By John Owen
(Modern English)
The Arminian view of free will in spiritual matters—specifically regarding an unregenerate person who remains in a state of fallen nature before receiving grace—can be summarized in the following teachings.
The Arminians teach that every person in the world, including the reprobate, possesses within himself the power to believe in Christ, repent of sin, and obey the terms of the gospel covenant.
They argue that Adam did not lose this ability when he fell, and therefore neither did his descendants.
Grevinchovius writes:
"Adam after his fall retained the power of believing, and all reprobates retained it in him."
Likewise, the Remonstrants claimed that Adam did not lose:
the power to perform the obedience required in the New Covenant,
the power to believe,
the power to repent and turn from sin.
Since these abilities were supposedly not lost, they remain naturally present in every human being.
From this they conclude that faith is called "the work of God" only because God commands us to exercise it—not because God actually produces it within us.
Having attributed the ability to believe entirely to human nature, they go further and deny that any supernatural principle of grace must be implanted in the soul before a person can exercise faith.
They reject the idea that God infuses a spiritual habit or new life into the heart.
Instead, they teach that a person becomes a believer simply by making proper use of his natural abilities.
The Remonstrants openly declared:
"We reject the doctrine that habits must be infused before the act of faith can be exercised."
Another writer stated:
"I deny that the internal principle of faith required in the gospel is a habit divinely infused by whose efficacy the will is determined."
According to this view:
faith does not begin with God,
regeneration is not the creation of a new spiritual principle,
one person differs from another merely through his own use of natural powers.
Thus, one man believes while another does not because the believer makes himself different.
The Remonstrants explicitly affirmed:
"There is nothing truer than that a man makes himself differ from another. He who believes when God commands him differs from him who refuses to believe."
But this directly contradicts the Apostle Paul:
"Who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive?" (1 Corinthians 4:7)
Paul's argument is clear:
Whatever distinguishes one believer from another is a gift received from God. Therefore, no one may boast.
The Arminian argument only works if faith is not received from God.
If faith is a divine gift, then all boasting is excluded.
Yet Grevinchovius openly embraces the consequence:
"I make myself differ from another when I do not resist God, though I could have resisted. Why should I not glory in this as my own? That I could obey was from God's mercy, but that I actually would obey was from my own power."
In other words, God provides the opportunity, but man supplies the decisive difference.
The Arminians further teach that God reveals Christ and sends the gospel to people because they have already made themselves worthy of such a blessing.
They wrote:
"Sometimes God calls a nation, city, or person to the communion of evangelical grace whom He judges worthy of it in comparison with others."
Accordingly, when God told Paul that He had "much people" in Corinth (Acts 18:10), they interpreted this to mean that these people already feared God and served Him sincerely according to the light they possessed.
Thus, before hearing the gospel:
they supposedly feared God,
sincerely served Him,
used their natural knowledge well,
and thereby became deserving candidates for gospel preaching.
This is astonishing doctrine.
It teaches that people can please God before faith, and that their moral improvement earns them access to saving truth.
The Remonstrants therefore speak of:
preparation for faith through the law,
virtuous education,
moral discipline,
and certain qualities found in sinners that make them worthy of justification.
Some of Arminius's followers even declared:
"True conversion and the performance of good works are conditions required before justification."
Such language is scarcely paralleled in Christian history.
Their doctrine amounts to this:
Every person naturally possesses the ability to believe.
Every person can perform enough moral good to deserve receiving the gospel.
Without inward grace, he can assent to the gospel when it is preached.
The decisive difference between believers and unbelievers comes from man's own will.
Those who use their natural abilities well receive more grace, while others are denied it.
Owen concludes that this is not merely an error but a form of Pelagianism more extreme than Pelagius himself would likely have defended.
Against these teachings we affirm the following truths.
By nature we are spiritually dead.
A dead man cannot prepare himself for resurrection.
Likewise, sinners cannot prepare themselves for regeneration.
