Augustine and Operative grace of God

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Augustine’s Understanding of Operative Grace in the

Pelagian Controversy

Introduction

In His providence God gave St. Augustine to the Christian

church as a gift of God in its early history. This is because

the early Christian church desperately needed a great figure

who fully knew the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to defend

its purity. In particular the early Christian church greatly

needed a Paul who fully understood that human beings are saved

by faith and the grace of God in Jesus Christ, not by works.

God used St. Augustine, who had deeply experienced the grace

of God in Jesus Christ to expound the truth.

The early Christian church waged a life-or-death war

against Arius and his followers in order to defend the

doctrine of the Trinity after the Roman Empire had declared

Christianity as the state religion in 323. At the same time,

it was embroiled in an anthropological debate with Pelagius

and his followers. If the Pelagian controversy had gone

untouched, this heretic would likely have shaken the

foundation of Christianity. This heresy is an old version of

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humanism, which claims that human beings can obtain salvation

on their own: they do not need God’s help.

Pelagius, a British monk, represents those who absolutely

trust in the innate capacity of human beings, while Augustine

represents those who desperately need God’s help after they

have tasted all kinds of misery stemming from sin. The

Christian church is greatly indebted to St. Augustine who

defended the grace of God from the attack of Pelagius and his

supporters. The doctrine of grace that he presented has been

the orthodox doctrine up to today.

In this paper I will deal with Augustine’s understanding of

the operative grace of God and how he expressed it in the

Pelagian controversy. Usually Augustine’s the doctrine of

grace is one of the important themes to understand the whole

picture of his theology. But due to page limitations, it would

be an impossible task and beyond the scope of my focus to deal

with it comprehensively. So I will delve into how Augustine

develops his understanding of God’s operative grace and

refutes Pelagius in his books such as “On the Merits and Remission of

Sins, and the Baptism of Infants” and “The Spirit and the Letter”. I think

that this analytic process unravels the tangled inter-

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relationship among original sin, free will, and grace; this is

because it is impossible to clarify Augustine’s understanding

of God’s operative grace without analytically touching on

these issues. And more importantly, my theme will be that we

Christians absolutely need God’s operative grace in order to

be born again and to do good, though God created man with free

will. Finally I want to reflect what Augustine’s doctrine of

grace means to our contemporary ministry and church.

The Pelagian Controversy

Above all, we need to deal with the background of the

Pelagian controversy. So-called the Pelagianism refers to the

teachings of three theologians: Pelagius, Celestius, and

Julian of Eclanum. The Pelagian controversy can be divided

into three stages.1 The first controversy, which occurred in

Carthage in 411-413, was about the meaning of the fall of Adam

and infant baptism. In 411, Celestius, a student of Pelagius,

applied for presbyters’orders in Carthage, but he was declared

a heretic because of his teachings about the sin of Adam and

infant baptism. The second controversy, in 414-418, was about

1 A Select library of Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Saint Ausgustine:Anti-Pelagian Writings, edited by Philip Schaff, (WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1956), xvii-xxi.

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whether Pelagius’ faith was orthodox or not. The third one was

the debate between Augustine and Julian of Eclanum after the

year 418. The long and tiresome controversies ended in 431

after Pope Coelestine wrote a letter in favor of Augustianism

and in 529 Boniface II ratified a series of moderate articles

under the second Synod of Orange.2

The Pelagian controversy revolves around the question of

whether redemption and salvation are a major work of God or of

man, and human beings absolutely need to be born again or

whether they can merely be improved. Phillip Schaff writes,

The Pelagian controversy turns upon the mightyantithesis of sin and grace. It embraces the wholecycle of doctrine respecting the ethical and religiousrelation of man to God, and includes, therefore, thedoctrines of human freedom, of the primitive state, ofthe fall, of regeneration and conversion, of theeternal purpose of redemption, and of the nature andoperation of the grace of God. It comes at last to thequestion, whether redemption is chiefly a work of Godor of man; whether man needs to be born anew, or merelyimproved. The soul of the Pelagian system is humanfreedom; the soul of the Augustinian is divine grace.3

Pelagius repeatedly claims the superiority of human

freedom over divine grace. On the other hand, Augustine

repeatedly insists on the total depravity of human will.

2 Ibid, xxi. 3 Philip Schaff, History of Christian Church (WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1910), 787.

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The Thought of Pelagius

We specifically need to delve into what Pelagius thought of

grace, original sin, and free will before we deal with

Augustine’s understanding of the operative grace that controls

the lives of believers.

