Adapted from the Greek of Andreas Theodorou, Απαντήσεις σε ερωτήματα συμβολικά (Answers to Questions in Comparative Theology), published by Apostoliki Diakonia of the Church of Greece. This English presentation has been edited for parish reading.
Grace, Human Freedom, and Salvation
What Is Divine Grace?
Divine grace is the power that comes from God through which the sinful human person is able to make the saving work of Christ his own and attain salvation.
We must be careful, however, about what we mean when we speak of divine grace.
By divine grace we do not mean some vague and undefined power that does not belong to the being of God, but is created by God in order to help the human person attain salvation.
Such an understanding is not correct.
What is created cannot effectively save the human person. Salvation requires what is uncreated—the uncreated God Himself.
Divine grace belongs essentially to the nature of God.
It is identified with the divine energy, about which we spoke previously.
It is God Himself as He expresses Himself through His divine energies outside Himself (ad extra), revealing Himself to the world and saving the human person from sin.
What Does the Roman Church Believe About Grace?
The Greek source contrasts Orthodox teaching on uncreated grace with scholastic accounts of created grace in the Latin West. This is a historical theological comparison; Catholic writers use several senses of the word grace, so a brief account should not imply that they deny God’s own presence and action.
Orthodox teaching affirms that the grace which unites us to God is uncreated. God truly gives Himself to us through His energies, while His essence remains beyond our participation and comprehension. The distinction does not divide God or make Him a compound being.
The fourteenth-century debates associated with Saint Gregory Palamas clarified this teaching for the Orthodox Church. The point for Christian life is that salvation is communion with the living God, not merely a created assistance external to Him.
Can the Human Person Save Himself?
No.
In antiquity, however, the monk Pelagius answered this question affirmatively.
According to his teaching, the fall of humanity into sin left human nature untouched and did not destroy or seriously wound it.
Therefore, since the human person continued to possess his rational and moral powers, he could freely turn toward what is good, practice virtue, and attain salvation without needing the grace of God.
These teachings of Pelagius are incorrect.
Because of the damage suffered by the spiritual nature of the human person—the damage to the divine image in him—not only is he unable by himself to raise himself again to the level of the spiritual life, but even after he has been raised up, he remains absolutely dependent upon the grace of God in order to advance in goodness and attain salvation.
Holy Scripture speaks clearly about this:
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.”¹⁵⁷
“Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”¹⁵⁸
And:
“It is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”¹⁵⁹
Moreover, the grace of God is necessary in order for the curse of ancestral sin to be removed from the human person.
If the presence of divine grace were not absolutely necessary for human salvation, but only relatively necessary—in the sense that grace merely strengthens our natural powers—then the saving work of Christ itself would become something merely relative and would lose its absolutely supernatural character.
The Church condemned the heretical teachings of Pelagius at the Council of Carthage.
Can the Natural Human Person Make Himself Deserving of Divine Grace?
No.
The opposite view weakens the supernatural character of redemption by reducing salvation to the level of natural goods corresponding to human nature.
No matter how good and virtuous a human being may be, he cannot demand salvation from God as something he deserves.
Salvation is a gift, a free gift of the love of God.
It is not a wage paid in return for human worthiness.
Naturally, a person who practices moral goodness through those rational and spiritual powers that remain within fallen human nature can prepare himself to receive salvation more readily than another person who lives immersed in sin and the passions.
It is in this sense that we should understand the passage from Acts:
“In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him.”
The pagan Cornelius did not receive salvation as a reward for his virtue and good conduct.
He was simply prepared through his good will and manner of life.
The providence of God did not overlook this, just as it does not overlook any person of good will, whom God will call to salvation at the proper time.
Can the Natural Human Person Begin His Salvation by Himself?
No.
Only divine grace can initiate the salvation of the human person.
This grace is called preliminary or prevenient grace.
The teaching that the human person can first begin the work of his salvation and that the grace of God then comes afterward to complete the process already begun is Semi-Pelagianism, and it is an erroneous teaching that must be rejected.
Certainly, as we saw in the previous question, after the Fall certain rational and moral powers remained within the human person.
Through these powers he can perform what may be called moral good and thus be more readily disposed toward the saving grace of God than someone who lives in the paralysis of sin.
This is illustrated by the example of Cornelius.
These examples, however, do not mean that the natural powers of the human person form a bridge by which he can cross by himself into the realm of grace and overcome the gulf separating fallen nature from God.
Semi-Pelagian teachings distort the relationship between God and humanity.
God ceases to appear as the Physician who heals the wounded and half-dead human person¹⁶⁰ and instead becomes a debtor who is obliged to reward human virtue.
At the same time, salvation is reduced to the level of natural goods that human beings can attain through their own powers.
Can the Human Person Reject the Grace of God?
Certainly.
He can reject it because he is a free and self-determining being.
Adam himself did this in Paradise.
Although his nature was good and free from the seed of sin, nevertheless, because as the image of God he possessed freedom and self-determination, he turned away from God and violated God’s goodness and His will.
The same is true of someone who has been regenerated by the grace of God in Baptism.
Although the body of sin within him has been destroyed, because he still retains his freedom he can turn away from the divine blessing and fall again under the dominion of the curse and death.
