces upward motion. What the unregenerate need is not moral advice but new birth (John 3:3-8): regeneration by the Spirit (Ezek. 36:26-27), union with Christ (2 Cor. 5:17), and reconnection to the restoring force of grace. Evangelism must proclaim the impossibility of self-salvation (Rom. 3:20), the necessity of divine intervention (Eph. 2:4-5), and the sufficiency of Christ’s finished work (Heb. 10:10-14).

Assurance of Perseverance

Because the believer is reconnected to the restoring force, perseverance is guaranteed. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion” (Phil. 1:6). “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28). “He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him” (Heb. 7:25). The spring may be displaced—even severely—but it cannot become disconnected. Regeneration is irreversible. The restoring force is unfailing. This offers profound comfort to struggling believers: your salvation does not depend on the perfection of your oscillations but on the faithfulness of the One who holds you.

Conclusion

This model of the soul as a spring, saving grace as a restoring force, sin as gravity, and trials as forces producing displacement provides a coherent, theologically rich framework for understanding the dynamics of suffering, sin, and sanctification. It reveals that believers experience displacement but are continually restored by grace. Oscillation is normal; progressive stabilization is the trajectory. Unbelievers experience displacement but never return, lacking the restoring force. Their trajectory is uniformly downward apart from sovereign regeneration. Grace alone reconnects the soul to its equilibrium. Salvation is entirely God’s work, from beginning to end. Suffering is meaningful only when grace acts upon the soul. For believers, it sanctifies; for unbelievers, it deepens corruption. Sanctification is the progressive reduction of oscillation through God’s continual restorative pull. The soul settles increasingly toward its designed rest in God. Agency is preserved through willing cooperation with forces acting on the soul. The believer cooperates with grace (though imperfectly); the unbeliever cooperates with sin (wholeheartedly, until regeneration). Conscience provides no upward motion for the unregenerate. Only saving grace reconnects the soul to God. This analogy does not replace biblical doctrine—it reflects it, illuminates it, and unifies it. It demonstrates how Reformed theology’s doctrines of total depravity, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints cohere into a single, dynamic picture of the soul’s motion through life. The ultimate purpose of this model is to magnify the grace of God—the sovereign, effectual, unilateral grace that alone arrests our descent, reconnects us to our designed equilibrium, and progressively conforms us to the image of Christ until we rest perfectly and eternally in the presence of God.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Bibliography

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