Sanctification: Is it Monergistic or Synergistic?

Apologetic_Warrior · Sep 8, 2018

Hazelelponi said:
I think this is a lot of words that aren't in the Bible and this is making it very difficult for me to understand what you all are talking about.

I will keep this as a marker and try to figure this all out and see if I can't add to the conversation later..

"Monergism (Greek mono meaning "one" and erg meaning "work") is a term for the belief that the Holy Spirit is the only agent who effects regeneration of Christians. This view, held by Reformed and Calvinistic groups, sees salvation as the work of God alone, from first to last. He has chosen in eternity past whom He will save out of lost humanity (often referred to as the elect), and in His timing He will bring the elect to faith through the work of the Spirit for the sake of the Son, and save them forever to the praise of His glorious grace (Romans 8:29f). This is opposed to the synergistic view as held by Arminianism and its theological predecessor Semi-Pelagianism where salvation is seen as a cooperative effort between God and man.

Quoting John Hendryx, "Monergism simply means that it is God who gives ears to hear and eyes to see. It is God alone who gives illumination and understanding of His word that we might believe; It is God who raises us from the dead, who circumcises the heart; unplugs our ears; It is God alone who can give us a new sense that we may, at last, have the moral capacity to behold His beauty and unsurpassed excellency." - A Simple Explanation of Monergism

Synergism, in general, may be defined as two or more agents working together to produce a result not obtainable by any of the agents independently. The word synergy or synergism comes from two Greek words, erg meaning to work and synmeaning together, hence synergism is a "working together."

Hazelelponi · Sep 9, 2018

Apologetic_Warrior said:
Thank you for the response, I respect your view, though I find issue. I will try to explain. For reference, usually the term "monergism" is used as a theological term to make a distinction between monergism and synergism in the doctrine of regeneration or the new birth to mean "the work of God alone". While synergism is used to mean "the work of God and man" where there is a cooperation between the will of man and the will of God. For every instance where the born again believer in Christ falls into temptation and sins...disobeys God, it is a work of their will, they are responsible, and it seems self-evident that we often fall short of the glory of God, as believers fighting the good fight from day to day. Now this is not to say that God cannot monergistically bring us back to sanctification (preservance), He does, He grants us repentance, but our failings are our own, and not God's, though He allows for them, He also allows the freedom to obey and disobey in sanctification, the progressive process where we grow and become more Christ-like. Because God allows this freedom in sanctification, I generally think of it as synergistic.

Thank you for that helpful explanation of the meaning of these words.. it was a help and better than what I had readily found.

I'm more inclined in this instance to side with TD in this concerning our sanctification. While we can obey and disobey during sanctification; sanctification itself is us learning to rest in God.

It's a learning process which I'm sure gets easier (I'm a bit bull headed.. lol) with use, but whenever we use our own power for anything God asks of us or desires us to do, we fail in the task.

In a sense it does seem synergistic as we have to learn the resting part and to stop trying under our own power (which wow is harder sometimes than it sounds! Hahaha) but I'm not sure, given your definition, that our end of learning to let God do the work necessarily removes the fact that all of this is God in the end.

It really at one point just seems semantics.. God does all the work, God gives us the desire, we just have to learn how to let our will be in lockstep with God's (which admittedly is foreign when anyone is newly saved) and learn how to give over our power to God.

Since we do those last two things as a result of the Holy Spirit, I'm not exactly sure we can call it anything but monergistic..

However, I'm not sure how we would explain that to someone who is not saved, but then, I'm not sure we have to either. I do think use of these terms might be somehow misleading in the end as there is a balance.

Apologetic_Warrior · Sep 9, 2018

Hazelelponi said:
Thank you for that helpful explanation of the meaning of these words.. it was a help and better than what I had readily found.

I'm more inclined in this instance to side with TD in this concerning our sanctification. While we can obey and disobey during sanctification; sanctification itself is us learning to rest in God.

It's a learning process which I'm sure gets easier (I'm a bit bull headed.. lol) with use, but whenever we use our own power for anything God asks of us or desires us to do, we fail in the task.

In a sense it does seem synergistic as we have to learn the resting part and to stop trying under our own power (which wow is harder sometimes than it sounds! Hahaha) but I'm not sure, given your definition, that our end of learning to let God do the work necessarily removes the fact that all of this is God in the end.

It really at one point just seems semantics.. God does all the work, God gives us the desire, we just have to learn how to let our will be in lockstep with God's (which admittedly is foreign when anyone is newly saved) and learn how to give over our power to God.

Since we do those last two things as a result of the Holy Spirit, I'm not exactly sure we can call it anything but monergistic..

However, I'm not sure how we would explain that to someone who is not saved, but then, I'm not sure we have to either. I do think use of these terms might be somehow misleading in the end as there is a balance.

Maybe ya'll are right and I am wrong, perhaps in efforts to find a balance I slipped. The more I think about it, the more mysterious sanctification seem to be, the more I realize the weakness and failures of the human will, even when made alive in Christ, set free from the bondage of sin. Sorry for the challenges, and thanks for helping in setting me straight. Sometimes difficult to not get caught up in the semantics, God alone gets all the glory in salvation.

Hazelelponi · Sep 9, 2018

Apologetic_Warrior said:
Maybe ya'll are right and I am wrong, perhaps in efforts to find a balance I slipped. The more I think about it, the more mysterious sanctification seem to be, the more I realize the weakness and failures of the human will, even when made alive in Christ, set free from the bondage of sin. Sorry for the challenges, and thanks for helping in setting me straight. Sometimes difficult to not get caught up in the semantics, God alone gets all the glory in salvation.

