We have been considering some of A.A. Hodge’s thinking regarding the three main theological positions in past BLOGS. The three positions can be seen in the BLOG titled History & Theology, Part 39: A.A. Hodge on Human Ability. The first position has already been dealt with and we will now move to the second position.
2nd. Semipelagian.-(a.) Man’s nature has been so far weakened by the fall that it cannot act aright in spiritual matters without divine assistance. (b.) This weakened moral state which infants inherit from their parents is the cause of sin, but not itself sin in the sense of deserving the wrath of God. (c.) Man must strive to do his whole duty, when God meets him with co-operative grace, and renders his efforts successful. (d.) Man is not responsible for the sins he commits until after he has enjoyed and abused the influences of grace.
The distinction between this position (Semi-Pelagianism) and Pelagianism and then Augustinianism might not be seen without some careful reading and thinking. To help clarify, another way of saying this is to say that Pelagianism is a very pervasive system because each human is born in sin with that system. It becomes so widely accepted that people can think of themselves as Semipelagian (Arminian) or Augustinian (Calvinism) and still have to some degree the system of Pelagianism covered over with their outward system of theology. Whereas Pelagianism teaches that man has the ability to do what God commands him, Semi-Pelagianism teaches that man’s nature is weakened by the fall and cannot act aright in spiritual matters without divine assistance. This is a significant difference with Pelagianism, but it is also even further (far more different) from Augustinianism which teaches that man is completely dead in sin as a result of the fall.
Again, as with all things, we have to tread carefully. Ephesians 2:1-3 does say that man is dead in his sins and trespasses. Ephesians 2:4-5 says this: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.” In these verses all of the credit is given to God and His mercy and love in making sinners alive with Christ and nothing is attributed to the power of man. This text does not say that man has the ability to obey or that man has been weakened and needs some strength to obey, but it sets out that man is dead and God alone must raise sinners from the dead. The Semi-Pelagian system goes beyond Pelagianism in realizing the seriousness of man’s sin from the Bible, but it does not go far enough to be biblical. It wants to leave man enough power to cooperate with God rather than leave all the power to God and His grace. What we see is that the middle ground set out here (between Augustinianism and Pelagianism) does not really escape Pelagianism by very much. Indeed it admits that man is not completely able, but it does say that man has some ability in the spiritual realm. It leaves man enough power to help God in salvation. It gives man the power to do some things instead of leaving him at the total mercy of God.
One major problem with this position is that it is not the Gospel of grace alone. Sinners are saved by grace alone and not by grace plus a weakened will of man. When Romans 3:19 tells us that every mouth is closed, it does not mean partially closed but fully closed. No one has the slightest excuse before God. Romans 3:20 tells us that “by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight.” When it says that, it refers to any and all works of the Law and not just the one who does just a few works for salvation. When the Law is referred to it means more than just the commands of God, but also man’s ability to keep the Law. The Law is not there just to look at and study, it is there for a reason and that reason is to show man that he cannot keep the Law in his own strength. It is man’s ability (or non-ability) to keep the Law that is being addressed. We then see in the last part of v. 20 that the Law was not even given for man to keep and obtain righteousness, but in order to give man the knowledge of sin.
Ephesians 2:1-10 and Romans 3:19-20 should open our eyes to see that the Semi-Pelagian position is wrong as well. Man is born dead in sins and trespasses rather than just having a weakened will. I am not sure what a weakened will is supposed to do anyway since the Law was not given to man in order to keep for salvation, but in order to show man his inability to be saved by anything he can do. If we follow that biblical thought, we can see that when man is told to believe in Christ for salvation he is not told that he can do that or even partially do that. He is told that he must believe in order to be saved. Salvation is by grace alone rather than partially by grace and partially by a weakened will. Man does not cooperate in his salvation but receives all of it by faith.
this BLOG I would like to think through justification by faith alone and how the conception of Pelagianism and justification differs from the true Gospel. In the mental approach to evangelism the person evangelized would be approached as if s/he had the power to do his or her duty. The evangelist would simply give the information and tell the person what s/he must do. The will is attacked through reason or the feelings and the person is told to make a choice because it is the human will alone that decides human destiny. According to Pelagianism, God provides external influences and not internal acts in the heart.
But how does all of that influence justification by faith alone? Faith would have to be defined as an act of the human will by which God rewards it with justification or does something in response. Pelagianism has to deny that faith is by grace because it denies the act of God in the soul. So not only does Pelagian thinking have to define faith as an act of the mind or will alone, it has to dismiss the inner workings of grace in the heart by God. But in a consistent way Pelagianism would also have to deny the imputation of righteousness because man has the power to do all it is his duty to do. What we see, then, is a direct attack on the Gospel of grace alone without denying the words “justification by faith.” We have to look carefully at what people mean and not just what they say.
In the Gospel as a whole Scripture teaches that man must be born from above or again (John 3:3-8), and then that being born of God is not an act of the will of man but of God (John 1:12-13). The Pelagian must deny a real act of God in the soul (see earlier BLOGS on the new birth as taught by Asahel Nettleton) in order to stand on his principles of no internal work of God in the soul. But in Titus 3:4-7 we see that a person is justified by grace when it is God who cleanses the soul in regeneration. Without getting into a biblical or logical order of these things, we can note that Scripture does put these things together. We can also remember Ephesians 2:4-8 where it is God who raises the soul from spiritual death and it is God who seats the soul in the heavenly places with Christ. These are all acts of God that are internal to the human being. Regeneration and the cleansing of the soul are all internal acts of God in the human soul. Faith is also said to be the gift of God in Ephesians 2:8 and surely this is an act of God in the soul as well.
Romans 3:24-27 and 4:1-7 show quite clearly that justification is beyond the acts of human beings. A human being is said to be declared just by God by grace as a gift. In the Greek this points to the fact that God justifies by grace as a gift because there is no cause within man for God to justify that person. It is not as the Pelagian teaches that God responds to the faith of a person, but instead faith is the response of the soul to God. God justifies apart from any cause in the human being. Verse 27 shows that this method of justification excludes any boasting at all and of any kind. If the Pelagian view is correct, it allows for boasting because the internal act of faith and of obedience comes from the human being.
But even more, when we move to Romans 4:1-7 we see that justification is not of merit at all and not something that God responds to (v. 4), but rather He justified the ungodly (4:5) and those who stop trying to work for their salvation (4:5). There is nothing that man can do to bring God into some obligation to save him and there is nothing that man can do that would in fact participate in salvation or be a part of it. Pelagianism essentially sets out a gospel of works or at least partial works. It may subscribe to a justification by faith in some parts, but it does not have any part of the gospel in reality. There seems to be many in our day that hold that all man has to do is to work up faith on his own and then do the right things afterwards. That is Pelagianism and that denies the Gospel.
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