In thought it certainly could be, but in our more common usage it may not. We use it often in the sense of "give". The dictionary lists the first couple of meanings as "to bestow" and "to give". Same thing. Of course, we also use it in a slightly different sense when we say "I grant your point" in an argument. In that sense we're not really giving them anything they didn't already have ... except, perhaps, our agreement.
So where does this come up in Scripture? There are a few places of note. A recent case was discussed in John 6:
And He said, "This is why I told you that no one can come to Me unless it is granted him by the Father" (John 6:65).Another is found over in Philippians:
It has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in Him but also suffer for His sake (Phil 1:29)And then there's the third interesting use in Paul's second epistle to Timothy:
The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will (2 Tim 2:24-26).Three very interesting places. The suggestion has been made that this use of "grant" in these cases merely means "allows what they already have" in a sense similar to "I grant your point". But there's a problem with that. It doesn't fit the language. What then? Well, the language is clear. These three places reference things given by God that we don't normally associate with being given. The first tells us quite clearly that the only way anyone can come to Christ is if it is given by the Father (and as I pointed out before, this was in answer to the question, "Why are there some who do not believe?"). That is, "no man can" come to Christ without that power being given, which is why some do not.
The second gets lost, I think, in the somewhat disturbing delight over suffering. "Good news!" Paul says, "God is giving you the opportunity to suffer!! Yippee!" So we tend to gloss right over that our believing in Him was also "granted" -- given to us. We didn't produce it. We didn't supply it. It was given.
The third seems disturbing on its own. While the topic is what the Lord's servant ought to be doing, Paul is explaining a possible outcome -- "God may perhaps grant them repentance." That is, God may gift them with repentance or He may not. The only way that they will "come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil" is if God gifts them with repentance. Otherwise, they operate as the devil's slaves, "captured by him to do his will."
These three things are commonly thought of as belonging to us already. We generally believe that we have the capacity to come to Christ, to believe in Christ, and to repent all on our own. We typically think that these three things are our basic contributions to the process we call "salvation", the rest of which God has already accomplished. Not big things, perhaps, and we likely don't consider them "works" by any means, but we're still pretty sure that they come from us, that they are potentially present within all humans. So does it give you pause to read that, instead of being present in all humans, these are gifts supplied by God (and certainly not to all)? It does me. It says that not even that small little part of coming by faith to Christ in repentance, that last little key to engage all of God's grace and mercy, was supplied by me. That's no small deal.
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