Grace Under Fire

By Hazel Holland

The sovereignty of God’s grace was brought home afresh to me recently while reading an article entitled, “The Pelagian Captivity of the Church” http://www.bible-researcher.com/sproul1.html.

After studying and pondering the seriousness of the subject, I began to better understand why I was hit so heavily by the Spirit when I read the title. Multitudes in Evangelical Christianity do not understand the truth of how a man is justified before God because Pelagianism has taken the gospel captive by its erroneous teachings.

Although Christianity initially turned the ancient world upside down with the Good News of God's way of reaching man, this central truth of how a man is justified before God was so contrary to classical thought that the world desperately opposed it, it was never fully accepted by the Church, and finally it was fiercely attacked by the papal system which grew out of the early church.

Pelagianism

So in order to further understand what Pelagianism is, let’s take a brief look at the teachings of the man who advocated these ideas. Pelagius, a monk who lived in the fifth century, believed that there was no such thing as original sin. Contrary to the Scriptures that tell us we are sinful from the moment of conception, he believed that Adam’s sin only affected Adam, and that there was no transference of guilt or corruption to Adam’s offspring. Pelagius believed that human beings are born without a natural inclination toward sin. However, the Scriptures tell us just the opposite.1

Additionally, Pelagius believed that it was possible for a person to live a life of moral perfection without any help from Jesus or the grace of God. He said that divine grace made it easier for you to be perfect, but you could actually be perfect without it.2

Augustine, a contemporary of Pelagius, vehemently disagreed with these aberrant teachings. He insisted that ever since the Fall our human nature has been infected by sin to the very core of our being. Consequently, we don’t have the moral power within ourselves to cooperate with the grace of God, because our human will is in bondage to its evil desires and inclinations.

Eventually, Pelagius was condemned as a heretic. Although Pelagianism ceased to exist as a movement after the 6th century, its erroneous ideas continued to live on and cause disputes within the Church.

Semi-Pelagianism

However, some within the Church continued to believe what is now called semi-Pelagianism. They believed that while we can’t be saved without grace, we are not so fallen that we don’t have the ability to cooperate with God’s grace on our own. Although our will is weakened, it’s not enslaved by sin. However the Scriptures do not describe humanity as being only partially tainted by sin.

Semi-Pelagianism taught that there remains in the core of our being a “little island of righteousness” that is untouched by the Fall. So when God reaches out to us, we must exercise that “little island of righteousness” that is at the core of our being, and take the important step that will determine whether we go to heaven or hell.

That “little island of righteousness” was mythical as far as Augustine was concerned, and the Church initially agreed. It condemned semi-Pelagianism as fervently as it had condemned Pelagianism.

Yet, by the time of the sixteenth century Reformation, the Church had done an about-face on the concept. It renounced what Augustine taught, and re-embraced semi-Pelagianism. The papal Church decided there still remains this “little island of righteousness” intact in the human will. They taught that if we cooperate by using whatever powers we have left, we will be saved.3

The Reformation Struggle

So how did the Reformers understand the human will to operate in relation to salvation? At the time of the Reformation, all the reformers agreed that we as fallen human beings are morally unable to incline ourselves to the things of God, because we do not have free will. They believed, as did Paul, Augustine and many others, that there was no such thing as a “little island of righteousness” at the core of our being. They understood that the sinner’s entire salvation is by free and sovereign grace only. They believed that apart from God’s sovereign grace, we are enslaved to Satan and sin, and unable to save ourselves. Hence the slogan, “sola gratia.”

In order to be saved, the Reformers believed that all people everywhere are totally dependent, one hundred percent of the time, upon the Divine work of regeneration in order to come to faith in Jesus Christ. Furthermore, they stressed that faith itself is a gift of God.4 Faith comes by way of grace from the Spirit that moves as the wind, blowing wherever it pleases so that we “were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” John 1:13 (NASB). Again, Paul emphasizes, “So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy” Romans 9:16 (NASB).

