On Grace and Free Will

Contents

Reading pages: 1–6 · 7–14 · 15–20 · 21–24

1. 1Augustine writes to Valentinus and the monks of Hadrumetum, who are divided over grace and free choice, urging thanks for what they understand and prayer for what they do not.
2. 2Augustine proves from the commands and prohibitions of Scripture, Old and New, that man has free choice of the will and cannot blame God for his sins.
3. 3Ignorance does not excuse from punishment, though sinning with knowledge is graver; and one who pleads defeat by desire is still addressed as having a will.
4. 4Lest free choice be so defended that grace is excluded, Augustine shows that continence, marital chastity, and victory over desire are both God's gifts and acts of the will, obtained by prayer.
5. 5Against the Pelagian claim that grace follows the merit of turning to God, Augustine shows that conversion itself is God's gift, and that Paul received grace for evil merits.
6. 6Good merits follow grace and depend on it; even eternal life, the crown of righteousness, is God crowning his own gifts.
7. 7Paul's good fight, finished course, and kept faith were all God's gifts; faith that works through love, itself God's gift, produces the works for which eternal life is rendered.
8. 8Eternal life is both a reward for good works and grace, because the good works themselves are God's grace; it is “grace for grace”.
9. 9“Grace for grace” (John 1:16): the grace of a good life is rewarded with the grace of eternal life, for God works in us both to will and to work, without removing free choice.
10. 10The law gives knowledge of sin, not deliverance; without grace it works wrath, and no one is justified by works of the law.
11. 11Against the Pelagian claim that the law is the grace that helps us, Augustine shows that the letter kills and the Spirit gives life; those who put to death the deeds of the flesh are led by God's Spirit.
12. 12Those who rely on the law without grace seek their own righteousness, not the righteousness that man receives from God through faith in Christ.
13. 13Grace is neither the law nor human nature, nor merely the forgiveness of past sins; the Lord's Prayer and Cyprian's treatise on it show that we must pray for help to avoid and overcome sin.
14. 14Against the claim that grace is given for the merit of a good will, Augustine shows that faith itself is God's gift and that God, as Ezekiel says, takes away the heart of stone for his name's sake, not for prior merits.
15. 15God commands what he gives and gives what he commands; the will is always free but good only by grace, which also strengthens a weak good will so that it can keep the commandments.
16. 16God commands things we cannot do so that we may ask for them; Ecclesiasticus itself, after “If you will, you will keep the commandments”, prays for help, for God prepares the will and makes us act.
17. 17A weak good will becomes strong through love, which God begins by working and completes by cooperating; Augustine gathers the scriptural commendations of love.
18. 18Love is commanded to free choice, yet it is from God: we love because he first loved us, and the disciples chose Christ because they were chosen, not chosen because they chose.
19. 19The Pelagians grant that knowledge of the law is from God but claim love is from themselves; Scripture says both are from God, and love is the greater gift.
20. 20God has the wills of men in his power, turning even evil wills by a hidden but just judgment to punish sin or to help the good, as with Ai, Shimei, Judas, and Absalom.
21. 21Scripture shows that God works in men's hearts to incline their wills where he wills, to good by mercy or to evil by just judgment on prior merits; how much more does he work good in the hearts of his elect.
22. 22Infants receive grace in baptism with no prior merit, even struggling against it, while some children of believers die unbaptized; this rests on God's inscrutable judgments.
23. 23Why one infant is baptized and another not, or one baptized person survives to fall while another is taken, belongs to God's hidden judgments; God and Pharaoh both hardened Pharaoh's heart.
24. 24Augustine urges the monks to reread the book, to pray for understanding and for the wisdom that comes from above, and to pray for him.