Understanding and a Good Will Are Gifts of God

Further, the blessed David asks the Lord that he may gain that very understanding by which he can recognize God’s commands, which, he well knew, were written in the book of the law. He says: “I am your servant; give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments.” He certainly had understanding, which had been granted him by nature, and he also had at his fingertips a knowledge of God’s commands, which were preserved in writing in the law. Still he prayed the Lord that he might learn this more thoroughly, since he knew that what came to him by nature would never be enough for him unless his understanding was enlightened by the Lord with a daily illumination from him, to understand the law spiritually and to recognize his commands more clearly. [a]

The “chosen vessel” also declares very plainly this very thing we are insisting on: “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do, according to his good will.” What could be clearer than this statement that both our good will and the completion of our work are fully worked in us by the Lord? And again: “For it is granted to you for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him.” Here too he declares that the beginning of our conversion and faith, and the endurance of suffering, are a gift to us from the Lord. And David too, since he knows this, likewise prays that the same may be granted him by God’s mercy: “Strengthen, O God, what you have worked in us.” He shows that it is not enough for the beginning of our salvation to be granted by the gift and grace of God, unless it has been continued and completed by the same compassion and continual help from him.

For not free will but the Lord “frees those who are bound.” No strength of ours, but the Lord “raises those who have fallen.” No diligence in reading, but “the Lord enlightens the blind”—where the Greek has “the Lord makes the blind wise.” No care on our part, but “the Lord cares for the stranger.” No courage of ours, but “the Lord assists”—or supports—“all those who are down.” But we say this not to belittle our zeal and efforts and diligence, as if they were spent needlessly and foolishly, but so that we may know that we cannot strive without the help of God, and that our efforts can be of no use in securing the great reward of purity unless it has been granted to us by the help and mercy of the Lord. For “a horse is prepared for the day of battle, but help comes from the Lord,” “for no man will prevail by strength.” So we ought always to sing with the blessed David: “My strength and my praise is”—not my free will, but—“the Lord, and he has become my salvation.”

And the teacher of the Gentiles was not unaware of this when he declared that he was made capable of the ministry of the new covenant not by his own merits or efforts but by the mercy of God. “Not,” he says, “that we are capable of thinking anything of ourselves, as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God”—which can be put in less good Latin but more forcefully, “our capability is from God”—and then follows: “who also made us capable ministers of the new covenant.”