The truth is not that when we hear the offer of salvation we will be born again if we choose to believe. No. That’s backwards. But my guess is that this is the way most of us have been taught and believed. The truth is, we can’t even believe until God in His grace and mercy first changes the disposition of our souls through His sovereign work of regeneration.

In other words, what the reformers all agreed upon was that unless a man is born again, he can’t even see the kingdom of God, let alone choose to enter it. And being born again is the fruit, NOT the cause of the regeneration that is wrought in us by the Spirit of God. So the necessary condition for anybody’s faith and anybody’s salvation is always regeneration.5

Regeneration must come first, because we are not just sick in our sin, we are dead. When we were born into this world we were born spiritually “dead on arrival”. We are spiritually stillborn. I’ve heard some people liken our condition to the swimmer who gets leg cramps in the ocean and calls out to the lifeguard to be rescued. However, the truth is, we’ve been lying for days at the bottom of the ocean, unable to breathe or cry out for help, because we’re already dead!

This is why the gospel is indeed good news! We sinful human beings, dead in our sins, spiritually stillborn, can do absolutely no good thing to save ourselves, or to cause God to accept us. God sovereignly chooses to bring us back from being spiritually dead by regenerating us by the work of His Spirit. We are justified, NOT by our own works, but by the saving work of God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This essential truth of the New Testament that teaches that man is justified by the work of Another, Jesus Christ, became the central article of our Christian faith and gave birth to the rallying cry of the Protestant Reformation.

Sola Scripture

Let’s take a brief look at the Scriptures and see how they line up with the Reformation teaching on the human will in relation to salvation. The Bible clearly tells us that Jesus Christ came into the world to save us from our sins.

"She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins" Matthew 1:21 (NASB).

“…Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners…” 1 Timothy 1:15 (NASB).

“For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all” 1 Timothy 2:5-6 (NASB).

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him” John 3:17 NASB).

The Bible tells us that we are sinners by nature, because sin entered the world through Adam.

“Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest” Ephesians 2:3 (NASB).

“Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” Psalm 51:5 (NASB).

“Therefore, just as through one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned…” Romans 5:12 (NASB).

The Bible also teaches us that we cannot come to Jesus Christ to be saved unless the Father first draws us. Our salvation depends on the Father drawing us by His Spirit before we can ever respond to the gospel invitation to come to Jesus Christ and be saved.

“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” John 6:37 (NASB).

“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him… Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me” John 6:44-45 (NASB).

And why must the Father first draw us before we can come to Jesus Christ? Because our human wills are enslaved to sin. Here are some Scriptures that shed light on our enslaved wills before the Father draws us.

“…if perhaps God may grant them repentance… and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will” 2 Timothy 2:24-26 (NASB).

“Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness” Romans 6:16 (NASB).

“For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin” Romans 7:14 (NASB).

“They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved” 2 Peter 2:19 (NIV).

The Bible teaches us that we are morally unable as fallen human beings to incline ourselves toward the things of God. We are so totally powerless to do good that we cannot of ourselves choose God. We are unable to do God's will because were affected by the fall of Adam, contrary to what Pelagius taught. Therefore, our salvation is entirely a work of God from start to finish. We make absolutely no contribution to it at all.

“They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one” Psalm 14:3; Psalm 53:3 (NASB).

“All have turned aside, together they have become useless, there is no one who does good, there is not even one” Romans 3:12 (NASB).

“And Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone’” Mark 10:18 (NASB).

This all means that we are TOTALLY dependent on the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration in order to come to faith and salvation in Jesus Christ. It is not that we will be born again if we choose to believe. We can’t even believe until God first changes our souls through his sovereign work of grace. In other words, unless a man is born again, he can’t even see the kingdom of God. He has to see it first before he can ever enter it.

So if we manifest genuine faith in Jesus Christ, it is because God has sovereignly chosen us first. He has called us to Himself, and put within us the ability to believe and respond to the Gospel message. God has breathed life into our dead wills and quickened our power of choice by His Spirit so that we no longer remain dead and unresponsive to God.6 Sovereignly God regenerates us by His Spirit BEFORE we can ever choose to come to Him.

