correctly understood, it does not lead to a God of manipulation, rando - PDF document

correctly understood, it does not lead to a God of manipulation, random election or rejection, and secret decrees, but how the doctrine is an expression of the grace of God to As a pastor, the church father Augustine was well aware that not all people respond to the preaching of the gospel with faith. At the same time, Augustine believed that, once confronted with the gospel, you will not be saved if your response to it is unbelief rather than belief. This made him think about the nature of faith. If faith is a necessary response to the preached gospel in order to be saved, and human beings are responsible for their own faith (faith as “your decision for Jesus”), in the end you save yourself: then all God does is give you the option of salvation, but it is the human act of faith on which your salvation is based. This undermines the idea that salvation is really we ourselves. Therefore, Augustine concluded, faith itself must also be a gift of God: it is not our work, but God’s work, part of the gift of salvation. In other words: God not only offers us – outwardly, in the preaching of the church – salvation, but God also gives us – inwardly – that we are willing to accept the salvation. Thus, in an often repeated formulation: grace does not work we want it, but grace works That faith is a divine gift rather than a human act finds support both in Scripture and in experience. Paul describes faith as a gift of the Spirit: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing: it is a gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). Or: “You is given the gift to believe” (Phil. 1:29). And this is how many in church experience this faith: they find themselves with faith rather than that they “decided” to believe. It was something the felt draw to rather than something they choose for. If grace is truly grace, it is not based on anything we are or have. Therefore, that God gives us faith, is not motivated by anything we offer to God; it is motivated purely by God’s desire to bring us to eternal bliss. To receive the gift of faith, is to be elected: to be elected by God, to be pre-When God gives us faith, does God thereby by-pass our freedom? Does God just “implant” faith in us, whether we like it or not? This was an issue of much debate in the Middle Ages, when people took up Augustine’s notions of faith and election and tried to think through their consequences. Most Medieval – and later: Reformed – theologians would say: no – God does not by-pass our freedom, but include our freedom. How so? Here is a way to understand this. Medieval theologians pointed out that when we think about our “will” and its freedom, we can distinguish two “layers”: our free will, and our tendencies and desires. We can think about our tendencies and desires as a circle with our will as a point at the circle’s center; and each individual tendency or desire constantly tries to pull our will in its direction. As an example, let us say I have a sweet tooth. Then my desire for sweets will constantly pull at my will to go to the supper market to buy some ice cream. However, and here’s the crux: my will, while being pulled towards my sweet- for-us! The electing God has a personal name: the name of Jesus. Election is no hidden decree apart from Jesus, but election comes from Jesusto JesusJesus himself who invites us to salvation and who gives us the gift of faith, and it is to become part of Jesus’ large family that this salvation leads.