The Error of Synergism – Sinful Humans Cooperate With God’s Grace in Salvation—The Rejection of Errors, Third and Fourth Head of Doctrine, Canons of Dort (9)

Synod rejects the errors of those . . .

Who teach that grace and free choice are concurrent partial causes which cooperate to initiate conversion, and that grace does not precede—in the order of causality—the effective influence of the will; that is to say, that God does not effectively help man’s will to come to conversion before man’s will itself motivates and determines itself.

For the early church already condemned this doctrine long ago in the Pelagians, on the basis of the words of the apostle: “It does not depend on man’s willing or running but on God’s mercy” (Rom. 9:16); also: “Who makes you different from anyone else?” and “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7); likewise: “It is God who works in you to will and act according to his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).

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Although a bit more subtle, this error is similar to those addressed in articles 7-8 of the rejection of errors under the Fourth Head of Doctrine. The Arminians seemed willing to confess that sinners must cooperate with God’s grace for conversion to take place—conversion being the exercise of faith and repentance. But when pressed, they contend that human willingness to act is necessary and prior to obtaining that grace necessary for someone to come to faith in Jesus Christ and repent of their sins. Human freedom is therefore logically prior to grace, which is why the authors of the Canons associate this view with “Pelagianism.”

But regardless of the subtleties here, the Arminian view is that human freedom, not the grace of God, is key. So God’s grace remains merely a “partial” cause, not the sole cause of conversion. And this brings us to the critical issue in the Reformed-Arminian debate; who initiates salvation, God or humanity? The Arminian says fallen sinners must “co-operate” with the grace of God, which make human initiative the basis of salvation. In the Arminian scheme, a universal grace with only the potential to save is said to be prior to all human initiative. But since that grace actually saves no one until we act upon it, Arminians have painted themselves into a corner–no one can be saved until they exercise their wills so as to “appropriate” the grace of God. This is synergism at best (God and humans co-operating in salvation), and Pelgianism at its worst (God only reveals to us what we need to do to be converted), and both are in serious error.

So, while the Arminian can say, “yes” we are saved by grace, what they cannot confess is what is found in the verses to which the Canons make appeal: Romans 9:16; 1 Corinthians 4:7; Philippians 2:13, and a host of others which have been cited in the previous “rejections of errors.” To put it simply, the Bible is clear that God both initiates and takes those actions necessary for people who are dead in sin to be saved.