“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit…” John 15:6 (NASB).

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air…” Ephesians 2:1-2 (NASB).

Let’s summarize what we have learned so far. Our salvation does NOT depend upon our will, because our will is enslaved by sin. Rather, our salvation depends on the Father first drawing us by His Spirit BEFORE we can ever exercise our will to choose to accept Jesus Christ.

After God chose us and called us to Himself, He gave us the gift of faith so that we can choose to believe the gospel. Furthermore, the faith that receives Christ for justification is itself the free gift of a sovereign God. It is the God-given means whereby God-given justification is received. Faith is NOT a condition of justification which is left for us to fulfill.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB).

Upheaval of Faith

As we look back and study church history we see so much debate and strife over the different ways people have interpreted the Scriptures regarding this whole subject of how we are saved. I do not plan to even go into any of that right now, except to briefly mention one of America’s most revered evangelists of the nineteenth century, Charles Finney. Since Finney’s teachings have had such a profound influence on the Evangelical church, particularly here in America, I want to briefly address how he understood the human will in relation to salvation.

What is disturbing to me is that in no uncertain terms Charles Finney viciously attacked the doctrine of justification by faith alone and the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. He adamantly believed that we didn’t need the imputation of the Christ’s righteousness. He also believed that there was no such thing as original sin. Here are several quotes taken from Finney’s Works.

“Gospel Justification is not the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. Under the gospel, sinners are not justified by having the obedience of Jesus Christ set down to their account, as if He had obeyed the law for them, or in their stead. I can only say that this idea is absurd and impossible, for this reason, that Jesus Christ was bound to obey the law for Himself, and could no more perform works of supererogation, or obey on our account, than anybody else.”

“When we say that men are justified by faith and holiness… we mean that they are treated as if they were righteous, on account of their faith and works of faith.”7

“Do you wonder what influence Adam's sin has had in producing the sin of his posterity? It has subjected them to aggravated temptation but has by no means rendered their nature in itself sinful.”8 “Sinners make their own wicked hearts”.9

Finney adamantly wanted nothing to do with original sin, a substitutionary atonement, or the supernatural character of the new birth, and he proceeded to attack “the article by which the church stands or falls”— justification by grace alone through faith alone.”10 Finney insisted that justification ultimately hinges on the believer's own performance, not Christ's.11

Finney not only rejected the biblical essentials of justification by faith alone through grace alone, but he also abandoned the authority and sufficiency of Scripture, as revealed by his constant appeal to rationalism in support of his new theology. In essence, the movement that Finney led represents the wholesale abandonment of historic Protestant principles.12

If the Reformers are correct in their assessment that the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ are essential and biblical truths of Christianity, then Charles Finney was a full-blown Pelagianist. Despite the fact that he is a patron saint of twentieth-century Evangelicalism, and in the Hall of Fame of Evangelical Christianity in America, was he really a Christian?13

Are Finney’s denials of historic Protestant principles allowed to sit unnoticed in our evangelical Hall of Fame because in our tolerant age of discomfort with biblical doctrine we want to avoid almost all disagreement? Although Finney is a hero to many evangelicals, I believe no man is more responsible for distorting Christian truth, particularly the doctrine of salvation.14

What is additionally troubling to me is that our modern "evangelistic efforts" have been modeled after Finney’s evangelism style, including his embracing the heresy of Pelagianism. Adventism (my former belief system) also grew out of the same stream of theology from which Methodism arose, and Charles Finney's aberrant teachings.

As I ponder the implications of what all this means, I’m forced to ask some very difficult questions. Have multitudes of people been "accepting" Jesus Christ by human will power, rather than by a Spirit-created act based on humanity's total spiritual bankruptcy? Having started off wrong, have multitudes of people, continued to try to live the Christian life by continuing to rely on willpower they don't really have?15 Although many may say "Lord, Lord," do they know Jesus Christ? More importantly, does He know them?