We can find what Pelagius thought about original sin through

the writings of Celestius. Due to his teachings about original

sin and infant baptism, Celestius was accused of a heretic at

a council in Carthage in 412.4 He claimed that even if Adam had

not sinned, he would have died because he was created mortal.

And Adam’s fall did not affect the human race but himself

alone. He thought that children were born without original

sin.5 He even claimed that there were sinless men before

Christ.

Pelagius seemed to regard Adam as merely an isolated

individual who does not have any organic unity with the human

race. Philip Schaff writes,

Pelagius, destitute of all idea of the organic wholeness of the race or of human nature, viewed Adam merely as an isolated individual; he gave him no representative place, and therefore his acts no bearing

4 Ibid, 793.5 Ibid, 793.

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beyond himself. In his view, the sin of the first man consisted in a single, isolated act of disobedience to the divine command.6

Thus for him, there is no original sin in all human beings.

Augustine writes,

He says: Everything good, and everything evil, onaccount of which we are either laudable or blameworthy,is not born with us but done by us: for we are born notfully developed, but with a capacity for eitherconduct; and we are procreated as without virtue, soalso without vice; and previous to the action of ourown proper will, that alone is in man which God hasformed.” Now you perceive that in these men iscontained, that infants are born without the contagionof any sin from Adam. It is therefore not astonishingthat Coelestius refused to condemn such as say thatAdam’s sin injured only himself, and not the humanrace; and that infants are at their birth in the samestate in which Adam was before the transgression.7

Adam only left a bad example for human beings by his

disobedience to God. As human beings are born without virtue,

they are born without evil. Pelagius claimed that sin is a

byproduct of man’s will not of man’s nature. So then, how has sin

become pervasive in human society? He answers, “The

universality of sin must be ascribed to the power of evil

6 Ibid, 805.7 Saint Augustine, “On Original Sin” in Saint Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings, A Select library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. Philip Schaff (Grand Rapids; MI: Eerdmans, 1956), 241.

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example and evil custom.”8 The objection to original sin

consequently leads to a denial of hereditary guilt. Pelagius

thought that the doctrine of original sin contradicts the

justice of God. Though he claimed that infants should be

baptized to enter the kingdom of God, his claim leads to the

conclusion that infants who die without baptism will be saved.9

Pelagius viewed Adam as an individual, not the

representative of all human beings. Philip Schaff notes,

In this doctrine of the fall we meet with the samedisintegrating view of humanity as before. Adam isisolated from his posterity; his disobedience isdisjoined from other sins. He is simply an individual,like any other man, not the representative of the wholerace. There are no creative starting-points; every manbegins history anew.10

But the problems that stem from Pelagius’ view of Adam

severely conflicts with Paul’s hermeneutics. That is, the

apostle Paul views Jesus Christ as the second Adam who

perfectly obeyed God’s command and reconciled with God. Philip

Schaff notes,

In this system Paul’s exhibitions of Adam and Christas the representative ancestors of mankind have nomeaning. If the act of the former has merely an

8 Philip Schaff, History of Christian Church (WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1910), 806.9 Ibid, 808.10 Ibid, 808.

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individual significance, so also has that of thelatter. If the sin of Adam cannot be imputed, neithercan the merit of Christ. In both cases there is nothingleft but the idea of example, the influence of whichdepends solely upon our own free will.11

Pelagius’ claim can go one step further. That is, his claim

undermines the foundation of Christianity. Augustine fully

understood what the nature of the controversy was.

When Pelagius heard the famous prayer of Augustine “Give what

you command, and command what you will,” he disclosed his

displeasure. He as a devout monk could not understand that

“the power to obey the commandment must come from the same

source as the commandment itself.”12 He thought that human

beings have the power to obey the commandment of God

perfectly. Warfield writes,

At this point we have touched the central andformative principle of Pelagianism. It lies in theassumption of the plenary ability of man; his abilityto do all that righteousness can demand, - to work outnot only his own salvation, but also his ownperfection. This is the core of the whole theory; andall other postulates not only depend it, but arise outof it. Both chronologically and logically this is theroot of the system.13

11 Ibid, 808.12 Ibid, 791.13 B.B. Warfield, “Introduction To Augustine’s Anti-Pelagian writings” in Saint Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings, A Select library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. Philip Schaff (Grand Rapids; MI: Eerdmans, 1956), xxii.

