Saturday, September 19, 2009

Augustine on Men's Fallen Wills, Part 2 of 2

Having established Augustine believed that prior to divine assistance, everything which man wills is sinful, the structure of this note will be formatted as a metaphorical bridge between Total Depravity and Irresistible Grace: that is, Augustine’s belief that regeneration is a necessary precondition for faith.

Rebuke and Grace

Augustine wrote Rebuke and Grace to refute the idea that “no man ought to be rebuked for not doing God’s commandments...” (Retractations). Why the monks to whom he was writing would entertain such an idea is as illuminating as it is perverse: having accepted Augustine’s teaching in a previous letter that men are unable to positively respond to God’s commandments apart from [effectual] grace, some had inferred that those struggling with sin should not be rebuked. Even so far back as the fourth and fifth centuries, Christians like Augustine were faced with arguments that implicitly appealed to an unbiblical notion of moral responsibility.

Insofar as Augustine’s replies are not relevant to his beliefs regarding fallen men’s wills, his responses will be examined later. It should be noted, however, that before answering such arguments, he, rather than tempering his address, reaffirmed what had caused so much controversy:

“For the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord must be apprehended as that by which alone men are delivered from evil, and without which they do absolutely no good thing, whether in thought, or will and affection, or in action…”(Chapter 3)

One wonders, however, what Augustine regards as “the grace of God [given] through our Lord Jesus Christ.” At the risk of anticipating discussion on Augustine’s beliefs regarding efficacious grace, he writes to Valentinus in his prior work, On Grace and Free Will:

“It is certain that it is we that act when we act; but it is He who makes us act, by applying efficacious powers to our will, who has said, “I will make you to walk in my statutes, and to observe my judgments, and to do them.” When he says, “I will make you . . . to do them,” what else does He say in fact than, “I will take away from you your heart of stone,” from which used to arise your inability to act, “and I will give you a heart of flesh,” in order that you may act? And what does this promise amount to but this: I will remove your hard heart, out of which you did not act, and I will give you an obedient heart, out of which you shall act?” (Chapter 32)

Augustine here quotes Ezekiel 36:26-27, a passage often cited in his works. While that which the grace is said to effect – our response – is a point worthy of consideration, it is actually his description of the heart of stone which is apropos. Those with hearts of stone are unable to act according to the statutes of the Lord prior to being given a heart of flesh. If Augustine had said no more, this would simply be yet another useful evidence Augustine believed that fallen men’s wills are “wholly depraved” (On Merit and Forgiveness of Sins, Book 2). In On Christian Doctrine, however, he exegetes Ezekiel 36:23-29, concluding:

“…that there is here a promise of that washing of regeneration which, as we see, is now imparted to all nations, no one who looks into the matter can doubt.” (Book 3, chapter 34)

It cannot be doubted that Augustine believed that this “washing of regeneration” describes the process by which the Lord takes out our heart [or table] of stone and replaces it with a heart [or table] of flesh, for he then cites 2 Corinthians 3:2-3. Only those who are regenerated, then, can observe His judgments &c. Is faith too obtained by regeneration? Going back to Chapter 32 of On Grace and Free Will, he wrote:

“…God commands some things which we cannot do, in order that we may know what we ought to ask of Him. For this is faith itself, which obtains by prayer what the law commands. He, indeed, who said, “If thou wilt, thou shalt keep the commandments,” did in the same book of Ecclesiasticus afterwards say, “Who shall give a watch before my mouth, and a seal of wisdom upon my lips, that I fall not suddenly thereby, and that my tongue destroy me not.”

Later in the same chapter, immediately proceeding from his resolution of Ezekiel 36 provided above, he brings the discussion full circle by applying this resolution to the means by which we come to be able and willing to pray in the first place:

“It is He who causes us to act, to whom the human suppliant says, “Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth.” That is to say: Make or enable me, O Lord, to set a watch before my mouth, a benefit which he had already obtained from God who thus described its influence: “I set a watch upon my mouth.””

The God who revealed that we keep His commandments through prayer also revealed that He has secured for His people – through regeneration [and subsequent efficacious grace] – that will by which we come to pray. Augustine is even clearer on this point when discussing by what means infants can be regarded as among the body of believers:

“As, therefore, by the answer of those, through whose agency [infants] are born again, the Spirit of righteousness transfers to them that faith which, of their own will, they could not yet have; so the sinful flesh of those, through whose agency they are born, transfers to them that injury, which they have not yet contracted in their own life. And even as the Spirit of life regenerates them in Christ as believers, so also the body of death had generated them in Adam as sinners. The one generation is carnal, the other Spiritual; the one makes children of the flesh, the other children of the Spirit; the one children of death, the other children of the resurrection; the one the children of the world, the other the children of God; the one children of wrath, the other children of mercy; and thus the one binds them under original sin, the other liberates them from the bond of every sin.” (On Infant Baptism, Book 3)

It is to be plainly admitted that Augustine believed baptism was the mode of regeneration. While this may have had some consequences upon his belief in perseverance, it does not preclude – in fact, it establishes – his belief that regeneration logically precedes faith. The above quote is not difficult to understand: those through whose agency an infant is born again are the baptizers. The parents of the infant are those who transfer to the infant Adam’s injury (original sin). It is that generation he contrasts with the generation of the Spirit. Augustine was fond of questioning Pelagians as to their reasoning for infant baptism, given they did not believe any injury from Adam was transferred to infants. That he uses infant baptism to establish an aspect of the ordo salutis, then, is unsurprising, especially since Pelagians thought one’s will prompts one’s salvation apart from extrinsic grace.

