Article  X

OF FREE‑WILL^[1]

The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself; by his own natural strength and good works, to faith, and calling upon God: Wherefore we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will.

It would take a substantial volume to give an account of the opinion and arguments which have appeared on the question raised in this Article.  What happens when a man passes from his ‘fallen’ state into that of salvation?  Is the change due entirely to the operation of divine grace or can man find his way to salvation by himself?  Or again, is it brought about by God and man working together?  The position adopted in our Article is,  as usual, a moderate one, and is in line with the great theological tradition which begins with St. Paul.  It asserts that in his lapsed condition man is unable to ‘turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works, to faith and calling upon God.’  The good will essential for performing ‘works pleasant and acceptable to God’ comes by His prevenient grace, and this aid must remain with us as cooperative or concurrent grace for the continued exercise of the good will.  Grace may be defined briefly as ‘the power of God that worketh in us’,^[2] or the ‘unearned favour’ of God.  The Article, in common with the Prayer Book, acknowledges that we need God’s help and power to enable us to do His will:  ‘we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves’;^[3] ‘because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without Thee’.^[4]  God is the source of all goodness, ‘from Whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed’.^[5]  Man needs God’s grace, not merely because of ‘the fall of Adam’, but because his whole life – moral and spiritual as well as physical – is entirely sustained by God, ‘in Whom we live and move and have our being’.^[6]