Although most people within the Evangelical church today believe that nobody’s perfect, according to a recent George Barna poll, many people within the church believe that man is basically good. But that’s NOT what the Scriptures teach us. God says that no one is good, not even one.

“Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil” Jeremiah 13:23 (NIV).

To say that we’re basically good is the Pelagian view, not the biblical view. We do not have the capacity within ourselves to turn from sin and do what is right and good. God must first choose us, and draw us to Himself. Then as He sovereignly regenerates our human hearts and frees our wills, we can choose Him back.

Yes, we are surrounded by Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism in the church and in our culture. This false teaching that denies the truth about our fallen condition, and God’s sovereign grace in saving us is so pervasive in Evangelicalism today that it is hard to find a church that is really biblical. In fact, I’m going out on the limb to say that modern day evangelicalism has more in common with Rome and Pelagius than historical and biblical Christianity.

So here’s the Big Question. Is our salvation wholly of God, or does it partially depend on something we do for ourselves? Let’s remember, relying on our faith response to Jesus Christ is just as bad as relying on our works. It is still a false view of salvation and is not Biblical. Relying on our faith response means that we turn faith into a meritorious work (sound Catholic?), and deny the sovereignty of God in saving us. It means that we turn our backs on the central article of faith that was the very lifeblood of the Reformation. It means that we are more Catholic than Protestant.

In essence, to rely on ourselves for faith is no different in principle than to rely on ourselves for works. For saving faith, in and of itself is a gift from God. It’s not something we have in and of ourselves. Faith doesn’t rise up from within us. No. It’s God grace that gives faith to us in the first place. Jesus words still ring true. “No man can come to me unless it is given to him of the Father.”

Spirit-led Protest

Ponder with me for a moment what has happened to Protestantism since the time of the Reformation. Is the gospel of grace—the central pillar upon which the Reformation stood, still standing today? Or is the center pillar falling as the Evangelical church fails to understand man's nature and weakness, and so pursues a different gospel and a different Jesus?

Initially, the truth of how a man is justified before God blazed its way through the Western world like a wild fire as it changed the course of human history. Now man’s experience and man’s good works seem to be taking the center stage in almost every church instead of what God has done. But the gospel does not talk about man’s experience or man’s good works.

Instead, the gospel talks about what God has done through Christ’s experience, and Christ’s good work. The gospel does not tell us how man can get to God. Instead the gospel tells us God's way of reaching man. The gospel is the record of what God has done, not the record of what God has done in man.

Protestantism was born out of protest as believers refused to allow the blinding light of the gospel to be extinguished. Although many perished at the stake for their protest against the heresy of the Church, the truth of the recovered gospel continues to shine forth.

Will there be another Reformation? I don’t know. Will believers in the body of Christ be led by the Spirit to protest against a thinly-veiled version of Pelagianism that is destroying the central article of Christian faith today? I don’t know. But I do know that the center pillar of our faith is no longer standing. It’s falling! God’s grace is under fire! How will we respond? My prayer is that we will be among those who protest so that the blinding light of what God has sovereignly done for man will continue to shine forth into hungry hearts.

Footnotes:

1.See Psalm 51:5; Romans 3:10-18; Romans 5:12.

2.http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Pelagianism.

3.http://www.bible-researcher.com/sproul1.html

4.Our salvation is brought about by God's grace alone and for His glory alone. http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/Murphy01.html

5.http://www.bible-researcher.com/sproul1.html.

6.Thoughts shared by a friend.

7.http://www.gospeltruth.net/1837LTPC/lptc05_just_by_faith.htm.

8.http://www.gospeltruth.net/finney-101/101serm/101-royalpardon.htm.

9.http://www.gospeltruth.net/1836SOIS/01sois_sinners_bound.htm.

10.http://www.mtio.com/articles/aissar81.htm.

11.http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/articles/finney.htm.

12. http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/articles/finney.htm.

13.Thoughts shared by a friend.

14.http://www.mtio.com/articles/aissar81.htm.

15.Thoughts shared by a friend.

See: http://www.bible-researcher.com/sproul1.html.