• θεὸς — SBLGNT
• θεὸς — Westcott-Hort, Tregelles, Reader's GNT (NA27)
• ὁ θεὸς — Robinson-Pierpont

§308The truth that God is at work in all the actions of his creatures is inseparable from faith in God the Creator. God is the first cause who operates in and through secondary causes: "For God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure."171 Far from diminishing the creature's dignity, this truth enhances it. Drawn from nothingness by God's power, wisdom and …

§1949Called to beatitude but wounded by sin, man stands in need of salvation from God. Divine help comes to him in Christ through the law that guides him and the grace that sustains him: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.1

Chapter 2.—Of the Eternal and Unchangeable Will of God. It is true that wicked men do many things contrary to God’s will; but so great is His wisdom and power, that all things which seem adverse to His purpose do still tend towards those just and good ends and issues which He Himself has foreknown. And consequently, when God is said to change His will, as when, e.g., He becomes…

It is taught among us that man possesses some measure of freedom of the will which enables him to live an outwardly honorable life and to make choices among the things that reason comprehends. But without the grace, help, and activity of the Holy Spirit man is not capable of making himself acceptable to God, of fearing God and believing in God with his whole heart, or of expell…

You alone, in contrast with all others, have attacked the real thing, that is, the essential issue. You have not worried me with those extraneous issues about the Papacy, purgatory, indulgences and such like — trifles, rather than issues — in which almost all to date have sought my blood. You, and you alone, have seen the hinge on which all turns, and aimed for the vital spot.

Does man have free-will? What is free-willa power, an act, or a habit? If it is a power, is it appetitive or cognitive? If it is appetitive, is it the same power as the will, or distinct? Article 1. Whether man has free-will? Objection 1. It would seem that man has not free-will. For whoever has free-will does what he wills. But man does not what he wills; for it is written (Ro…

Is the will moved by the intellect? Is it moved by the sensitive appetite? Does the will move itself? Is it moved by an extrinsic principle? Is it moved by a heavenly body? Is the will moved by God alone as by an extrinsic principle? Article 1. Whether the will is moved by the intellect? Objection 1. It would seem that the will is not moved by the intellect. For Augustine says …

The Will is that by which the mind chooses anything. The faculty of the Will is that power or principle of mind by which it is capable of choosing: an act of the Will is the same as an act of choosing or choice. Whatever names we call the act of the Will by — choosing, refusing, approving, disapproving, liking, disliking, embracing, rejecting, determining, directing — it is all…

God's preservation of the saints in grace is consistent with their freedom, for God works in them both to will and to do of His good pleasure. The certainty of the saints' perseverance does not diminish but establishes the importance of the means of grace, for God has appointed these means as the channels through which His preserving grace flows.

Moreover, when God carries out this good pleasure in the elect and works true conversion in them, God not only has the gospel outwardly preached to them and enlightens their minds powerfully by the Holy Spirit so that they may rightly understand and discern the things of the Spirit of God, but by the effective operation of the same regenerating Spirit, God also penetrates into …

In this way, therefore, faith is a gift of God, not in the sense that it is offered by God for human beings to choose, but that it is in actual fact bestowed on them, breathed and infused into them. Not in the sense that God bestows only the potential to believe but then awaits assent — the act of believing — from humanity's choice; rather, in the sense that God who works both …

However, just as by the fall human beings did not cease to be human, endowed with intellect and will, and just as sin, which has spread through the whole human race, did not abolish the nature of the human race but distorted and spiritually killed it, so also this divine grace of regeneration does not act in people as if they were blocks and stones; nor does it abolish the will…

We believe that God created human beings from the dust of the earth and made and formed them in his image and likeness—good, just, and holy; able by their will to conform in all things to the will of God. But when they were in honor they did not understand it and did not recognize their excellence. But they subjected themselves willingly to sin and consequently to death and the…

We believe that this true faith, produced in us by the hearing of God's Word and by the work of the Holy Spirit, regenerates us and makes us new creatures, causing us to live a new life and freeing us from the slavery of sin. Therefore, far from making people cold toward living in a pious and holy way, this justifying faith, quite to the contrary, so works within them that apar…

In this matter we teach that there is a threefold condition or state of man. Man in his first estate before the fall was endowed with free will, so that he could either remain in goodness or decline to evil. However, he declined to evil, and has involved himself and the entire human race in sin, as has been said already. Man in his second estate, after the fall, is not deprived…

We believe man in falling by the [Original] transgression to have become comparable and like unto the beasts, that is, to have been utterly undone, and to have fallen from his perfection and impassibility, yet not to have lost the nature and power which he had received from the supremely good God. For otherwise he would not be rational, and consequently not man; but to have the…

The Formula affirms that in spiritual matters — conversion and saving faith — the unregenerate human will has no power to cooperate with or prepare itself for grace. The Holy Spirit alone works faith through the Word. It denies both the Pelagian and semi-Pelagian positions that the natural will can initiate or assist in conversion. After regeneration, the renewed will cooperate…