According to some Protestants, the receiver of God’s initial, justifying grace is passive in doing so. For instance, in the Joint Declaration on Justification , it is said that: > According to Lutheran teaching, human beings are incapable of cooperating in their salvation, because as sinners they actively oppose God and his saving action. (Section 4, Paragraph 20) However, according to some of these same Protestants, man is capable of rejecting God’s grace, contra the teaching of irresistible grace. As a friend of mine has said, man is active in his damnation and passive in his salvation. Or, as the Joint Declaration puts it: > Lutherans do not deny that a person can reject the working of grace. When they emphasize that a person can only receive (mere passive) justification, they mean thereby to exclude any possibility of contributing to one's own justification… (Section 4, Paragraph 20) However, this seems to pose a dilemma that leads these kinds of Protestants to either need to accept irresistible grace, or accept synergism. The dilemma is this: Does man choose passivity? Because it seems that if the Protestant say man does choose passivity, they either contradict the very meaning of being a passive recipient of God’s grace, or they must be a synergist (read: in agreement with the Council of Trent), because man is choosing God’s grace. If they say that man does not choose passivity, then they must believe in irresistible grace, because man’s passivity is the result of God’s choice. Man is incapable of rejecting God’s grace because passivity is not something he chooses. How could a Protestant who accepts monergism but rejects irresistible grace escape this dilemma?

Genesis 32:27-28 >**27** So He said to him, “What is your name?” He said, “Jacob.” **28** And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Romans 9:20 >But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? God gives Jacob a new name, Israel. Israel becomes not just the name of the patriarch but of the nation of God's chosen people. The meaning of the name Israel can be translated as struggles with God. The “struggles with God” meaning of Israel can be contrasted with the meaning of Islam, “submission to the will of God.” A general question – **what is the significance of the name Israel? Does God allow us to struggle or merely submit?** More specifically, **how is God's encounter with Jacob in Genesis 32 addressed within the framework of monergism vs. synergism?** Even more specifically, **how do Genesis 32:28 and Romans 9:20 square with each other?** Is Paul's question only rhetorical, who are you to question God? Is not the answer within the name of Israel itself? God chose this people knowing full well they are stiff-necked. To present a crude analogy-- are we God's children or God's pets? For children, part of earning responsibility is the sum of our choices. Even with a dog, it might be docile or spirited. God appears to appreciate believers with a bit of spirit. Maybe it is by wrestling with God that our ultimate love, fear, and worship of God are most sincere.

- Did the Early Church (ante-Nicene period) believe in libertarian free will? - Did the Early Church (ante-Nicene period) believe in determinism? - Did the Early Church (ante-Nicene period) believe that salvation requires a synergistic cooperation between a free human being and God's grace, and that a person can freely choose to resist God's grace and lose their salvation? ____ Related: - https://christianity.stackexchange.com/q/65806/50422 - https://christianity.stackexchange.com/q/80167/50422

From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synergism) : > In Christian theology, **synergism is the position of those who hold that salvation involves some form of cooperation between divine grace and human freedom**. Synergism is upheld by the Roman Catholic Church, Orthodox Churches, and Methodist Churches. It is an integral part of Arminian theology. > > Synergism stands opposed to monergism (which rejects the idea that humans have free choice), a doctrine most commonly associated with the Reformed Protestant as well as Lutheran traditions, whose soteriologies have been strongly influenced by the North African bishop and Latin Church Father Augustine of Hippo (354–430). Lutheranism, however, confesses a monergist salvation but synergist damnation (see § Lutheran and Calvinist views). What is the biblical basis for synergism? _____ Counterpart question: https://christianity.stackexchange.com/q/89021/50422