The Sovereigny of God and Human Responsibility

THE SOVEREIGNY OF GOD AND HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY

Augustine’s understanding of the relationship between the sovereignty of God and human responsibility is more biblical than Cassian’s view. Augustine’s school of theology totally relies on God as the grace giver, however Cassian’s school relies on man’s merit before receiving grace. This debate has been going on since the early church and still affects the church today. Many people have different opinions and interpretations of how the Bible deals with predestination and man’s free will. Augustine’s understanding is more biblical due to his ability to use scripture properly, show both sides of the argument, and defend his case with better clarity.

Augustine’s main point is that faith is a free gift from God and does not rely on man’s works. Augustine begins his writing by explaining this in great detail and organization. To Augustine, grace is irresistible and is given to humanity based on God’s desires. This is a thread that runs throughout his writing. To answer the relationship between the sovereignty of God and human responsibility one must first understand the roles both God and man play in the big picture. Is God in control of everything in the cosmos or does he rely on human free will to help define the outcome of life? Augustine states that those, “who are said to be unwilling to be dependent on the uncertainty of God’s will, prefer rather to trust themselves to their own weakness than to the strength of God’s promise.” Augustine’s view of God causes him to rely on God’s will and strength instead of relying on his own choices and strengths.

This view is difficult for humanity to understand due to our nature to want to be in control and in charge of our own destiny. To say that God is in control of all things, including salvation, would mean that man’s salvation is not based on it’s own will. Which comes first, does God place an irresistible grace on those He wishes to save or does He wait and allow man to choose for himself, and then based on that decision, He saves them or condemns them? This is where Augustine and Cassian differ greatly on their interpretation of scripture. Augustine believes that all things come from God at the beginning. Grace is not something that you pick up along the way for achieving some pious acts. Augustine proclaims, “And, therefore, commending that grace which is not given according to any merits, but is the cause of all good merits, he says, “Not that we are sufficient to think anything as of ourselves but our sufficiency is of God.” Throughout Augustine’s writing he refers to scripture as the foundation of this belief and not his own personal agendas. He refers to Roman 6:5, where the Apostle states, “A remnant are saved according to the election of grace.” Here Augustine continues his combating that grace of election has anything to do with merits. According to Augustine to be a believer in God, one must first receive faith from God, and not from ones own works.

To Augustine, Adam’s legacy of sin causes humanity to be born sinful and having nothing good inside of them. Cassian disagrees with Augustine believing that humanity is born with some small seed of good inside their souls, which enable them to choose God. Adam, according to Cassian was born with the knowledge of good, and by eating of the Tree of Good and Evil; Adam then experienced what it meant to understand evil. This seems to contradict the whole notion of the account of Genesis 2. Although Cassian uses more scripture references, his dialogue and use of them does not provide the evidence needed to conclude his thesis. In Chapter 10, Cassian refers to Proverbs 4:23 where it states, “Keep your heart with all diligence.” He later goes on to say that the Apostle shows the hearts weakness by saying, “ The Lord keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Cassian is attempting to show free will and God’s grace as parallel instead of one ahead of the other. The only difficultly with using these as support for his thesis is they still do not prove that this so called “diligence” does not come from God. Throughout his writing, Augustine shows a convincing biblical argument for believing that faith is a free gift from God. Augustine quotes, “I obtained mercy to be a believer.’ He does not say, “because I was a believer.” Augustine is showing that to be a believer one must first experience mercy from God, therefore, to say that you must first be a believer to receive God’s mercy would be heresy.

Augustine continues this defense of the sovereignty of God by examining Ephesians 2:8. Here Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, “By grace ye are saved through faith; and this not of yourselves; but it is a gift of God.” This is Augustine’s knockout blow to those who oppose this