Even if it is by His grace that He allows us to choose Him, we are still able to choose or reject Him. this should not be viewed as attributing God-like power or authority to man since he chooses at his own peril if he chooses to reject God. I see time and again the fleshing out of this belief in the writings of Thomas Merton: seek your self, but know that your true self is in God therefore seeking God and seeking the true self are twin pursuits. This is not a seeking of self for the purposes of vanity or greed or lust, but to co-operate fully with God’s will and thereby find true joy and fulfillment – even if the road ends at pain and martyrdom.
And if we can choose God once, is that enough to perfect us? Or does it but put us on the road to perfection? Must we not choose Him again and again wherever and whenever a choice presents itself? Will two people saved by grace through faith [alone] enter heaven (let’s put aside purgatory for now) and taste of the same reward if one has chosen God many times and the other but once?
If they will then you must fundamentally claim that you are responsible for your sins but not your good works. You must say “When I sin, its my fault but when I do good it had nothing to do with me – it was but Christ through me.” But if you have no power to resist this irresistible Grace, then why would He not choose good for you each hour of the day?
If Christ always offers what is good to you (and I believe that He does) and yet sometimes you sin, you must be able to resist His goodness therefore you must be able to give assent to it at other times therefore co-operation with His grace has grand implications pertaining to salvation.
“It is true that God is the One Who produces in our hearts both our good desires and their effect, “for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish, according to Hid good will” (Phil 2:13). Nevertheless, if we do not ourselves freely desire and manfully carry out out His will, His grace will be without effect: since the effect of grace is to make us freely do His will.”
Thomas Merton, P136 “No Man is an Island”
