Pelagius was a 4th century British Monk. His thinking developed as a reaction against the immorality he saw in Rome – the center of Christendom. He believed the root of the immorality he saw was due to an overemphasis on human helplessness and divine grace. Like Pelagius, Charles Finney (2nd Great Awakening) would say things like justification by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness is absurd and works to undermine all motivation for personal holiness. In other words, Pelagius mistakenly rejected the doctrines of grace because he felt they removed any motivation for people to act righteously. Pelagius denied original sin, and therefore, sin nature. Instead he believed that we are guilty only of sins we choose to commit, therefore, we contain the power to choose not to sin and remain guiltless. You see how this is nothing more than a salvation by our own works! He would, no doubt, give full blessing to the idea of an age of accountability for children and agree that people are born either neutral or good. What Pelagius did in this shift of theology was create a reemphasis on the most natural religion in the world – a religion where people are a gospel for themselves! If we think rightly, do rightly, and try to follow Jesus’ example, then we are saved and God owes us a good life. This fed the evangelism of Finney and many of his kind in the early days of America right up to Osteen in the modern day…Pelagial-self-help. It can also be very subtle. If in evangelical pulits and Bible studies, we give off the idea that we can do it…help ourselves…counseling “three ways to a better life” or “5 things you can do to be a better _____” then we have soft-sold our hearers on semi-Pelagianism. But as GK Chesterton would say, “Original sin is the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved.” Original sin can only be remedied by divine righteousness imputed…and this can come only by faith and union with Jesus Christ…and given as a gift not of yourselves so that no one can boast. Salvation is of the Lord through and through. We cannot change ourselves. We can manage our behavior so long as we have strengh to keep it up. But we cannot change our idols, our loves, or our gut impulses. We can only mask them and fake them to appear “good” in public. Only Jesus can change our constitution! As Paul said, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come.”

grace and peace
Andy