To suggest that human beings are basically good people, and that there is at least some goodness (perhaps even greatness) in all people, is to betray what Scripture explicitly says about the fallen and sinful heart of humanity--each human being born into the world. How could any Christian, any student of Scripture, conclude with this "basic human goodness in every heart" presumption when the pages of God's Word are littered with explicit statements to the contrary? "The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time" (Gen. 6:5 NIV). Where is the evidence of all that "basic goodness" in this text? "The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth and His heart was deeply troubled" (Gen. 6:6)--or, as referenced in the NET Bible, God was "highly offended" (Gen. 6:6 NET): God's "state of heart / emotion" was grieved, regretful, and offended. Where is the evidence of all that "basic goodness" in this text? The author informs us: "Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways" (Gen. 6:11-12).
Incidentally, Jesus prophesied that, prior to His return, the culture on the earth among mortals would be "like the days of Noah" (Matt. 24:37), corrupt and violent: People will go from bad to worse (2 Tim. 3:13 NCV). However, when Jesus returns, the wrath against all corruption and violence will not arrive with water (Gen. 6:13; 7:6) but with fire (2 Pet. 3:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10). "The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness" (Rom. 1.18); and there is still "wrath to come" for all of God's unredeemed enemies (1 Thess. 1:10; cf. Rom. 5:9; 12:19; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3; 5:6; 1 Thess. 5:9; Rev. 6:16; 14:10; 15:1; 16:1; 19:15). "The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejects [CSB, EHV, NET, NIV; or does not believe (KJV, MEV, NKJV); or does not obey (ESV, ISV, LEB, LSB, NABre, NASB, NLT, NRSVue)] the Son will not see life, but God's wrath remains on him" (John 3:36 NET). The wrath of God remains upon every single human being, not because they are not good enough, but because they are defiantly evil.
WHEN JESUS CALLED US EVIL
Even Jesus Himself admits that we are evil--He calls us evil: "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children" (Matt. 7:11 NASB '95; Luke 11:13): Jesus did not come to save "good" people but the ungodly (Rom. 5:6, 7, 8); "[W]hile we were enemies [of God] we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son" (Rom. 5:10); "You offspring of vipers," says Jesus, "how can you, being evil, express any good things? For the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart" (Matt. 12:34 NASB '20); "Light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light so that his deeds will not be exposed" (John 3:19); "For the mind set on the flesh [the old sinful and fallen human nature] is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself [being defiant] to the Law of God, for it is not even able to do so [being spiritually incapable], and those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:6-8).
If we speak of Free Will, as Free Will relates to our fallen condition, then we must ask ourselves how free is our will to make decisions and choices from various options. Are we free to choose what is good and holy from God's perspective? If not then why not? Would God require a choice from us that we cannot make? Would He be unjust to do so? Would He still hold us responsible? Can we be radically depraved and at the same time and in the same context be absolutely free, neutral, to choose a holy option or an evil option merely by willing? Does depravity to any degree influence or determine the choices we make? Let me answer my own questions and then make arguments for them.
DEPRAVITY AND FREE WILL
We, in our depraved state, are relatively free to make decisions but those decisions and choices are both influenced and determined by our fallen nature. So we are not free to choose that which is holy because our fallen nature does not now naturally want what is holy. Yes, God requires a choice from us that we cannot make, and, yes, He is just / fair / right to do so. We are responsible to our Maker. No one is absolutely free--not even God: God is framed within His own eternal holiness and therefore is not free, for example, to sin. Depravity both influences and determines the choices we make--though there are always other factors in our decision-making processes. How could it be otherwise? How could "the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:13) not both influence and determine what we desire--what and how we make choices? "Does a spring send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?" (James 3:11). If from the overflow of our hearts our mouths speak (Matt. 12:34) then the entire course of our lives is directed from a corrupt guide: "The tongue also is a fire [but merely reflects the state of our fallen hearts: Matt. 12:34; Isa. 6:5], a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell" (James 3:6 NIV). Each one of us makes choices according to our fallen desires (cf. James 1:13, 14). We do what we want to do, and in that vein we exercise Free Will, but to choose what is good / holy / righteous is beyond our ability (John 8:43, 44, 47).
This may seem as though we do not really exercise our Free Will. I argue that every day of our lives we exercise our Free Will. We make real choices every single day. We make life-altering choices all the time. What we do we do freely. What we speak we speak freely. God is not forcing anyone to think or feel or say anything other than what one wants to think and feel and say. "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed" (James 1:13-14 NIV). God does not have to force you to sin: you are quite capable of committing sin all on your own. This is your Free Will. Your Free Will is real and active. However, in the fallen state in which each of us is born into the world, we are all both Free and Enslaved: we each freely choose to obey our fallen nature because this is what we want to freely do:
Moreover, God is not waiting for you to trust in Christ Jesus, and if He did then He would wait for all eternity. This is the very meaning of "salvation" and of "being saved." He saved you. You did not save yourself through faith. He chose you to be saved. You did not choose Him to be saved. You would have never chosen Him. For a person to be "saved" from turmoil the one in need of salvation can contribute nothing to that salvation. If you were saved from drowning by someone then that means you could not help yourself, you could not save yourself, from drowning. You were saved from drowning by someone more powerful and better equipped than you. If God saved you then He did in you what you could not do for yourself. Some will respond: "God will save the one who chooses to have faith in Jesus" (1 Cor. 1:21). That is true! God will save the one who chooses to trust in Christ. The problem is that no one can, no one has the ability to trust in Christ, because we do not want Christ. We want sin (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). The Gospel is a stumbling block to Jewish people and utter foolishness to non-Jewish people (1 Cor. 1:23). But "to those whom God has called, among both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24). God's choice of you is the primary and the instrumental cause of your salvation and of your faith: "It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, [and our] holiness and [and our] redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30 NIV).
DEPRAVITY REQUIRES DIVINE INTERVENTION
God has promised to create a redeemed people for Himself (Deut. 7:5, 6, 7; Eph. 1:4-5 NLT). How will He accomplish this? He will put His Law within His elect and write His Law upon their hearts (Jer. 31:33a): He will be their God and they will be His people (Jer. 31:33b). "This is the LORD's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes" (Ps 118:23). As sinners, we are so hell-bent on our own self-destruction that, "If the LORD of hosts had not left us a remnant," some redeemed survivors, we would have been utterly destroyed (Isa. 1:9). This cannot be emphasized enough: we did not want the Lord, and we did not want to be saved, for we were happy in our sin (Rom. 3:10-18). We were entirely weak and helpless in our sin to do anything about our sin (Rom. 5:6), we were still sinners, still sinning (Rom. 5:8), enemies of God (Rom. 5:10), children of wrath who were separated from God, from life in and with God, following the devil and his angels (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3), blinded by the devil to the truth and the light of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ Himself (2 Cor. 4:3, 4), and if God had left us in this state then no one could be saved. But God!
Because we, whom God elected to redeem among all the peoples of the nations (Deut. 7:6, 7, 8; Rev. 5:9), are an inheritance of the Father to the Son (Ps. 2:8), Jesus Christ, for His own possession (Eph. 1:11; cf. 14; Titus 2:14; cf. Exod. 19:5; Deut. 7:6, 7, 8; 26:18; Ps. 2:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; Zeph. 3:17; Mal. 3:17; Titus 3:7; 1 Pet. 2:4, 5, 6, 7, 8; Rev. 1:5, 6; 5:9, 10) and in Christ, and with Christ, the believer is guaranteed an eternal inheritance--we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17; cf. Gal. 3:18; Eph. 1:11 (either, we obtained an inheritance, or we have been made Christ's inheritance), Eph. 1:14, 18; 5:5; Col. 1:12; 3:24; Heb. 9:15 ("those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance" certainly refers only to some people, the elect, and clearly not to everyone or the specificity, "those who have been called," is mistaken); 1 Pet. 1:4; cf. the word "inherit" referring to the believer in Christ whose inheritance is the Kingdom of God: Matt. 5:5; 19:29; 25:34; Mark 10:17 ("what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" with Luke 10:25; 18:8); 1 Cor. 6:9, 10 (those who will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, cf. Gal. 5:21); 1 Cor. 15:50 (no mere mortal, "of flesh and blood," can enter Heaven); Heb. 1:14; 6:12; 1 Pet. 3:9 Rev. 21:7).
"Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the Gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us"--and this calling must be a particular, inner, effectual call ("to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling," 1 Cor. 1:2 NASB) or else everyone in the world would be "the called," "the elect," receiving all the benefits of this heavenly call (Heb. 3:1; cf. Acts 2:39; Rom. 1:6; 8:29, 30; 11:5, 7; 1 Cor. 1:9, 24, 26; 7:17; Gal. 1:15; Eph. 4:1, 4; Phil. 3:14; 1 Thess. 5:24; 2 Thess. 2:14; 1 Pet. 1:15, 16; 2:21; 3:9; 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:3)--and this holy and heavenly calling is granted "not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity (2 Tim. 1:8-9); so that, obviously, God's purpose and grace is granted only to His elect--to those "predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:11). "The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 2:24-25; cf. Rom. 2:4).
Paul acknowledges that we, as sinners estranged from God by our sins (Isa. 59:2), are unrighteous and unjust (Rom. 3:10); we do not care to understand the things of God or seek Him (Rom. 3:11); we reject and hide from God (the sinner does not go looking for the Lord: the Lord goes looking for the sinner, to redeem the sinner, Gen. 3:8), because we are corrupt and reject holiness (Rom. 3:12); our mouths are dirty because our hearts are dirty (Rom. 3:13, 14; Matt. 12:34; Isa. 6:5, 6, 7); we are murderers of character and of actual bodies (Rom. 3:15); we prefer destruction and misery (Rom. 3:16); we reject peace (Rom. 3:17); and we reject God, refusing to honor, revere, and worship Him (Rom. 3:18). We are spiritually dead, reveling in our offenses and sins, as we follow a corrupt culture of demonic influence, indulging in sensual desires of sex and greed, blissful children of God's wrath by nature (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). But someone will still contend that human beings are basically good people? To quote Jesus: "No one is good except God alone" (Mark 10:18). We have substituted God's definition of goodness and righteousness for a lesser, compromised notion, and this reveals that His ways are infinitely higher than our fallen and sin-filled ways (Isa. 55:9).
