Q. 49. Can anyone repent or believe without the help of the Holy Spirit?
In our fallen and corrupt condition, we cannot turn to God, or begin to have faith, by our own natural strength or works. Only by the grace of Christ, which goes before us by the Holy Spirit, are we able to exercise the faith necessary for salvation.
John 1:9; John 6:44; 12:32; Acts 5:31; 16:14; 18:27; Romans 8:7–8; 1 Corinthians 12:3; Ephesians 2:1, 8–9; Philippians 1:6; 2:13; Titus 2:11; James 1:17.
- AOR 10
- WCF 9.3
Corrupt condition … cannot turn. Because of original sin (Q. 12), no one can or will come to the Father or believe in Jesus Christ unless the grace of God goes before him: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). “Man, by his fall into a state of sin, has wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto” (WCF 9.3). “In his lapsed and sinful state, man is not capable, of and by himself, either to think, to will, or to do that which is really good. … Free will is unable to begin or to perfect any true or spiritual good” (Jacob Arminius, Declaration of Sentiments). “To love God! it is far above, out of our sight. We cannot, naturally, attain unto it” (Wesley, Sermon 44, “Original Sin”). Wesleyans and Calvinists are united “in ascribing all good to the free grace of God; in denying all natural free will, and all power, antecedent to grace; and, in excluding all merit from man, even for what he has or does by the grace of God” (1745 Methodist Conference at Bristol). This is commonly called the bondage of the will or total inability.
Begin to have faith. God, not man, initiates faith. Faith is the gift of God. “The Holy Spirit kindles in our hearts a true faith that embraces Jesus Christ, with all his merits, and makes him its own, and no longer looks for anything apart from him” (Belgic Confession 22).
Grace of Christ. It is not the grace of nature, which Adam lost by the fall, but the grace of Christ, provided by Christ’s atonement and applied by the Holy Spirit, which makes faith and salvation possible.
Goes before. The grace that “goes before” us is commonly called prevenient grace. “The grace of God … is the sole, efficient cause of all spiritual good in man: of the beginning, continuance, and consummation of religion in the human soul” (Pope, Compendium, 2:359).
Able to exercise. “Simply to will is of man; to will ill, of a corrupt nature; to will well, of grace” (Calvin, Institutes 2.3.5).
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