Does Grace Come Before Our Good Will, or After?

So these things are somehow mixed together and run into one another without distinction, and among many people there is great questioning over which of them depends on the other. Does God have compassion on us because we have shown the beginning of a good will? Or does the beginning of a good will follow because God has had compassion on us? For many people believe one or the other of these, assert it more broadly than is right, and so become entangled in all kinds of opposite errors. For if we say that the beginning of free will is in our own power, what about Paul the persecutor, and what about Matthew the tax collector? The one was drawn to salvation while he was eager for bloodshed and the punishment of the innocent, the other while he was eager for violence and plunder. But if we say that the beginning of our free will is always due to the inspiration of the grace of God, what about the faith of Zacchaeus? Or what are we to say of the goodness of the thief on the cross? By their own desires they brought force to bear on the kingdom of heaven, and so went ahead of the special leading of their call. And if we attribute the doing of virtuous acts and the carrying out of God’s commands to our own will, how is it that we pray, “Strengthen, O God, what you have worked in us,” and, “Establish the work of our hands upon us”? [a]

We know that Balaam was brought to curse Israel, yet we see that when he wanted to curse, he was not allowed to. Abimelech is kept from touching Rebekah, and so from sinning against God. Joseph is sold through the envy of his brothers. This was to bring about the going down of the children of Israel into Egypt, so that while they were plotting their brother’s death, provision might be made for them against the famine to come. Joseph shows this when he makes himself known to his brothers and says, “Do not be afraid, and do not let it grieve you that you sold me into these parts, for God sent me ahead of you for your salvation.” And a little further on: “For God sent me ahead so that you might be preserved on the earth and have food to live on. It was not by your plan that I was sent, but by the will of God, who has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.” And when his brothers were alarmed after their father’s death, he removed their suspicion and fear by saying, “Do not be afraid. Can you resist the will of God? You planned evil against me, but God turned it to good, so that he might raise me up, as you see at this present time, and might save many people.” Blessed David likewise declared that this was brought about by providence, saying in the hundred and fourth Psalm, “And he called for a famine on the land, and broke every staff of bread. He sent a man before them: Joseph was sold as a slave.”

These two, then, namely the grace of God and free will, seem opposed to each other, but in fact they are in harmony. We gather from the whole order of goodness that we must hold both alike, so that we do not seem to break the rule of the church’s faith by taking either one of them away from man. For when God sees us inclined to will what is good, he meets us, guides us and strengthens us. “At the voice of your cry, as soon as he hears, he will answer you”; and, “Call on me,” he says, “in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you will glorify me.” And again, if he finds that we are unwilling or have grown cold, he stirs our hearts with exhortations that lead to salvation, and by them a good will is either renewed or formed in us.