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
The people whom God created in His image were originally innocent of sin (Gen. 1:26, 27, 28, 31; 2.7, 20, 21, 25). But when they had listened to a Deceiver, they questioned God's goodness and providence, and sinned against Him (Gen. 3:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13). All of their offspring would now inherit a human nature that had been corrupted: You know "that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your futile conduct inherited from your forefathers" (1 Pet. 1:18 LSB, NABre, NKJV, NRSVue, YLT; cf. "empty / worthless / futile way of life," CSB, EHV, ESV, ISV, LEB, NASB, NCV, NET, NIV, NLT, RSV, WEB). A fallen condition, a sinful predisposition, is the default human context into which we are born into the world and this is what we inherited from our first parents. This fallen condition is not an option for anyone born into the world: "Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people" (Rom. 5:18 NIV); "For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made [became, EHV, NCV, NLT; appointed, LSB; were constituted, NET, YLT] sinners" (Rom. 5:19 NIV; cf. CSB, ESV, ISV, KJV, LEB, MEV, NABre, NASB, NKJV, NRSVue, RSV, WEB); we "had no say" in our fallen-human constitution.
The classic text (Psalm 51:1-6 NIV) upon which the doctrine of Original Sin was founded by Tertullian, Ambrose, Cyprian and others reads:
ORIGINAL SIN
According to Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, later Rabbis suggest that the verse explains not David "born sinful" but "born in adultery," because of "the mystery hanging over the origin and name of David's mother." The writer, however, continues: "But the verse is only a statement of the truth of experience so constantly affirmed in Scripture of hereditary corruption and the innate proneness to sin in every child of man." Then a caveat is offered: "The argument for a personal origin to the psalm from this verse seems strong," given the author's personal application, and obvious guilt of adultery and murder (2 Sam. 12:1-15). However, in Psalm 129:1, "and frequently, the community is personified as an individual growing from youth to age and, so, may here speak of its far-back idolatrous ancestry as the mother who conceived it in sin." Dr. Scot McKnight acknowledges that Jewish teaching from ancient times knows nothing of a Doctrine of Original Sin--an inherited sinful or corrupted human nature from Adam to all of his progeny that also includes the state of guilt of conscience:
We are taught by the author of Hebrews to emulate Abel. We are taught by John to not emulate Cain, who was "of the evil one and murdered his brother. And for what reason did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil but his brother's was righteous" (1 John 3:11-12). This is a message of Love vs. Hate, Good vs. Evil, Righteousness vs. Unrighteousness. Jude warns believers about certain people who have crept into their places of worship unnoticed (Jude 1:4): "Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain" (Jude 1:11). What is "the Way of Cain"? Hatred for what is holy, good, righteous (1 John 3:11-12). Cain was jealous of his brother and angry because the LORD had no regard for Cain and his offering. Note that the LORD gave His own commentary on the men and their offering: The LORD "had regard for Abel and his offering; but for Cain and his offering He had no regard" (Gen. 4:4, 5). What they offered to the LORD revealed the state of their heart (Abel is righteous and Cain is wicked) and the relationship that both men maintained with their Creator, their Provider, their Sustainer and Sovereign God.
We must concede at this point that, just because effectual grace is not explicitly mentioned within the context of Abel does not therefore indicate that Abel was righteous by his own willing or ability or efforts, since Scripture speaks to that subject in other places. So, we should not argue from silence that Abel exercised his "Free Will" to be good and righteous, and that apart from any inward working of the Holy Spirit. We can rightly admit that both Cain and Abel were born into the world with a fallen human nature (cf. 1 Pet. 1:18) and infer that effectual grace was given to one boy, Abel, but not the other, Cain, by God's own doing (cf. Rom. 9:8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15): "So, then, it does not depend on the person who wants it [human desire] nor the one who runs [puts forth effort], but on God who has mercy" (Rom. 9:16 NASB '20).
So, do we sin because we are sinners, or are we sinners because we sin? The manner in which you answer that question for yourself reveals your theology. The Jewish rabbis and their people maintain that we are sinners because we sin--if we did not sin then we would not be sinners. Tertullian, Ambrose, Cyprian, Ambrosiaster, Augustine, Aquinas and the Reformers (both Continental and English) argue that we sin because we are sinners by nature (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). Again, Dr. McKnight remarks, First, the Adam of Paul in Romans 5 is the literary Adam
As to Augustine's Latin-Vulgate blunder, his error is irrelevant to the subject, given that our inevitable connection to Adam is clearly taught in Scripture: "For as in Adam all die" (1 Cor. 15:22), and this death is not merely physical, but also spiritual (Isa. 59:2; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death [physical and spiritual] spread to all men" (Rom. 5:12)--the proof being "because all sinned" (Rom. 5:12)--then our direct connection to Adam, as his offspring, is unmistakable. Our "life" in Christ by grace through faith in Him is both physical and spiritual (Eph. 1:19, 20; 2:6). If we die physically in Adam then we can have physical resurrection life in Christ. If we died spiritually in Adam then we can have new life in Christ. God's judgment upon all of humanity "arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation" (Rom. 5:16); by Adam's transgression both physical and spiritual death reigned in all of humanity (Rom. 5:17); through Adam's transgression there resulted condemnation for all of us (Rom. 5:18); through Adam's disobedience we were all constituted sinners (Rom. 5:19). Regardless of Augustine's use of "in whom" rather than "in that," our direct and immediate relation to Adam remains intact, and is even glaringly evident in the Romans 5 passage throughout. The conclusion is still biblically accurate.
HUMAN NATURE
Pelagius argues that "the reason why it is made difficult for us to do good" is that "long habit of doing wrong which has infected us from childhood and corrupted us little by little over many years, and ever after holds us in bondage and slavery to itself, so that it seems somehow to have acquired the force of nature."1 In other words, we have been following bad examples of human behavior for so long that a sinful way of life seems as though it originates from our human nature, as though we cannot help but to sin, and not from our freely-willing choice to sin--a choice that is necessitated neither by a corrupt nature nor of God's foreordination. Pelagius believes that God has so constituted human nature that a person can will to choose good or evil. "It was because God wished to bestow on the rational creature the gift of doing good of his own free will and the capacity to exercise free choice, by implanting in [humanity] the possibility of choosing either alternative, that he made it his peculiar right to be what he wanted to be, so that with his capacity for good and evil he could do either quite naturally and then bend his will in the other direction too." He adds: "Our most excellent Creator wished us to be able to do either but actually to do only one, that is, good, which He also commanded, giving us the capacity to do evil only so that we might do His will by exercising our own."2
What is Adam's relationship with us, his offspring, and our sin? Pelagius answers that the "purpose that our Lord, the Word of God, came down from Heaven" was that, "through His assumption of our human nature [Heb. 2:14, 15], the human race, left prostrate from the time of Adam, might be raised up in Christ, and the new man [the regenerate in Christ may be] rewarded for his obedience [cf. John 3:36 NASB; Eph. 2:10] with salvation as great as the perdition that once befell him through disobedience."3 We should not follow the example of Adam but of Christ. "If you wish then to be with Christ, and to share with Christ, you must live by the example of Christ [John 14:15, 21, 23; Gal. 5:1; 1 Pet. 2:21; 1 John 1:5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; 2:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], who was such a stranger to evil and wickedness that He did not retaliate even upon His enemies, but rather prayed even for them."4 As for Adam and our relationship with him: "Adam was created as the first man at the first foundation of the world. Was he condemned because of faithlessness [not having faith or not believing in God] or sin? I find that there was no disbelief in him but only disobedience which was the reason why he was condemned and why all are condemned for following his example."5 Therefore, we are not condemned because of what Adam did in the Garden, but only condemned for our own following of his sinful disobedience.
Again, however, we must ask why. Billions of people born into the world and not even one person freely avoided sin? Why? How? Moreover, Pelagius would have us imitate Christ instead of Adam and, yet, not one person freely chooses to do so. Why? How? Pelagius just said that, if we want to live with Christ, then we must live by the example of Christ. This statement, then, reveals that salvation is ultimately up to us and our own efforts at living righteously (imitating Christ). Jesus cleansed us from our old sins and now, if we want to be saved in the future, we must live as Christ lived. I have been cleansed from my past, I am currently justified (but there is no fixed state of justification and guarantee that I will be justified in the future--contra Rom. 8:30), and, if I live righteously, I will merit Heaven--and Pelagius uses those words:
Pelagius communicates the exact opposite of Paul's inspired teaching. Pelagius quotes Jesus' response to the rich young ruler: "Keep the Law if you want to attain to eternal life." But Pelagius fails to understand why Jesus responded in such fashion. The ruler should have responded to Jesus: "But, rabbi, no one can keep the Law of God perfectly. So how can anyone be saved?" Instead, he relied upon his own supposed righteousness (Matt. 19:20), but was silenced by Christ when told to give away his wealth (Matt. 19:21, 22). He was hoarding his wealth and not contributing to those in need. Hence he had not, in reality, kept the Law--he had not loved his neighbor as himself (Matt. 22:37, 38, 39, 40).
