Created Not Grace
Augustine often said grace is the ability we have from God that brings us back to our natural creation righteousness. When arguing against Pelagius he used our natural senses and abilities as grace. This isn't really the way Jesus or the Apostles used grace. Jesus and the Apostles never spoke of grace and natural ability in the same sentence, not that I have found.
Thus, Augustine's view was completely his own, and not from Christ.
Chapter 12 [XI.]— In Our Discussions About Grace, We Do Not Speak of that Which Relates to the Constitution of Our Nature, But to Its Restoration
Grace, in Augustine's view was the restoration of a fallen nature. Through grace man could keep God's law as he was created to do. This assumes God made man with the view he would keep God's law. The opposite is actually true, God made man knowing he would need Christ, created with a nature that would sin.
Augustine's theory began with a false assumption, that man was created in a perfect state and not sinful. In my view, Adam was sinless when created, only because he hadn't sinned yet. He had every inclination of sinfulness we do , however.
Mankind was made to need God's grace.
Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath mad
We were not created in sanctified perfection, but created to be adopted in Christ. Thus, God knew man would sin the day he was made. We were not originally made perfect, but our sins that would be many were not yet accounted to man. God waited till the first sin to account mankind sinful.
The early Catholics refused to admit God would make sinners, then the heathen could blame God for sin, so the idea God made man good but his nature fell with the first sin was adopted. Catholics refused to admit God would make a sinful creature. Paul addressed the concept in Romans.
Rom 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Gnostics could not admit God could make something of a sinful nature, and all sin came from some other source. Augustine shared this view saying Adam was the author of all sin in the world. God made him perfect but through sin he lost his perfect nature.
"But they say: He is not condemned; because the statement that all sinned in Adam, was not made because of the sin which is derived from one's birth, but because of imitation of him. If, therefore, Adam is said to be the author of all the sins which followed his own, because he was the first sinner of the human race, ."
The scriptures never say Adam is the Author of all sin, this is simply interjection by Augustine. His writings are full of such theological interjections.
Paul acknowledged God made man with the sinful nature and never taught a fallen nature, we have a created nature.. It was only compassion that separated the saved and lost by nation. All men were created for sin, but some received mercy. Mercy was given through forgiveness, not through a grace perfected nature.
Rom 9:15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
One proof against Augustine is Christ himself. Augustine saw man as sinful and needing grace to reach God's moral requirements, but Augustine saw Jesus born without original sin by a sinless mother, but Christ needed grace to fulfill his mission.
Luk 2:40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
Thus, grace was not to restore a fallen man in Christ, but grace helped him who was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. Jesus wasn't Adam's nature pre-fall, but was Adam's nature in its fullness, yet without sin.
Augustine could not balance two points.
1. Man was sold under sin, and under the law of sin, he would sin his whole life, even with grace.
2. God would not allow man to be tempted beyond what man is able.
Man's sin was always his choice, because God created a perfect balance where temptation never wholly overpowered man's ability. The temptations of the flesh only exherted a strong influence, but not control. It is through influence that sin is brought forth. Desires draw us away from spiritual choices. Adam was created with his own desires as all men are. Desires can be good and can be bad. Desire is a necessary part of living.
Through desire we wish people well, and with desire we can wish people harm. It is through desire we are enticed.
(We do not start out enslaved to temptation, but through enticement and desire we become enslaved or captured. Non-spiritual desires capture our attention and desire leads to captivity.
The greek word for conceived in James 1:14 is actually capture. Lust captures our mind. We can't break from it easily. The problem with Augustine is he saw this slavery as constant, but man has intermittent breaks of doing spiritual things that are holy, with the unholy that captures the mind and enslaves us for a while. With wisdom we keep our focus, but this is very difficult without knowledge, strong faith, and wisdom.
Paul still saw himself as a sinner even with sanctification. We do not know what level of morality God requires in salvation, so Augustine's idea we can rise to the level of a perfect man as a test of salvation is false. Yet, God can require sincerity and serious effort. I believe God judges man on his own ability, and all are different. Some get more talents than others.
The idea grace makes you moral enough is false, the blood of Jesus makes us moral enough.
To Pelagius, man had the theoretical ability to adhere to God's law from childhood, because God created him to have the ability to do right. Man is raised in a family and has an innate ability to love. Man is taught right and wrong from birth. Pelagius saw the laws as doable, though man never does it in all respects. Children were not accountable until an age of reason and knowledge. As they grew man was faced with the choice (free-will) to actually do all God said.
There was not a single law of God that was completely beyond man's ability. Collectively the laws of God were beyond man's heart and focus. So, man eventually sinned in some way, but it wasn't because any individual statute was beyond man's ability.
Deu 30:11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off. JPS Bible
There was not a single command in the law that was beyond understanding or beyond man's ability. Man had the natural ability to hear, understand, and do what he was told. Man simply at various times chose not to obey. Man was drawn away from the spiritual side of life through carnal desires. When properly focused the commandments were within man's ability.
Thus Pelagius argued sin was an act of free-will, an open rebellion to God. Augustine denied free-will and said God made man a fallen depraved creature.
Pelagius was right that God will not allow temptation beyond our ability, but Pelagius was incorrect that mankind is always free. It isn't so, desire does periodically capture us. On the other hand Augustine failed to see that we could also do good.
Man did not become a fallen nature, he simply flows in and out of captivity.
