In the last BLOG we looked at a section from Francis Turretin on the deadly error of free will. In this BLOG we will look at another aspect of the teaching on free will and that is irresistible or efficacious grace. In historical Reformed theology people were said to be dead in sin and had to be drawn by the power of grace. Free will by definition says that at least some little part must be man making the move to God apart from that power of grace. This is a direct attack on the teaching of grace alone. If we assert that a person has any power of the will that is self-determined, then that part of the will is not moved by the grace of God. That is contradictory to the biblical teaching of grace alone and Christ alone.
Let me quote Turretin from his Fifth Question in this section: “Whether in the first moment of conversion man is merely passive or whether his will cooperates in some measure with the grace of God. The former we affirm and deny the latter against all Synergists” (Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Volume Two, p.542). We will get to some comments he makes on this in a moment. Notice that he is talking about the first moment of conversion. Does man in his will cooperate with God in the slightest or not? In other words, is man drawn by grace alone so that he is saved by grace alone or does he cooperate with his will or not? At any point if free will, and that means any degree of free will, cooperates with God it is in fact synergism. It is a working together with God and so is not all of grace.
Turretin then goes on: “This question lies between us and the Romanists, Socinians, Remonstrants, and other offshoots of the Pelagians and Semipelagians who, not to injure or remove the free will of man in calling, maintain that it has a certain cooperation (synergeian) and concourse with the grace of God. Hence they are called Synergists.” Here we see how synergism was defined by Turretin whose theology was used by Charles Hodge and R.L. Dabney two hundred years or so later. It is any cooperation or concourse with the grace of God. He uses this as a broad definition to cover anyone who believes in free will and even any degree of free will. This is the deadly error that he opposes at any and all points.
“The question does not concern the second stage of conversion in which it is certain that man is not merely passive, but cooperates with God (or rather operates under him)… Rather the question concerns the first moment when he is converted and receives new life by regeneration. We contend that he is merely passive in this, as a receiving subject and not an acting principle.” He goes on to say that the question is not about whether this happens by grace, but whether at this point man is able to cooperate with grace or not. To assert that the will is free and man has ability in this at this point is to assert that man is not dead in sins and trespasses. If man is dead in sin, then man does not need a little help, he needs to be made alive. That is exactly what Scripture teaches in Ephesians 2:1-10. Man is dead and by the sheer mercy and grace of God man is made alive. There is no cooperation at that point with God; it is all of the power and glory of God.
The question must be asked as to how much power a dead man has to actually effect his being raised to life? How much free will does a dead man have? The nature of regeneration is given in Scripture as being by the will and power of God. “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). In this text it is explicit that a person is not born of the will of anything to do with man, but it happens because of the will of God. Regeneration is simply impossible for man to do. Man cannot make for himself a new nature and to give himself what is needed to be a new creation (II Cor 5:17). It is God alone who can renew His own image in man in the regeneration of man (Eph 4:24; Col 3:10).
What is it that can take a person that is dead in sin without any ability to respond to God while under the bondage of sin and the dominion of darkness? Surely nothing but an infinite power can do this. Surely only the God who spoke the world and all things in it into being can bring about true regeneration. Surely only the God who created all things can make man into a “new creation” (II Cor 5:17). Surely it is the God who has life in Himself that can breathe life into the soul of men and men become a living creature in Christ. Surely it is only the power of Almighty God that can wrest the souls of men from their bondage to sin and the dominion of darkness. Salvation is not about a choice of man, it is a cosmic battle between God and evil. Man is helpless in the power of the evil one and helpless in the sense that he loves his sin. It took the cross to defeat the evil one and it takes the power of God to apply the cross to sinners. No effort of man has any effect on this at all. It is a deadly error.
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