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What does Scripture say about grace and free will (synergy)?

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The Orthodox Church teaches synergy: salvation is entirely God's gift, yet God does not save us without our free cooperation. Grace always comes first, calls, enables and sustains, and the human person, made free in God's image, is invited to respond. Western traditions shaped by St Augustine, and especially Calvinist churches, read some of these passages as teaching that grace works irresistibly in the elect; those passages are included and read fairly.

Fellow workers with God

Paul calls the apostles God's synergoi, "labourers together with God", the root of the word synergy. Paul laboured more than all, "yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me".

9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s farming, God’s building.
1 Corinthians 3:9 (WEB)
1 Working together, we entreat also that you do not receive the grace of God in vain.
2 Corinthians 6:1 (WEB)
12 So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Philippians 2:12–13 (WEB)
10 But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.
1 Corinthians 15:10 (WEB)

Choose life

God sets life and death before His people and calls them to choose. Sirach, in the Orthodox Old Testament, says God made man from the beginning and "left him in the hand of his counsel".

15 Behold, I have set before thee this day life and death, good and evil. 16 If thou wilt hearken to the commands of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to love the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his ordinances, and his judgments; then ye shall live, and shall be many in number, and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all the land into which thou goest to inherit it. 17 But if thy heart change, and thou wilt not hearken, and thou shalt go astray and worship other gods, and serve them, 18 I declare to you this day, that ye shall utterly perish, and ye shall by no means live long upon the land, into which ye go over Jordan to inherit it. 19 I call both heaven and earth to witness this day against you, I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse: choose thou life, that thou and thy seed may live; 20 to love the Lord thy God, to hearken to his voice, and cleave to him; for this [is] thy life, and the length of thy days, that thou shouldest dwell upon the land, which the Lord sware to thy fathers, Abraam, and Isaac, and Jacob, to give to them.
Deuteronomy 30:15–20 (Brenton)
15 But if it seem not good to you to serve the Lord, choose to yourselves this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods of your fathers that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, among whom ye dwell upon their land: but I and my house will serve the Lord, for he is holy.
Joshua 24:15 (Brenton)
14 He himself made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of his counsel; 15 if thou wilt, to keep the commandments, and to perform acceptable faithfulness. 16 He hath set fire and water before thee: stretch forth thy hand unto whether thou wilt. 17 Before man is life and death; and whether he liketh shall be given him.
Sirach 15:14–17 (Brenton)
30 I will judge you, O house of Israel, saith the Lord, each one according to his way: be converted, and turn from all your ungodliness, and it shall not become to you the punishment of iniquity. 31 Cast away from yourselves all your ungodliness wherein ye have sinned against me; and make to yourselves a new heart and a new spirit: for why should ye die, O house of Israel? 32 For I desire not the death of him that dies, saith the Lord.
Ezekiel 18:30–32 (Brenton)

God desires all to be saved

God wills all men to be saved, and Christ laments over Jerusalem: "how often would I have gathered thy children ... and ye would not!" Grace knocks; it does not force the door.

3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:3–4 (WEB)
9 The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but he is patient with us, not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 (WEB)
11 Say to them, Thus saith the Lord; [As] I live, I desire not the death of the ungodly, as that the ungodly should turn from his way and live: turn ye heartily from your way; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Ezekiel 33:11 (Brenton)
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!
Matthew 23:37 (WEB)
20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me.
Revelation 3:20 (WEB)

Grace goes first

No one comes to Christ unless the Father draws him, and without Christ we can do nothing; the Lord opened Lydia's heart. Orthodoxy affirms all of this: our freedom is not a rival to grace but is healed and moved by it.

44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up in the last day.
John 6:44 (WEB)
5 I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
John 15:5 (WEB)
16 You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
John 15:16 (WEB)
1 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. 3 We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
Ephesians 2:1–5 (WEB)
14 A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one who worshiped God, heard us. The Lord opened her heart to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul.
Acts 16:14 (WEB)

Election and Romans 9

Calvinist readers see here an unconditional election of individuals. The Orthodox reading, common among the Greek Fathers (St John Chrysostom, for example), takes Romans 9 as about God's freedom in His saving plan for Jews and Gentiles, and holds that God's foreknowledge never cancels human freedom.

28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.
Romans 8:28–30 (WEB)
10 Not only so, but Rebekah also conceived by one, by our father Isaac. 11 For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls, 12 it was said to her, “The elder will serve the younger.” 13 Even as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! 15 For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires. 19 You will say then to me, “Why does he still find fault? For who withstands his will?” 20 But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed ask him who formed it, “Why did you make me like this?” 21 Or hasn’t the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel for honor, and another for dishonor? 22 What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory— 24 us, whom he also called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles?
Romans 9:10–24 (WEB)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love, 5 having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, 6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved. 7 In him we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 8 which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him 10 to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him. 11 We were also assigned an inheritance in him, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will,
Ephesians 1:3–11 (WEB)
48 As the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of God. As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
Acts 13:48 (WEB)

The Fathers

Related articles

Sources

  1. The Orthodox Faith, Vol. I: Man (Orthodox Church in America) — Orthodox teaching on the human person as free, made in God's image, called to become by grace what God is by nature.
  2. Westminster Confession of Faith (Orthodox Presbyterian Church edition) — Reformed Protestant statements cited for fairness: 1.6 and 1.9 (Scripture), 11.2 (faith the alone instrument of justification, yet never alone), 21.7 (the Lord's day as the Christian Sabbath).

Updated 2026-10-18