Some Christians have taught that God’s grace enables our ability to choose and yet have also implied that human beings have the power in themselves to desire moral goodness, although they don’t have the full power to put it into practice. The church father, Origin, and others held this view. Origin would argue that the apostle Paul’s statements in Romans 7 refer to human beings in their natural state: “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out” (Rom. 7:15, 18). Their interpretation turns Paul’s whole argument upside down. 

In Romans 7, Paul is speaking of the Christian’s struggle, where they experience the conflict between the flesh and the Holy Spirit. People do not naturally have to the Holy Spirit. They only receive the Spirit through being born again. Paul is speaking about the regenerated person because after he states that “nothing good dwells in me,” he immediately states that the “me” refers to “in my flesh” (Rom. 7:18). He also states that, “It is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me” (Rom. 7:17). 

What does Paul mean when he adds the explanation that his “me” refers to “in my flesh”? He must be referring to the believer. Only believers have the inclination toward good, and yet still struggle with sin. The reality that Paul is speaking about a believer is made clear in his conclusion: “I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members” (Rom. 7:22-23). Who has this struggle except those regenerated by the Spirit of God? 

Augustine used to believe that Romans 7 was speaking about unbelievers but afterward retracted his view. If people can desire good without God’s grace, how can we answer Paul who claims that we can’t even think a good thought (2 Cor. 3:5)? What answer could we give God who states that “the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21)? We don’t need to dwell on this issue much any more since it rests on an erroneous view of a single passage of Scripture. 

Instead, we should give full weight to Jesus’ words, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34). We are all sinners by nature. We are enslaved to sin, like an animal bound under a yoke. If all of human nature is dominated by sin, surely the will is too! In fact, since the human will is the center of making choices, it must be wrapped up in the tightest chains of sin. If we could make any good choices apart from God’s grace, then Paul could not have written that “it is God who works in us both to will and work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). 

Due to the all dominating power of sin over the will, we should not believe that there is some kind of “preparation” which frees the will to choose good. Believers sometimes ask God to train their hearts to obey Him. Even David longs for God to give him the ability to obey (Ps. 51:12). But notice that even the desire to obey comes from God. David cries out, “Create in me a clean heart.” God is the one doing the creating. Therefore, we should agree with Augustine’s teaching. He wrote, “God sometimes will prevent you from doing things. But you can also prevent God from discipling you. How? Confess that every good thing you have comes from God, and every evil thing comes only from yourself.” Shortly after that, he says that, “The only thing we have is our sin.”

“Blogging the Institutes” is my on-going attempt to paraphrase John Calvin’s work, the Institutes of the Christian Religion. You can find out more about the series in the Introduction. For all the posts in this series, check out the Master List.