I am not at all being unfair with Pelagius' theology here. This is what he believes. We merit eternal life by first being cleansed from past sins and then by keeping the Law of God perfectly for the rest of our lives. Dr. Robert F. Evans concludes Pelagius' theology thusly: "Faith ... is reckoned as righteousness for this reason, that [a person] is absolved as to the past, justified as to the present [and only in the present], and prepared for the future works of faith [Pelagius would say "future works of righteousness"]."7 "The key to understanding his language is to notice that the formula 'faith alone' applies to the unique situation of the individual at his conversion and baptism. 'Righteousness' ... as a term applying to the Christian after baptism, and pre-eminently at the judgment, is unthinkable without the performance of 'works of righteousness,' i.e., without obedience to the moral precepts of Christ and of the Apostles." Dr. Evans adds: "The whole of Christian life as it is stretched out between baptism and the judgment is one in which Christians avail themselves of the grace of teaching and example [and by "grace" Pelagius does not mean any inward working of the Holy Spirit whatsoever]; always exercising that freedom of choice which has been made effectual by grace [and here "effectual by grace" refers to that human condition as created by God that enables each person to will whatsoever he chooses], they obey the precepts of the Gospel and so merit the rewards of the final Kingdom of Heaven."8 Evans explains:
HUMAN NATURE RESTORED
Humanity and human nature post-Fall needs the redemption offered freely by Christ to all who will take hold of His promises of redemption, reconciliation, and salvation by grace through faith in Him. Imitating Christ, obeying the Lord and His commands, is for the believer--not for those who are attempting to gain salvation by their own effort. God created our human nature to reflect His own divine nature in goodness (Gen. 1:26, 27, 31). God desires each one of His rational creatures to "appreciate the dignity of [one's] own nature. ... [He longs for us] to be free to act and not under compulsion; it was for this reason that 'He left him free to make his own decisions' (Sir. 15:14 NRSV) and set before him life and death, good and evil, and he shall be given whatever pleases him [Sir. 15:17 NRSV]. Hence we read in the Book of Deuteronomy also: 'I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse [says God], therefore choose life so that you may live' (Deut. 30:19)."10 God is speaking to His Jewish people, whom He chose to redeem (Deut. 7:6, 7, 8, 9), and such passages do not apply salvifically to all the world. Pelagius' free-for-all hermeneutic is fatal: Deuteronomy 30:19 and Matthew 19:17 are not Gospel calls of salvation to lost souls.
Again, then, no one is saved by God by attempts at being good or by doing good works. Pelagius sometimes weaves in and out of a seeming orthodoxy, partially correct, but then overtly heretical. We can only follow or imitate Christ after redemption--having been regenerated and then created in Christ for good works (Eph. 2:8, 9, 10): having loved Jesus' first advent, having been "instructed by the grace of Christ and reborn as better [mortals], purified and cleansed by His blood, encouraged by His example to pursue perfect righteousness, we ought surely to be better [able to live in holiness] than those who lived before the time of the Law, better even than those who lived under the Law, since the apostle says: 'For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under Law, but under Grace' (Rom. 6:14)."11 The born-again believer, then, should "get to know the will of her Lord and to seek out diligently what pleases and what displeases Him; and, in this way, she may render to God, in the words of the apostle, her 'spiritual obedience' (Rom. 12:1), and may be enabled to direct the entire course of her life in accordance with His purpose."12 The "divine scriptures ... alone enable you to understand the complete will of God."13
SALVATION OBTAINED THROUGH CHRIST
Sinners are redeemed not by attempting to imitate Christ, nor of keeping the Law of God, but "Christ's blood was given as the price of their salvation."19 We imitate Christ, and obey our LORD, not in order to be saved but because we have been saved by grace, meaning not by works, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Pelagius encourages all born-again believers to pursue holiness of life; and, while he zealously presses on that particular spiritual nerve, he also acknowledges: "The only reason which compels me, the greatest of sinners, more foolish than other men and more ignorant than all of them, to venture to advise you in a letter of some length to follow the path of holiness and righteousness is not confidence in my own righteousness, not expertise in wisdom, not reputation for knowledge, but my personal regard for you, which so encourages and challenges me, an ignorant sinner, to speak that, though I do not know how to speak, I cannot remain silent."20 He insists that all who believe in Christ, and are thereby called Christian, are cleansed, and sanctified, and "anointed among the prophets and priests and kings" ... but that such is reserved solely for those "who believe in Christ."21 We in no way can save and redeem our own selves:
DEPRAVITY AND ITS EFFECTS
Human depravity, stemming from the Fall, renders each person spiritually dead to God (Isa. 59:2; Rom. 7:11), spiritually defiant to God's Laws and Holiness (Rom. 8:6, 7, 8), and incapable of humbling oneself before God (Rom. 8:7). The mere fact that Jesus told a crowd of people that God Himself must "effectually draw" a person to Christ or else he cannot be saved (John 6:29, 35, 37, 44, 63, 65) should inform us of our fallen human condition. This fall results in human depravity, corruption of desires, damaging Free Will. Whether one considers the Arminian, the Provisionist or the Reformed (Augustinian, Lutheran, Calvinist), the effects of sin on the human condition, including Free Will, is apparent.
Eastern Orthodoxy aligns with the theology of Pelagius, rejecting Original-Sin theory, and sin's negative impact on Free Will. I will not address that tradition specifically because, in confronting and contradicting the views of Pelagius, I have thereby confronted and contradicted the views of the Eastern tradition. The Provisionist differs from the Arminian / Wesleyan on this issue but, I argue, must concede that sin has negatively affected the Free Will of each human being because their own tradition argues that what is needed in order for a person to trust in Jesus is the power of the Gospel (Rom. 1:16, 17). Though the Provisionist rejects a need for Prevenient Grace, an inner working of the Holy Spirit, he does admit that a kind of power is required if one is to believe--and this power comes to the depraved sinner in the Gospel.
The Arminian and Wesleyan views of depravity can be summarized in what Jacob Arminius himself confesses: In the Fallen State, the "Free Will of man towards the True Good," such as is Faith in Christ, "is not only wounded, maimed, infirm, bent, and weakened; but it is also imprisoned, destroyed, and lost: And its powers are not only debilitated and useless unless they be assisted by grace, but it has no powers whatever except such as are excited by Divine grace."25 Arminius argues thusly because "our Will is not free from the first Fall ... unless it be made free by the Son through His Spirit."26 In the post, "Why I Became Reformed," I explain how and why I differ from Arminius' views: If this enabling grace sufficiently aids one to trust in Christ then everyone sufficiently graced should trust in Jesus Christ (but they don't).
The Reformed view of radical depravity and Free Will is convincing to me. Not only do we have the confession of God Himself on human depravity (Gen. 6:5, 6, 11) but we also have the prophets (Jer. 17:9), Christ Jesus (John 2:24, 25; 3:18, 19; 6:29, 35, 37, 44, 63, 65), and Paul (Rom. 3:10-18; Eph. 2:1-3). Radical Depravity has been called Total Depravity in Reformed literature because the heinous depravity of sin in the fallen human condition has rendered every part of the human being, en toto, corrupt, perverse, and spiritually handicapped beyond help in and of itself. While we are not as bad as we could be, by the grace of God, we are as bad as our doctrine states. If there is even the slightest hint of error, of sin or corruption, then the total being is rendered condemned. This biblical principle can be applied: "For whoever keeps the whole Law, and yet stumbles at just one point, is guilty of breaking all of it" (James 2:10 NIV). Even if someone were almost holy, or only a tiny bit corrupt, he would be rendered totally corrupt. God's standards of holiness are exact, only the truly sinless can approach His presence (Ps. 15:1, 2), for "A little yeast works through the whole batch" (Gal. 5:9 EHV; 1 Cor. 5:6)--in other words, even the slightest bit of corruption within the human being will render him totally ruined, radically opposed to God, spoiled and rotten and in need of cleansing and redemption.
This fallen state, this "futile way of life," we "inherited from [our] forefathers" (1 Pet. 1:18). We "had no say" in the matter. We are born spoiled, corrupt, in error. But we are not merely passive in our fallenness. We are not merely spiritually helpless (Rom. 5:6): we actively resist, defiantly stand against, God and His holiness (Rom. 5:8, 10). We are dead to Him (Eph. 2:1), we are happy in our sinful state (Eph. 2:2), and by our very nature we deserve the wrath of God (Eph. 2:3). The frightening aspect of our depravity is that we do not even care that we exist in such an evil state. When we say that the sinner is "dead in sin," we say more than that he is passively separated from God (Isa. 59:2; Eph. 2:12), but that he is also aggressively and actively separated from God (Rom. 1:18, 25). The sinner does not merely hide from God (Gen. 3:8). The sinner, in love with his sin (Rom. 1:28, 29, 30, 31), separates himself from God and wants nothing to do with God (John 3:19). The sinner is not only in bondage to sin and depravity (John 8:34; Rom. 6:16) but he prefers to be in bondage to sin and depravity (Rom. 1:32; 2 Thess. 2:10).
Have we forgotten that wicked human hearts are actively hardened against God by the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13)? Do we not agree with Paul when he taught us that "the god of this world," the devil, "has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the Light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Cor. 4:4)? If depraved sinners are in love with their sin, and blind to the Light of the Gospel of Jesus (2 Cor. 4:4), who is the Light of the World (John 8:12), then how are they to freely choose to trust in Jesus Christ and be saved? By what grace? By what method? Paul answers: "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). If God effectually worked in this manner in every single person then every single person would trust in Christ. This is why the Arminian is in error. This is why the Provisionist is in error. This is why the Eastern Orthodox and Pelagius are in error. They render an inaccurate prognosis and, therefore, an insufficient prescription!
WHO, THEN, CAN BE SAVED?
"The unregenerate person does not," as a matter of deliberate and habitual practice, "accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them," because he is totally incapable of understanding them, "because," here is why, "they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14 NKJV modified). This reminds us of the radically-depraved sinner in his fallen state and his impotent Free Will: he does not submit to God's Law and he cannot do so (Rom. 8:7). Our Radical Depravity has rendered our Free Will incompetent. The only remedy is the sole action of God in Trinity: the Father elects (Eph. 1:4, 5), the Son atones (Heb. 10:5, 6, 7), the Spirit applies (John 3:3, 5, 6, 8; Rom. 5:5; 8:9, 15; Gal. 4:5, 6; Eph. 2:22; Titus 3:5) the work of atonement to the elect. This is why we find wording to this effect:
The names of the redeemed were written in God's Book before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8; 17:8). As a matter of fact, all the days that were ordained for me were written in His Book before one of them came to be (Ps. 139:16). Our radical depravity and inept Free Will is no challenge for a God who has erected an eternal covenant to redeem a people for Himself (Eph. 1:4-5 ESV; Heb. 9:12; 13:20), "according to the riches of His grace" (Eph. 1:7), and "to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored us in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6 NASB).
