This is a tricky theological question. It’s tricky because, on the one hand, we would like to think that we actually have genuine free will, including the ability to choose to follow God simply because we choose to do so. However, the Bible seems to teach in several places that human beings are so immeasurably sinful, right from the moment of birth, that it is only by the grace of God that we can choose to follow him. Thus, our wills do have a part to play, but we are only able to choose God if God first makes it possible for us to do so. Almost all Christian denominations now hold this position (theologically referred to as part of “original sin” or “the depravity of man”), but in a variety of different forms.
- Augustine was one of the leading lights of the early church fathers in the western Roman Empire, pastoring a church in present-day Tunisia and writing many theological works during the late 4th and early 5th centuries. Many of his theological models became dominant in the thinking of the medieval Catholic church, and were passed on to great Reformers like Luther and Calvin (and, as such, even some of our Baptist theology is Augustinian in flavor).
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| Pelagius |
- Around the turn of the 5th century, a British theologian named Pelagius came to Rome and began to teach that human beings have free will in the complete sense—they can choose to be righteous simply by the power of their will alone. Although Pelagius thought that in practice, everyone eventually sins, in theory he believed it possible to be sinless simply by always choosing righteousness. He did not believe in the idea of a hardwired disposition towards sinfulness in all human beings (what we refer to as “original sin.”)
- Augustine opposed Pelagius and his followers with great passion. He felt that not only did the Pelagian position run against the teaching of Scripture, it also seemed to empty Christ’s sacrifice of much of its meaning. If human beings could, in theory, be sinless simply by the exertion of their wills, then, in theory, there could be people who would have no need of the forgiveness that Christ won for us on the cross.
- To combat Pelagius, Augustine put forward his view of the biblical doctrine of original sin:
(1) that all humans are hardwired with a predisposition to sin (as an effect of the Fall, not of God’s original creation), making it impossible for anyone to be sinless outside of Christ’s sacrifice (Gen. 8:21; Psalm 51:5; Rom. 3:9-12);
(2) that because of sin, human beings are not even able to say “Yes” to God unless God gives them a special dispensation of grace by which to say yes (Ps. 14:2-3; John 6:44; Rom. 5:6; Eph. 2:1-5);
(3) that we also inherit the “guilt” of sin simply by nature of being human, meaning that we all stand under the wrath of God as the legal consequence of Adam’s sin—this is sometimes referred to as imputed sin (Rom. 5:12, 18-19; Eph. 2:3);
(4) and that, further, God only gives His special grace, enabling conversion, to some people, not to all. This leads to Augustine’s famous doctrine of predestination—that God knows and chooses in advance those who will be Christians, and only enables those specific people to respond with a “Yes,” to salvation (Rom. 8:29-30; Eph. 1:5, 11). Those who are not predestined cannot be saved.
- Reception of this doctrine: #1 and #2 of this doctrine are currently accepted by all major Christian denominations. #3 is largely accepted in the West (by Catholic & Protestant churches, but not by Eastern or Oriental Orthodoxy), and #4 is still hotly debated (in evangelical circles, this debate is known as Calvinism vs. Arminianism).
- A Little Deeper on #4: Augustine’s reasoning for predestination is that God is omniscient and outside of time, so he already knows everyone who will respond to him with a yes. The combination of this foreknowledge and his sovereignty means that, in effect, only those who are foreknown to be saved will even get the chance to say yes to God. (This doctrine would later be presented in an even harder form by some later Calvinists.) In opposition to predestination, some theologians hold to a doctrine called prevenient grace—although we indeed do need the help of God’s grace in order to say yes to him, God has made that grace already available to everybody through Jesus Christ (John 1:9; 1 Tim. 2:4; Titus 2:11); thus anyone, through the gift of prevenient grace, can say yes to God if they choose to do so.
- How do we decide between predestination and prevenient grace? In a certain sense, this is a choice between shades of gray—both positions hold that all people are sinful and in need of God’s grace, that God has made a way for people to come to him in faith through Jesus Christ, and that we as Christians are obligated to preach the Gospel to everybody. The major difference seems to be a point of emphasis: predestination emphasizes the glory and sovereignty of God, and prevenient grace emphasizes His love for all people. Because of the rules of logic, both positions can’t be entirely true, but the Bible seems to leave either option open, so either one is a possibility for genuine Christian belief.
Application:
Whether we accept the Augustinian doctrine of predestination or not, the Bible makes it clear that God reached out for us, chose us, and saved us in spite of our sinful inability to come to him on our own—for that, the only appropriate response is to give thanks!
Under either way of looking at the question of sovereignty, we always have to remember the Bible’s teaching that God does indeed love all people and that we have an obligation to spread the Gospel. Even those who hold to predestination say that a fatalistic attitude (“If God has predestined who will be saved, then He’ll do it all by himself and I don’t have to do anything”) is inappropriate—so share the good news!