God created the human person in such a way that he might freely and consciously desire the good, move freely within it, say yes or no to God’s holy will, choose between life and death, and participate freely in determining the course and destiny of his own life.
The grace of God is a universal gift.
It is offered to all human beings without exception for the purpose of their salvation.
It is not sent selectively only to a small number of people whom God has predetermined to save.
God:
“desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
And yet, not everyone is saved.
For salvation to take place, the human person must also desire it, freely act, and contribute to his salvation.
Otherwise the call of grace remains without effect.
Only where there is free consent can grace save the sinful human person.
The original text here quotes the Confession of Dositheus:
“We understand the exercise of free will in this way: divine and illuminating grace, which we call prevenient grace, is given by the divine goodness to all, like light to those who are in darkness. To those who are willing to submit to it—for it benefits not those who are unwilling, but those who are willing—and who consent to those things which it commands as most necessary for salvation, there is then given special grace.”¹⁶¹
What Do Protestants Believe About the Operation of Grace?
The source discusses Reformation debates about the relationship between grace and human freedom. Protestant accounts differ, so the positions described here should not be taken as a single teaching shared by all Protestant Christians.
The Orthodox emphasis is that salvation begins with God’s grace and is impossible without it. Our response is real, but it is not an independent achievement or a claim upon God. Grace calls, strengthens, and heals the person, who is invited to respond freely in faith and repentance.
Divine Grace and Predestination
What Is Absolute Predestination?
The source discusses this teaching in connection with debates about the Fall, divine sovereignty, and human freedom. Christian traditions differ in how they interpret these questions.
This doctrine is not accepted by all Protestant theologians.
It was taught specifically by Calvin and his followers.
On the basis of passages of Scripture such as Romans 9 and Acts 13:48,¹⁶³ they taught that according to His eternal counsel, before all ages, God determined that some people, out of His mercy, would inherit eternal life.
For this reason, the grace given to these people cannot fail or abandon them.
It is irresistible and cannot be lost—irresistibilis and inamissibilis.
Others, to whom this grace is not offered, were destined for eternal condemnation.
According to this view, such condemnation is not unjust because the natural human person can expect nothing from God other than eternal punishment.
The argument given is that just as oxen and dogs cannot accuse God because He made them animals rather than human beings, neither can sinners accuse Him because He does not receive them into His divine Kingdom.
According to this teaching, even the fall of Adam was eternally ordained by God for the good of the elect, who inherit eternal life.
This decree is said to magnify the greatness of God, who receives some into His Kingdom and rejects others, with no one having the right to oppose His eternal will.
Why Did Calvin Formulate This Teaching?
The reasons that led Calvin to formulate these teachings were, on the one hand, the desire to safeguard the absolute character of God’s actions, so that God’s work would not be made dependent upon human factors.
On the other hand, it was intended to provide the souls of the elect with an assured certainty of salvation.
Those who possess within their souls the testimony of the Holy Spirit that they are God’s elect can therefore be certain of their salvation.
This certainty gives them inward joy and peace and fills their hearts with gratitude and humility, as they recognize that God has chosen them from among the multitude of other human beings.
Why Does the Orthodox Teaching Reject Absolute Predestination?
According to the text, these views of Calvin are not correct.
It is indeed true that:
“It is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”
—Philippians 2:13
But this in no way excludes the human factor from the work of salvation.
This is what may be called relative predestination rather than absolute predestination.
It is certain that God desires the salvation of all human beings.
But for this to happen, human beings themselves must also freely desire it.
We cannot understand exactly how the divine will touches the human will, nor how the human will can render God’s saving call ineffective—since not everyone is saved.¹⁶⁴
Nevertheless, the reality of human cooperation in the work of salvation is something that practically satisfies the religious consciousness of the human person.
If everything depended upon the absolute decree of God, and if the human person possessed absolute certainty concerning his salvation, Scripture would not exhort believers to:
“work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
Nor would Saint Paul warn against an unconditional certainty of salvation when he says:
“Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”
Absolute predestination also leads, according to the author, to other serious and unacceptable conclusions.
If human salvation and condemnation are simply the result of God’s eternal decree, and if humanity’s fall into sin itself was predetermined by God, then within this system God appears as the source of evil.
He is transformed into a blind and arbitrary ruler, while evil itself becomes an element serving the good within God’s eternal decree.
The human person, meanwhile, loses any real moral and spiritual independence and becomes essentially irresponsible for his actions.
But if that is so, how can God judge him for his moral actions?
And how can God be called good and just if He blindly and arbitrarily condemns the greater part of humanity to eternal punishment?
Source: Andreas Theodorou, Απαντήσεις σε ερωτήματα συμβολικά, Basic Dogmatic Teaching, vol. 5, 2nd edition (Athens: Apostoliki Diakonia, 2006), chapter IX, “Divine Grace,” questions 114–121, pp. 163–174. Reference numbers below follow the Greek source; Scripture-reference errors have been corrected. Comparative passages are presented as historical theological discussion, not as a description of every contemporary Christian community.
References in the Original Text
157. John 6:44.
158. John 3:5.
159. Philippians 2:13.
160. Luke 10:30, referring to the wounded man in the parable of the Good Samaritan.
161. Confession of Dositheus, Definition III.
162. 2 Corinthians 6:1.
163. Acts 13:48: “And as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.”
164. Matthew 22:14: “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