Man is indeed sold under sin. This never implied we were totally depraved.
Man was not wholly depraved as men like Augustine imagined. Pelagius was correct that man could keep each individual law in theory. There was no law too hard or beyond man's ability. This is evidenced by the fact not all men are murderers, or adulterers, or sorcerers, or drunkards; man is not so depraved that each man must dis-obey every law. Each man has his own sins that may plague him, but each man has not fallen to all. There are some commands we keep for life. If totally depraved we would fall to all.
Since man has power to avoid some sins God made it a requirement to live in righteousness. Habitual sinners, the dog that constantly returns to the vomit will be lost. His desire is to sin and God does not force him to stop.
Gal 5:18 But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Gal 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Gal 5:20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Gal 5:21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
God does require a sincere effort against carnal sins. We have power, whether of our own wisdom or of God;s grace, to overcome such sins; we do not have to be captured.
Satan told Eve she would be as the God's to know right and wrong. Satan wasn't wholly lying. Augustine portrayed this leading to pride in man, which many do become arrogant, but it portrayed man coming to know God's law. Man is brought up with an innate conscience of right and wrong, which is later formed in society. Man grows to have a conscience, and then more knowledge molds the conscience.
Augustine argued our ability to do right is only through the grace of restoration of the inner man, for after the sin of Adam we became a fallen creature. We are wholly incapable of good without restoration. Quite the opposite was true, we could always do good when not periodically captured by our lusts.
The rich young ruler said he had kept all the commands Jesus described, but did have sins. He had power over some sins. Paul said he had kept the law blameless, so Paul had power over some sins.. The rich young ruler didn't seem to covet others wealth, but coveted his own over the souls of lost men. Peter and others had left all by choice, but this man refused.
Since some could leave all such as the Apostles, it wasn't too hard for man in general, it was a matter of choice.
Job 22:3 Is it any advantage to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? Or is it gain to Him, that thou makest thy ways blameless?
Making our way blameless is an act of man, it is done with God's help and guidance, but man has a part. This was Augustines point, man needed grace to achieve righteousness, but he failed to admit man could be righteous to a point on his own works. Of course, self-righteousness can't remove the sins we have.A degree of righteousness isn't sufficient to overcome sin, we must have Christ's righteousness.
Grace in knowing right and wrong is used of something post-creation. In Noah's day the entire world had natural abilities passed thru procreation. Those abilities aren't what God means by grace. Grace helps man above his natural abilities.
Gen 6:7 And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
Gen 6:8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
Grace was something the common man did not receive. The common man chose not to repent and therefore no grace was received.
Grace was different than all of the natural gifts God had given mankind. Grace allowed Noah to see the world from God's point of view.
Pelagius actually dominated the debate with Augustine, if you see grace as something outside of the realm of natural abilities. We may use natural abilities with grace, but grace is help beyond our human abilities. Augustine saw grace as restoring our natural ability to be righteous. Pelagius saw grace as extending beyond our created ability.
To Pelagius our nature did not fall when Adam sinned, it was created in a state of free will, where good and evil were possible in man. This did not change after the sin. There were some changes such as a knowledge of good and evil with a guilty conscience. Man was remoed from the garden with consequences. The nature of man is never said to change.
So, what arguments did Augustine make that caused his demise?
Augustine argued that a wounded soul equated with sin in the flesh, but Jesus said the soul and body were not the same thing.
"Fear not him who can kill the body but cannot kill the soul"
Thus the wounding of the soul through sin did not imply original sin or a fallen flesh.
Chapter 22 [XX.]— How Our Nature Could Be Vitiated by Sin, Even Though It Be Not a Substance
Now, do you not perceive the tendency and direction of this controversy? Even to render of none effect the Scripture where it is said You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.Matthew 1:21 For how is He to save where there is no malady? For the sins, from which this gospel says Christ's people have to be saved, are not substances, and according to this writer are incapable of corrupting. O brother, how good a thing it is to remember that you are a Christian! To believe, might perhaps be enough; but still, since you persist in discussion, there is no harm, nay there is even benefit, if a firm faith precede it; let us not suppose, then, that human nature cannot be corrupted by sin, but rather, believing, from the inspired Scriptures, that it is corrupted by sin, let our inquiry be how this could possibly have come about. Since, then, we have already learned that sin is not a substance, do we not consider, not to mention any other example, that not to eat is also not a substance? Because such abstinence is withdrawal from a substance, inasmuch as food is a substance. To abstain, then, from food is not a substance; and yet the substance of our body, if it does altogether abstain from food, so languishes, is so impaired by broken health, is so exhausted of strength, so weakened and broken with very weariness, that even if it be in any way able to continue alive, it is hardly capable of being restored to the use of that food, by abstaining from which it became so corrupted and injured. In the same way sin is not a substance; but God is a substance, yea the height of substance and only true sustenance of the reasonable creature. The consequence of departing from Him by disobedience, and of inability, through infirmity, to receive what one ought really to rejoice in, you hear from the Psalmist, when he says: My heart is smitten and withered like grass, since I have forgotten to eat my bread.
Augustine's argument that a wounded soul proved a fallen nature is false. Man became a living soul even though the body was formed of the dust. That which is wounded in sin is the soul, there is nothing that says the body has fallen in nature.
Augustine who taught God was a substance and the height of substance, had never even seen God in form. He presumptuously taught what he couldn't know.