__________
1 Pelagius, "To Demetrias," in B.R. Rees, Pelagius: Life and Letters (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1998), 2.44.
2 Ibid., 2.38.
3 _____, "On the Divine Law," 2.90.
4 _____, "On Virginity," 2.84.
5 _____, "On the Christian Life," 2.121. Pelagius argues that God even lost His own redeemed people on account of their sins and disobedience: "Behold how God warns you and challenges you to turn from your sins even late and thus to be able to be saved." You see, then, that by repenting, turning from your sins, God will then accept you. The problem is this: no one can turn from his sins while still being a slave to those sins and that sinful way of life (Rom. 2:4, 5; 8:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). "Behold how He encourages the man already marked down for death to live instead, how gently, how mercifully he invites him not to deny our Father's goodness even to sinners, and how He still calls His sons those who have lost God their Father through sinning, just as He Himself also bears witness with a tearful voice and an unhappy lament in another passage that He has lost sinners, saying: 'I have become without sons, I have lost My people on account of their sins' (cf. Jer. 15:7)! From this then know how God loves you, since He prefers you to live rather than perish" (2.109). Pelagius misinterprets the relationship of God with His Jewish people and all sinners in general, believing that repentance merits one favor / grace with God, and that works of righteousness that springs from deeds of faith will merit one an entrance into Heaven.
6 Divine Law, 2.94; Virginity, 2.74, Celantia, 2.129, Christian Life, 2.117.
7 Robert F. Evans, Pelagius: Inquiries and Reappraisals (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2010), 119.
8 Ibid. "Pelagius has no doctrine of grace other than this," which grace for him refers to the gift of Free Will, by which "men have the capacity to be without sin"; which "grace" also includes the Law; forgiveness of sins "in virtue of the redemptive death of Christ"; the example of Jesus; and the teaching of Christ, which is "conceived both as 'Law' and more generally as teaching concerning the things proper to man's nature and salvation." "It would be unfaithful to the man himself to attempt to save his 'orthodoxy' by reading in some doctrine of infused grace which is not there" (111).
9 Ibid., 120.
10 Demetrias, 2.38.
11 Ibid., 2.44-45.
12 Ibid., 45.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid., 2.48.
15 Ibid., 2.50.
16 Virginity, 2.81.
17 Ibid.
18 Divine Law, 2.91.
19 Ibid., 2.98.
20 Christian Life, 2.106.
21 Ibid., 2.107-08.
22 Celantia, 2.130.
23 Ibid., 2.138.
24 Ibid., 2.144.
25 Jacob Arminius, "On the Free Will of Man and Its Powers," in The Works of Arminius, three volumes, trans. and ed. James and William Nichols (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996), 2.192.
26 Ibid., 2.194.
Incidentally, Jesus prophesied that, prior to His return, the culture on the earth among mortals would be "like the days of Noah" (Matt. 24:37), corrupt and violent: People will go from bad to worse (2 Tim. 3:13 NCV). However, when Jesus returns, the wrath against all corruption and violence will not arrive with water (Gen. 6:13; 7:6) but with fire (2 Pet. 3:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10). "The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth by their wickedness" (Rom. 1.18); and there is still "wrath to come" for all of God's unredeemed enemies (1 Thess. 1:10; cf. Rom. 5:9; 12:19; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3; 5:6; 1 Thess. 5:9; Rev. 6:16; 14:10; 15:1; 16:1; 19:15). "The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejects [CSB, EHV, NET, NIV; or does not believe (KJV, MEV, NKJV); or does not obey (ESV, ISV, LEB, LSB, NABre, NASB, NLT, NRSVue)] the Son will not see life, but God's wrath remains on him" (John 3:36 NET). The wrath of God remains upon every single human being, not because they are not good enough, but because they are defiantly evil.
WHEN JESUS CALLED US EVIL
Even Jesus Himself admits that we are evil--He calls us evil: "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children" (Matt. 7:11 NASB '95; Luke 11:13): Jesus did not come to save "good" people but the ungodly (Rom. 5:6, 7, 8); "[W]hile we were enemies [of God] we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son" (Rom. 5:10); "You offspring of vipers," says Jesus, "how can you, being evil, express any good things? For the mouth speaks from that which fills the heart" (Matt. 12:34 NASB '20); "Light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light so that his deeds will not be exposed" (John 3:19); "For the mind set on the flesh [the old sinful and fallen human nature] is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself [being defiant] to the Law of God, for it is not even able to do so [being spiritually incapable], and those who are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8:6-8).
If we speak of Free Will, as Free Will relates to our fallen condition, then we must ask ourselves how free is our will to make decisions and choices from various options. Are we free to choose what is good and holy from God's perspective? If not then why not? Would God require a choice from us that we cannot make? Would He be unjust to do so? Would He still hold us responsible? Can we be radically depraved and at the same time and in the same context be absolutely free, neutral, to choose a holy option or an evil option merely by willing? Does depravity to any degree influence or determine the choices we make? Let me answer my own questions and then make arguments for them.
DEPRAVITY AND FREE WILL
We, in our depraved state, are relatively free to make decisions but those decisions and choices are both influenced and determined by our fallen nature. So we are not free to choose that which is holy because our fallen nature does not now naturally want what is holy. Yes, God requires a choice from us that we cannot make, and, yes, He is just / fair / right to do so. We are responsible to our Maker. No one is absolutely free--not even God: God is framed within His own eternal holiness and therefore is not free, for example, to sin. Depravity both influences and determines the choices we make--though there are always other factors in our decision-making processes. How could it be otherwise? How could "the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:13) not both influence and determine what we desire--what and how we make choices? "Does a spring send out from the same opening both fresh and bitter water?" (James 3:11). If from the overflow of our hearts our mouths speak (Matt. 12:34) then the entire course of our lives is directed from a corrupt guide: "The tongue also is a fire [but merely reflects the state of our fallen hearts: Matt. 12:34; Isa. 6:5], a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one's life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell" (James 3:6 NIV). Each one of us makes choices according to our fallen desires (cf. James 1:13, 14). We do what we want to do, and in that vein we exercise Free Will, but to choose what is good / holy / righteous is beyond our ability (John 8:43, 44, 47).
This may seem as though we do not really exercise our Free Will. I argue that every day of our lives we exercise our Free Will. We make real choices every single day. We make life-altering choices all the time. What we do we do freely. What we speak we speak freely. God is not forcing anyone to think or feel or say anything other than what one wants to think and feel and say. "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed" (James 1:13-14 NIV). God does not have to force you to sin: you are quite capable of committing sin all on your own. This is your Free Will. Your Free Will is real and active. However, in the fallen state in which each of us is born into the world, we are all both Free and Enslaved: we each freely choose to obey our fallen nature because this is what we want to freely do:
- Jesus replied, "Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin" (John 8:34 NIV);
- Don't you know that, when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey (Rom. 6:16);
- people succumb [submit themselves] to whatever has enslaved them (2 Pet. 2:19).
Moreover, God is not waiting for you to trust in Christ Jesus, and if He did then He would wait for all eternity. This is the very meaning of "salvation" and of "being saved." He saved you. You did not save yourself through faith. He chose you to be saved. You did not choose Him to be saved. You would have never chosen Him. For a person to be "saved" from turmoil the one in need of salvation can contribute nothing to that salvation. If you were saved from drowning by someone then that means you could not help yourself, you could not save yourself, from drowning. You were saved from drowning by someone more powerful and better equipped than you. If God saved you then He did in you what you could not do for yourself. Some will respond: "God will save the one who chooses to have faith in Jesus" (1 Cor. 1:21). That is true! God will save the one who chooses to trust in Christ. The problem is that no one can, no one has the ability to trust in Christ, because we do not want Christ. We want sin (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). The Gospel is a stumbling block to Jewish people and utter foolishness to non-Jewish people (1 Cor. 1:23). But "to those whom God has called, among both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24). God's choice of you is the primary and the instrumental cause of your salvation and of your faith: "It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, [and our] holiness and [and our] redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30 NIV).
DEPRAVITY REQUIRES DIVINE INTERVENTION
God has promised to create a redeemed people for Himself (Deut. 7:5, 6, 7; Eph. 1:4-5 NLT). How will He accomplish this? He will put His Law within His elect and write His Law upon their hearts (Jer. 31:33a): He will be their God and they will be His people (Jer. 31:33b). "This is the LORD's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes" (Ps 118:23). As sinners, we are so hell-bent on our own self-destruction that, "If the LORD of hosts had not left us a remnant," some redeemed survivors, we would have been utterly destroyed (Isa. 1:9). This cannot be emphasized enough: we did not want the Lord, and we did not want to be saved, for we were happy in our sin (Rom. 3:10-18). We were entirely weak and helpless in our sin to do anything about our sin (Rom. 5:6), we were still sinners, still sinning (Rom. 5:8), enemies of God (Rom. 5:10), children of wrath who were separated from God, from life in and with God, following the devil and his angels (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3), blinded by the devil to the truth and the light of the Gospel and of Jesus Christ Himself (2 Cor. 4:3, 4), and if God had left us in this state then no one could be saved. But God!
For at one time we ourselves were also foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by many kinds of evil desires and pleasures, living in malice and jealousy, being hated and hating one another [cf. Eph. 2:1, 2, 3]. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward mankind appeared, He saved us--not by righteous works that we did ourselves but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of [regeneration] and the renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs in keeping with the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:3-7 EHV).God did that work! Not one time in that passage does Paul say that we actually did anything in order for God to save us. If you are saved then you are saved by God's work and nothing of your own--not even faith in Christ Jesus, since faith itself is the gift of God to His elect, a work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration (Eph. 2:5, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22; 2 Pet. 1:1; cf. Isa. 6:10; Jer. 6:10; Ezek. 12:2; Matt. 11:15; 13:15; Mark 4:9; John 1:11, 12, 13; 5:45, 46, 47; 6:35, 37, 44, 63, 65; 8:43, 44, 45, 46, 47; 10:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16; Acts 13:48; 16:6; 18:27; 28:24, 25, 26, 27, 28; Rom. 11:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 22, 25; 15:13; 1 Cor. 2:5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16; 2 Cor. 4:3, 4, 6; Eph. 1:4-5 NLT; Phil. 1:29; Col. 2:11-12; 1 Thess. 2:13; 2 Thess. 2:8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14; 1 Pet. 1:3, 4, 5, 20, 21; 2:7-8; Rev. 2:7). Our radical depravity hinders us from faith in Christ so faith in Christ must be a gift (Eph. 2:8) of God given to and received by (2 Pet. 1:1) His elect: "to you [and obviously not to everyone or all would be saved] it has been granted for Christ's sake ... to believe in Him" (Phil. 1:29). Why "for Christ's sake"?
