Chapter 37. Because of Free Will, Men Are Not by Nature Good or Bad.
Chapter 37
1. That passage, How often would I have gathered your children and you would not, makes the ancient law of human freedom manifest, namely, that God made man free from the beginning, possessing his own power as also his own soul for the purpose of voluntarily following God’s teaching without being forced by him. For God does not force anyone; but good counsel is always at hand for him, and so he gives good counsel to all. He placed in man the power of choice, as also in the angels—for the angels are intellectual—in order that those who obey him would justly possess the good, which was given by God but preserved by them; those, however, who disobeyed will justly not possess the good and will receive a deserved punishment, since God in kindness bestowed a good on them, but they did not guard it with care or consider it precious, but despised his supereminent goodness. So, since they reject the good and, so to say, vomit it out, they all deservedly fall under God’s just judgment. Paul the Apostle testified to this in his Letter to the Romans. He wrote thus: Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not know that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. But, he says, glory and honor to everyone who does good.
So God gave the good, as also the Apostle testifies in the same letter, and those who do good receive glory and honor, for they did good when they had it in their power not to do so. Those, however, who do not do good will receive God’s just judgment, since they did not do good when they had it in their power to do so.
2. If some had by nature been made bad and others good, the latter would not be praiseworthy for being good, because they were made such. Neither would the former be blameworthy, because they, too, were made such. But since all are of the same nature, both having the power to retain and do the good, and both having the power to reject it and not do it, some are justly praised, even among men who are rightminded and how much more with God, and receive a worthy testimony for their choice of the good and perseverance. Others, however, are blamed and receive the deserved punishment for rejecting what is just and good.
For this reason the Prophets used to exhort men to observe righteousness and to do good, as we have shown by many passages. Since such [conduct] was in our power, and since we had fallen into forgetfulness because of great negligence and needed good advice, on that account the good God bestowed the good advice through the Prophets.
3. For this reason the Lord said, Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. And, Take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life. And, Let your loins be girded about and your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master’s return from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once, when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master on his return finds so doing. And again, But that servant who knew his master’s will, but did not act according to it shall receive a share beating. And, Why do you call me, “Lord, Lord,” and do not do what I tell you? And again, But if that servant says to himself, “My master is delayed in coming,” and begins to beat the menservants and to eat and drink, and get drunk, the master will come on a day when he does not expect, and will separate him and make him share the lot of the hypocrites. And all such passages show that man has free will and that God instructs him with advice, exhorting us to be submissive to him and deterring us from unbelief in him, but not forcing us by violence.
4. In fact, if anyone would refuse to follow the Gospel, he would be able to do so, but it would not be expedient. Certainly, disobedience to God and the rejection of good is in man’s power, but that brings on no small injury and harm. On that account Paul says, All things are lawful, but not all are helpful. By this he refers to man’s freedom, by which all things are possible, since God does not force him. But this “it is not helpful” shows that we should not misuse freedom as a cloak for evil; for that is not helpful. Again he says, Let everyone speak the truth with his neighbor. And, Let no evil talk come out of your mouth, whether filthiness or silly talk or levity, which are not fitting; but instead let there be thanksgiving. And, once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light becomingly, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified in the name of Our Lord.
If, therefore, we did not have the power to do or not to do these things, what reason would the Apostle have and, long before him, the Lord himself, to give counsel to do some of them but to abstain from others? Since, however, man is endowed with free will from the beginning, and since God has free will—to whose likeness man was made—he is always advised to hold fast the good, which is perfected by obedience toward God.
5. And not only in works but also in faith did the Lord safeguard man’s freedom and self-determining power, since he said, According to your faith be it done to you, showing that it is man’s faith because man has self-determining power. And again, All things are possible to one who believes, and, Go, be it done for you as you have believed. And all such passages show that man has self-determining power in regard to faith. For that reason, he who believes the Son has eternal life; he who does not believe him does not have eternal life, but the wrath of God rests upon him. With that in mind, the Lord manifested his own good [free will] and pointed out that man is free and self-determining, when he addressed Jerusalem, How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you would not. Behold your house is forsaken and desolate.
6. Those, however, who hold opinions contrary to these introduce the Lord as powerless, namely, as if he could not carry out what he wills, or again, as ignorant, inasmuch as [men] are by nature clayish, as they say, and as such cannot receive his imperishability. But, it is said, it was necessary that he should not have made angels such that they could transgress, or men such that they immediately were ungrateful to him, since they were made rational with the power of examining and judging, and not as irrational and animal beings, which can do nothing by their will but are drawn to good by necessity and force. In them there is one “mind” and one mode of action. They are inflexible and without power of judgment who can do nothing else than what they have been made.
In that case, neither would the good be a pleasure to them, nor would the communion with God be precious. Nor would the good be something greatly to be sought after, which would come to them without their own effort and care and striving, and would be implanted as spontaneous and effortless, with the result that their being good would be of no importance, because they would be such by nature rather than by volition, and their good would be spontaneous and not freely chosen. And so, they would not even understand that the good is beautiful, nor could they enjoy it, For what enjoyment of the good is there for those who are ignorant of it? And what glory is there for those who did not strive for the good? And what assurance is there for those who did not endure anything? And what crown is there for those who did not acquire it as winners in a contest?
7. With this in mind the Lord spoke of the kingdom of heaven as of the violent and those who do violence, he said, take it, that is, who are constantly vigilant take it by force and struggle. For this reason Paul too said to the Corinthians: Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath but we are imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air; but I pummel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. So, the good athlete [Paul] admonishes us in regard to the contest for imperishability, in order that we might receive the crown and might esteem the crown precious, namely, since it is won by us in a contest and is not spontaneously implanted in us. And the more precious it is, so much the more will we love it always. On the contrary, the things that come to us spontaneously are not loved in the same manner as those that are discovered by much effort.
Since, then, it was in our power to love God more, both the Lord taught us and the Apostle handed down to us to discover this for ourselves by effort. Otherwise, we should not appreciate our good if we did not strive for it. Likewise, the power of seeing would not be so desirable if we had not realized what a great evil it is not to see; the experience of being sick makes good health more appreciated; the comparison with darkness [makes] light [more appreciated], and comparison with death makes life [more appreciated]. So the heavenly kingdom is esteemed more by those who realize what the earthly kingdom is. And the more it is appreciated, the more we love it; and if we have loved it more, we will be more glorious in God’s presence.
The Lord, therefore, has permitted all these things for us, in order that we, having been instructed by all things, might preserve in all his love, having been intelligently taught to love God. God shows himself magnanimous to man in his rebellion, and through it man has been taught, as also the Prophet said, Your apostasy will reprove you, inasmuch as God determines all things beforehand for the perfection of man, and for the realization and revelation of [his] economies, in order that his goodness might be made manifest and his righteousness be accomplished, and the Church might be made after the pattern of the image of his Son, and that, finally, man might reach maturity, growing to maturity by so great (economies) in order to see and comprehend God.