Against Two Letters of the Pelagians

In what may be his most overtly Anti-Pelagian treatise, Against Two Letters of the Pelagians contains much support of the doctrines of grace. Perhaps inflamed due to what he thought, as he recorded in his Retractations, a “calumnious mention of [his] name,”Augustine replied in four books to two Pelagian letters he received from Julian. In it, he writes:

“But who of us will say that by the sin of the first man free will perished from the human race? Through sin freedom indeed perished, but it was that freedom which was in Paradise, to have a full righteousness with immortality; and it is on this account that human nature needs divine grace, since the Lord says, “If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed” – free of course to live well and righteously. For free will in the sinner up to this extent did not perish, that by it all sin, especially they who sin with delight and with love of sin; what they are pleased to do gives them pleasure.” (Chapter 5)

Why did our nature need divine assistance? To answer that, one must ask to what extent our free will perished. It did not perish in that what one pleases to do, he does; it did perish in that the fallen man is not pleased to “live well and righteously.” He is here speaking of the loss of one’s capacity to not sin, which was corroborated in On Nature and Grace. Hence, he continues in the next two chapters:

“…he is drawn to Christ to whom it is given to believe on Christ. Therefore the power is given that they who believe on Him should become the sons of God, since this very thing is given, that they believe on Him. And unless this power be given from God, out of free will there can be none; because it will not be free for good if the deliverer have not made it free; but in evil he has a free will in whom a deceiver, either secret or manifest, has grafted the love of wickedness, or he himself has persuaded himself of it.” (Chapter 6)

“It is not, therefore, true, as some affirm that we say, and as that correspondent of yours ventures moreover to write, that “all are forced into sin,” as if they were unwilling, “by the necessity of their flesh;” but if they are already of the age to use the choice of their own mind, they are both retained in sin by their own will, and by their own will are hurried along from sin to sin. For even he who persuades and deceives does not act in them, except that they may commit sin by their will, either by ignorance of the truth or by delight in iniquity, or by both evils, as well of blindness as of weakness. But this will, which is free in evil things because it takes pleasure in evil, is not free in good things, for the reason that it has not been made free.” (Chapter 7)

Men are not coerced into sinning: the punishment excited from Adam’s sin is exactly that men do not by nature will or do anything except sin. The remedy is prescribed in the second book:

“We do not say that by the sin of Adam free will perished out of the nature of men; but that it avails for sinning in men subjected to the devil; while it is not of avail for good and pious living, unless the will itself of man should be made free by God’s grace, and assisted to every good movement of action, of speech, of thought. We say that no one but the Lord God is the maker of those who are born, and that marriage was ordained not by the devil, but by God Himself; yet that all are born under sin on account of the fault of propagation, and that, therefore, all are under the devil until they are born again in Christ. Nor are we maintaining fate under the name of grace, because we say that the grace of God is preceded by no merits of man. If, however, it is agreeable to any to call the will of the Almighty God by the name of fate, while we indeed shun profane novelties of words, we have no use for contending about words.” (Chapter 9)

In other words: “[to be] subjected… under the devil [is to possess a nature which cannot] avail for good…unless the will itself… should be made free by [being] born again in Christ [by] God’s grace… preceded by no merits of man.” Why Augustine should mention “fate” in this context is impenetrable unless it is understood that regeneration is that grace by which we are made free and that it is given to select individuals prior to any merit of man, of which one’s faith is one:

“For who maketh thee to differ” from the vessels of wrath; of course, from the mass of perdition which has sent all by one into damnation? “Who maketh thee to differ?” And as if he had answered, “My faith maketh me to differ, my purpose, my merit,” he says, “For what hast thou which thou hast not received? But if thou hast received it, why dost thou boast as if thou receivedst it not?” – that is, as if that by which thou art made to differ were of thine own. Therefore He maketh thee to differ who bestows that whence thou art made to differ, by removing the penalty that is due, by conferring the grace which is not due.” (Chapter 15)

The following quote appropriately closes this investigation of Augustine belief concerning fallen men’s will much in the same way it began:

“In accordance with the apostle, no one is justified by the law; and therefore, for the sake of making alive those whom the letter has killed, that is, whom the law, enjoining good, makes guilty by transgressions, the Spirit of grace freely brings aid. Also in that we say that the will is free in evil, but for doing good it must be made free by God’s grace, this is opposed to the Pelagians; but in that we say it originated from that which previously was not evil, this is opposed to the Manicheans.” (Book 3, Chapter 25)

Summary

Augustine believed fallen man:

1. “…do absolutely no good thing, whether in thought, or will and affection, or in action [apart from] the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

2. must have the Lord “remove [his] hard heart, out of which [he does] not act, and… give [him] an obedient heart, out of which [he] shall act.”

3. must be regenerated in order to come to the “faith… which obtains by prayer what the law commands.”

4. by “the Spirit of righteousness [have transferred] to them that faith which, of their own will, they could not yet have.”

5. ”needs divine grace... to live well and righteously. For free will in the sinner did not perish [to the extent that] what they are pleased to do gives them pleasure.“

6. has no “power… of free will [to believe]; because it will not be free for good if the deliverer have not made it free; but in evil he has a free will.”

7. ”is free in evil things because it takes pleasure in evil, is not free in good things, for the reason that it has not been made free.”

8. “avails for sinning in men subjected to the devil; while it is not of avail for good and pious living, unless the will itself of man should be made free by God’s grace, and assisted to every good movement of action, of speech, of thought… born again in Christ.”

9. “art made to differ [by] He… who bestows that… [regenerative] grace which is not due.”

10. is “free in evil, but for doing good it must be made free by God’s grace, [which] is opposed to the Pelagians; but in that we say [man’s will] originated from that which previously was not evil, this is opposed to the Manicheans.”

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