Because we, whom God elected to redeem among all the peoples of the nations (Deut. 7:6, 7, 8; Rev. 5:9), are an inheritance of the Father to the Son (Ps. 2:8), Jesus Christ, for His own possession (Eph. 1:11; cf. 14; Titus 2:14; cf. Exod. 19:5; Deut. 7:6, 7, 8; 26:18; Ps. 2:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12; Zeph. 3:17; Mal. 3:17; Titus 3:7; 1 Pet. 2:4, 5, 6, 7, 8; Rev. 1:5, 6; 5:9, 10) and in Christ, and with Christ, the believer is guaranteed an eternal inheritance--we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17; cf. Gal. 3:18; Eph. 1:11 (either, we obtained an inheritance, or we have been made Christ's inheritance), Eph. 1:14, 18; 5:5; Col. 1:12; 3:24; Heb. 9:15 ("those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance" certainly refers only to some people, the elect, and clearly not to everyone or the specificity, "those who have been called," is mistaken); 1 Pet. 1:4; cf. the word "inherit" referring to the believer in Christ whose inheritance is the Kingdom of God: Matt. 5:5; 19:29; 25:34; Mark 10:17 ("what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" with Luke 10:25; 18:8); 1 Cor. 6:9, 10 (those who will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, cf. Gal. 5:21); 1 Cor. 15:50 (no mere mortal, "of flesh and blood," can enter Heaven); Heb. 1:14; 6:12; 1 Pet. 3:9 Rev. 21:7).
"Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the Gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us"--and this calling must be a particular, inner, effectual call ("to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling," 1 Cor. 1:2 NASB) or else everyone in the world would be "the called," "the elect," receiving all the benefits of this heavenly call (Heb. 3:1; cf. Acts 2:39; Rom. 1:6; 8:29, 30; 11:5, 7; 1 Cor. 1:9, 24, 26; 7:17; Gal. 1:15; Eph. 4:1, 4; Phil. 3:14; 1 Thess. 5:24; 2 Thess. 2:14; 1 Pet. 1:15, 16; 2:21; 3:9; 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:3)--and this holy and heavenly calling is granted "not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity (2 Tim. 1:8-9); so that, obviously, God's purpose and grace is granted only to His elect--to those "predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will" (Eph. 1:11). "The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth" (2 Tim. 2:24-25; cf. Rom. 2:4).
Paul acknowledges that we, as sinners estranged from God by our sins (Isa. 59:2), are unrighteous and unjust (Rom. 3:10); we do not care to understand the things of God or seek Him (Rom. 3:11); we reject and hide from God (the sinner does not go looking for the Lord: the Lord goes looking for the sinner, to redeem the sinner, Gen. 3:8), because we are corrupt and reject holiness (Rom. 3:12); our mouths are dirty because our hearts are dirty (Rom. 3:13, 14; Matt. 12:34; Isa. 6:5, 6, 7); we are murderers of character and of actual bodies (Rom. 3:15); we prefer destruction and misery (Rom. 3:16); we reject peace (Rom. 3:17); and we reject God, refusing to honor, revere, and worship Him (Rom. 3:18). We are spiritually dead, reveling in our offenses and sins, as we follow a corrupt culture of demonic influence, indulging in sensual desires of sex and greed, blissful children of God's wrath by nature (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). But someone will still contend that human beings are basically good people? To quote Jesus: "No one is good except God alone" (Mark 10:18). We have substituted God's definition of goodness and righteousness for a lesser, compromised notion, and this reveals that His ways are infinitely higher than our fallen and sin-filled ways (Isa. 55:9).
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
The people whom God created in His image were originally innocent of sin (Gen. 1:26, 27, 28, 31; 2.7, 20, 21, 25). But when they had listened to a Deceiver, they questioned God's goodness and providence, and sinned against Him (Gen. 3:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13). All of their offspring would now inherit a human nature that had been corrupted: You know "that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your futile conduct inherited from your forefathers" (1 Pet. 1:18 LSB, NABre, NKJV, NRSVue, YLT; cf. "empty / worthless / futile way of life," CSB, EHV, ESV, ISV, LEB, NASB, NCV, NET, NIV, NLT, RSV, WEB). A fallen condition, a sinful predisposition, is the default human context into which we are born into the world and this is what we inherited from our first parents. This fallen condition is not an option for anyone born into the world: "Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people" (Rom. 5:18 NIV); "For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made [became, EHV, NCV, NLT; appointed, LSB; were constituted, NET, YLT] sinners" (Rom. 5:19 NIV; cf. CSB, ESV, ISV, KJV, LEB, MEV, NABre, NASB, NKJV, NRSVue, RSV, WEB); we "had no say" in our fallen-human constitution.
The classic text (Psalm 51:1-6 NIV) upon which the doctrine of Original Sin was founded by Tertullian, Ambrose, Cyprian and others reads:
Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight; so You are right in Your verdict and justified when You judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Yet You desired faithfulness even in the womb; You taught me wisdom in that secret place.Other English translations, regarding "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me," offer variations:
- I was brought forth in [a state of] wickedness; in sin my mother conceived me [and from my beginning I, too, was sinful] (AMP);
- Behold, I was brought forth in [a state of] iniquity; my mother was sinful who conceived me [and I too am sinful] (AMPC);
- Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me (ASV, DARBY, ESV, GNV, ISV, LEB, LSB, KJV, MEV, NASB 1995, NCV, OJB, RGT, WEB, WYC, YLT); Was the mother of David "in inquity" and "in sin" when she conceived him? Is that the point?;
- Indeed, I was guilty when I was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me (CJB, CSB, EHV, HCSB, NASB 2020, NET);
- Yes, I was born in guilt, in sin, from the moment my mother conceived me (CEB, NABre);
- For behold I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins did my mother conceive me (DRA);
- I was born to do wrong, a sinner before I left my mother's womb (ERV);
- I have been evil from the day I was born; from the time I was conceived, I have been sinful (GNT, TLV);
- Indeed, I was born guilty. I was a sinner when my mother conceived me (GW, NRSVue);
- Behold, the pain of my iniquity has caused me to writhe; my mother conceived me so that sin might be removed from me (JUB);
- Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me (NIV, NLT, VOICE);
- See, I was born in sin and was in sin from my very beginning (NLV).
ORIGINAL SIN
According to Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers, later Rabbis suggest that the verse explains not David "born sinful" but "born in adultery," because of "the mystery hanging over the origin and name of David's mother." The writer, however, continues: "But the verse is only a statement of the truth of experience so constantly affirmed in Scripture of hereditary corruption and the innate proneness to sin in every child of man." Then a caveat is offered: "The argument for a personal origin to the psalm from this verse seems strong," given the author's personal application, and obvious guilt of adultery and murder (2 Sam. 12:1-15). However, in Psalm 129:1, "and frequently, the community is personified as an individual growing from youth to age and, so, may here speak of its far-back idolatrous ancestry as the mother who conceived it in sin." Dr. Scot McKnight acknowledges that Jewish teaching from ancient times knows nothing of a Doctrine of Original Sin--an inherited sinful or corrupted human nature from Adam to all of his progeny that also includes the state of guilt of conscience:
Their Bible told them about Adam [Genesis 1:26-5:5; 1 Chronicles 1:1; Job 31:33; Hosea 6:7] and they believed their Bible. The Adam of Judaism ... was not the historical Adam construct of Christian theology. There is precious little reflection on how Adam passed on his sin; though, on some level, he precipitated sin. They have no statements about sin nature being passed on by procreation. They don't have what we would call a Federal Representation of all humans in Adam and Eve--at least that I am aware of. Perhaps the idea of archetype breaches the waters of Federalism. But those Jewish texts are a long way from later Reformed theology of Federalism (26:24-27:04).To that point, one might ask why Adam and Eve's second-born son, Abel, seems unaffected by the presence of sin from his fallen humanity, because Scripture does not even infer that the reason why, or how, the LORD "had regard for Abel and his offering" (Gen. 4:4 NASB) was due to some particular inner-enabling grace (given that Abel, then, must have been one of God's unconditionally elect). "By faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, through which he was attested to be righteous, God testifying about his gifts, and through faith, though he is dead, he still speaks" (Heb. 11:4 NASB). "For you [who believe] have ... come to ... Jesus, the Mediator of a New Covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel" (Heb. 12:18, 24). Jesus said to the Jewish Leaders who rejected Him: "Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you will fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar" (Matt. 23.34-35; cf. Luke 11.49-51).
We are taught by the author of Hebrews to emulate Abel. We are taught by John to not emulate Cain, who was "of the evil one and murdered his brother. And for what reason did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil but his brother's was righteous" (1 John 3:11-12). This is a message of Love vs. Hate, Good vs. Evil, Righteousness vs. Unrighteousness. Jude warns believers about certain people who have crept into their places of worship unnoticed (Jude 1:4): "Woe to them! For they have gone the way of Cain" (Jude 1:11). What is "the Way of Cain"? Hatred for what is holy, good, righteous (1 John 3:11-12). Cain was jealous of his brother and angry because the LORD had no regard for Cain and his offering. Note that the LORD gave His own commentary on the men and their offering: The LORD "had regard for Abel and his offering; but for Cain and his offering He had no regard" (Gen. 4:4, 5). What they offered to the LORD revealed the state of their heart (Abel is righteous and Cain is wicked) and the relationship that both men maintained with their Creator, their Provider, their Sustainer and Sovereign God.
