“Shew me thy ways, O LORD; teach
me thy paths.” (Psalm 25:4)
In this study, we will look at
the biblical teaching regarding “monergism.”
What does this mean? As in previous studies,
we will look at definitions, scriptures,
lexical evidence, commentary evidence and
confessional support for the purpose to
glorify God in how we live. Glorify God
always!
This study will focus on a
positive presentation of “common grace.” In
fairness, there are learned Christian teachers
who deny that there is such a thing as “common
grace.”
Monergism:
“The
doctrine that the Holy Spirit is the only
efficient agent in regeneration—that the human
will possesses no inclination to holiness
until regenerated, and therefore cannot
cooperate in regeneration.”*
Monergism:
“The teaching that God alone is
the one who saves. It is opposed to synergism,
which teaches that God and man work together
in salvation. Cults are synergistic.
Christianity is monergistic.” **
From Scripture:
“For by
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not
of yourselves: it is the gift of God.”
(Ephesians 2:8)
John Calvin's comments are
profitable to read on the Ephesians text:
8. For
by grace are ye saved. This is an inference
from the former statements. Having treated of
election and of effectual calling, he arrives
at this general conclusion, that they had
obtained salvation by faith alone. First, he
asserts, that the salvation of the Ephesians
was entirely the work, the gracious work of
God. But then they had obtained this grace by
faith. On one side, we must look at God; and,
on the other, at man. God declares, that he
owes us nothing; so that salvation is not a
reward or recompense, but unmixed grace. The
next question is, in what way do men receive
that salvation which is offered to them by the
hand of God? The answer is, by faith; and
hence he concludes that nothing connected with
it is our own. If, on the part of God, it is
grace alone, and if we bring nothing but
faith, which strips us of all commendation, it
follows that salvation does not come from us.
Ought
we not then to be silent about free-will, and
good intentions, and fancied preparations, and
merits, and satisfactions? There is none of
these which does not claim a share of praise
in the salvation of men; so that the praise of
grace would not, as Paul shews, remain
undiminished. When, on the part of man, the
act of receiving salvation is made to consist
in faith alone, all other means, on which men
are accustomed to rely, are discarded. Faith,
then, brings a man empty to God, that he may
be filled with the blessings of Christ. And so
he adds, not of yourselves; that claiming
nothing for themselves, they may acknowledge
God alone as the author of their salvation. (1)
Two more passages from
Scripture make clear the monergistic nature
of salvation:
“Being
justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans
3:24)
“So
then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him
that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.”(Romans
9:16)
Matthew Poole's
Commentary on Romans 9:16 get right
to the heart of the issue:
God’s
election is not of Jacob’s, or of any other
man’s, willing or running; i.e. it is not from
his good desires or deeds, his good
inclinations or actions, or from the foresight
thereof; but it is of God’s mere mercy and
good pleasure. This text wounds Pelagianism
under the fifth rib. Nec
volenti, nec volanti,* was the motto of
a noble personage. * Translation:Nor is
it who wishes it, nor a flying (2)
Ellicott's Commentary for
English Readers agrees with Matthew Poole
on the Romans text:
(16) Of
him that runneth. - A metaphor taken from the
foot-races as St. Paul may very possibly have
seen them practiced at Corinth. (Comp. Romans
9:16; Galatians 2:2; Galatians 5:7;
Philippians 2:16.) The meaning is that the
prize does not depend on human will or human
effort, but on the grace of God. (3)
A Monergistic Testimony:
By the grace of God, confession
is made to the truthfulness of what the
apostle Paul teaches in the following
passage of Scripture:
“Moreover,
brethren,
I declare unto you the gospel which I preached
unto you, which also ye have received, and
wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved,
if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you,
unless ye have believed in vain. For I
delivered unto you first of all that which I
also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the scriptures; And that he
was buried, and that he rose again the third
day according to the scriptures.” (l
Corinthians” 15:1-4)
In
another place, he declares the following
concerning man's condition “As it is written,
There is none righteous, no, not one...that
every mouth may be stopped, and the entire
world may become guilty before God” (Romans
3:10, 19). This was my condition. Paul goes on
to say, “For the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord” Romans 6:23. I had earned the
wages of death. God in his mercy gave me the
gift of eternal life. The only thing that I
earned and deserved was death. Eternal life
came as a gift. I am certain of this; there
was and is absolutely nothing in me that
caused God to give me this gift. Jesus Christ
gets all the glory and praise.
Being faithful to what the
writer of Hebrews sets forth:
“Looking
unto
Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”
(Hebrews 12:2)
Look to
Jesus by giving him the glory. God gave me the
gift of faith. Salvation is by grace and even
my faith is a gift. Ephesians 2:8 says “and
that not of yourselves.” What is not of
yourselves? Faith! Did I choose Christ and
exercise faith? If so, then why did this
happen? Who gets the glory? Does Christ get
the glory? Do I get the glory? Why did I
choose to believe? The next passage supplies
us the answer:
“According
as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before him in love: Having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the
good pleasure of his will.” (Ephesians 1:4- 5)
Was
this salvation in my hands to choose or
reject? If this were the case, then could I
not glory in and of myself? How can that be
so? If so, I would have done something, others
had not done.
The following verse tells us
that predestination is according to the good
pleasure of his will:
“So
then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.”
(Romans 9:16)
The
doctrine of election more than any other
teaching of Scripture takes salvation out of
man's hands and places it under God's control.