This does not mean that there are no preparations before conversion. There often are.
But every such preparation is itself produced by God's grace.
Christ says:
"Without Me you can do nothing." (John 15:5)
Paul says:
"We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves." (2 Corinthians 3:5)
Scripture describes us as:
children of wrath,
dead in trespasses and sins,
slaves of corruption.
Regeneration is therefore a resurrection from spiritual death.
What power does a corpse possess to prepare itself for life?
Can dead bones gather themselves together?
Can a corpse restore its own senses?
Jeremiah asks:
"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil." (Jeremiah 13:23)
The answer is obvious.
We cannot.
The effects of sin extend to every faculty of the soul.
Our understanding is darkened.
Paul says:
"The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God."
Spiritual truth appears foolish to him.
At best he stands confused and asks:
"What does this mean?"
At worst he mocks it.
The will is not free toward God.
It is enslaved to sin.
Christ says:
"Everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin."
The unregenerate person willingly serves this cruel master.
The heart is corrupted.
Scripture declares:
"Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually."
Sin works through our desires and produces fruit unto death.
Such is the natural condition of humanity.
The problem is not simply inability.
It is active opposition.
The natural person regards divine things as foolishness.
And people hate what they consider foolish.
The gospel is mocked.
Godliness is despised.
The flesh wars against the Spirit.
Paul summarizes the matter:
"The carnal mind is enmity against God."
It is not merely indifferent.
It is hostile.
A corrupt tree cannot bear good fruit.
Without faith it is impossible to please God.
And faith itself is God's gift.
God certainly uses different methods in bringing His elect to salvation.
Some are converted suddenly, as Paul was.
Others are restrained and prepared by providence, education, convictions, and external means.
Yet all true good comes from grace.
Nothing saving originates from ourselves.
Even those preliminary dispositions that precede conversion do not enable us to cooperate with regeneration.
Why?
Because grace belongs to an entirely different order than nature.
Nature cannot generate grace.
No promise exists stating that proper use of natural abilities earns regenerating grace.
God may grant further natural gifts for the proper use of previous gifts, but saving grace is never owed to anyone.
Someone may object:
"Doesn't this destroy free will altogether?"
Owen answers:
Not at all.
The will remains naturally free in the sense that people act voluntarily and make real choices.
Yet regarding spiritual good, the fallen will is corrupted and enslaved.
It possesses no ability to prepare itself for faith or conversion.
The Church of England's Articles rightly deny:
"the power to turn and prepare ourselves by our own natural strength and good works to faith and calling upon God."
The will is free as a faculty.
But it is bound in its moral condition.
Unregenerate people are not forced into particular sins, yet everything they do is stained by sin.
Even actions that appear morally upright are corrupted at their root because they proceed from hearts alienated from God.
An evil tree cannot produce good fruit.
Even the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord.
Finally, Owen rejects the Arminian claim that God sends the gospel because certain people are more worthy of it.
The gospel comes not because of human merit, virtue, or preparation.
Its distribution depends solely upon God's sovereign good pleasure.
When God encouraged Paul in Corinth by saying:
"I have much people in this city,"
those people were His because of divine election, not because they had already made themselves worthy.
Likewise Christ prayed:
"I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight."
The reason lies not in man.
It lies in God.
The gospel comes where God intends it to serve His purpose of saving His elect.
The controversy ultimately comes down to this question:
Who makes the difference between the believer and the unbeliever?
The Arminian answers:
Man makes himself differ.
The gospel answers:
God makes the difference.
The Arminian says faith originates from man's natural ability.
Scripture says faith is God's gift.
The Arminian says men prepare themselves for grace.
Scripture says all preparation is itself the work of grace.
The Arminian says worthy sinners receive the gospel.
Scripture says the gospel is sent according to God's sovereign good pleasure.
Therefore Owen concludes that salvation, from its first beginning to its final completion, must be attributed entirely to the grace of God and not to the power of fallen human will.