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The assumption that the ability of man is plenary was the

main tenet of Pelagianism. He supposed “the possibility of a

man’s not sinning.”14 He even claimed that man can be sinless

and perfectly obey the commandment of God:

Whenever I have to speak on the subject of moralinstruction and the conduct of a holy life, it is mypractice first to demonstrate the power and quality ofhuman nature and to show what it is capable ofachieving, and then to go on to encourage the mind ofmy listener to consider the idea of different kinds ofvirtue, in case it may be of little or no profit to himto be summoned to pursue ends which he has perhapsassumed hitherto to be beyond his reach; for we cannever enter upon the path of virtue unless we have hopeas our guide and companion and if every effort expendedin seeking something is nullified in effect by despairof ever finding it.15

He thought that the power and quality of human nature could

make human beings obey the commandment of God and lead to the

ideal path of virtue through human efforts.

For Pelagius, free will was not only the freedom of choice

but also the absolutely equal ability to do good or evil.

Philip Schaff writes,14 Saint Augustine, Anti-Pelagian Writing: On Nature and Grace, a select library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, edited by Philip Schaff (WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1956), 138.15 B.R.Rees, The Letters of Pelagius And His Followers (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, NY, 1991), 36.

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Freedom is the supreme good, the honor and glory ofman, the bonum nature, that cannot be lost. It is thesole basis of the ethical relation of man to God, whowould have no unwilling service. It consists, accordingto Pelagius, essentially in the liberum arbitrium, or thepossibilitas boni et mali; the freedom of choice, and theabsolutely equal ability at every moment to do good orevil. The ability to do evil belongs necessarily tofreedom, because we cannot will good without at thesame time being able to will evil. Without this powerof contrary choice, the choice of good itself wouldlose its freedom, and therefore its moral value. Man isnot a free, self-determining moral subject, until goodand evil, life and death, have been given into hishand.16

The freedom of choice was the free will that Pelagius

understood. God gave the freedom of choice to human beings so

that they would live sinless and godly lives. He thought that

the achievement of freedom was made through either men’s

willing, voluntary obedience or their choice of disobedience

to God;17 free will was a gift of God. Human beings can become

good beings.18

It was because God wished to bestow on the rationalcreature the gift of doing good of his own free willand the capacity to exercise free choice, by implantingin man the possibility of choosing either alternative,that he made it his peculiar right to be what he wantedto be, so that with his capacity for good and evil hecould do either quite naturally and then bend his will

16 Philip Schaff, History of Christian Church (WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1910), 803.17 B.R.Rees, The Letters of Pelagius And His Followers (The Boydell Press, Woodbridge, NY, 1991), 38.18 Ibid, 38.

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in other direction too. He could not claim to possessthe good of his own volition, unless he were the kindof creature that could do also have possessed evil. Ourmost excellent creator wished us to be able to doeither but actually to do only one, that is, good,which he also commanded, giving us the capacity to doevil only so that we might do his will by exercisingour own. That being so, this very capacity to do evilis also good- good, I say, because it makes the goodpart better by making it voluntary and independent, notbound by necessity but free to decide for itself.19

The negative aspect of freedom is man’s ability to opt for

evil. But to Pelagius, the human capacity to do evil is also

good because it makes the good part better by making it

voluntary, not bound by necessity.

He did not think that the human nature was corrupted by

Adam’s disobedience. And the free will of human beings was

also not affected. So why do human beings do evil? It is not

that human nature is polluted by sin but that human beings

decide to do evil.

According to Pelagius, man’s present moral condition is the

same as that of Adam before the fall in all aspects. Man is

born in the same condition that Adam was in terms of moral

powers and capabilities.20 Adam just left a bad example for his

offspring. Despite his thought that man still has sufficient19 Ibid, 38. 20 Philip Schaff, History of Christian Church (WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1910), 809.

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natural reason and will, he claims that man needs supernatural

grace.21 He even repeatedly mentions the grace of God; the

grace he refers to is the free will.22 Augustine writes,

I mean the belief that the power of the human willcan of itself, without the help of God, either achieveperfect righteousness or advance steadily towards it.When he presses upon those who so think the presumptionof supporting this to happen without divine aid, theycheck themselves from venturing a statement which theysee would be irreligious and intolerable. But they saythat the reason why it does not happen without divineaid is that God has both created man in possession of awill that chooses freely, and teaches him by the giftof his commandments the right way of life; so thatGod’s help consists in the removal by instruction ofman’s ignorance, so that he can know what it is to beavoided in his actions and what is to be sought.23

