Is Sanctification Monergistic or Synergistic? A Reformed Survey – Kevin DeYoung

. . . that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height-- 19  to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19 NKJ)

This is a hot issue with those who follow the Scripturalism of Gordon H. Clark. Although Clark did say that sanctification is synergistic in a lecture at the Trinity Foundation, it is most certain that he did not mean it in the same way that Arminians mean it. For one thing synergism by Arminian definition means "libertarian free will." For that reason I think it is a mistake to use the term if you are a Calvinist. The Reformed understanding of sanctification is that we do cooperate with the grace of God. As Clark said, sanctification is not like election or regeneration, since both precede any willful choices we make toward the Christian life. Both of those are monergistic. My own view is that sanctification is monergistic with the result that we cooperate with God's grace. In that sense, God causes us to to be willing to cooperate. That's why I deny that sanctification is a result of libertarian free will. See Philippians 2:12-13.

I highly recommend the following article, although I would tend to say that sanctification is monergistic with the qualification that God works both monergistically and through secondary causes to bring about the choices He has already foreordained:  Is Sanctification Monergistic or Synergistic? A Reformed Survey – Kevin DeYoung

Whatsoever comes to pass was and is foreordained by God through His decrees made before the foundation of the world:

Question 12

What are the decrees of God?

God’ s decrees are the wise, free, and holy acts of the counsel of his will, (Eph. 1:11, Rom. 11:33, Rom. 9:14–15,18) whereby, from all eternity, he hath, for his own glory, unchangeably foreordained whatsoever comes to pass in time, (Eph. 1:4,11, Rom. 9:22–23, Ps. 33:11) especially concerning angels and men.


Question 13

What hath God especially decreed concerning angels and men?
God, by an eternal and immutable decree, out of his mere love, for the praise of his glorious grace, to be manifested in due time, hath elected some angels to glory; (1 Tim. 5:21) and in Christ hath chosen some men to eternal life, and the means thereof: (Eph. 1:4–6, 2 Thess. 2:13–14) and also, according to his sovereign power, and the unsearchable counsel of his own will, (whereby he extendeth or withholdeth favor as he pleaseth,) hath passed by and foreordained the rest to dishonor and wrath, to be for their sin inflicted, to the praise of the glory of his justice. (Rom. 9:17–18,21–22, Matt. 11:25–26, 2 Tim. 2:20, Jude 4, 1 Pet. 2:8)


Question 14

How doth God execute his decrees?
God executeth his decrees in the works of creation and providence, according to his infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of his own will. (Eph. 1:11)

The Westminster Larger Catechism: With Scripture Proofs. (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996).

. . . and they more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces, (Col. 1:11, Eph. 3:16–19) to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. (2 Cor. 7:1, Heb. 12:14)  Westminster Confession:  Chapter XIII, Of Sanctification.  Paragraph 1.

The Westminster Confession of Faith (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996).