“But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” 1 Corinthians 2:14
Jacob Arminius was a Dutch pastor and teacher who died in 1609. Before his death he became concerned over essentially five doctrines that had developed in the Protestant church over the previous 80 or so years of the Reformation’s growth and maturing. Despite the fact that the Belgic Confession, Heidelberg Catechism, England’s 39 articles, and even the Lutheran Augsburg Confession all affirmed these doctrines, he believed them to be significant errors that needed to be rejected.
One of those doctrines is what became known as the T in TULIP: Total Depravity. Total Depravity means that fallen man is absolutely unable to choose to believe in God apart from God’s special intervention in his life. Fallen man is spiritually dead, and his will is in bondage to the sinful nature so that he cannot come to faith in Christ unless God makes him alive first.
Arminius taught that man’s fallen nature is severely wounded by the fall but not completely dead. This means that fallen man can choose to believe the gospel on his own without God’s intervention. When he does, then God makes him alive through regeneration. God basically lures a person into salvation but cannot authoritatively bring him in. We call this semi-Pelagianism.
Pelagius, over 1000 years earlier, taught that there is no original sin, that every human being has the full ability to choose God without God’s help. He even went so far as to say every human has the possibility of never sinning. Augustine, affirming the doctrine of original sin and total depravity, showed how Pelagius contradicted the clear teaching of Scripture, and that furthermore, if Pelagius is right then no one needs the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Man can save himself.
Pelagius, of course, was condemned as a heretic. But over the course of the Middle Ages, a semi-pelagianism developed in the church. Luther’s conflict with Erasmus was over this issue. Luther’s great work, The Bondage of the Will, in harmony with Augustine proved Erasmus’ semi-pelagian doctrine was also unscriptural. Despite this, semi-pelagianism continued to be the majority view in Roman Catholic doctrine and Arminius’ teaching reflects essentially the same fundamental semi-pelagian tendency. Man can save himself with a little bit of help from God.
Over and against this is the Reformed doctrine of Total Depravity reflected in I Corinthians 2:14. The natural man does not receive spiritual things nor is it possible for him to know them because they are spiritually discerned. In his fallen state man cannot know God or choose God. He must be made alive first by the sovereign, intervening act of God before he can come to faith. Regeneration precedes faith. Other verses like Ephesians 2:5 “…even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)…,” or John 1:13 which states believers are those “…who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” affirm the same truth.
Salvation, for Arminius, is like a room full of people who are limping, or on crutches, unable to unlock the door to salvation. Jesus opens the door, and bids all people to come, but they must come of their own accord. For Pelagius, all people are perfectly healthy and can open the door themselves. The doctrine of Total Depravity teaches that everyone in the room is dead. If Jesus just opens the door, no one goes through. Jesus must go into the room and make people alive so they can walk through the door.
Similarly, Paul in I Timothy 1:16 says that his conversion was the way, the paradigm, in which God saves every single person. Even if we didn’t sin in the same way Paul did, all the elect are saved by God’s intervention while they were still sinners, still dead. God may choose to intervene in the life of an adult on the road to Damascus as He did for Paul, or on someone’s death bed, or as a teenager, or as a youth, or even in the womb. But whatever time God chooses to intervene in the life of the elect it is the same essential situation as Paul’s. God makes dead people alive.
What a great assurance this is for the Christian! If you have faith in Christ then it means God has intervened in your life! He has made you alive, born again, a new creation, and this was not of your own doing, it is the gift of God. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
Fight the good fight!
His mercy endures forever!
Pastor Flynn