The true Church has always condemned Pelagianism, yet in the modern day Pelagianism has the majority voice. It does not go around in its own name, yet it is present at the heart of people in every denomination. Though the number of those who profess to be Reformed appears to be increasing, yet the core of the Gospel of the Reformers does not appear to be increasing at all. What that means is that there are many who have the outward dress or shell of Reformed teaching while the core of what they really are is Arminian (which is semi-Pelagian at best) or Pelagian. When the twin truths of man’s enslaved will and sovereign grace are denied in practice (even if not in theory), the Gospel is not being stood for. Luther thought that this was the heart of the Reformation.
The claim that we can do something good by our own will is by definition to be a Pelagian, but so is the practice of it. Nothing good can come from a human soul other than what God works in it. To say or do in practice anything different is to be a Pelagian or a practical Pelagian. If God does not work something in the soul by grace, then whatever the soul does will not be pleasing to God as it is a work of the flesh. If we say that the Gospel that the Arminian preaches is the same as what the Reformed should teach, we have just denied the Reformation in reality. The enslaved will was a teaching that was vital and at the heart of the Gospel that burst forth during the Reformation. Apart from it there is no true teaching of grace alone and therefore no true teaching of faith alone.
It can not be stated strongly enough that apart from the teaching, preaching, counseling, and evangelizing based on the enslaved will there is no way of getting to the truth of the Gospel and no way of presenting the truth of the Gospel of the grace of God. This is not just a nice teaching, it is a necessary teaching. Many want to teach about grace while trying to hide the tough truth of the enslaved will, but they cannot teach a sovereign grace in reality and in the soul apart from this. Sovereign grace is the only kind of grace there is in reality. Apart from this rough and rugged teaching of the enslaved will there is no room for an inner repentance from the depths of the soul. The person hearing preaching or being evangelized will always think of self as the agent of change and the agent of choice apart from a clear presentation on the enslaved will. Pelagians and professing Reformed people have the same result at that point if they do not teach sinners about their enslaved wills.
Who can move the will? It must either be God or the human self. Whatever comes from self (the fleshly self) is sin. When the soul is moved by self and the flesh there is no good that can result. The soul that moves by self has been left of God to itself. The only good that a soul can do must have its origin in God alone who is the only source of true good. The only good that will ever come from the soul has its origin from God and it is worked in and through the soul by God because there is no other source of good. There is no merit for man in that. But until the soul arrives at a point of an experiential knowledge that it is enslaved to sin it will always think that it can do something good of itself. It may even have the theory in its head that it is enslaved, but until that soul arrives at the experiential aspect of it and knows from the depths of the soul that it is enslaved it will always be enslaved to self.
The soul has never been created to be the origin of good because God alone is that. The soul was created to be in utter dependence on God, but in the Fall it left that to be dependent on itself and to be like God. For a soul to rely on Christ alone is for that soul to rely on Christ not only to bring it back to God but also to receive all from God through Christ. The soul that relies on Christ alone relies on Him alone for all good that is received and for all that is to be done. It is the Spirit of Christ alone who can move the soul to love and good deeds. The commands of God are to the soul with Christ as its life and can only be kept with Christ as its life and the fruit of the Spirit.
The soul can do nothing good apart from Christ (John 15) and receiving all fruit and good from Him. The soul cannot even put to death sin unless it is putting sin to death by the Spirit (Romans 8:13). The soul does what it does in the grip of the flesh or in the power of the Spirit. So we are left with those who have enslaved wills and those who are not. Those who truly believe that all have enslaved wills believe that it is true of all people. Those who don’t truly believe in the enslaved will can include those who are Reformed in name all the way down to atheists. Those who truly believe in the enslaved will know that those who are in sin are completely enslaved to sin and have no way of doing the least thing that is not from the enslaved will. As Romans 8:7 teaches, “the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so.” As John 15 teaches we can do nothing good or spiritual apart from God doing it in us. Anything less from that twin teaching leaves a person in the power of the enslaved will even if that person is religious or Reformed. The Pharisees were very religious, but they were slaves to their own self and self-righteousness. It is still true today.
God Loves... Himself 
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