We must concede at this point that, just because effectual grace is not explicitly mentioned within the context of Abel does not therefore indicate that Abel was righteous by his own willing or ability or efforts, since Scripture speaks to that subject in other places. So, we should not argue from silence that Abel exercised his "Free Will" to be good and righteous, and that apart from any inward working of the Holy Spirit. We can rightly admit that both Cain and Abel were born into the world with a fallen human nature (cf. 1 Pet. 1:18) and infer that effectual grace was given to one boy, Abel, but not the other, Cain, by God's own doing (cf. Rom. 9:8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15): "So, then, it does not depend on the person who wants it [human desire] nor the one who runs [puts forth effort], but on God who has mercy" (Rom. 9:16 NASB '20).
So, do we sin because we are sinners, or are we sinners because we sin? The manner in which you answer that question for yourself reveals your theology. The Jewish rabbis and their people maintain that we are sinners because we sin--if we did not sin then we would not be sinners. Tertullian, Ambrose, Cyprian, Ambrosiaster, Augustine, Aquinas and the Reformers (both Continental and English) argue that we sin because we are sinners by nature (Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). Again, Dr. McKnight remarks, First, the Adam of Paul in Romans 5 is the literary Adam
of Genesis, probably also the genealogical Adam and, seemingly, the image-of-God Adam. But, most important, he was the man who was summoned to obedience--and he didn't. Paul ignores Eve in the book of Romans. Second, the Adam of Paul has echoes of the Jewish tradition's interpretations. Third, to further the second point about Paul and Judaism's Adam, most especially once again the Adam of Paul is the moral Adam who was disobedient. The Adam of Paul was the man who [freely] chose to sin. Adam, for Paul, is everyone. Fourth, and here it gets tricky, and we have to be careful, Paul lays blame on humans, not because they were born sinners, or because of their [so-called] sin nature, but because, like Adam, they [freely] choose to sin. This is what Romans 5:12 said: "Because all sinned": ἐφ’ ᾧ [for that, not ἐν οὗ, in whom--Augustine misinterpreted the Latin Vulgate at Romans 5:12 and assumed the Latin in quo, in whom (meaning Adam), omnes peccaverunt, all sinned, was the equivalent to the Greek rendering ἐφ’ ᾧ πάντες ἥμαρτον, in that all sinned, not in whom all sinned]. How Adam and Eve is connected to the obvious sin-behavior of all humans is simply not stated by the apostle Paul. Original Sin is a good theory. But Paul doesn't seem to believe in it. Or, better yet, it is not clear to me that he teaches it. Maybe he believes in it. This leads me to now a nuanced statement: The Adam of Paul is not the historical Adam. ... [B]ut the connection between Adam as sinner, and you and I as sinners, is not [clearly] spelled out as it was later spelled out by theologians like Augustine, Luther, and Calvin (27:09-29:14).If Paul did not believe in sin-transmission theory, from Adam to all his progeny, then why would Paul insist that the offense of Adam resulted in condemnation for all of his progeny (Rom. 5:18), rendering all of his offspring as constituted sinners (Rom. 5:19)? How did Adam's sin so negatively affect all of his offspring? If Paul did not believe in sin-transmission, Original-Sin theory, then each individual is only responsible for his or her own behavior with no corrupt affiliation with Adam as noted in Romans 5:18-19. If this is the case then we only become sinners once we personally and freely choose to sin. So we must be spiritually and cognitively neutral when we are born into the world. We, then, proactively follow in Adam's corrupt footprints by freely following his example. This very notion is the epitome of Pelagius' theology--and not just Pelagius, either, since many early Church fathers believed the same. But, if this is true, then why has no one freely avoided following in Adam's metaphysical footprints? Billions of people born into the world and not even one person freely avoided sin? Why? How?
As to Augustine's Latin-Vulgate blunder, his error is irrelevant to the subject, given that our inevitable connection to Adam is clearly taught in Scripture: "For as in Adam all die" (1 Cor. 15:22), and this death is not merely physical, but also spiritual (Isa. 59:2; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death [physical and spiritual] spread to all men" (Rom. 5:12)--the proof being "because all sinned" (Rom. 5:12)--then our direct connection to Adam, as his offspring, is unmistakable. Our "life" in Christ by grace through faith in Him is both physical and spiritual (Eph. 1:19, 20; 2:6). If we die physically in Adam then we can have physical resurrection life in Christ. If we died spiritually in Adam then we can have new life in Christ. God's judgment upon all of humanity "arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation" (Rom. 5:16); by Adam's transgression both physical and spiritual death reigned in all of humanity (Rom. 5:17); through Adam's transgression there resulted condemnation for all of us (Rom. 5:18); through Adam's disobedience we were all constituted sinners (Rom. 5:19). Regardless of Augustine's use of "in whom" rather than "in that," our direct and immediate relation to Adam remains intact, and is even glaringly evident in the Romans 5 passage throughout. The conclusion is still biblically accurate.
HUMAN NATURE
Pelagius argues that "the reason why it is made difficult for us to do good" is that "long habit of doing wrong which has infected us from childhood and corrupted us little by little over many years, and ever after holds us in bondage and slavery to itself, so that it seems somehow to have acquired the force of nature."1 In other words, we have been following bad examples of human behavior for so long that a sinful way of life seems as though it originates from our human nature, as though we cannot help but to sin, and not from our freely-willing choice to sin--a choice that is necessitated neither by a corrupt nature nor of God's foreordination. Pelagius believes that God has so constituted human nature that a person can will to choose good or evil. "It was because God wished to bestow on the rational creature the gift of doing good of his own free will and the capacity to exercise free choice, by implanting in [humanity] the possibility of choosing either alternative, that he made it his peculiar right to be what he wanted to be, so that with his capacity for good and evil he could do either quite naturally and then bend his will in the other direction too." He adds: "Our most excellent Creator wished us to be able to do either but actually to do only one, that is, good, which He also commanded, giving us the capacity to do evil only so that we might do His will by exercising our own."2
What is Adam's relationship with us, his offspring, and our sin? Pelagius answers that the "purpose that our Lord, the Word of God, came down from Heaven" was that, "through His assumption of our human nature [Heb. 2:14, 15], the human race, left prostrate from the time of Adam, might be raised up in Christ, and the new man [the regenerate in Christ may be] rewarded for his obedience [cf. John 3:36 NASB; Eph. 2:10] with salvation as great as the perdition that once befell him through disobedience."3 We should not follow the example of Adam but of Christ. "If you wish then to be with Christ, and to share with Christ, you must live by the example of Christ [John 14:15, 21, 23; Gal. 5:1; 1 Pet. 2:21; 1 John 1:5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10; 2:1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6], who was such a stranger to evil and wickedness that He did not retaliate even upon His enemies, but rather prayed even for them."4 As for Adam and our relationship with him: "Adam was created as the first man at the first foundation of the world. Was he condemned because of faithlessness [not having faith or not believing in God] or sin? I find that there was no disbelief in him but only disobedience which was the reason why he was condemned and why all are condemned for following his example."5 Therefore, we are not condemned because of what Adam did in the Garden, but only condemned for our own following of his sinful disobedience.
Again, however, we must ask why. Billions of people born into the world and not even one person freely avoided sin? Why? How? Moreover, Pelagius would have us imitate Christ instead of Adam and, yet, not one person freely chooses to do so. Why? How? Pelagius just said that, if we want to live with Christ, then we must live by the example of Christ. This statement, then, reveals that salvation is ultimately up to us and our own efforts at living righteously (imitating Christ). Jesus cleansed us from our old sins and now, if we want to be saved in the future, we must live as Christ lived. I have been cleansed from my past, I am currently justified (but there is no fixed state of justification and guarantee that I will be justified in the future--contra Rom. 8:30), and, if I live righteously, I will merit Heaven--and Pelagius uses those words:
Those who have been redeemed by Christ's passion through His dutifulness to His Father, have been redeemed to this end, that, by keeping the Laws of their Redeemer, they may prepare themselves for the life laid up for them in Heaven, and there they may in no way be said to arrive redeemed unless they follow the Commands laid upon those who seek to obey, as it is written, "If you would enter life, keep the Commandments" (Matt. 19:17). ... But Scripture testifies that eternal life cannot be merited save by complete observance of the divine Commandments ... Therefore no one has that life unless he has kept all the Commandments of the Law ... [W]e must do the will of Him from whom we also hope to receive rewards ... By this it is made manifestly clear that we do not merit a reward of such magnitude solely by confessing God [what he calls "by faith alone"] unless works of faith and righteousness are added ... I do not know whose servant he is who is seen to be doing neither evil nor good, or how he can hope for everlasting life from God, if he has not earned it by good deeds.6Whatever religion Pelagius proffers here, it is not the Christian religion, for Christ alone and His merit alone "has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, [and our] holiness and [our] redemption" (1 Cor. 1:30 NIV). We need a perfect righteousness--and we should know from Scripture that such a righteousness cannot derive from us because we cannot be perfect: "But now, apart from the Law, the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given [to us] through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. ... [Believers] are [therefore] justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:21-22 NIV; Rom. 3:24 NIV). God demonstrated "His righteousness ... so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus" (Rom. 3:26 NIV). "For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law" (Rom. 3:28 NIV). How could Pelagius miss this? The righteousness of God in Jesus Christ must be imputed to the believer because he has no righteousness of his own (Rom. 4:3, 4, 5, 6). Jesus not only died a death, in our stead, that we could not offer to God for an atonement of our sins; but He also lived a righteous life for us, in our stead, because we could not offer to God a righteousness of our own (Rom. 3:21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28; Phil. 3:8, 9).
Pelagius communicates the exact opposite of Paul's inspired teaching. Pelagius quotes Jesus' response to the rich young ruler: "Keep the Law if you want to attain to eternal life." But Pelagius fails to understand why Jesus responded in such fashion. The ruler should have responded to Jesus: "But, rabbi, no one can keep the Law of God perfectly. So how can anyone be saved?" Instead, he relied upon his own supposed righteousness (Matt. 19:20), but was silenced by Christ when told to give away his wealth (Matt. 19:21, 22). He was hoarding his wealth and not contributing to those in need. Hence he had not, in reality, kept the Law--he had not loved his neighbor as himself (Matt. 22:37, 38, 39, 40).
