Of free will, and thus of human powers (Second Helvetic Confession, 9c)
This article examines the Second Helvetic Confession's teaching on free will and human agency in relation to God's sovereign grace, arguing that the regenerate work actively rather than passively because God works within them to both will and do good. Cammenga refutes the Roman Catholic doctrine of free will—which claims fallen sinners retain the ability to choose good—as contrary to Reformed theology and biblical anthropology, demonstrating how the Reformers recovered the scriptural understanding of total human dependence on God's grace for all spiritual good.
The regenerate work not only passively but actively. [I]n this connection we teach that there are two things to be observed: First, that the regenerate, in choosing and doing good, work not only passively but actively. For they are moved by God that they may do themselves what they do. For Augustine rightly adduces the saying that "God is said to be our helper. But no one can be helped unless he does something." The Manichaeans robbed man of all activity and made him like a stone or a block of...
Full article available on sb.rfpa.org