The Necessity and Nature of Divine Teaching

At a glance

Relevant Scripture

“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

Philippians 2:12–13 KJV

UECF.NET summary

Finney opens by pressing a diagnosis rather than an exhortation: a mind that has committed its will to self-gratification cannot, by its own resources, work its way back to holiness. This is not because holiness is impossibly difficult in the abstract, but because of how choice itself functions — once the will fixes on an end, it governs the attention, and the attention in turn governs which motives ever reach the mind with force. A selfish choice therefore naturally, though not absolutely, screens out the very considerations that would unsettle it, so that a person can hear sound preaching for years and remain untouched, not from lack of information but from a will already occupied elsewhere. Finney presses the point that even genuine believers are not exempt from this dynamic, since the senses constantly press competing, worldly claims on the attention; ongoing holiness therefore requires an ongoing outside influence to keep the mind fixed on the truths that sustain it, not a single decisive experience that settles the matter for good.

Given this diagnosis, Finney asks what kind of influence could actually reach such a mind, and concludes it must be spiritual rather than material, and moral rather than physical — the will is not a spring to be bent by force but a faculty that can only be moved by motives it perceives, so any effective influence must first gain and hold its attention. He finds this influence supplied by the Holy Spirit, who works chiefly through the truth of the cross rather than the terrors of the law, since a display of holy love disarms a selfish heart in a way threats only harden into fiercer resistance. Crucially, Finney insists this influence never bypasses or replaces the believer's own agency; the Spirit works savingly by directing the will, not by suspending it, so that every holy choice remains genuinely the believer's own even as it is genuinely the Spirit's gift. He therefore warns against a popular but, in his view, superstitious picture of conversion and sanctification as a sudden, passive jolt received while the soul does nothing, and instead calls believers to the wide-awake, cooperative posture of Philippians 2:12–13 — working out what God is, at the same time, working in.

Main theological themes

• Selfishness is not mere weakness but a chosen orientation of the will strong enough to blind itself against its own correction.
• Divine influence, to succeed, must be moral rather than coercive — it persuades a free will through truth and love, never overrides it.
• Grace does not substitute for human agency but directs and sustains it; sanctification is always something a person does, never something merely done to them.

Key ideas

• Choice governs attention: once the will is set on self-gratification, it naturally screens out the very truths that could unsettle it, making outside intervention necessary rather than optional.
• The needed influence is spiritual, moral, enlightening, and infinitely patient — power alone (a 'physical' jolt) could never move a will, since a will is only ever moved by perceived motives.
• The cross, not the threats of the law, is the motive most suited to break down hostility, because love disarms in a way terror only hardens.
• Because sanctification is inherently an act of will, it can never be received passively; the Spirit's work and the believer's active cooperation are two descriptions of a single event, not two competing causes.

Important concepts

• Moral influence (vs. physical influence) — Finney's distinction between an influence that persuades the will through perceived truth and motive, and one that would try to bend it by sheer force — a will, unlike a spring, can only be moved by what it perceives, never coerced.
• Passive sanctification (the error refuted) — The mistaken picture of grace as a sudden, involuntary jolt received while the soul does nothing — Finney insists holiness is always a right exercise of the will and so can never be produced in someone who remains inactive.
• Cooperating agency — The pattern in which the Spirit's work and the believer's own choosing are not rivals but two sides of one event: God supplies the light and motive that make holy choice possible, and the choosing itself remains genuinely the believer's own.

Related Bible references

• John 16:13
• Ezekiel 36:26–27
• Romans 8:14
• Titus 3:5
• 2 Corinthians 3:18

Practical Christian application

• Notice the small ways you already resist the Spirit's promptings this week — a turned-off attention, a skipped conviction — and choose to stay in the truth rather than move on quickly.
• Instead of waiting for a dramatic emotional 'jolt' to change a habit, actively bring your attention back to a specific gospel truth (e.g., the cross) each time the temptation recurs.
• Set aside a few unhurried minutes daily to let a single verse 'come home,' rather than reading Scripture quickly and moving on — ask the Spirit to make it personally clear.

Questions for study