I am not at all being unfair with Pelagius' theology here. This is what he believes. We merit eternal life by first being cleansed from past sins and then by keeping the Law of God perfectly for the rest of our lives. Dr. Robert F. Evans concludes Pelagius' theology thusly: "Faith ... is reckoned as righteousness for this reason, that [a person] is absolved as to the past, justified as to the present [and only in the present], and prepared for the future works of faith [Pelagius would say "future works of righteousness"]."7 "The key to understanding his language is to notice that the formula 'faith alone' applies to the unique situation of the individual at his conversion and baptism. 'Righteousness' ... as a term applying to the Christian after baptism, and pre-eminently at the judgment, is unthinkable without the performance of 'works of righteousness,' i.e., without obedience to the moral precepts of Christ and of the Apostles." Dr. Evans adds: "The whole of Christian life as it is stretched out between baptism and the judgment is one in which Christians avail themselves of the grace of teaching and example [and by "grace" Pelagius does not mean any inward working of the Holy Spirit whatsoever]; always exercising that freedom of choice which has been made effectual by grace [and here "effectual by grace" refers to that human condition as created by God that enables each person to will whatsoever he chooses], they obey the precepts of the Gospel and so merit the rewards of the final Kingdom of Heaven."8 Evans explains:
The idea of freedom, as he understood it, is of fundamental importance to his total scheme. Grace is defined ... in such a way that that freedom of choice is not destroyed but is preserved and lifted up so that it may be itself [meaning, free, unhindered by any natural or divine necessity]. Which is to say that the doctrine of redemption is framed to fit the requirements of the doctrine of creation [i.e., we are created in such a way that we are able to do what God requires by His own design, and that our condition is ultimately unhindered by sin]. ... Such [a state of Free Will] is implanted in man at creation, goes underground but is not destroyed in the course of human history, and emerges again in its own effectual working through the restoring activity of Christ. We may say that what the controversy [between him and Augustine] did was to move Pelagius to draw an even firmer line between creation and redemption by defining man's created freedom as itself a gift of grace. The grace of creation [for Pelagius], then, fixes man's rational will in such a way that it is free of natural necessity, whereas the grace of redemption frees that same will from the necessity that it has prepared for itself; and, likewise, both the grace of creation and ... of redemption operate in such a way that [the] human will is never moved irresistibly by any necessity emanating from the will of God, except the necessity that will be [the human free] will and therefore free [to act by itself as one freely chooses].9I will show from Scripture how human Free Will has been destroyed by sin to the effecting of faith in Christ and obtaining salvation.
HUMAN NATURE RESTORED
Humanity and human nature post-Fall needs the redemption offered freely by Christ to all who will take hold of His promises of redemption, reconciliation, and salvation by grace through faith in Him. Imitating Christ, obeying the Lord and His commands, is for the believer--not for those who are attempting to gain salvation by their own effort. God created our human nature to reflect His own divine nature in goodness (Gen. 1:26, 27, 31). God desires each one of His rational creatures to "appreciate the dignity of [one's] own nature. ... [He longs for us] to be free to act and not under compulsion; it was for this reason that 'He left him free to make his own decisions' (Sir. 15:14 NRSV) and set before him life and death, good and evil, and he shall be given whatever pleases him [Sir. 15:17 NRSV]. Hence we read in the Book of Deuteronomy also: 'I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse [says God], therefore choose life so that you may live' (Deut. 30:19)."10 God is speaking to His Jewish people, whom He chose to redeem (Deut. 7:6, 7, 8, 9), and such passages do not apply salvifically to all the world. Pelagius' free-for-all hermeneutic is fatal: Deuteronomy 30:19 and Matthew 19:17 are not Gospel calls of salvation to lost souls.
Again, then, no one is saved by God by attempts at being good or by doing good works. Pelagius sometimes weaves in and out of a seeming orthodoxy, partially correct, but then overtly heretical. We can only follow or imitate Christ after redemption--having been regenerated and then created in Christ for good works (Eph. 2:8, 9, 10): having loved Jesus' first advent, having been "instructed by the grace of Christ and reborn as better [mortals], purified and cleansed by His blood, encouraged by His example to pursue perfect righteousness, we ought surely to be better [able to live in holiness] than those who lived before the time of the Law, better even than those who lived under the Law, since the apostle says: 'For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under Law, but under Grace' (Rom. 6:14)."11 The born-again believer, then, should "get to know the will of her Lord and to seek out diligently what pleases and what displeases Him; and, in this way, she may render to God, in the words of the apostle, her 'spiritual obedience' (Rom. 12:1), and may be enabled to direct the entire course of her life in accordance with His purpose."12 The "divine scriptures ... alone enable you to understand the complete will of God."13
You have already laid down all the greatest encumbrances and in the very first moment of your conversion you have overcome everything which either delays you or recalls you from the journey of the spiritual life [2 Pet. 1:3; 1 John 5:4]; ... you can say with Paul: 'The world has been crucified to me and I to the world' (Gal. 6:14). What kind of completion is to be expected from one who has made such a beginning? Exert this same virtue of yours, this same sensibility, in what remains to be done and now, with that same strength of mind which enabled you to drive away the occasions of vice which presented themselves, reject the vices themselves.14Of a truth Pelagius speaks here: "Whatever you implant in yourself at the outset will remain and the rest of your life will run along the course set by your beginning. At the very commencement the end has to be kept in mind: try even now to be the kind of person you want to be when you reach the last Day. Habit is what nourishes both vices and virtues and it is strongest in those with whom it has grown bit by bit from the start of their lives."15 The most difficulty I experience in my walk in Christ is that I led a very immoral life prior to conversion. I had known sin far longer and much more intimately than I had known Christ. That way of life still haunts me, still at times tempts me to return, and I, by the grace of God, keep resisting while Christ holds on to me. We should always remember that "it is a sin even to desire what it is a sin to do."16 But our souls have been purified (1 Pet. 1:22),17 cleansed "by 'the washing of water with the Word of Life' (Eph. 5:25-27), reborn by water ... reborn in the Spirit through the Word ... [and] this is the reason for the transformation wrought by Heaven [and not by ourselves], namely, that while the nature of the body remains unchanged, the old man may be changed and given a new disposition of mind."18 He needs a correction here: the "old man" remains within (Rom. 6:6; Eph. 4:22; Col. 3:9), the "new man" has been created in the likeness of Christ Jesus his Redeemer (Rom. 6:7, 8, 11, 12, 13; Eph. 4:23, 24; Col. 3:10), and the two wage war against each other, as the "old man" wages war against the Holy Spirit as well (Gal. 5:16, 17), until redemption is finally realized and attained (Gal. 5:5; Rom. 8:18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25).
SALVATION OBTAINED THROUGH CHRIST
Sinners are redeemed not by attempting to imitate Christ, nor of keeping the Law of God, but "Christ's blood was given as the price of their salvation."19 We imitate Christ, and obey our LORD, not in order to be saved but because we have been saved by grace, meaning not by works, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Pelagius encourages all born-again believers to pursue holiness of life; and, while he zealously presses on that particular spiritual nerve, he also acknowledges: "The only reason which compels me, the greatest of sinners, more foolish than other men and more ignorant than all of them, to venture to advise you in a letter of some length to follow the path of holiness and righteousness is not confidence in my own righteousness, not expertise in wisdom, not reputation for knowledge, but my personal regard for you, which so encourages and challenges me, an ignorant sinner, to speak that, though I do not know how to speak, I cannot remain silent."20 He insists that all who believe in Christ, and are thereby called Christian, are cleansed, and sanctified, and "anointed among the prophets and priests and kings" ... but that such is reserved solely for those "who believe in Christ."21 We in no way can save and redeem our own selves:
True love possesses great strength, and he who is perfectly loved claims for himself the entire will of the one who loves him, and there is nothing greater than love. If we truly love Christ, if we remember that we have been redeemed by His blood, there is nothing which we ought to be wishing for more, nothing at all that we ought to be more concerned to do, than what we know to be His will.22No one should imagine himself a higher rank of humanity, when "before God all are of like honor and of the same value, having been redeemed by the same blood of Christ, nor does it matter what are the circumstances of anyone's birth [Gal. 3:28], when all of us without exception are reborn [by grace through faith] in Christ. For even if we forget that we are all descended from one man [Acts 17:26], at least we ought always to remember that it is through One that we are all reborn."23 One might almost believe Pelagius to be orthodox: that is, until he reads all of Pelagius, and then he discovers his fatal flaws. In this very same letter, "To Celantia," he relies on one's own righteousness:
Blessed are those who so wait and watch for that Day that they prepare themselves for it daily, who do not flatter themselves on their past righteousness but, according to the apostle, are renewed in virtue every day (2 Cor. 4:16). For the righteousness of the righteous man will not profit him from that day on which he ceases to be righteous, just as also his iniquity will not harm the iniquitous man from that day of his on which he turns away from iniquity (Ezek. 18:21-24). Nor, therefore, ought the holy man to feel secure for as long as he remains in this life's struggle or the sinner to despair, since, according to the aforesaid judgment of the prophet, he is able to make himself righteous in one day; for you have the whole duration over which your life extends to enable you to achieve righteousness and not become more remiss because of your trust in your past righteousness. ... The Lord loves pure hearts; for all those who are [and become] blameless are acceptable to Him (cf. Matt. 5:8; Prov. 11:20). Therefore see that you order the rest of your life without offense, so that you can sing with the prophet, "I walked [lived my life] with integrity of heart within my house" (Ps. 101:2); and, again, "I will go to the altar of God, to God of my exceeding joy" (Ps. 43:4), for it is not enough only to have begun, but to have finished in true righteousness.24That is damnable heresy. The irony here is how much this theology reflects Roman Catholic teaching--the very Institution that claims Pelagius to be a heretic but which also adheres to his heresies! How is a person saved according to Pelagius? His past sins must be atoned by Christ and forgiven by God. The person then pursues a life of righteousness and, should he attain it, he shall be justified by God and saved. This is Roman Catholic theology--the very theology that calls imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ and justification a "legal fiction."