Thus though grace is external help that develops man’s

natural ability, it is not absolutely necessary for human

beings. Philip Schaff writes,

The Pelagian system has really no place for the ideasof redemption, atonement, regeneration, and newcreation. It substitutes for them our own moral effortto perfect our natural powers, and the mere addition ofthe grace of God as a valuable aid and support.24

21 Ibid, 812.22 B.B. Warfield, “Introduction To Augustine’s Anti-Pelagian writings” in Saint Augustine: Anti-Pelagian Writings, A Select library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, ed. Philip Schaff (Grand Rapids; MI: Eerdmans, 1956), xv.23 John Burnaby, Augustine:Later Works, edited by John Burnaby (WJK Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 2006), 197. 24 Philip Schaff, History of Christian Church (Grand Rapids, MI: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1910), 815.

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Thus external grace is not absolutely necessary; it is just

“the mere addition” that helps man’s natural capability.

Augustine’s Understanding of God’s Operative Grace

and His Refutation of Pelagius

So far I have examined the thoughts of Pelagius in terms of

his view on sin, free will, and grace. Indeed, the personal

experience of Christians, and the Scriptures itself cannot

accept the teachings of Pelagius about sin, free will, and

grace. Rather, all these things teach us that human beings are

totally depraved. And they hint for that total depravity to be

healed, people desperately needs help from outside, the grace

of God. Before conversion, Augustine himself tasted all kinds

of misery coming from sin. And he desperately felt the need of

redemption. From his personal experience, he fully understood

what the nature of the controversy was. B. B. Warfield writes,

And his own experiences in his long life ofresistance to, and then of yielding to, the drawing ofGod’s grace, gave him a clear apprehension of the greatevangelic principle that God seeks men, not men God,such as no sophistry could cloud.25

25 B. B. Warfield, “Introduction to Augustine’s Anti-Pelagian Writings.” in A Select library of Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Saint Ausgustine:Anti-Pelagian Writings, edited by Philip Schaff, (WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company,Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1956), xxi.

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After Augustine despaired of himself, he put his hope on

the grace of God. On the other hand, Pelagius totally trusted

the capability of human nature.

Augustine thought that human race had organic unity. He did

not see Adam as just an individual. Rather he viewed Adam as

representative of the human race. This means that in Adam

human nature was totally corrupted, and the whole human race

inherited original sin from Adam. And actually the human race

sinned in Adam. Philip Schaff writes,

But Augustine did not stop with the very just idea ofan organic connection of the human race, and of the sinof Adam with original sin; he also supposed a sort ofpre-existence of all the posterity of Adam in himself,so that they actually and personally sinned in him,though not, indeed, with individual consciousness.Since we were, at the time of the fall, “in lumbisAdami,” the sin of Adam is “jure seminationis etgerminationis,”our sin and guilt, and physical death isa penalty even upon infant children, as it was apenalty upon Adam. The posterity of Adam thereforesuffer punishment not for the sin of another, but forthe sin which they themselves committed in Adam.26

Augustine says that the original sin was from Adam and all

human beings inherited it. But he goes on to say that human

beings can be freed from original sin and all transgressions:

26 Philip Schaff, History of Christian Church (Grand Rapids, MI: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company 1910), 824.

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And from this we gather that we have derived fromAdam, in whom we all have sinned, not all our actualsins, but only original sin; whereas from Christ, inwhom we are all justified, we obtain the remission notmerely of that original sin, but of the rest of oursins, which we have added.27

We human beings can be freed from the original sin and

remitted of the rest of their sins through the redemption

of Christ and the grace of God.

Augustine’s book “On Forgiveness of Sins, and Baptism”, which was

written in 411-413, when the Pelagian controversy was actively

going on, deals with the doctrine of original sin. Pelagius

relates “the threat of death” in Gen 2:7 only to spiritual

death, but Augustine relates it the death of the body.28 Thus

death entered into this world because of sin. The intention of

Pelagius was to deny that new born babies inherited original

sin. Furthermore, if there is a link between Adam and human

beings, it comes from the imitation of sin. But Augustine

claims that the direct relation between Adam and human beings

comes from original sin.29

In relation to original sin, Augustine, in book II of “On

27 Augustine, “On Forgiveness of Sins, And Baptism.” in A Select library of Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Saint Ausgustine:Anti-Pelagian Writings, edited byPhilip Schaff, (WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan,1956), 21.28 Ibid, 21.29 Ibid, 21.

