The truth setting us free

[Ripheus27]

The autonomy of the will is the sole principle of all moral laws and of all duties which conform to them; on the other hand, heteronomy of the elective will not only cannot be the basis of any obligation, but is, on the contrary, opposed to the principle thereof and to the morality of the will.

In fact the sole principle of morality consists in the independence on all matter of the law (namely, a desired object), and in the determination of the elective will by the mere universal legislative form of which its maxim must be capable. Now this independence is freedom in the negative sense, and this self-legislation of the pure, and therefore practical, reason is freedom in the positive sense. Thus the moral law expresses nothing else than the autonomy of the pure practical reason; that is, freedom; and this is itself the formal condition of all maxims, and on this condition only can they agree with the supreme practical law. [Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, chapter 1, theorem IV]

God is good, the source of all good, the quintessence of virtue and grace. So if God is the source of free will, then when we freely will our salvation, it is God Who is so willing as well. That is, there is no real antinomy between the initiative we show in accepting our salvation and God's initiative in saving us; they are the same thing on a fundamental level. For sin enslaves us; so to make use of the free will that God graciously radiates into us in order to our freedom from sin is nothing else than for God to make use of our will, to be our will (in the act and decision of our salvation).

So monergism is right and wrong, as is synergism. Maybe.

EDIT: Was supposed to post this in "Soteriology," egads...

 

[sdowney717]

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,

4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,

5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Stick with what the word says about these things and you will be right with Him.


"just as He ( God ) chose us ( we who believe ) in Him ( Jesus ) before the foundation of the world"