The Ergonomics of Salvation: Is It a One-Person Job?
Last Sunday, as we were working our way through Isaiah 64, we had a little interruption just as we were getting to a crucial point. For those of you who were there, you’ll remember we were about to dive into the “how” of salvation. So, for this week’s newsletter, I wanted to take the time to flesh out those thoughts for you. (I’ve checked in with Cara and she’s doing well, and I’ve encouraged her to keep coming back to worship with us!)
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When you look at the mechanics of a difficult task, there’s a whole field of study dedicated to doing it right: ergonomics. It’s the study of work (ergon in Greek). It teaches you how to lift heavy objects without throwing out your back, how to set up your desk to avoid injury, and why standing on a rubber mat is better than concrete. The goal is to make the work safe and effective.
So, what are the ergonomics of salvation? How does that work? Who does the heavy lifting? Is it a partnership, or does one person do all the work?
This question brings us to two big ideas in Christian theology: Monergism and Synergism.
Mono = One
Syn = With
Ergon = Work
The question is, does God save us unilaterally (Monergism), or do we partner with God in our salvation (Synergism)?
Monergism: The Divine Initiative
Monergism is the view that salvation is the work of God alone, not a collaborative effort. From beginning to end, He is the one who initiates and accomplishes it.
The Bible teaches that before we can choose God, we are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1). We have hearts of stone, deaf ears, and blind eyes to the things of God. A dead person can’t make themselves alive. They are entirely dependent on an outside power to rescue them.
This is why monergism teaches that God must act first. He is the one who gives new life to our dead hearts, giving us ears to hear and eyes to see so that we can then freely respond to His love in the Gospel.
Yes, we absolutely must respond. We must believe. But that response of faith is the result of God’s life-giving work in us, not the cause of it.
We see a perfect picture of this in the book of Acts with a businesswoman named Lydia:
One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. —Acts 16:14
Notice the order. God acted first. He sovereignly “opened her heart.” This is the work of the Holy Spirit, the new birth that turns a heart of stone into a heart of flesh. That’s something Lydia could never do on her own. And what was the result? Now, with a new heart and new life, Lydia freely responded to Paul’s message about Jesus. Her faith was the natural fruit of God’s saving work in her.
My old seminary professor and radio host, Steve Brown put it this way: "You take the first step, God will take the second step, and by the time you get to the third step, you will know that it was God who took the first step."
Synergism: A Two-Person Lift?
Synergism, on the other hand, is the idea that salvation is a cooperative effort. In this view, the human will and the divine Spirit work together. Jesus’s death on the cross made it possible for people to have faith, but it doesn’t secure anyone’s salvation until they contribute their part.
Imagine a very heavy box arrives at my door. On the side is a bright orange sticker that says, “Two-Person Lift Required.” The problem is, it’s just me and my three-year-old at home. I can lift 99.9% of that box on my own, but the rules are the rules. If my toddler doesn’t come over and strain with all her might to lift her 0.1%, we can’t get it into the house.
If we finally manage to get it inside, she could rightly say, “I helped!” And if she helped, even that tiny little bit, it sounds a lot like she worked for it, doesn’t it? And she could boast in the part she played. Remember, “… it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” - Ephesians 2:8-9
This is the central problem with synergism. If the one thing that separates a saved person from an unsaved person is a final, decisive action on our part—our choice, our faith, our "yes"—then salvation is no longer by grace alone. It’s based on a work of righteousness, however small we may think it is. At that point, grace is no longer grace (Romans 11:6), and we have a reason to boast in what we did.
The Potter, the Clay, and the Mystery
This conversation naturally leads to some very hard questions. If God is the one who opens hearts, why are some saved and not others?
I am always happy to walk through the Scriptures with you on this, but at the end of the day, we must approach this with humility. We are stepping into a divine mystery. The Bible doesn't answer every question we have, but it gives us enough. It points us back to the Potter's House. The Apostle Paul addresses this very question in Romans 9:
For [God] says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. … One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? —Romans 9:15–21
This passage places the final answer squarely in the hands of our sovereign and merciful God. It reminds us that we are the clay, and He is the Potter. His ways are higher than our ways.
Where This Leaves Us
All I know for sure is what the Bible makes clear. Paul writes, “No one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). That confession of faith is not something I mustered up on my own; it is the result of a sovereign gift from God.
This is profoundly humbling. It means I am not saved because I was smarter, wiser, or more spiritually sensitive than anyone else. My own best deeds, as Isaiah 64 tells us, are like filthy rags. The only reason I can stand before a holy God is grace, and grace alone. The rest is a mystery I am content to leave in His hands.
There’s a great principle from the Restoration Movement articulated by Thomas Campbell: “Where the Bible speaks, we speak; where the Bible is silent, we are silent.” It is incredibly easy to get tangled in the logical knots of these deep doctrines. But at some point, we have to trust that God has told us enough. We will never figure everything out on this side of eternity.
But we have enough. We have enough to see the holiness of God, the depth of our sin, and the breathtaking beauty of what Jesus has done to save us. He did all the work. That is the ergonomics of salvation. It was a one-person lift, and He is strong enough to carry us all the way home.
The Good News
For many of us, our spiritual lives often feel like heavy lifting. We come to God with our best efforts, our good deeds, and our attempts at righteousness, and we feel exhausted.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is God looking at you, groaning under that impossible weight, and saying, "Stop lifting. You're doing it wrong. In fact, you were never meant to lift that at all."
The ergonomics of salvation are perfect because the "work" (ergon) was done by One Person. On the cross, Jesus, with perfect form, lifted the entire weight of our sin and condemnation. He took it upon himself.
This means the Christian life doesn't begin with you trying to work for God. It begins with the finished work of Jesus. It's about putting down the weight you were never meant to carry and letting the Potter, the Father, the Rescuer carry you.
The invitation today is simple: stop straining and start resting.
Remember the words of Steve Brown: "You take the first step, God will take the second step, and by the time you get to the third step, you will know that it was God who took the first step."
Trust in His finished work. That is where true faith begins and true assurance is found.
With You;
Pastor Tim