DEPRAVITY AND ITS EFFECTS
Human depravity, stemming from the Fall, renders each person spiritually dead to God (Isa. 59:2; Rom. 7:11), spiritually defiant to God's Laws and Holiness (Rom. 8:6, 7, 8), and incapable of humbling oneself before God (Rom. 8:7). The mere fact that Jesus told a crowd of people that God Himself must "effectually draw" a person to Christ or else he cannot be saved (John 6:29, 35, 37, 44, 63, 65) should inform us of our fallen human condition. This fall results in human depravity, corruption of desires, damaging Free Will. Whether one considers the Arminian, the Provisionist or the Reformed (Augustinian, Lutheran, Calvinist), the effects of sin on the human condition, including Free Will, is apparent.
Eastern Orthodoxy aligns with the theology of Pelagius, rejecting Original-Sin theory, and sin's negative impact on Free Will. I will not address that tradition specifically because, in confronting and contradicting the views of Pelagius, I have thereby confronted and contradicted the views of the Eastern tradition. The Provisionist differs from the Arminian / Wesleyan on this issue but, I argue, must concede that sin has negatively affected the Free Will of each human being because their own tradition argues that what is needed in order for a person to trust in Jesus is the power of the Gospel (Rom. 1:16, 17). Though the Provisionist rejects a need for Prevenient Grace, an inner working of the Holy Spirit, he does admit that a kind of power is required if one is to believe--and this power comes to the depraved sinner in the Gospel.
The Arminian and Wesleyan views of depravity can be summarized in what Jacob Arminius himself confesses: In the Fallen State, the "Free Will of man towards the True Good," such as is Faith in Christ, "is not only wounded, maimed, infirm, bent, and weakened; but it is also imprisoned, destroyed, and lost: And its powers are not only debilitated and useless unless they be assisted by grace, but it has no powers whatever except such as are excited by Divine grace."25 Arminius argues thusly because "our Will is not free from the first Fall ... unless it be made free by the Son through His Spirit."26 In the post, "Why I Became Reformed," I explain how and why I differ from Arminius' views: If this enabling grace sufficiently aids one to trust in Christ then everyone sufficiently graced should trust in Jesus Christ (but they don't).
The Reformed view of radical depravity and Free Will is convincing to me. Not only do we have the confession of God Himself on human depravity (Gen. 6:5, 6, 11) but we also have the prophets (Jer. 17:9), Christ Jesus (John 2:24, 25; 3:18, 19; 6:29, 35, 37, 44, 63, 65), and Paul (Rom. 3:10-18; Eph. 2:1-3). Radical Depravity has been called Total Depravity in Reformed literature because the heinous depravity of sin in the fallen human condition has rendered every part of the human being, en toto, corrupt, perverse, and spiritually handicapped beyond help in and of itself. While we are not as bad as we could be, by the grace of God, we are as bad as our doctrine states. If there is even the slightest hint of error, of sin or corruption, then the total being is rendered condemned. This biblical principle can be applied: "For whoever keeps the whole Law, and yet stumbles at just one point, is guilty of breaking all of it" (James 2:10 NIV). Even if someone were almost holy, or only a tiny bit corrupt, he would be rendered totally corrupt. God's standards of holiness are exact, only the truly sinless can approach His presence (Ps. 15:1, 2), for "A little yeast works through the whole batch" (Gal. 5:9 EHV; 1 Cor. 5:6)--in other words, even the slightest bit of corruption within the human being will render him totally ruined, radically opposed to God, spoiled and rotten and in need of cleansing and redemption.
This fallen state, this "futile way of life," we "inherited from [our] forefathers" (1 Pet. 1:18). We "had no say" in the matter. We are born spoiled, corrupt, in error. But we are not merely passive in our fallenness. We are not merely spiritually helpless (Rom. 5:6): we actively resist, defiantly stand against, God and His holiness (Rom. 5:8, 10). We are dead to Him (Eph. 2:1), we are happy in our sinful state (Eph. 2:2), and by our very nature we deserve the wrath of God (Eph. 2:3). The frightening aspect of our depravity is that we do not even care that we exist in such an evil state. When we say that the sinner is "dead in sin," we say more than that he is passively separated from God (Isa. 59:2; Eph. 2:12), but that he is also aggressively and actively separated from God (Rom. 1:18, 25). The sinner does not merely hide from God (Gen. 3:8). The sinner, in love with his sin (Rom. 1:28, 29, 30, 31), separates himself from God and wants nothing to do with God (John 3:19). The sinner is not only in bondage to sin and depravity (John 8:34; Rom. 6:16) but he prefers to be in bondage to sin and depravity (Rom. 1:32; 2 Thess. 2:10).
Have we forgotten that wicked human hearts are actively hardened against God by the deceitfulness of sin (Heb. 3:13)? Do we not agree with Paul when he taught us that "the god of this world," the devil, "has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the Light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Cor. 4:4)? If depraved sinners are in love with their sin, and blind to the Light of the Gospel of Jesus (2 Cor. 4:4), who is the Light of the World (John 8:12), then how are they to freely choose to trust in Jesus Christ and be saved? By what grace? By what method? Paul answers: "For God, who said, 'Light shall shine out of darkness,' is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). If God effectually worked in this manner in every single person then every single person would trust in Christ. This is why the Arminian is in error. This is why the Provisionist is in error. This is why the Eastern Orthodox and Pelagius are in error. They render an inaccurate prognosis and, therefore, an insufficient prescription!
WHO, THEN, CAN BE SAVED?
"The unregenerate person does not," as a matter of deliberate and habitual practice, "accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them," because he is totally incapable of understanding them, "because," here is why, "they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14 NKJV modified). This reminds us of the radically-depraved sinner in his fallen state and his impotent Free Will: he does not submit to God's Law and he cannot do so (Rom. 8:7). Our Radical Depravity has rendered our Free Will incompetent. The only remedy is the sole action of God in Trinity: the Father elects (Eph. 1:4, 5), the Son atones (Heb. 10:5, 6, 7), the Spirit applies (John 3:3, 5, 6, 8; Rom. 5:5; 8:9, 15; Gal. 4:5, 6; Eph. 2:22; Titus 3:5) the work of atonement to the elect. This is why we find wording to this effect:
- He came to His own [Jewish people], and His own people did not accept Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born [past tense], not of blood [ethnicity], nor of the will of the flesh [not by Free Will or effort], nor of the will of a man, but of God (John 1:11, 12, 13 NASB '20)--the regeneration gave birth to the faith;
- It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord" (1 Cor. 1:30-31 NIV);
- But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14 NASB '20);
- Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? (Gal. 3:3 NASB '20);
- He saved us [so how does God save us?], not on the basis of deeds which we did in righteousness, but in accordance with His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5 NASB '20);
- In the exercise of His will He gave us birth by the Word of Truth (James 1:18 NASB '20);
The names of the redeemed were written in God's Book before the foundation of the world (Rev. 13:8; 17:8). As a matter of fact, all the days that were ordained for me were written in His Book before one of them came to be (Ps. 139:16). Our radical depravity and inept Free Will is no challenge for a God who has erected an eternal covenant to redeem a people for Himself (Eph. 1:4-5 ESV; Heb. 9:12; 13:20), "according to the riches of His grace" (Eph. 1:7), and "to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored us in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6 NASB).
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1 Pelagius, "To Demetrias," in B.R. Rees, Pelagius: Life and Letters (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 1998), 2.44.
2 Ibid., 2.38.
3 _____, "On the Divine Law," 2.90.
4 _____, "On Virginity," 2.84.
5 _____, "On the Christian Life," 2.121. Pelagius argues that God even lost His own redeemed people on account of their sins and disobedience: "Behold how God warns you and challenges you to turn from your sins even late and thus to be able to be saved." You see, then, that by repenting, turning from your sins, God will then accept you. The problem is this: no one can turn from his sins while still being a slave to those sins and that sinful way of life (Rom. 2:4, 5; 8:3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8; Eph. 2:1, 2, 3). "Behold how He encourages the man already marked down for death to live instead, how gently, how mercifully he invites him not to deny our Father's goodness even to sinners, and how He still calls His sons those who have lost God their Father through sinning, just as He Himself also bears witness with a tearful voice and an unhappy lament in another passage that He has lost sinners, saying: 'I have become without sons, I have lost My people on account of their sins' (cf. Jer. 15:7)! From this then know how God loves you, since He prefers you to live rather than perish" (2.109). Pelagius misinterprets the relationship of God with His Jewish people and all sinners in general, believing that repentance merits one favor / grace with God, and that works of righteousness that springs from deeds of faith will merit one an entrance into Heaven.
6 Divine Law, 2.94; Virginity, 2.74, Celantia, 2.129, Christian Life, 2.117.
7 Robert F. Evans, Pelagius: Inquiries and Reappraisals (Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2010), 119.
8 Ibid. "Pelagius has no doctrine of grace other than this," which grace for him refers to the gift of Free Will, by which "men have the capacity to be without sin"; which "grace" also includes the Law; forgiveness of sins "in virtue of the redemptive death of Christ"; the example of Jesus; and the teaching of Christ, which is "conceived both as 'Law' and more generally as teaching concerning the things proper to man's nature and salvation." "It would be unfaithful to the man himself to attempt to save his 'orthodoxy' by reading in some doctrine of infused grace which is not there" (111).
9 Ibid., 120.
10 Demetrias, 2.38.
11 Ibid., 2.44-45.
12 Ibid., 45.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid., 2.48.
15 Ibid., 2.50.
16 Virginity, 2.81.
17 Ibid.
18 Divine Law, 2.91.
19 Ibid., 2.98.
20 Christian Life, 2.106.
21 Ibid., 2.107-08.
22 Celantia, 2.130.
23 Ibid., 2.138.
24 Ibid., 2.144.
25 Jacob Arminius, "On the Free Will of Man and Its Powers," in The Works of Arminius, three volumes, trans. and ed. James and William Nichols (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996), 2.192.
26 Ibid., 2.194.
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