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Augustine: Theologian Of Grace [1]

Category Articles
Date August 16, 2006

Men are not saved by good works, nor by the free determination of their own will, but by the grace of God through faith.

But this part of the human race to which God has promised pardon and a share in His eternal kingdom, can they be restored through the merit of their own works? God forbid. For what good work can a lost man perform, except so far as he has been delivered from perdition? Can they do anything by the free determination of their own will? Again I say, God forbid. For it was by the evil use of his free-will that man destroyed both it and himself. For, as a man who kills himself must, of course, be alive when he kills himself, but after he has killed himself ceases to live, and cannot restore himself to life; so, when man by his own free-will sinned, then sin being victorious over him, the freedom of his will was lost. ‘For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage’ [2 Pet 2.19]. This is the judgment of the Apostle Peter. And as it is certainly true, what kind of liberty, I ask, can the bond-slave possess, except when it pleases him to sin? For he is freely in bondage who does with pleasure the will of his master. Accordingly, he who is the servant of sin is free to sin. And hence he will not be free to do right, until, being freed from sin, he shall begin to be the servant of righteousness. And this is true liberty, for he has pleasure in the righteous deed; and it is at the same time a holy bondage, for he is obedient to the will of God. But whence comes this liberty to do right to the man who is in bondage and sold under sin, except he be redeemed by Him who has said, ‘If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed’? [John 8.36]. And before this redemption is wrought in a man, when he is not yet free to do what is right, how can he talk of the freedom of his will and his good works, except he be inflated by that foolish pride of boasting which the apostle restrains when he says, ‘By grace are ye saved, through faith’ [Eph 2.8]?

Faith itself is the gift of God; and good works will not be wanting in those who believe.

And lest men should arrogate to themselves the merit of their own faith at least, not understanding that this too is the gift of God, this same apostle, who says in another place that he had ‘obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful’ [1 Cor 7.25] here also adds: ‘and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast’ [Eph 2.8, 9]. And lest it should be thought that good works will be wanting in those who believe, he adds further: ‘For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them’ [Eph 2.10]. We shall be made truly free, then, when God fashions us, that is, forms and creates us anew, not as men – for He has done that already – but as good men, which His grace is now doing, that we may be a new creation in Christ Jesus, according as it is said: ‘Create in me a clean heart, O God’ [Psa 51.10]. For God had already created his heart, so far as the physical structure of the human heart is concerned; but the psalmist prays for the renewal of the life which was still lingering in his heart.

The freedom of the will is also the gift of God, for God worketh in us both to will and to do.

And further, should any one be inclined to boast, not indeed of his works, but of the freedom of his will, as if the first merit belonged to him, this very liberty of good action being given to him as a reward he had earned, let him listen to this same preacher of grace, when he says: ‘For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His own good pleasure’ [Phil 2.13]; and in another place: ‘So, then, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy’ [Rom 9.16]. Now as, undoubtedly, if a man is of the age to use his reason, he cannot believe, hope, love, unless he will to do so, nor obtain the prize of the high calling of God unless he voluntarily run for it; in what sense is it ‘not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy,’ except that, as it is written, ‘the preparation of the heart is from the Lord’? [Prov 16.1]. Otherwise, if it is said, ‘It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy,’ because it is of both, that is, both of the will of God, so that we are to understand the saying, ‘It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy,’ as if it meant the will of man alone is not sufficient, if the mercy of God go not with it – then it will follow that the mercy of God alone is not sufficient, if the will of man go not with it; and therefore, if we may rightly say, ‘it is not of man that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy,’ because the will of man by itself is not enough, why may we not also rightly put it in the converse way: ‘It is not of God that showeth mercy, but of man that willeth,’ because the mercy of God by itself does not suffice? Surely, if no Christian will dare to say this, ‘It is not of God that showeth mercy, but of man that willeth,’ lest he should openly contradict the apostle, it follows that the true interpretation of the saying, ‘It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy,’ is that the whole work belongs to God, who both makes the will of man righteous, and thus prepares it for assistance, and assists it when it is prepared. For the man’s righteousness of will precedes many of God’s gifts, but not all; and it must itself be included among those which it does not precede. We read in Holy Scripture, both that God’s mercy ‘shall meet me’ [Psa 59.10], and that His mercy ‘shall follow me’ [Psa 23.6]. It goes before the unwilling to make him willing; it follows the willing to make his will effectual. Why are we taught to pray for our enemies [Matt 5.44], who are plainly unwilling to lead a holy life, unless that God may work willingness in them? And why are we ourselves taught to ask that we may receive [Matt 7.7], unless that He who has created in us the wish, may Himself satisfy the wish? We pray, then, for our enemies, that the mercy of God may prevent them, as it has prevented us: we pray for ourselves that His mercy may follow us.

Men, being by nature the children of wrath, needed a Mediator. In what sense God is said to be angry.

And so the human race was lying under a just condemnation, and all men were the children of wrath. Of which wrath it is written: ‘All our days are passed away in Thy wrath; we spend our years as a tale that is told’ [Psa 90.9]. Of which wrath also Job says: ‘Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble’ [Job 14.1]. Of which wrath also the Lord Jesus says: ‘He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him’[2] [John 3.36]. He does not say it will come, but it ‘abideth on him’. For every man is born with it; wherefore the apostle says: ‘We were by nature the children of wrath, even as others’ [Eph 2.3]. Now, as men were lying under this wrath by reason of their original sin, made the more heavy and deadly in proportion to the number and magnitude of the actual sins which were added to it, there was need for a Mediator, that is, for a reconciler, who, by the offering of one sacrifice, of which all the sacrifices of the law and the prophets were types, should take away this wrath. Wherefore the apostle says: ‘For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life’ [Rom 5.10]. Now when God is said to be angry, we do not attribute to Him such a disturbed feeling as exists in the mind of an angry man; but we call His just displeasure against sin by the name ‘anger’, a word transferred by analogy from human emotions. But our being reconciled to God through a Mediator, and receiving the Holy Spirit, so that we who were enemies are made sons [‘For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God’ [Rom 8.14]: this is the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

_____
[1] The writings of Augustine of Hippo were one source to which the Reformers, particularly John Calvin, appealed in an effort to show that their views on divine grace were not novel but were in line with historic Christianity. Augustine was a voluminous and difficult writer and, apart from his Confessions and parts of the City of God, he is unknown to many Christians today. However Augustine’s Enchiridion [Hand-book] written in response to questions sent to him by Laurentius some time after 420, gives a succinct statement of Augustine’s theology. Though spoilt by some ascetic and sacramentalist emphases it can be read with profit, as this delightful extract shows. For an authoritative treatment of Augustine from a classic Reformed standpoint see B. B. Warfield’s Calvin and Augustine.
[2] These words, attributed by the author to Christ, were really spoken by John the Baptist.



This article was taken from Issue138 March 1975 of The Banner of Truth

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