Our Good Will and the Grace of God

So human reason cannot easily decide how it is that the Lord gives to those who ask, is found by those who seek, and opens to those who knock; and yet, on the other hand, is found by those who did not seek him, shows himself openly among those who did not ask for him, and all day long stretches out his hands to an unbelieving and contrary people. He calls those who resist and stand far off. He draws people to salvation against their will. He takes from those who want to sin the power to carry out their desire, and in his goodness he stands in the way of those who are rushing into wickedness. And who can easily see how the completion of our salvation is assigned to our own will, of which it is said, “If you are willing and listen to me, you will eat the good things of the land,” and how it is also “not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy”? What is this, too: that God “will repay each person according to his works,” and that “it is God who works in you both to will and to do, of his good pleasure,” and “this is not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God; not of works, so that no one may boast”? [a]

What is this that is said, “Draw near to the Lord, and he will draw near to you,” and what he says elsewhere, “No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him”? What is it that we find, “Make straight paths for your feet, and direct your ways,” and what is it that we say in our prayers, “Direct my way in your sight,” and “Establish my steps in your paths, so that my footsteps are not moved”? What is it that we are urged to do, “Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit,” and what is it that is promised to us, “I will give them one heart and will put a new spirit within them,” and “I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh, so that they may walk in my statutes and keep my judgments”? What is it that the Lord commands when he says, “Wash your heart of wickedness, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved,” and what is it that the prophet asks of the Lord when he says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God,” and again, “You will wash me, and I will be whiter than snow”? What is it that is said to us, “Enlighten yourselves with the light of knowledge,” and this that is said of God, “He who teaches man knowledge,” and “The Lord gives light to the blind”? Or at any rate this, which we say in our prayers with the prophet: “Give light to my eyes, so that I do not sleep in death”? In all these, what else is declared but the grace of God and the freedom of our will together? For a man can be led even by his own impulse to seek virtue, but he always needs the help of the Lord.

For no one enjoys good health whenever he wants, nor is he set free from disease and sickness at his own will and pleasure. But what good is it to have desired the blessing of health, unless God, who grants us the enjoyment of life itself, also grants strong and sound health? But to make it still clearer: through the excellence of nature, which the goodness of the Creator has granted, the first beginnings of a good will sometimes arise; yet they cannot reach the full doing of what is good unless the Lord guides them. The apostle bears witness to this when he says, “For to will is present with me, but to do what is good I do not find.”