“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Pelagius was a British born monk who had spent his entire life in austerity while developing an erroneous yet deeply attractive set of beliefs.

By the turn of the fifth century he was in Rome, in the company of a younger disciple called Coelestius, where the scheme that would become known as Pelagianism was fully developed.

This was a scheme which caused mayhem within the professing church and in truth it has never fully gone away.

Pelagius and Coelestius argued that Adam and Eve’s sin is not passed on to subsequent generations and that every child is born as innocent as our first parents were in Eden. On this account saving grace is unnecessary as man can earn merit with God through good works.

Pelagius was deeply perturbed by the moral decline of Christianity, particularly in Rome, where he witnessed much corruption. Therefore his system challenged the prevailing tide of worldliness as it called the Church back to holiness.

Pelagius’ system was wholly attractive because it denied the guilt of Adam’s sin and the moral depravity of human nature. He devised a way by which man could redeem himself by his own natural goodness.

His scheme was more humanistic than religious. It appealed to the pride of man. This is the mother of all errors and an abject denial of a biblical understanding of man, of Christ and the gospel.

Wherever works are elevated at the expense of grace, Pelagius is still being advocated. In many Protestant, Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches today, his teaching survives in a semi-Pelagian form. Faith plus works, or faith plus the Church, is still the order of the day.

Pelagius would discover a powerful opponent, however, in Augustine of Hippo. For ten years before the controversy erupted Augustine had been developing a view of man and the gospel that majored in grace alone.

The Church has ever since remained indebted to the clarity and biblical faithfulness of Augustine’s defence of grace.

“Not the labours of my hands
Can fulfil Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow, 
All for sin could not atone,
Thou must save and Thou alone.”
Augustus Toplady