Reconciling Grace and Free Will (Part 1)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.  He destined us in love to be His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us.  For He has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of His will, according to His purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.  In Him, according to the purpose of Him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of His will, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of His glory.

In Him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” (Eph 1:3-14)

One of the thorniest problems in Christianity has been the reconciling of human free will with God’s efficacious grace, i.e., grace having the power to effect or produce a result.  How can God’s grace truly be efficacious and not overpower human free will?  If God is truly omnipotent and omniscient, then how can human actions be free?   Scripture talks of predestination in several places.  If we are predestined, chosen by God before the foundations of the world, how can we say that we truly have free will?

Grace, Free Will, and Scripture

In Scripture, grace and free will never appear mutually exclusive.  Rather, they appear as cooperating factors – though sometimes one is emphasized depending on the purpose the sacred writer has in view.  Therefore say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts: Return to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts (Zech 1:3).  In this passage, God admonishes us of our free will.  Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old! (Lam 5:21)  In this passage, it is clear that we need the grace of God for true conversion.

This is echoed by Paul in his letter to the Romans (Rom 9:19), “For who can resist His will?”  But this same Paul admonishes Timothy, “Train yourself in godliness” (1 Tim 4:7).  Stephen tells the Jews, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 7:51); testifying that the grace of the Holy Spirit does not compel the will.  Our Lord, Himself, tells us, “If you would enter life, keep the commandments. (Matt 19:17) thereby inviting us into cooperation with grace.

The exhortations, commands, promises, and threats contained in various passages of Scripture would be meaningless if it were true that grace totally destroys or totally overpowers free will.

Bernard of Clarivaux best summarizes the mystery by stating, “Take away free will and there will be nothing left to save; take away grace and there will be no means left for salvation.”

Human will, therefore, is free, yet subject to the influence of grace.  How do we explain this?  First, we must admit that this is a mystery that we cannot fully comprehend or understand.  However, we can make some sense of the mystery through analogical reasoning.  This can be accomplished in one of either two points of view.  We may take grace as the primary factor and trace it in its action on the human will, or starting with the human will, we may try to ascertain how it is affected by grace.

In the next post, I will attempt to summarize key ideas/arguments about this relationship.