Passive Good- the Heidelberg Disputations (14 of 28)

The last thesis suggested that since the Fall of Man we only have the free will to sin. Is there any good we can do? That’s addressed in the 14th of Luther’s Heidelberg Disputations:

Free will, after the fall, has power to do good only in a passive capacity, but it can do evil in an active capacity.

This is a strange distinction (active vs. passive capacity) but upon further investigation it became more clear.

In and of ourselves, in light of the Fall, we can only do evil (sin). If we do any good it is not because of any attempt on our part but merely consequently (passively). This means that good things can happen through us, but that is despite us.

This is very unsettling to the 21st century mind. We like to think that we’re all good, or at least able to do good things once in a while. We like to maintain this believe because we can tell ourselves that we are relatively good people- at least not as bad as [insert your favorite villain or people group here].

This is not what the Gospel says, however. The fact is we are dead in sin. We are slaves to it. We don’t need a minor fix to our hearts in order to become good. As Jeremiah says, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil” (Jeremiah 13.23). The situation is so bad that when the Bible gives us a cure to it (at risk of stealing Luther’s thunder) it describes it in terms outright creation- “Create in me a pure heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10).