Sometimes I think it's difficult to explain except in terms of "I did" even when we did it through resting in God's ability to get it done for us.

It's easier to say "I did" because in the end that is all anyone, even most so-called Christians , will ever understand.

It seems or can seem synergistic in so many ways that sometimes we have to remind ourselves it was never us.. in short, we have to humbly admit that it is still God working in us even after we learn to rest in Him more hence, things begin to seem easier.

Some people are better than others at always remembering, or always knowing the best way to say things. I do believe that God reminds us from time to time, especially when we forget, that it's not us and never was.

To God be the Glory.

You know, God rewards us for our part, but it's to us to always give that honor and glory right back to Him.

Here is a beautiful picture of that in Revelation 4:10-11

Apologetic_Warrior · Sep 9, 2018

Knee V said:
Christ Himself is our salvation, so any understanding of salvation and the Gospel starts with the knowledge of who Christ is (which is why the church fought so hard against all the various christological heresies; it wasn't because they wanted to make sure everyone had various facts correct, but because the person of Christ is the essence of the Gospel and the Christian faith).

Christ is the perfect union of God and man - the two natures joined together in one Person, such that there is no separation, with neither nature adding to nor subtracting from the other, nor otherwise changing the other in any way. As such, every action of Christ is simultaneously a human action and a Divine action. But it is not such that every action is half human and half divine. Rather, it is His humanity acting in its fullness simultanously with His Divinity acting in its fullness.

What our salvation is is Who Christ is, and Who Christ is is what our salvation is. As such, it is impossible for anything aspect of our salvation to be zero-sum; as if the percentage that I perform is added to the percentage that God performs, the sum of which is 100%. In that (eroneous) line of thinking, one might be forced to conclude that since God has to be 100%, man must be 0%. But that is not Who Christ is, and that is not what salvation is.

St Paul summarizes the reality of this issue perfectly when He says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling [100% man], for it is God who works in you both to will and to do His good pleasure [100% God]."

There is no zero sum. Our salvation is simultaneously 100% the work of God and 100% the work of man. Neither adds to nor subtracts from nor otherwise changes the other.

Since what we say about Christ is what we say about salvation, it is also true that what we say about salvation is what we say about Christ. If we proclaim a salvation which is 100% God and 0% man, we therefore also proclaim a Christ who is 100% man and 0% God. For this reason Monergism is a Christological heresy and is antithetical to a knowledge of Christ and of the Gospel. Monergism destroys the Incarnation and presents us with a false Christ, just like the other various christological heresies. It is the mirror image of the heresy of Monophysitism.

Thank you for this, and my simple thought is, our salvation is in Christ, and he alone is 100% God and 100% man. Solo Christo is in effect application of monergism to all of salvation.

Jonaitis · Apr 6, 2019

Apologetic_Warrior said:
As a Calvinst, yes a Calvinist, my answer to the question is sanctification can be either or, that is both, but not at the same time.

In short summary this is how I view salvation in terms of monergism and synergism:

Regeneration: monergistic
Faith and Repentance: either or (initially, I propose faith is a monergistic result of regeneration)
Sanctification: either or
Glorification: monergistic

There are other aspects we could go into, but this is meant as a conversation starter, without the walls of reading.

I am convinced that sanctification is as monergistic as regeneration.

Obedience is the outcome of sanctification, not the other way around. I act and do what God requires, because I am gradually becoming more holy, and this is the work of God's Spirit in me. Trees naturally bear fruit, so the righteous person "naturally" produces good works, and this is a process that doesn't perfect overnight. Whatever I become, and what I do, is not just grace present with me, but the actual activity of grace in me efficaciously. This does not remove our responsibility any more than regeneration removes our responsibility to repent and believe the gospel.

thecolorsblend · Apr 6, 2019

sdowney717 said:
We may try to sanctify our hearts, but our results are only temporary and not very effectual.
God though, sanctifies us wholly and completely.
Just looking at scripture for the NKJV in the entire NT, the word 'sanctify' it is more of Him sanctifying us than the other way around. Sanctify to me means to make something holy.

The one 1 Peter 3:15, is our sanctifying God in our hearts, not us sanctifying us.

John 17:17
Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
John 17:19
And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Ephesians 5:26
that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
1 Thessalonians 5:23
[ Blessing and Admonition ] Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Hebrews 13:12
Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
1 Peter 3:15
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;

Looks like a rather cooperative process.

Apologetic_Warrior · Apr 6, 2019

Jonaitis said:
I am convinced that sanctification is as monergistic as regeneration.

Obedience is the outcome of sanctification, not the other way around. I act and do what God requires, because I am gradually becoming more holy, and this is the work of God's Spirit in me. Trees naturally bear fruit, so the righteous person "naturally" produces good works, and this is a process that doesn't perfect overnight. Whatever I become, and what I do, is not just grace present with me, but the actual activity of grace in me efficaciously. This does not remove our responsibility any more than regeneration removes our responsibility to repent and believe the gospel.

I am totally open to correction on this point. I think my understanding of sanctification becomes blurred out of my own personal imperfections, failures, faults, shortcomings, and sins. In the past I think I have thought of sanctification as it relates to monergism and synergism in terms of either and both, basically as God wills according to His purposes. This is definitely an area where my understanding falls short.

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