Monergism | Bible Study Notes

Expanded explanation

Monergism is intended to protect the truth that salvation is God's work from beginning to end. That concern is right. Human beings do not atone for sin, create grace, regenerate their own hearts, or make themselves righteous before God. Salvation rests entirely on what God has done through Christ.

Decalvinised can affirm this sense of monergism. God provides 100 percent of the saving work, while people provide faith in the sense that they exercise the response God requires. Faith is not a work and does not add to Christ's finished work. A person who receives a gift has not earned it or shared credit for producing it.

The disagreement with Calvinist monergism begins when God's glory is said to require him to determine every human response. God can receive all glory for salvation while still holding people responsible to believe, repent, or remain in their lost condition. The response does not become saving work simply because it is necessary for receiving the gift.

Therefore, Decalvinised rejects monergism when it means that God alone determines who will believe and who will reject him. It affirms monergism when it means that God alone provides and accomplishes salvation.

Context

Monergism and synergism are often presented as exact opposites, but they can address different questions. Monergism can ask who accomplishes the saving work, while synergism can ask whether a human response is necessary to receive that work. Decalvinised rejects synergism as shared saving merit while affirming that faith is a necessary response.

The statement that God does 100 percent of the saving work does not require the conclusion that God must also determine 100 percent of every human response. That conclusion treats faith as though it were part of the saving work rather than the way a person receives God's gift. The biblical question is whether faith is a work that earns salvation or a response God has made people responsible to give.

Calvinist Usage

Calvinist monergism emphasizes that salvation is entirely God's work. God chooses whom to save, regenerates the elect, grants faith, and brings them to salvation through effectual grace. Human beings do believe willingly, but their faith is the result of God's prior work rather than a response that could make the difference between salvation and condemnation.

Calvinists reject synergism because they believe any decisive human role in receiving salvation would make salvation partly dependent on the human will and would diminish God's glory. The argument is that God must do 100 percent of everything related to salvation, including producing the act of faith, for salvation to remain entirely by grace.

Decalvinised Position

Decalvinised affirms a qualified form of monergism. Salvation is entirely the work of God. Christ alone provides the atonement, God alone provides grace, the gospel, reconciliation, and new life, and regeneration of the heart is entirely God's work. People do not contribute merit, power, or a portion of the saving work.

Decalvinised rejects the Calvinist definition when monergism is extended to mean that God must determine the human response or that people have no meaningful responsibility to receive the gospel. Faith is not a work. God gives the Christian faith as a gift through the gospel, while each person is responsible to exercise faith in Christ or remain in a lost condition.

Receiving God's gift by faith does not make a person a co-savior or take glory away from God. The response is not a contribution to the atonement, a payment for grace, or an improvement to Christ's work. It is the non-meritorious reception of what God alone has provided.