CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
Anyone who carefully considers what has been said will recognize clearly that when Holy Scripture says something in favor of grace, it is not flatly denying the role of free choice. And when Scripture says something in favor of free choice it does not exclude grace--as if grace alone or free choice alone were sufficient for man's salvation, as those who pose this question think. The divine words should be understood to mean that neither grace alone nor free choice alone can accomplish man's salvation (with the exception of what I said about the salvation of infants).
When the Lord says 'Without me you can do nothing' (John 15:5)^ He certainly is not saying 'Your free choice is of no avail to you' but only 'It is of no avail without my grace.' When we read, 'It is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God, who shows mercy' (Rom. 9:l6), Scripture is not denying that free choice does something useful in a man who wills or runs; it is rather signifying that the willing and the running are not to be attri buted to free choice but to grace. For 'It is not of him who wills nor of him who runs' should be understood as referring to the act of willing and act of running. The same sort of thing happens when someone gives a garment to a naked man to whom he owes nothing, but who is unable to obtain any clothing by himself. Even though the naked man has the power to use or not to use the garment he receives, nevertheless if he actually puts it on, then the fact that he is clothed should not be imputed to him but to the man who gave it to him.
Wherefore, we can say, 'The fact that he is clothed is not of him who is clothed, but of him who shows mercy, that is, of him who gives the garment.'
This could be said much more emphatically of the one who gave the garment if he had also given the ability to keep and to use it. This is the case with God.