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Forgiveness of Sins, and Baptism”, deals with “a human life unassailed

by any deception or preoccupation of sin.”30 At first he

answers positively, that a man can exist in his life without

sin with the free will of man and the mercy of God.31 Here the

free will of a man is regarded as the gift of God: God’s grace

helps the free will of a man obey the commandments of God. But

when he is asked to answer the second question, whether there

is a sinless man, he says no. So to whom do the words “those

who do not continue to sin” in 1 John 3:9 refer? This does not

mean there is a sinless man; it refers to those who are born

again by the grace of God.32 He answers the third question,

“Since by divine grace assisting the human will, man may

possibly exist in this life without sin, why does he not?”33 by

saying that man does not want to live without sin. The last

question draws our attention because it has something to do

with who Christ was and what he did for human beings.

Augustine writes,

It is this: Whether the man who never has had sinor is to have it, not merely is now living as one ofthe sons of men, but even could ever have existed at

30 Ibid, 44.31 Ibid, 46.32 Ibid, 47.33 Ibid, 55.

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any time, or will yet in time to come exist?34

Here Augustine points to Jesus Christ as the second Adam who

came to this world in order to restore the original order of

God’s creation. Adam lost his control over his body due to his

disobedience. His posterity desperately needs Christ because

the sinful flesh “requires cleansing through the sacrament of

Him came in the likeness of sinful flesh”.35

As for what they, that some men, by the use of theirreason, have lived, and do live, in this world withoutsin, we should wish that it were true, we should striveto make it true, we should pray that it be true; but,at the same time, we should confess that it is not yettrue.36

Augustine ends his argument against Pelagius by pointing out

that original sin is universal to human race.

Natural generation propagates original sin and guilt. PhilipSchaff writes,

Original sin, according to Augustine, is the nativebent of the soul towards evil, with which all theposterity of Adam—excepting Christ, who was conceivedby the Holy Ghost and born of a pure Virgin—come intothe world, and out of which all actual sins ofnecessity proceed. It appears principally inconcupiscence, or the war of the flesh against thespirit. Sin is not merely an individual act, but also a

34 Ibid, 57.35 Ibid, 59.36 Ibid, 78.

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condition, a status and habitus, which continues, byprocreation, from generation to generation. Originalsin results necessarily, as has been already remarked,from the generic and representative character of Adam,in whom human nature itself, and so, potentially, allwho should inherit that nature, fell… But the root ofit lay deeper in his Christian consciousness andprofound conviction of the all-pervading power of sin.The corruption of the root communicates itself to thetrunk and the branches. But where sin is, there isalways guilt and ill-desert in the eyes of a righteousGod. The whole race, through the fall of itsprogenitor, has become a massa perditionis.37

Augustine views the consequences of Adam’s sin as

comprehensive and terrible for Adam and his posterity. One of

them is the loss of the freedom of choice. He sees the freedom

of choice as a positive inclination toward and love for the

good with the possibility of sin. But due to Adam’s

disobedience, this freedom became bondage to the will. If it

were aided by grace, it would become a source of good to Adam.

But because of Adam’s sin, it became a source of evil.38

The issue of free will was critical in Augustine’s debate

with Pelagius. Particularly he deals with the issue of free

will in his book “The Spirit and the Letter.” One bone of contention

is this question: “Why does a man need the operative grace of

37 Philip Schaff, History of Christian Church (Grand Rapids, MI: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1910), 824.38 Ibid, 826.

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God in doing good even if God created man with free will?”39

Does the grace of God make the freedom of choice void?

Augustine says absolutely no. Rather, it establishes it:

Freedom of choice is necessary to the fulfillment ofthe law. But by the law comes the knowledge of sin; byfaith comes the obtaining of grace against sin; bygrace comes the healing of the soul from sin’ssickness; by the healing of the soul comes freedom ofchoice; by freedom of choice comes the love ofrighteousness; by the love of righteousness comes theworking of the law. And thus, as the law is not madevoid but established by faith, since faith obtains thegrace whereby the law may be fulfilled, so freedom ofchoice is not made void but established by grace, sincegrace heals the will whereby righteousness may freelybe loved.40

As we Christians obtain the knowledge sin by the law, we

obtain grace against sin by faith. By faith our soul is healed

from the power of sin. And the healed soul provides the

freedom of choice that eventually leads to loving

righteousness.41 This understanding stands in a sharp contrast

to Pelagius, who he deistically separates this world from God

and puts human beings on an independent footing. Augustine

appeals to a sense of absolute dependence that everything good

39 Augustine, “The Spirit and the Letter,” edited by John Burnaby (Louisville, London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 197. 40 Ibid, 236. 41 Ibid, 236.

