Mailbag #1 Semi Pelagianism, Pleasing God, Good Works, Olive Trees, and Praying for the Lost

Mailbag is a tool I utilize with students of Scripture and theology anytime I have the opportunity to teach. The questions that are sent in are ones that we did not have time for in the moment, or the scope of our passage did not directly answer them. 

Students email me their questions, I reply with either my own answers, or trusted sources, and then I require that they engage the responses and sources cited before scheduling a meeting with me to discuss further. I am sharing these here for an archive of such questions and responses. Here are the questions...

Semi-pelagianism: I’m still kinda confused on what this means and how it works...
Erik Raymond summarizes Pelagianism and Semi Pelagianism this way--

"Pelagianism comes from the heretic Pelagius, who believed that human beings did not have a sin nature. Some folks are semi-pelagianists who believe in the fall but not in total depravity. Semi-pelagianism drives many to Arminian theology. From an Arminian perspective we need grace but we also need to believe. So therefore, faith becomes our contributing factor. Historically, most Arminians deny the substitutionary atonement of Christ. Regrettably, today most evangelicals are Arminian." (You can read the full article here)

Raymond has another article that I have found very helpful and have handed to students many times. You can find it here (fyi, I hold the historic Augustinian view presented in this article). 

I would also recommend this brief historical account of the Pelagian controversy by R.C. Sproul. 

If we cannot as sinners please God how can we serve Him if any work we do is just Him blessing us? Like how do we live in light of this?
Here is an essay by Tom Schreiner on the role of works in the Christian life (Schreiner wrote the commentary that I use extensively for our Romans study.)

If you want to watch a 13 minute video doing a deep dive Bible study similar to the method I use to study and teach the Bible on this subject, you can watch John Piper work through it here. 

How can we become cut off if we are already part of the branch? Does being a part of the branch not mean that we are believers?
Romans 11 is dealing with Israel as a large ethnic people group, and Gentiles as the same. So when Paul says that God can cut the Gentile branch off of the tree, he is saying that for thousands of years God extended His covenant love to Israel, and Israel's presuming on the kindness of God led God to cut Israel off (although in the cutting off of Israel many individual Jews were saved, like Paul himself!) Likewise, the Gentiles are currently experiencing great salvation in the Gospel, but God is free to cut off the Gentile branch if they choose to become complacent (although many individual Gentiles, like the questioner and myself, would be saved). 

Romans is complex because of Paul talking at different points about individual salvation, and at other times large group salvation  (he doesn't distinguish these and both are in view throughout the book). In Romans 11, in the illustration of the Olive Tree, he is talking about God's covenant in the OT being extended to Israel, and then in the NT era being extended to the Gentiles. 

As far as loss of salvation goes, here is a resource on that. 

How are we supposed to pray for sinners to come to salvation? I’ve been thinking about this a lot the past couple weeks and I know Paul says he wishes that all the Jews were part of the elect but the reality is they are not. How can I pray for salvation for sinners or for believers to grow while still acknowledging that God is sovereign and in control? Could it simply be holding my prayers in open hands and the mindset of “Lord willing”?

Sam Storms took up this question in this brief article. He quotes a J.I Packer book that is excellent on this topic.