Men do not like God's control. The cause of
God's choosing is in Him. If we insist that we
played a part in God's choice, then human
merit is a factor. Salvation then becomes
synergistic rather than monergistic. Biblical
salvation is monergistic. Christ alone, by his
complete and finished work, saved me.
Within
a synergistic scheme, salvation becomes a
cooperative effort. My work takes away from
the work of Christ. How? I contributed. I
played a part in my salvation. If I was not
willing, then God could not save me. A
synergistic scheme of salvation not only
steals Christ's glory, it limits God's power.
God can only do what I allow him to do within
this type of system.
Salvation comes by the grace of
God, not works from a man:
“Not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us, by the
washing of regeneration, and renewing of the
Holy Ghost.” (Titus 3:5)
This is the close of my
testimony:
“To God
only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ
forever. Amen”. Romans 16:27. Heirs according
to the promise” (Galatians 3:28-29). Amen! (4)
Confessional support from The
Canons of Dordt, the Third and Fourth Main
Points of Doctrine:
Article 10: Conversion as the
Work of God:
The
fact that others who are called through the
ministry of the gospel do come and are brought
to conversion must not be credited to man, as
though one distinguishes himself by free
choice from others who are furnished with
equal or sufficient grace for faith and
conversion (as the proud heresy of Pelagius
maintains). No, it must be credited to God:
just as from eternity he chose his own in
Christ, so within time he effectively calls
them, grants them faith and repentance, and,
having rescued them from the dominion of
darkness, brings them into the kingdom of his
Son, in order that they may declare the
wonderful deeds of him who called them out of
darkness into this marvelous light, and may
boast not in themselves, but in the Lord, as
apostolic words frequently testify in
Scripture.
Article 11: The Holy Spirit’s
Work in Conversion:
Moreover,
when
God carries out this good pleasure in his
chosen ones, or works true conversion in them,
he not only sees to it that the gospel is
proclaimed to them outwardly, and enlightens
their minds powerfully by the Holy Spirit so
that they may rightly understand and discern
the things of the Spirit of God, but, by the
effective operation of the same regenerating
Spirit, he also penetrates into the inmost
being of man, opens the closed heart, softens
the hard heart, and circumcises the heart that
is uncircumcised. He infuses new qualities
into the will, making the dead will alive, the
evil one good, the unwilling one willing, and
the stubborn one compliant; he activates and
strengthens the will so that, like a good
tree, it may be enabled to produce the fruits
of good deeds.
Article 12: Regeneration a
Supernatural Work:
And
this is the regeneration, the new creation,
the raising from the dead, and the making
alive so clearly proclaimed in the Scriptures,
which God works in us without our help. But
this certainly does not happen only by outward
teaching, by moral persuasion, or by such a
way of working that, after God has done his
work, it remains in man’s power whether or not
to be reborn or converted. Rather, it is an
entirely supernatural work, one that is at the
same time most powerful and most pleasing, a
marvelous, hidden, and inexpressible work,
which is not lesser than or inferior in power
to that of creation or of raising the dead, as
Scripture (inspired by the author of this
work) teaches. As a result, all those in whose
hearts God works in this marvelous way are
certainly, unfailingly, and effectively reborn
and do actually believe. And then the will,
now renewed, is not only activated and
motivated by God but in being activated by God
is also itself active. For this reason, man
himself, by that grace which he has received,
is also rightly said to believe and to repent.
Comments in closing:
In
contrast to monergism as defined above,
synergism’s definition is that two or more
causes work in tandem to produce results not
obtainable by any of the causes independently.
If this definition is granted, then it would
be irresponsible for a Christian to say that
God as one of the causes cannot accomplish His
will and needs the help of other causes.
Salvation
is
monergistic, God is not constrained by man's
will in applying His work of salvation, nor is
He dependent upon man's cooperation for
success. The Spirit graciously enables and
causes sinners to cooperate, to believe, to
repent, to come freely and willingly to
Christ. How could a sinner try to take any
credit for his salvation? God gets all the
glory.
“Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach
me thy statutes.” (Psalm 119:12)
“Study to shew thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be
ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
(2 Timothy 2:15)
Notes:
1.John Calvin, Calvin's
Commentaries, Ephesians, Volume XX1,
(Grand Rapids, Michigan, Baker Book House,
Reprinted 1979), p. 227.
2.Matthew Poole, Matthew
Poole's Commentary on the Holy Bible, Romans,
Vol. 3, (Peabody, Massachusetts, Hendrickson
Publishers, 1985), p. 511.
3.Charles John Ellicott, Bible
Commentary for English Readers, Romans,
vol.2, (London, England, Cassell and Company),
p.242.
4.Jack Kettler, The
Religion that Started in a Hat, adapted
from Chapter 21, “A
Personal Confession of Faith,”
(Maitland, Florida, MCP Books), pp.419-420.
“To God, only wise, be glory
through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.” (Romans
16:27) and “heirs according to the promise.”
(Galatians 3:28, 29)
Mr. Kettler has previously
published articles in the Chalcedon
Report and Contra
Mundum. He and his wife Marea attend the
Westminster, CO, RPCNA Church. He served as an
ordained ruling elder in the Orthodox
Presbyterian Church. He worked in and retired
from a fortune five hundred company in
corporate America after forty years. He runs
two blogs sites and is the author of the book
defending the Reformed Faith against attacks,
titled: The
Religion That Started in a Hat.
Available at:
www.TheReligionThatStartedInAHat.com
For more study:
* For a great source of
theological definitions go to Rebecca writes
at Rebecca writes
http://www.rebecca-writes.com/theological-terms-in-ao/