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comes from God.42 How, then, does God’s operative grace make

Christians do good? God’s operative grace is God’s creative

power in Christ to heal inwardly the depraved soul of human

beings.43

Augustine, in his book “The Spirit and the Letter,” which was a

treatise written in response to a question of Marcellinus,

explains why Christians need the absolute necessity of God’s

operative grace to live a good life. Pelagius’ claim that

Christians do not absolutely need God’s grace for any good

living can not be accepted. Such a claim is against God’s

grace. And the claim is tantamount to putting what is possible

to God in the power of human beings.44 On top of that, the holy

life that Christians are living is a gift of God:

That being demonstrated, it will be the more evidentthat the good life is a divine gift: not only becauseGod has given man the power of free choice, withoutwhich moral life were impossible; not only because hehas given the commandment to teach us how to live; butbecause the Holy Spirit he sheds abroad charity in thehearts of those whom he foreknew that he mightpredestinate...45

42 Philip Schaff, History of Christian Church (Grand Rapids, MI: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1910), 843-844.43 Ibid, 844-845.44 Augustine, “The Spirit and the Letter,” edited by John Burnaby (Louisville, London: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006), 196-197.45 Ibid, 199.

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In chapters 50-62 of “The Spirit and the Letter”, Augustine

explains the interrelation of free will, faith, and grace.

According to him, human beings can come to believe in Jesus

Christ as long as God’s operative grace moves their free will

toward faith. After God’s operative grace leads them to

believe, they can live a good life. As Warfield says, faith

can be regarded as an act of the man himself. But “only as he

is given the power from on high to will to believe, will he

believe (57, 60).”46 In other words, God’s grace is the

indispensable connecting key that makes free will believe in

God and do good things. It is like fresh blood, which enables

ailing persons to come alive again and live a holy life to

please God.

Some Reflections for Our Contemporary Ministry and

Korean Church

While I have been researching Augustine’s understanding

of God’s operative grace in the Pelagian controversy, I have

realized the importance of the doctrine of God’s grace in

Jesus Christ again. To a great degree, Augustine’s life46 B. B. Warfield, “Introduction to Augustine’s Anti-Pelagian Writings.” in A Select library of Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Saint Ausgustine:Anti-Pelagian Writings, ed by Philip Schaff, (WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1956), xxvii.

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journey toward God is very similar to that of my own journey

toward God. After Augustine tasted all kinds of misery

resulting from sin, God’s operative grace made him know the

operative grace of God in Jesus Christ that forgives his sin

for free. And he realized that he was saved by grace in Jesus

Christ not by works. The same can be true for all believers,

including me. Like Augustine, my personal experience and the

Scriptures say that grace is absolutely necessary one for all

Christians.

When I look back at Korean churches, I find that though

Korean pastors and Christians talk about the grace of God,

they do not fully understand the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

Instead of proclaiming the grace of God in Jesus Christ,

spirituality theology has gained popularity nowadays. On top

of that, sermons emphasizing the freedom and responsibility of

human beings have also been popular. Against this backdrop, we

need to reflect on what Augustine means in his works by the

grace of God in Jesus Christ. What Korean churches desperately

need is the right understanding of God’s grace in Jesus

Christ.

Conclusion

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I briefly have gone over how Augustine states his

understanding of the operative grace of God during the

Pelagian controversy. Augustine deeply realized the importance

of the grace of God in Jesus Christ after he had tasted all

kinds of misery stemming from sin. Though he experienced the

grace of God in Jesus Christ before he was embroiled in the

Pelagian controversy, his understanding of God’s operative

grace became clear in the process of that controversy.

Augustine fully understood what the nature of the Pelagian

controversy was. He held that the danger of Pelagianism did

not lie in its emphasis on the freedom of will but in its

denial of the necessity of grace and the total depravity of

human beings. Thus, for him, the debate over the Pelagian

heresy was over an issue that could possibly have shaken the

foundation of Christianity. According to him, human beings

cannot go to God on their own. And the first step of faith is

the work of God. That is, faith itself is the result of God’s

grace. He claimed that the necessity of God’s operative grace

is absolute for human beings. Most importantly, grace is God’s

creative ability in Christ to transform human beings from

within.

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Bibliography

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